Arena Craft Podcast

The Standard format is fresh, and this week we're fresher with our takes on what decks are at the top of the metagame moving forward. Sultai vs. Temur Adventure vs. Rakdos Sac, and a bunch of mono-colored control decks to boot. We cover all the major archetypes we're seeing and check in on the power level of outliers like Winota and Yorion. Then, we switch over to Historic to cover the imminent release of Amonkhet Remastered. Spoiler alert: they've added some non-Amonkhet cards to this release, and they are BANGERS. We go into how these off-set cards are going to redefine the format... basically, there's a lot to like here.

Also, we're excited to welcome Covertgoblue's video content to the YouTube Arena Craft Podcast account. He kicks things off with Jeskai Feather on the top 50 Mythic ladder in Historic. Watch that video here.

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

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This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

This is the show we had lined up before the surprise ban announcement. We covered last week's news, basically, including the PT top 8 and Crokeyz' Paper Boomer showdown. It's a bit outdated now, but we thought we'd include it for anyone who wants to hear what we recorded. Enjoy!

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

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2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

We're speechless! They did it! They actually banned (most of) the cards everyone's been complaining about in newer-than-Modern formats, and this is 100% going to shake up every Arena format. Arjuna and Covertgoblue convene to give our take on the bans, what they mean for the format, the cards that got a boost or a nerf as a result, and the decks you should be thinking about playing moving forward (hint: Expansion / Explosion shouldn't be in them). Enjoy the analysis, the soapboxing and the bile, but most of the all the pure, unmitigated joy, as we unpack these bans.

Read the full banned and restricted announcement here.

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

To the surprise of many, Standard finally has a new deck to speak of! Several, by the looks of it. We look at decklists and meta breakdown from the Players Tour finals, and go over Mono White's place in the metagame, alongside some other spicy brews like Esper Midrange and Mardu Winota. We round it out with a discussion on whether Wilderness Reclamation needs to be banned, and other thoughts for keeping Standard interesting over the next two months.

Here are all 145 decklists registered for the PT finals.

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

This week, CGB and Arjuna are joined by niceguy and streamer extraordinaire, DanyTLaw! We discuss his fast track to streaming success and catch up on his history with MTG, then go into some of the new cards and archetypes in Historic bolstered by Jumpstart. Expect to see Goblins, Elves, Spirits and more on the Historic ladder moving forward.

Find DanyTLaw on his Twitch stream and YouTube channel.

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

This is Part 2 of the Monogreen deep dive!

Arena's most prominent Monogreen mage Maxim 'Rint' Salmin returns to the show! With the recent rise of the archetype into the metagame, and top 8 performances at various tournaments, it's time to take a deeper dive into the many ways you can build the deck. No two lists look exactly alike, and we have a wealth of options to choose from. Arjuna and Rint go through (almost) every card you could ever want to put in this deck, and give their thoughts on the ones you can't leave home without.

Find Rint on Twitter, Twitch and YouTube. Following Rint on Twitter is the best way to catch his updated list, since he changes it almost every session.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

Arena's most prominent Monogreen mage Maxim 'Rint' Salmin returns to the show! With the recent rise of the archetype into the metagame, and top 8 performances at various tournaments, it's time to take a deeper dive into the many ways you can build the deck. No two lists look exactly alike, and we have a wealth of options to choose from. Arjuna and Rint go through (almost) every card you could ever want to put in this deck, and give their thoughts on the ones you can't leave home without.

Find Rint on Twitter, Twitch and YouTube. Following Rint on Twitter is the best way to catch his updated list, since he changes it almost every session.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

This week, we have a grab bag of topics to discuss related to Standard. Not many new developments in the format, except that Mono Green's rise to Tier 1 has been confirmed (with much gloating from Arjuna). We take a deep dive into what comparing Growth Spiral with Hydroid Krasis teaches us about Magic and what's good in Standard right now. Also up for discussion is the weakness of Red's offerings in M21, adding basically no relevant cards to the Standard format whatsoever. Finally, we wrap it up with another Gas or Ass segment checking in on various M21 cards and how they've held up so far.

To see Arjuna's latest video uploads, go to the Arena Craft YouTube channel.

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

We're back with another week 1 roundup of a new Standard format, this time with M21! We've had an SCG event, a CFB Pro tournament, and various other smaller tourneys to help us start to get the shape of the metagame. That Bant Ramp and Temur Reclamation are still at the top of the metagame should surprise nobody. However, the builds and the cards being used should raise some eyebrows, and give us some information about what cards from the new set are revealing their relevance in the format. M21 is definitely making its mark on Standard with reprints like Ugin, The Spirit Dragon and Scavenging Ooze, and new prints like Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse and Sublime Epiphany. Lots of exciting stuff to be building around!

Decklists for the SCG Top 8 that we reference on the cast.

Witch's build of Mono Black, #1 Mythic on the ladder

Arjuna's latest build of Selesnya Counters, currently 67% WR in Diamond BO1

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.

It's finally here: M21 is out of Early Access and onto the Arena ladder! Arjuna and Covertgoblue reflect on the decks we played at the #sponsored Early Access event (including the epic grudge match the two of us ended up in by chance - see link to that video below). Then we talk about what's making waves in the current Standard right out the gate. We've got (unsurprising) news for you: it's Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. We talk about Bant Ramp and other decks running this powerful planeswalker. We also discuss some new archetypes seeing some play on the ladder and in tournaments: Paw Blade (Boros Aggro), Selesnya Counters, Shrines and more.

CGB and Arjuna's epic grudge match video is here. That video contains CGB's Annoying Azorius Bounce decklist. Arjuna's Shrines decklist is here.

Arjuna's initial Selesnya Counters list, and CGB's take on the deck.

Find Covertgoblue on his YouTube channel and at his personal site.

Find Arena Craft on:

1. Discord
2. Twitter
3. Twitch
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Email Us

This show features the track 'Real Virtuality' from Eero Johannes released on the Sound Pellegrino label and is used with permission.