LotusRing

Against Control - the kind of control doesn't seem very strong in the current meta nor the new meta, we got several cards, all Gruul. Cindervines pressures an opponent's spells casting, directly shut down Izzet Phoenix. Its enchantment removal effect neutralizes Conclave Tribunal type cards. Rhythm of the Wild makes both conterspells and sorcery speed removals effortless. Gruul Spellbreaker provides a more solid way against Settle the Wreckage. So, control is totally ruled off in a meta full of Gruuls, if the meta IS full of Gruul. Let's look at the decks a Gruul facing: 1. Aristocrats A wall of Indestructible, Lifelink and Deathtouch, how do your Nullhide Ferox pass through it? Even with a Carnage Tyrant, the best it can do is just a few damages recovered easily, then it dies to a blocking Pontiff. 2. Mono Red After casting Rhythm followed by a Gruul Spellbreaker, it eats a Lava Coil the next turn, your life downs to a horribly low level, thanks to...

Izzet Drake with Thud After a few Goblin Ramp testing, I forsook it. It's just too casual to win any game after Bronze rank. Instead, I netdecked Izzet Drakes from MTGOLDFISH lists.  With a pinch of innovation, besides moving Fight with Fire and Banefire into the new deck, I added Thud. Why use it? 1. Surprise Playing against Drake decks, your opponent always counts damage range when determining whether to hold a removal in hand or just cast a planeswalker/big threat main turn. For instance, you have a 7/4 Drake and the opponent's at 15 life, he or she may choose to cast a Carnage Tyrant main turn rather than holding Vraska's Contempt if the damage from Drake doesn't feel like lethal the next turn.  But if you draw a Thud, your hit range doubled and the opponent won't expect that to happen.  2. Low cost Let's say you have 5 lands on the battlefield, 6 spells in graveyard on turn 5. You cast Maximum Velocity on a drake in you han...

This is my first try. Game Plan: 1. Ramp up mana and deals 10 damages in the early stage. 2. Kill with a Kickered Flight with Fire or Banefire. Ramp cards: Skirk Prospector Runaway Steam-Kin Finisher(?) Flight with Fire Banefire Video here: Version 2: Warchief is replaced by Warboss More videos will be added(need to play it against mainstream decks). Changed the deck to Izzet: Link I stream everyday: Twitch channel name Lotus_ring Streaming time 6:00 - 9:00 (PT) 14:00 - 17:00(UTC)

Followers, readers, friends, strangers! I am back! Besides deck building / MTGO trading, my blog will include more limited/competitive event topics from now on. I stream everyday: Twitch channel name Lotus_ring Streaming time 6:00 - 9:00 (PT) 14:00 - 17:00(UTC) First of the first of the first...... Some people believe MTGO is dying. It's not true, please. As long as it holds official events and the prizes are surging, it is very safe. What will happen to card prices? Keep dropping. They are controlled my Treasure Chest content, which is directly monitored by WOTC. So, they want cards to plummet, no one can do anything against it. Reasons behind their decision? I probably got a handle of it but won't tell here（It's related to the MTGO profit model）. What should players do? Enjoy the game! You can build more decks with cost lower than ever. The prizes is biggest in history. What's so bad? Next article is about my Dominaria draft adventures o...

I don't think an aggro deck needs 4 drops, not to mention cards like Immortal Sun. Aggro, used to be called "Weenie" is all about speed. But the biggest problem about tribal decks is the mana fixing. If I want to play a fast deck in a secure way, I shouldn't expect much from the 8 fixings we get in this standard. A deck needs to be nearly mono color to survive at an early stage of the game and escalate pressure on the opponent. So we first choose black or white as the main color for our Vampir deck. The white side: The black side: Removals: Support cards: Realized what you just saw? They are just TOO SMALL compared Merfolk or Dinos. I stopped here and gave up the plan to build a Vampire tribe...... After testing, I gave up. Sorry. Vampires can be good, but not in this Standard. Going to test more Midrange decks.

This time, I will build a Merfolks deck looks like a tribal deck. It wins on: 1. Fast and "unblockable" creatures 2. Counterspells protecting the merfolks from Settle the Wreckage and Fumigate and Sweltering Suns. 4 Kumena's Speaker 4 Mist-Cloacked Herald 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Deeproot Elite 4 Merfolk Mistbinder 2 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca 2 Herald of Secret Streams 2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade 2 Hanada's Climb/Blossoming Defense 4 Spell Pierce/Blossoming Defense 4 Admiral's Order 4 Unclaimed Territory 4 Botanical Sanctum can't we get one more dual land?? It's easy to maneuver: just build up some creatures for damage and counter every threat with Admiral's Order and Spell Pierce. The weakest link is probably mana fixing.

I 've played a GR dino deck a few weeks before, casually. With mana dorks, burns and fatties, the deck isn't weak at a glance. But what expelled it from the competitive band of decks? It can't come back after a Fumigate or Settle the Wreckage.  I tried to solve the puzzle by putting Duress, Liliana, Nissa, Vital Force, Vraska Relic Seeker. None of them provided me with an effective way to survive through Fumigate in most UW/Token decks. Nor any of them helped me race over fast attackers in Energy/Ramunap Red. After Rivals of Ixalan, things may change in favor of Dinosaurs, I hope. Though I couldn't find many good dinosaurs at this moment, I think highly of  these cards: Thrashing Brontodon Thunderherd Migration They all start with "Th" And this card: Journey to Eternity, a graveyard card, reminds me of some tool-box strategy. But when I was writing this line, I was diverted to a direction far from "tribal aggro", once again. I w...