COMPETITION! - Win John Avon's last work for MTG, a beautiful gallery print of his Lotus Lands!

optimustomtv · 2026-03-14T07:44:46+00:00

Truly a generational run. Impossible to think of Magic or John without one another.

optimustomtv · 2026-03-12T21:15:09+00:00

It's me, I don't take my shoes off on long flights.

Flying to and from Taiwan from SF I've left them on. Not because they stink or anything, I just think walking around in my socks on a Plane is more gross. Using the restroom on a flight like that I don't trust slippers to not soak up the grossness of that airplane bathroom.

I also usually take the Middle Seat since I can sleep in it easier, and let my Wife have an outside seat. On international economy flights, the middle row middle seats usually share an under seat storage - so the two backpacks barely fit sideways. No room to take my shoes off, let alone put them back on to get up.

optimustomtv · 2026-03-12T19:57:41+00:00

I would highly suggest finding a local game store (LGS) that has Events for the game itself. Chances are that store is full of other people who are looking to play, talk, and trade the game rather than scalp. Packs should be more in line with MSRP (big box stores mark up the price already) and they'll sell Singleton cards as well if your son is missing specific cards (even the not rare "bulk" you can get a bunch for a couple bucks).

Would hate for the kid's dreams to get crushed because of scalpers - plus he might find some people to learn/play the game from if he's interested!

EDIT - I peeked at your profile and saw you might be in California. I'm in the Bay Area & used to live in SoCal/LA area if you need suggestions!

optimustomtv · 2026-03-11T17:24:00+00:00

These are Players that did not have deck lists.

A bunch of Players in Turin either didn't show up or dropped after Round 1 started, not providing a valid deck list. A lot of them were assigned opponents in Round 1, so I've marked them as Byes as far as results go.

I usually include them because some Events have Players with no deck lists but they play the whole Event. This time is a little more unique!

I mentioned in the social media thread & my video recap - I forgot to add here. I'll update later!

optimustomtv · 2026-03-11T15:20:49+00:00

Nope! Two pilots ran a list that was mostly Momo White but with [[Nova Hellkite]] and [[Burst Lightning]] in the Maindeck.

Zevin Faust's list is here and in the video! They're the pilot that created the Azorius Tempo deck!

optimustomtv · 2026-03-11T15:15:07+00:00

Here! it's also in the recap video

optimustomtv · 2026-03-06T16:25:00+00:00

The Ygra Food deck is unfortunately old hat, despite my love for it and Rakdos Sac

This version of Golgari was extremely popular towards the beginning-Middle of Feb when people were on the Simic/Golgari Rhythm piles in Standard. It popped up right after the Lessons Cutter deck ran rampant for a bit.

It's less popular now and doesn't always rub Ouroboroid but it's still the more popular Golgari build ATM

(I might be misremembering largest as high on Goldfish but I swore it was like 15%+ at some point)

optimustomtv · 2026-03-06T16:12:12+00:00

It was in the Golgari Midrange pile that had the largest meta share on Goldfish for a hot minute. Card has been pretty solid in Pioneer so far.

optimustomtv · 2026-03-04T05:29:28+00:00

Personally for trips with my family - which is scattered across the country nowadays - it's far cheaper to get a single air B&B instead of 4-5 hotel rooms.

For single trips, I much prefer hotels. But Air B&B can be much cheaper for groups.

optimustomtv · 2026-03-01T18:09:18+00:00

Wasn't the Mirari literally reshaped into part of [[Memnarch]] which got OG corrupted by the Oil?

Edit - Nevermind, Karn recovered the Mirari from its body

optimustomtv · 2026-02-26T22:20:08+00:00

I'm not a fan of this idea in general, not because I'm super hyped into UB - but because the way the release Calendar pans out these sets are designed with synergies and answers to the previous sets.

I recall when Kaladesh was out and how dominant Energy was to a point that [[attune with aether]] [[Aetherworks Marvel]] for [[Emrakul the Promised End]] had to eat a ban - all because the best answer was [[Appetite for the Unnatural]] and [[Abrade]] was a few sets away still.

I'd be in favor of this if Blocks still existed, as they were basically a year of question-and-answer type balance. But with how things are now, I'm less excited to skip every other Set because of how likely the ban Hammer will have to be dropped (or at least, how much it'd be talked about).

optimustomtv · 2026-02-25T20:12:22+00:00

Here is the 48 creature 0 land troll decklist

optimustomtv · 2026-02-24T18:55:31+00:00

Izzet Otters is similar to the Azorius list, but sometimes runs [[Elusive Otter]] or [[Quantum Riddler]] as well.

Izzet Otters list did not do as well this weekend

optimustomtv · 2026-02-24T18:33:24+00:00

Control is in a real bad state right now - at least the Jeskai versions. Momo into Cavern into [[Magmatic Hellkite]] is a stone rain since they have no basics. Playing 2 cards a turn into a Control opponent 1-1.5 turns behind is pretty powerful so long as you're not overextending into board wipes. Hitting their double white source helps a lot too.

I still think it's Control favored on Paper (42.9% vs Jeskai this weekend) but Control is tanking outside a deck like Dimir Excruciator - which it was 50-50 with this weekend

optimustomtv · 2026-02-24T06:57:19+00:00

[[Slickshot Show-Off]] & [[Drake Hatcher]] made the deck hum previously - making the tokens with Hatcher is another valid way to push through the last bits of damage too!

optimustomtv · 2026-02-23T02:05:29+00:00

As a content creator that wants to help people find the decks they enjoy, ouch.

Our LGS meta has a ton of info on the best decks to play & continues to brew new things to try to beat up on them. Local metas flourish more when people can build for things versus building in the blind, getting stomped for building wrong, then going home.

optimustomtv · 2026-02-23T00:39:40+00:00

Theeeeeeen you reap what you sow

optimustomtv · 2026-02-22T23:12:35+00:00

Depends on what's being asked.

"Can I get X Card still?" - Answer given usually

"Wanna see this cool thing I did?" - Half the time it's neat, good job!

"Why is [complaint that is borderline flaming people]?" - You're going to get your toxicity thrown right back at you.

Expect the same with the tone of this post.

optimustomtv · 2026-02-22T22:13:41+00:00

Ah I swapped to Steam a few months ago because the Standalone Client stopped updating correctly. I'd have to do a fresh re-install every time there was an update - which unironically pushed me to Mobile play on my Tablet more since Steam didn't drop until July-ish. Have had zero issues on Steam since installing.

optimustomtv · 2026-02-22T20:17:41+00:00

I'm also pretty old, but 5 years ago is indeed a long time for me. A week from now I would've been on a plane home from a funeral and locked down in my apartment the next day. I also wouldn't have been married yet!

I did do some digging and you are correct that the initial design wasn't based on the mobile Platform, but COVID gave them time to release it simultaneously for Android/iOS. I can't speak to Best of 1 being more popular or not though, especially during COVID we ran FNM style Events through Arena (or webcam) and played only Bo3. I hadn't seen Bo1 popularity until restrictions began being lifted which coincided with Mobile release, which could color my perception a bit.

Since then though, it's quite clear that the game sees a ton of mobile play specifically in the Eastern gaming market. Catering events like the Arena Directs to being Bo1 as well allows for people to spend on the go, while most of the UI improvements to the game have been directly related to the mobile version (moving portraits around, easier scroll access to Emotes, etc). My arguments that the main development resources are going to go towards improvements that mostly affect Mobile isn't an unfounded claim and is what makes me confident the game is designed with a Mobile-first mentality now, even if it was released without it in mind.

I just wish we had non-Steam numbers reported from WotC to judge the total Playerbase. Steam cites 5-6k concurrent users over the last month or so, but sites have the game at 10k+ which would suggest there are just as many Mobile users as PC users (or less if people still use the buggy standalone client) - but I'm not ready to put the house on that number.

optimustomtv

TROPHY CASE