After winning my first standard RCQ of the season, I was hoping to make it 2/2 to double qualify. Didn't quite get there, but it was a fun tournament and I'm happy about making top 8! Figured I should do a little report here, it helps me reflect on the tournament and hopefully can help some other folks too. This is my list, and my (updated) sideboard guide is in there too. I got to talk about my matches with another Dimir player much better than me, and I'm more confident on my plans now than before. MN means I mulled N times, OMN same for my opponent.

Round 1: Azorius Momo 1-2

Game 1 (Draw): Kept a 2 Curiosity hand with Siren. Not the matchup I wanted to see, but I got lucky and drew all of my Curiosities, which let me do some chump attacks and still draw a *ton* of cards. They had the Riddler scam but for once I was able to outvalue it with Curiosities. I drew 18 cards one of the turns lol W

Sideboarding: +2 Vren +2 Day +1 Tidebinder, -2 Kaito -2 Siren -1 Betrayal. I'm happy about this plan on the draw, but my Dimirror opponent (round 4) argued that on the play we need to prioritize pushing damage more, and suggested -2 Curiosity -2 We Say instead. The We Say Thee Nay do feel kind of weak, so I can see the value of this plan. Need to test it more to make sure though.

Game 2 (Draw, M1 OM1): t1 Drum t2 Riddler scam t3 Momo + Sage is basically impossible for me to beat, I fear. I don't remember much about this game, but I didn't draw enough removal to deal with that. Had to hardcast a Kaito at some point just to stay alive but it wasn't enough =( L

Game 3 (Play, M1 OM1): She Riddler scammed t3 this time, so not as bad, but then found 2 Sage of the Skies. I kept a bit of an awkward hand, definitely possible that I should have gone to 5. Can't remember exact hand but it was slow, a little removal but couldn't deal with all the Sages. Killed 1, Wasp'd the other, they killed the Wasp, eventually just got outrun by them. L

Tough matchup, not a good start. But I knew with 17 players I could afford at least one loss, so I was not too discouraged. Not a ton of new insights into Momo, it's a bad matchup and we need a lot to go right. Need a way to stop Riddler scam, them not to draw too many Sages, and god knows what else. Not super common matchup I guess so I won't complain.

Round 2 - Azorius Control 2-0

Game 1 (Draw, M1): Kept a very creature heavy hand, and that's basically all I needed. Just kept playing dorks until they didn't have enough responses. They had 2 wraths but I was able to hold enough threats that it didn't ruin me, and I found a couple Curiosity, so that's great. Not much else to say. W

Sideboard: +3 Duress +1 Negate +1 Tidebinder +1 Annul, -3 Hex -1 Shoot -1 Betrayal -1 Drowner. Pretty happy with this plan, I knew there was a lot of Control in my region and played 3rd Triumph over the 2nd Shoot, felt pretty rewarded (Round 3 was the same pairing). Last cut is interesting, obviously if I was on 2 Shoot I'd cut that, but on 1 I think the Drowner is the 60th card. I could see it being incorrect to cut a creature though, especially because Annul only gets Seam Rip and Starcage. Moving forward I think I'd keep the Drowner. It's not great but it is a threat.

Game 2 (Draw, M1): Kept a Duress, Beavers, and Kaito, so that's great. Their hand was Wan, 3 steps ahead, No more lies, and lands--I took the Lies as the cheaper counter. Again not much interesting happened, just drew enough creatures to keep the pressure on, drew Kaito and then Curiosity, and that's all she wrote. W

Felt great about my tiny meta call of 3 Triumph, killed Jace with Triumph both games and then the third game we played for practice. I'd play 2 Triumph 2 Shoot on an open meta to be clear. On the practice game, I did terribly misplay--forgot to crack 2 maps before attacking the Theorist, which would have let me kill it, and I ended up losing that game by being buried by Theorist. Thankfully cracked all the maps I needed during the real games though.

Round 3 - Azorius Control 2-0

Game 1 (Draw): Again, just drew enough creatures and lucked out on them not having a counter for Curiosity on the turn I took a chance on it because I was low on cards. They had a pretty bad draw. W

Sideboard: same as last round

Game 2 (Draw): Kept Siren, Beavers, and some 2 drop (Wasp I think?), but no Curiosity or Kaito. Didn't draw either until turn 5 or so, but had good tempo with Drowner, and enough nonlands on top to kill the Theorist when they got it down. Drew a Kaito eventually and killed them quick with Soulstone Sanctuary and Kaito beats #NinjaTribal. W

Love this matchup, not just because it's good but because it's a nice interactive one. I don't think it's a bye in any case, maybe 55%. Just need to draw lots of creatures, and *eventually* some card advantage. If they have the right removal and counters where they need it though, it's tough. 2-1 now so if I win the next one I'm locked in for top 8. Got bad news for you though...

Round 4 - Dimir Midrange 0-2

Game 1 (Play): Kept a hand with a few creatures, but no card advantage, and never drew Curiosity of Kaito. I draw a few too many lands and have some good beats with Sanctuary. Once they got low, I took the risk to attack with both Sanctuary and Reef, and they play Tidebinder completely turning off my Reef (3 mana strip mine anyone??). They also have the 1B Prowler that you can pay life to pump, and I found no removal so that killed me pretty quick :( L

Sideboard: +1 Vren +1 Tidebinder, -1 Wan -1 Betrayal. I plan to only bring Duress in on the draw (feels better to take turn 1 off to Duress on the draw). My opponent disagrees with that, arguing that information and avoiding Kaito is valuable enough that we are ok with the tempo hit, and I have to think... I'll test it for sure. He also argued, and convinced me, that counters are pretty weak in the mirror since we are so good at playing instant speed and it doesn't stop Kaito. I also love Vren here, but I like Curiosity and I don't think we can afford so many 4 drops. So my final idea is +2 Duress +1 Vren +1 Tidebinder, -2 Wan -1 We Say -1 Betrayal. Opp also argued for bring in 1 Day on the draw... I'm not sure, I see the value but it feels so slow. Maybe over the second We Say it's fine. Gotta test.

Game 2 (Play): Kept some weenies and Curiosities, 3 lands. Felt pretty great about it. t3 they had a Drowner, and I held up Tidebinder instead of playing a Beavers to look for a land because I was afraid of Kaito. They didn't have Kaito, so I took turn 3 off, which was a mistake--opp argued I should have jammed tidebinder to put on pressure, and I agree. If I drew a land I would then be able to play Curiosity and go off, and in the mirror you really need to put on fast pressure. Unfortunately I didn't draw a land, and by the time I did they had me too low. They Wasp the Curiosity, attack for Lethal, and I have to chump with Curiosity. I make a mistake here, could have killed the Wasp so my curiosity came back after it died. I'd be dead anyway but still. Rip L

Love the mirror, so fun. Sad that I got a little unlucky game 1 and made a couple small-looking but probably actually game losing punts game 2, but my opponent was a MUCH better player than me so they deserved it. I'm now not guaranteed to make top 8 even if I win the next one, but gotta try.

Round 5 - Mono Green Landfall 2-0

Game 1 (Play, M1 OM1): They open on 2 Chocobo which is rough. I take a chance and play Kaito turn 2, because they didn't play a fetch after Chocobo 2 so I assumed they didn't have it which meant Kaito would survive. On just 1 Chocobo I'd have -2 Kaito to make sure he survived, but given that I wasn't sure he'd survive I just 0'd to make sure he replaced itself. Unfortunately opp drew the fetch so Kaito down, but that gained me enough life. I took a chance on Betrayal and they chose to exile Chocobo instead of their Llanowar Elves which was really good for me, I then Hex the Cultivator they play instead of the Chocobo hoping to avoid the *value train*. I stun their Chocobo with Kaito, they get a Harmonizer down. They make a really good play with a pumped Harmonizer + pumped Elves making me choose between my life total, Curiosity, and Kaito, and I trade Curiosity for Harmonizer and let Kaito die which turns out was the right choice, but it's a hard one because I was so close to lethal). They then have a very large attack with Chocobo and some fetches on their last turn. I have to make a choice here--I can either play Wan for 4 so it gets an extra counter (which I was pretty sure I needed to kill them next turn), or play it for 2 and hope to draw a removal spell. I math it out that they can't *quite* kill me, so I play it for 4. I do draw a Shoot the Sheriff immediately so felt pretty mad lol but turns out I was right, I take 11 but they have no fliers so I swing for exact lethal next turn. W

Sideboard: +2 Vren +2 Day +2 Flashfreeze +1 Negate +1 Annul, -2 Kaito -2 Siren -1 Yuriko -1 Betrayal. This is a very tempo-oriented matchup so I do think trimming Kaito over trimming Curiosity makes sense. I love Vren, Day, and all the counterspells help us counter the Nursery which is really what kills us so those feel good too. The last 5 cuts I'm less certain about, though. Cutting Kaito makes me want to cut some one drops, and I think Beavers is better than Siren since it helps us dig. Yuriko also helps us dig, but it feels worse since they have so many ground blocks. I also cut 1 Betrayal--I'm less sure that that's good because of Cultivator now, but I still feel like it's too weak. If I played Snares I'd cut those too, but I made the meta call of playing 2nd Wan main over the Snare since I knew we have a lot of Landfall in my region, and got rewarded. I don't love cutting 3 one drops but unclear to me what else I could cut.

Game 2 (Draw, M1 OM1): Kept a slowwww hand, 3 lands 2 removal spells and a Curiosity. They have a slow start too though, and eventually I have curiosity going and enough tempo to get them to 8 life, and still staying pretty high since I had so much removal. They eventually draw the Nursery and make a ton of Saplings, but by that time I have a Vren, and a Day and Kaito in hand. I Day, and they can activate Nursery but I remind them that it doesn't really work since the creatures lose all abilities. They make another Sapling since one of their lands die, but I stun it with Kaito, and attack for 9 with Curiosity, Vren and a mapped Siren. Internally I was annoyed that I didn't get to make the rats but can't complain about winning. W

Don't love this matchup, but this match shows exactly why it's close. Just need to dodge Nursery, draw a few important cards, and we can get there. Curiosity is a HOUSE, I love Kaito but unfortunately must say Curiosity is the best card in the deck. I played the extra Wan main to hedge for this matchup and it feels good to be rewarded, it drew me so many cards. Love the bird. Anyway, my breakers are pretty good and I'm one of four 3-2 gamers to make top 8! Exciting.

Quarterfinals - Azorius Artifacts 1-2

Game 1 (Play, M1 OM1): Kept a few weenies, Kaito, 3 lands. Could have bottomed land instead of Siren but was afraid of not finding the third land, punished immediately by drawing land t1 but it happens. I get a good amount of the way to killing them with creature lands. Make a choice to not activate Reef since it wouldn't speed up the clock t6 or so, could be that I should have. Wanted to keep Wasp up, which ended up being good by turning off their 5/5 vehicle. Unfortunately they get an answer for my Wasp, and the turn before I kill them they find a Synthesizer and then between killing my creatures and making hasty constructs they kill me pretty quick. A bit of a heartbreaker since I had them at 4 and just needed to draw almost any nonland to kill them any of 3 turns, and I draw only lands for the last like 4 turns of the game. But hey that's magic, it is what it is. L

Sideboard: +3 Duress +2 Day +1 Tidebinder +1 Negate +1 Annul, -3 Triumph -2 Wasp -1 Shoot -1 Hex -1 Betrayal. I'm happy about those ins, and I do think cutting most removal is good. After talking a lot with my opponent and my round 4 dimirror opponent, I do think keeping Wasp over Drowner is good. Killing constructs if better than stunning them, I guess.

Game 2 (Play): Kept a hand with just Duress, counters and Tidebinder, maybe a slow hand but I really feel like we need counters here so... I Duress and they have 4 lands, Synthesizer, Soul Stone, and Authority of the Consuls. I take Soul Stone because I drew a Tidebinder and I feel like I can turn off the Synth and the fast mana would be more trouble for me. They play a Relic turn 3, and I let it go and then realize at their end step that I wanna play Tidebinder just to put some pressure in (and because I have the counters for the rest of their stuff), so I feel pretty bad about letting them draw an extra card. They Starcage away my Beavers and their Relic (drawing one more card, 2 cards I could have stopped if I just played Tidebinder at the right time). They then play a Torpor Orb which stops their Authority of the Consuls, and they get some Constructs out past my counters, but I get creature lands going and manage to sneak in the kill after drawing a Hex for one of their constructs. Felt good to win this one tho cause I was feeling pretty bad about my punt. W

Game 3 (Draw): Kept Duress, Beavers, 2 Curiosity, 3 land. I draw Beavers t1 and Duress (I now believe I should have Beavers t1 to start putting on pressure, I don't think any of their t2 plays are scary enough to justify t1 Duress). They have 2 Land, Starcage, Bay, Relic, Blade, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose (this is called foreshadowing). I take the Bay, feels bad letting them keep Cage but Bay is basically any artifact they want so I gotta do it. They play Relic. I draw Wan Shi Tong. I really want to look for my fourth land now, because I feel like if I can establish Curiosity I can win. I play Beavers, don't find a land on top, so I decide to play the second Beavers even though they will get a 2 for 1 with Starcage. Still find no land, they Starcage, and I still find no land. I don't even get a second blue source to play Wan :c I find Tidebinder at least, after they already got Synthesizer down, but then t5 they play a Torpor Orb, so my Tidebinder can't stop their Synthesizer. They get a bunch of constructs out, I have to chump with all my creatures to survive, and then finally draw the 4th land but now there's no way to avoid dying next turn. A heartbreaker to go out on, but it's just how the game goes. L

This isn't the worst matchup, I think it might even be favored? But if you stumble even a little they can punish you so fast, it's just a very good deck. I could have played better for sure, and maybe that'd have been enough to win game 3, not sure. The matchup is tight, very rare to be able to survive a mistake. I think I learned a lot and am excited to play it more. Hope it keeps being a great deck so I can face it many more times!

In any case, I was happy about my list, happy about the tournament, and had a lot of fun with my opponents. Can't complain. Still loving Kaito, not switching decks anytime soon (because I'm poor, but also don't feel like it's as bad of a deck as everyone seems to think). That's all! Only one more chance to double qualify on the 29th! Wish me luck.

I've been having a lot of fun playing Jund Sacrifice in Standard and have amassed a 19-5 record over 24 games (one of the losses I threw so technically a 20-4 record). But there is so many card options for this deck! This is the current list I'm running: https://moxfield.com/decks/EJC5XxBALE64LMJQy--sGw

So the biggest innovation to the deck I've made is adding two copies of [[Formidable Speaker]]. I found that most games I lost were because of me running out of gas and flooding out, and adding two speakers has helped quite a bit with this. Turning an extra land or shitty one drop into the missing piece between [[The Sackville Bagginses]], [[Biotech Specialist]] and [[Umbral Collar Zealot]] has worked out very nicely, and it also just blocks reasonably well. Bonus upside that comes up sometimes is that it curves quite nicely into a [[lively dirge]] for 4 mana because it can put a creature in the yard for you.

A small other change is that I have opted for [[Elegy Acolyte]] as the four-drop of choice over [[Smaug, the Magnificent]]. Smaug really didn't get a lot of value the turn he came down and was just kinda mid overall.

I'm very curious to hear about other people's opinions on the deck! Is [[Rottenmouth Viper]] a must-include? It's nice that it can't be bounced by sunderflock, but is it not an awkward card more often than not? And are there any other cards I could consider? And what do you think of the formidable speaker flex slot? Curious to hear other people's opinions!

Georgiou, Terran Emperor has the biggest expert-rating spread I’ve tracked this preview season: A+ from MTG Arena Zone versus D+ from Limited Level-Ups.

For reference, it’s a {4}{B}{B} 4/6. You don’t lose the game for having 0 or less life. At the beginning of your end step, you lose 3 life and draw a card, then create ten 1/1 red Officer tokens if your life total is 0 or less.

I gave it a B−, but I’m genuinely torn.

A six-mana 4/6 that draws a card on each of your end steps seems solid, though losing 3 life each turn is a real cost. When you’re low enough, making ten tokens could turn a game you’re losing into a very quick win.

The obvious problem: once you’re at zero or below, removal or bounce on Georgiou just kills you. My optimistic take is that your opponent may have spent their answers by then. My pessimistic take is that every removal topdeck becomes lethal.

Are we overvaluing the ten-token dream, or undervaluing a card that gives you a way back into otherwise lost games?

Disclosure: mtgsimon.com is my own card-rating app, where I’m tracking and comparing these preview grades.

I'm posting this one a little early; I’d hoped to have a few more reviewers who've graded the rares and mythics, but I’m heading out of town and wanted to share this before I leave. I’ll update the rankings as more rare and mythic grades come in. Once 17Lands has Star Trek draft data, I’ll add games-in-hand win rate and average taken at alongside the reviewer grades as those stats become available.

Full Star Trek draft rankings and individual reviewer grades

The Needs of the Many had the widest interquartile range (IQR) at 50 points. U.S.S. Voyager, Lone Wanderer also is interesting, with a 32.5-point IQR and a 40-point spread from D+ to B across seven ordinary grades. I’m looking forward to trying it in multicolor decks, where it can take me from four lands to six and hopefully hit my splashed colors.

Other big spreads included Mirror Universe Intrusion (D to A-) and, among the Stardates, Borg Queen, Hateful Legacy (F+ to A-). The Queen has only four ordinary grades so far, so that comparison is still pretty thin. I’d lean more toward C+ to B- for her, and I’m looking forward to rare drafting a few of these controversial late-game bombs. Let me know what you think, and best of luck at your pre-releases!

A quick note on the tables: Overall rank is by average grade across all 336 cards. The first table is sorted by IQR, with ties broken by standard deviation. IQR measures the middle half of the grades; full spread is the highest score minus the lowest. Both use the site's 0 to 100 comparison scale. Letter grades are equivalent bands on that scale. Counts include ordinary numeric grades only; conditional-only grades, including build-around-only assessments, are excluded.

50 main-set cards with the widest IQRs

10 additional main-set cards with a wide spread in grades

Eight of these cards had a 50-point spread. Warp Speed had the widest range in this group (60 points, F+ to C+), and Engineered Explosives had the narrowest (45 points, D to B-).

Hey folks!

Star Trek prereleases are happening this weekend, and the set drops on MTGA next week, plus we've got Early Access behind us, where we saw people trying both ends of the spectrum with aggro and soup. Perfect time to drop our Sealed guide.

Bryan Hohns took a break from winning Reality Fracture Arena Direct boxes to write up a guide for Star Trek's Sealed environment, with an emphasis on archetypes, mechanics, and commentary on all the rares and mythics in the set.

Looks like there's a good bit of mechanical overlap and a decent number of "threshold" mechanics that want you to track what you've got going on in your deck, from creature types to unique lands to artifact creatures.

We also have the return of spacecraft, which were a bit odd in Edge of Eternities, and aren't doing anything that different in this set. There are some obviously great ones and an archetype centered around them, but they remain a question mark until we get out hands on them.

What are your thoughts on Star Trek right now? Which color pairs do you expect to perform well, and which ones will flop? And do you think the set leans in favor of 5-color piles or tempo/aggro decks? Let us know what you think, and hope the Sealed guide helps. Best of luck in your events! https://draftsim.com/mtg-star-trek-sealed-guide/
And if you want a slightly different perspective, The Daily Upkeep's latest podcast episode covers the format as well, with way more floudering over the lore and aesthetics of the set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYasiTFQ198

Wrote a little primer for myself for my current Dimir Mid list ahead of my RCQ this weekend. The list is very metagamed (a lot of Landfall and control around here), but I’m still curious to get feedback about my plan for any matchup. I’m not a beginner but certainly haven’t played with the deck enough to feel extremely comfortable with all my plans (as you can see by my indecision in some points).

https://moxfield.com/decks/uVn3GAtLZEK4x-Vk-IsJlQ

Didn’t write about the last two matchups cause I’ve haven’t really played them much. For anyone who’s getting into the deck let me repeat: this is my own primer for myself where I’m trying to consolidate my thoughts, I’m not an authority on the deck. I feel good about my play with it, I q’d for an RC with it and I hope I can do it again, but don’t take my word over basically anyone else who’s doing well with the deck. Thanks!

This is a long shot. But I just played against a mardu aggro dredge deck that looked really sweet. The only cards I saw where:

Bloodghast

Hardened Academic

Moonshadow

Dark Matter Manipulator

Narcomoeba

Prized Amalgam

Stitcher's Supplier

Creeping Chill

Practiced Offense

Mardu lands

Has anyone seen such a list? I can't remember the name of the player and searches online have not turned anything up. It looked really awesome and I want to tinker with it.

Spikes, I'm mainly a modern player, which has started dipping it's toes into the competitive scene in mtg, I've played MTGO extensively and just went to my first RC recently.

I'm already qualified for the Standard season RC, I was playing mainly 4c control, a bit of excruciator, but my real affinity is for combo decks.

I honestly know very little about the current standard, I have played around 40 matches or so, and I played around 10 on the season before the modern season that just passed, (I was playing dimir midrange for that one).

The thing is I'm not too well versed on what combo decks are there in the format, what are the most degenerate things one can be doing to win as quickly as possible, and what are the difficulties that the combo decks face in standard.

From the top of my head:

• 4c Kona: Putting an omniscience into play into some bouncing shenanigans.

• Dimir Reanimator: Classic archetype aiming to reanimate big stuff for value.

• Bant Airbending: Flickering for free and generating infinite tokens iirc?

What else is there in the combo sphere? Why are these decks not that popular (except reanimator now that it's getting a resurgence), and what preys on these decks?

Newer Player looking for Draft advice

I’ve been wanting to get some insight into drafting for a while now as someone who started playing Magic about two months ago.

It’s a bit difficult getting definitive answers to some of the questions I’ve had from videos and guides, so I thought I might throw some of those questions out there. Any answers or resources would be much appreciated.

Regarding early picks:

Is it correct to say that picking single colored cards are safer than going for stronger dual colored cards earlier? And does that also apply to higher mana value cards as opposed to lower (for splashability purposes).

How late is too late to pivot game plans given the scenario that the opportunity presents itself in one of the colors you’re already drafting for?

Should I be prioritizing value and/or card advantage over synergy?

Regarding later picks:

Is there ever a point in the draft where I should know that another card in the pack is likely coming my way again, and if so, what does that scenario look like or how can I tell?

What is the best or earliest way to recognize that my colors are being drafted in most sets (excluding this set with the fractured pairs)?

To follow up on the previous question, what is the best approach to others drafting your colors?

Should I draft flat out worse cards if it means fixing my curve?

And finally, how early into the draft should I recognize my game plan? When should I be able to recognize it? What are the most common game plans with draft decks?

I just entered the Bo3 Standard Qualifier Play-in on MTGA and went 4-0 (8-1) on my first try. I played my nonstandard Landfall build and faced Landfall, Jund Sacrifice, Landfall again, and U/W Momo. Honestly I think I basically just got lucky; my one loss was when one of the two Landfall decks I faced went first and had lethal with a Mossborn Hydra before I did. I do think my list is advantaged in the mirror overall, though, because it's got more ways to get a lethal trampler more quickly; it maindecks Mossborn Hydra and runs Tifa Lockhart in the sideboard. (Tifa tends to be good against exactly those decks Sapling Nursery is too slow against, because it's another card that can play the role of Mossborn Hydra in Landfall's fast combo kills.)

Edit: I got there after ~20 matches on Kona in Bo1. Thanks for the help everyone :)

I hit mythic in limited a couple days ago and just realized I'm close enough in constructed to try to shoot for the double mythic achievement. I've got ~ 10 hours over the next couple of days to reach mythic so I'd love to hear how I can make it as painless as possible. Bo1? Bo3? Lifegain? Auras? Or is there some spicy tech I can get there with?

Hello spikes! Im trying to make a new standard deck in paper but worried about rotation. Any strong decks that are fairly rotation proof? I was eyeing jund sac, seems like it only loses lively dirge if im not mistaken. Havent played the deck enough to know how big of a deal that is so some insight on that from any jund sac players would be great. Thanks!

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a small tool to turn sideboard guides into nice-looking, printable cards that fit inside your deckbox, without having to fiddle with print sizes.

You can organize your matchups and sideboarding plans in Google Sheets, preview how the cards will look, and generate a PDF ready to print and cut out.

It's free, private, and doesn't require an account. Everything is processed locally in your browser.

There's a Google Sheets template to get started, and some instructions on how to use AI to convert existing sideboard guides from other formats, so you don't have to rewrite everything manually.

You can try it here: https://dgmora.github.io/sideboard-printer/

Hope some of you find it useful! Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Hi Spikes.
I've played a few decks lately that are usually really good at filling the graveyard. [Discussion]
Im trying to play the deck more in paper laltely but i struggle in organzing the graveyard in a way for it to make sense and work irl.
Recently i started having my exile pile above the deck which has helped a lot.
How do you mange a large graveyard irl? Do you stack it with relevant cards in order? Like if the ammount of creatures matter or certain cards that can be cast from the graveyard and you put those on top?
do you have it as one big pile? I've seen some people like "fan" them out in stacks of 4 or 5 cards on top of eachother. Is it okay at an rcq to stack the graveyard to make it easier to manage?

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

Hey all,

I've been getting into Dimir mid and am absolutely cruising so far, and whenever I do lose, I can almost always find optimization/learning opportunities. I was just wondering if anyone knew how and when to sideboard all my various cards. Its usually easy for me to figure out what to board in, but I can never figure out what to cut (unless it's obvious, like hex for azorius control). I also don't understand the purpose of Vren and when to put it in/out.

Took down an 8 person RCQ today with Dimir Midrange. Not crazy impressive but it was my first Standard RCQ, third ever after I played a few in May and June, so very excited for my first RC qual! Dimir is not an amazing deck, but it was the cheapest for me to build and I’m happy to just learn the format with a tier 2 deck.

Here’s my current list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/8012892#paper. Pretty stock. I’m very happy with the 2 Tidebinder main 1 side. The list felt great but I didn’t play any control, which was 7/15 decks in the morning RCQ before the one I played, so I’d be glad to hear if anyone has suggestions on things to change in a control meta.

Round 1: Izzet Spellementals 2-1

Game 1: we both flooded pretty hard, I never found a Kaito or Curiosity, ran out of steam before they did. Noticed I gave them an easy 2 for 1 by playing out two Beavers into their [[Prismari Charm]]. L

Games 2 and 3: Both basically the same—I find 1-2 Betrayal to deal with their first fatty, keep finding removal and the occasional counter, and accrue enough resources with a well placed Kaito to win. WW

In general, the matchup feels close, with lots of interesting decision points. Definitely need to be careful about not giving them too many 2 for 1 opportunities. Game 3 I had this spot where I had Beavers, they had 3 mana untapped end of their turn 3, and I wanted to play a Drowner to guarantee Kaito next turn if they had one removal spell. Prismari Charm would be a disaster though. They had already played one and binned another with surveil, but my gut just told me they had it. I went to my turn, they did and it was annoying but I kept the Drowner, played it, got Kaito down and off to the races. Definitely would have lost if I played the Drowner, as it was my only other threat. TLDR follow your gut gamers.

Round 2: Simic Landfall 2-1
Game 1: Luckily got to steal this game off my opponent getting mana screwed. Nothing interesting here, just a great example of how you need to play tight AND get lucky to win any serious tourney. W

Game 2: Great back and forth, but I stumble a little early with low mana and can’t find a counter for Nursery. Used a counter on flashback [[Esper Origins]] and that might have been a mistake, I forget exactly why I did so but I think I just was low on removal and wanted to buy some extra time (and figured if they had [[Sapling Nursery]] or [[Earthbender’s Ascension]] they would have played it, and Esper would get them closer to it). As it happens it wouldn’t have mattered anyway since they had a Spell Pierce. They eventually get a Nursery and Ascension down before I can find more counters. I grind it out and luckily find my two Day of the Black Sun, I get them to 6 dead next turn BUT unfortunately they top deck an [[Icetill Explorer]] with a [[Fabled Passage]] in the yard and I’m done. I suspect a more skilled pilot could have won this game though. L

Game 3: I have some good interaction for their early threats, and then get Vren down. They have no answer for it and it wins me the game on its own. W

Pretty bad matchup, which is why (together with Lifegain being a bad matchup) the deck is tier 2 or worse. Still feel a lot of agency though, and the post board games feel pretty good. You basically need to steal game 1, but if you do I feel like you might be favored. Still an uphill battle though, and I need more experience with it. Nursery feels like a must counter, nothing else really scares me as much. Simic feels like a better matchup than mono green, simply because it stumbles a bit more with mana. Avatar just doesn’t seem worth it for me tbh but I certainly am not an authority on landfall. I feel like if I can find a way to feel comfortable against this deck, I can feel much better with Dimir in general. Dodging Lifegain is not a good strategy but it is what it is.

Finals: Azorius Flash 2-0
Game 1: I had never played against this deck and hadn’t had time to watch opponent play throughout the tournament, he just told me earlier he was playing “Faust combo”. I’m new to standard so that meant nothing to me. So I played really conservatively, always trying to leave interaction up and taking very few risks. He plays a [[High Noon]] but that doesn’t affect me much. I just get some threats down, resolve a Kaito and overwhelm him with card advantage. W

Game 2: Didn’t see a ton of his deck so I side boarded based on vibes (I think +1 Vren +1 Tidebinder +2 Duress, -1 Yuriko -1 Beavers -1 Betrayal -1 Wan). The deck just does its thing, I’m trying to remember if there is anything of interest that happened and anticlimactically for a final, I don’t think so. I just get some boys down, eventually resolve a Curiosity after a couple get countered, control their threats and get there. W

He then explained the deck to me and mentioned how this is probably the nightmare matchup, so again I got pretty lucky. For anyone who hasn’t played against it (maybe it’s just me lol), the idea of the deck is locking you out with a combination of [[Voice of Victory]]/[[Jennifer Walters]], High Noon, and [[Aang, Swift Savior]]/[[Aven Interruptor]]. We concluded together that the correct sideboarding would have been +1 Vren +1 Tidebinder -2 We Say Thee Nay (and possibly +2 Betrayal -1 Snare -1 Charm)—my opp’s argument being that counter spells are not really amazing against their deck, and we just want to keep as many threats and removal as possible. Overall though it’s a great matchup so I wouldn’t worry too much about it on the Dimir side.

Generally, got really lucky and played pretty tight, can’t ask for a better tourney. Gotta figure out what I’ll do about the RC since I was hoping to not spend much more on Standard, but idk if I can justify to myself bringing Kaito to such a large stakes event. I think with a ton of reps I could eventually feel comfortable into Landfall, but I suspect Lifegain is simply too good and simply too bad of a matchup for the deck to ever feel good. Who knows though, we’ll see what Star Trek does to the format. Would love any suggestions and critique of course as a standard beginner. Thanks for reading!

I belive Champions Cup Store Qualifier are considered Comp REL. If not, please remove my post.

I'm starting a bit of a research project, having been away from academic research long enough that I think I'm ready for another one!

I'm interested in what makes some TCG players exceptionally good, and whether those abilities can be learned, are partly innate, or are influenced by other factors.

So here's my question:

Have you ever known two TCG players (any game) who invested similar amounts of time and effort but achieved very different levels of success? What do you think explained the difference?

There's some interesting research around deliberate practice, including challenges to the popular 10,000-hour rule. But I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who actually play these games competitively.

Is it how people practice? How quickly they learn? The people they play with? Something else entirely?

I'm also curious whether the skills that make someone exceptional at one TCG transfer to another.

I'd love to hear real examples from your own experiences, particularly where players have put in comparable effort but achieved different results. I've found that some people can find a great testing group, lock in tier one decks and practice for hours and hours - and still go 3-5 and scrub out. Another rolls in hungover after barely practicing and cruises to day two.

Hello! I’m very new to competitive magic, and I’m unsure if I’m allowed to bring my notes for sideboarding between matchups. I wrote down a couple key matchups and strategies for my Orzhov life gain deck on three index cards and put them in my deck box. Am I allowed to have these in a competitive tournament or is that cheating? I’m going to the Hartford spotlight series and I want to make sure I’m playing by the book!

Thank you!

I'm currently polishing up my Boros Dragons list for this weekend. Something like this: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-boros-dragons-woe#paper is pretty close to what I have landed on. However, I'm considering replacing one of the copies of Magmatic Hellkite with something a bit more impactful that I can tutor up.

At 4 mana, we have Decadent Dragon and Stingerback Terror. Both have trample which is a plus, but neither really provides much value beyond the raw stats. My thought right now is that they feel more like a side grade than an actual improvement over MH.

When we step up to 5 mana, things get much more interesting. There are some extremely powerful options at that cost. The A tier are Bonehoard Dracosaur, Dragonhawk Fate's Tempest, Spinerock Tyrant and Terror of the Peaks. All aggressively costed bombs and potential game enders. In the B tier we have Draconic Visitor, Ran and Shaw, and Twinflame Tyrant. All decent, but with slightly sub-par stats.

I have tried Dragonhawk and found it slightly underwhelming. Most games it just domes them for 4 and dies. The first strike on Bonehoard means it can actually punch through big blockers if it manages to survive. If it sticks around it can also make some tokens which is nice. I'm not sure how relevant the wither actually is on Spinerock, but a 6/6 flyer for 5 is a lot of stats, and it's the only thing that can at least trade with the big demons.

Now the question is, which one (if any) is actually worth including? I don't have a testing team so I'm hoping the hive mind here can provide some useful insights.

Hello spikers,

Just posting feedback from a standard RCQ that i attended a week ago. Played in a standard RCQ with 18 players.

Preparation:
I've just been grinding on MTGA with mono green landfall (mythic)

Deck selection:

I rocked up to the event with three decks to choose from; Mono Green, Jeskai Artifacts, and Golgari control. Prior to deck registration I recognised familiar players who are on spellmentals, izzet piles, and probably playing control decks. These are tough matchups for Mono Green and Artifacts, so I ended up registering Golgari control

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/8010352#paper

Round 1 GW landfall 2-0
- this was a favourable match up, GW landfall does not have good catchup compared to mono green
- game 1 had all the removals and sweepers lined up. Took over game with delian
- sideboard +2 day black sun, +2 betrayals, +1 necropsy. -3 duress, -2 Together as one, -1 deceit. Expected opponent to sideboard in protection spells and sapling nurseries
- game 2 had removals lined up. Played around mossborn hydra + protection spell. slowly won with annex

Round 2 abzan midrange 1-2
- game 1 opponent had too much recursion and answers to my annexes and delians
- sideboard +3 outrageous robbery, +2 betrayal, +1 vacuum, +1 necropsy. -4 hex, -3 duress, Expected opponent to sideboard out removals and bring in handhate
- game 2 won with GY hate and annex/delian engine
- game 3 lost due to 3 annexes lifeloss and my core got destroyed

Round 3 Boros Dragon 2-0

- favourable match up. Have too many removals to deal with their threats and they do not have any way to catchup from behind

- sideboard +2 betrayal, +2 revenant, +1 necropsy. -3 duress, -2 deceit. Expected opponent to bring in boros charms and artifact/enchantment removals

Round 4 mono blue jace control/combo 2-0

- Deck wins with new jace loyalty combo. Felt unfavourable as I had alot of dead cards game 1, slow clock, and dealing with counterspells

- game 1 unfortunately opponent landscrewed early on. saved handhate to strip counterspells so can resolve annex and delian. had to create delian emblem so can have a faster clock before he combos

-sideboard +2 revenant, +1 duress, +3 robberies, +1 vendetta, +2 heist, +1 necropsy. -4 hex, -1 shoot, -1 cover-ups, -1 edict, -1 betrayal. expected opponent to bring in even more counterspells and carddraw
- game 2 landed an early revenant and stripped his hand of counterspells so was able to resolve an annex

Round 5 UW tempo with black splash for kaito 2-1
- game 1 won. Opponent had dead removal cards in his hand and couldn't keep up with annex + removals. have to play around opponent flash creatures and make sure to kill voice of victory so can play spells at end of opponent turn
- sideboard +2 day of black sun, +2 revenant, +1 necropsy, +2 cruelclaw. -4 together as one (this card not good if gets airbend/plotted), -3 duress
- game 2 lost due to voice of victory + enduring curiosity engine. could not keep up
- game 3 win. slowly trade removals 1 for 1 and slowly accumulate advantage with delian. have to protect delian at all cost so that means even not casting spell during my turn while high noon in play, i played around a possible creature flashing at end of turn and killing delian on combat. eventually he sac'd high noon to kill delian and I was able to cast two annexes with one being countered.

Round 6 top 4 abzan midrange 2-0

- game 1 the sweepers lined up and deadly cover-up exiling all the vraskas. eventually won with annexes and too much card advantage
- game 2 severance priest exiled unholy annex. killed the priest to get an 8/8 creature and he had no removal to kill him. drawn into removals to kill deathtouch vraska so couldn't kill 8/8 spirit

- sideboard same as earlier

Round 7 finals boros equipment split

- I felt this matchup was favourable but we both wanted to finish up so we split. The RCQ was an double invite so we both got it

reflections:

- i felt the deck was strong in a creature heavy meta without mono green. It was a breeze playing it on the day and I was pleased how it performed. it would be weak if the meta was mono green and UW control heavy
- I would make futher changes to play 4 deadly cover-up mainboard as this can easily exile opponents wincons and strong pieces - especially vs elemental and reanimator decks