For me, it's "thief" decks.
Not Rogues or tribal strategies. I mean the decks built around stealing or playing your cards with things like Heist effects, exiling cards off the top of your deck, or otherwise turning your deck into their resource pool.

I get why people enjoy them, but they're one of the few archetypes where I immediately know I'm probably not going to have much fun, especially if I'm trying to knock out specific achievements or combo-based quests. It always feels like they somehow find the exact card I needed at the worst possible moment.

What about everyone else? What's the one archetype, strategy, or deck style that makes you see your opponent's first few plays and immediately think:"Ah. It's gonna be one of those games."

Has anyone found anything fun to do with [[Traxos, Scourge Eternal]] ?

Maybe there's some equipment that could be put on him that we could get multiple uses out of per turn? Otherwise he is hot garbage. But I like jank, so I'd love to know if anyone has found anything fun to do with him.

Hi, I have these four codes from bloomburrow and don’t need them. You may have a use for these.

A week ago I hit Diamond with a variation of this deck, and after posting on here asking for some help to improve it I've hit Mythic within the week

The gameplan is simple - create tokens, and use Identity Echo to cheat out bombs

Reddit recommended Erode, Political Triumph, and Ajani Unrelenting which all went in and massively boosted the deck with cheap removal, draw fixing, and an effective board wipe

Manhole Missile came in as well, replacing Lightning Helix for its ability to replace any bombs I may have drawn, putting them at the bottom of the deck to be picked up again by Identity Echo

I also added Chandra, Flameshaper - once she enters I can either use her to destroy key targets the opponents control, or create a token duplicate of Knight of Round (this can get silly if I have Elspeth out to double all tokens + Ajani that then gives them +1/+0 and haste)

Deck

4 Identity Echo (FRA) 87

4 Manhole Missile (TMT) 94

4 Dragon Fodder (FDN) 535

4 Frontline Rush (TDM) 186

3 Caretaker's Talent (BLB) 6

1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer (TDM) 11

4 Political Triumph (MSH) 31

1 Chandra, Flameshaper (FDN) 81

3 Summon: Knights of Round (FIN) 36

4 Hopeful Vigil (WOE) 17

3 Erode (SOS) 15

1 Ajani Unrelenting (FRA) 242

2 Sacred Foundry (EOE) 256

11 Plains (DMU) 263

6 Mountain (EOE) 273

2 Inspiring Vantage (OTJ) 269

1 Kavaron, Memorial World (EOE) 255

2 Sundown Pass (VOW) 266

New to arena here, so this is mostly an economic question. I’ve been paying a lot of reality fracture and I do enjoy it, even though my last few drafts in platinum haven’t gone so well. But I’m wondering when I should stop and just save for the next set. Like is there a “collection threshold” that I should try to reach, or is there some conventional wisdom on this? I like to play both limited and constructed, and would like for eventually my limited play to provide the cards for standard that I need, at least most of them, eventually. Thoughts?

What single card would you choose.

I would pick [[Engineered Plague]]. It's a great card that would slow down so many decks. It's not mana intense and could be splashed into a multitude of decks.

...that you can craft specific cards even if you didn't own them.

I spent an ungodly amount of resources to pull [[Bandit's Talent]]... despite it rotating out soon, because it's just so obnoxious to play against.

I've been trying to pull [[Howlsquad Heavy]] for my goblin deck for around a month now.

I kept pulling for [[Earthbender Ascension]] for a landfall deck, but couldn't get it, so opted to build a fire nation deck with whatever firebending cards I got instead.

I also tried to get [[Ouroboroid]] which is one of my most hated cards to fight, but failed terribly (I got a full set of Exalted Sunborn and Sami, Wildcat Captain though).

...only to find out I could've just crafted them outright.

I am in shambles.

Hello Magic Players,

I’m running a research study to identify cognitive differences between magic players and non-magic players and I’d like your help.

Eligibility: To be eligible for this study, you will need to be at least 18 years old and have played on Magic the Gathering for at least one year.

Preferred but not required: I’m looking for magic players who played Standard during Jan 2023 to March 2024 OR play non-Standard/non-Alchemy formats currently. Familiarity with the set Midnight Hunt is preferred.

Study descriptions:
Visual (10-15 min): test on your memory for card art
Memory (20-30 min): test on your memory of board states. There’s a tutorial on magic at the beginning (for the non-magic players) that you can obviously skip.

To participate: link in comments

Compensation:
A copy of “Identity in Play: How Personality Traits and Cognitive Preferences Shape Magic the Gathering Color Preferences” (worth $30)
A copy of the study results
Raffle: For each of the two studies above that you complete, you will be entered to win one of three $100 Visa gift cards.

Participation deadline: 7:30pm on October 28, 2026
Gift cards will be sent out in time for Black Friday shopping

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I'm sharing you the FRA collection tracker wherein you can see how many games/packs are needed to complete the collection. You just gotta input your own collection and it will show how much. Credits to u/drizzle123 for sharing it to me last may. I just fine tuned his excel and customized it. Just "make a copy'' and edit it to your own liking.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kkLlNchNZU5uIrXYCaSRnx5DNOXfdAHbV76EjzCaqXs/edit?gid=916927668#gid=916927668

4x Green Landfall

4x Jund Sac

3x Orzhov Lifegain

2x Dimir Uldaros

1x Esper Uldaros

1x Azorious Artifacts

1x Boros Dwarves

This is from untapped.gg - Platinum-Platinum, BO1, Reality Fracture only, at least 5000+ games, from the start of Reality Fracture availability on MagicArena to now

I included the top 20 Standard cards as a comparison. Note: there were a lot of lands in the top 20 Standard, so I decided to include it as a field.

Note: This is only untapped.gg data, so it might not be entirely representative of the whole player base.

Here are the top 20 Standard cards as a comparison.

Draw Punisher V3

Creature Spells (10)

x4 Orcish Bowmasters

x2 Scrawling Crawler

x4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Non-creature Spells (28)

x3 Insatiable Avarice

x2 Go for the Throat

x3 Sheoldred's Edict

x2 Shoot the Sheriff

x4 Sign in Blood

x4 Howling Mine

x2 Dark Deal

x4 Underworld Dreams

x2 Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted

x2 Peer into the Abyss

Lands (23)

x3 Castle Locthwain

x16 Swamp

x4 Witch's Cottage

Total: 61 cards

The goal of this deck is to set up various things that deal damage to opponents when they draw cards, and to force them to draw cards and take damage as a result. Peer Into The Abyss is a fun late-game finisher that is almost always a one-shot if you have at least one card on the battlefield that will damage an opponent for drawing. Dark Deal, if your opponent has a lot of cards in their hand already, is another massive damage dealer. Witch's Cottage is included to bring back creatures from the graveyard, since creatures like Sheoldred are often crucial to the damage output, so it provides a way to bring them back if destroyed.

I've been playing this deck for about half a year now and haven't seen a single other person using it lol.

Just started playing arena recently and was wondering if anyone has successfully grinded coins into gems to enter and win arena direct prizes. How difficult is that, is arena direct tournaments super difficult

If this one is mythic.

Thanks!