Temur Nexus is a ball ache to resolve in Arena. Either get timed out too often or the game decides to straight-skip full control. Its certainly the type of deck this platform isn't built to cope with.

I'm still surprised they printed Nexus of Fate at all. There is a lot more counterplay to the thing it powercreeped.

You can lock full control, otherwise it goes away at the end of the phase (I think). Default hotkey is Ctrl + Shift, I believe.

Awesome, thanks. This'll come in handy now that Ravnica Limited is the special event on Arena.

SCG Indianapolis is still ongoing, but top 8 decks are already available:

1 Izzet Drakes (featuring Pteramander)
2 Sultai Midrange (basically GRN Golgari midrange but with Hydroid Krassis and Hostage Taker, plus counterspells in sideboard)
1 Esper Midrange
2 Esper Control
1 Bant Midrange (what I find to be the weirdest deck here; it's got History of Benalia, Angel of Grace, and Teferi)
1 Azorius Aggro (basically GRN white aggro, but with Deputy of Detention and some sideboard counterspells)

I'm definitely looking at the Esper decks now, although I'll wait a bit to see what the reactions to these results are.

That Esper Midrange looks like an odd one against burn in Arena. Pretty much everything turn 4 or lower is boltable apart from the Haunt, which honestly doesn't make me want to rush out spending mythic cards on Dovin and Seraph of the Scales. These top 8 lists do show how much the Bo1 champion decks seem to die to sideboards though.

That Bant pile looks like just that. But seems to have a little bit of everything to cover the meta upfront and in the SB. Almost seems control rather than midrange.

That's the weird thing. Why would you run History of Benalia in a control deck?

@BounceBurnBuff - it's got 4 Basilica Bell-Haunt. That not only survives Lightning Bolt, it gains 3 life. The maindeck lifegain should matter a lot vs. red (it's part of the reason I have my eye on the deck).

I thought we all decided Merfolk Branchwalker is a bad card? I get the explore package, but wouldn't Growth-Chamber Guardian work better as a replacement? I guess Wildgrowth would lose a lot of it's value though.

Guardian is certainly better, but why would branchwalker be a ‘bad’ card? It’s totally playable, even outside of a dedicated deck. It’s a 2/1 draw a land for 2 floor. That’s not bad, imo.

It is actually really good Explore is one great mechanic, I have been running 4 of them on my gruul deck... Flood is really an issue with the deck and this card help a lot there.

I'm really not sold on the guardians, great limited card with the adapt, but super risky in constructed to play them for the adapt. So they're kinda like cheaper conquistadors without the synergy, and that card was unplayable. Having the adapt on them makes them better ofc, but unless your deck is looking to put +1 counters on something for free (e.g Hadana's Climb) I really don't see the point.

And even in a Climb deck, I'd probably want the explore package in first, the guardian being included would depend on how much room I had left over (though it'd probably merit a spot).

Oh and I can't wait till bo3 ladder comes! I'm going to be unmmored ego'ing, duressing and negating the crap out of wilderness reclamation decks, will be nice to have games where the opponent can make mistakes instead of just having all the mana always. That card is so dumb.

edit - thinking about it, guardian adapt on 3 looks a lot more reasonable if every opponent isn't sitting on 3-4 burn spells, maybe another card that looks way better in bo3.

Guardians are so much better than Conquistadors. The later are unplayable because they're 3 mana 2/2s. Fetching their pals just gives you more crappy creatures that are immediately outclassed when you fetch them. You can't even play out 2 the same turn until you have 6 mana.

Guardians are miles better. If opp plays out a T2 creature you can attack into them profitably. If they hold up mana for probable removal, you don't Adapt and keep developing your board. And they're amazing top decks for a 2 drop.

I agree they're disadvantaged in Bo1 since it's infested with RDW. But they're showing up in a lot of decks in MTGO Competitive League, and in the 2nd place SCG deck.

I'm playing guardians instead of llanowar. Another blocker for early game, thins deck, can be a real pressure against control.

I took out 3 x Risk Factor and added 1 Sword-Point Diplomacy and 2 x Theater of Horrors.

I then ran 2 play sessions of about 2 hours and ended up in Mythic rank.

Bored with the deck, I've started a new anti-meta deck, with the sole purpose of trolling the meta. I'm not ready to share details, I'm still tuning alot.

But keywords are denying RDW/Rakdos, board wipes for midrange and Unmoored Ego for Teferi/Nexus.

So far, I've had 6 consessions after the first Unmoored naming Nexus. And it just feels good.

Wtf happened with Season rewards. Yesterday it said 23 hours to go, so I woke up today fully expecting to reap my rewards and get on with crafting my deck. Open the program and it says 25 hours to go!? Did this happen to anyone else?

Yep - my thought is that the counter counts the number of hours and days until season end. But it only visualizes the hours.

It should end tonight though, preseason was announced to end on 31st of January.

Top decks from previous set were Golgari, Boros aggro, Selesnya tokens, Jeskai control, Drakes, monored, and monoblue.

- In current meta Golgari appears to have become Sultai to incorporate Hydroid Krasis, which is very strong.
- Boros is still around, although some have gone Azorius instead for Deputy of Detention and Dovin Baan.
- Selesnya tokens appears to have fallen off a cliff. I don't blame the deck, since even though I played it a lot last set, it didn't really gain much and the control decks (which were bad matchups) gained a ton.
- Jeskai control seems to have been phased out by Esper control, although that might be a temporary thing since Jeskai does have strong cards (Crackling Drake, Niv Mizzet and Deafening Clarion are all very powerful)
- Monored surged in power having picked up Skewer the Critics and Light up the Stage. It can still be hated out though, especially with other decks getting incidental lifegain cards (Hydroid Krasis for example, and Basilica Bell Haunt)
- Monoblue is still around but it's hard for me to see it as viable, given it was already mediocre last set. It only gained the UU counterspell.

Other thoughts:

- Rakdos aggro appears to have disappeared. I wonder why. Spawn of Mayhem is a great card, so are Theater of Horrors & Judith.
- Bant Nexus also got a lot better from Wilderness Reclamation and Growth Spiral, but is vulnerable to sideboard cards. It didn't do well at all at the previous open, but is a lot stronger in BO1.
- Various new decks should also be possible. I wonder for example if an Abzan midrange deck can exist, and don't see why not.

I'll be pretty busy the next two weeks, so I won't commit to a deck yet, but I'll be following the metagame with interest

It's weird how many spells were printed that directly counter wilderness reclamation. Gruul spellbreaker, the entire addendum mechanic, tithe taker. It's like they knew the card was op and printed cards so that it wouldn't break the format. But then why print it all?