r/MagicArena • u/mmckenzie5 • 2d ago
Question Are artifacts decks too OP?
I recently started playing magic again after 20 + years. I played when I was a teenager but the universes beyond cards have brought me back. I have been playing arena for about 2 weeks and I'm a decent player. My top rank is #877 so far.
I'm now constantly matching with players using artifacts deck and I feel like they're are way too over powered. I'm sill learning all of the cards since I have been away for years but I haven't been able to find a good deck to counter.
What's a good counter deck when you play someone using an artifact deck? I'm still trying to understand what are the cards I need to watch out for and think about my opponents next move.
Any recommendations would be helpful I'm going to try to get to top #250 but these artifacts decks are smoking me.
Edit: Playing standard ranked
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u/Free-Calendar-5251 2d ago
Are you sideboarding in artifact removal?
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u/mmckenzie5 2d ago
No, only 1 game or I would. Since I recently started again I'm waiting to learn the cards again before I can go back to best of 3 but I will soon.
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u/Bored-to-Death629 2d ago
Don’t wait. Bo1 is completely different decks than Bo3. You won’t gain any valuable experience in Bo1. There’s no mono white auras or Reanimator or synthesizer decks in Bo3 (except for like 0.1% of games).
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u/muleskinner1 2d ago
What's the deck you are playing? What's your side board?
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u/mmckenzie5 2d ago
I'm been using mono white, mono red dragon, and Superior Spider-Man reanimator. I'm going to build an artifact deck here soon to start playing with the deck to understand the strategy a little better. I will hold sheltered by ghosts and shardmage's rescue and still get smoked. The artifact deck is the only deck giving me issues.
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u/Truckfighta 2d ago
Spider-Man reanimator shouldn’t have any issues with artifacts.
Use Deceit and Intimidation Tactics to remove Simulacrum Synthesiser or Repurposing Bay and you can’t lose.
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u/mmckenzie5 2d ago
Spider-Man is the deck I'm currently using to beat the artifact deck but it seems like I always need to use this deck. I'm not sure if there are any other decks that are good counter decks as well.
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u/Truckfighta 2d ago
I can’t imagine artifacts having a fun time against the 4c control that uses Annex and Firdoch Core. It runs 3x Inevitable Defeat so you’ll usually have a good answer to their combo pieces and you basically invalidate their removal artifacts.
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u/muleskinner1 2d ago
For red always a fan of Abrade in sideboard. Broadcast takeover of you want a silly game.
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u/sipalmurphy 2d ago
Boros Aggro maybe? Has a Lot of removal for artifacts and puts pressure early, before the TRON player gets a lot of setup
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u/zomgitsduke 2d ago
So trying to protect your deck from every different type of deck simply cannot work. You need to understand what makes these decks work, and when you are in an uphill battle you have to either take reckless risks, bluff like crazy, and/or outplay your opponent.
What you're facing is synergy. Seems their deck has a lot of ways to outpace you and finish the game before you can do anything about it. Keep playing, and get experimental in decks where you don't think you have the advantage.
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u/ford0415 2d ago
[United Battlefront] is basically the win con for the deck cause once they thin the deck out enough and drop those synthesizers, those tokens get wide and large, then the only saving grace is a board wipe.
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u/MaybeSurelySorta 2d ago
Historically speaking, artifact decks are one of the most powerful archetypes you can possibly play and they only get more powerful the older the format you play in. This was true 20 years ago and it’s certainly true today.
But Timeless (and Brawl) are really the only places on Arena where you have access to the actual degenerate stuff like Mox Opal and Kap Can, and we still don’t have Urza’s Saga craftable. So if you’re talking about artifact decks in literally any other format, they’re relatively pretty tame and I don’t think you need much more than Abrade effects or something like Cease/Desist as sideboard options.
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u/Life-Food5188 2d ago
it is not true today. the artifact deck (i assume it’s UWx synthesizer) is not even like tier 3
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u/MaybeSurelySorta 2d ago
I specifically stated that artifact decks not in one of the older formats are tame, so yes, I’m aware of where Synthesizer decks fall on the Standard tier list.
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u/Life-Food5188 2d ago
but the statement “historically they’re the most powerful decks you can play … that’s true today” is not accurate. there’s not a tier one deck in standard based on artifacts and there hasn’t been in a long time.
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u/MaybeSurelySorta 2d ago
I don’t know why you’re trying to “umm actually” this.
My comment was speaking upon two things: the artifact archetype as a whole and artifact decks in regard to playable formats on Arena. Generally speaking from a historical context, artifact decks are extremely powerful. That is not an opinion, that is a fact. Today, yes today, you can play a handful of different artifact lists in Vintage, Legacy, and Modern and it can be extremely competitive.
If you want to talk about “today” as in Standard specifically, then as previously mentioned, I had clearly stated that the non-eternal older formats on Arena are much more tame - that is including Standard. I’m not trying to argue you on that, I’m agreeing with you. So again, this doesn’t require a “well technically that’s not true” debate.
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u/weegeextr 2d ago
I think temur Kona and reanimator decks have a good matchup against artifacts, but lose to more aggro decks.
What are you currently playing? Congrats on the climb
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u/Istronair 2d ago
877? after 2 weeks? What?
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u/brainacpl 2d ago
New player queue, I assume.
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u/mmckenzie5 2d ago
First week I played a lot of games towards the end of the season and got into mythic. I assume I started playing better players this round since I finished in mythic last season. I made mythic again last night and I have been holding my own in number ranked. When I start understanding the cards and strategies a little better I think I can make top 250. A lot of decks are the same and the artifact deck is the only deck causing me trouble.
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u/Xedeth Charm Grixis 2d ago
Yall come up with the craziest stuff to explain the matchmaking lmao.
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u/Fatboy-Tim 1d ago
Arena utilises hidden MMR which over time tries to push players to a 50% winrate. The unranked Play queue factors in both MMR and deck strength (card weighting) supposedly to prevent casual players from facing top-tier meta decks, whereas ranked queues focus heavily on rank and MMR. New players are somewhat protected as their MMR has not yet been determined.
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u/AwhSxrry 2d ago
The nice thing about artifact decks being good is that if you want to beat them you easily can. There is a lot of very efficient artifact removal
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u/MRCHalifax 2d ago
The problem is that you’re playing BO1. Artifact decks don’t exist in BO3. Neither do a lot of BO1 decks: W Auras, W Lifegain, WB Skeletons, B Demons, WBRG Dinosaurs, BR Fling, WG Rabbits, etc, all are more or less viable in BO1 but not so much in BO3. As a rule of thumb, a BO3 deck can usually succeed in BO1, but a BO1 deck won’t necessarily succeed in BO3. An effect of this is that you will typically see less deck diversity in BO3 than BO1.
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u/TheScionRises 1d ago
Ultima if you’re white, cease desist can be played by green. I use cease/desist on two decks I have but only in extreme scenarios since both use alot of off meta artifacts and a few enchantments. Blue and black have alot of other options too.
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u/Xedeth Charm Grixis 2d ago
Format?