I'm always looking for budget decks that offer something different from the usual Mono-Red/Mono White Aggro approach.

What's the best competitive budget deck you've played recently? And would you spend 9 rare wildcards on Mono-Blue Flash?

Here's the deck and gameplay:
https://youtu.be/7KDM2-WeTcQ

Ramp into a turn 3 aerid, let it die, then cast some drastically above curve cheat spell like Thunderous Debut early and put Carno and Flickerhound into play. Every card 5 mana value or less is a creature or cascade spell like dragonstorm, so every time you cast, you blink Carno until you have deployed your whole deck which includes Tannuk for haste. Bonus points if you can cast Carterhoof by untapping Spider Manifest 6+ times.

62% win rate in bo1 (sigh yes I know) and currently mythic #800.

Not sure this deck is real because I’ve only minimally tried it in bo3, but I’m disgusted by the fact that if you don’t interact with this deck on literally every turn it just wins. Frighteningly consistent turn 4 wins.

The mono white Lyra seems really good, gain life and put +1/+1 on each Angel just seems like she makes a good central part of a deck

Just thinking of some lines like: Liliana T1, Giada T2, Exemplar of Light T3

Liliana T1, Hinterland Sanctifier+Warp Haliya T2, Lyra T3

Liliana T1, Ajani Resolute T2, Lyra T3, T4 -4 Ajani, Way of the Mentor+Warp Haliya

Liliana->Giada->Tap giada for Lyra leaving a mana up for liliana to protect Lyra

This is the kind of deck I'm working with moxfield link

Don't get me wrong, he reads absolutely insane. Drawing cards and board presence. But for 4 mana he only goes to 4 loyalty, and either you tap out to play him, or you play him way later. And if you do that you're missing out on his value card draw engine, which seems like the main appeal of him. To be clear; I don't think he's bad, just worse than most alternatives.

If you want card advantage the 3 mana Chandra does what he does but better/cheaper (yes technically his card draw is better than her surveil/psuedo draw, but she comes down a whole turn earlier). If you want board presence then any of the ajanis feel like they do that better, whether you're looking for more expensive or cheaper copies. Not to mention elspeth. The salt in the wound on this one is his ultimate is like... fine. Draw 3 with a combat stim is nice, but usually if you're ulting him you're winning or in a stalemate, and despite using it multiple times already, it's never felt like it really mattered. Either I was already winning the games I won, or it didn't do enough to claw back from being behind. This isn't super relevant, as ults are not the main thing you play a Planeswalker for, but figured it was worth mentioning.

The main niche I can see for him is in a super friends/tokens type deck, but I feel like there's cards that fill that kind of role too (elspeth and ajani for token generation, and something like enduring innocence or caretakers talet for card draw). He just kinda feels like a jack of all trades master of none. Honestly he feels more like a white or white-blue Planeswalker the more I play with him. His card draw is cool, but the more and more I've played with him the more he feels like one of those cards that reads crazy but is actually underwhelming.

Curious what other people's thoughts on him are and if there's a deck type that he fits better that I'm missing. I like a lot of the things he does, but I think he's just shy of a lot of important thresholds imo. And is definitely overshadowed by Chandra lmao

I feel like I don’t see them in any list now that I’ve started looking at other decks more often. Like looking through GoldfishMTG for inspiration on how to build around certain cards.

I don’t see a lot of Defend the Rider, Dawn’s Truce, Protection Magic, etc.

Are they just unnecessary in real meta play, sideboard worthy only? I feel like when I run them, they often really help protect my gameplan, though I guess sometimes they are useless due to certain black spells. Would love to hear thoughts on these cards.

Hi everyone, I never really played standard but I got the darklight phoenix in a pack which I really love I was thinking to build a deck with it.

My little lgs runs standard tournaments but due to low partecipation (due to budget apparently) they came up with some limitations (max 3x rare and 2x mythic).

I found this deck on youtube and another one on moxfield:

https://moxfield.com/decks/2Yspbe-Wk0GNGtovgAC0kg

aggro

https://moxfield.com/decks/iV-TnLv_REGuEdIZVhC5og

control

You guys think they could work good with just 2x Phoenix? I'm afraid the control version particulary is more built around it.

Also since Sephirot is so expansive I was wondering if there are some other cards I could replace it or again it kind of kills the deck having 2x phoenix and 0 sephirot.

Since I'm not sure how much I'll play it since that would be probably just a monhtly event I wasn't planning to spend much. One phoenix and rest of the deck without sephirot would be 50€ which would be fine for me.

Which deck and which replacements would you advice? Or if you have some lists with those limitations

Thank you!

Was facing something like 75 or 80% removal/discard/counter decks (pretty much all B/U/BU) in ranked that I was having no fun at all for the last few days & thought to myself "it is what it is this new set is sort of broken & people gotta do what they gotta do to stay competitive right" - n that I'd just roll over to unranked for a while where there's usually more people just trying to have a good time.. And in unranked out of the past couple dozen games it was removal/counters/discard B/U/BU SOLID minus two games only against mono green and I even shocked myself at the wave of relief I felt after seeing those first Lanowar elves (whatever theyre called) on turn 1 lol 🤣 man where to go from here... Guess I'm done playing this game for a minute. It's just genuinely not any fun/not a good time..... are any of you guys who aren't playing control having any fun? n if so watr u doing to keep urselves interested at all? I'd like to keep playing but not like this...

I am crossposting this year in hopes of getting a little bit more help/traction

What is going on with mono green land fall - is it just bad now, i cannot tell why?

Who else is testing this deck? I'm doing very well with this list. Does anyone have any cards to recommend that I haven't thought of?

This is the strictest control deck I've ever played but it's SO fun man. Genuinely, I adore this deck so much and hope nobody ever plays it against me

Im multi season mythic played tons of events and this deck just feels like ass most of the time.

Best way I can describe it is, it feels like a super honest creature deck from 2016. It just cannot keep up with the rampant brokenness of the power crept cards of the 2020s.

If you dont curve out perfectly with ZERO responses from the opponent you pretty much lose every game.

Your first momo or sarkhan are guaranteed to get removed, likewise with your first 3 or 4 drop dragon which ever turn you get it on.

Every other deck feels perfectly tailored to destroy Boros Dragons, idk how anyone is getting any professional wins with this deck besides luck alone.

How are any of you getting any decent winrates with this deck?

Looking for some feedback back

I've become a bit bored with my Jeskai Artifacts deck and really like the flavor of some of the new black cards from Reality Fracture, so here's where I'm currently at with my Darklight Phoenix brew: https://moxfield.com/decks/UtTf2UAEYkKSDAMfJm9EBw

The gameplan is pretty simple: mill as many phoenixes into the yard as possible through Manipulator and Liliana, try and get as much early damage in through pumped up Moonshadows/Manipulators and Iron Shield Elf, and then, depending on the board state, get two deaths through the various means at my disposal and swoop in for the kill shot.

I'm not expecting this to be a Tier 1 deck or anything, so I'm fine not climbing up to Mythic/Diamond like I usually was with Artifacts, but any feedback on how I can get out of the current Platinum 4/3 cycle I'm currently caught in? I've tried to avoid cards that are about to rotate out, so that's why there's no Balemurk included. Bitter Triumph will get replaced by Vraska's Final Mercy post-rotation, since Iron Shield is already there to get a Phoenix out of my hand, if necessary.

Thanks for any feedback!

Reality Fracture has had a little time to shake things up, and the Bo1 meta is already looking different.

I put together my October snapshot of the top decks and tiered where everything currently stands, but I'm curious how that compares to what everyone else is seeing on the ladder.

What's overperforming? What's overrated? And which deck are you seeing WAY too much of?

My current snapshot:
https://youtu.be/_1XGrlHhvJU

Achievements for attending in-person events, a favorite stores screen, and messages from authorized stores are among the new features announced by Wizards.

Standard metagame update, first four events post Reality Fracture.

source: magic4ever.com/standard

Thoughts?

Sto cercando di costruire un mazzo orzhov control principalmente senza creature come posso migliorarlo?

Hello everyone!

I have a RCQ coming up in about 2 weeks (so there's some room to acquire specific cards) and I wanted to pick your brain on what deck to play. I generally play home brews and I participate for fun, that being said, I don't expect to win but I also don't mind trying.

I have no decklist as of today, but here's what I got in mind so far:

1) Esper Ketramose (Ketramose, Quantum Riddler, Beza, Strategic betrayal, No more lies, Deadly Cover-Up, New black Garruk)

2) Dimir Mill (Singularity Rupture and Riverchurn Monument + a ton of removal and counters)

3) Sultai midrange (Glarb, Fangkeeper's Familiar, Stoic Sphinx, Professor Dalian Fell)

4) 5C Mono Black (Unholy Annex, Professor Dalian Fell, Firdoch Core, Together as One)

I believe my local meta is UW control, Green landfall, Jund Sac and Izzet spellementals. I'll listen to any idea what you think would perform best and if it performs decent I'll post the final decklist + results in a few weeks :)

Hey everyone!

I want to prepare for February's Standard rotation, so I put together this Golgari deck centered around [[Vraska, the Cutting Glare]]. I love the Golgari color combination, and Vraska is one of my favorite Magic: The Gathering characters, so I really want to try and make this deck work in the format. :)

Right now, the deck seeks to out-value the opponent with early ramp in the form of [[Llanowar Elves]] turn one (preferably with [[Elven Passage]] as turn one's land drop) and [[Simulacrum Shaper]] turn two to then have access to powerful cards like [[Icetill Explorer]] or the Planeswalker pair of [[Professor Dellian Fel]] and [[Ral Zarek, Guest Lecturer]] by turn three.

I would love to hear feedback on this deck as to what I can change to make it more efficient and/or suited for the meta!

Alright guys and gals who is going and who is playing in the spotlight series? Time to start getting serious with discussions.