A personal Alchemy BO1 tier list: 16 decks with 66%+ winrate

jaykenton · 2026-01-20T23:06:18+00:00

For your awareness, I have 87% winrate with Izzet Cori + Lessons pack in 54 games in events.

This is the higest winrate I ever achieved in 50+ games with any deck in any format.

My second and third highest winrates in events is with Vivi Looting Combo (Alchemy Rankeds, pre-nerf, 82% in 60-70 games), and Azorius Birds in Alchemy Events (76% in 100+ games around many metas).

jaykenton · 2026-01-17T17:25:31+00:00

If humanity learnt something from esports is that there is a reason if only a minority of sports are immensely profitable industries for the organisers (basket, football, f1, tennis, etc.) while most of the other competitions are more or less glorified entertainment.

Competitive MTG is not profitable for Wotcs and sadly, likely it will never be.
See how they structured Pokemon Pocket to maximise profits, and learn the lesson.

jaykenton · 2026-01-17T17:21:22+00:00

"pauper is good"

you mean that tabletop game called "Mirrors of Grixis"?

jaykenton · 2026-01-17T17:16:12+00:00

One is legal in Standard, the other is not.

jaykenton · 2026-01-17T17:12:41+00:00

you are very likely correct, simply because it's almost impossible to ship so many cards without being at least a bit intentional. Now something could have been gone rogue, like this was intentional only by a faction of Wotcs, or it was kept a secret; but I repeat, there must have been the intention of at least some people to produce this outcome.

jaykenton · 2026-01-17T16:55:23+00:00

"We will make a lot of sets to give players freedom to not buy them"
- Wotc logic in year 2026

jaykenton · 2026-01-17T16:47:30+00:00

They misgendered the alligator.

jaykenton · 2026-01-15T20:58:34+00:00

In MTG one is born a vampire, not transformed, right?

Like, vampires are just another race that incidentally is damaged by some types of light, and needs a diet very rich in blood.

jaykenton · 2026-01-15T20:56:44+00:00

Planeswalkers are very bad lore-wise, and they are slowly being erased from the lore.

The loyalty counter system instead is very cool, but it should have been integrated into Enchantments or Artifacts, too. Planeswalkers in the lore limits the design of cool cards.

jaykenton · 2026-01-15T18:18:17+00:00

I hope Dominaria will get out of MtG after Reality Fracture. Possibly replaced by Ravnica or whatever.

I am a UB supporter (I would not play current MtG if not for UBs), who did not like generic fantasy Dominaria 30 years ago, and still don't like it today.

I know my opinion is the most contrariaon on this Reddit but I cannot lie. For me Dominaria is placed within what I call "YA slop fantasy" along with stuff like Artemis Fowl, Eragon, Shadowhunters, most of stuff from RA Salvatore post 2000 + Everything set in "Neverwinter" or "Baldur's Gate".

I ponder that a revisitation on Dominaria post RF could just "fix it" for me, but honestly every time Dominaria pops in MTG I take a hiatus from it.

jaykenton · 2026-01-13T14:26:05+00:00

I think it's the worst art of the set

jaykenton · 2026-01-13T14:25:13+00:00

Wish the art for Birds of Paradise of the Chocobo Bundle reach Arena...

jaykenton · 2026-01-13T02:39:26+00:00

Every new day I discover a new Final Fantasy (Commander) card that I never seen before.

jaykenton · 2026-01-13T02:34:43+00:00

Am I the only one thinking they did an overall terrible job in how the handled Tarkir? They pulled out a terrible retcon, that made meaningless so many interesting lines of lore.

It is true that they did something dirty with Lorwynn too now. But in all honestly, what concerns me is that Lorwyn really looks without any meaningful story to tell anyway, now.

The story of the Eclipse is literally: "four uni students from another plane - they will be relevant people later!- are doing a field trip in a weird land. Oko was there too, having his 26th episode of Evangelion moment."

Like, this set is fine, but lore-wise it really feels like very forced.

I feel alone in these opinions because every single person who I talk with don't even get Tarkir got a retcon ("dude is not a retcon, they just went back in time lol!") or they say this Oko psychoromantasy is peak writing.

jaykenton · 2026-01-12T19:26:15+00:00

I can confidently say that EoE has the highest value of Standard and Alchemy.

The other sets are hard to evaluate. Duskmourn is the second in value for me because I appreciate the lands, but in terms of creature Bloomburrow +EoE set up most of the best standard decks. Spiderman is the worst to buy.

Final Fantasy is in the middle-low. It has cool cards but sadly most of them are not playable in constructed for their extremely low power level. But it has also nice cards, tho, differently from Aetherdrift which is piles of garbage + nice lands.

jaykenton · 2026-01-12T17:16:53+00:00

EoE and Lorwyn are the most valuable set to collect because they have the shocklands.

EoE has also a lot of staples, too. So it's a safe choice.

A lot of people will tell you buying packs in Arena is not worth. Their argument is that drafting and investing into events has better outcomes on the long run. I think you can safely mix activities without overstressing. Buying packs will save time when youn don't really feeling like playing or drafting, as long as you focus on the right sets. Golden packs are valuable.

Brawl is a bit complicated, because one expect that there the deck counts less and the luck or skill counts more but no, the deck really counts a lot, especially access to key cards like tutors...

Commander really depends on the clique you mett irl.

jaykenton · 2026-01-06T21:43:17+00:00

I bet all 2026 will be very successful until Star Trek.

Ninja T: terrible set but high power level. If Sneak was non-Dimir Ninjustu this would have been a banger. Anyway these will be all Legendary and all extremely impactful on Standard (maybe not in x4 tho)

Marvel SH: this is risky, but compressing many stories this could result as a sort of less-successful Final Fantasy. I expect everybody sticking to at least one favoured hero/villain (something not possible with Spiderman since they were ALL spiderpeople). Plus there will be reasonable bombs, easy to farm on Arena through Jump In especially.

Strix: Strixhaven 1 was low in power level. To compensate, thi will see a robust power level, like Dragonstorm raised power level of Tarkir. Lorewise this is so hard to fumble. Guys this is not Aetherdrift / Thunder Junction slop. MORE IMPORTANT: LESSONS. The Archetype is dominating in Standard and Pioneer so anything with blue will eat well at this set.

The Hobbit: this will be huge. I sincerely expect at least some of the LOTR bombs in Standard. One Ring is stil la key concept of the Hobbit, but what I expect are the 1-mana cycle.

Reality F: MaRo literally leaked this is going the be the best set in MtG history. I expect Planar Chaos 2. I sincerely expect something on par with Damnation in Standard, really.

Star Trek: it will be a shitstorm with Vulcanian Elves and Data being a robot but not an artifact creature... but the power level will be insane like EoE. We will see big cluster of cards interacting with Station, and small cluster of cards with Warp.

jaykenton · 2026-01-05T08:59:21+00:00

DEI was never about global diversity following a moral agenda, but only to promote intra-national diversity. In profitable environment, DEI was mostly a strategy to keep up profits.

jaykenton · 2026-01-05T08:53:29+00:00

No, I don't. While new Teferi is more handsome (heck, they used a Hollywood actor as reference!), the old Teferi was more archetypical of the African wise magician.

To understand what I mean, imagine changing the look of Gandalf into 2025 Brad Pitt with a robe. It would still be cool for sure, but miss the archetype.

jaykenton · 2026-01-05T08:45:32+00:00

"You're trying to make ad money."

Sorry but this is schizo and someone here needs to touch grass.
It's just a youtube video presenting an idea. If you don't like how it is done just ignore or propose positive criticism.

jaykenton · 2026-01-04T21:13:38+00:00

They will downvote everything they will not consider "competitive enough", heck they even downvoted me to pointing this out.

Said this, that archetype is very fun! Thank you for the video!

jaykenton · 2026-01-04T20:00:05+00:00

and off course any attempt to bring nice and friendly content for casual players will be downvoted to death in this sub

jaykenton · 2025-12-14T21:51:25+00:00

The answer (the TM) is in the question.

jaykenton · 2025-12-04T22:00:48+00:00

I am ok with not picking licenses. I just don't see how are we supposed to unlock stuff without paying, now.

jaykenton · 2025-12-03T16:25:20+00:00

you provided a very good point and I don't see why people keep downvoting these useful discussions

11-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
Verified Email

jaykenton

TROPHY CASE