Looking at this list:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7996820#paper

Why are they running [[firebending lesson]] over [[burst lightning]]? The only reason I can think of for doing that is if you care about lessons, and it looks like nothing in this deck cares about lessons - so why? Sorry if this is a dumb question

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Page (ALL DECKLISTS!):

RC Ghent Event Page

RC Los Angeles Event Page

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

See the deck list Google Sheet above where I post the original listed deck name assigned on Melee.gg next to the deck name I change it to.

There are 472 total changes, some are renaming things like "Esper Goryo's" -> "Goryo's Vengeance" but over half are straight archetype fixes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Metagame Breakdown

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by META%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by WIN%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_MODERN2 if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

I'm hoping that this deck is greedy and will play well, I need a sealed win so I can get the achievement and I want to improve my deck building.

I was hoping to use most of my white, blue, and red rares for this deck, focusing on the Draconic Visitor triggers. I have both Saheeli, Soul of Stone, and 2 phantasms. I also have the Theorist. With 12 removal/bounce cards and 1 sweeper is this a mistake? I only have 1 landcycler in my pool.

I realize this deck is very short on creatures but if I'm right, with the removal it's a control deck anyway. But did I build the best deck?

This is the link to the deck and pool I made:

https://sealeddeck.tech/FE5SVtZwAt

Hello spikes, I am Predeag133 on MTGO, and I am the current trophy leader on MTGO with 10 trophies, 9 of which came with versions of this deck. I've played the deck going back to last year, and as it got more popular, I have noticed that most players pilot the deck incorrectly, or have misconceptions about what the deck is trying to do. To help people who are picking up the deck I decided to share my experience playing with it and write a guide for it.

https://mfy.gg/guides/view/standard-orzhov-lifegain-guide-reality-fra-sZ8TQ2qweO9

The sections on general strategy, decklist and card choices and technical play are free, so I recommend checking them out.

The deck is positioned extremely well in the current metagame (provided you know what you are doing), and I recommend it to people who are trying to qualify for an RC, or are looking for a deck to play in Hartford, at the Spotlight Series event.

It has a lot of enchantment/artifact removal in the sideboard for graveyard hate, Caverns makes countering the reanimation unreliable, and the density of value creatures lets them rebuild after a board wipe. Not sure what aggro decks can finish the game before turn 4. What's the right angle of attack against this deck?

Hello everyone! I’m planning to participate in a tournament soon and I have decided to go Jund but the more I play it in arena the more I feel as if there was either something with me or with the deck or both.

Since reached the plat I can hardly manage a 30% win rate no matter what: I struggle against every matchup, either have a hand full of lands or a screw with no possibility to set up while my opps always have answers or better threats.

I have a nice start like 1 game after every 6 loses but it really hard to go through. Was there a meta shift and jund is not reliable anymore? Am I a bad player that can’t understand the deck, or is it just a bad luck? I’d like to hear any advice possible.

Hi all! I’m historically a modern player, coming back from a long break. Back when I used to play more (up till Covid basically), you could find tournaments year round for modern or limited so I was golden. Now it seems like if you want to be a serious competitive player, you must move with the RC season.

So I find myself trying to improve in standard. Thing is, the format moves much faster than what I’m used to in modern. New sets are much more impactful, and the meta moves way too fast. So for the standard aficionados out there, what’s your general advice for day to day improving in standard? Right now I’m focusing on UB Midrange because I had a ton of cards for it from modern so it was cheap-ish to build, but I assume I’ll have to build more decks in the future if I want to stay current. Any tips for this modern player?

Hi everyone, I am playing Azorius flash at Standard Showdowns on my LGS.

Although not top tier at the moment, I like how the deck plays and the problems it presents to opponent (not allow them to play if succesful, essentially🔥)

I had good results, but against some decks (I will place a example Boros Dragons, which tends to play one 4-cost card per turn or can have a few mana sink abilities a well) I feel like I need to rework the deck through the sideboard and Remove all of my High Noons. My issue with that is that the Win-Con of having high noon and voice of victory in play at the same time dissapears and the way the decks plays then is quite different.

I would love to hear from experienced players of this archetype how do you reshape your deck when some core cards (like High Noon) are useless in a given matchup.

TL;DR I guess I want to approach the Azorius Flash deck as more of a toolbox if possible

Azorius Prison <--- Here is my decklist! Should have shared it from the beginning!

Hey Spikes!

We're winding down our coverage of Reality Fracture with one final guide, this time focused on Drafting the most complex set of the year (maybe recent years, honestly). Reality Fracture has been awesome, and Bryan Hohns is here to deliver his thoughts on the format.

The combination of Jace token management, bombs across all colors, deep mana fixing with duals and actually good landcyclers, plus a well of great removal all combines for a very powerful format with a lot of back-and-forth potential. [[Craftwork Crusher]] on Craftwork Crusher action, that sort of thing.

I'll let Bryan and his 15-something Arena Direct boxes do most of the talking, but suffice to say you're in for long attrition battles in Reality Fracture, with just a hint of aggro when it's wide open. Maybe even some week-2 metagame shifts where people are figuring out how curve-out creature decks actually fit into everything (lemme know if you've had success with those).

At any rate, Reality Fracture's great, and has even been extended on MTGA into Star Trek season, which is looming right around the corner, way sooner than it feels like it should be.

Let me know your thoughts on Reality Fracture, what colors/decks you're biasing towards/away from, and hope the guide helps in your next event(s). Happy drafting! https://draftsim.com/mtg-reality-fracture-draft-guide/

Currently playing this list: https://moxfield.com/decks/_T7qDbqZVUCxor4m6p4pzg

(Have riverpires in arena)

The deck finally feels good again with the addition of pompous. Enables a lot of lines that didn´t exist previously. Have you tried the deck since FRA´s release? Have you played vs it?

[standard]

Time to get back into standard. Before they banned the big 3 I was on 4c control. Is it still viable into Jund? Any new tech? I saw people running more black, tried a few games on arena and hated it tbh. What do people think is the best deck right now? What do we think of the new meta in general? What should I look out for?

This is my old decklist that was very successful for me last season. https://moxfield.com/decks/Qo57Ny0E1UaAeX64EiYPeQ

I have been working on brewing abzan lifegain, mostly testing on BO1 on arena currently, but ideally I'd like to build it out in paper once I get a strong final list.

I've seen a few different lists for this deck - and quite a few are splashing green JUST for [[Way of the Paradox]] and [[Professor Dellian Fel]] - both of which are very strong in the deck, so I understand completely.

What I do NOT understand is why so many lists are playing 4 of [[Hinterland Sanctifier]] and ZERO [[Virulent Emissary]] - when by all accounts, it is the strictly better card.

There is definitely something to be said for needing white turn one for [[Liliana the Faultless]] or [[Case of the Uneaten Feast]], or even [[Authority of the Consuls]] (which I've been mainboarding at least one of - helps big time in the mirror), but with 4x [[Temple Garden]], 4x [[Starting Town]], 4x [[Multiversal Passage]] - I feel like going to some split of Hinterland and Virulent is better than 4 of Hinterland, by all accounts?

Like, if every land was [[City of Brass]], clearly Virulent is the better choice 100% of the time. I can understand in the Pioneer version of the deck, wanting the devotion to white - but I just don't get why I am not seeing more lists running Virulent. Is there something I am missing? Is it the single point of toughness? I feel that deathtouch is WAY better, as opponents expect me to value it like a mana dork and not block - but its essentially a free removal spell, as I can get crazy value in returning it later with [[Moseo]] or Case of the Uneaten Feast - arguably making it one of the best "removal" spells in the deck.

I've been trying to lean into the green splash here because of how useful I think it is (let alone Paradox or Dellian Fel), and am even debating throwing in some [[Tigra]]s here too - flashing in this in response to a creature spell while I have Authority on the field feels SO, SO good - and trample by default can break some tricky boardstates or, super relevant now, trample over chump blockers to hit planeswalkers (like the Cadets or various 1/1 tokens in the superfriends deck).

For anyone running abzan lifegain right now, are you playing Virulent Emissary? Please drop your list if you have one. I just think there is NO way mana fixing isn't good enough in standard right now to not justify at least SOME amount of virulent, over 4 hinterlands - but I would love to be corrected if I am wrong here.

Another point - for any orzhov lifegain players - why AREN'T you running green? Just consistency? I'll admit that my current lists I have been testing are definitely a little light in removal compared to orzhov lists I see (I am going 2x [[Get Lost]] + 1x [[Erode]] to deal with most threats, but generally I just go crazy with lifegain fast enough that most threats except the red ajani can't keep up.)

And a final point - it seems that many lists also aren't using [[Enlightened Confidant]] - another card that seems really, REALLY great in the deck, especially with the low mana curve - and lifelink makes it one of the best targets for [[Essence Channeler]] death trigger counters. Is [[Lunar Convocation]] just that much better for card draw?

My current arena list is here, ignore the jank lands + missing convocations + case of the uneaten feasts, I am grinding rare wildcards to finish it out right now.

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Page (ALL DECKLISTS!):

RC Yokohama Event Page

RC Ottawa Event Page

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

See the deck list Google Sheet above where I post the original listed deck name assigned on Melee.gg next to the deck name I change it to.

There are 472 total changes, some are renaming things like "Esper Goryo's" -> "Goryo's Vengeance" but over half are straight archetype fixes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Metagame Breakdown

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by META%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Decks by WIN%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_MODERN2 if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

Reality Fracture is a very cool format. It's super different than recent formats, and it also has a lot of depth. I've done okay without totally understanding why. Now I think I finally have some understanding. So this will go over blue/black decks, my favorite color pair. I'm happy to report that after multiple sets of being ignored, it's finally back, and back with a vengeance. It's both powerful and very classic blue/black. I think there are at least 3 kinds of blue/black decks in this format. In order of power/how often you should be drafting them, they are:

1. Blue/Black controlling
2. Blue/Black control
3. Blue/Black hyper mill aggro

I'm mostly going to focus on the first one, but will cover the others. Before we get any further, though, I want to make a couple of points about this format and about blue in it.

1. Any midrange or controlling deck should be trying to splash. Splashing is both very easy and very powerful. There are lots of great cards to splash, both multicolor cards and cards of other colors. There are also lots of ways to splash. The best ways are the dual lands/[[Room of Refuge]] and the landcyclers. I would say for blue/black, the best color to splash is usually green. Green/black also has a graveyard theme, so its gold cards are usually great splashes, and green also just has good cards. After that, I would say white is next best, and red is last, but still very powerful.

2. Blue controlling can be done with any color as its pair. The mill and hyper control strategies probably need to be blue/black, but the main controlling deck can be done with blue and any other color. And in my opinion, it's currently the best way to play blue (and maybe the best way to play the whole set right now).

Blue/Black Controlling

Okay, so now let's get into it. Blue/black controlling involves using card advantage and removal to take control of the game and win. You can win with your bombs or just by having so much card advantage your creatures go unopposed. So is this as simple as playing card draw and removal? It kinda is, but there are still some things worth pointing out.

Removal: Basically all removal is good. Kill spells, exile spells, tap enchantments, and counterspells are all great. Just play all of them. The super premium ones are the unconditional removal spells (especially exile) and [[Countersculpt]] (so good!). But basically play everything.

Card advantage: I think any 2 for 1 or better is good. There's card draw, obviously, but Empower Jace is also card draw. Also, mill can sort of count if you have enough flashback cards. And there are also 2 for 1 creatures. Cards like [[Rank Rat]], [[Theoretical Necromancer]], and Fblthp will work too. There is a ton of card advantage everywhere.

Beyond that, try to get some ways to splash so that if you open bombs, you can play them. You can win with just card advantage and removal, but it's easier with bombs. A couple of other notes:

1. Just because you are controlling doesn't mean you don't want to kill your opponent. Make sure to play value creatures. Cards like Theoretical Necromancer and [[Mindseeker Oculus]] can also kill quickly if they're left unchecked. Just because you aren't an aggro deck doesn't mean you shouldn't play aggressively at times.

2. This isn't a format where you need your early game to be creatures. Your 2 drops can totally just be counterspells and removal. This doesn't run counter to my point above. Good value 2 drop creatures are worth playing, and if you get them down unopposed, you can kill your opponent. But don't play 2 mana 2/2s that do nothing for you just because you feel you need to defend against aggro decks. This isn't The Hobbit.

3. This format has a lot of weird play around planeswalkers. It would take a whole post to go over them in detail, but here are three things I've noticed. First, make sure you play your dual lands before you kill your Jace so they come in untapped. Second, if you need a land drop for next turn (not this turn) and you have a 4 loyalty Jace, you should use the -1 surveil so that if you don't draw a land next turn, you can draw a card then. Third, remember that if you downtick a Jace to 0 and create a new one, you can use loyalty abilities again.

4. You should try to mill yourself most of the time when possible. On average, I mill myself until I'm down to about 10 cards in my library. I don't believe there are any ways to mill your opponent (the rare Jace doesn't count, because that will kill you no matter what), so don't worry about your opponent taking advantage of that.

And then some further notes on specific cards that are underrated/interesting:

1. Countersculpt: BOMB. This card is a BOMB. [[Cancel]] (1UU, counter target spell) would be a good card in this format. This is so much better than that. It's arguably the best uncommon in the set, so take it highly.

2. [[Fblthp, Impossibly Lost]]: This card is a must have in a control deck (I'll go over that later), and is great with cards like [[Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive]] (which makes this unblockable), but it's also just good. I would take and play it in every blue/black deck. It's just not that hard to deal combat damage with something, and it's a shockingly good defensive card, because your opponent will hold stuff back to prevent you from triggering it.

3. [[Recursive Recruitment]]: This is a bomb. Even without mill, this card's flashback mode creates at least two 4/4s, and usually two 6/6s. With mill, it's even better, but you don't need it. Take and play as many copies as you can.

4. [[Rewrite Regrets]]: Reanimate effects are almost never good in limited, but this one is. You can't always include this, but as long as you have 2+ landcycling creatures, this card is good. You can also have bombs or mill to make this better, but the landcyclers alone can carry this.

5. [[Surveillance Phantasm]]: This looks like a blue/white card. It's not. It works totally fine in blue/black. In the early game, it plays great defense for your Jace (and can attack if you really want), and in the late game, you can surveil every turn. Also, the 4 mana surveil ability can be useful if you are getting flooded. It's just a good card.

6. [[Unsummon]]: It's pretty good. There are a lot of ways to blow out your opponent with this. I would still say it's not premium removal. You play it, but I would rather play an actually good removal spell. I've been cutting it a lot when this color pair is wide open.

7. [[Tam's Resistance]]: It's good. I play this with no creature target a lot, and it plays fine. It's obviously better with a creature, but 2 mana to cycle plus keep a 1 loyalty Jace is fine a lot of the time.

Just because a card isn't on the list doesn't mean it isn't good. It just means I didn't see a special need to call it out. Cards like [[Twinned Vision]] and [[Icy Reception]] are great, and you should pick them higher than they are going.

Blue/Black Control

So the deck above definitely plays the long game well, but is still looking to kill your opponent quickly when it can. This version literally just controls your opponent and wins with Fblthp or Jace. You could technically play 0 creatures (except Fblthp and Tetsuko) if you want. This kind of deck doesn't usually exist in limited. I'm here to tell you that if you want it, it does exist here. But usually, I would just go controlling, because it's a lot easier and you don't need to build it as specifically as this one.

This deck builds a lot like the one above, but I want to emphasize a couple of differences by talking about specific cards.

1. Fblthp, Impossibly Lost/[[Jace, Reality Sculptor]]: These are your win conditions. Jace will win on its own if left unbothered. Fblthp needs you to deal combat damage with it out. Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is the best way to do that, but if you have flyers or other ways, those will work too.

2. Countersculpt: I think this is the single best card in the entire set for this deck. You need a way to ensure that your win condition doesn't get disrupted, and that your opponent can't land game altering bombs. Make sure to save these for when you truly need them. Your card advantage and removal should ensure you can handle most things without having to counter them.

3. [[Paradox Shaper]]: This provides a way to put cards from your graveyard on the bottom of your library and to mill yourself pretty quickly, so you can trigger the Fblthp win condition. It's not necessary, but it is good. You can use two of these to ensure you never mill out and wait for your opponent to die, [[Clear the Mind]] style. However, I have found that isn't usually necessary. If you want to win with Fblthp and this card, I find that you should bottom Countersculpt, then Fblthp, and finally Tetsuko. If Fblthp is at the bottom, remember that you need to be able to deal combat damage the turn you play it in order to win before you deck yourself.

Blue/Black Hyper Mill Aggro

For now, I'll just say that the support for this deck exists, but don't play it. It's not powerful enough to be worth it. Maybe later in the format, when everyone is drafting control cards highly enough, this will work, but not yet.

Dimir Oculus was a fringe deck that some tried to make work before, but I could only find two lists that were played on mtgo tournaments since FRA came out, one barely using anything new, and the other list is this:

https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/dimir-oculus-decklist-by-popeville-3115284

[[Dark Matter Manipulator]] and [[Seasoned Cryomancer]] are obvious nice additions imo, but beyond that, I'm not sure how to build the deck. The main dilemma is to Moonshadow or not to Moonshadow, ​in other words, is it better to take this deck in a more creature-heavy​ direction going harder on graveyard synergy, or to have more interaction? Before the new set, most people did the latter.

​I'm now leaning towards that​​ myself after trying it both ways, cause I'm not sure if we can race most of the other creature heavy decks (Landfall​/​Lizards, etc)​ while just having 4 pieces of interaction. But then again, maybe we can. I even tried [[​Souls of the Lost]] with 3 [[​Qarsi Revenant]] in the shell which is cool when it pops off, but then the deck is also very vulnerable to graveyard hate past game 1.​​

I ​currently just run Oculus, Cryomancer/Manipulator, Balemurk and a few Quantum Riddlers. The rest is ​interaction, some Winternright Stories. But it's a work in progress.

Anyone has thoughts on the archetype?

Current Decklist

https://moxfield.com/decks/wcqgAW4NI3Cpv2F7b-kwUQ

I have been tuning this [[Slumbering Trudge]] [[Glamdring, Foe-Hammer]] combo deck since RFA dropped and wanted to see what r/spikes thinks.

Gameplan is to get the Trudge Equipped with Glamdring to reduce the cost of instants and sorceries by 6, making a large portion of the deck free, or mana positive to cast, [[Rakshasa's Bargain]] to dig, [[sorceress's schemes]] to loop spells while floating a R, once 2 schemes are available in any combination of hand, graveyard, or exile the combo goes infinite with whatever you have access, to Bargain gives infinite digs, [[Brass's Bounty]] gives infinite mana, then tutor up a [[Thor, God of Thunder]] with a [[Nature's Rhythm]] to ping for infinite damage.

Deck is held together by a fairly elaborate tutor network.

Nature's Rhythm is the main assembly tool Grabbing trudge for 1GG, or [[Cloud, Midgar Mercenary]] for 2GG, who in turn grabs glamdring. Once the combo is assembled GG can turn into any creature in the deck, including Curse-Marred Demon for a gamble, or [[Prime Speaker Zegana]] for a draw 7, or Thor for a finisher.

Backup Tutor is [[Curse-Marred Demon]], which will grab your missing combo piece if you are still assembling, works to grab combo gas once the combo is assembled, and can turn hand and graveyard combinations into deterministic wins. Some very fun lines with grabbing [[Daydream]]. A flying Trampling 4/4 is also still just a good creature, and in a pinch can make the combo work, still making the schemes loop free, and often enough to make infinite mana off Brass's bounty. Gamble does not really feel like gamble in a deck that recures all of its spells.

Hex Magic is best played on Turn 2 with the help of an elf to dig for combo pieces, but also works great to dig for combo gas once it only costs R. Might be testing this against [[Something worth saving]]

Sorceress's Schemes is the engine that makes the deck infinite. It allows for any spell in the deck to be looped.

Interaction suite in preboard games is limited to 3 copies of the Last Agni Kai, which is dependent on having a creature out, but Trudge on 1, Agni on 2 against a 1/1, floating RRRRR and casting a curse marred-demon never feels bad, some fun loops with buying it back with a sorceress's schemes and using it 3 times.

Deck is currently a bit oversized at 63 cards, and I am convinced that the best version of this deck is over 60, have played with it between 63-69, just have not landed on that sweet spot. But the tutor density and hex magics make it play like a much shorter deck than it is.

Playing with [[Spider Manifestation]] at the moment because it generates infinite R & G once the schemes loop is established.

Post-Board games bring in Bolt Bends for any deck with Black or Blue, which typically for R work to deflect removal or fight countermagic, typically Agni Kais out there.

Creature heavy matchups the burn spells and [Nibelheim Aflame]] come in.

[[Into the flood maw]] as generic tempo/removal, pairs well with The last Agni kai too, often worth it to give the fish even if you are hitting a creature.

[[Curious Farm Animals]] As a 1 of nature's rhythm bullet for artifact or enchantment based decks

[[Dragon sniper]] As a 1 of defender against big or flying creature decks.

[[Louisoix's Sacrifice]] Might be a bit cute, but lots of lines end up with a cloud on the battlefield that you don't care bout so having a U counter spell is nice. Once combing too you have access to the whole deck so it can get through some last-ditch opposition.

Worst Matchup is definitely against black, T1 Duress or Intimidation tactics is the worst thing to see, Requiting hex can hurt, but can be played around. The whole combo only costs 4GR to deploy from hand, or 2GR if the sword is already out, so it is often worth waiting for shields to go down against control or removal heavy decks.

Deck is playing great now, and will only get better, because it does not lose a single main deck card to rotation in February.

Hey all - first time posting here. Wanted to share a deck I've been playing and looking for some feedback.

I've played magic off and on for years, but have recently been getting into arena/more competitive play. I usually tend to play Azorius control or prison tempo with high noon. I just love the interaction, not the grief I swear!

I've seen a few decks built around Denzilore/Proctor but not this more mobilize focussed build. So I'm keen to hear your thoughts! It's been holding it's own in platinum Bo1 in arena but it's not super consistent, since we need to work to get the surveil triggers flowing.

1. The deck

Decklist

The idea is to trigger [[Denzilore Fatehold]]'s (and [[Diviner of Victory]]'s) ability as often as possible using ETB surveil triggers and mobilize.

Scry/Surveil activators: [[Proctor of potential]] + [[Gossip's Talent]]

Repeated ETB triggers via mobilize: [[Voice of Victory]] + [[Dalkovan Packbeasts]]

Interaction:

- [[Erode]] + [[Get lost]] to survive against early aggro & clear a path if necessary.

- [[Spell pierce]] to survive a board wipe or removal at a crucial point

- Diviner is also great for bouncing cmc 3 or less creatures to hand

Card draw/selection: [[Opt]] + [[Matoya, Archon Elder]]. Often not needed but helps if the game drags on a little too far.

The dream is to have Diviner/Proctor/Packbeasts on the board at the start of turn 4, drop Denzilore and swing in big.

Card selection overall is great with all of the surveil triggers, but card draw can be a problem particularly against heavy removal.

I considered dropping to 22 lands, but found it crucial to hit the first 4 land drops consistently.

2. Cards I considered but dropped

• [[Political Triumph]] - It's cheaper than gossip's talent and draws a card but is gone after 4 triggers. Often is gone before dropping Denzilore for the biggest pay off. Considering re-adding for some counters + diviner payoff without Denzilore.
• [[Sheltered by Ghosts]] - Solid card, but swapped out for get lost for more instant speed interaction and more permanent removal.
• [[Fatehold Charm]] - Flexible but didn't feel as useful as more specific choices.
• [[Repurposed Enforcer]] - Lots of empowering jace, but due to timing, you can't hit the surveil trigger until after the combat you empower.
• [[Meticulous Archive]] - The extra surveil trigger is nice but it's a bit risky to slow down turns 1-4
• [[No more lies]] / [[Phantom interference]] - The extra mana cost hurt more than expected early game.
• [[Your Fate Ends Here]] - Solid removal + surveil trigger, but preferred cheaper removal and keeping higher cmc slots for the main plain
• [[Eye of Jace]], [[Mazemind Tome]], [[Warden of the Inner Sky]], [[Attentive Sunscribe]], [[fear of surveillance]], [[Surveillance Phantasm]], [[Prudent Fateseer]] - All solid scry/surveil triggers or creatures. I decided to lean more into mobilize/ETB triggers
• [[Practiced Offense]] - Great to surveil away and use for cheap, but seemed overkill with Denzilore & was unpleasant to have clogging up the hand over creatures
• [[Yuriko, Hope from the Shadows]], [[Kutzil's Flanker]] - Great flash triggers + utility but hard to justify space

Decklist

So I've been messing around with Darklight Pheonix, and I've arrived at a deck thats pretty fun while also winning a good amount of the time... in bo1. I think there may be something here, but there are two big problems I need help solving.

1: We need a plan for graveyard hate. This is the reason I've kept to bo1 thus far. I dont know how the deck functions when there's a RIP in play.

2: There needs to be a compelling reason to play Darklight instead of Bringer of the Last Gift combo. If we're putting effort into filling the graveyard, it would be better to just win the game instead of attacking with 3/2s.

For problem one, I know other formats like modern use [[Pheonix Fleet airship]] to beat GY hate, but I dont think thats viable in standard. Saccing stuff is a genuine hurdle, we cant do it every turn for free like they can. Maybe we could try building up cards in hand and then bouncing the RIP, discarding the Pheonixes, and having a big turn that way, but I think that plan is too vulnerable to the opponent doing anything. I think the answer might be to have a plan to mill the opponent instead. If we shift to a more controlling build we could run [[Singularity Rupture]] maindeck and then have some Riverchurns in the sideboard to combo them out. That might solve problem 2 as well, a control deck doesnt overlap with Bringer combo as much.

Those two issues are what I want the most input on but obviously I'd love to hear more generic suggestions as well.

[[Master of Barbs]] is a Lizard and fits nicely with the "an opponent lost life this turn" theme of the Lizard tribe from Bloomburrow because they offer a lot of ways to trigger it. I've put together a very aggressive build on Arena and snagged the "win 25 games with 20 nonland maindeck cards from Reality Fracture" achievement using it.

The list is here: Rakdos Lizards

The sideboard is a piece of crap right now, but that's probably something I could improve on. Do you think it's worth putting any more effort (and possibly Arena wildcards) into tuning it? It's certainly able to generate a lot of damage very quickly, but I don't know how good it really is because I'm still sitting at Platinum on Arena after the monthly reset.

One thing I tried that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped was the 4/4 God for 2RR that makes noncombat damage to opponents do at least four - it was hard to consistently cast at four mana and it required other cards on the board to do that boosted damage.

I played my first RCQ today (Standard) and was wondering if you guys felt or experienced these same things.

First off, I'm running Boros Dragons in standard, I had every piece except a couple Voice of Victories were magda or Jennifer Walters to save some money. I've played the deck plenty on Arena BO3 and know it inside and out, but..

Every single player at this tourney (that only had 9 players btw) was playing some form of control. Now im not super anti-control or a giga hater, but I think I saw maybe 2 or 3 creatures the entire 5 hours of this RCQ.

Despite playing an aggro deck, the rock paper scissors idealogy failed me and control just beats kinda everything in standard now in case you havent played (Mono green landfall only exception).

Aggro doesn't really exist anymore after the bans, and midrange is pretty much dead outside of Mono Green and occasional Dimir (which is actually Tempo).

But honestly I have no major issues with any of that, thats just how the meta has worked out.

My bigger issues were my opponents manners and the insane amount of flooding/screwing. Out of 5 rounds I played, at least 2 out of 3, one player was getting screwed or mana flooded and lost directly as a result.

I'm not lying, I saw multiple matches completely decided by screw and flood for every single player. It felt like half of the entire tournament was just decided by RNG. Do people really find pleasure in driving half to a full hour to play at these events for 30$ just to get nothing in return even with a few wins?

These shops all stopped providing any kind of fun single booster reward here and there for coming and winning a couple games.

But to top it off, my control players all just had the craziest mannerisms, and a few pretty salty and annoying behaviors that just pointed towards a more lack of social awareness than rudeness I hope but can't be sure.

I'm talking like, these control players would take 6+ minutes deciding what to play, just to pass with nothing played and holding all their mana. Which I GET, but they had they AUDACITY multiple times to ask me if I was done yet as SOON as i hit main phase two and not even two seconds has passed.

I shit you not, one guy asked me if I pass the moment combat phase was over after he killed my momo, and I was like umm no I have a main phase two and I'm gonna play my second momo. Then of course takes 10 minutes to play a Tablet and pass.

Is this really the RCQ experience? Has anyone else been to one lately and experienced any similar sentiments?

I'm just left wondering if this is what competitive magic has become, it just doesnt feel worth it to grind RCQs to grind RC to grind pro tour just to have a chance at the Championship.

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well.

I've been wanting to play a new deck for a while now—something other than Control or Mardu Discard.

Artifact Affinity caught my eye because there are 12 cards that fit the archetype perfectly; in fact, 8 of them are the same ones used in Modern (ignoring the fact that there are many more tools available there).

Emissary Pinnacle, Weapons Manufacturing, and Ravenous Robots have incredible synergy with Springleaf Drum and—with the new *The Hobbit* release—Giant's Boulder.

You can generate solid value using Tezzeret to tutor up a 1-drop and Krang to draw up to 4 cards.

I've been thinking about win conditions:

Improvised Arsenal can deliver a massive hit; it combos well with the Skateboard, or even with Gingerbrute to make it unblockable.

Or perhaps even with Rust Harvester to deal significant damage to the opponent.

I'm running into a few issues with this deck:

1) I'm not really utilizing the Munitions tokens created by Weapons Manufacturing at all. I feel like I'm missing out on a huge opportunity there.

I considered a Jund Sacrifice-style build with Biotech Specialist and The Sackville-Bagginses, but that’s a different kind of deck—it focuses more on the token gimmick than on artifacts.

I also thought about Legion Extruder, but it costs 4 mana (2 to cast and 2 more for the ability). Maybe Umbral Collar Zealot? I'm not sure.

2) I feel like I'm still lacking value. Krang is great, but costs 2 Blue mana (which is tough if I've been spamming spells), and Tezzeret—at best—comes down on turn 2 to fetch a 1-drop.

Quantum Riddle might be an option, but I want to keep the deck mostly artifact-based to maximize triggers for Pinnacle, Ravenous, and Weapons.

Could you guys throw some ideas my way?

With all the Jace tokens and Ajani, Unrelenting kicking it in draft will we see the return of a plainswalker centered deck in standard? Is anybody doing some brewing in that direction? I'd like to try, but this project would be a huge wildcard sink, and I don't have to WC budget to start from scratch.
Thoughts guys?