Just been trying out the new singleton mode and wow, this is one easy way to get gold. Not sure if the pairings are bugged or just missing but it seems to just pair you up against anybody. Had some fun games, some crushing losses and some really wild games with unexpected stuff left and right but overall this seems like the softest format I've experienced in Arena. With 4 wins giving you the entry fee back (500g) and 7 wins doubling your money it's not las vegas but it's a nice steady flow of cash.

So far I've ran two decks - a mono black discard/Josu Vess/Karn thing that went 7-2 and a terrible red green elves/monsters (yes, including Marwyn and with a very silly splash for Ajani) that's gone 7-1, 7-2, 1-3 (mana screw 3 games in a row) and 7-2.

With a list that's more than a quick "hmm, what theme? Elfs! throw whatever in there!" I suspect it'd be even faster and smoother. Seems like a great way to stock up on some gold for the next draft rotation.

Anyway, that's been my PSA, hope someone finds it helpful!

Considering yesterday was the first day in a couple weeks I've played and that I played quite a bit I think Singleton was a savior for me. Lot's of different opponents! I built a janky as hell Angel deck and it's doing pretty damn good! Lot's of rain around here so off work early and it was fun. Hoping no more rain this week though. I'm 3.5 hours behind my 40 for the week and summertime is overtime time.

Just did my second run on singleton constructed and went 7-2 again.

This time I put together a Mono-black mid-range value deck and it worked pretty well.

Land
20 x Swamp
1 x Cabal Stronghold
1 x Ifnir Deadlands
1 x Memorial to Folly
1 x Desert of the Glorified

Removal
1 x Fatal Push
1 x Cast Down
1 x Moment of Craving
1 x Doomfall
1 x Essence Extraction
1 x Vicious Offering
1 x Hour of Glory
1 x Battle at the Bridge
1 x Vraska's Contempt
1 x The Eldest Reborn
1 x Torment of Hailfire

Draw
1 x Dark Bargain
1 x Arguel's Blood Fast
1 x Treasure Map
1 x Mastermind's Acquisition

Creatures
1 x Dire Fleet Poisoner
1 x Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
1 x Gifted Aetherborn
1 x Knight of Malice
1 x Scrapheap Scrounger
1 x Ammit Eternal
1 x Dread Shade
1 x Dreamstealer
1 x Plague Belcher
1 x Ruin Raider
1 x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1 x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1 x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
1 x Ravenous Chupacabra
1 x Walking Ballista

Bombs
1 x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 x Demon of Dark Schemes
1 x Demonlord Belzenlok
1 x Noxious Gearhulk

Planewalkers
1 x Karn, Scion of Urza
1 x Liliana, Death's Majesty

I actually didn't bother with the sideboard, even with the mastermind's aquisition, but I guess I should put some sweepers and extra bombs in there.

I saw lots of mono-black decks, muldrotha decks, UB mid-range/control things and lots of artifact brews, so the match-ups were pretty good for me and the deck worked pretty well.
Enjoy!

I like the look of your mono-black deck there. Bit different from mine with more creatures and no discard. One card that's been a real bomb for me has been The Immortal Sun since a lot of people seem to be favouring PW strategies and it enables some really powerful turns late game where you can end up drawing quite a few cards every turn with blood fast/sun/arch and getting them all out cheaply (duress into doomfall into hailfire for 12 feels good). I run 2 PW alongside it, which isn't ideal, but whichever one I resolve is just great and it can be backbreaking for PW decks.

It's been fun watching the singleton format evolve, more people are running better lists and some lists are I think being netdecked. Was very easy to win early on with RG monsters+Insult/Injury, now I find the deck struggles a bit. Mono black has just been a house for me though: good against mono-red, amazing against rats, decent against counter control though not amazing and typically strong against the more creative non-counter control decks (except for antiquities war, if you don't draw discard, that's rough).

Great format though, reminiscent of duels in a way and a lot more interesting than current standard.

edit - changed the title a bit, more of a discussion thread thingy.

Hmm, I should probably include a decklist since i was talking about it. Still tinkering, keep changing my mind on lands especially, but this is where I'm at now. Bontus vs demise is another part I'm unsure on, demise works so well with liliana.

I was wondering what deck I'll try next. I put together a Mono-white deck, but it didn't convince me enough to try it out. Seems most of the better white cards are tribal focused and get diluted in a singleton format.
I may try grixis walkers/artifacts next. I don't have any immortal Suns, but I can see how it would hose walkers big-time. I better pack some Artifact hate.

I ran mono-white approach a bit, loosely based on a deck someone took to a gp. But I spiced it up with anointed procession/sunmere. Was ok - an aggro start could wreck people, sometimes procession/knight tokens/caracal/angels would just dominate midgame and occasionally a creature board stall would get blown away by approach. The mana requirements and no card draw made me sad though. I was probably trying to do too much, but like you said there's limited options.

Grixis seems a great choice, seen some beastly decks. I've hesitated to try 3c decks outside of small splashes since I have a habit of getting mana-screwed, but it's on my to-do list. Think my next project will be UGx ramp of some sort, just a shame there's no eldrazi to ramp into

Another deck that looks fun is Saheeli combo (tho the full copycat won't work with the timer), aritstry with red hulks is pretty fun. Marionette master is in the format too, be an interesting build around, though maybe not reliable given all the answers.

Here's the Grixis Walker list I came up with (It's bonkers! I'm 4-0 with it atm):

Planeswalkers (8) - Singleton PWs feels so much like duels!
1 x Liliana, Death's Majesty
1 x Jaya Ballard
1 x Tezzeret the Schemer
1 x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 x Angrath, the Flame-Chained
1 x Saheeli Rai
1 x Karn, Scion of Urza

Sweepers/Removal (16)
1 x Vraska's Contempt
1 x The Eldest Reborn
1 x Yawgmoth's Vile Offering
1 x Dark Intimations
1 x Fatal Push
1 x Cast Down
1 x Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 x Doomfall
1 x Phyrexian Scriptures
1 x Settle the Score
1 x Magma Spray
1 x Sweltering Suns
1 x Abrade
1 x Fight with Fire
1 x Unlicensed Disintegration
1 x Jaya's Immolating Inferno

Threats (8)
1 x Heart of Kiran
1 x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1 x Noxious Gearhulk
1 x Rekindling Phoenix
1 x The Scarab God
1 x Awakened Amalgam
1 x Walking Ballista
1 x Glorybringer

Draw/Filtering (3)
1 x Search for Azcanta
1 x Arguel's Blood Fast
1 x Treasure Map

Just in case (1)
1 x Negate

Lands (24)
6 x Swamp
5 x Mountain
2 x Island
1 x Ifnir Deadlands
1 x Drowned Catacomb
1 x Fetid Pools
1 x Spirebluff Canal
1 x Sulfur Falls
1 x Canyon Slough
1 x Cinder Barrens
1 x Dragonskull Summit
1 x Arch of Orazca
1 x Crypt of the Eternals
1 x Aether Hub


The mana can be harsh to begin with, but as soon as you get going, there's no stopping the value... The legendary sorceries are especially ridiculous! This is good-stuff at it's best/worst. And I used to hate superfriends decks in duels... I feel dirty (at least these are the "bad guys").

Wins so far against 2x merfolk and 2x Mono-red.

Nice deck! I had a similar idea re Planeswalkers but for now ended up in Grixis chiefly due to Nicol Bolas with Red and Black in particular good at removal package whilst blue has card draw and counters. Still tweaking the list. SD

Current Build however

Grixis SF

3 x Fatal Push
1 x Cast Down
2 x Walk the Plank
3 x Lightning Strike
1 x Key to the City
3 x Disallow
1 x Bontu’s Last Reckoning
3 x Doomfall
1 x Never // Return
2 x Sweltering Sun
1 x Saheeli Rai
2 x Cogwork Assembler
1 x Dynavolt Tower
2 x Vraska’s Contempt
1 x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 x Tezzert the Schemer
1 x Primal Amulet
2 x Hour of Devastation
1 x Jaya Ballard
1 x Dark Intimations
1 x Chandra, Pyrogenius
1 x Tezzert, Master of Metal
1 x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 x Metalwork Colossus

3 x Island
4 x Swamp
4 x Mountain
4 x Submerged Boneyard
4 x Highland Lake
1 x Spirebuff Canal
4 x Cinder Barrens


Of course in this build not strictly Singleton but trying to use this to gauge the deck performance. The artifact package is interesting and chiefly for Tezzert but there are a lot of good Singleton artifacts it’s finding the right mix. Metalwork is an interesting one given synergy with other artifacts and Cogwork Assembler and Tezzert providing artifacts to bring him back.

I'd cut the walk the plank for Unlicensed Disintegration. Looks like you may need to invest WCs in some rare lands, all those tap lands look painful... I did and definitely don't regret it.
Search for azcanta is totally busted. It should be banned, it's what gives any control deck the edge and totally worth investing WCs too (I ended up having to...)

Haven, thanks for feedback. Yes running any multi colour deck can hurt but idea is for removal to be available to give correct mana to land. Unlicensed disintegration is a good shout given I have added artifacts in to support Tezzeret in the main. Room too to slim down to a true Singleton deck but would need good replacements for the removal parts in particular Vraka’s Contempt which for utility is hard to replace. SD

Well grixis walkers started off well, but was a bust... First run ended up 5-3 and I did a second run going 1-3.
Mana was too inconsistent and faced lots of opps with god-draws didn't help. Highlight was that I finally got to play bolas and... It's totally win-more.

It's a shame singleton is ending soon...

Indeed. Singleton mode is the only thing that has me playing.

Yes if Singleton goes would be a blow! But I guess happy to wait and see what replaces it. To a certain extent it did not shift some players off a more pimped up and refined Dino / Merefolk deck. It did lend itself to experimenting more with your collection. It’s sad too though that consistency is still a difficult holy grail so whilst I can play my pretty sweet RDW deck and get a good string of wins, playing with a variety of both mono and Singleton builds is far less consistent. SD

It's back!

Seen a couple of lists in the decks section that look fun. I've just done a couple leagues with my old mono-black since I enjoy it (and not really in a brewing mood), saw a couple of the new cards being used - Chromium a couple times and Vivien Reid - though nothing that stood out. Was very glad to be running edicts when the esper dragon came down

Anyone had any sweet ideas with the new cards? Tempted to try some sort of Omniscience list since the format can be quite slow (maybe janky 5c Jodah).

I posted that list in another thread; but I'm the monster that's running UW control even in Singleton

1 x Opt
1 x Spell Pierce
1 x Syncopate

1 x Baral, Chief of Compliance
1 x Gideon's Reproach
1 x Seal Away
1 x Aether Meltdown
1 x Anticipate
1 x Blink of an Eye
1 x Censor
1 x Essence Scatter
1 x Negate
1 x Search for Azcanta

1 x Champion of Wits
1 x Nimble Obstructionist
1 x Forsake the Worldly
1 x Supreme Will
1 x Cancel
1 x Disallow
1 x Wizard's Retort
1 x Farm // Market

1 x Cast Out
1 x Settle the Wreckage
1 x Glimmer of Genius
1 x Hieroglyphic Illumination
1 x Insidious Will
1 x Commit // Memory

1 x Angel of Sanctions
1 x Fumigate
1 x Confiscation Coup
1 x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

1 x Torrential Gearhulk

1 x Approach of the Second Sun
1 x Pull from Tomorrow

Lands(26)
8 x Plains
8 x Island
1 x Glacial Fortress
1 x Irrigated Farmland
1 x Meandering River
1 x Arch of Orazca
1 x Field of Ruin
1 x Evolving Wilds
1 x Aether Hub
1 x Desert of the True
1 x Desert of the Mindful
1 x Memorial to Genius



Patient Rebuilding + Ipnu Rivulet might just be too cute and should probably be replaced by Search for Azcanta and Irrigated Farmland, if you have these (I don't). There could be 1 or 2 other replacements (maybe the Spell Pierce should be Revolutionary Rebuff, Lyra Dawnbringer could easily be fit over Angel of Sanctions or Confiscation Coup if you so desire, and Chart a Course and Cleansing Nova are cards as well), but overall I like how the deck works.

EDIT: Due to some lucky pulls, the deck has changed a bit:

Out:
1 x Dovin Baan
1 x Patient Rebuilding
1 x Ipnu Rivulet
1 x Plains

In:
1 x Pulll from Tomorrow
1 x Search for Azcanta
1 x Arch of Orazca
1 x Irrigated Farmland

My deck is Bant Ramp Superfriends. Still tweaking though.



1 x Adventurous Impulse
1 x Attune with Aether
1 x Blossoming Defense
1 x Oashra Cultivator
1 x Baffling End
1 x Seal Away
1 x Rabid Bite
1 x River Hoopoe
1 x Heart of Kiran
1 x Resplendent Angel
1 x Skywhaler's Shot
1 x Thopter Arrest
1 x Elvish Rejuvenator
1 x Gift of Paradise
1 x Grow from the Ashes
1 x Thrashing Brontodon
1 x Cast Out
1 x Ixalan's Binding
1 x Settle the Wreckage
1 x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 x Dovin Baan
1 x Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
1 x Angel of Sanctions
1 x Cleansing Nova
1 x Fumigate
1 x Lyra Dawnbringer
1 x Urza's Ruinous Blast
1 x Tezzeret, Artifice Master
1 x Nissa, Vital Force
1 x Cloudblazer
1 x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 x Carnage Tyrant
1 x Ajani Unyielding
6 x Plains
6 x Forest
3 x Island
1 x Memorial to Genius
1 x Glacial Fortress
1 x Irrigated Farmland
1 x Meandering River
1 x Scattered Groves
1 x Sunpetal Grove
1 x Tranquil Expanse
1 x Botanical Sanctum
1 x Hinterland Harbor
1 x Woodland Stream
1 x Aether Hub


1. Ramp
2. Sweep
3. Spew Mythics onto the board.

@Modulo
Nice list! Approach is a pita in singleton, hard card to beat. Had a very fun game vs approach earlier, used blood fast/cabal stronghold to draw 5 cards to hit gonti to try steal their approach they then cycled and drew in response and then I drew 2 more with blood fast to hit a discard spell. Was pretty sweet. That was after they drew 3 or 4 running counters off the top at 3 life/zero cards to stop me killing them before they cast the first approach so it felt pretty fair all told.

Singleton is so fun, so many unusual interactions and cards. Really need to play more than just mono black though, I think I enjoy the deck too much - keep looking at some of the other decks I made but always seem to click on "mono b single" .

@Divinevert - That deck looks super fun! How is Rashmi working out?

Rashmi is doing work. When I finish this set of 7 (currently 5-1), I'm going to:

-1 Skysovereign
+1 Walking Ballista

Lots of use for a mana sink, not enough bodies to crew the Skysovereign.

If your gonna play Walkers, please play oath of teferi. Double activations on PWs is just silly...
You can ultimate them in 2 turns.

Don't have it. Or Vivian. Or the legendary Merfolk.

Lots of cards I'd love to add, but lack the wildcards (and doubt I'd use wildcards for Singleton anyway)