Another recent example of degeneracy on Arena: I was playing a control vs. control matchup. A typical slow slogfest of what that is. It got to a point where the game turned around in my favor because they literally were about to run out of cards long before me. So then what do they do? They use Teferi's 2nd ability on itself for about 20 turns, returning it to their library over and over as the only card in their library, when they should have lost long ago for running out of cards. Someone else in my position would have rage quit but I didn't. I had Kaya out and kept exiling from their graveyard every turn. Eventually I got enough exiled to kill them. But really, I'm not sure you're supposed to be able to do the shennanigans with Teferi they pulled and that was the most absurd game on Arena I've played so far.
Teferi tucking is a legit win con in control right now.
I don't know any Boros Aggro decks that would play Settle, but regardless that's normally public enemy #1 for aggro to play against. Shalai, Voice of Plenty or Tithe Taker can help, but honestly it's hard to say without knowing what your friend is even playing. The top tier Boros decks that appeared a while back was just White Weenie splashing for Heroic Reinforcements, or the angel build, but he might be playing a more casual build with actual Boros cards.
I originally played from around 1994-2002, but sold my cards long ago. I briefly flirted with returning to play a few years ago but didn't see the cost of staying current with standard as justifiable. I started playing again on MTG Arena about a month ago partly for this practical reason: if you're smart about it it's cheaper than playing paper MTG in standard.
My impression is that the current meta is being extremely dominated by either the mono-red rush type of deck, or a million copycat esper control decks with Teferi and Karn and no real win condition. I don't know if this is as true in paper MTG as it is on Arena, but it's actually gotten fairly annoying, to a point where seeing your opponent is playing mono-red with Runaway Steam-Kin makes one go "Oh no, not this again" and it wins 95% of the time, even against my Mardu aggro humans deck, where it's just a slogfest to see who can damage who more quickly and they usually can easily just burn me and my creatures to death right away more or less. Mono blue is also doing pretty well, but it's not as oppressive as the mono-red decks.
I've felt for a while that red could use some creative expansion to do things other than burn and aggro. It seems like the current meta is sort of the opposite of that - it's all burn and aggro, and in a way that is arguably OP. Mostly due to Runaway Steam-Kin and Light Up The Stage.
Are you only playing Bo1? That's completely different from traditional Bo3. Mono Red isn't anywhere close to being dominant in Bo3 or paper.
LoL. Learn to play against blue. Learn to draw more cards than me and cast spells that can't be countered. Learn to draw cards at instant speed. Learn to interact with my non-interactive win conditions. Don't cast spells on your first few turns so when I get to my planeswalker or finisher creature or mil enchantment I can just counter the spells you use to try to deal with them. Thanks I'll get right on that.
Also not a new player. I've been playing on and off since the mid 90s. I'm new to the forums because my frustration with blue on arena had reached a boiling point. Blue is just better in standard right now. By a LOT.
Playing the game for a long time makes complaining about such a basic fundamental of the game much more annoying, not to mention blue is so much weaker compared to in the 90s.
Aggro beats control. Midrange although weak to control wins by either have haste threats or can grind just as long as control. Green has hexproof/uncounterable/card advantage. White has protection/indestructible and cheap beaters/taxers. Red has burn and haste. Black has discard and card advantage. From your original post it seems like you're playing BW, which needs to strive by grinding out against blue. You have access to cards like Dawn of Hope, Karn, and Treasure Map for card draw. You have tons of removals in Vraska's Contempt and Ixalan's Binding (which will cripple them if you target their Teferi). You have effective wincons in Dawn of Hope again, Eldest Reborn, History of Benalia, etc. You have Duress to target their hand. I could name more tools but it really all depends on the deck type. BW has all the tools, USE THEM.
Blue is solid but far from overpowered in Standard. Mono White Aggro, Burn, and Rakdos Midrange are top decks that don't play blue. Sultai, Esper Midrange, and Gates don't even play counterspells in the mainboard.
Quite frankly, just learn to play against blue. It's not hard, it just requires more thought to play against. New or casual players love to think blue is too good, because (1) their deck is inconsistent/slow and control decks prey on that, and (2) they play into counterspells too easily.
In terms of more removal look into Cast Down, Conclave Tribunal, and Vraska's Contempt. Other cards to look into that hasn't been mentioned yet are Midnight Reaper for card advantage (and works really well since your stuff are constantly suppose to die), and Duress in the sideboard.
First off, welcome to the boards. You should be posting under deck creation.
Secondly about the deck itself, there are tons of issues. There's only 17 lands and over 60 cards. A deck like this wants 20-22 lands and decks should never go over the minimum 60 cards. There's also no consistency with so many 1-2 copies of cards when you should be running 3-4 of the best cards. Don't stick cards into the deck just because you can.
If you want to see an optimized Wizards deck, this is a good start:
Okay, I see that Utopia works with Karametra. You can get a lot of mana, not infinite. The Arbors would help get infinite mana. I also don't know what the cost of Arena is, I don't play it. I play Paper magic & MTGO where Arbors are like $5 tops, fetches are also $10-25 tops.
I never thought a female player would have a problem with a more diverse cast of female character art. I mean, why would it make sense for a female knight/warrior/etc be dressed so scantily clad if the male equivalent is suited up? Why would it be okay some male characters to be ugly but all female ones have to be sexy?
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
They are flooding Bo1 because that's where aggro has the advantage. They're much less in quantity in Bo3 once the other decks get to side in anti-aggro cards.
Whoa, you're REALLY oversimplifying things here. The five colors are distinct for a reason. Blue doesn't ramp extra lands, black doesn't destroy artifacts, green doesn't counter, etc. Each color has staple effects like burn, countering spells, getting lands, pumping creatures, drawing cards, pumping all creatures, and so on. But that's just the basic, simple stuff of how each color works, and cards like those keep the game from getting too complicated and help fill out sets for draft and so on. Otherwise, sets would be more like 80 cards, and that's just silly. And there's TONS of all sorts of neat effects and creatures among all five colors! I"m guessing you're fairly new to the game, because each color has so many cool cards and various effects in them, from huge creatures to flashy sorceries to planeswalkers and utility lands. No way is blue JUST countering stuff or white is ONLY lifegain and soldier tokens. Each Magic set is in the same game, after all. If you're really feeling unexcited by new sets, maybe you should make your own Cube or even just take a break from the game.
Each color DOES have cool cards and effects. Unfortunately they dont see play because the best cards are the tried and true ones that are repeated over and over in every expansion, so that the meta never REALLY feels any different. Blue control decks play the same now as they did during the last standard cycle and the one before that. I guess that's my point. I'd like to see what would happen if WOTC just STOPPED feeding into the meta and let things change.
And what's your proposal? And why do you think it's "all the same?" Last rotation blue had midrange strategies with Scarab God and Teferi control. This rotation there's drakes, Mono Blue Tempo, and control. How is that playing the same way?
Just because they print more counters or more burn spells doesn't mean they are playable either. A lot of them or situational it comes to deck building to figure out which one is the best for the deck.
Are we talking just mono white? More removal and boardwipes if you want to control the board. Stuff like Oblivion Ring for non creatures, Wrath of God for more boardwipes. I would recommend boardwipes that exile or unsummons creatures but it's hard to not to wipe out your own stuff. If you want cards like Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Selfless Spirit can make your creatures indestructible from your own wipes. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is also a good army in a can that avoids your wipes too since he avoids them as a creature or planeswalker. In terms of the best PW in white, it's definitely Elspeth, Sun's Champion. She stabilizes and wins the game on her own.
Teferi tucking is a legit win con in control right now.
Are you only playing Bo1? That's completely different from traditional Bo3. Mono Red isn't anywhere close to being dominant in Bo3 or paper.
Playing the game for a long time makes complaining about such a basic fundamental of the game much more annoying, not to mention blue is so much weaker compared to in the 90s.
Aggro beats control. Midrange although weak to control wins by either have haste threats or can grind just as long as control. Green has hexproof/uncounterable/card advantage. White has protection/indestructible and cheap beaters/taxers. Red has burn and haste. Black has discard and card advantage. From your original post it seems like you're playing BW, which needs to strive by grinding out against blue. You have access to cards like Dawn of Hope, Karn, and Treasure Map for card draw. You have tons of removals in Vraska's Contempt and Ixalan's Binding (which will cripple them if you target their Teferi). You have effective wincons in Dawn of Hope again, Eldest Reborn, History of Benalia, etc. You have Duress to target their hand. I could name more tools but it really all depends on the deck type. BW has all the tools, USE THEM.
Quite frankly, just learn to play against blue. It's not hard, it just requires more thought to play against. New or casual players love to think blue is too good, because (1) their deck is inconsistent/slow and control decks prey on that, and (2) they play into counterspells too easily.
Secondly about the deck itself, there are tons of issues. There's only 17 lands and over 60 cards. A deck like this wants 20-22 lands and decks should never go over the minimum 60 cards. There's also no consistency with so many 1-2 copies of cards when you should be running 3-4 of the best cards. Don't stick cards into the deck just because you can.
If you want to see an optimized Wizards deck, this is a good start:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1616131#paper
Arena is Standard only and F2P.
They are flooding Bo1 because that's where aggro has the advantage. They're much less in quantity in Bo3 once the other decks get to side in anti-aggro cards.
And what's your proposal? And why do you think it's "all the same?" Last rotation blue had midrange strategies with Scarab God and Teferi control. This rotation there's drakes, Mono Blue Tempo, and control. How is that playing the same way?
Just because they print more counters or more burn spells doesn't mean they are playable either. A lot of them or situational it comes to deck building to figure out which one is the best for the deck.
I was expecting an Unsummon on a stick or at least a flying lifelinker with above average stats.