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Managed to squeeze in a BRO Alchemy draft. Does anybody know what their motivation is for making that so time-limited? BRO will be draftable for another two months, right? I wouldn't mind switching it up with a BRO Alchemy one occasionally, but nope, it's gone already and I could only do it once. Someone in the Discord said that they're aiming for FOMO people, which, sure, but also don't they want people to actually play Alchemy? I'd be more into it if I could actually draft and not just craft the cards, and play with them in Limited before giving them a shot in a Constructed brew. My personal theory is that they're not confident in the number of Alchemy players, and don't want the lack of popularity to be obvious, so instead of risking long cue times as the novelty for "gently caress it I'll try it once or twice" people drops off, they just close down the draft entirely. Which is a bummer for "I'd try it sometimes" people like me! Anyway, nothing specifically Alchemy about this one, I think: https://www.17lands.com/draft/02062aceee594c3c8f579711ed4e7a08 I started off with a Rakdos card, but my second pick was an Azorius one, and I kept myself open, until it was clear that the latter was the lane. Huge payoff in getting passed a busted Alchemy rare (By Elspeth's Command), and Teferi even!  It ended up being a very interesting UW deck with exactly one Soldier synergy (Air Marshal + By Elspeth's, but both are auto-synergistic too). Instead it had a heavy noncreature/artifacts/recursion subtheme, with three Archaeologists digging for bombs (got Teferi and Elspeth's once each) and holding the fort against aggro. Win with the bombs, Statue, Mightstone's Animation, or sheer value. - Revoker was an absolute standout card, shutting down Unearth cards, Equipment, also stuff like Mask of the Jadecrafter's first activation (let alone the Unearth), and with Recommision, I could do stuff like after the first shut down card was no longer relevant, I could trade the Revoker with something, then bring it back and name something else - Patchplate Resolute, one of the Alchemy cards, is very good but this is not quite the deck for it. Still, not gonna say no to a colorless 3/3 with a huge amount of extra text (it's also an excellent Rec target) - Argivian Welcome otoh was utterly worthless - Warzone Duplicator seems really good but it didn't end up having super great targets, was a bit clunky... This deck went 5-3 with an astounding two losses to Titania's Command which I don't think it can even beat, unless I've already won by the point they cast it, and a tough match against an aggro deck where I almost stabilized, but they had the trick in the end. Regardless, it was a blast to play, and I love that the format is open for decks like this. It's not cookie-cutter aggro, it's not a supported archetype, but it ran super smoothly and had tons of micro- and macro-synergy. I'm a huge fan of BRO at this point and also very happy that it'll be around for a while!
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Dec 20, 2022 18:57
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Instead of quitting standard I just made s mono red deck to vent my frustrations, and cruised through platinum with it: Deck 3 Kumano Faces Kakkazan (NEO) 152 2 Abrade (VOW) 139 3 Monastery Swiftspear (BRO) 144 2 Strangle (SNC) 125 4 Electrostatic Infantry (DMU) 122 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (NEO) 276 2 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky (NEO) 134 3 Obliterating Bolt (BRO) 145 3 Radha's Firebrand (DMU) 141 1 Smoldering Egg (MID) 159 19 Mountain (ANA) 7 4 Thrill of Possibility (STA) 46 3 Twinferno (DMU) 149 3 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator (DMU) 133 3 Burn Down the House (MID) 131 3 Seize the Storm (MID) 158 It is especially good against mono b and mono w, but the Jaya and sizes seizes help against midrange piles. Twinferno isn't embercleave but people never suspect it
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Dec 20, 2022 19:43
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Bugsy posted:Having fun with one of the new legends, Rusko Clockmaker. Blink him over and over make copies get a million clocks going and all the little pings add up. Paradox + tome is generally a win, most opponents scoop to it. And kitten and rusko is so many clocks with all the cheap spells. God help you if you ever get the mirror match. Last week's event had a Rusko deck and the one time I got a mirror match using it took a solid half hour. It was funny as hell but it did take awhile.
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Dec 20, 2022 21:16
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 Continuing to iterate on this, tightened up the list:  https://www.moxfield.com/decks/N4KuJvWqE02oyaZ-Wlgydg Decided to commit to Titania as a 4-of, even if she is not threatening to meld she is still an absolute removal magnet so having spares has always been useful, and I can always pitch extras to Restoration of Eiganjo. I don't think I want any more Argoths, though; that has never been the constraint to melding since Blanchwood will catch them, and Paragon will allow me to dig them out. Meanwhile I keep on running out of basics for the fetchlands and Restoration lol. I have cut the high end and focused on Titania/Paragon as the axis of the deck, as I think the best way to deal with UW (both soldiers and control) is just to accelerate as fast I can? Biggest learning from today's testing: Dennick's graveyard seal will stop Kirin's ability but not Paragon's, since it doesn't target graveyard cards 
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Dec 20, 2022 21:38
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Ugh, I feel like I wasted 1,500 gems because I queued up what I thought was a Brothers War premier draft but it turns out it was the Bro Alchemy draft....which good lord is just an unbalanced mess. I liked the idea of 'rebalanced' set drafting as a curiosity, but the Alchemy drafts are just atrocious. It's the set plus a bunch of broken cards in every draft. What a miserable experience.
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Dec 20, 2022 21:46
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lmao I can't believe i did it, I moused over the opp's Plaza of Heroes and reminded them they could pop it to give their creature indestructible Edit: my biggest titania yet.... I had to consciously stop self-milling when I realized I was in danger of decking and I needed to draw one of the 3 serra paragons that were in my last 15 cards to win lol  I also went -1 Destroy Evil +1 Shigeki, I think that adds a bit of reach for stalled-out games and I still have 6 removal spells in the deck after that, I just have to consider its channel the main ability and really only consider the creature if I have no other plays Hmm, if I am going pure 2-color maybe playing Cabaretti Courtyard instead of Evolving Wilds could be a thing? The theoretical Max Size Titania would be smaller but that's really just win more lol, I don't think holding to pop Wilds on opponent's turn has mattered but the lifegain could Edit 2: the lifegain... did matter 
CharlieFoxtrot fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 21, 2022 |
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Dec 20, 2022 22:12
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Did a SNC QD for a change. https://www.17lands.com/draft/ccfb3c15ca01484e87085f94b8a8673f Snagged an Underdog and a Body Launderer along the way, #value I'm not super firm on SNC, though I do generally like it. Managed to end up in Bant rather naturally which I know is the best color combination, probably exaggerated due to bots not valuing it too highly. I didn't get too many playables to choose from, so I ended up with this:  Except for the two raredrafts, I wonder if I could have navigated it better; I'm a little low on creatures, not too many Citizen synergies (tho I think that's generally p hard to actually pull off)...I did follow 17lands a lot, but there were a lot of "yes this is good in Bant" picks between like three cards, and I was spitballing between removal, curve, creature count etc. 1-0 so far.
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Dec 21, 2022 00:07
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Tawnos is fun jank 
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Dec 21, 2022 03:44
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Based on my experiences in the Midweek Magic event, Explorer is still 75%+ Greasefang. I need to just start running Azorius control with 4x Rest In Peace I guess.
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Dec 21, 2022 06:13
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Shooting Blanks posted:God help you if you ever get the mirror match. Last week's event had a Rusko deck and the one time I got a mirror match using it took a solid half hour. It was funny as hell but it did take awhile. I’ve had the mirror a couple times and I still had fun. Vorinclex wasn’t fun but clutched it out after going to 1 life twice. Turns out clocks not counting up is bad. But the giant pile of cards in the grave got me there. 
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Dec 21, 2022 06:33
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Bugsy posted:Having fun with one of the new legends, Rusko Clockmaker. Blink him over and over make copies get a million clocks going and all the little pings add up. Paradox + tome is generally a win, most opponents scoop to it. And kitten and rusko is so many clocks with all the cheap spells. Deck rules, played 7 games and lost only to the mirror, they landed Narset when my clocks started going off. Going to try bringing in a Baleful Mastery to cheaply deal with planeswalkers at instant speed, and Dive Down for a way to protect Rusko the turn I play him. Also brought in Mind Stone and Guardian Idol for more ways to ramp to Rusko, as well as Meathook Massacre.
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Dec 21, 2022 06:38
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I only run 23 lands but draw 50-66% lands far more often than I should. It's getting ridiculous. That's incredibly bad luck. I shouldn't be consistently drawing literally 2 to 3 times as much land :/
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Dec 21, 2022 06:56
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precision posted:I only run 23 lands but draw 50-66% lands far more often than I should. It's getting ridiculous. That's incredibly bad luck. I shouldn't be consistently drawing literally 2 to 3 times as much land :/ How often do you think you should be drawing 50-66% lands, and how often is it actually happening?
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Dec 21, 2022 10:01
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:
This looks really fun, but I'm skeptical about the low number of Argoths. How many games do you have where you have 11 basic lands and need a 12th to win? That seems rarer than the games where you simply can't find Argoth to flip Titania.
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Dec 21, 2022 10:07
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Lone Goat posted:How often do you think you should be drawing 50-66% lands, and how often is it actually happening? It should be happening about half as often as it is
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Dec 21, 2022 10:33
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Trying out some brews in Bo1 Historic made me remember how much of a poo poo show that format is and Belcher did not improve things. Guess it's time to set aside more time and just play Bo3 instead. Though Mono Black is probably going to have an awful matchup against Belcher either way unless i bring in something like Dispossess.
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Dec 21, 2022 11:21
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BRO alchemy seemed good in my two drafts. There are a couple bombs, but they seem on the same level as the pre-existing bombs. Elspath’s Command is very good and won me a few games but it can also fall on its face if you fail to draw soldiers. I suppose Hurkyl’s Prodigy is an “I win” button if the opponent does not have removal.
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Dec 21, 2022 14:39
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Shooting Blanks posted:Based on my experiences in the Midweek Magic event, Explorer is still 75%+ Greasefang. I need to just start running Azorius control with 4x Rest In Peace I guess. They just released an anthology that gave us Nykthos, so now its 75% mono-g ramp.
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Dec 21, 2022 15:08
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Shooting Blanks posted:Based on my experiences in the Midweek Magic event, Explorer is still 75%+ Greasefang. I need to just start running Azorius control with 4x Rest In Peace I guess. I feel bad for doing it but I went 3-0 with blue aggro (just haughty jinn, tolarian terror, cantrips and counterspells) hoping people would concede since there are no consequences for it and knowing the meta was going to be unbeatable with standard aggro or midrange. That's an option I guess
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Dec 21, 2022 15:51
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I am a F2P peasant and mostly draft but I want to get some standard play in. Is there a deck that sits at a good intersection of both being competitive and not requiring a ton of rare cards?
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Dec 21, 2022 16:56
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Free gems in store today. I'm using this for MWM and it's at something like 20-5 since it's MWM and people either play gimmick piles or just use their standard decks most of the time: Deck 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan (NEO) 152 4 Lightning Strike (DMU) 137 4 Play with Fire (MID) 154 2 Squee, Dubious Monarch (DMU) 146 2 Den of the Bugbear (AFR) 254 4 Battle Cry Goblin (AFR) 132 1 Claim the Firstborn (STA) 37 13 Mountain (ZNR) 383 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (NEO) 276 3 Fanatical Firebrand (RIX) 101 2 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166 4 Ramunap Ruins (AKR) 326 1 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel (JOU) 94 4 Monastery Swiftspear (BRO) 144 3 Light Up the Stage (RNA) 107 4 Skewer the Critics (RNA) 115 I think I ran in a couple of real decks like monogreen but they mostly just died before doing anything, most losses were to other monored Algid fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Dec 21, 2022 |
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Dec 21, 2022 17:04
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Shooting Blanks posted:Based on my experiences in the Midweek Magic event, Explorer is still 75%+ Greasefang. I need to just start running Azorius control with 4x Rest In Peace I guess. Is the event Bo1 or 3? I think with board Mono W is positioned really well to beat Greasefang and it has good Mono G and okay RB matchups.
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Dec 21, 2022 17:07
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Grifter posted:I am a F2P peasant and mostly draft but I want to get some standard play in. Is there a deck that sits at a good intersection of both being competitive and not requiring a ton of rare cards? How much is a "ton"? Mono blue plays 4 Haughty Djinn and 1 Otawara (not in this list for reasons unknown) and the rest is all commons and uncommons. Other mono colour decks (red, white, black) require more rares but at least their mana bases are inexpensive. Once you start getting into multi colour decks a significant amount of your wildcards are going to go towards lands.
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Dec 21, 2022 17:11
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Lone Goat posted:How much is a "ton"? quote:Mono blue plays 4 Haughty Djinn and 1 Otawara (not in this list for reasons unknown) and the rest is all commons and uncommons. Algid posted:Free gems in store today.
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Dec 21, 2022 17:47
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Grifter posted:Good question, I don't even keep track of standard well enough to know what is a lot vs. a little. I looked through my accounts and found that the one with the least wildcards is 22 rares and 8 mythics, so that'd be about my limit. If I spent them all I would hope that the deck would also be somewhat resistant to rotation. Rotation isn't until September so you'll likely have another pile of wildcards between now and then. Haughty Djinn and Tolarian Terror are the key parts of the the mono blue deck and they were printed in the post-rotation set this year so they'll be legal until fall of 2024, the rest of the pieces are pretty interchangeable. A lot of the mono white cards were from the previous year, so most of that deck won't survive rotation, but that's still more than half a year of play.
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Dec 21, 2022 18:07
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Guess Arena decided my Tawnos deck was winning to much and started pairing me with boring blue combo decks full of counters, RIP.
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Dec 21, 2022 20:18
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Chamale posted:This looks really fun, but I'm skeptical about the low number of Argoths. How many games do you have where you have 11 basic lands and need a 12th to win? That seems rarer than the games where you simply can't find Argoth to flip Titania. True, this could be a "WWII bomber armor" analysis where I remember the games I won with a flipped Titania and attribute the losses to something else lol. Fully half of my lands coming in tapped is kind of a pain, but I guess the Citanuls and Restorations smooth that out by turn 3-4. I should give it more testing, once I get another rare WC I'll use it on Argoth lol
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Dec 21, 2022 20:49
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Boy, Phyrexian Dragon Engine is hot garbage. I do not know why I picked two of them.
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Dec 22, 2022 04:32
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wolfman101 posted:Boy, Phyrexian Dragon Engine is hot garbage. I do not know why I picked two of them. Like, in draft?
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Dec 22, 2022 04:41
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Time posted:Like, in draft? Yes. It feels more like a good uncommon than a good rare. At best it is a 1-for-1 and then a hand reload on turn 5+, but games are regularly over by then.
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Dec 22, 2022 04:53
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wolfman101 posted:Yes. It feels more like a good uncommon than a good rare. At best it is a 1-for-1 and then a hand reload on turn 5+, but games are regularly over by then. It’s one of the better cards in the set lol. There is probably an uncommon like the b/g one that has a higher wr but it’s a very good card regardless
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Dec 22, 2022 04:59
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It's secretly more white than red, very nice in WB or WG shells.
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Dec 22, 2022 05:00
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Spent two hours trying to play Explorer for the first time and it's wild that a format that is worse than Vanguard became a flagship
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Dec 22, 2022 05:21
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People like Pioneer/Explorer because Modern is too expensive to keep up with and Standard is boring.
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Dec 22, 2022 05:23
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Dragon engine is great, the vast majority of cards are 1 for 1 anyways, that's literally complaining that it dies to murder, and dragon engine can reliably trade up, take pumps very well, is colorless, and has unearth with upside. If you're losing on turn 5 because they spent a card your 3 drop you weren't doing much else anyways, which is probably the actual problem.
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Dec 22, 2022 05:36
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I get to Embercleave on fools with Explorer. That makes it okay at a minimum. i only ever touch it for an event though.
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Dec 22, 2022 08:00
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I'm just glad it let me bring out the old Cavalcade of Calamity deck. Sort of related to the Embercleave deck, but I never had enough wildcards at the time to make a full set of Embercleaves and Fervent Champions.
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Dec 22, 2022 09:12
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Things are calming down irl so I had time to play out another full draft https://www.17lands.com/draft/308800760ec440a19c0325c25e6a2660  I thought this deck was really sweet - it's only missing a Mightstone's Animation to really pop - unfortunately, it only went 3-3. I lost the first game to flood (I think at least 5 lands in a row), the last game to screw (missed I think three land drops, almost stabilized but - alas - the could dome me with Strongbull and Explosion), and the final loss was against a Mythic opponent who I almost got, but I a) forgot that Whirling Strike also gives trample, b) I could only have survived if I had blocked with literally everything I had, leaving me at 1 on an empty board with them having a Strongbull still in play, so I don't think it mattered. That's variance and I'm find with having gotten three fun games out of it! Counting the loss, not counting the one win where the opp just conceded immediately after missing their second (!) land drop. Total, not "in a row". Take home message: Strongbull is an insane card, also it's absolutely possible to just force an archetype when opening a strong signpost uncommon, I've done it a few times now
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Dec 22, 2022 11:20
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in explorer coco go brrrrr
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Dec 22, 2022 13:53
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Simply Simon posted:Things are calming down irl so I had time to play out another full draft Your drafts would go far better if you didn't hack a bunch of worthless rares. Do you really need Blackblade Reforged for constructed? You're way undervaluing Bitter Reunion, especially in a deck that has a huge delta between its good cards and its bad cards, AND just wants to cast a bunch of crap and spew out tokens. This MIGHT be a Symmetry Matrix deck (just one, let's not go crazy here) but I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try lol.
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Dec 22, 2022 14:31
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