Magic: The Gathering

I am fairly new to Linux gaming after I recently switched fully to Linux (Fedora 42). As you probably know, most steam games will run in Linux out of the box thanks to proton and Valve.

However in case you want to run games like MTG Arena together with a third party tracker like Untapped.gg things become a little tricky. As I only found outdated threads on reddit I thought we might as well need one here on Lemmy.

Quick summary for beginners: We want to install the Untapped companion Windows (exe file) inside the steam/proton environment that is used by Steam to simulate windows. These simulated environments are called "prefixes" and this was already used before Steam/proton by the popular windows emulator called Wine. Which is why you will sometimes read about "wine prefixes" or "proton prefixes" or tools like protontricks or winetricks that help you to configure those prefixes. Also you will read about "verbs" which are little "helper scripts" or recipes for winetricks/protontricks.

I found this neat little verb someone created for the untapped companion and it probably should work very easily in case you have the flatpak version of steam and protontrick:https://github.com/sabedevops/wine_untappedgg_companion

However I have the native Fedora 42 versions of steam and protontricks which is why also explain the manual steps here using the protontricks built in GUI. Whenever you install protontricks it should come with an GUI app in you applications folder. When opening this app it should list all installed steam apps together with their "app IDs". 

For Arena will look like this:

After selecting the Arena app you have to choose a "wineprefix", just select the "default" one, then select "Run an arbitrary executable" and select your manually downloaded Untapped.gg+Companion+Stable+Installer.exe  This will install the Untapped companion in your MTGA prefix.

Now you could always manually start the companion app within the mtga prefix via the proton-launch command and knowing the path of your steam wine prefix (which might be different depending on your distro of if you used flatpak). You can find your wine prefix folder also via opening the protontricks UI app and select "browse files" after selecting the default prefix for MTGA. protontricks-launch --appid 2141910 "/home//.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2141910/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Programs/untapped-companion/Untapped.gg Companion.exe"

What we actually want is that the companion automatically starts each time we open MTGA via Stream. As described in the github verb above, the trick is to use the Steam game launch options and use the PROTON_REMOTE_DEBUG_CMD variable which will pause the game start and open anything you pass to it before starting the game. So go into your steam library and add the following to MTGA -> properties -> General -> Launch options. Beware of the different handling of spaces in path names and use the "" after "Untapped.gg" and replace the path with the actual path to the compoanion app that you installed above via protontricks: PROTON_REMOTE_DEBUG_CMD="/home//.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2141910/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Programs/untapped-companion/Untapped.gg\ Companion.exe" %command%

Additional Information: The overlay functionality is actually pretty broken (at least in Fedora 42 using KDE Plasma+Wayland) and will cause random window glitches and not show up most of the time. However there is an option in the Untapped app that let's you open your deck window in a separate window outside of the game: Click on MTG Arena -> Deck Wndows -> enable "show player deck window".  So unfortunately no overlay possible right now but at least I can use the tracking and also see my deck statistics while in a match.

Stuff like Shahrazad having you play a side game, Karn making you restart, Aeon engine reversing the turn order, Chaos Orb, goblin game, etc.

I've got a really half-baked idea to just throw all of these wacky cards into a deck to see what happens. Not expecting it to be good, just a fun thing to throw into the mix once in a while for casual play.

Sticking to "real" cards, no need to dip into the un-sets, they've made plenty of strange cards over the years.

Arena is making me face a lot of disgusting monoblue decks or one or the other Teferi, I'm nearly in the mood of using all of my wildcards to craft the most toxic and unfun commander deck. What is the commander you absolutely despise?

https://moxfield.com/decks/AJwNm2DD6kOgAZXvxE-RQQ

Let me know what you think.

My Feldon deck isn't my best, but it's by far my favorite to play. Every time I do, I discover new fiddly interactions I hadn't even considered before. It's capable of getting out of the craziest situations with enough mana and shenanigans.

I recently threw in karn the great creator to test it out. Ended up wishing up rings of brighthearth from my binder, but it played so well in putting it in the main (not sure why I didn't earlier, honestly). My dilemma is I don't have many other artifacts outside the deck that I would really want.

Main question/TL;DR: what are some situationally good artifacts that could go in a mono red artifact/graveyard deck.

Decklist if you're interested. Not up to date but close enough.

I do love when in Arena people play the baddest discover deck against me, my Elesh Norn Mother of Machines blocks their triggers, 5 seconds pass with them reading top to bottom Elesh Norn, then they concede. Best feeling in this game.

Here is a little something to ponder: how much damage could you do in a single game? Well, I spent about 65 hours to find out.

If you're not familiar with Forge, I definitely recommend to check it out. It is a Free/Open Source M:TG engine that has a (not entirely dumb) AI, network play, and just about every single card you could imagine. With this engine, I constructed a non-legal deck with a card combo with an infinite loop and exponential growth both in damage and creatures. And then I played games until I could execute the combo and see just how much damage I could do.

Unfortunately, the software isn't really built for these kinds of Johnny tactics, and it got incredibly slow. So slow in fact, that by the end, when the stack had 512 Scute Swarm triggers, it took days for it to resolve (and give the AI a chance to respond to each and every one).

Anyhow, here are some screenshots I took, and the deck. I tried to include the game log, but I think I am bumping up against a body length limit on posting.

[metadata]
Name=Buglandia
[Avatar]

[Main]
2 Altar of Dementia|TMP|1
2 Coat of Arms|EXO|1
1 Concordant Crossroads|2X2|1
3 Crucible of Worlds|2X2|1
3 Fastbond|LEA|1
4 Forest|ONE|1
5 Forest|ONE|2
7 Forest|ONE|3
4 Forest|ONE|4
2 Horn of Greed|STH|1
4 Jaddi Offshoot|IMA|1
2 Khalni Heart Expedition|ZEN|1
2 Lifecrafter's Bestiary|AER|1
4 Lotus Cobra|IMA|1
3 Scute Swarm|ZNR|1
2 Scythe Leopard|BFZ|1
2 Tireless Provisioner|PLIST|1
2 Tireless Tracker|PLIST|1
2 Well of Knowledge|WTH|1
1 Zendikar's Roil|ORI|1
3 Zuran Orb|ICE|1
[Sideboard]

[Planes]

[Schemes]

[Conspiracy]

[Dungeon]

Or, is anyone else bothered by Innistrad having only 4 provinces?

Second day of my budgie #Ocarina feeling confident enough to get out of his cage in the new house. Now his favourite place is on top of my bf head while he plays Arena. #birb #MTG #MagicTheGathering

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20472413

The Dynasty Cube is a collaborative, league-style draft in which teams of players draft through the history of Magic, starting with the first handful of sets, and cumulatively adding sets in chronological order in subsequent Seasons. Drafts are done rotisserie style online, with matches played through the following weeks to determine a Champion. The collaborative aspects of The Dynasty Cube have also heavily inspired by Blaseball - expect The League to evolve into something entirely different over time.

The League is currently looking for additional participation to keep the final Beta phase moving before the first Season begins at the end of this month.

The first Beta phase (Season 0) just completed (congrats to the Season 0 Champions, Innistrad Creeps!), and The Season 0.5 Draft begins today, Thursday Oct 3rd. This will be a "Draft-Only" Season intended to work out any bugs in the progression between seasons. The League will reset before beginning the first real Season that follows.

As no matches will be played in Season 0.5 and everything resets shortly after, the stakes are as low as they're ever going to be to jump in and see what The Dynasty Cube is all about!

The inaugural Season 1 will begin the week following CubeCon, with the Draft kicking off Oct 24th.

Additional details about The League and Season 1 list.

The Season 0.5 draft list

Discord server where you can join a Team and start participating!

If you have any questions about The League that aren't answered in the links above (or, hell, if you're just to lazy to click them), I'll be answering them here for as long as people are asking 'em!

Jeweled Lotus

Dockside Extortionist

Mana Crypt

Nadu

I played long, long ago and I'm toying with the idea of casually coming back. However, I've heard that the cost to play has skyrocketed. From what I can see the most basic, standard decks start at around $500, and only go up from there.

I'm not interested in coming back if it means spending several thousand dollars a year.

Say if you were to just buy boxes as the new sets came out, how many boxes would you likely have to buy in a year to be able to build a couple distinct decks?

Is 2v2 money drafting still a thing? When does the next base set start?

Any other commentary or advice is welcome. Let me know if this is buying a boat.

Credit: B.M.Nowak (for the meme not my awful title)

Hi! I'm tweaking my burn deck and had a question about the wording/rules around Nahiri's Lithoforming.

The text states:

Sacrifice X lands. For each land sacrificed this way, draw a card. You may play X additional lands this turn. Lands you control enter the battlefield tapped this turn.

My question was whether the additional lands have to be played while the spell is resolving or at any time during the rest of the turn? I'm guessing the latter because otherwise it would say "you may play X additional lands", but just wanted to check.

Looking to combine this with acidic soil and valakut for some fun where I don't take much/any damage.

Murders at Karlov Manor

Okay here is the Dwarf review Murders at Karlov Manor. Tis a wee bit sad no Dwarves hopped across the omen paths for this set, but I think there are few cards worth talking about that can help our heroes of the hallowed halls. When looking at the cards, I will mostly be referencing Explorer/Pioneer, Historic and Commander decks that utilize Dwarf tribal. The decks I typically use are:

1. [[Depala, Pilot Exemplar]] RW deck - The original Dwarf Lord that actually cares about dwarves. She also cares about vehicles and with Magda on her team she can pack quite a punch.
2. [[Magda Brazen Outlaw]] R deck – This deck likes to turn dwarves sideway for treasure, then sacking that treasure for a game changing dragon or artifact.
3. Boros Equipment/Auras,- Dwarves actually have quite a few cards that work with this strategy, [[Bruenor Battlehammer]], [[Koll the Forge Master]], and [[Reyav, Master Smith]].
4. [[Torbran Thane of Red Fell]] R Deck – Basically put the best burn spells and damage causing spells you can and the best dwarves (and maybe a few Dragons) you can get. Extra combat steps and double strike are nice too.
5. [[Lady of Otaria]] RG Deck – Recently introduced. Basically, somehow sacrifice lands and get dwarves into your hand. I have a deck, but it is still a work in progress. Anyone else build a deck with her yet?

White: [[Wrench]] A one mana equipment that gives a tap outlet, I like it. You can tap a nasty blocker for a Bruenor deck or if you have Magada on the board tap a dwarf for some treasure.

[[Call a Surprise Witness]] Most dwarves are three mana or less, so getting them back from the graveyard and with flying it pretty nice. Flying dwarves are pretty awesome, especially with Magda on the board as more evasion equals more turning sideways for treasure.

Red [[Expedited Inheritance]]

This is a nice card draw for a Torbran deck. Kill some creatures and then exile some cards to play.

[[Knife]] Not a bad one mana weapon for Bruenor. First strike and the utility of sacking it for a card is nice.

[[Torch the Witness]] Another card for the Torbran deck, now all of that extra damage that Torbran creates does not go to waste, you get to investigate.

[[Concealed Weapon]] Cool, this weapon is great for the Boros dwarf equipment decks. One issue with these decks is sometimes you have bunch of equipment but no creatures, this gives a serviceable body with ward 2 no less! And if you do want to turn it into an equipment it attaches for free.

[[Suspicious Detonation]] Okay, I am really liking this card for a Magda deck. Hopefully with her out you have at least one treasure to sacrifice and then you have an un-counterable 4 damage spell. Not bad.

[[Demand Answers]] Again with Magda out it is super easy to sacrifice an artifact, so getting two cards for two mana seems like a good idea.

[[Mob Verdict]] Okay here is a Commander card that would be fun with Torbran, if you aren’t picked you’re probably wiping someone's board and if you are picked free cards. I like it!

[[Prisoner’s Dilemma]] Wow, just wow, another great Commander card for our favorite grudging Dwarf. If I ever get to play this with Torbran it would be so much fun, and with flashback too! I really like this.

Multi-colored

[[Warleader’s Call]] Not bad for a dwarf deck, giving them a boost is nice and I tend to cast a lot of them so it might add up to a lot of damage.

[[Break Out]] Okay I mention this card because I think it might work well in deck running the [[Doors of Durin]] as this does a similar thing. Also, help move potentially non-creature cards out of the way to Doors of During can cook.

[[Take the Bait]] I think I like this card. I might try it in the Boros dwarf equipment decks, might be nice to get rid of potential blockers when I really want to attack with my one big supped up dwarf on the following turn.

[[Aegis of Legion]] This card looks fun for a Boros dwarf equipment deck. Get your equipped dwarfs bigger and a shield counter. Keeping your dwarves alive is always a challenge and anything to help with that is welcomed!

Okay that’s it for now. I for one am holding out for a Dwarven Cowboy or something in Thunder Junction. 😊.

So I’m running a stickfingers commander deck and I seem to keep getting bojuka bogged to death and it really fucks me up. I am looking for suggestions to add to have more graveyard protection. ATM I have elixir of immortality in the deck and thinking of adding orbs of warding. But I would love more suggestions.

We would love to present a new blog focused on the Commander format, we would love to present the best reviews about Magic The gathering, we are waiting for your comments to improve little by little.

[https://toracles.com/](Commander Blog Site)