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Smashing four decks1/4/2024 ![]() Dragons that cause landslides if left unchecked are fine if you ask me, but ones that punish interaction while still causing said landslide are a bit harder to swallow. ![]() This fixed version takes away that first part, which is a huge net positive in my opinion. Since the Treasure tapped for two mana, that attack gained you enough mana to cast Disdainful Stroke or similar to keep your opponent’s big follow-up in check. It was also a steamroller if you ever got to attack with it, refunding some of the mana spent and providing you with a buffer for whatever your opponent was about to cast. If your opponent went to kill it, you could gain a Treasure and actually had a window to use that mana to protect it before it died. The best part about it was still getting a Treasure when you cast it regardless of whether or not it attacked. Goldspan Dragon has been an absolute monster in Standard. More Dragons at this cost and efficiency will increase the strength of Fearsome Whelp, but also somewhat ensure you’ll find a big threat to cast on your most important turn. Town-razer Tyrant also has nice stats, as a 4/4 flyer for just four mana is the sweet spot for playable or good in a Standard-like format. My Six Favorite Alchemy Decks After Week One Regardless, the “feel bad” aspect of land destruction isn’t present here, making Town-razer Tyrant feel both like it is accomplishing what it sets out to do but also doesn’t ruin the game for one player. If your life is in jeopardy or you don’t need the land much, you can let the Dragon have it. If you need the mana to cast spells as normal, you can pay a price. Maybe Alchemy will change that a bit, but Town-razer Tyrant feels like the perfect balance between “destroy” and “invalidate” without leaving the opponent with that helpless feeling that comes with having your lands blown up. Lands have been extremely problematic over the last decade or so because Wizards of the Coast (WotC) basically refuses to reprint Stone Rain or anything similar. So if our hand is chock-full of Dragons, the cost reduction it grants could be massive. Thanks to this online-only mechanic, if our Fearsome Whelp survives to the end of the turn, all the Dragons in your hand maintain that cost reduction. Traditional cards built like Fearsome Whelp need to stay on the battlefield to keep the cost reduction. Imagine casting two Dragons for just four mana! That’s a possibility when Fearsome Whelp is left unchecked for a turn or two. Fearsome Whelp offers an alternative: stuffing your deck full of Dragons and having them all cost significantly less over time. Too many Dragons mean you’re not drawing enough cheap interaction to get to the point where you can safely start casting them. When you play a deck based around Dragons, you’re usually only playing eight or twelve because they’re not usually that cheap. Instead, we’re focusing on ramping Dragons out more quickly, both with traditional mana accelerators and a new card.įearsome Whelp encourages the player to play more physical Dragons in their deck, which traditionally causes clumps in the curve. Their air superiority means you can’t block them easily, so a clogged battlefield is rarely a problem. The Dragons themselves often kill creatures or are tough to deal with via traditional means, and they fly. Dragons decks are traditionally midrange builds that put an emphasis on early defensive spells so that their hard-hitting four- and five-mana creatures can get the job done without much pushback. Without further ado, let’s take our first dive into Alchemy on Magic Arena! Rakdos Dragonsĭragons, as an archetype, has been around for a very long time. These decks will try to stress-test the nerfed cards, as well as push the new ones to their limit. Today’s article will discuss three decks I’ve been working on, how they utilize new cards, and how the nerfs have affected some of our old favorites. With the release of Alchemy: Innistrad come both rebalanced cards and new releases. If MTG Arena becomes a place where banning a card is replaced by nerfing a card, but Modern and older formats can still play with non-nerfed versions, that is a small price to pay. Luckily, Standard sucks and no one plays it in real life, so my fears of it being a problem have already dissipated. I believe that Magic draws its strength from live play, and having an online-only format eclipse an IRL format felt dangerous. Digital-only mechanics are what troubled me when Alchemy was first announced, simply because they would be impossible to replicate in real life. As someone who has played a ton of different games over my lifetime, powerful spells and mechanics don’t scare me. Alchemy is here and, despite my initial reservations, is actually a lot of fun.
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