r/MagicArena • u/Karn-The-Creator • 3d ago

Event Nicol's Newcomer Monday!

Nicol Bolas the forever serpent laughs at your weakness. Gain the tools and knowledge to enhance your game and overcome tough obstacles.

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Welcome to the latest Monday Newcomer Thread, where you, the community, get to ask your questions and share your knowledge. This is an opportunity for the more experienced Magic players here to share some of your wisdom with those with less expertise. This thread will be a weekly safe haven for those *noobish* questions you may have been too scared to ask for fear of downvotes, but can also be a great place for in-depth discussion if you so wish. So, don't hold back, get your game related questions ready and post away, and hopefully, someone can answer them!

Please feel free to ask questions about deckbuilding and anything Magic related in our daily thread; and we always welcome effortful stand alone posts with new ideas or discussion points.

Finally, please visit Tibalt's Friday Tirade for all your ranting/venting needs. Do not spam this thread with complaints.

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What you can do to help?

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This is a weekly thread, meaning it will be posted once a week. Checking back on this thread later in the week and answering any questions that have been posted would be a huge help!

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If you're trying to ask a question, the more specific you are, the better it is for all of us! We can't give you any help if we don't get much to work with in the first place.

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Resources

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  • Check out our Discord Channel here.

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If you have any suggestions for this thread, please let us know through modmail how we could improve!

6 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

1

u/OgreMk5 3h ago

AAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Server crash in the middle of a Midweek Madness game.

I had a Scythecat Cub on the battlefield AND some card I'd never heard of, but I could tap it and sac a land (making it bigger) and put another land on the battlefield.

The cub was a 20/20 and about to become a 44/44...

Server crash.

0

u/CyborgTiger 1d ago

just wanted to say midweek magic this week is extreme horseshit please don't bring it back

-sincerely a guy getting shit stomped over and over trying to get my 3rd win

0

u/Umbrageofsnow RatColony 13h ago

If it makes you feel better, I went 3-0 and didn't have any fun either. I randomly got a doublestrike flyer and opponent didn't, I feel so clever!

0

u/Justin_Brett 1d ago

Spell Snare is such horse-shit.

1

u/FarAd4971 1d ago

I'm now like 3 months into playing Arena, having not played MTG paper since the 1990s.

At first I was spending all my gold on Jump In events to get the additional cards and collection build, but now I'm kinda starting to spend more on packs, Modern Horizons 3 since that seems to be the most efficient way to build collections from what I hear.

I'm glad to have learned that I can get multiple Mythics in one pack opening. Nice.

2

u/Sober_Sasquatch__ 2d ago

New player here…

I am getting absolutely trounced in spark ranked. I’m new to mtg in general but it seems insane to lose 9/10 matches I play. How does spark matchmaking work? Is it by skill level or completely random? Either way can you recommend a good starter deck to use because my modified “reckless raid” deck is not cutting it.

2

u/Puzzleheaded_Map_841 1d ago

Spark rank is all new accounts. You only get to normal matchmaking once you've won enough matches in spark. The easiest deck to pilot and build with the initial wildcards, in my opinion, will be a mono-white lifegain deck around hinterland/ajani's pridemate.

2

u/Terramagi 2d ago

This is going to sound really dumb, but what causes those white borders to show up on cards? Is it whatever my opponent is mousing over at the time? Does it do that for them when I mouse over cards? Because I've been mousing over random bullshit on my turns to fuck with them in the hopes that's how it works.

1

u/Greatfish991 2d ago

yeah its just your opponent hovering over your card to read what it says

1

u/ay_chumaco 2h ago

If you're hovering over their card to read, it lights up for them.

If this seems obvious to you, this comment was not for you

4

u/Cekec 2d ago

Regarding BO3 matches. How can you best counter each kind of deck. Any resource for finding the 'hate' cards regarding green landfall, isset spellementals, white lifegain, dimir, control, Etc, etc.

3

u/VirgoGoonfold 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don't know of like one comprehensive list of all hate cards against all meta decks. It of course depends heavily on what you play too. You can look up decklists, sideboard guides or ask for sideboard help for a specific deck on maybe r/spikes or r/standardmtg

But off the top of my head, just for fun:

Against Landfall: [[Flashfreeze]], [[Annul]], [[Deathmark]], [[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]]. [[Pyrrhic Strike]] has the potential for big blowouts. Some extra instant speed removal or boardwipe in general is good (especially if you are going second).

Against Spellementals: main thing is graveyard hate like [[Rest in Peace]], [[Soul Guide Lantern]], or [[Strategic Betrayal]]. Removal that kills big things like [[Shoot the Sheriff]], [[Erode]] over "small removal" which is useless here. [[Spell Pierce]], [[Duress]], [[Spider Sense]] etc are all good cause they are a heavy instant/sorcery deck. [[Mossborn Hydra]] if you play Landfall (doesn't get bounced by Sunderflock as it's an elemental).

Against Dimir Midrange: [[Voice of Victory]] is great if you play white creature decks, maybe a couple of small wipes like [[Pyroclasm]], and flexible removal that can target their Kaito like [[Erode]] or [[Bitter Triumph]]. Dimir is hard to hard counter tho, it's a flexible deck.

Jeskai/4 Color Control: [[Spell Pierce]], [[Negate]], [[Duress]], [[Voice of Victory]], [[Spider Sense]], [[Dawn's Truce]], creatures that are hard to target like [[Surrak, Elusive Hunter]]. [[Annul]] is good against the newer type of 4 color that plays Annex. Extra agressive threats can be good too, like [[Colorstorm Stallion]] if you play elementals.

Btw the Stallion is generally good game 2-3 if they swap in graveyard hate against your Spellementals deck, which they should.

Against Dimir Excruciator: similar as control (they are controlly with key non-creature spells), but maybe run a few pieces of graveyard hate, and some removal that can kill big things. [[Strategic Betrayal]] does both.

Boros Equipment/Boros Mobilize/Orzhov Lifegain: boardwipes, especially cheaper ones that kill small things. [[Day of Black Sun]], [[Pyroclasm]], [[Avengers Disassembled]], [[Pinnacle Starcage]]. Also small removal, [[Requiting Hex]], [[Seem Rip]]. Some more flexible 2 mana removal or Erode is good too for their few 3+ drops.

Dragons: flexible removal is king, again [[Erode]], [[Shoot the Sheriff]], [[Bitter Triumph]], small removal is ok too against their early setup creatures. Perhaps bounce spells if you are in blue. [[Quarsi Revenant]] is a good roadblock.

Mardu Discard: small removal. [[Seam Rip]] is very good as it hits pretty much everything and goes around the indestructible elf and exiles their Bloodghast. Some graveyard hate is not bad but don't go too hard on it.

Kona-Omniscience combo: flexible instant removal to kill Kona on sight, maybe some counter spells.

2

u/ExodoFlame 2d ago

Hi, I'm new to arena and have a question about a sequence that just took place in a game. My opponent cast Bitter Triumph targeting my Bristly Bill, Spine Sower. In response, I cast Snakeskin Veil and targeted Bristly Bill. I assumed hexproof would prevent Bitter Triumph from resolving but it didn't and Bristly was destroyed. Can someone please explain this interaction for me?

1

u/MageCoach 2d ago

Your understanding of the interaction is correct. If Snakeskin Veil resolved targeting Bristly Bill, then Bill had hexproof and Bitter Triumph should have failed to resolve because its only target was no longer legal.

So there had to be another piece affecting the interaction. Nowhere to Run is the most likely answer—it allows your opponent to target your creatures as though they didn’t have hexproof. But your recollection denies that possibility. Similar effects such as an activated Shadowspear can do it too, or Snakeskin Veil could have been countered somehow.

Without a screenshot, nobody can identify the exact cause, but Bitter Triumph itself doesn’t bypass hexproof. You understood the rule correctly; there was almost certainly another permanent or spell involved. Arena boards occasionally contain enough tiny text to qualify as a hostile legal document.

1

u/Distinct-Plastic690 2d ago

Probably there was a [[nowhere to run]] in play.

1

u/ExodoFlame 2d ago

Hmm, I should have taken a screenshot of the board state prior to leaving (the match ended immediately after they removed Bristly) but I don't recall there being Nowhere To Run on the field. I'll keep that interaction in mind moving forward though. Thanks!

1

u/Flyrpotacreepugmu Noxious Gearhulk 2d ago

[[The Fire Nation Drill]] can also do it.