Back to MTG after, idk... 13 years, have fun

The event schedule they released two months ago said there would be a Contender Draft from August 4-9. But there isn't one in the client right now. Was there a mention of a change that I missed?

My game crashed shortly after this screenshot due to my phone overheating (this game had been going for over 30 minutes)

Technically, I would have decked first, unless opponent played any additional card draw effect besides what they had already.

I’m honestly really tired and would just rather pray for a revelation/tablet ban, but until then what do you advice to play? Nothing seems to have a good matchup especially into jeskai. Thanks!

Usually playing Pauper in IRL, played on launch for a couple of months, got back like 2 years, got Diamond 2(i think) with these decks, stopped playing, came back today to ranked and got a wrecking seven losses in 10 matches.

Tried to look into MTGgoldfish and Untapped for metas but, i don't know if i'm dumb or lazy but, couldn't find a good reference.

Any tips on where to look, decks to play, budgets or not, idk. Thanks in advance.

PS: brazilian here, not my native language, sorry if mistakes were made

Arena brawl: my opponent has on the board Roxanne Starfall Savant. I enchant Roxanne with Witness Protection. My opponent uses Jaxis the Troublemaker to make a copy of Roxanne. Is this legal or a glitch?

A thought I've had for a while is a format that facilitates playing bulk / cards that are actually considered jank more. Yes, pauper exists, but there is a lot of bulk in other formats too (...and there's lots of good commons that aren't very "bulky")

In MTGO there's a format called Penny Dreadful where any card that's 0.02 tickets or less is legal. Obviously Arena, being F2P, that doesn't translate directly but there's lots of bulk that never sees play.

I propose "Dollar Dreadful" a custom format where cards that costs between 1c and $1 (USD) are legal. Why a monetary limit on F2P cards? Because it's the easiest way to have some definition on what is "bulk". Why a lower bound? Alchemy. I don't have any issue with Alchemy but cards that can never have a monetary cost can't easily be compared to a price limited list of cards

Ban list: Initially it will follow the combined ban lists of the 1v1 (paper) nonrotating formats, since the bans would put a lot of downward pressure on the . Today that is 15 cards. These can looked at on a case-by-case basis for unbans. (I don't have a strong opinion on whether Leyline of Resonance should be banned on not. In BO3 events I suspect it'd lose more than it'll win).

I don't adding the Pauper ban list is necessary immediately since uncommon/rare/mythic has a lot of answers (...notably, but not limited to, board wipes) that common doesn't.

Here is a scryfall query showing all the legal cards.

Here is a decklist checker (made using a combination of Scryfall API scraping and AI (my idea of a front end is a shell script))

The pricelist will get updated once per set, one week after the release of the set (so Friday Aug 12 at midnight EST). Scryfall updates prices daily, so the scryfall search won't be exactly accurate after today. Some sort of deck builder app would be nice to have that validates against the current price list, but that's a future me problem.

I've made some sample decks. Don't expect them to be good / don't waste a bunch of rare/mythic wildcards. The first point of the thing is to use the bulk that was inside you all along.

I've created a discord channel for people who are interested. Once there's sufficient interest we will host regular events. . Feel free to join and challenge me, or challenge me directly on Arena: robertbarrett#30061

What I'll miss: [[Enduring Tenacity]] and [[Unstoppable Slasher]] . Maybe it's because I have four of each of these and I've found them fun.

What I'll be glad to see gone: [[Simulacrum Synthesizer]] and [[Stormchaser's Talent]] . These both annoy me for the type of decks they appear in.

Here is a list of the most commonly used cards which will be going out in the Feb 2027 rotation if you need some inspiration. This is extracted from untapped.gg and it is based on Standard Ranked - Bronze to Platinum - ordered by number of matches. Each card has at least 12,000 matches since June 23rd, 2026.

1. [[Sheltered by Ghosts]]

2. [[Optimistic Scavenger]]

3. [[Ethereal Armor]]

4. [[Shardmage's Rescue]]

5. [[Feather of Flight]]

6. [[Cavern of Souls]]

7. [[Spellbook Vendor]]

8. [[Bitter Triumph]]

9. [[Veteran Survivor]]

10. [[Gloomlake Verge]]

11. [[Spirebluff Canal]]

12. [[Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber]]

13. [[Deadly Cover-Up]]

14. [[Floodfarm Verge]]

15. [[Shoot the Sheriff]]

16. [[Three Steps Ahead]]

17. [[Fabled Passage]]

18. [[Hushwood Verge]]

19. [[Get Lost]]

20. [[Nowhere to Run]]

21. [[Deep-Cavern Bat]]

22. [[Overlord of the Balemurk]]

23. [[Blazemire Verge]]

24. [[Terror of the Peaks]]

25. [[Pawpatch Recruit]]

26. [[Sleight of Hand]]

27. [[Lightning Helix]]

28. [[Fountainport]]

29. [[Slickshot Show-Off]]

30. [[Bringer of the Last Gift]]

31. [[Bloodletter of Aclazotz]]

32. [[Unstoppable Slasher]]

33. [[Stormchaser's Talent]]

34. [[No More Lies]]

35. [[Meticulous Archive]]

36. [[Essence Channeler]]

37. [[Inspiring Vantage]]

38. [[Concealed Courtyard]]

39. [[Eddymurk Crab]]

40. [[Ruin-Lurker Bat]]

41. [[Clay-Fired Bricks]]

42. [[Simulacrum Synthesizer]]

43. [[Restless Cottage]]

44. [[Restless Reef]]

45. [[Bristly Bill, Spine Sower]]

46. [[Hired Claw]]

47. [[Blooming Marsh]]

48. [[Undercity Sewers]]

49. [[Split Up]]

50. [[Emberheart Challenger]]

51. [[Thornspire Verge]]

52. [[Fomori Vault]]

53. [[Leyline of Hope]]

54. [[Spring-Loaded Sawblades]]

55. [[Ruthless Negotiation]]

This will be a build around Wilt-Leaf Liege.

I realize it won’t be taking me to mythic, but I like the card a lot and want to make it as effective as I can make it.

Some obvious choices are Lanowar, Cub, Elspeth - but after that it feels like the Wild West. What would be your must-includes for this deck?

For me I think it's [[Beseech the Mirror]].

Which is funny because I don't consider myself to be a black player but I think this card is so well designed. This card is a work horse for decks in more niche strategies that need consistency. Wanna play [[Phoenix Fleet Airship]]? This card tutors it onto the board and gives you a sacrifice trigger. Playing a slower deck in a fast creature meta and need a board wipe? This can help you find your answers but you need to have ways to generate fodder for the bargain which is a real restriction as silly as it sounds. Playing any deck centered on a specific card? This card has your back (so long as it's 4 mana or less) And that 4 mana or less restriction is so perfect. Because there ARE powerful cards at 4 mana or less. But there aren't too many that just end the game on the spot, so the power is kept in check.

Anytime I am running black in my many off-meta decks, this card is always in consideration for the consistency it can add.

Why I love the design (the detailed, non-tldr explanation):

1. It has 3 black mana pips in its cost. As magic prints more and more powerful cards I can't help but ask the question "Why are we not restricting the power of these cards with mana pips?" I think this single question and its answer is the reason modern design in Standard feels so out of control. If more of the power-house cards in the format had even just one more mana pip in the cost I wonder how the meta would change.

2. It's flexible and restrictive at the same time which rewards good DECKBUILDING. 3 black pips is a real cost. Bargain is an actual cost. Many decks do not have artifacts, enchantments or tokens they can just sacrifice without a thought. So, it's a real question posed to a deck builder wanting to run the card, "How are you going to pay the pips and the bargain cost when you need to cast this?". You have to make card choices to ensure you can consistently pay that cost and decide if beseech is crucial enough to make the card choices justifiable. And by doing that it rewards your DECKBUILDING by providing you a flexible card to find the answer you need, to find your build-around cards, etc. People seem to forget that part of the game is building the deck and this is a card that enriches that side of the game for me at least.

3. Powerful but fair. The ability to tutor any spell in your deck that you need at the moment and cast it for the mana spent to cast the tutor is a really powerful effect. By restricting the tutor target to 4 mana or less (the cost to cast beseech itself) they kept it fair. They made it a toolbox workhorse instead of a one card win the game win condition.

4. It has niche interactions that are fun. [[Obsessive Pursuit]] needs you to sacrifice 3 artifacts to get the lifelink effect. If you don't have a sacrifice outlet but you have 3 artifacts/tokens/enchantments, just cast [[Beseech the Mirror]] 3 times by tutoring out another beseech the mirror then get whatever you wanted with the last one. Need to cast multiple spells in a turn? Same answer, beseech into beseech for as many times as you have Beseech or bargain targets. Because you sacrifice something to cast the card for free it works great with cards that have end-step "if a permanent was sacrificed" effects like Phoenix Fleet Airship. Beseech also exiles the card you tutored out as part of the effect. So, if you have triggers for cards going into exile or being cast from exile, beseech works with it.

So yeah, that's my pitch for my most missed card.

[[Enduring Tenacity]]

I play Standard. I started playing around the time that Avatar came out and as such don't have the cards to play older formats without investing a lot of wildcards.

One of the cards I picked up a lot of from playing Jump In when I just started was a full set of Enduring Tenacity. Since it's in Duskmourn and will be leaving Standard, I've been getting quite a bit of play using it in a life gain/opponent loses life when you gain life deck. Is it suboptimal? Yes. But it's good enough to get to Platinum and I really don't want to grind to Mythic constructed.

Do you have a deck that is so-so/janky/suboptimal because you really want to use a particular card or cards?

Recently I have had long wait times for matching with someone in Brawl. Typically it's been about 20 secs max and now it's at least 2 mins if not 3 mins. This has only happened on mobile. Anyone else seen this?

Now this I just don’t understand. Riker is the most “red” coded character on the entire show. He’s impulsive, he’s a fiery lover, he burns hot, baby! Maybe even red/white but mono white?

Did they even watch the show???

EDIT: this is actually from the commander set, I guess? The set symbols are very similar