Long time since the last visit. I do visit the NGA Discord frequently so keeping up with how the old timers are doing.

I have started creating content again on my second purely ftp account. I had stopped playing ladder with the agonising climb and little real reward for a more casual than serious player. I have been spending on average 2 days a week playing and of late experimenting with deck build with in the main the core of a Tier 1/2 deck with substitutes in keeping with the deck idea.

I have started creating You Tube content again with the purpose of refining my content production skills for a different purpose but using commentary on BO1 for the small ftp account. Appreciate a visit and comments. I will try in the series to showcase my current decks and how they perform in the climb. The first video is the first Silver Tier 3 match with my Rakdos Control deck entitled Kill Creatures.

The link is as follows

[youtube] https://youtu.be/j_MEn5EG7aU[/youtube]

Thanks!

Squider Dragon

So a little feedback.
1. Before or after going into the game play, I would suggest taking a look at the deck on the deckbuilding menu, and talk about the individual card choices.
2. The sound is a bit low.
3. If you need to test something and I´m online ping me

Gotta start playing instants at instant speed

I hear you brother. Still some misplays on the watch back but onto episode 2 against a similar Mono Black deck with Ajani Avatar. Similar outcome, keep the board clear and play one of the wincons.

https://youtu.be/XQkNhcL8ElI

SD

Cheers Cucho! Will do. I may wrap the Rakdos episodes with the deck tech. Whilst it’s the normal approach it’s maybe best IMHO to see the deck in action. Quite often you never see cards in the deck.

But yes there are some decent tricks with the Order of Midnight potential infinite combo. The Mythics that are usually the wincons are singletons but the core deck in the creature removal side is fledged out with full play sets Shock. Lava Coil, Plaguecrafter, Murderous Rider, Sanitarium Skeleton. No brown lands just basics. Thanks for the feedback bro! SD

Episode 3

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Ixd2AHuw1X0[/youtube]

A weak mono Red Goblin Tribal deck. There were some different choices I could have made arguably but a win is a win. SD

SD to make the youtube link work you need to Enter the video ID (the part after"v"= in the video URL
so if you cut all the text that is not bold

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Ixd2AHuw1X0[/youtube]

you should get this:

Episode 4 of Rakdos Kill Creatures.

4 matches followed by Deck Tech.

This is my first attempt at editing 5 separate files. Welcome commentary.

Welcome commentary on the correct plays in match 1 and in particular match 3.

Last in this series for now.

Look for next series with a new deck and the climb to Silver Rank 1.

SD

New Episode - New Deck

Azorius Control

Borrow The Gadwish

All the matches in ranking from Silver 2 to Silver 1 with this deck.

SD

Azorius Control

Borrow the Gadwish Episode 2



The Climb continues to Gold 4 in this episode plus deck tech.

Enjoy!

Squider Dragon

Dear NGA. It’s probably escaped your attention but I have not uploaded any new videos in the series.

In all honesty there was a minimal number that even bothered to watch the last episode sadly

The goal regardless was achieved in showing some of my decks and the path to Gold.

Gold of course is just the start. In summary it’s only showing you can play the game to a reasonable standard and understand both play and what decks work to be consistent enough to climb the ladder.

It does take time though, time and a lot of patience and of course skill as well.

As a Pure free to play player it shows anyone can enjoy the game, get better and progress.

In all honesty though I would not recommend anyone spent the amount of time on climbing beyond gold and even getting to gold takes a certain time investment.

SD’s recommendation is don’t put yourself through it. It’s far more profitable as a time investment to play to quests in free play or if you are a player who does spend then of course you know playing limited events has it’s on rewards in terms of enjoying the game and progressing a collection.

For me of course the other objective was just to practice content creation and editing skills so in creating this short series it certainly achieved my own objectives.

For reference I use OBS to record the games, handbrake to convert the recording and quick time to edit and record and merge the commentary. All free tools for those interested. Quick time as an editor allow you to trim the videos, strip sound and add your own and edit a series of games in sequence. It all takes time of course and partly why the effort spent on last few episodes and the lack of viewers was disappointing for sure and hence why the series is now retired.

To be honest over the years the relationship with Magic the Gathering and more lately with MTG Arena has been very love / hate. Love the game but hate the frustration and time it can steal if you don’t watch out.

That of course and money too if you are a more serious rather than casual player like I am.

My own experience over the years and where I am now is in general only to play twice a week across 2 accounts. Strangely the 2 account thing has increases the overall enjoyment. Twice a week means you let the 3 stack quests sit and complete them to earn the gold and packs. I use the opportunity also at times to build for a quest in particular for non colour specific quests e.g. kill x creatures which is where the SD Kill Creatures deck came from.

Whilst initially as the second deck was started with the M20 release while I had to build the collection from scratch in the new account I generally cashed all the gold into packs on this account so with each new release I was starting only with the free packs to start building the collection again This series itself was run from the second smaller account to show you can put a decent number of Tier 2 decks to at least compete and get to gold on the ladder.

These days and really starting from I think the THB expansion both accounts have accrued gold pending the soon arrival of the next Ikoria set.

The main SD Account has 52K Gold and the second account half of that at 26K gold!

It’s an odd fact too that in terms of levels the second account has a slightly higher level (currently Level 76 vis a viz main at Level 75).

One other main area of enjoyment from the game has been in enjoying and improving (at least based on results) my deck building skills.

As this is the last in the series and possibly the last post for a while I leave you with a couple of recent decks - one from each account.

Finally as I mentioned my time for Magic these days is focused on playing twice a week. I have even given up spending what was quite a lot of time watching content. I currently watch no content providers currently for MTGA. NONE.

It does help me manage my time on what is still probably my favourite game online.

Here are the two decks as a swansong for the series. Notably both in the same Azorius color pair. The Small UW deck from the second account has taken me to silver 1 in the second account.


SD UW Prison Deck (Main Account)

4 Frost Lynx (M20) 62
12 Island (THB) 281
4 Prison Realm (WAR) 26
12 Plains (THB) 279
4 Cloudkin Seer (M20) 54
4 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6
4 Dungeon Geists (M20) 57
4 Deputy of Detention (RNA) 165
4 Law-Rune Enforcer (WAR) 20
4 Arrester's Admonition (RNA) 31
1 Kiora Bests the Sea God (THB) 52
3 God-Eternal Oketra (WAR) 16

SD Small UW Deck SD FTP Account

4 Alseid of Life's Bounty (THB) 1
10 Plains (THB) 279
4 Healer's Hawk (GRN) 14
4 Law-Rune Enforcer (WAR) 20
2 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6
4 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
3 Faerie Miscreant (M20) 58
10 Island (THB) 281
2 Spectral Sailor (M20) 76
3 Negate (M20) 69
1 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
3 Ajani's Pridemate (WAR) 4
4 Charmed Stray (WAR) 8
3 Venerated Loxodon (GRN) 30
3 Unsummon (M20) 78



Of course sadly you won’t see any gameplay or deck tec for either of these decks primarily for the aforementioned reasons but hope you can take the time to try them out and see how effective they can be. For Small UW in particular it can survive on just 2 mana as long as you have access to both colours. I also had a recent win from this deck after a mull to 3 so don’t be afraid to mulligan.

Enjoy!

STAY SAFE

SD