Magic arena tactics series#

Part Saga, part Level Up, it worked nicely as a one-off bonus effect or as the emphasis of entire decks.

Magic arena tactics series#

Whenever a creature ventured, you triggered the next in a series of effects known as a 'Dungeon'. Venture into the Dungeon was by far Adventures in the Forgotten Realms' biggest mechanic. Triumphant Adventurer by Alexander Morkhov We saw Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, and Strixhaven all use modal double-faced cards, and having something that feels ruthless and a little bit programmer-y would be a great fit for both Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Streets of New Capenna.

Ever since Wizards of the Coast got rid of the Block system of having multiple sets in the same place, it's been using a mechanic to give a light sense of unity between a year's releases. It wouldn't be surprising if we see Cleave come back in future sets. Doing all that while reading the card upside down across a table in a busy shop is even more confusing. For example, Lantern Flare is an absolute nightmare to understand the first few times you see it, as you need to mentally keep track of both what the X cost is and whether the Cleave cost was paid. By paying an alternative casting cost, you're able to ignore certain words on the card – for example, Dig Deep can either be cast normally to find a basic land, reveal it, and put it into your hand, or it can be cleaved to remove the words and, letting you then search for any card and put it into your hand.Ĭleave was a really cool way to fit modular options into a smaller text space and felt reasonably powered, but it did run into the problem of being difficult to parse. Maybe you have a card that is so good or just so unique that you want to build an entire deck based on making this card work its best.Cleave was introduced in Innistrad: Crimson Vow. In this situation, maybe a card that makes two 1/1 tokens would not be ideal for what you’re trying to do, but you could instead replace that card with a creature that generates mana, allowing you to get your big things out earlier.Īnother strong way to build a deck is around a specific card. If you’re playing mono-Green creatures, for example, you probably want to win by overpowering your opponents with big giant monsters.

There are a number of ways to build good decks, but the easiest one is simply asking the question “how do I win?” It’s about understanding how your deck will beat your opponent’s, and building with cards that work towards that strategy. Both colors use a lot of them, and so when pairing that together, using it to your advantage is key and tends to make for some devastating effects.Īrena also gives the player some great premade dual colored decks to use, so I definitely recommend trying those out to really get a feel for how the colors interact.Īgain, this one might be a little simple, but it still needs to be said: good decks aren’t just piles of good cards with little cohesion with one another (well, most good decks anyway Jund is the biggest exception). Where both colors thrive, however, is with spells, Instants and Sorceries, to be specific. On the flip side of that, take Red and Blue they both have a natural tension fueled through the basic strategies in which they want to win. Take Red and Black for example they are both incredibly fast colors, and are frequently in the mood to directly hurt the opponent with little regard for their own health, making the pairing an aggressive match made in heaven. This doesn’t at all mean you can’t pair enemy colors together, but with the natural strategies of the colors working against each other, it can be hard at times. Every color has what’s called “allied” colors and “enemy” colors this refers to the natural strength of the pairing, with allies being naturally better together.

Each single color has a wide variety of strategies you can pull off with them, but when you put two or even three together you get a very specialized deck.Įvery color has strengths and weaknesses, and some colors share the same strengths and can cover the others’ weaknesses, making certain pairings work consistently. Okay, so now that you know what the individual colors do, it’s time to try and mix it up a little bit.