Exile target creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Counter target noncreature spell with converted mana cost 3 or less. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard.
Those Arena matches where the opponent let's every single time out go right to the last bit drives me insane. It's annoying there isn't a report function for people doing that.
You need to provide evidence for them stalling. By the end of the game I just want to toss my computer into the wall and be done with it hehe... so don't want to bother going through capturing evidence and stuff like that.
Pretty annoying.
Reporting never occurred to me really, or capturing evidence. It just seems like an annoying plague that I ultimately can't do much about.
It's obvious what's going on when they clearly do it the moment that the game has turned around against their favor or they are going to lose in a few turns. And I just find myself muttering "lose with grace and just press the concede button". That's what I do if I see I clearly am going to lose in a turn or two.
It's especially obvious and unecessary when people are literally running mono-red rush or burn decks. You don't need to even use the time out feature at all with that. Actually, even when playing a slow control deck, I've never once used the time out feature myself at all.
And if people are going to abandon the game midway to go cook something, they shouldn't have started the game.
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.
'
If so, it's one of the most cheesy win cons ever.
Control has always had those grindy win cons. UW control in Theros standard had a tier 1 deck with Elixir of Immortality that was used to mill the opponent. The Teferi tuck plan is usually used as a get an emblem then tuck teferi infinitely to exile a permanent each turn, but can be used just to stave off mill too.
Control definitely has its wild win cons at times and can be a pain. I am a running an Esper control deck with Teferi myself, among other decks. But I never thought to use Teferi in the way I describe, I figure its ultimate is "ouch" enough as it is. The particular spin on Esper control I'm running, though, is a bit different than the net decks with Karn and Teferi that I see everywhere. My primary planeswalker and win con is actually Kaya, in a deck filled with exile cards. Teferi is only there for further support and "win more" or as an alternate win con.
After encountering the "Teferi tucking" thing, though, I still think that's really cheesy. Cheesier than simply using its ultimate.
Arcane Banishment2WU
Enchantment (U)
Flash
When Arcane Banishment enters the battlefield, exile target spell until Arcane Banishment leaves the battlefield.
Your opponents can't play spells with the same name as the exiled card.
Dhall, the ScrivenerWB
Legendary Creature - Gith Scribe (R)
When Dhall, the Scrivener enters the battlefield, exile all creature and planeswalker cards from all graveyards.
If a creature or planeswalker card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Players can't play spells with the same name as cards exiled this way.
2/2
IIW: Creatures or planeswalkers taken from HP Lovecraft
Rite of SpringGW
Instant (U)
Distribute three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three target creatures. "There is always room to grow through the cycle of life."
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.
'
If so, it's one of the most cheesy win cons ever.
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.
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.
I'm mostly doing a mix of Bo1 and Bo1-up-to-10 via the constructed events for extra gold and cards with the extra gems left over after buying packs.
At first I was doing really good, and then it started to seem like I endlessly am going up against mono-red and that's especially a losing proposition in a matchup against what is essentially a Mardu weenie/token deck. In the "best of up to 10" events, after a winning streak I'd start going up against like 3 mono-red decks in a row and losing, even with Tajic, Legion's Edge and Unbreakable Formation in my deck. I literally put Unbreakable Formation from my sideboard into the mainboard because of this endless "mono red rush wins on turn 4 or 5" scenario.
Then I made an Esper control deck and noticed my matchups radically change, much more diverse matchups, and I started to do good again.
After investigating further on Youtube, it seems like there are good reasons to believe that MTG Arena is somewhat rigged such that there is some algorithm in the background matching you up based on deck win percentages and rankings. The more you progress beyond the first match in events, the more the algorithm purposefully matches you up with others who are winning more. This is partly confirmed by the devs themselves. So it isn't as based on pure chance as paper MTG for matchups and is sort of set up to stop you from winning too much gold too quickly.
The other frustration I'm sometimes finding with MTG Arena is that I could swear a chunk of the players are trolls or are cheesing the system. As in they abuse the "time out" feature to try to get others to rage quit or otherwise stretch the time of play out unnecessarily. I've spent way too many matches swearing under my breath waiting for the other player to do something, and I'm pretty sure it's not just the server being slow.
Vecna, the Lich King3UB
Legendary Planeswalker - Vecna (M)
+1: Look at the top three cards of your library. You may put a card from among them into your hand, then put the rest into your graveyard.
+0: Until end of turn, Vecna, the Lich King becomes a copy of target creature card in a graveyard. It's still a planeswalker.
-8: Return all creature cards from all graveyards to the battlefield under your control.
4
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.
Votes: Voidnothing, Indighost Underworld NightmareUB
Enchantment (R)
Whenever an opponent or a spell controlled by an opponent is targeted by a spell or ability, that player or that spell's controller loses 2 life. "In the depths of the maze of dreams, one's soul fades away."
the wording on this is difficult to parse. i had to read it several times to convince myself the trigger wasn't dealing damage to the owner of the targeting agent. i might recommend breaking it up into two triggers.
Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell, that player loses 2 life.
Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls is countered, that player loses 2 life. (Assuming you're not concerned with the few corner cases where a spell is targeted and not being countered.)
Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell or ability they don't control, that opponent loses 2 life. (definitely more wordy)
Know your Audience2BB
Enchantment - Aura (Rare)
Spectacle 4BR
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature. If Know your Audience's Spectacle cost was paid, enchanted creature also has trample and haste.
At the end of turn, sacrifice enchanted creature.
Just wondering if this was intended to untap a tapped creature, since it can potentially give haste to a tapped creature? there's no 'untap' in the description.
Also with these short term gain control spells that result in a dead creature, does the Aura add to the design an element that wouldn't be achieved with a sorcery/instant?
I liked both of these, but they were causing me some head scratching to figure out.
I've tried other wordings for this in the past but this one seemed an improvement and the most concise. The one thing you suggest that I think might both clear things up and put a little bit of a cap on what it does is adding "they don't control", so that it doesn't also mean that your opponent pings themselves whenever they target themselves with a spell or whenever they try to copy one of their own spells.
It's basically intended to be a much more versatile Megrim / Liliana's Caress that not only also applies to counterspells but even applies to blue pseudo-counterspell abilities like "return target spell to its owner's hand". Would fit right into the 8-rack deck archetype, but expand its options to blue control.
Technically, as worded, it also applies to burn spells and literally any spell or ability that targets a player or opponent. So it's a pretty open-ended card that I could see being exploited in Grixis or Esper quite easily. Modern would have a field day.
Natural AbsorptionGW
Instant (U)
Target creature or planeswalker gains indestructible until end of turn. Put a +1/+1 or loyalty counter on that creature or planeswalker. "Precious energy, flow right into me."
Astral Jaunt WU
Instant (U)
Choose one:
Reporting never occurred to me really, or capturing evidence. It just seems like an annoying plague that I ultimately can't do much about.
It's obvious what's going on when they clearly do it the moment that the game has turned around against their favor or they are going to lose in a few turns. And I just find myself muttering "lose with grace and just press the concede button". That's what I do if I see I clearly am going to lose in a turn or two.
It's especially obvious and unecessary when people are literally running mono-red rush or burn decks. You don't need to even use the time out feature at all with that. Actually, even when playing a slow control deck, I've never once used the time out feature myself at all.
And if people are going to abandon the game midway to go cook something, they shouldn't have started the game.
Control definitely has its wild win cons at times and can be a pain. I am a running an Esper control deck with Teferi myself, among other decks. But I never thought to use Teferi in the way I describe, I figure its ultimate is "ouch" enough as it is. The particular spin on Esper control I'm running, though, is a bit different than the net decks with Karn and Teferi that I see everywhere. My primary planeswalker and win con is actually Kaya, in a deck filled with exile cards. Teferi is only there for further support and "win more" or as an alternate win con.
After encountering the "Teferi tucking" thing, though, I still think that's really cheesy. Cheesier than simply using its ultimate.
Arcane Banishment 2WU
Enchantment (U)
Flash
When Arcane Banishment enters the battlefield, exile target spell until Arcane Banishment leaves the battlefield.
Your opponents can't play spells with the same name as the exiled card.
Dhall, the Scrivener WB
Legendary Creature - Gith Scribe (R)
When Dhall, the Scrivener enters the battlefield, exile all creature and planeswalker cards from all graveyards.
If a creature or planeswalker card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Players can't play spells with the same name as cards exiled this way.
2/2
IIW: Creatures or planeswalkers taken from HP Lovecraft
Ashanti, the Protectorate 3GW
Legendary Creature - Angel (R)
Flying
You and spells you control have hexproof.
4/4
Rite of Spring GW
Instant (U)
Distribute three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three target creatures.
"There is always room to grow through the cycle of life."
Divine Writ 3W
Enchantment (R)
When Divine Writ enters the battlefield, choose one:
If so, it's one of the most cheesy win cons ever.
I'm mostly doing a mix of Bo1 and Bo1-up-to-10 via the constructed events for extra gold and cards with the extra gems left over after buying packs.
At first I was doing really good, and then it started to seem like I endlessly am going up against mono-red and that's especially a losing proposition in a matchup against what is essentially a Mardu weenie/token deck. In the "best of up to 10" events, after a winning streak I'd start going up against like 3 mono-red decks in a row and losing, even with Tajic, Legion's Edge and Unbreakable Formation in my deck. I literally put Unbreakable Formation from my sideboard into the mainboard because of this endless "mono red rush wins on turn 4 or 5" scenario.
Then I made an Esper control deck and noticed my matchups radically change, much more diverse matchups, and I started to do good again.
After investigating further on Youtube, it seems like there are good reasons to believe that MTG Arena is somewhat rigged such that there is some algorithm in the background matching you up based on deck win percentages and rankings. The more you progress beyond the first match in events, the more the algorithm purposefully matches you up with others who are winning more. This is partly confirmed by the devs themselves. So it isn't as based on pure chance as paper MTG for matchups and is sort of set up to stop you from winning too much gold too quickly.
The other frustration I'm sometimes finding with MTG Arena is that I could swear a chunk of the players are trolls or are cheesing the system. As in they abuse the "time out" feature to try to get others to rage quit or otherwise stretch the time of play out unnecessarily. I've spent way too many matches swearing under my breath waiting for the other player to do something, and I'm pretty sure it's not just the server being slow.
Vecna, the Lich King 3UB
Legendary Planeswalker - Vecna (M)
+1: Look at the top three cards of your library. You may put a card from among them into your hand, then put the rest into your graveyard.
+0: Until end of turn, Vecna, the Lich King becomes a copy of target creature card in a graveyard. It's still a planeswalker.
-8: Return all creature cards from all graveyards to the battlefield under your control.
4
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.
I've tried other wordings for this in the past but this one seemed an improvement and the most concise. The one thing you suggest that I think might both clear things up and put a little bit of a cap on what it does is adding "they don't control", so that it doesn't also mean that your opponent pings themselves whenever they target themselves with a spell or whenever they try to copy one of their own spells.
It's basically intended to be a much more versatile Megrim / Liliana's Caress that not only also applies to counterspells but even applies to blue pseudo-counterspell abilities like "return target spell to its owner's hand". Would fit right into the 8-rack deck archetype, but expand its options to blue control.
Technically, as worded, it also applies to burn spells and literally any spell or ability that targets a player or opponent. So it's a pretty open-ended card that I could see being exploited in Grixis or Esper quite easily. Modern would have a field day.
Natural Absorption GW
Instant (U)
Target creature or planeswalker gains indestructible until end of turn. Put a +1/+1 or loyalty counter on that creature or planeswalker.
"Precious energy, flow right into me."