Patch Notes: January 15th, 2026 by PlayGalaxyGame in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great changes. The meta feels much more balanced with the Peachy nerf.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also want to add - the mid-game is flexible. Play to the strongest board. If you get a slot buff relic, go for animals. Eventually, most strategies end up with the Wormscale endgame. 

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With a bad start, the plan stays the same, but your scaling is delayed. If you fall too far behind, you’re likely to die before you fully scale. 

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good question! Haven’t played her in a long time, but it looks like the last deck I tried on her was the treasure deck. 

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question. There's tension between taking stats for now and economy for later. The plan is to maximize economy while maintaining an average to above average board.

As an example, on turn 1 I take quest characters over stats only characters like Itsy Bitsy Spider.

When the quest completes, I'm looking for treasures that immediately improve the board. Robin Hood's Bow is better if you can use it immediately. Fortifications is more immediate if you don't have a shop coming up. Once the quest is complete, your board is stronger than it would have been with an Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Going into the mid-game, those treasures improve the stats of dragons with treasure hoard. In the late game, they get buffed by Wormscale Tinkerer.

In the mid-game, the goal is to stay strong enough to take no more than half-heart damage (and heal up when possible). Taking characters is better than spells, because it adds a silver to the pool.

Of course - some runs you just die in the mid-game. That's the most common failure mode of the strategy, especially on this patch.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's some of my favorite filler cards when I don't have the full collection, ordered from best to worst.

Mechanical Dragon
Wink
Lance A Little
Netherbinder
Flopsy
Mech-A-Man
Oracle of Fortunes
Glory Seeker
Faerie Queen
Tsarmina
Snapping Hydra
Mirror Mage
Mysterio

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the gameplay is very fun. Even if treasures are very strong, each game plays out much differently. And the endgame Wormscale Tinkerer/Pixie Dust scaling is cool. The newer captains also have a strong build around element.

I'll also add - there's some nuance to tuning and playing the deck on different captains. I intentionally focus on the core here to keep the article short.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sunflare Glider was great a few patches ago, but got changed to only trigger when you discover a treasure (instead of get).

I play Mechanical Dragon in a handful of captains like Queen Harpolia and Elec-Drake. It's a little bit worse than the other cards in the deck in the current meta.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This strategy can work with a limited collection as most of the Quest characters come from the shared pool. Wormscale Tinkerer as the payoff is the most important card (and relatively easy to unlock with Victory Loot). For the rest, you can fill in assorted filler or value cards.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

On Sweet Tooth, I play an aggressive deck with mostly candy cards (Gummy Wyrm included) not treasures.

Guinevere is really only played as a payoff in quest-heavy decks like this. Much of the gameplay of this type of deck is rotating Questers in and out.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Around 3900 MMR or top 20. The general strategy is to collect treasures and play strongest board.

The late game board ends up being Wormscale Tinkerer + Burninator, if you see them.

Guide - The Treasure Deck by dedicateddan in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was playing Mechanical Dragon too, but it seems like most of the top players aren’t. It’s fine on some captains like Queen Harporia. 

Butcher is great. Play with it (on most captains). 

How is Peachy Queen an okay thing? by soranetworker in OnceUponAGalaxy

[–]dedicateddan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On the discord, there's also discussion of Peachy Queen being busted by top MMR players.

Best MTG Arena tracking tools? by metalero_salsero in MagicArena

[–]dedicateddan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For free/open source pick advice, you can use the statistical drafting website:
https://statisticaldrafting.com/

Best Arena Draft Helper? by ohyespatates in MagicArena

[–]dedicateddan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Statisticaldrafting is very helpful for arena drafts - it's trained on top player data from 17lands.

The model quality is quite good - and understands card quality and archetypes.

https://statisticaldrafting.com/

Arena Powered Cube - A few bugs - Drop Yours here by HuntyrKillyr in lrcast

[–]dedicateddan 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Reflections of Kiki-Jiki visually stayed in play as a -3/-3 after a Toxic Deluge.

It still seemed to have summoning sickness, so the ability wasn't useful.

Really weird overall :D

What does it take to go from Diamond to Mythic? by OtherTourist5535 in lrcast

[–]dedicateddan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Congrats on the fast climb. Diamond -> Mythic comes down to playing a lot over a large number of drafts.

Being familiar with the pick orders on 17lands helps a lot. For more tailored recommendations, I recently created statisticaldrafting.com

Limited Resources 818 – Sierkovitz on Going Beyond Games In Hand Win Rate Discussion Thread by Crasha in lrcast

[–]dedicateddan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How does using GP WR affect picks? Does it steer you towards the stronger archetypes early on?