What happened to the fast decks? A 5 minute 20 year MTG Meta Overview
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- Everything you’ve ever wanted to know but didn’t want to Google yourself about how Magic’s meta has consistently hamstrung the combo players and left the aggro ones out to dry. Shoutout to my patreon supporters, they are why I take the time to research things now.
Patreon: / maldhound
#magicthegathering #mtg #mtgcommunity #cardgame #mtgcommander
"It looked like a modern-day Yugioh tournament."
Instant subscriber right here.
I love the basic idea of yugioh but was turned the fuck off when I saw how fast the game was
"The Value Dumpy" - Maldhound's filename for cards that can get it.
HOW DID YOU KNOW
Pauper also has way worse mana which means if you want to play more of the best cards you're going to have to move slower. You know, the concept magic was built on.
Combo can also come in the form of a control finisher which wizards is way more okay with seemingly.
Because Control has natural counters.
There's a counter issue where some of the best cards are the best because they're so cheap and easy to play like experimental synthethizer
Honestly a really great rundown! I like these "lore" videos a lot.
Yeah, he has done a very good analysis, concise and direct to the point
Same!
This is an excellent and astute summary, though I do have one fact-check.
Second Sunrise was banned in Modern in 2013, following Stanislav Cifka's win with the deck at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica in October 2012. I remember watching this in almost-real-time, as the deck exploded in popularity and no one knew how to play it quickly (there's an old Loading Ready Run sketch mocking exactly that).
Krak-Clan Ironworks was banned in 2019 for a similar reason - the deck was dominant, and it required enormous skill on the part of the player to play quickly.
Thank you! I don’t remember what I was incorrectly referencing for 2006 but I appreciate the correction
@@maldhound Must have been on the second page of your Google search...
kinda wild to me that people just accept decks being banned because bad players who can't read can't handle them.
@@MistaHoward It has everything to do with curating the tournament experience, like every ban does. Sticking with Modern, there is going to be a significant difference in performance between, say, Reid Duke and your average Jund player, but their matches and turns are likely to be the same length, with both players interacting with one another throughout.
In contrast, the 2013 Banned and Restricted announcement banning Second Sunrise cites the fact that a single combo turn from the Eggs player will often take 10-15 minutes. With so many people playing the deck, these turns regularly happened at the end of a round in competitive play, adding hours of waiting time over the course of, say, an 10-round Grand Prix. It had a material and measurable effect on people's enjoyment of organized play, so it had to go.
@@sheridanharding8905 Ah yes, the modern tournament experience, well known for being enjoyable and not being "whichever 90% identical money pile deck draws more MH2 cards wins"
All I'm getting from this is that Torbran, Thane of Redfell should cost 3 mana
This is mono red, we play mono red, attack face, till your dead. Bring back Robber.
69 likes 😎
Yes true
83 likes 😔
@@GrugGangGrugGangAh a man of class I see
Thank you, Maldhound.
RED DECK WINS
A sub point. Wizards hates spells that let you burn face. Almost every half way efficient burn spell explicitly says "no you have to target something on the board not the asshole putting things on the board". This means that in past metas, when the control / midrange player took a value dump around turn 4 - 5 and shut you out of ever being able to do damage with anything you had on board, the aggro player still had a fighting chance because they could aim all their red spells at the enemy's head but now when you lose the board as an aggro player you might as well concede.
I think Wizards just hates anything that doesn't operate on the board. Notice Mald's description of "acceptable combos" included "ones that cheat a big lad onto the field in a format with removal for the lad". And then also notice that the biggest increase in power level among all card roles has been the "value dumpy" that has to sit on the board and accrue value over time for doing so.
Early magic was about two wizards duke-ing it out with spells. Creatures were ostensibly "summon spells" and they were both minor parts of the game and *terrible*. But nowadays Magic might as well be "Creature the Gathering" with how much every single card either is one or cares about one.
Counterpoint, they instead say "hey, instead of hitting them in the face, hit their creature and we'll give you free damage to the face that's already higher than you would've done at this mana cost in the first place".
Very well put together analysis, thanks
Thank you!
They banned second sunrise for 2 compounding reasons: 1) the combo turn took FOREVER 2) even when you had the combo at full operation, there was a very real possibility you couldn't get the combo kill.
i have experienced multiple whiffs from people playing this deck, one of them took 10 minutes for their turn to then say "and i pass the turn", and boy i tell you the blood really heats up when that happens
EDH has had a similar lifecycle where in around 2016 the competitive side of the game sped up to turn 0-3 wins due to a fair number of players (some of whom I've personally played cEDH with) focusing on the arms race and just how ridiculously fast combo decks could become when you could potentially turn 0 in a 99 card format. It practically defined the bleeding edge powerlevel that is cEDH where anything above 2 mana better be extremely high value, able to be cheated out or an absolutely essential combo piece or it was just mercilessly cut for being too slow.
Took the Yugioh comparison right outta my mouth before I could say it, brilliantly informative video
Really good description of the meta game for the time frame. It would be great to have better aggro pieces in the game, the sentiment that magic is just pushing further and further into midrange grindfest is slowly becoming real.
I think that's honestly a good thing tbh. Midrange grindfests tend to lead to the most interesting and decision rich games.
@@dismasthepenitent569it reminds me of tank fights in, well, any genre(tank vs tank top lane in LoL came to mind immediately). The longer the battles, the more opportunities to outplay your opponent and small advantages are more likely to accumulate into a win.
That being said, there are enough people who like short aggro games or big flashy combos(non-degenerate Timmy stuff) where the decision tree doesn’t look like a snowflake under the microscope. I personally prefer midrange grind games but it’s not universal
At least aggro tends to still be alive and well in Limited. I'm allergic to the concept of playing a fast deck, but I definitely enjoy FIGHTING fast decks that can actually pressure me to use my answers efficiently. It's a big part of why I enjoy Pauper so much more than Standard these days.
Of all Magic the Gathering formats, the one I can say is undoubtedly in the best place it's ever been is Limited. And I, for one, am perfectly fine with this reality.
@@Nouxatar Limited is a ton of fun, I don't blame you
Loved this! Break down the history of control next.
There is one other core part of this overall I feel should be added, which is the original Mirrordin Block and absolute stranglehold of Ravager Affinity during that time which also lead to major bannings. While I can't speak to tournament metagames at ALL as it's been ages, overall it's better for a game to aim for slower, as there's always SOMEONE that will find ways to make it faster over time.
In short, over the last 6-7 years Wizards have printed so few cards good in aggro decks, printed a ton of cards good in midrange or control decks, and banned key pieces of any combo deck that got out of hand (sometimes taking a little too long to do so ie: Hogaak).
I really believe that, with the obvious exceptions of the Commander Roasts and the Kevin & Corporate card-pitches, these semi-humorous but still informative videos are where Maldhound shines the brightest.
It’s a shame that EDH gameplay videos take so much setup to do. Maldhound would be a *great* EDH-host.
Even if he is a terribly, terribly misguided man, who cannot perceive the glory and wonder that is Green. ;)
Comparing the combo winter to modern yugioh got me, and you're absolutely right though, why I don't play competitive
Honestly that was some of the cleanest, smoothest, and slightly southern explanation for why I feel fear when I add one too many cheap red spells into my deck.
hahaha 😂 2:17 I'm losing it, the 0.1 sec transition from information bombardment to absolute sass, golden
Absolutely excellent summary, valid opinions, and hilarious writing. As usual. Keep killing it, king.
this is a really well done video! concise, funny, engaging and informative! 💜✨
The pauper meta is so fun because everything is viable right now. Look at goldfish. Every deck is different and it's great
Hello from the Jund community, and while we may only understand fast to mean haste, we do love your videos. That aside, we at Elemental fuckers inc. are requesting Mommy Titania (Nature’s force specifically as that is the most recent and most fun of her iterations). This has been requested for a bit over 2 months now off and on, and thank you for such banger content.
Jund ‘em out.
Outstanding video as always. Can you do a commander roast of heartless hidestugu
Shoutout to my Modern Hyper Aggro deck
Monastery Swiftspear and Akroan Crusader + as many spells as I can cram down my opponent's throat w/ Manamorphose, Mutagenic Growth, Titan's Strength, etc.
Either I win on turn 2 or lose on turn 3, I love it.
I remember coming back to modern after a one/two year break with a zoo deck and being straight up told by my first opponent that zoo was no longer an archetype in the game, not even a tier 3 deck anymore.
Eggs was such a cool deck. I was thinking of building it and then sunrise got banned.
I love and respect Eggs, but it absolutely deserved a ban. It's just not a deck that should be allowed to exist; like a peacock, it is too beautiful and obnoxious to live.
Everything you release is pure gas. Keep up the good work!
Videos like this make me want to try out pauper format. Starting with commander has messed up my sense for deck building, but maybe at least some of that skill still translates.
Also, requesting Garth One-Eye for both the cool lore and the eye that bring on ptsd.
A very well said analyses, with some funnies in the middle. Thanks for the info
I think the “Delver” style decks are the last aggro style decks (I’m aware they are tempo decks but just in the premise of temporarily little guys and cheap spells smacking you before you can react) in formats like modern and legacy. Notably in legacy there are sometimes Mono Black control lists that use little guys and dark ritual to an almost Death and Taxes style effect with Dauthi Voidwalker and opposition agent (sometimes running helm of neitiznot + leyline of the void for a speedy combo victory, though sometimes running reanimator packages and grief instead). I think the fact of the matter is in legacy formats the power level is so high now that most decks can interact with the board in ways that innately synergize with their decks and against aggro, and win in similar time frames. Maybe Bazaar of Baghdad Dredge decks are the last semi-aggro since they just dump out a bunch of tiny dudes? Not sure.
A well put together analysis and now to work on some super junk combo.
My current fave deck is raggadragga goreguts boss mana dork ramp. In fishbowl, infinite turn 4, in game night pods, turn 6. It utilizes “tap for multiple” elves and untap artifacts, then chaining 7+ spells on top of each other.
Good summary, and the reminder I needed to not think that I maybe should pick up my cards again. MTG is just going to shits. I should really sell out, but too lazy.
Importantly, all of the combo stuff is also banned on pauper, which is very funny. Not even pauper is free from the sins of magic's past.
Urza in the lore : fucks up, set a long winter where everybody is miserable
Urza in game : fucks up, set a long winter where everybody is miserable
And that is what you call ludonarrative sinergy
If you’re a fan of the Eragon series and like high fantasy, and you haven’t started reading “The Stormlight Archive” series yet, then I highly recommend it. It’s an amazing book series and book 5 comes out this November
Yeah it makes me so sad im a combo player and i wasnt playing during the winter id have loved it
Hey! Urza's Saga was the set I started playing the game, and also the set when I stopped playing the game because I was too dumb for it! (And I still am). I used to play mono red goblin, I used to either win on turn 4 or lose miserably.
Bring back Affinity with Skullclamp
Please god do not
Hell no
I gotta say slamming a Tolarian Terror on turn 2 for one mana against burn in pauper is such a feel good moment, and the new Mono U Delver deck can usually get a Terror down turn 2 or 3 for one mana and keep the Counter Spell/Spell Pierce (or Dispell/Hydro/BEB post board) as back up. Its much more of a tempo deck compared to the UB Terror list, but by running Mental Note and Thought Scour instead of Consider and Thought Scour you can self mill much faster, while running only 16 lands thanks to Lorien Revealed so your Delvers have a much better chance of flipping even if you don't have Brainstorm
Has Cryptic Serpent taken Mono U and UB Terror by storm yet in pauper, what with the downshift to common?
@@TheMeditatingRaven ub terror runs a few but keeps the Gurmag to avoid snuff out. The mono U delver deck runs 4 of delver, terror, and serpent. At my last FNM I was the only pauper player running any, the UB player felt Gurmag was still better.
@@OtherSideLLC Surprising. I thought Gurmag Angler would be superseded in Dimir Terror because it clashes with Tolarian Terror’s reduction mechanic.
@@TheMeditatingRaven It does, but they figured avoiding the snuff out in the mirror match and tortex, dread return, and other black decks running around in the format is better than having slightly competing mana reductions.
Looking at the Italian leagues it looks like a lot of the UB players there are cutting 2 Gurmag for 2 Serpent
Fast decks are nice, but what a slow, agonizing death to Toxrill?
I appreciate the Yu-Gi-Oh burn. Hilarious AND accurate.
I just wanna see a edh version of burn. The closest I’ve seen is a Krenko deck but even that isn’t really burn it’s booyagh flavored token army.
Izzet would be a good bet
Also if you show up to Commander and tell them you’re ‘playing an Aggro deck’ you now get to see every problem just described happen to you three separate times. However that sign cannot stop me, because I cannot read
As an aggro player, I can confirm that there's more things telling me to get fucked. The board wipes that were put into place to stop the combo decks stop aggro too (though can be played around kind of). However, I very much believe that the game is the better for it. Yu-Gi-Oh is all combo all the time, and nothing else is viable to the point where games usually last 2-3 turns. Things like OTKs and FTKs (One/First Turn Kills) are common place (this is why I am for the unbanning of Maxx C), and anything that prevents that unhealthy of a meta game is good.
Maxx C is awful and should stay banned.
Yugioh is not combo all of the time. Non-combo decks are viable to the point of being meta dominating in the tcg right now. FTKs are not common place and are extremely fragile.
Also called “why mono red gets dunked on in commander”
I do wanna see a low, wide-swinging aggro deck happen again
This was so informative, thanks!
i would like to see more of this
Im guessing by meta you mean magic comp in general. At first I thought standard but yeah. Great video man.
Yeah the lines got blurred between things happening at legacy, modern, and standard
So, hownlong have you been playing magic? I remember you said not long a few months ago, but you still seem to have a firmer grasp of the current and past metagame than about 90% of all 20+ year veterans.
A little less than 2 years. I was a STEM guy in college so just very practiced at researching things and then presenting them to others
I love my pauper prowess deck because playing it taught me to play fast, something I wasn't quite used to
I plan on doing similar stuff where I build decks around archetypes I am not good at yet and playing with them
Man i love assembling combos.
You're not wrong, and for a 5 minute video it gets enough of the point across. But I think there's a bit more nuance to this.
Most importantly I think what's considered "fast" has changed over 20 years... I started getting into Magic around Dragons of Tarkir/M15/Origins, I've lost games in as few as 5 turns (due to bad deck construction when I first started and shitty hands + mediocre deck construction now) that's a fast game, not turn 1 fast, but it is fast. Meanwhile other games are 20+ turn boxing matches where both players are on their last legs.
And along with that change of pace, I think the "borders" of the main 3 deck types (aggro, mid-range, and control) have shifted towards the control side of things; so a functional aggro deck now plays closer to mid-range 20 years ago, and current mid-range plays closer to control 20 years ago and control now would be the equivalent of the other player having a loaded handgun aimed at you for the entire game 20 years ago.
It's possible "fast" aggro could make a come back, but Wizards would need to print some MAD value small bois.
We here at Wizards want to make sure combo doesn't ruin our formats, as it is unfun, uninteractive, and leads to a very linear game state.
Anyway please enjoy Fury, Ragavan, and Orcish Bowmasters in over half of all competitive decks. We'll see you at next years B&R announcement :)
One note about Pauper's Meta the paper meta and the MTGO meta are different, a lot of grinders will play pauper leagues to earn tickets quickly by playing Burn or Affinity, decks than can slam through a league in quickly with a reasonable win rate raising the EV. Better to get 5 leagues done in a day then like 2 with UB Terror. Which inflate their presence on Goldfish and similar sites. Additionally, the most popular Tron build, Alter Tron Combo, is literally unplayable on MTGO because the combo takes a million clicks and you can't just present the loop.
Looking at the biggest paper tournament, Paupergeddon Pisa (god bless the Italians for loving Pauper so much) which had 481 players, the most popular decks were Mono U Faeries (Tempo) at 13%, Boros Synth (Mid-range) at 8%, Golgari Gardens (Control) at 7%, Grixis Affinity (Mid-range, but a very aggressive mid-range deck) at 7%, and the two flavors of Burn, Kuldotha Red at 7% and Pingers Burn at 8%. So combined burn is 15% of the field.
However, looking later in the tournament burn is completely gone with only 1 deck, a Kuldotha version which is the more grindy of the 2 burn variations, making the top 32 and none making the top 8. The top 8 was 3 Affinity Decks (the eventual winner was affinity), 1 Altar Tron (runner up), 1 Mono U Faeries, and 3 Boros Synth decks.
Though it is worth noting that Kuldotha Red won the 127 player side event on day 2. While the LOTR cards were legal for this tournament it was prerelease weekend so they weren't easy to acquire, it will be interesting to see the effects of Commander Masters and LOTR at the next Paupergeddon in Rome
Red disappearing in Arena's best of 3 is because the Arena shuffler cheats in best of 1 so that decks that play the correct number of lands are less likely to get a playable opener and decks that play way too few lands get all the mana they could ever ask for in the opener. Aggro decks get such a massive advantage from best of 1's hand smoothing that it becomes statistically unlikely to fail.
It’s honestly not surprising to see how White hasn’t been even near the radar of powerful value cards compared to the last 6 years of FIRE design
This is a really great analysis
finally got them image flipped right 💪✊
"Terror will normally come down for 3 mana" AHAHAHAH god i fucking wish.
i liked this vid alot, ty
It's also a bit sad how wotc just stopped printing burn. After skewer the critics back in 2019 there just aren't cheap damage spells that can go to the face. Any rdw is creature based now ready to be stopped by removal or a value dumpy.
UHOH my fatass life gaining 5-6 toughness slopbeast resolved, guess your entire gameplan is OVER mister red man.
I remember when I played standard. It was probably the worst time I had in mtg til I found commander (at the time it was fan format)
I like your t-shirt, that's sick
This makes me mald so hard that I play other card games just to get my aggro fix, shoutouts to fire deck wins and handless blood
Requesting Heartless Hidetsugu for the next war crime tribunal
A minute in. So Wizards doesn't want MTG to turn into Yugioh I can respect that.
I played 1v1 with a friend from work last night and got my vishgraz on the field and cryptolith rite and emiel the blessed so I had infinite mana and phyrexian mites but he had the one ring out and a way to bounce it to his hand we spent 20 minutes him just bouncing it and me drawing and playing cards trying to find a removal fit it or the creature that was letting him bounce it till he got his combo to win and the few times I got removal he countered it because he was just blue and his deck was 70 lands 5 creatures and the 4 cards that were for his two combos to try and win and the rest were just counter spells or removal or ways it was a fblthp the lost was the deck he was running that’s how the first game went the second game he didn’t get anything and died by turn 5 because he just flooded
I remember when Goblins was so prevalent in Alchemy and then Tasha Showed up ... They auto concede once you drop her
It’s honestly probably good that magic doesn’t look like modern yugioh
*cries in high tide* I wanted Dig and Cruise so bad.
This conversation in completely different jn the only format that matters anymore: Commander.
The best part is that in commander Zada, Hedron Grinder uses terrible cards to incredible effect to become the combo queen and they reprinted her, a couple of very good cards for her, and some enablers in Commander Masters. Momo red storm lives, baybeeee!
Do you have a list of your books on the shelf? I see Eragorn, Pratchett, Lore Olympus, I could use a rec list.
Every Maldhound video has that one line that makes you say "how can I not like subscribe and support this guy on patreon?"
Today it was kleptomaniac kyle
o hey i was one of those players who noped out of the game during Combo winter... I didnt return to the game for over 10 years.
Value Dumpy + Removal are both pushed? That sounds like something someone would right after getting Junded on.
WotC in the last 3/4 years said "you will play Midrange and you will like It"
Shout out to the Arena shuffler indeed.
As someone who runs a Werewolf EDH deck, I can confidently say that the power creep of control and answers to any sort of aggressive play has kind of just killed the the deck and the archetype of aggro as a whole I feel.
Yup, way too many highly efficient tools to shut down turns 2-4 where aggro is trying to dominate
@@maldhound Fatal Push killed Tarmogoyf
To be fair, unless there were 5 new blocks of werewolves since the last time we visited Innistrad or the fairy tale things, werewolf EDH either operates entirely based on the presence of a commander that I don't know about carrying the deck, it isn't really a werewolf tribal deck, or it isn't really an aggro deck. EDH is innately a slower format due to (usually) the lack of duplicates, the 40 life, and access to a very wide card pool where there's usually lots of answers available. Even further, it is often a 3+ player format which kneecaps aggro even more. So you're already in the place that's supposed to make aggro worse and on top of that you're playing a tribal which last I checked doesn't have the cards to really hit the ground running fast with any level of consistency. Werewolves don't have that many cheap 1 drops, cheap swarmy tactics, or lords. For that matter, last I checked they don't have all that much in raw card selection. It isn't like goblins and elves which have had since the dawn of the game to keep getting new cards work their way up to a nice, healthy selection that'd cleanly fill out an EDH deck. As far as I'm aware, werewolves don't have much in the way of 1 drops and a relatively sparse number of 2 drops with most of their meat and potatoes costing 3 or 4. That's more characteristic of a face beaty midrange deck than an aggro deck. I don't think power creep of control is really the complaint I'd go for here where you're in the format made to be slower with the most control options already and you're going in with a creature based but not value high aggressive midrange deck. To be blunt, you'd face the same problems if your opponent agreed not to play any control cards that didn't exist 10 years ago.
If you're having problems with control, I think you might want to reframe how you're thinking while building your deck. Maybe add some more value elements rather than try to go for raw speed. Maybe find a tribal that fits what you want to do better or perhaps not a tribal at all. Some tribes just don't have the cards available to do certain strategies well. I mean, no one's going to see a whole lot of success trying to play EDH kraken tribal aggro. The cards just aren't there. Even in their design, werewolves are more of a "kind of aggressive but not that fast" value tribal. Their best cards mostly cost 3-4 and do things that generate value over time via repeated flipping or requiring a field a werewolves which they don't have the ability to jam out at high speed. Nor do they have a commander that carries that aspect like Krenko. For werewolf aggro, I think the cards just aren't there and trying to force it will probably not yield you the results you want. If you want to play werewolves, you might want to play to their strengths.
It seems to me that burn/aggro work best as a supplement to an existing strategy. I may not be banking on something like Blasphemous Act or Chimney Rabble to win me a match but I can use them to tie up the field until I can pull something that will make more of an impact
As a Magda, Brazen Outlaw CEDH player, wotc seems to be okay with turbo combo if it’s disguised as Aggro. Counterspells can’t touch instant speed free tutoring. (Also asking for Magda bc she deserves the ban)
Me and the older of my brother-in-laws play modern with each other. Several of my decks are aggro and those decks usually lead to very lack luster games. I don't have any decks that can win on turn one or anything stupid like that, but I think I have won on turn 3-4 with my minotaurs in a very uneventful, lackluster game. Plain and simple: aggro games are not very fun because they are pretty short and isn't much of a game as much as it is a curb stomp.
You mention Urza and we still don’t have a video on Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury who spent her life saving Dominaria from Urza’s messes….
Best Elf who was never an Elf ever.
my brother. Padeem, Consul of Innovation. Please.
Matt Nas is sad that KCI did not make page one of google
Sheoldred is possibly the most egregious power creep in recent years. 5 toughness in Black for 4 mana is just too much. The best answer for it in Standard atm is Go for the Throat which is also in black, making black the best color in Standard. The other good answer for it in Standard is Fateful Absence in white and hey look at that Esper is also very good. Red, one of the best colors of removal historically, has no mana-efficient way to deal with 5 toughness. Stoke the Flames, a staple back in M15 standard, is seeing absolutely no play because 4 damage doesn’t cut it with Sheoldred being the most popular creature in Standard. Hell, it’s still bad in Explorer, because the best red answer in Pioneer (Roast, deals 5 to Target Creature without flying) isn’t on arena
ya know I thought Mythics were bad back in Khans block, but god DAMN do they just have a list of shit they do now, game is getting ever and ever more Mythic topheavy with cards like this that I have to spend 20 minutes explaining all its effects to someone who has yet to see it, and if they hadn't played magic in a few years wouldn't believe it was real.
But I like to yell "Kaaarn" when Casting him.😂
This is one of the many reason why pauper is the best format
Eggs my beloved I miss you
I feel like cards having incidental lifegain stapled onto them is also a problem. Just look at Uro or Sheoldred or even something like union of the third path. Give i lifegain, fuck it, it's not like anyone cares.
Many cards died for Seat of the Synod's sins
The accuracy of how you called out yugioh
Hearing "A modern Yu-Gi-Oh game" to describe any match of MTG is terrifying. MTG at high levels is far more complex than Yu-Gi-Oh, so trying to understand how stacks would work in a YCS level hurts to think about at that speed
WDYM what happened to the fast decks. There's so much power creep these decks every EDH deck is like a CEDH deck.
Oooo you mean those "other formats" I keep hearing about? Well it's pretty clear Wizards doesn't care about those haha.
On the subject of arena: After a certain point(read: diamond and above) there’s really only two kinds of decks. Blue black super villains who have decided that you playing the game for any reason is illegal. Which ordinarily would have me heated as a green baby who likes her Lego’s if not for the second type of deck:
Board wide removal into one turn infinites. Fast decks necessitate that you kind of be allowed to build an actual board state, and to PLAY magic. Which top level players, due to creep and accessibility of mechanics, has become deathly afraid of. Which, you know may sound like a criticism, but I am diamond, and the ladder in Bo1 AND Bo3 is comprised entirely of criminals past platinum, so I can't be too mad.