After losing 4 trophy DSK matches in a row (from a 6-0 then a 6-2), rallied back from a 1-2 start here to claim a final one before they switch to MH3. Sometimes when you go back to a format it disappoints, but not at all here. Even the aggro decks are a blast to play, love it.

They know what they are doing with these flashbacks... With SPM tanking and everyone (including me) done with the set, no coincidence that first FIN then my alltime fave DSK make their comebacks. Already had more interesting games in this one DSK run than in any SPM draft.

After drafting a bit of everything week 1, I'm now in a UB phase with 4 of my last 5 drafts being UB(w). Not sure if this means the Arena player base has figured out GW now, but I enjoy decks like this and am not complaining!

A couple enemy color pair trophies in SPM which may have more archetypes than meet the eye (that's different IP though) tagging @neo-mtg.bsky.social for value

Slowed down on the OM1 drafts but still jamming from time to time. UB seems to be open more and more, though it took a while for me to find my way here after a UW start.

Fresh format is the best time to post content, and thankfully I've had content aplenty with an unsustainable hot streak to kick things off. The change to pick 2 has felt novel, and I'm happy to do it for a brief change, but still like normal draft better overall.

Another sweet deck, this time losing only to the literal mirror (another GW with Verilax!) and they had the trump with the menace-giving land. With effectively 18 white sources (plus some redraws) the Verilaxs were always castable.

P3p1 Wrench? Yup, that's worth switchig colours for, and despite only drawing it once gives me another enemy pair "trophy". Keywords seem especially important so far in OM1, and very down on red in general unless I open a bomb.

And to end off the day, a UGw trophy. Maybe just because I'm winning a lot, but I'm enjoying myself so far having already drafted BG, UG and 4-5c here. At least it doesn't seem to have the usual allied-pairs-only flaws.

Switched over to Bo1 and the trophy train continues with GW. Only one rare this time, so at least a good sign that rares may not be 100% needed to win games (based on this tiny sample size).

And another quick 3-0 6-0 with rareless UB. Flying, deathtouch, draw spells and removal makes for a potent combination against unranked opponents... Conniving and surveiling also gives interesting gameplay options for an otherwise very Foundations-y feeling set so far

Was expecting Trad draft to be 3 rounds, 1500 gems, pick 2 draft with 4 person pods, but was quite surprised to see the pod need 8 to fill. Not seeing anything wheel is pretty jarring, but drafted a self-mill masterpiece to a quick 3-0 6-0

I'll be maintaining the @chordocalls.bsky.social tierlist for OM1/SPM! Perhaps not quite as frequent updates as with the last couple due to the small nature of the set, but should be at least weekly: www.17lands.com/tier_list/4f...

3rd trophy with this totally normal deck. No clue if I'm supposed to be playing the 5th colour here or not, but the mana is sketchy enough as is and I don't think I can drop any lower on sources. 9 rares is enough without needing the 10th, right?

Seems like it's going to be a real ABCs format. And by that I mean Always Be Conniving. Drafted a 1-2 GW deck and a 3-2 RB deck between these, but UB has felt like it has the most play by far. Not a ton of depth to the games thus far but always nice to play with some new cards.

First OM1/SPM draft and first "trophy" with UB. First 2 picks were Wrench and Kavaero and just kinda forced it from there. Don't even think UB was particularly open but ended most games with tons of cards in hand. Wekhdu was great, as were the Masterys

Played a game with Starwinder in over the 18th land and immediately realized I was an idiot when I was praying to hit every single land drop every turn. Ancient tomb was pretty good here, but still not totally convinced by it and don't think it's a high pick.

What's all this nonsense about GB being the worst deck? You just need *checks notes* a deck full of first picks!

In to top 10 with yet another UG deck. This time more warp than usual, with all the 5-butts playing really nicely with the p1p Battleship. Another deck with Download in the sb, which is not something I expected at all during previews

Hosted a money draft last night and managed to 2-1 with UR, beating UBg and GWr and losing a very close one to UWr. Games were all fun and interesting, and pretty much every deck was playing a card or two they usually wouldn't (skywarden for me). Pod draft stays undefeated

In to the top 20 with RB. Don't usually play enough to push ranks, but format feels fairly balanced presently, and I've been happy jamming drafts. Decks like this are good at making things awkward, play both offence and defence, and a surprising amount of evasion to close out.

And then shortly later a quick 7-0 with basically the same thing. This time the best Tezzeret deck I've seen, with tutor 5 targets (including the sick combo with Rust Harvester on the splash) and tons of artifacts.

Very good at spending my mana every turn here, and the best Gene Pollinator deck I've had by far. Also been trying to make RW work, but it's an uphill battle and you can see why here. In most sets, UG struggles to play to the board and interact, and this has it all.

As always, in the week leading up to an Arena Open, I host a call for some top streamers to discuss their thoughts on the format. Big group this time for EOE, but if anyone is interested in listening in, I've shared the link below drive.google.com/file/d/13i8m...

0-2 and very nearly 0-3 with this monstrosity, such are the margins sometimes between success and failure. No matter how good your deck is, sometimes you just get unlucky. Notably, Arena's UI fails to show that there are actually 6 Nebula Dragons in my sb

Was it greedy to play 16 land? Yes. Correct? Probably not, but couldn't decide what to cut, had a bunch of cheap draw, and often milled/looted through enough cards that I was ending games with 5ish cards left in deck. Only loss was to Space-Time Anomaly, which I'm never beating.

7-0 while people are directing, with what's likely been my most successful archetype in GW. The modality of the warp cards in casting/warping and distributing counters where needed gives it a surprising amout of play for what's really just a fancy beatdown deck at it's core.

Got to do some really sweet stuff with Vocalist here, twice got the turn 3 2for1 with it + Meltsrider's Resolve, and lots of tricky plays with the Stalkers too. Chrome Companion also really performed with the 3 spacecraft, the Gene and the general lack of 2 drops.

Never saw my first pick (Monolith) in any of the 8 games, but not even sure how sad I should be with all the x/1s here. It does need a bit of building around to really shine, but notably, Hymn keeps performing for me despite the bad stats.

Another GW trophy, and enough evidence by now to confirm that the deck is 100% real. The format's not the most balanced, but it does feel like every deck is draftable, and the gameplay has felt good enough to me that I'm not amongst the EOE haters (so far)

Hosted 2 pods of EOE last night! Normally this would be the only PT prep draft I run, but with the lag this time we'll have plenty more opportunities here. Lost in the finals with kinda directionless UG, but double spelling early then refilling with card draw played out well!

Rareless GW gets the job done, and the format is very much "get on board" so far. Spacecraft only really work if you can afford to give up a blocker or two, and so despite the slow billing, it does seem like a big clump of 2 and 3 drops is still needed.

7-2 with UB artifacts, featuring MVP Celestial Collonade. 100% worth the splash, especially with a sweeper to back it up. Took Mm'menon pack 2 over a Relic to try it, but played out kinda as I expected (fine) and think relic was a better pick.

First "real" draft of the set ends in a trophy with UW warp. A mirror in the finals suggests the archetype is very real, despite never actually drawing my Station Monitor. Tractor beams probably the biggest overperformer, stealing op's Monitor and an Elegy as top highlights.

I'll be maintaining the @chordocalls.bsky.social tierlist again for EOE! Updates nearly daily for the first 2 weeks, then at least weekly after that. www.17lands.com/tier_list/4f...

And with this final 5-2 I wrap up my EOE day -5. Started off with an 0-3 but smooth sailing from there and got to draft 7 different archetypes! Success across a range of colours bodes well for the format. Part 2 of set review happening tonight at 5pm EST with @chordocalls.bsky.social

Having a blast in EOE early access! Hadn't drafted red yet (didn't start with any of the rares) so kinda forced it and turns out it was open. Quick 5-1 delivering some real beatings. Good sign that this deck works, something needs to keep the spacecraft in check.

Third 5 winner in a row, this time UB. Obviously this deck draws cards like no tomorrow, but my opponents were also not running out of stuff to do. Got Elegy again who is nuts, but Voidforged Titan did a good impression of it too. Cut a blast for Mechanozoa as I almost decked g1

Back to back 5 win decks, this time with GB. Started the deck with a Decode Transmissions over Thawbringer, but turns out having Gene Pollinators and Spacecraft means you really want more early bodies (plus Elegy likes a 3 drop that can attack, that card is bananas)

First draft didn't go well, but 5-2 (stopping at 5) with UW in draft #2. Lots of overperformers, but the spacecraft and warp stuff all did the thing beautifully. Adagia in particular was nuts, but both losses were me needing more interaction to disrupt op doing their thing

The @neo-mtg.bsky.social + Alex Edge of Eternities set review will be next week! Monday at 5 EST for commons/uncommons and Thursday for rares. Streamed live then posted to the Limited Level-Ups channels shortly after.

EOE spoilers coming in thick and fast, but a clean 7-0 in what's surely one of my last FIN drafts. Set review planned for Monday (c/u) and Thursday next week with @chordocalls.bsky.social 5pm EST live on Twitch and then to podcast/youtube, can't wait to break it down together!

Started 2-2 with the Cloud in the deck before coming to my senses and swapping it for Ifrit, and the deck purred from there. Fenrir in to Jenova is an unbeatable start... Could have had the best RG deck ever if the p3p7 cards had been distributed differently, but no complaints!

On the lower end, but my streak of finishing 3rd-10th continues! (out of about 200ish) Somewhat funny that there's a chunk of us differentiated by this, not a fan of the forced land/colourless slot tbh.

Final game was looking a bit dicey until my op decided to trade/flip my Valentine just before their fat chocobo hit chapter 4... 💀. Teferi was great, don't trust the 50.4% all player GIH on that one. Won't ever get enough stats for top players but imagine it would be much higher

7-0 with a kinda weird URb equipment deck. Started off thinking I was UB, then UG before getting a Shantotto a few picks in to pack 2 and deciding to swap (while having a couple red cards already). Lesson being to stay open!

Sitting on rank for Premier but still enjoying the set enough to fire up some Trad. The blue decks give you lots of decisions, and despite it not being an all-timer, hard to argue FIN hasn't been a huge success overall.

Quickdraft out today, so back to Premier for me. Started out UB, thought I could splash the green bombs, then when no fixing came, just decided to pivot in an interesting draft. The bombs do help though!

Rinse and repeat

Someone recently asked me the omnipresent question "how do I get better at Magic/Limited gameplay?" Gave some thoughts + an important add on from @neo-mtg.bsky.social for those curious about my answer