Arena Craft Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 12 - Interview with Aaron Gertler, Dreamhack Champion! Mar 02, 2020

Show notes

This week we bring you another interview with friend of the podcast and returning guest, Aaron Gertler. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you'll probably recognize him and Temur Clover deck from taking down Dreamhack Anaheim. He's been consistently #1 Mythic with this deck, and now he's proven it can go all the way in a high-stakes tournament.

More and more pro players, as well as the larger Magic community, are starting to take notice of Temur Clover as a serious contender for best deck in Standard right now. On this episode, we discuss the deck, the most common matchups, reflect on Aaron's performance at Dreamhack, and get into some of the subtler interactions in the deck. We also cover sideboarding and get some thoughts from Aaron on the shape of the meta at the moment.

Find Aaron Gertler on YouTube, Twitter and Twitch.

See the latest decklist for Temur Clover on Scryfall.

Read Aaron's Dreamhack tournament report on reddit.

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 11 - THB Standard Metagame Update with Covertgoblue Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

Returning guest Covertgoblue joins us to discuss THB Standard in its post-Worlds, mid-Dreamhack glory. We go over some of the 3-color adjustments people have been making to improve their matchups, discuss how to attack the Mono-Red scourge on the ladder, and evaluate some of the fringe decks we've been seeing. CGB's enjoying Boros Control, Arjuna's loving Temur Breach, Temur Adventures is making a deep run at Dreamhack... This format is by no means solved!

Find Covertgoblue on Youtube, Twitter and Twitch.tv.

CGB's Boros Control article on Coolstuffinc.

CGB's Kiora Breach video on Youtube

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 10 - Worlds Metagame Analysis Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

The largest Magic tournament of all time has just concluded, and so it's time to commence the analysis! In this episode I go over all the archetypes we saw in the tournament, discuss what worked and what didn't, compare some different builds of the same decks, and in general dive deep into the guts of what is likely to be the shape of the Standard meta moving forward. I go into some of the breakout cards this weekend, some of the dissapointments, and the cards and decks that were conspicuously absent. It's a great time to be playing magic!

Decklists and pre-tournament analysis:

https://magic.gg/news/magic-world-championship-xxvi-metagame-breakdown

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 9 - Winning THB Draft with Card Clusters Feb 11, 2020

Show notes

This week, we'll be exploring how to navigate Theros Beyond Death draft by looking out for "card clusters," key sets of cards that synergize well and which can be dropped into many different successful decks in the format. Recognizing and memorizing card clusters can help take some of the work out of building optimal limited decks, letting you put more of your focus into the key picks that really matter. This episode shows you some of the key heuristics for recognizing card clusters, and then outlines some of the most prominent examples I've identified in the format. We'll also go over how to build around some of the most powerful rares in the format, as well as identifying a card draw combo only limited by the size of your graveyard!

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 8 - Theros Draft: Hidden Gems and Lipsticked Pigs Feb 04, 2020

Show notes

I've been fixated on one thing this past week, and that's Theros Beyond Death draft! This format is fantastic, an instant favorite of mine, and in this episode I bring you my thoughts on what's working and what's not. Instead of discussing each individual card or touching upon cards that have already been well-covered, I focus on the cards that I think people are sleeping on, or which I've found to be overrated. I'm looking for cards where I think my evaluation might be different from the average, and using that as a basis for discussion. You'll get to hear about the card I think is the most underrated card selection engine in Theros draft, my power ranking of the 5 Omens, my color preferences (hint: I like red a lot!) and lots more...

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 7 - Theros Beyond Death (THB) Standard Week 1 with Covertgoblue Jan 27, 2020

Show notes

We've had Theros Beyond Death in Standard now for just over a week, and the format has been cooking! Today, I'm joined by special guest YouTuber and streamer Covertgoblue as we examine what's been good so far, and what looks like it still needs more work. Some of the deck archetypes we touch on are Mono Black, Blue White Control, Esper Hero, Blue Green Ramp, Temur Elementals, and then we do a deep dive on my personal favorite, Mono Blue Devotion. We share thoughts on the new planeswalkers and a handful of other impactful cards, and then dip into where we think the meta is headed.

Find Covertgoblue on YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and probably anywhere else you search for his name.

Covertgoblue's Blue Devo video

Arjuna's current Blue Devo list (B03)

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 6 - Safe buys in Pioneer with Jonathan Medina Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

This week, we dive deep into the new world of Pioneer to discuss which cards are safe to buy into, and which cards are still on code yellow for possible future bannings. Coolstuffinc writer and eternal format veteran Jonathan Medina joins us to shed a reassuring light on a format that has been, up until recently, tempestuous and ban-prone. Jonathan makes a case for why you should be buying into Pioneer NOW, and why it's likely to be a safe investment in the longterm scope of the format.

Jonathan's Article on Coolstuffinc
Jonathan's Twitter - @medina_mtg
Jonathan's Discord

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 5 - The Quickest Set Completion F2P Method with Marcus Tomaino Dec 30, 2019

Show notes

This week we cover a topic near and dear to many players' hearts – what is the quickest and most efficient way to grow your collection and maximize the use of your wildcards? My guest, economics Ph.D student Marcus Tomaino, takes us through a systematic approach, centered around BO3 drafting, that provides a solid foundation for getting rare-complete, or even mythic-complete if you so desire! This is likely the quickest route to accumulating a complete collection of any set on Magic Arena. We'll also go into other tips to help you get maximum gold on Arena and increase your win percentage in draft. This interview opened my eyes and taught me several tricks (such as waiting to open your packs until after you've done your drafts...) that I have since implemented in my own approach. If you're wanting more wildcards, or if you want your wildcards to go further, this is for you.

Find Marcus at u/20mb_romano and at twitch.tv/20mb_romano/

Find his article on reddit here.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:16 - Intro to Marcus
5:19 - Set completion via B03 draft
11:11 - Quick overview of earning Gold on Arena
14:57 - Accumulating Gems on Arena
19:46 - Cracking packs vs. drafting
29:24 - Maximizing your vault on Arena
40:00 - Rare drafting is ok
47:06 - When to open my packs?

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 4 - Live from the floor at Magicfest Portland Dec 24, 2019

Show notes

This week's episode was so much fun to bring to you — I spent the weekend at Magicfest Portland! The show is my reflections on the experience of attending (it was my first), followed by a series of interviews I did on the floor with attendees, competitors, artists and cosplayers from the event! If you've never been to one of these events before, I would A. recommend you go, and B. encourage you to get a taste of it via this episode! Enjoy.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro, my experience at the Magicfest
16:19 - Interviews waiting in line for Mystery Draft
21:40 - Interview with PTW competitor Kory
29:39 - Interview with Mark Poole
34:47 - Interview with Chuck Lukacs
42:13 - Interview with Ken Meyer Jr.
52:33 - Interview with Zenaide Beckham
58:53 - Interview with Arielle

This episode features the words and experiences of a lot of wonderful people from the world of Magic. In order of appearance, here's how to contact and experience the work of:

Mark Poole – http://markpoole.net/

Chuck Lukacs – http://chucklukacs.com/ @LightPusher

Ken Meyer Jr. – http://www.kenmeyerjr.com/ @kenmeyerjr

Zenaide Beckham – @ZBexx EVERYWHERE

Arielle – @air_bubbles @air_bubbles_cosplay

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Ep. 3 - Jund Fires with ChannelFireball's Josh Silvestri Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

Another fantastic interview with another fantastic guest this week— this time it's ChannelFireball writer and r/spikes mod Josh Silvestri / jsilv! Josh is a veteran of the game and a fantastic conversationalist who can talk at length on any Magic topic you care to throw at him. We discuss a little Magic history (including the founding of the original ChannelFireball LGS in the California Bay Area, and his experience hacking it up with LSV, Paul Cheon and friends). Then we shift into talking about the results of Mythic Championship VII and the post-Oko Standard meta. Next we cover a topic near to jsilv's heart, namely the different iterations of Fires of Invention you can play in Standard (the Jund Food version is his current fav). Finally, we chat about Pioneer and what we've been both playing and thinking about.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro
3:44 - Jsilv welcome / Jsilv's history with Magic
18:40 - Mythic Championship VII takeaways
30:58 - Standard / Jund Fires
45:36 - Pioneer thoughts
1:05:57 - Iteration, Magic Arena vs. MTGO

Find Josh on:

Josh's Jund Fires post on r/spikes

Josh's articles on 3 Fires variants on ChannelFireball

Find Arena Craft on:

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

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