(Aether) Revolting : MTGA

Well, the new MTGA decks have really kicked my ass. I dropped from a high silver in the ladder placements to right back to entry level Bronze. Turns out, like most online card games, if you don’t keep with the Joneses you get kicked out of the neighbourhood.

Things were getting a bit boring anyway.

The good news with the Kaladesh and Aether Revolt decks is 264 and 184 new cards – respectively – of all new cards, features, and playstyles.  The new resource “energy” is another thing to manage and does make an interesting dynamic on card interactivity. So I spent ALL of my saved up gold and bought all packs from the sets and built myself another deck. I also burned through a bunch of my Wildcards when I wanted to duplicate some of the cards I found. Here is my deck:

I know that doesn’t tell you much, but I will break down the important parts and how they interact. But first, I want to explain how I ended up with 78 cards in a 60 card base game.

From what I have learned, in MTG proper you play two out of three matches. You play your core deck – of around 60 cards – and then you have a “sideboard” of cards that you can swap in / add in to your main deck after your first match when you see what kind of a deck your opponent plays. This builds in the ability to counter certain decks but to not face a bloated deck with too many options. In MTG:A this is why people quit so fast (and often) is because they don’t have the cards to beat certain win conditions so at the first sign of them them just give up. Not me, since I can face everything, I hang in there and make the games interesting. The number of times I have come back from “certain” doom with this approach is enough to have me keep playing that way.

In Ladder Constructed gameplay in MTG:A they are single games, so you have to be able to handle all kinds of decks and opponents. Mine does that pretty well, with a 57+% winrate over every colour – except Green, oddly enough.

Onto my deck. Which, I will say, probably loses 9/10 in real competitive play but online in beta mode is doing just fine (thank you).

It’s a Green/Black deck, the same two land types I played on my main deck.  First I will go through the “energy” based cards I use – and some cards I use to protect and enhance them.

My deck consists of a lot of easy, low cost cards that if not cleared quickly can become powerful cards. Here, the Longtusk cub is a simple 2/2 card that when successfully attacking a player, generates 2 energy. Which it can then consume to become a 3/3 creature. And then a  4/4 the next time. This card is great because it forces players to block it or it can grow in power (where often, I could let a 2/2 creature do damage to me to use my cards for other purposes).

Another energy using/producing card at a low cost. The “Menace” attribute means that this creature can only be blocked by two or more creatures – which makes it a safe, early attack. Drawing cards is a huge benefit in MTG and it is worth it (especially early) at the cost of one life.

This card has a quick 2 energy generation, but the added bonus of of acting as a land card for the cost of one energy. This helps get low cost cards out quickly, early. The next two cards work in tandem to defend these cards by removing defenders and protecting them.

Channelling a bit of ‘300’ here with the kick, this low cost card remover is great to get rid of those early, low cost cards you may face (I am looking at you, mono-red decks) and has the added bonus of “Revolt” – meaning at a tiny cost you can remove bigger cards as well if you lost a permanent in the round.

This card is amazing to protect your low cost energy producing cards and it is great to watch an opponent burn a removal card only to counteract it.

Getting into a higher cost card this great attacker and defender has two benefits from its interaction with energy. One, and the big one, is that it gains “Hexproof”. Hexproof protects it from direct counter cards from an opponent. For example, if they cast a “do five damage to target creature card” I get the opportunity before it hits to pay three energy and protect it from any direct cards, so that card is wasted on it. Plus it keeps the +1/+1 power gained upon use so it’s another avenue to increase the strength of a card.

Those six cards are the core and crux of my early plays in matches. The second is all about the Walking Ballista – but I will build up the cards that make that card special first.

The winding constrictor is an amazing low cost card that feeds into itself (and additive, the more you have on the board).  Energy accumulation is also affected by the +! bonus. To best explain how it works I am going to introduce the tandem low card I usually play right behind it:

Rishkar not only makes every card with a counter on it a potential land (allowing you to play higher cost cards far earlier) the +1/+1 feeds perfectly into the Winding Constrictor. If I play Rishkar right after Winding and clock both Rishkar and Winding as the two receiving the counters, Winding Constrictor becomes a 4/5 card and Rishkar a 4/4. That’s a lot of power for a total cost of 5 between the two. IF I had another Winding Constrictor on the board and clicked the 2 WCs as the recipients of Rishkar’s entry benefit both would be 5/6 cards. That’s huge considering they represent half of the total starting life of your opponent.

The real gem of my deck is this card:

What makes this card so powerful is that at any time – ANY time – you can click on it, remove +1/+1 from it, and do that damage to a creature, planeswalker, or opponent. And because you can consistently add +1/+1 through it’s self mechanic (4 land cost) you have a constant clearing card. The other big benefit to this card that even if your opponent plays a removal card – an exile, or do X damage that would kill the creature, you still get to remove as many +1/+1 as you have before the clear it takes effect. This card is a monster. It does cost 4 land to make it a +2/+2 base (or 6 for 3/3) but if you had Winding Constrictors on the board, that +2/+2 entry is now a +4/+4. The way the last three cards interact with each other is amazing – and best part is even if you don’t have them all together they are powerful individually.

If I have any combination of Wild Constrictors or Walking Ballistas on the board and I introduce this card, the opponent usually quits immediately. It’s a high cost card but with the combination of cards that can act as land cards above (at low cost) I can get this out on the field of play quickly and often.

Those 10 cards make up the bulk of my attack and defence. However,  I have had to add cards into my deck to protect myself from often played decks. These cards have good general use as is but critical when facing specific opponents.

How to Counter a ‘Blue” Counter Deck

Blue decks focus on stopping you from getting your creatures on the board, and/or removing them once they are there.

Journey to Eternity means your creature cards get played straight from your graveyard meaning you can “bring back” any card that was put there without having it countered as a card play directly. It’s a very powerful card and when facing a blue deck I sort out how to get it activated as soon as possible. This way if they counter a creature card I play, it is put into my graveyard. Meaning my next turn I can get it on the board without fear of it being countered.

The Cat Snake (amazing concept) can’t be countered and while alive means that your other creature cards you play can’t be countered as well. It can still be removed once played so it is a good idea to hold onto a Blossoming defence while it’s on the board because any blue deck will be looking to remove this as fast as it can.

How to beat a White Vampire or Blue Merfolk deck

We see these decks a lot and they are low cost creature cards that build off of each other. For example with Merfolk, you have unblockable 1/1 creatures. Then they play a Merfolk Wizard which gives all Merfolk +1/+1. Then another, then another, etc. Now those unblockable cards are 5/5 cards suddenly and you can’t do anything about it. The key is to clear them early and often before they can grow into powerful cards, using this one:

It’s a good clearing card and the key is ensuring you don’t play it too early or too late.

How to beat a Scarab God / “Return to Owner’s Hand” deck

Some decks have a powerful creature – such as the Scarab or Locust God – that even if you kill them they immediately go back to the hand of the player and can be played next turn. It’s a really frustrating mechanic and often a player getting those cards out can outlast most decks. This is where Vraska’s Contempt comes in:

Because the card uses the “Exile” mechanic instead of “Destroy” the card is fully removed from play for the rest of the game. I keep a couple of these in my deck in case I run into one of those card types.

So there you have it. This is my current deck in MTG:A that I am rocking a near 60% winrate with and have a winning record against all colors EXCEPT green. Not sure where my luck is with green, but going to pay close attention to how they are beating me to see if I need to add some more cards to the deck.

Even if you don’t play magic, check out the cards – the art is definitely amazing and I appreciate that side of things.

Any questions, thoughts, or comments?

5 comments / Add your comment below

  1. The amount of complexity for a beta is so off putting to me right now. I mean it’s cool and all from a theoretical lens. Its knowing it will get even more complex and more cards…feels more like a money pit.

    One of the reasons I stopped mtg way back when anyhow truthfully

    1. I felt the same way initially. Didn’t take long to get into the swing of things and sort it out – and since it is a “beta” *cough cough it is missing important features such as a tutorial. Here is a new set. Here is a new mechanic. Here is how it works. Go work through these test scenarios…

      etc.

      But yeah, the cards, sets, combos, etc. are very daunting. Still, I haven’t hit my matchmaking peak yet as I continue to win more than I lose in the long run.

      I still maintain the position I won’t play this live, I must be nearing 750+ matches and its fun but the thought of grinding through that many at launch just to getg back to where I am right now is a different story. My head isn’t into it enough and with so many exciting titles coming up I can’t see myself dedicating much time to it.

      1. This is 100% why I don’t play betas anymore. They are extremely poorly planned and are more cash grabs… post incoming on that topic.

  2. Despite the fact that these cards are super old news to me (I came back to playing IRL MTG during Kaladesh and bought a box of Aether Revolt) it’s nice to see someone else blogging about Magic besides me. It was lonely out there!

    Glad to see you’re trying your hand at deck building. Here’s hoping at some point in time they add in Brawl so you can sorta try your hand at EDH. It’s not really the same but it’s close. If they do add that feature in, I’ll likely play some more of the digital version. Now I just have to decide if I want to go to GP LA, as it’s a lot closer than Vegas was.

    1. Heh, and sadly I am so novice at MTG that I don’t really provide content helpful to you – except, I guess, to keep you updated with what is going on in the online version of it all.

      Lots of game modes coming, and always willing to try them out and share my experience!

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