Marc Anderson

After losing 4 trophy DSK matches in a row (from a 6-0 then a 6-2), rallied back from a 1-2 start here to claim a final one before they switch to MH3. Sometimes when you go back to a format it disappoints, but not at all here. Even the aggro decks are a blast to play, love it.

They know what they are doing with these flashbacks...

With SPM tanking and everyone (including me) done with the set, no coincidence that first FIN then my alltime fave DSK make their comebacks. Already had more interesting games in this one DSK run than in any SPM draft.

After drafting a bit of everything week 1, I'm now in a UB phase with 4 of my last 5 drafts being UB(w). Not sure if this means the Arena player base has figured out GW now, but I enjoy decks like this and am not complaining!

A couple enemy color pair trophies in SPM which may have more archetypes than meet the eye (that's different IP though)

tagging @neo-mtg.bsky.social for value

Slowed down on the OM1 drafts but still jamming from time to time. UB seems to be open more and more, though it took a while for me to find my way here after a UW start.

Fresh format is the best time to post content, and thankfully I've had content aplenty with an unsustainable hot streak to kick things off. The change to pick 2 has felt novel, and I'm happy to do it for a brief change, but still like normal draft better overall.

Another sweet deck, this time losing only to the literal mirror (another GW with Verilax!) and they had the trump with the menace-giving land. With effectively 18 white sources (plus some redraws) the Verilaxs were always castable.

P3p1 Wrench? Yup, that's worth switchig colours for, and despite only drawing it once gives me another enemy pair "trophy". Keywords seem especially important so far in OM1, and very down on red in general unless I open a bomb.

And to end off the day, a UGw trophy. Maybe just because I'm winning a lot, but I'm enjoying myself so far having already drafted BG, UG and 4-5c here. At least it doesn't seem to have the usual allied-pairs-only flaws.

Switched over to Bo1 and the trophy train continues with GW. Only one rare this time, so at least a good sign that rares may not be 100% needed to win games (based on this tiny sample size).

And another quick 3-0 6-0 with rareless UB. Flying, deathtouch, draw spells and removal makes for a potent combination against unranked opponents...

Conniving and surveiling also gives interesting gameplay options for an otherwise very Foundations-y feeling set so far

Was expecting Trad draft to be 3 rounds, 1500 gems, pick 2 draft with 4 person pods, but was quite surprised to see the pod need 8 to fill. Not seeing anything wheel is pretty jarring, but drafted a self-mill masterpiece to a quick 3-0 6-0

I'll be maintaining the @chordocalls.bsky.social tierlist for OM1/SPM! Perhaps not quite as frequent updates as with the last couple due to the small nature of the set, but should be at least weekly:

www.17lands.com/tier_list/4f...

3rd trophy with this totally normal deck. No clue if I'm supposed to be playing the 5th colour here or not, but the mana is sketchy enough as is and I don't think I can drop any lower on sources. 9 rares is enough without needing the 10th, right?

Seems like it's going to be a real ABCs format.

And by that I mean Always Be Conniving. Drafted a 1-2 GW deck and a 3-2 RB deck between these, but UB has felt like it has the most play by far. Not a ton of depth to the games thus far but always nice to play with some new cards.

First OM1/SPM draft and first "trophy" with UB. First 2 picks were Wrench and Kavaero and just kinda forced it from there. Don't even think UB was particularly open but ended most games with tons of cards in hand. Wekhdu was great, as were the Masterys

Played a game with Starwinder in over the 18th land and immediately realized I was an idiot when I was praying to hit every single land drop every turn. Ancient tomb was pretty good here, but still not totally convinced by it and don't think it's a high pick.

What's all this nonsense about GB being the worst deck? You just need *checks notes* a deck full of first picks!

In to top 10 with yet another UG deck. This time more warp than usual, with all the 5-butts playing really nicely with the p1p Battleship. Another deck with Download in the sb, which is not something I expected at all during previews

Hosted a money draft last night and managed to 2-1 with UR, beating UBg and GWr and losing a very close one to UWr. Games were all fun and interesting, and pretty much every deck was playing a card or two they usually wouldn't (skywarden for me). Pod draft stays undefeated

In to the top 20 with RB. Don't usually play enough to push ranks, but format feels fairly balanced presently, and I've been happy jamming drafts. Decks like this are good at making things awkward, play both offence and defence, and a surprising amount of evasion to close out.

And then shortly later a quick 7-0 with basically the same thing. This time the best Tezzeret deck I've seen, with tutor 5 targets (including the sick combo with Rust Harvester on the splash) and tons of artifacts.

Very good at spending my mana every turn here, and the best Gene Pollinator deck I've had by far. Also been trying to make RW work, but it's an uphill battle and you can see why here. In most sets, UG struggles to play to the board and interact, and this has it all.

With @samuelhblack.bsky.social @jasoniltg.bsky.social @dafore.bsky.social @jedepraz.bsky.social @elgranboa.bsky.social , Ham TV, FloridaMun

Please note:
-these are not intended as content and completely unedited
-if you get a timeout message, try logging in to a Google device before retrying

As always, in the week leading up to an Arena Open, I host a call for some top streamers to discuss their thoughts on the format.

Big group this time for EOE, but if anyone is interested in listening in, I've shared the link below

drive.google.com/file/d/13i8m...

0-2 and very nearly 0-3 with this monstrosity, such are the margins sometimes between success and failure. No matter how good your deck is, sometimes you just get unlucky. Notably, Arena's UI fails to show that there are actually 6 Nebula Dragons in my sb

Was it greedy to play 16 land? Yes. Correct? Probably not, but couldn't decide what to cut, had a bunch of cheap draw, and often milled/looted through enough cards that I was ending games with 5ish cards left in deck. Only loss was to Space-Time Anomaly, which I'm never beating.

7-0 while people are directing, with what's likely been my most successful archetype in GW. The modality of the warp cards in casting/warping and distributing counters where needed gives it a surprising amout of play for what's really just a fancy beatdown deck at it's core.

Just not enough things I was comfortable with sacrificing to the mechan

Got to do some really sweet stuff with Vocalist here, twice got the turn 3 2for1 with it + Meltsrider's Resolve, and lots of tricky plays with the Stalkers too. Chrome Companion also really performed with the 3 spacecraft, the Gene and the general lack of 2 drops.