New video idea I'm trying out, giving my thoughts on how to upgrade the starter decks. Number of wildcards needed (also displayed in thumbnail) excluding sideboard: 2 Mythic, 7 Rare, 11 Uncommon, 6 Common
Omg thank you for that thumbnail, ive been looking for decks, and people call a deck budget based on paper cost even when they are playing mtg arena. This way i know exactly how much a deck will take before clicking on the video. And the idea of upgrading the stater deck is great, and can you do the mono color ones aswell?
Wow, this is a really cool idea. Definitely interested in seeing a couple others. I think most "big" magic streamers don't understand how big Arena is going to be. It seems like you understand that
Yeah, MTGA is what Magic Duels should have been. It's close to Hearthstone in aesthetic quality, has a great user interface and is somewhat simple to get into, although there are things they don't explain, like Full Control which is necessary for Expansion // Explosion and lost me a game once.
In the short space of time I've been watching your videos, they've just been getting better and better. I don't know how experienced players feel watching this, but for new players like me it is perfect. From the start of the video, right up to the end you fill it with really good, interesting and useful information. I took your selesnya deck from a video or two ago and tried to copy it the best that I could (short of a few benanlias and a trostani). I won 10 out of my first 11 matches. Then in the space of a day I ranked up 2 levels - All from having an improved deck. The one thing I would have loved in that video is exactly what you did in this one, telling us what you might place in instead if you don't have the available wildcards. Not many youtubers can chuck out 2 hour videos and still leave me wanting more! Even been considering hitting up twitch to get my fix, haha. Keep up the good work :) Would certainly love you to continue this new idea/series, whether they be 30 minutes or 2 hours :)
Love the video idea. This really helped me as a new player. I think that showcasing the non-upgraded game before you do the deck upgrading would flow better (I was a little confused when I saw you draw Sleep after you took it out of the deck). That way, you could point out some of the flaws of the non-upgraded deck in-game.
I love it when you explain the upgrade process. I feel it helps me not only understand the deck you're playing better, but also deck building logic in general.
You help me understand Magic in a way that few other RU-vidrs have the capacity to do. Your content is all absolutely top-notch, and I have you to thank for MUCH of my improvement in Arena. Thank you, LegenVD. You rule.
After watching this video I managed to get my first 7 win reward in constructed event. The video really helped me put the finishing touches on the merfolk aggro deck I've been fine tuning for the past few days. Thanks a lot!
Gruul clan *hate* fishman, but ten-power fishman punch opponent! Opponent weak. Fish man STRONG! Borborygmos *smash* like button. Legend make all deck strong like Gruul, has BIG THINK!
This is a simple video that added a lot knowledge from the game. What's more, it made an "basic" deck extremely strong. Thanks a lot for the help and good luck with the channel!
These have been the most exciting and helpful videos I have seen on MTG Arena on all of RU-vid. Thank you for putting them together, and I look forward to seeing more. :-)
Great content. I learned more about the game from this video than any other i watched on the topic. You really helped me to see many mistakes i was doing as a new player and as a bonus I can nicely upgrade my favourite starter deck. Now I see how I can use all phases of the game much more efficently. Thanks a lot!!!
This deck is really good! It allowed me to consistently get 3-5 wins on the Constructed Event, but I made a few minor changes that helped me get more consistent 4-6s. I added 4 One with the Wind cards that helped achieve increased evasiveness as well as some decent blockers. To make room for this I took away the Merfolk Tricksters as they didn't add as much utility with my hyper aggressive playstyle and I had enough evasiveness with the nonblockables and One with the Wind that it made the card excessively redundant; Trickster can help with damage reduction but I prefer to have more damage in the early game because it adds a chance where the opponent isn't likely to attack anyway. I also took away 1 island and 1 forest. I added 1 more Jungleborn Pioneer to help with burn and control decks as the hexproof proved to be a lot more reliable in those situations and works really well with Deeproot Elite; also works well with One with the Wind. I took away one Seafloor Oracle in favor of the Tempest Caller which both have proven to be decisive win conditions for me while keeping my mana base the same. Some further upgrades I plan to make is to take away 2 of the Unclaimed Territories in favor of the Hinterland Harbors as I find many games where I need the One with the Wind and I can't play it as I don't have an island yet; the only problem I have with this is that it will make first turn plays less frequent, but I think this may be okay in the long run. I also am considering taking away the Seafloor Oracle and one of the Silvergill Adept in favor of 2 Curious Obsessions as it'll help with the low mana curve and provide more consistent card draw.
Some other thoughts I have while playing this deck for hours is "I HATE CONTROL!"; I want to add some padding against those negate spell cards, but I'm conflicted on how to do so without compromising my playstyle and synergies. I usually have a disadvantage after turn 5 or 6 if I don't have a clear win as a result of a lack of cards in hand. Dealing with spells like Shock and Wizards Lightning was a big issue for me before I added One with the Wind to the deck as they padded my Merfolk early enough to make that card damn near immune...at least long enough for me to get a hexproof token out there to buff. One with the Wind and the Jungleborn Prioneer has won me more games than I can count with a more reliable merfolk to quickly buff and get decently evasive.
I just started playing 4 days ago and bought the $5 beginners bundle. I was losing most of my games and as soon as I unlocked this deck and made some minor upgrades as suggested in this video, I'm winning 2-3 games to every loss I get. You'll get about 75% of the upgrades as stated in this video without putting anymore money in. It's a super fast deck. I strongly recommend.
This is an excellent video and I think vital to the new player experience as the basic decks are a good starting point, but knowing how to take a decks idea and push it further is something that a novice, and even most experienced players struggle with. I hope to see more Upgrade videos in the future.
As someone who played the paper version of MtG a long time ago (jesus christ, it's been 14 years) and is now being drawn back in, this video is amazing! Especially because it builds upon the "starter decks" that you can earn by simply playing. Great stuff!
Great upgrade. I've been running this deck for grinding (66% WR) with some light modifications : 1 Kumena replaced by a Forerunner of the Heralds. 3 Kumenas is a bit too much for a legendary and Forerunner lets you chose which merfolk you want to tutor and it's not always Kumena 2 Negates instead of 1 Jungleborn & 1 Land (been fine with less lands since even at 2/3 lands you can win the game) Trickster is great but can't interact with non creatures Shapers Sanctuary is a great card in this deck (easly replace one or two jade bearer, a one drop you don't play at turn 1) Keeps the merfolk coming if they're removed
I love this idea. It's very reminiscent of the Duels days where you taught how to make the most of what's available. I vote for the U/R "Wrath of Mages" precon. But I'm looking forward to watching all of this series.
Great idea legend! Seeing you tinker with the deck teaches a lot, is funny, and adresses the sideboard problem we talked about. Thank you very much! You always hit the spot my friend
One of the best high quality content i have seen for mtg arena ! I started to play this game 6 days ago and today i got the jungle secrets deck so this video helped a lot to get an idea how to upgrade it . It would be great to see more of those upgrade vids . Greetings from Germany !
I like this idea a lot, since this is really what the new player experience is, selecting whatever base deck you like, and then building on top of it. Played Eternal Thirst for a while, adding Dusk Legion Zealot, more Legion Lieutenants and some other cards.
What a great idea for a video. Loved this. This is really where you stand out against other streamers; your clarity of description of your choices is the best out there.
Very nicely made and a great series idea! Thanks for going through what to upgrade first/what to value the most for us casual players, so definitely keep doing that in the future. Old deck/new deck gameplay was also great. Your videos are very informative, keep it up! My vote is for saprolings or auras of majesty, if you don't want to make another tribal deck.
Was hoping you'd do a series like this, for the... ummm... "wildcard conscience" people, such as myself. Had fun with my MerMAN deck before the wipe and glad it won't take too much to rise form the depths again. Great vid as always and looking forward to other content and deck upgrades if you continue.
This is great! I'd love to see upgrades for the other starter NPE decks as well. That thumbnail is also super helpful! I think that most new players who are attempting to go as f2p as possible will only, realistically, have enough wild cards to upgrade one of these decks...maybe even not all the way without lots of rare wild cards. So we'll have to pick I guess.
Thanks for the video and decklist! I didn't have quite enough rares, so I dropped a Seafloor Oracle since the land and Deeproot Elites are more important. I put in a Vivien Reid as a replacement, since I had pulled one, and it's doing some good work in the couple games I've cast it. It usually draws at least a few cards and absorbs a pile of damage along the way. The other two actions seem great too, though I've yet to use them - answers fliers, clears away their enchantment-based removal, and buffing your whole team with her final ability is obviously amazing.
Will you be doing a video upgrading your BW Vampire deck too? I have had so much fun playing that in the closed beta, but I'm terrible at building decks. With the new cards added, and the meta shifting, I'm curious how to improve it. Really like your videos as always, LegenVD!
Thanks so much for this. As a new Arena player (played paper Magic way back in the day) this is very helpful to know what the best cards are for the wildcards. Looking forward to more.
this isnt good use of your wildcards forerunner of the heralds gives the most bang for your wildcard in a merfolk deck. it lets you cut down on rares and mythics for cheap
Like at your CBT video of merfolks, i really like Deeproot Waters. Jungleborn Pioneer is giving value the turn you cast it, but Deeproot Water doing nothing turn 3, makes other turns so much explosive! Also with 1 Hadana's Climb you can win with 1/1 hexproof token with some tokens flying over lifelinkers, when river sneak is just not enought. So i usually used 2 Waterdeep Waters, 2 Hanadan's Climb. 2 Kumenas... But OK. i analyzed in some games that "nothing turn 3" makes it much slower. But 4 Deeproot Elites already leads this deck to longer games.
Just to amend your comment around 25:00, if your opponent did the trickster as you said before declaring attackers making counters would have been enough. But, you would have needed to attack with all creature to continue playing around Merfolk Trickster, because the Trickster would still be able to remove the unblockablity of your 4/4 Mist-Cloaked Herald. So either way drawing the card was incorrect as you could provide lethal in both situations.
Thank you so much for this video I'm finally working my way out of bronze thanks to you. Please do the other decks it's the best thing for a FTP player like myself who has not played Magic in like 13 years and is trying to get back into it.
Boy, got into the game, been getting my butt kicked, at best I had some chance to win with the mono green deck every now and then..... however then I unlocked Jungle Secrets and have been winning in strides! This makes me excited, thrilled, and I want to improve my deck, and this video is a very helpful utility for that. Thank you :)
As a new player I love this video idea. I would like to see any or all of the following. Blue/black, green/black, or white/black. Thanks man keep up the good work.
Thanks to this video I managed to make this cheap deck and won most of my games. As a noob I think you shall do other decks too to help other noobs like me. Thank you.
First I love this idea of showing how to upgrade the starter decks. It really helps me because i can easily get sidetracked and ending up spending wildcards on shit I don't need. Second, am I wrong or the Boros decks are just running wild on arena? What's the best way to stop them? My saprolings just can't seem to be enough and I'm willing to try anything to destroy them
Fun deck if you don't run into removal (as some have mentioned below). Yes it's easy to grind out wins against certain decks, but against decks that can flood the board with tokens and stall you out until they get their own removal, it's a bit of a grind.
Hey LVD, great video! The only one thing I don't like about your build is the addition of jade bearer because it's not a real 1-drop and when you have it in your opening hand it creates really awkward sequencing. that's the reason I cut it entirely from the deck and added more tricksters. Other than that I agree with pretty much every card choice! Keep up the great work!
Yeah it's a fake 1-drop, but it still allows you to double spell in other turns. Trickster is definitely a card I wouldn't mind having more copies of, especially once the second Ravnica set releases and we get access to Breeding Pool for better mana.
"Sleep" and "Deeproot Waters" are a must in this deck. Unblockable creatures are great, but more often than not they are not enough to deal lethal damage. Considering there are no flyers in this deck, disabling opponents flyers (and blockers) for two turns with "Sleep" is always enough to end the game.
Agreed especially against Green ramp or Selesnya token decks. Being able to tap all their massive army of tokens has won me the game in many life or death situations.
I'm totally new to MTG. Would love it if you would do a vid on how to upgrade the green/black Saproling Swarm starter deck. That's the deck I'm having the most fun with but I'm very wary of using any of my wildcards for fear of just wasting them. Keep up the great vids!
Given I loved to play Boros in magic duels, I'd love to see the Boros-deck now. I am trying to figure out a working deck right now, but am a little bit confused what cards work best.
Yeah, basically you don't want the opponent to see you have no mana available (even if you don't have any tricks on hand). Rule of thumb: if you don't need something before combat (i.e. the merfolk that adds +1/+1 to everyone else or something related to dealing combat damage to the opponent or sth with haste), just wait so they won't know if you have tricks or not. Also, do this every turn, even when you don't have mana, so they won't be able to tell the difference.
+LegenVD Does this upgrade path still work after the quest deck changes if I'm just now starting? Did any of these cards get added into any other quest decks or is crafting cost still the same after completing all quest decks?
@LegenVD Mono Red, Blue and Green are really good atm. Blue Tempo is cheap but needs VERY good game and meta knowledge etc., Green Stompy needs quite a few rares. So i would suggest atleast doing a Mono Red Aggro deck, lots of the aggressive creatures are commons and some rares can be used on really strong cards like Chainwhirler or Steamkin. What do you think? Thanks for this video btw, i love how i can incorporate lots of my cards from my Mono U tempo deck :P, even the counter spells arent bad in this deck since they are cheap and good vs board removal or nasty cards in general to protect the unblockable creatures. What do you think about "Curious Obsession" btw? Only 1 mana for a potent card drawer in combination with the Evasion Creatures? Its the core of Mono U tempo so why not integrate it instead of the card draw merfolk creature?
Hope you reply to this LegenVD. Do you think adding any spells to this deck would help it at all? like spell pierce, essence scatter, sinister sabotage, sleep, or river's rebuke etc ? Or would it mess up the synergy too much?
You really want to limit the amount of noncreature spells. The only card from those you mentioned I could see maindecking is Sleep, if you're facing a lot of other aggressive creature decks.
hey man great video, and all your videos are great. Quick question we are 3 months from rotation is it worth it to try and grind out this deck? I mostly run constructed IRL and just got into arena cause of the lack of time i have to play paper tournaments.
I wouldn't invest too many wildcards into a deck that will rotate out soon, until we know more details about how rotation will be handled. We know about the Historic format, but I think there were more details to be revealed.
@@LegenVD damn already spent a few commons and uncommon cause the two decks i play in paper and simic nexus and merfolk. i figured so that i could play somewhat competitively upgrades were needed
Hey legend, i really like your content, especially upgrading starter decks like this. As a player thats very helpful. How would you recommend to acquire cards and spend gold as a f2p beginner?
Make sure to do all the daily quests (trying to reroll to get 750 gold ones). Then doing quickdraft is a fun way to acquire cards, quick constructed also works.
Great content LVD. I would like to see your upgrade suggestion for the primal fury dinosaur starter deck. Also which packs do you feel someone starting out Arena should go for if they have the gems to do so ? It would seem ixalan and rivals of ixalan do not seem too appealing. They will rotate sooner than other sets, but I see you can create a lot of budget decks with merfolk and vampire, with minimum number of rares and mythics.
Hey i started this game 4 day ago , used kinda all my wildcards for this deck(i wasted some for noting) anyways its going great even im missing 5 cards and special gates , just got my first 7 win in cons event soo thank you for your helps
Went for only 3 Kumena Speakers and 2 Kumena so I could throw in 2 Songs of Freyalise. It works better than the Tempest caller for less mana and you get more out of it :D
Question - why do you have watertap weavers if you only had them in your sideboard? Was this a mistake or do you think they should be in the main deck?
I like the idea but the other decks aren't so tribal save for saprolings. Can other decks feature budget? upgrades (Commons and uncommons) then maybe the full upgrade?
Wow mate thats so helpful for newbie people like me, could you please do something like that with the black/white vampires one? Would be amazing! Thanks a lot for the video!!
