Wednesday 6:37

That's a pretty ridiculous time for a Wednesday, possibly a personal best (other xword bloggers agree this was super-easy).

So I've been dutifully grinding MTG Arena for the past several months, mostly breaking even on drafts and getting my constructed rating up. I'm just on the edge of platinum with green Gruul, but every time I get just one match away, I lose. It's not like levels mean a whole ton, just a few packs and coins (not even gems) at the end of the season. But if I finish platinum, I start the next season at gold, which is good, I guess.

War of the Spark looks quite interesting, and sponsored streamers have early access on Arena. It doesn't seem like the set adds anything interesting to my deck, nor any horrible new threats (How many people remember that Thrash//Threat can target planeswalkers? (I'm quite sure I've forgotten this more than once when they've played Teferi or something)).

The reason all this is relevant is that I'm planning on playing in a MCQ ("Pro Tour" has been rebranded as "Mythic Championship") on May 11, shortly after War of the Spark will become legal. for some players of lesser income like me, that can mean card availability problems, but more importantly, much less lead time to test new ideas. Bolas's Citadel seems ripe for abuse, but who can discover how to do so in just a week? The prerelease is this weekend, and so is the current Championship! They're essentially drafting a totally new set at the same time as us. (The constructed portion is Modern, and won't include any WAR cards, though I think a few more might be playable in the format.)

So of course I should just stick with Gruul. There are things I'd like to experiment with, but I'm still learning new things with Gruul, and I play it all the time. To try something new at this point is insane, right? Frank Karsten posted a G/W hexproof deck with Paradise Druid and Vine Mare to go with Blanchwood Armor and On Serra's Wings. It already has almost all the mono-green cards I'm playing already. It goes even bigger with Carnage Tyrant and Ghalta! I LOVE that idea. It has zero removal, and considerably less turn 3 payoff (Steel-Leaf is the only 3-drop) and yet... I sure do like Arena. I've been hoarding wild cards, so I want to test this HARD as soon as possible.

UPDATE: The deck is good but not great. It has ridiculous game against mono-red, as one might expect, but given that Esper plays Mortify main deck and white decks can target enchantments too, it loses some edge. Vine Mare is good on its own against Esper, but so is my current 4-drop of Nullhide Ferox. It's fun, but I'm interested in winning.