Rotation Strategy

[Wittfogel]

Are you going to burn your gold on Tarkir to get wildcards to use in the coming sets, or are you going to save those wildcards until Alchemy rotates in the fall?

This will be my first rotation, and if my deck are in shambles after the rotation, I might go over to Standard, save up for another year, and then go into Historic/Explorer.

Your thoughts?

The opponents in Standard should be tougher in general, right? Because the sort-of default for Arena is Alchemy, so that is filled with newbies.

[anaris]

a lot of people basically wait for the metagame to stabilise a few weeks in before they decide, but the usual procedure is like to keep your deck basically the same but phase out old cards and replace any card that has a stronger option now? like tweaking/improving.

I play Historic, so I just pull sets based on whether I like 'em or not. Standard has this thing where like, particularly once the meta stabilises, people will run decks off the internet and so it tends to "centralise" on a few strong decks that dominate the format. The plus side of this is that you know what you've got to set up to counter, but the downside is that you'll play a lot of the same decks and those decks will be the ones that everyone has worked out and agreed are the absolute best a deck can get in the current game. Alchemy has fewer players and more rotations, plus balancing can be done, so like, I think it's probably less likely to have this effect but it still kind of happens a bit.

Historic has these like, optimal decks, but because there's SO MANY cards in the format, there's a lot more of them so you don't see the same ones over and over, and because it generally attracts more experienced players with bigger collections, there's a lot more people trying things and testing decks out - especially if you stay out of Ranked for the first week of a new season.

[Wittfogel]

Thank you for your response!

Originally posted by anaris:

I play Historic, so I just pull sets based on whether I like 'em or not. Standard has this thing where like, particularly once the meta stabilises, people will run decks off the internet and so it tends to "centralise" on a few strong decks that dominate the format.

I have built my own deck after researching cards individually, tweaking and so on, and it has worked pretty good so far. I realize that it is probably not optimal, but that might be okay. The process was enjoyable in itself, and I am a better player for it!

Will search for new zombies after each set release...

Which site are people using to track the best meta decks?

I might need it for Historic/Explorer!

Why did you choose to go for Historic, by the way?

[anaris]

I used to play Modern in paper; I'm an old player so I am using cards in my decks that I remember from when I first played, that's the appeal of Historic for me; being able to see my progress from back when I was young to today by direct comparison of cards, and looking at how to make my decks better step by step over that whole time. I still play the same archetype I used to hahah.

I think untapped, mtggoldfish, and magic.gg are the big decklist sites, but honestly making your own is the real fun of the game! There's so much more to think about and engage with when you spend time selecting cards and thinking about how to put together the perfect deck

[Zlehtnoba]

You were talking about Alchemy, not Standard, right? Untapped will only give you deck lists, but not statistics, for Alchemy unless you have premium subscription. MTGGoldfish will show you user-submitted decks, with no comment, but you may get ideas there. magic.gg reports tournament decklists, I did not find any Alchemy decks, but I did not look too hard.

If you are new, you should save your resources (wildcards) until the metagame stabilizes a bit, as anaris said. Before rotation, you should check which cards you use will rotate, and look for replacements in the new set. At release like Tarkir, with no rotation, just wait and see, maybe look for upgrades to your deck.

[Kolarahidumgarabashtelarimdugarn]

Originally posted by Wittfogel:

Are you going to burn your gold on Tarkir to get wildcards to use in the coming sets, or are you going to save those wildcards until Alchemy rotates in the fall?

This will be my first rotation, and if my deck are in shambles after the rotation, I might go over to Standard, save up for another year, and then go into Historic/Explorer.

Your thoughts?

The opponents in Standard should be tougher in general, right? Because the sort-of default for Arena is Alchemy, so that is filled with newbies.

Standard includes expansions from 3 years, excluding the digital-only cards. Alchemy includes expansions from 2 years, including digital-only cards. The card pool in Alchemy is smaller, but not all cards from Alchemy will be available in the Standard format.

I personally wouldn't recommend crafting a deck from scratch, unless you know that the deck is going to be good or you're gonna have a lot of fun with it. Normally, I would recommend building a deck without crafting cards, see how many cards you are missing, and then craft them if you don't miss many of them. Keep in mind that the first iteration of your deck will be flawed, meaning you will probably need to improve it with some replacements over time. It's always good to have some backup wild cards.

[The_Dybbuk_King]

Tarkir is my favorite plane, so I have been saving up currency for this. Though, I am a bit sad that fetches weren't printed again, even if it would ♥♥♥♥ up my paper collection (WotC has already tanked the value of my collection, so ♥♥♥♥ it).

[Wittfogel]

I appreciate your feedback!

It is a smart business move to not let us destroy cards...

I have previously made the mistake to waste wildcards on things that I felt like trying. Angels, dinosaurs, and so on.

I try to comfort myself with that I will use them eventually.

Serra Angel used to be good, right?

It might be preferable for the consumer that we can not buy uncommon wildcards directly with cash, because you get a chance to realize that you have gone mad.

[The_Dybbuk_King]

Originally posted by Wittfogel:

Serra Angel used to be good, right?

Long, long ago. I was but a wee boy back then lol

It was definitely a game ending card at the time though.

[Kolarahidumgarabashtelarimdugarn]

Originally posted by Wittfogel:

Serra Angel used to be good, right?

Depends on the card pool. It would be great in limited formats. I think it's too slow for constructed ones. It's not impressive compared to "Angel of Inventions," "Archangel Avacyn," "Archangel of Thune," "Angel of Sanctions," or "Baneslayer Angel".

[Zlehtnoba]

Originally posted by Wittfogel:

I appreciate your feedback!

It is a smart business move to not let us destroy cards...

I have previously made the mistake to waste wildcards on things that I felt like trying. Angels, dinosaurs, and so on.

I try to comfort myself with that I will use them eventually.

Serra Angel used to be good, right?

It might be preferable for the consumer that we can not buy uncommon wildcards directly with cash, because you get a chance to realize that you have gone mad.

Actually, the duplicate protection/wildcard model is a good fit for Magic, as you never know when a trash rare will become the new hot thing, so dusting could lead to a lot of regrets. Note, I'm not talking about the price point they chose, just the model.

Before I took a break from Arena, I used to buy both bundles for each expansion, and then complete the set by playing sealed and drafting. I have 99% complete sets from that period, and had over a hundred rare wildcards left over. After I came back, I spent some of those on a current Standard deck, and on a Historic deck.

What you need to realize is that the only thing that matters are the wildcards. All the rest should be optimized so that you get as many of them as possible. And if you intend to play Constructed, you should be both patient and careful with your crafting, so that you build a deck you enjoy playing, and can win games with.

[anaris]

Originally posted by Kolarahidumgarabashtelarimdugarn:

I personally wouldn't recommend crafting a deck from scratch, unless you know that the deck is going to be good or you're gonna have a lot of fun with it. Normally, I would recommend building a deck without crafting cards, see how many cards you are missing, and then craft them if you don't miss many of them.

yeah i agree with this - once u've got something playable and can get a pack a day, you can start building up cards and look and see what you've got. i had a bunch of part-built decks where i put all 8 cards i had that had a certain synergy or something at first, and when I hit the critical mass of like 15-20 interconnected cards or got something i thought was really interesting and worth the wildcards, i'd turn it into a deck (but it's worth pointing out i've been playing 30 years and have a good idea what i like already)

[anaris]

Originally posted by Wittfogel:

I have previously made the mistake to waste wildcards on things that I felt like trying. Angels, dinosaurs, and so on.

Dinosaurs is a bit interlinked as an archetype (so u go all in usually) but they're generally good in the sense of being fairly costed for their stats and effects, and several angels have effects that don't need a lot of support and decent stats (plus, "i brought several fliers" is surprisingly often something people forget to account for), so you can use these as decent bodies in creature slots in future

Serra Angel used to be good, right?

Yeah but back in the day the designers were overcautious about some things, and fliers over like 2/2 was one of them. Nowadays I'd expect to maybe pay 1 less or get a little more for the equivalent, so it's only okay,

[anaris]

https://scryfall.com/card/neo/2/ao-the-dawn-sky from 2022

[anaris]

over in historic we fw this:

https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/26/serra-the-benevolent

a scary planeswalker for 4 mana that u can make a serra angel with right away.