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I enjoyed TMNT for a few days, but the set is too small to sink your teeth into for a long time. To boot, Arena recently put March of the Machines, my all-time favorite Limited format, on for a flashback week, so I stopped playing TMNT completely. Once the ACQ is over, it will most likely be my last experience with the set. I've always been a major fan of flashback drafts, and Arena is getting to the point where there are so many sets to look back fondly on. I had so much fun with MOM that I decided to look through all the sets to find ones I'd look forward to playing again. My taste is slightly different from the general population, as anything too simple would be dismissed. I don't mind losing to busted rares if it means I occasionally get to play with them. I also don't enjoy hyper-aggressive formats where games don't develop much past the first few turns. I want to draft a deck that does something cool, and I have enough time in games to watch it happen. Other lists would look much different because a lot of people like the typical Limited feel of curving out creatures, attacking, and casting a well-timed combat trick. That's not for me, at least not on repeat. NEO is an example of a set people loved, but my Arena experiences were just casting a bunch of above-the-curve one-drops, curving out, and attacking every turn. I won a lot, but it wasn't that appealing. My list is below. 8) Dominaria The OG Dominaria is a work of art. It brought new cards to fit into the oldest MTG world and paired them with some of the game's classics like Icy Manipulator. The format has Kicker, one of the all-time best Limited mechanics, combined with a flat power level. The rares weren't super-toxic, and a lot were build-around style cards that could play on their own or be pushed. The Mirari Conjecture is a perfect example of a card that was strong but required you to draft in an atypical way. Speaking of, the beloved Sagas were first introduced in Dominaria. I would bump this up a tier if I hadn't drafted it so much. Between this and number seven, it's basically a tie. 7) Innistrad: Midnight Hunt I played Innistrad Midnight Hunt mostly off Arena, but I won a ton and did so drafting a variety of decks based on how the meta shifted. This format had an evolving Limited metagame. Dimir was the out-of-the-gate best archetype. As it became more contested, people often pivoted to Azorious as the next best archetype, aggressively drafting cards like Luminarch Veteran, which I infamously called out as being overplayed. As the set developed, I started drafting more UG self-mill decks and any deck capitalizing on getting Rise of the Ants later than I should have. The set's biggest strength was how well it put cards into the graveyard and how well it utilized the cards it put there. 6) Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth I had a love-hate relationship with LOTR. Izzet was the one archetype I found very fun. Green multicolor decks were also fun but not as strong as black decks. "The ring tempts you" is one of my all-time favorite Limited mechanics, as well as the Dungeon system from which it was derived. (Shout out to Alchemy: Baldur's Gate, which would be high on the list, but I chose not to include any Alchemy.) Lord of the Rings is much higher for more people. Admittedly, I didn't play as much of this set as others because it was the first released when I had taken a break from competitive MTG. I stopped playing the set because it lost my interest after a bit. LOTR had a solid power level, cool flavor, and an all-time great Limited mechanic, so it does enough to get onto the list. 5) Shadows Over Innistrad: Remastered This was hard to rate because of how one set function was implemented. There was a bonus sheet that changed weekly when it was released. Some were more compelling than others. Overall, this is a fantastic original set that was remastered to heighten the power level and made to feel more like a Masters set than a straight-to-Standard block. It also included a ton of cards from the original Innistrad, which is my number two all-time straight-to-Standard draft set. Shadows Over Innistrad had a variety of fun archetypes. Whether it be self-mill, spells matter, or Investigate, as well as occasional Manic Scribe mill decks. There were so many unique archetypes that involved using set-specific mechanics that it still feels new, even though the original set is nearing its 10-year anniversary. I'll always make time to do a few drafts with this set when it returns to Arena. 4) Outlaws of Thunder Junction Many, myself included, hated calling a new set OTJ, given that the original "OTJ", called Odyssey, Torment, Judgement, was a fan favorite Limited format over 20 years ago. However, after playing the new OTJ, I was proud to call this the masterpiece OTJ. I will note that this is a controversial take. OTJ gets a lot of flak from the general public because of how overpowered a lot of the rares were, especially some of the bonus sheet rares. The reason I like this set so much is because of its high power level. At times, some decks felt close to Cube's strength when you managed to get a Bonny Pall and an Overwhelming Forces in the same deck. Between Breaking News and The Big Score, there were several powerful cards in the set. Crimes was also an awesome mechanic to try and draft around. Bonus sheets are one of the best things to happen to Limited Magic. The ability to replay goes through the roof when they're present, and OTJ did bonus sheets well. Strixhaven is going back to the every-pack bonus sheet model. I hope it continues doing that for quite some time. 3) Modern Horizons 3 This is kind of cheating, as it's technically a Masters set, which are some of the best Limited experiences you'll ever have. Nonetheless, it's a playable Arena format they occasionally revisit. Modern Horizons 3 mostly gets to the top three of my list because it's a higher power level and recycles Magic's best Limited mechanics, such as kicker, cycling, energy, and the list goes on. Energy decks were by far my favorite to draft. The format tempo was faster than I'd like, but it was manageable. Normally, I still felt like my chances were good when I could try to get my deck to do a cool thing. This is a really fun set that I'm happy to play whenever it's available. I couldn't play it forever, though. 2) Final Fantasy This is an all-time banger that is likely in my top five sets ever. Final Fantasy had a bunch of fun archetypes to draft. I even enjoyed drafting a specific type of aggro deck, Orzhov Phantom Train. Izzet was everyone's best deck, but my best decks were often Towns decks, just not a replicable strategy. My all-time favorite draft deck comes from this format (pictured below), so it's immediately moving up on my list. FF Random Encounter The set had tons of playables, the power level was fairly flat, and almost every card had a use case. Also, the flavor was on point and fun, not that I'm too big on that, but it certainly doesn't hurt. This set was so popular that they flashed it back only a month or two after it was taken off Arena. It was too fresh for me to jump back into over a new set, but it's one I'll happily revisit when it's next available. 1) March of the Machines MOM is the best all-time Limited format and not just on Arena. The whole reason I'm writing about this topic is how much fun I had playing MOM the past week. There are a number of reasons why MOM is great, but I'll point out a few I noticed. While blue was clearly the best color, it wasn't so far out of whack that you couldn't win if you didn't play blue. Dimir was widely considered the best color combination, but it corrected itself easily. You could win by drafting soup decks and scooping up all the powerful cards. Battles are an all-time great Limited mechanic because they made it imperative to play to the board early, either to attack or defend. Attacking battles later in the game could sometimes not be worth the effort because you'd essentially be giving your opponent a large amount of life for a card. You had to use judgment to determine when it was and wasn't worth it. The bonus sheet was spot-on, with few complete misses. It was all Legendary creatures, but this cycle also included Companions, which is one of the best Limited mechanics to ever be introduced. However, since it's only on rares, it's not a mechanic you get to utilize often. MOM also had an almost perfect amount of mana sinks. I never felt like I lost because I ran out of things to do. Instead, if I lost, I felt it was because I made a bad choice or spent my mana incorrectly. Incubator Tokens and the transform ability were the perfect additions, making it feel like I always had an option. Removal was plentiful and often led to extremely interactive games. Most importantly, I felt like every draft pick and decision mattered. It's rare that either of those things is true in Limited sets, yet MOM managed to make the drafts and gameplay tough, intense, and rewarding. This is my list of the top eight Arena Limited formats. My criteria are based on how eager I would be to redraft them at this point in time. With some Strixhaven leaks showing up, it's only a matter of time before I have to get more serious for the PT, so it was nice to take a week to enjoy what I love most about this game.

TMNT Limited came out a few weeks ago, but I've been catching up on everything else since the AC. TMNT faces an uphill battle as a small set with the pick two option due to Spider-Man's resounding failure. One of the most asked questions in my stream is "How are you liking TMNT Draft?" I always answer roughly the same way: I think it's fun but ultimately not a format where I'd want to play 100 drafts. TMNT draft is about as good as it could be for what it is: a small set that will limit options while drafting. There are only five supported archetypes, making it harder to continue having new experiences. That said, I do enjoy the set. It's well balanced, and while there are some archetypes I prefer to others, ultimately they all have potential. I strongly prefer pick one to pick two, as it's eight players, and you can adjust to signals at a slower pace. Pick two is easier to read and send signals, but it's not my preference. White decks are my least favorite, mostly because I don't enjoy aggressive play styles, and I'm always looking to draft a Pizza deck. We'll get into that shortly. Izzet Artifacts is my favorite normal archetype. It has synergy, access to removal, and can be drafted as a slower deck or an aggressive shell. It's very flexible. I lose to Orzhov Sneak the most. The sneak deck is extremely punishing. If you miss plays early, your opponent will destroy you with tempo. These low-to-the-ground decks' biggest flaw is the tendency to flood out or run out of gas. There are plenty of ways to reload, such as Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising. I draft Boros the least because I like to start in green decks, and it's hard to pivot into Boros. Simic and Golgari are similar. While they have themes, that's not how you draft them. Mutagen and Disappear are what you're supposed to do, but in both archetypes, I'm almost never in just two colors. I'm mostly looking to play as many colors as I can, hopefully supporting Everything Pizza. The mana in the format is really good with Duals and Escape Tunnel at common. Additionally, the format is somewhat slow if you can weather the storm against the aggro decks on the first couple of turns. The set is full of strong rares and uncommons. Getting to play any number of strong cards is an easy way to gain a massive deck advantage. Even some of the cards with the best win rates aren't strong in a vacuum. An example is Dream Beavers. It's a solid card but not one you want on turns other than turn one. It facilitates all the sneak effects and grants continued value as you bounce it back with sneak. It's not winning the game on its own. Others may be fighting for this card, and I can ignore it and draft slower, more powerful decks. I aim to win games the easy way: by playing more powerful cards than my opponent, turn after turn. The format is punishing, so it's important to make plays early and be mindful of your curve. You can't take a turn or two off. The cards are too powerful to recover from, and there aren't many sweepers or catch-up cards. For this reason, I'm low on cards that require a board presence, like Tenderize. Let's take a look at some successful decks I drafted. Izzet Artifacts More than ever, gold cards are a strong signpost for open archetypes. Almost all of the uncommon signposts are strong, and all of them are at least good, with some being great. While some are better than others, their presence in a pack tends to indicate that the archetype is open. In this deck, I picked up quite a few Baxter Stockman. I could have two more, but as Legends, I took other strong cards over them. Getting into any deck often requires identifying whether the cards are in a pack picks three or four pack one, which is an indication to dive right in. In this specific draft, it wasn't until pack two when there were tons of Izzet that I could dive in safely. I had a couple of strong rares, which is necessary in small formats. Uncommons are powerful enough in this set that if you get a bunch, you won't necessarily need rares. In that event, you'll also usually end up with rares. Two-color decks, when open, tend to be solid and strong, but you can go deeper if you embrace the pizza. 5c Pizza My favorite archetype in the format is green-based multicolor decks. I prefer Golgari because of one very strong interaction. Anchovy & Banana Pizza combined with Ragamuffin Raptor is an interaction that does it all: interaction, value, and a board presence, all with a two-card combo of easy-to-pick-up commons. Anchovy Pizza is not a card BW decks take aggressively. They take it, but this is where it shines. This archetype also lets you branch into any splash you want because of Frog Butler, the common land fixing, and Everything Pizza, which goes criminally late. Everything Pizza is not the kind of card the new drafters take. They stick more to two-color decks. Those decks are fine, but Everything Pizza fixes your mana, gives you a game piece to sacrifice to various effects, and gives you a powerful late-game effect that is good enough to win the game with its activation cost. Black offers efficient removal with Stomped by the Foot and unconditional removal with Anchovy & Banana Pizza. Pizza also provides life gain to get out of reach of various burn effects. This archetype allows you to gobble up any of the powerful rares or uncommons you come across. If this deck needed or wanted it, I could have easily played Baxter, but my deck was strong enough that I didn't need to bother. The best uncommon to get in this archetype, outside of Everything Pizza, is Courier of Comestibles. This specific deck didn't have powerful splashes; however, the mana allowed me to play some good cards like Donatello and Karai's Technique. While these aren't cards I'd typically splash, they were both excellent, providing a value creature and a way to sneak back my Courier for value. These five-color decks have given a lot of life to the format for me. I'll continue playing it up until the ACQ in a few weeks to try and earn my way back into the ACs since I had such a positive experience last time. If you're less experienced drafting five-color decks, I'd advise you to keep an eye out for the signpost uncommons. If some are coming, then by pick four or five of pack one, that's the archetype you should probably pivot to. Sometimes it's even worth abandoning good rares if the signal is strong enough. If you like Limited, I'd give this set a chance. It has tons of mixed reviews, but I think most people who don't like it weren't willing to give it a chance after Spider-Man.

TMNT is a small set, which may not have as much impact as a set like Lorwyn, but there are a few cards that could have the juice to impact Standard. Here's a list of cards that may immediately impact Standard. Cool but Rude If I've learned anything over the past few years about Magic, it's that Sagas almost always overperform in Standard. Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Artist's Talent, and Stormchaser's Talent are a few examples of cards that flew under the radar before becoming painfully obvious that they're broken. Cool but Rude, might be the opposite of that. This is a card that many people have their eyes on, and it plays nicely with Monument to Endurance. The most compelling home for the card is Rakdos Monument, which I tested thoroughly before the Arena Champs and decided was underpowered for the format. The deck's major issue was how it constantly ran out of gas, and your hand size mattered a lot. Discard outlets in the deck mostly put you down cards, so without a Monument, you struggled to produce enough threats compared to the interaction. Cool but Rude helps by allowing you to play a one-drop, attack, and discard a card without being down additional cards. This lets you pump your one-drops and put cards like Bloodghast into the graveyard. No doubt this is the perfect home for this card; however, I'm still skeptical that this doesn't play right into the issues I had with the deck, which were that you needed your one-drop to stick or you were constantly falling behind. There are several ways to utilize Cool but Rude, but I suspect Rakdos Monument will gain popularity now with new tools like Cool but Rude. This card looks good, and Sagas have always ended up better than they look, so I'm confident this card will find a home. If not now, then in Standard's future. Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker I played Simic Rhythm at the Arena Championship, and a struggle we had when building our list was finding a way to include cards that could interact with artifacts and enchantments against Lessons, such as Wistfulness and Reclamation Sage. Unfortunately, they often didn't line up well. Rec Sage would frequently be dead when they hadn't developed a Monument or Artist's Talent. Wistfulness, the better option, wasn't a card you could effectively Rhythm for, but did pack a punch when it lined up. Leatherhead is a nightmare for Lessons decks because it can take out their Monuments and has hexproof to make it immune to Lessons' incredible creature removal suite. If you happen to get counters onto it with, say, an Ouroboroid, then you can remove those counters and let it keep hexproof. Leatherhead seems like an incredible addition to a wide variety of green decks. It may be one of the best Standard cards in the set in terms of its potential immediate impact. Krang, Master Mind Krang looks flat-out broken in a traditional affinity-style deck. It may be difficult in Standard to get your desired quantity of artifacts; however, Krang pays you for dumping a bunch of cheap artifacts into play. Ideally, it's the last card out of your hand, but Krang is your deck's focal point if you can build a deck in that manner. It's a potent threat that draws four cards at an obscene rate. While there's currently no home for the card, Krang is a build-around that may be worth building around. I plan to look at this card more, which will force me to examine artifacts from older sets to see if there is a way to take advantage of them. With a five-year Standard on the menu, cards like Krang can have an immediate impact but also can line up well as more artifacts get rolled out with additional sets. Krang needs support to be viable, but if that support arrives, then Krang could be one of the more important cards from TMNT. Agent Bishop, Man in Black I was so focused on the Arena Champs recently that I didn't bother looking over the TMNT previews. I first saw this card in play in the Limited early-access streamer event. Unless you have an immediate answer, it felt nearly unbeatable. While it's easy to interact with, you can often play it on turns your opponent doesn't have removal up. You'd want this card near the top of your curve, but if you're able to slam it and it goes unchecked, it's going to quickly run away with the game. We've had cards like this before at lower mana costs, Luminarch Aspirant for example, but the difference is this card is double the effect for only a single mana more. I'd equate Agent Bishop as a more narrow Goblin Rabblemaster. You need to play cheap creatures so that at least one other creature is in play when you cast it, but it has a similar effect in that it will quickly close the game if left unchecked. Agent Bishop is more of a maybe than other cards on this list. Creatures like this seem to be better than they look on their face, so I think Agent Bishop has a chance to have a big impact, especially in a format like Standard when a card like Voice of Victory exists. Death in the Family Black got the short end of the stick in this set, so the best, most reliable pick would just be this simple, solid removal spell, Death in the Family. Standard has no shortage of removal options these days since it has so many sets to choose from, but Death in the Family's restriction to a three-mana value will make it a good option against some of the format's threats because of the ability to exile. It's not an exciting card, but it will see some play and is another tool in black's removal suite. North Wind Avatar North Wind Avatar is by far my favorite TMNT card. Do I think this is the best card in the set? No. It's just simply my favorite. North Wind Avatar is a five-mana, 5/5 dragon that Demonic Tutors when it enters the battlefield. The cost is having those cards in your sideboard that you want to tutor for, which makes deck and sideboard building more challenging and rewarding. North Wind Avatar's rate isn't fantastic but not too bad. It has an immediate impact on the board and will usually dominate. By the nature of the "wish" effect, it can find cards in any situation. If you're ahead on board, then it can help search for a counterspell to lock the game up. If you're behind, then it can find a sweeper to reset the board. If you're setting up a combo? This card can locate the combo piece you're missing. Maybe your opponent's deck is heavily focused on using the graveyard? Get that Soul-Guide Lantern or whatever other graveyard hate you need. Large Standard will give us a high amount of narrow but efficient interaction that North Wind Avatar gives you access to without the cost of putting them into your main deck. I'm skeptical of a five-mana, 5/5 that doesn't affect the board immediately in other ways can see play in five-year Standard. If any could, North Wind Avatar is the one. I'm hoping North Wind Avatar has some function because it's almost there. TMNT looks solid so far. It's small, so it doesn't have a massive impact yet. I would look at these cards immediately if I were building Standard decks for a tournament in the next few weeks. Next week, I'll dive into TMNT Limited, a format that's been surprisingly fun.

This past weekend, I took my team's cub deck that I wrote about last week to a top 8 finish at AC11. This landed me a cool $7,000 and an invitation to the Pro Tour. I've said before and I'll say again that I'm not actively pursuing the Pro Tour, but if I can earn an invite from my computer chair to play in one of my favorite cities, Las Vegas, then I guess I'll do just that. As a reminder, here's the 75 I registered last weekend: Going into the event, we were confident that the top two represented decks would be Mono Green Landfall and Izzet Lessons. Simic Cub plays Lessons close, and a majority of the team believed Simic was a firm favorite while I'm more on the side of it being a coin toss. Landfall, however, is an easy matchup. Leading up to the event, Dimir Midrange was also a popular deck, though a risky choice because Landfall was represented by one in four players. Dimir Midrange is also a good matchup for Simic Cub decks. Because we weren't sure on the decks beyond the top two, Cub seemed like a great choice for the event. We were all happy when we saw the meta breakdown and cautiously optimistic moving into the event. As the event progressed, we noticed that none of our six pilots in the first three rounds had played against a single copy of Landfall, the deck we came to beat. Overall, we were doing poorly on the Cub side of things. Inevitably, we started to hit our good matchups, and our remaining teammates finally played the matchups we expected rather than being paired against decks like Izzet Elementals, which was only piloted by a few players in the whole field. I managed to only play against three different decks the entire event. I played against Landfall twice at the tail end of day one and against Dimir Midrange at the start of day one and in a feature match where I beat it to advance to day two and into the top 16. That leaves six more total rounds left, all against the same deck, Izzet Lessons. The six matches felt like coin flips to me, and sure enough, I went 3-3 overall. We didn't keep track of the team records in total, but I'm confident we had a noticeably better win rate against Lessons than I anticipated. One deck stood out to the team as an extremely difficult matchup, which we did not prepare for, and that was Izzet Prowess. Some players used and dismissed it early in testing. We didn't anticipate it being a large part of the metagame, so it wasn't worth the time to test the matchup because it wouldn't change any card choices or considerations of what we'd play. In reality, it seems like Izzet Prowess is a great deck that has a lot more opportunity in this newly open and revolving meta than we anticipated. Moving forward, I wouldn't recommend Cub, but I also wouldn't say it's a bad choice. It was a good metagame call for just one tournament. Moving forward, it's probably an average call, but there's no reason to play it without Landfall dominating the metagame. The format is a revolving door. If you're playing online, it's easy enough to change decks week to week or day to day. In paper, cards are expensive and tournaments are few and far between, so the metagame stays more stagnant, which also makes changing your deck more difficult and less relevant. If you wanted a deck that is good in any metagame? It's Izzet Lessons or a deck like Dimir Excruciator. Lessons plays everything close, has some of the best high-roll draws in the format, and is adaptable from metagame to metagame. Excruciator is similar in that it's not overly powerful, but it plays everything close, has a chance to beat anything, and doesn't have a matchup that you have to avoid. While I was going to write up a sideboard guide for Cub, and we had planned to in house, it was impossible. The adjustments you make with Cub will be so list dependent for both you and your opponent, and some changes so marginal, that it's difficult to pin down how you want to change your deck. Ideally, you will have a good mix of mana creatures and payoffs. While the payoffs matter, trimming mana creatures and such is a tough thing to pin down. I could play thousands of matchups with Cub and still not know if I'm supposed to trim 3 Leyline Weavers or 2 of them and a Pollinator. What I can do is show you the visual sideboarding notes I had for the tournament that I shared with my team. Cards on the right of the land are mostly in the "unclear" category and I'll explain them with each matchup. vs. Landfall This is the exact configuration of our list I wanted against Landfall. Wistfullness is not exciting, but the only games you lose against Landfall involve the trample ability. Whether it's Hydra or Ascension that get you, you're trying to avoid dying to those things. Otherwise you can goldfish much faster and more consistently than them. Spell Pierce over a Wistfulness is also reasonable to snipe the Ascension on the stack, which is a massive tempo positive way that can swing a game. It's completely dead other times that it's drawn. The number one thing you can do to increase your win rate in this matchup is mulligan to hands that get on board quickly with a payoff. You can comfortably win games with five cards in this matchup, so don't keep hands without mana creatures and hopefully a Rhythm, Ouroboroid, or at the bare minimum a Riddler, however that's only to find Rhythms and Ouroboroids quickly. vs. Lessons I was bringing in two Unable to Scream on the draw and bounced around from having zero to two copies on the play. Detect Intrusion is a card that can have a high impact, but it can also be tough to weave in. This is a matchup where your opponent will almost always win the longer games, and you will win the shorter and mid-sized games. You are asked to get and stay on board early. You can survive a sweeper if your follow-up is great. Playing around sweepers often leads to falling behind, so I tend to play into them with a backup plan when they have it. With no Screams in deck, I filled out with Leyline Weavers. As you can see, there are 61 cards. I'd go up and down on the number of Weavers based on how many Screams I wanted. In retrospect, I'd probably cut a Wistfulness for a Reclamation Sage in the sideboard. Despite drawing it in testing several times where it was an almost dead card, it's only good if your opponent gets going and you have an overwhelming board presence prior to that, thus having a purely reactive card feels bad. vs. Mirror This is a full-on race. Mull aggressively. Riddler always allows for that and getting on board fast is the key. vs. Excruciator Sadly, I didn't take a snap of my sideboard for this one, but the general gist is this matchup isn't that bad. You want to get some pressure on the battlefield, and it usually comes down to them resolving a Demon Trigger early or a sweeper in the midgame. If you can stop those things, you can usually win. This is a 50-50 matchup, maybe slightly worse. Your opponent can build their deck in a way that's harder to beat, but it's at the cost of winning many other matchups. Trim something on the right of the lands. You want to come out fast, but you need cards with impact. Most importantly, get a bunch of counter magic in and lean on it when you get an overwhelming board. vs. Dimir Mid Nothing is exciting in the pile to the right. The matchup is great, and the ways you lose are almost always on the draw against a good Kaito start when your hand isn't that explosive. Maw is good for resetting the Kaito while also developing on board. Your opponent doesn't have many sweepers in their list, usually one max in the sideboard, so you can build your deck as normal. Hoof was contentious in my testing team. I left it in because it seemed better than a card like Curator, which sizes up fine against them as a two-mana 3/3 with little upside, but it's not part of your core plan against your opponent. The best way to beat Kaito is to just get on board so that it's difficult for your opponent to spend their turn putting it onto the battlefield. This is an extremely good matchup. vs. 4c Elementals This isn't a matchup we expected much from, which is why we played the deck. It's fairly bad, as is any Sunderflock deck, but not unwinnable. It's possible you want Into the Flood Maw. You could trim a Wistfulness and a mana creature or something. Wistfulness is mostly here to interact with Roaming Throne, while allowing you to have an elemental in play if they manage to stick a Sunderflock. It's a bad matchup that you don't want to see on the pairings sheet. vs. SpellEmentals This is probably the most unsure we were about sideboarding, I'd approach this matchup by finding holes in their draws. Ideally, you play to the board as fast as possible to counter and keep elementals off the battlefield while setting up a win. There's 64 here. I would cut a few Rhythms, the Wistfulness, and a mana creature, probably Weaver. Maws can keep them off Flocks in theory, especially if you whittle their graveyard down with curators and keep their creatures more expensive to cast. Cub is an easy deck to play. The only hard part was figuring out mana on big Rhythm turns, which mostly only come up in mirrors and against Landfall. In both instances, I found if I couldn't beat the Arena rope to count properly, then I could often find a Marang River Regent and reset their board to a spot I could almost always win. Moving forward, there are a few things I'd change about the deck if i had to play it, but I'm looking forward to seeing how things evolve if Cub goes back into hibernation. With my top 8, I'll once again head to the Pro Tour, testing with my old teammates. I also squeezed in a few attempts at the Arena Championships Limited Qualifier and managed to spike, so I have that to look forward to, as well. Overall, it was just a weekend of Siggy winning again. Next week, we'll talk all about Ninja Turtles. See you then.

I'm writing this just before AC11. The Arena Championship is the closest thing you'll get these days to a Pro Tour held on MTG Arena, and for that reason I tested for it quite extensively. While we tried a bunch of off-meta decks and new brews, nothing stood out above the best decks of the format. This is a format where judging the metagame is extremely important, and if you can't do that accurately, just play the deck you know best. What was my weapon of choice? Well, it's the one deck that going into testing I said I will outright not want to play: Simic Cub. It was decimated at the Pro Tour, and I thought there was no chance the metagame would flip enough to make it viable again so soon. The decks at the Pro Tour trounced Simic Cub and forced it into hibernation. So what changed? Well, one deck started to stand out as the clear winner of how the metagame broke down — Izzet Lessons. It was favorable against a lot of the non-Cub decks, and it even closely played decks it was weak against. For the weekend after the PT Lessons, and even Dimir Midrange, were the big winners at events like the ACQ. What deck has a good matchup against both of those decks? Well, this other Cub deck that's been hibernating, Mono-Green Landfall, destroys Dimir Midrange and has a strong Lessons matchup. It's a strong proactive deck that can go toe to toe with most decks in the format. This isn't a deck that came from nowhere either. When Lessons was dominant prior to Lorwyn's release, the deck was in its preliminary form and was built to attack Lessons. Mono-Green Landfall got pushed out of the format originally because of its rancid matchup against Simic Cub. As you can see, the wheel keeps spinning. Mono-Green is still an incredible deck and has tools to beat anything in the format. However depending on lists, Simic Cub is as good as it gets in the matchup. Landfall's scariest cards for Cub is Mossborn Hydra, Earthbender Ascension, and Mightform Harmonizer, but everything else is negligible. It's almost a deterministic win from Simic Cub's side if you draw a Nature's Rhythm and a couple of mana-producing creatures on the play. Simic Cub got smashed at the Pro Tour by decks like Spellementals and other hateful decks, but those decks don't perform as well as once Cub was pushed out of the metagame and not as well against Mono-Green Landfall either. Decks featuring the card Sunderflock are almost non-existent. Before any event, an exercise I do with my teammates, who are almost always a different group of great players depending on the event, is to make predictions on what we expect the metagame to be. Here was my prediction for this event: Actual metagame: "Not including us" doing some heavy lifting here as we account for 6 of the 14 players playing Simic, and as you can see with Excruciator that brings us to 6.7% of the field with my team withstanding. I overestimated Demons and Dimir Mid, but Demons is closer than it looks given various similar Dimir Control decks represented in the "other" category. More people than we expected realized just how bad Dimir Midrange is in this metagame. It could come back to being a fine choice if Cub starts to overperform putting a bunch more Elemental and Control decks into the metagame. I'm proud of my ability to read a metagame, and this is one of the tougher metagames to call because of the high number of ebbs and flows. Not only did I predict the metagame, pen to paper, I put my money where my mouth was and played the deck I felt was best suited for the metagame, or at least the best deck we had access to. It's possible someone has broken it in that other category and maybe the meta gets shaken up once again. The largest chunk of the metagame (Landfall, Lessons, and Demons) is exactly what we want to see. I won't claim the Demons matchup is great, but it's winnable and not too bad. Lessons and Landfall range from solidly good in Lessons to overwhelmingly favorable in Landfall, depending on how many Mossborn Hydra your opponent has in their main deck. It's a much stronger card in game one than game two when we can bring in some interaction. If we did anything wrong testing for this event, it's not prepping against versions with four main deck Hydra, which would be the best way to build the deck for this breakdown, as it also would be quite good in mirrors to build your deck this way. Before we play this event, this is the exact reasonable breakdown we could expect. While the card choices of opponents remain to be seen, I'm extremely happy with our process and where we ended up. Hopefully, we can execute and one of us can take it down. While most of my team played this archetype, none of us played the exact 75, but only some very minor deviations. Here's my list: AC 11 Simic Cub I'm excited to get back in the ring in a high-level event, and there's still the first Arena Champs Qualifier this weekend even if I'm unable to convert. I'll be participating in both either way. This was an amazing Standard for a deep dive. I'm happy to get back in the ring again, as it's been low on my priority list, and arena tournaments are the only way I'm getting back into the competitive circuit. Next week, I'll go over my weekend of Magic, discuss my deck, and outline any changes I would have made. Wish me luck!

The Pro Tour was a few weeks ago and with it came various new archetypes to explore, creating an entirely new metagame. For the first time in a while, there is no discussion of banning cards in Standard. I think Standard is in one of the best places it's been. The PT Top 8 featured six unique decks. More decks that just missed, like Spellementals, had breakout performances. You would expect these decks to get narrowed down a couple of weeks later, but that has not been the case. The metagame is completely open. With that said, we had one meaningful event on Arena over the last week, which was an ACQ. While they don't release official accounts of the decks that qualified, plenty of players posted their winning lists to X. Dimir Midrange and Lessons were the new top decks that emerged. We also saw the PT Champ himself win with an updated Demons list. Other than that, Demons has been quiet elsewhere. After the Pro Tour, nearly all Pro Tour players agreed that Spellementals was the deck of the tournament, as it had an impressive performance. Despite this, I told other players that I thought it was fine for an event with an overrepresentation of Cub decks. Since then, it's fallen almost completely out of the metagame after its beating at the Pro Tour. This has decimated Sunderflock deck's edge. Now, both Spellementals and 4c Elementals, which had a Top 8 berth, seem like they're solidly in the tier 2 category. 4c Elementals plays nicely against Lessons with its bevy of Wistfullness, so it can attack Monuments and Artist's Talents. Cub decks haven't completely disappeared. A new deck has emerged as a top contender — Mono-Green. Landfall looks like a meme, but it's actually strong. Ross Merriam has been working a lot on the deck and playing it in several tournaments. Ross's Latest List Landfall has explosive starts with Cubs and Llanowar Elves, and it can play a grindy game with Greenshell and cards like Icetill Explorer and Saproling Nursery. With the rise of decks like Lessons and Dimir Midrange, Cub decks are having a resurgence, so the format has become cyclical. So, how can we get an edge in this format? Well, it's difficult to tell in a cyclical format which deck will surge each week. As I prepare for AC11, it's been hard to predict the metagame. The selection of players was odd because the qualifier events were a Historic event and two Sealed Deck events, so there were many Limited-only players. As a Limited enjoyer, I would never underestimate Limited players' skills. Regardless, my edge comes in if they're unfamiliar with testing for events like this. This format's best edges mostly come with one of the top decks and having plans for the top four or five decks. Make sure your plans are solid, tested, and able to maximize your win rate in each matchup regardless of whether it's good or bad. You should not try to play a deck that you think beats the best deck. There is truly no best deck at the moment. Every deck has a few good and bad matchups, some more than others. Your edge is knowing your deck, the format, and its interactions. This is unlikely to be a format where you just pick a deck that you kind of know and surprise the field. It's also not going to be won by picking a sideboard hate card that shuts down a deck. Everyone is actively solving the puzzle, so you're not going to surprise anyone. We have a legitimately fun and healthy Standard format with a lot of cool options. When some decks fall out of favor like Cubs, then decks will rise up that are weak to Cubs and beat other decks, which in turn triggers Cubs' comeback, like Ross suggests in this post. I don't know yet what I will play in AC11, and I have an important 72 hours in front of me. While I have a general idea of the decks I like and don't like, I have only eliminated some decks that I absolutely will not play, one of which is 4c Elementals. I don't think its matchups are good enough to warrant playing. With Badgermole Cub in hibernation for a short time, I would need to see PT levels of Cub to even consider it. We are more likely to see a more evenly spread metagame, which means you don't want to play decks like 4c Elementals that were initially brought to attack the best deck. Everything else mostly remains on the table. However, a lot of the work will get done this weekend, and I hope I can sleep well when I finally make my choice. For now, I want to focus on learning all the decks' strengths and weaknesses and report back when I find them all. Next week, I'll write about my deck choice. It's been a long time since I've been grinding for a tournament. I'm enjoying it somewhat, but there are many downsides to devoting tons of time for minimal edge in a tournament that ultimately won't change my life much. I'm just trying to enjoy the occasional high-level event and not put too much pressure on myself to perform. Let's see if this old dog can learn some new tricks.

This past weekend, we witnessed a seasoned professional player, Christoffer Larsen, put on a show, winning the Pro Tour in an entertaining fashion. I've known Chris since I was a mainstay on the Pro Tour. He's one of the scariest people you'd encounter, until you have a conversation with him and realize he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Chris is always fun to watch. He puts on a show for the cameras, and after several attempts, I'm happy he finally got to hoist the trophy on the Sunday stage. With AC11 coming up in just two weeks, Standard was on my mind the entire time, and I watched the coverage live on stream. The event's narrative was that Cub decks were the ones to beat, and beaten they were. Cubs were destroyed over the course of the tournament, posting a 40% win rate or worse throughout. This is rare for a deck as popular as Cub. We normally see the other side, where the most popular deck posts a win rate close to 50% because the more popular the deck is, the more likely it is to hover towards 50%. Cub decks were far below 50%, which is extremely concerning if you are an enjoyer. Everyone came to the Pro Tour ready to beat Badgermole Cub. There are cases where this happens, and many teams are incorrect about their matchup being favorable. In this instance, everyone cracked the code, leading to an event where a new meta was created of the decks that preyed on Cubs. Specifically, Sunderflock was a popular card that reset the board and forced the Cub decks to redeploy and potentially get their battlefield picked up again. Moving forward, that means we have a new metagame and new decks that will rise to the top. Then, we'll have more churn as these decks become targeted. This is Larsen's deck that won the event. I like this deck as one to beat moving forward. It's tough to attack because it can completely shred your hand, so adding a sideboard card or two just won't get it. You need to beat this deck by adopting a winning strategy against it, rather than decks like Spellementals that popped off at the event with an exceptionally high win rate despite not putting anyone in T8. Spellementals, by the admission of the team playing it, folds to Rest in Peace, so any deck playing that card has a good shot. Demons won the Pro Tour. It's the deck on everyone's minds because of its ability to navigate the Cub decks' metagame. Next is Spellementals, which not only overperformed but also saw every single player make day two of the event. While this has happened before, it's rare and the sign of a successful PT by the Boulder team. Here is Andy Garcia-Romo's list as their top-performing player. He lost a win in the last round to, you guessed it, a Rest in Peace Control deck. This was a tough pairing for Andy, but this deck is still a force to be reckoned with in the future. It's far less resilient than Excruciator, making it easier to adapt. It's also weaker than the bigger elemental decks, as we saw on camera. The elemental decks go bigger, and Sunderflock gets turned off, meaning everything will stay on the battlefield. This deck was exceptionally good for the event, but I'm more skeptical moving forward. The last deck from the Pro Tour was designed by no other than cftsoc, Temur Harmonizer, and piloted by Toni Portloan, who is quickly advancing to become a dominant player in today's Pro Tour scene. I've watched a lot of Toni's matches recently because of his success, and he plays with unbelievable precision. He almost always makes the right play and misses nothing. I had no idea who Toni was a few months ago, and now I can't wait to watch him play the next event. This Harmonizer deck is brilliant for the event. It attacks Cub decks in a unique way they don't want to react to, which is filling their deck with interaction. The deck is weak to interaction, but if the opponent is forced to tap out on their own turn, it will punish them, much like Splinter Twin did. I also expect Harmonizer to disappear over the next couple of weeks because it's too soft to interaction. It can be built to "protect" the combo, but it will become less consistent in this process, either having to trim some of its card selection or interaction, which will make it weak to a variety of other archetypes. One-tournament decks exist, and it was the first thing I told people after a Pro Tour finals appearance I had with UR Ensoul Artifact. That deck was designed for one tournament, not to dominate Standard. This deck is exactly that, and Toni was not shy about saying this during coverage. It's a fun deck to play, but I'd advise against it for serious upcoming tournaments. I am unlikely to register a deck like this for AC11, but who knows how things shift until then, as I'm expecting a lot of volatility. I'll write about Standard over the next few weeks, as it's what I will focus on. I'm fortunate it's a very good format so far and hasn't been dominated by a single deck. However, with a set of cards this powerful, it may only be a matter of time. I was surprised and happy about Elemental's breakout success because the decks have made the format more fun and interesting. Stay tuned for updates on how the metagame is developing.

Lorwyn Eclipsed Limited has been a tough nut to crack for many, myself included. Even the best players, as we know them on 17Lands.com , have taken some hits to their win rates in this format. With that said, my win rate hasn't changed and is still hovering around 65% playing in Mythic. From what my stream viewers say, I'm drafting differently than everyone else. How am I approaching this format differently than others, you ask? Well, it feels normal to me, but one thing I know I'm doing differently is trying to remain flexible rather than picking and sticking with a creature type. My most successful decks recently have not been the archetypes laid out by the set's designers. Simply, I try to play the good cards. I suppose you could categorize my decks as vivid, as many have one or two of those keyword cards, but that's not the ultimate plan. The plan is just to play the good cards I see. What does this mean? A lot of the set's cards ask you to play the same creature type; however, very few of them reward you for having all the same creature type. Some only want you to have some of those types, such as the Champions, which ask you to have a Merfolk or an Elf, but you just need the one, so you don't have to play that specific archetype when you first pick one of these powerful rares. Additionally, those typal decks tend to be great when you're the only one drafting them. There are a lot of drafts you can see there's no one in a specific archetype. In some cases, you can be the only Elves or Elementals drafter (or whatever other type), and there's not enough benefit to being in those archetypes because the cards aren't opened in a large enough quantity (thanks, play boosters!). Of course, sometimes they are. My focus is on power, curve, and having enough removal to break apart opponents' synergies. Removal is premium in this format, especially all-encompassing removal like Liminal Hold or Bogslither's Embrace. Both of these will answer any creature, and there are many that need answers, or the game ends on the spot. Let's take a look at a couple of my off-the-beaten-path decks. 4c Vivid As you can see, I'm playing a pile of removal and using the set's fixing to facilitate some vivid cards. More importantly, I got to play the Elf rare, the Kithkin rare, and the Merfolk rare that I saw all in the same deck. These decks generally want to overpower the opponent and stunt them from executing their game plan. This is one of the worst Winnowing decks you may see, but keeping a Changeling Wayfinder in play is easy if you want. Giants and Rogues It's certainly an anomaly to get four of an uncommon and two of the same rare, this deck was a Giant deck more than anything else. I got to take advantage of some lesser-played cards like Boldwyr Aggressor to great effect. Goliath Daydreamer is a strong creature if it stays in play, which is all the better when we have the Aggressors to make them hard to block in combat. Despite not being one of the typical archetypes, this deck was still one of the best decks I've had in the format. While I have a few rares, it's about the average amount in the play booster era. There's efficient removal in Cinder Strike, and even though I didn't have removal for larger creatures, Cinder Strike with Daydreamer together could take out anything larger than four toughness that needed to be answered. This was one of the better-performing decks I had in the format. Jeskai Giants This Jeskai deck also has a bunch of Giant rares, as well as several rares in general. You can say, "Siggy, you're just getting lucky opening all these rares," to which I would rebut that I got passed a majority of these and positioned myself to play them all. For this draft, I started with a pick-one-pack-one Bre of Clanstourarm and got my first Goliath Daydreamer pick-four-pack-one. I could have easily played Boros and focused on my rares, but I left myself open to playing more colors as the draft developed. This was the most challenging deck I've built in quite some time, as there are many arguments to play a lot of the cards in my sideboard. While I didn't play my best at some points, this deck performed well and carried me to another seven wins. You could classify this deck as vivid because I have a few examples of the keyword in my deck, but I just found a way to play all the rares I was passed and turned it into a non-typal deck. Goblins and Merfolk and Faeries, Oh My. Finally, I'll share this deck that focuses on all the potential creature types I could shoehorn into a deck. This deck was light on removal but made up for it with the ability to draw extra cards and overpower the opponent with Champion of the Weird. In stalled games, which happened often because of my inability to interact well with creatures, I was able to get Maralen in play and steal a couple of spells with the few triggers I had, even leading to a concession at one point, as it was going to deck my Elves opponent. Once I stopped following the format's guidelines, I started winning more and having more fun in games and drafts because a new world of interactions and possibilities opened. This format tricks you into thinking you want to pick some cookie-cutter archetype and follow it, but you can have success playing all the good cards. I'm writing this a few short hours before the PT coverage starts, and I can't wait to see whether the PT players draft anything resembling my style or follow the path that's been laid out.

Lorwyn Eclipsed has been out for some time now, and as far as Limited is concerned, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. Initially, I was not really enjoying the format. However, I've developed a liking for it as I've played and learned, finding more cool interactions that make me want to fire off the next draft. While the typal decks can be fun, many of them at their peak are boring to play with or against. The games are a cakewalk when you get hit with every good uncommon and rare during the draft because they're so much stronger than alternatives. Most decks aren't like this, as there are fewer archetypes in this set than typical. Boros, Gruul, Orzhov, etc., aren't real archetypes. The biggest mistake is forcing an archetype, even after you open a strong rare of a specific type. For instance, let's say you open a good merfolk rare and get passed a good merfolk uncommon with a rare missing and pick-three. You can take a replacement-level merfolk or a good elf uncommon signpost card. I typically stay the course and take the merfolk to cut my archetype. In reality, the player on your right has more control over you and your ability to pivot out if your archetype isn't open. For that reason, you should speculate on a Golgari Gold card. Even if it's worse than the two cards you have, you need to read the next several picks carefully to give yourself the best chance. My worst decks are always a deck like Elves, where I first pick an elf rare and HODL until I realize too late that unless I open a bunch of really strong cards, my deck is never going to be any good because my archetype is overdrafted. Because of this, I like to take strong removal early picks over solid uncommons that have typal synergy. This allows the draft to come to me, and I can benefit from getting an underdrafted archetype at the table. This set reminds me of Spider-Man in that it's important to cooperate with your table rather than fight against them, at least as far as Arena is concerned. It's more zero-sum in actual pod drafts. Letting everyone else at the table have very strong decks can be to your own detriment. As far as the best archetype is concerned, Elves is my early frontrunner, mostly because of its consistency. Even if it's better, it's not too much better than anything else. You shouldn't go into a draft looking to draft anything. It's balanced well enough that just getting the most good cards in an archetype is more important than fighting for the best color combination. This is generally true for most Limited formats, though there are some outliers. Blight Goblins and Vivid are my current favorite archetypes to draft. I am skeptical of the vivid mechanic because it requires you to have stuff on the battlefield to get the effect of your other cards. However, I've warmed up to the archetype because of two cards, Shimmerwilds Growth and Shinestriker. They work so well together that the archetype is exciting to draft if it's open. Blight Goblins As you can see in this Blight Goblins deck, I didn't focus on beating down the opponent. I used cards like Boggart Mischief and Lasting Tarfire to slowly grind out my opponent. Gristle Glutton was key to this deck. While I didn't have card advantage, I played almost all long games and never would have more than five or, rarely, six lands in play. They all provided discards to find more gas. Gristle Glutton is important to this style of gameplay. I like to get at least two copies if I'm planning on playing Lasting Tarfire, which has been surprisingly good in this deck type, where it can trigger on both your and your opponent's turns with relative frequency. Izzet Elementals is a weaker archetype. It can be solid, but the commons collectively don't amount to a playable deck, so it almost requires a massive density of rares and uncommons to work. It's unlikely that an archetype will be functional if its mechanic is casting spells that cost four or more mana. Convoke helps, but it's not enough to make this mechanic consistent. If you fill your deck with four-mana cards, it's going to hurt. Often, rares and the notably strong uncommons will pull you into an archetype. However, it's challenging to take removal early from weak packs and land in Elementals because many of the uncommons aren't strong enough to put me into the deck. It was my favorite archetype in original Lorwyn, and I'll continue to draft it because I love playing Izzet more than any other color combination in Limited. Regardless, you should tread lightly when drafting it, as you'll often splash in this archetype to take advantage of Vivid. Here's an example. Vivid Izzet My initial reaction was that this set wasn't for me because I don't like just curving out and attacking, but I think this format has developed in a way that I can appreciate. I'll give it another week or two as well because I focus purely on Standard in preparation for the Arena Championships next month. If you think typal sets aren't for you, you may be disappointed and find reasons to dislike this set. If you approach it with an open mind, then it's worth your while. I'll be back next week to discuss Lorwyn Limited more, hopefully with a complete understanding of the format.

The full list of Lorwyn Eclipsed is out. I was initially amped for the set, but the latter half of the previews is disappointing. With the caveat that there are a few standout cards, and some diamonds in the rough may exist, the set looks overall weaker for Standard. This is mostly because it's focused on creature types, meaning there needs to be support within Standard. On top of that, typal creature decks need to be in a good place in the metagame. With lessons as public enemy number one, Standard is in a stronger position than WotC may have expected. Regardless, let's look for a few diamonds in the rough. Spell Snare Spell Snare is an oldie but goodie, and the only reprint I'll focus on from Lorwyn. Its playability is completely contextual. If people are playing a lot of two-mana spells, then Spell Snare is formidable. The card won't see play if the format doesn't have many strong two-mana plays. It's that simple. We still see versions of Izzet Lessons doing well, and the next most popular deck is Simic Ouroboroid. Both Accumulate Wisdom and Badgermole Cub are pivotal two-drops that immediately make Spell Snare a consideration. I'm interested to see how well a deck like Dimir Midrange can do with more tools like Spell Snare, which Lorwyn is providing. We'll have to wait and see, but Spell Snare is on my list of cards to consider when building decks for upcoming events. Taster of Wares The goblins archetype has been beloved for years; however, it's been decades since it has been a tier-one deck. Taster of Wares won't change that fact, but it could contribute to an eventual shift. Taster of Wares is the kind of goblin you want at the top of the curve. Ideally, you'd have more goblins in play than they have cards in hand, so it acts like a Thoughtseize effect, as well as allowing you to cast a spell. Stats-wise, Taster is on par with what you'd want. You also want other goblins to support it, despite it being a more chonky Ravenous Rats on its own. Taster of Wares is okay, but I don't expect it to see play now. I anticipate it playing a role if goblins can be supported in the future. Sear Sear is a great, efficient red removal spell. It's not unheard of to have two mana for four damage to both creatures and walkers. We've had versions of this in the past, but they all were at Sorcery speed or had restrictions. Sear could see play in Eternal formats because it can interact with creatures and walkers at instant speed for a better rate than we've typically seen. This is a solid piece of interaction that we will definitely see played. Mutable Explorer Mutable Explorer is interesting. Because it's a changeling, it can contribute to any typal synergy, though that's not its best home. Most importantly, it's similar to Wood Elves, but instead of a Forest, we have a Mutavault. As far as ramp spells are concerned, this is about as good as you can get for three mana. Both act as threats and pieces of ramp. Even though this is not the kind of creature I'd generally want in a creature deck, it's an awesome way to include a threat in your deck while adding utility. This card lands right on the edge of being playable in 2026 Magic. It would have been outstanding in the past, but it might be too underpowered now. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised to see it alongside Badgermole Cub in a rampy-style deck. We'll have to wait and see, but Mutable Explorer is one to watch. Flittering Nuisance Flittering Nuisance is a solid one-drop that will play well in a low-curve creature deck with cards like Faerie Mastermind. Ideally, when you activate the ability, you can draw multiple cards at once as it sizes up and draw a few cards to get ahead. Flittering Nuisance is also a nice tool for a deck like Dimir Midrange, where you want to play cheap threats and back them up with cheap interaction. Alongside cards like Spell Snare, I could see a new deck that plays like Mono Blue Flash, providing pressure and interaction for long enough to close the game. I'm curious to see if, and believe it's likely that, Nuisance would have a place in that deck. This is absolutely on my list of cards to test. Kinscaer Sentry Kinscaer Sentry is a solid two-drop with the ability to snowball out of control. In a low-curve aggro deck, Kinscaer Sentry attacks to put a creature in play. As your battlefield presence scales, the effect gets more powerful. You want Sentry in a deck that has a high creature density to sustain its powerful ability. Sentry's biggest downside is its inability to provide value up front. Two-drops don't necessarily need to do that, especially one like this that can run away with the game on its own. As long as Firebending Lesson is one of the more played cards in the format, Kinscaer Sentry is unlikely to see much play. However, it only takes one powerful white creature deck to put this card on the map. This card is awesome and would see play in a white creature deck since it's a premium two-drop and would contribute to that deck breaking into the metagame. Unfortunately, it will play poorly against highly interactive decks. Despite a few other cards I could see getting played in Lorwyn, the set looks weaker for Standard and beyond. I have the Arena Champs coming up, so I will have my eyes glued to Standard's evolution once the set drops online. I'm excited to get into testing and see if I can break something. As of next week, I'll focus more on Limited, which I've already played a bit of thanks to the early access given to me by WotC as a streamer. See you then.

Lorwyn Eclipsed is just around the corner, and this set is more special to me than usual. I'm not someone who's particularly fond of the original Lorwyn. In my opinion, it's merely adequate. However, I find it special, specifically in Standard, because it's the focus of my first big tournament in a long time. I'm beginning prep as soon as the set is released. Until then, I'm keeping an eye out for some standout cards, particularly those that create new archetypes rather than just improve old archetypes, but of course, both types are important. Let's dive in. Ajani, Outland Chaperone Ajani is interesting because I like the play pattern it sets up. Unfortunately, I think the ultimate is too much loyalty to be notably strong. You can play Ajani early and create a 1/1. If your opponent has a creature in play that can attack Ajani, then you can block, take your turn, and -2 to kill the creature. Of course, that means they've probably developed another creature and now you're down to 2 loyalty and no creature to block, but you have turn four to react and protect the Ajani or to further develop. While a cool play pattern, Ajani has to sit in play untouched for quite a few turns to get the ultimate off. This digs deep into your deck and dumps a bunch of permanents costing 3 or fewer into play. There's no doubt Ajani is a solid turn-three play, especially on the play, but the faster the games are, the worse sitting on Ajani will be. However, I like how Ajani can find cards, such as various Banishing Light effects, by using its ultimate to be reactive when dumping several threats onto the battlefield. Ajani could be insanely strong in a metagame or very bad depending on the format. If decks like Izzet Lessons are left untouched, then they can mostly ignore this card. If there's a series of bannings that remove the fastest and best decks, then maybe Ajani has a shot. Despite how sweet the card is, I'd be against Ajani seeing much play. Bitterbloom Bearer Bitterbloom Bearer is an obvious callback to the original second-best card from Lorwyn, Bitterblossom. In some ways, this card is better than Bitterblossom because it can self-destruct if necessary by blocking. In contrast, Bitterblossom was an uncastable card if your life total was too low. By having flash, Bitterbloom allows you to play it on a tapped-out opponent's end step, guaranteeing the first trigger and then forcing your opponent to answer, but you leave behind a flying token. While Bitterblossom has not stood the test of time, Bitterbloom Bearer looks awesome. Some of the strongest cards in Standard end up being two-drops that snowball in some way and/or provide value immediately. This card checks both of those boxes. If unchecked, the Bearer can solo the game if backed up with a bit of interaction. If they kill it after it's created a token, then it's created some value while also forcing your opponent to use mana in a reactive way, providing you some tempo. Lorwyn has tons of typal synergies, so this could be better than it looks if there's a decent Faerie deck or synergy that comes into play. This is the kind of card that Zoomers will compare to Bitterblossom and undervalue, and Boomers will compare to Bitterblossom and overvalue. It falls in between the two, but it's a playable card if you can consistently cast it on turn two, leverage its flash, and have enough interaction to prolong the game so that it triggers a few times and allows you to close the game. Glen Elendra Guardian Glen Elendra Guardian looks absolutely sick. We were just talking about Faeries that could make an impact, and this card is every bit of that. A flash 2/3 flier for three mana isn't amazing, but what is amazing is the ability to play a flash deck and hold up this negate while using your unspent mana to cast other cards like a Bitterbloom Bearer. Maybe I'm too excited about this card, but current Magic isn't all about card advantage. Giving a card back when you decide to counter a spell is less of an issue than it would have been years ago in slower games. This is a disruptive threat, and you can maintain negate permanently by finding more ways to feed it counters, for example, a card like Luminarch Aspirant. We also have the blight mechanic in this set that continues to feed this creature -1-1 counters. Bear in mind that you won't have any counters if you put a +1+1 counter on this before you use the -1-1 counter. Regardless, this is a cheap, powerful, and disruptive threat that can be a self-contained game plan when combined with other threats and disruptors. I'm excited to test Glen Elendra. Sapling Nursery Sapling Nursery is a cool card that could have interesting applications, perhaps in a budget deck alongside cards like Rockalanche. Incentives to be Mono Green Stompy are cool and all, but it's unlikely this sees play. Ideally, we can play this on turn four off of a mana creature or a ramp spell like Shared Roots and play our land for the turn to provide value immediately. It'd be even better if it's a fetch type land like Evolving Wilds. While I think it's awesome to have cards like this, I don't think it's strong enough to see play, even with some overlapping reasons like Rockalanche. This is a cool card that I love conceptually, but Magic has become too fast-paced for a card like this to see competitive Standard play. Scuzzback Scounger Scuzzback Scrounger is an interesting two-drop because it can be explosive. Some may compare it to a two-mana red mana dork, but creating a treasure is more powerful than tapping for mana. For one, it can attack and also leave the treasure in play for later use. Additionally, adding a counter every turn with the blight mechanic can be utilized in various ways with cards like Glen Elendra. Scuzzback doesn't look terrific in a vacuum in conjunction with these powerful creatures that can unload counters for various effects. However, it could be a solid role player alongside these cards. I'm excited to try and see how it plays out with Glen Elendra because it will create treasures to provide the mana. As such, I can always leave up a negate while progressing my board. Scuzzback isn't the set's most powerful card, but it plays a solid role because it can give you a mana advantage and provide counters to remove for other effects. I'm not sure this one will make it past just testing, but if it does, it's because of its synergies. Deceit I like the concept of this cycle of mythics. In early turns, Deceit can be used to catch up on Tempo for UU, or it can be hand disruption for BB. Regardless, when you get deeper into the game, it becomes more powerful, allowing you to kill a creature like a Noxious Gearhulk. It can also bounce a token and get a card from hand, or bounce an enchantment and steal it from hand. Deceit is a powerful six-mana card. Generally, the big downside is that six-mana cards rot in your hand. Fortunately, this cycle of evoke mythics provides utility on early turns and power in the late game, so you can play five- and six-mana cards without the downsides. This card is awesome and will likely see play because of its ability to interact with any non-land permanent in colors that generally struggle in interactions with enchantments and artifacts. Public enemy number one right now is Lessons, a deck that relies on both artifacts and enchantments and cards in hand. My first impression of Lorwyn is that it's fairly powerful. I have a lot to go over and learn, but I'm impressed so far with the power level and how much it feels like original Lorwyn. I'll be back next week with more previews.

I used to be in the camp that believed nothing changes except the number on the calendar on New Year's, but as I get older and wiser, I've begun to believe that it's nice to reflect on a period of time, how you've improved and backtracked, and use it as an opportunity to make an actionable plan to move forward. This year was much the same as the last few for me — raising kids, making content, and reflecting a lot on what I can or should be doing. Here are some goals I'm setting for next year. Qualify for the PT via the Arena Champs One of the blessings bestowed upon me this past year was an invitation to the upcoming Arena Champs in February. While I'd love to win, my attainable goal is to earn a spot in the Top 16, which would secure me an invite to the Pro Tour. I have no idea which Pro Tour it is or if I'd even play, as it depends on the timing and location. However, I'd like to re-qualify and get the opportunity to enjoy cracking that first pack and looking at those stamped cards again. I'll have to get a lot of Standard reps in to achieve this goal, but it's more than obtainable. I have a great team I'm working with, so I have no excuses for not putting in the work. My aspirational goal will, of course, be to make the finals of the event, which would grant me an invite to the World Championships. Winning the World Champs is obviously a dream of any Magic player, so any step in that direction would be wonderful. Play the Arena Limited Champs This is easily the most attainable goal, as it requires only time, effort, and a bit of luck to win one of the qualifiers. There are infinite attempts allowed, so you can play as many times as you'd like, win as much money as you're able, and the first time you win the prize, you get invited to the Arena Limited Champs. As long as I have the motivation to play Magic, this is the type of goal I expect to accomplish and would be shocked if I didn't. I'd also like to focus a lot on these qualifier events and see if it's possible to make a reasonable profit off of them, as they seem like an incredible opportunity to play Limited Magic for reasonable stakes. I need to run the math when they roll around in final form, but I expect them to be somewhat profitable, although reasonably high variance is an issue given the nature of Bo1 Magic. Continue to grow my stream Creating magic content has been a lot of fun lately. There are a lot of new formats due to the constant rollout of new sets. While the game is hard to keep up with, creating content is easier than ever since there's so much to discuss. Streaming has been extremely enjoyable to me, and my approach to it hasn't left me feeling even a little burned out. Most streamers force themselves to stream daily on a schedule and play through the "dead" formats, mainly because they rely on the income. I monetize streaming, but money isn't the most important part. My personal approach is to stream until I stop having fun, then I'll give it a day or two, and if I don't have more fun, I will take a break until the next thing that catches my interest, which could be a flashback set, Arena Cube, or whatever will freshen things up. I haven't focused on pushing my stream to the limits, but my audience has grown, and it's been fun to engage regularly with the community again. Start a YouTube channel This is a more aspirational goal that I hope to achieve in the coming months. Since I've been focusing on the stream, I think it would be a smooth transition to make YouTube videos from either the drafts I do on stream or the drafts I specifically create for videos. Most importantly, I'd like to learn to edit videos, as it seems like a fun and useful skill. YouTube is the premier way to monetize Magic content. If I find it fun, then it's something I can do while continuing to grow as a person and content creator. My hesitation in doing this is that I think it'll require a significant amount of time and effort, and I'm unsure how successful it will be or how long it will take to grow the channel into something I'm proud of. Nonetheless, it'll never succeed if I don't try, and I'm finally ready to give it a go. Personal goal: Lose 10-15 pounds One of the hardest goals I've accomplished in life is an incredible amount of weight loss achieved the old-fashioned way. Through diet and exercise, I lost just over 100 pounds a few years back. Since then, I've gained 3-5 pounds a year, so now I'm only down about 90 pounds overall. This year, I'd like to lose the 10-15 pounds I've gained since my initial weight loss. I've started a stricter diet over the past few days, and one of the major hurdles I have to adjust to is the physical activity aspect. I'm not a gym guy, so I either get my exercise at home with free weights or cardio outside. In the winter, it's about 20 degrees, which is too cold to go for a jog. YouTube workout videos have been great in helping me establish a daily exercise routine. Routine is the best way to achieve weight loss goals. I just need to adjust to my new household environment and get back on track to slowly shed that excess weight. Keep spending quality time with my wife and kids As a parent, one of the biggest struggles is sometimes knowing when to set aside work or personal matters and focus purely on your family. When there's always something to be done to improve yourself, letting life pass by and not spending enough time with my kids is a constant fear of mine. I want to say "I'm busy, honey" to my kids less often and start saying "Sure, give me a second, and I'll be right there" more often. Fatherhood is the most challenging thing I've done, as it often involves making choices with no right answer and just having to ensure you're guiding them the best you can. While I know it's cliché, and I know it's a bit tedious, I wanted to write down some of my challenges and goals this year, so I can look back in a year and see how I did. I'm looking forward to what's to come and am excited to keep improving and setting new goals for next year. Happy New Year's, everyone.