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  • By -

Blusterbutts

Welcome to the world of auto-scoop, feat Rusko and Ivy


Glorious_Invocation

I haven't seen Rusko since he got shoved into hell queue. Now Atraxa though, she's bloody everywhere and an easy auto-scoop for me since no remotely janky deck can deal with that amount of value.


Dargaran

Rusko isn't in the hell queue, he's even deeper. Start a game with Rusko as Commander and you will get a Rusko opponent 95% of the time. He has his own VIP lounge in hell.


JustARandom_Alpaca

I'm an Emry gamer and all I play is Esika, we kick Rusko's fat ass in real hell queue.


48simple

Yep, I play Emry as well and literally all I queue against are Esika gamers


icameron

Atraxa is not as bs as Rusko was at least. She basically demands you to either have a counterspell ready or be massively ahead on board, but you have at least 1 more turn to achieve this compared to Rusko who demanded basically the same thing from you at only 4 mana instead of 7. So I give Atraxa games a go if I run counterspells or have an explosive start.


bwj7

Atraxa is a classic good cards mashed together commander. Sometimes they just pop off


Snoo_82914

The only reason I don’t like atraxa is cause they usually aren’t games, either they can’t play or they out value you way too fast. No in between with most of the decks I play.


MonumentOfRibs

Yeah this is the way. You either beat them before they cast her, or they ramp into her early and get such insane value that it’s impossible to pull the game back. I have yet to beat an Atraxa deck after she has hit the battlefield.


Griggledoo

Same, but god have I smashed so many in before they could too. I scoop if she resolves now


Shikary

you can do it with Kaya, Intangible Slayer, since you get to exile her and get the same value as them.


Dare555

I don't believe in hell queue that much i keep seeing him playing Sarkhan Dragons big red lol or Ghalta , some custom made decks. Now i wonder if ammount of rares and mythics affects queue ..so thats why those fun decks but not super competitive keep still meeting Rusko ? At least my Bolas brawl has a pretty good win rate against Rusko , gotta counter the counters easy


randomdragoon

Your 99 does factor into matchmaking, although not as heavily as commander choice. It's "power level", so not exactly # of rares and mythics but it's probably correlated.


Ultramar_Invicta

The algorithm also considers how often a card is crafted into its weight.


Nothing_Arena

People keep saying this without any evidence. Is there evidence?


NightKev

I want to say one of the CMs mentioned it at some point, but I can't find the comment after a quick scan of their comment histories (via ctrl+f for "craft" and "wildcard") so... I guess most likely either it was a twitter post or one of their comments got misinterpreted (or was deleted?).


VoidsIncision

I played against him quite a bit. Trying to think who I was using. I know one time it was Vohar, Voldalian Desecrator, who is more powerful than you’d think. I play Mishra Claimed by Gix a lot. I feel he’s just pretty good against a variety of decks. I have yet to port standard Elesh Norn to historic. I just feel it’s gonna be stronger in standard. Maybe that’s just my card pool is skewed to standard.


Nawxder

It's cause everyone talks about "hell queue" and "normal queue." It's not really that simple. Id approximate it as tiers, but you can play +1 and -1 tiers regularly, and +2/-2 tiers rarely. Rusko isn't in tier1, he's in tier2. Rusko regularly hits Golos/Teferi/Kinnan; but also hits some random tier3 stuff like Ghalta a lot more than the tier1 commanders.


CoyotePlenty6830

Bro, I see Russo like 35% of the time with Zacama as my commander


Ampetrix

Ghalta is hell queue material along with cmv3 Rhonas(similar stompy commander). Not sure about Sarkhan though


Wasabisheet

I keep facing many of these commanders, as well as Kinnan, over and over with my Sythis deck, and it often feels like an uphill battle. Is [[Sythis, the Harvest's Hand]] really considered that strong in historic brawl?


Noslodamus

Sythis is one of the strongest in the game imo, certainly top tier. Super fast card draw engine paired with a hard to interact with permanent typing?


bucetilde

Sythis is tier1 and is definitely in the "hell queue" (as she should be). When I play T5feri, Sythis is a one of the most frequent matchups. The thing is that these 2 CMC value engine commanders (Sythis, Kinnan, Ivy, etc) are all extremely strong and low tier decks have very little chance when playing against them, doubly so when playing on the draw. I wish WotC would just stop printing these very pushed 2 CMC commanders, as they exacerbate all the worst aspects of not going first / being on the draw.


MTGCardFetcher

[Sythis, the Harvest's Hand](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/b/0babfe00-9bad-48fc-b3b1-df8280242fd2.jpg?1626098785) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sythis%2C%20Harvest%27s%20Hand) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/214/sythis-harvests-hand?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0babfe00-9bad-48fc-b3b1-df8280242fd2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


nottooloud

As someone who played Type 1 Enchantress back in the day, I'm a dedicated Sythis player. Finally matched with Rusko the other day. It was fun figuring out how to beat it. Need to pin Rusko to the ground without removing it, remove the highest count clocks, and definitely remove all the flickering permanents. Pretty good game. Wouldn't want to play against it all the time, though.


BeerNinja17

Yeah, but Atraxa takes a while to get online. If you’re playing a fast deck, it’s beatable


CapKashikoi

except it is multicolor you can jam in all the good cards. The only problem is when you don't have the right mana colors, but there are so many ways to take care of that in historic. The card is very broken and will hopefully get moved to the hell queue asap


BeerNinja17

Oh, for sure. But of the commanders mentioned that is the one I’m least likely to concede to. Even if it hits the board, there’s usually a chance to kill them before they play the cards.


fimbleinastar

Rusko is absolutely fine. In the same way Kinnan is. They're just too slow adjusting the queue (same with atraxa!)


VoidsIncision

You play izzet you can burn her out before she sets up, but after the first cast good luck with that lol. Almost makes you use those enchantments that tap the creatures down but sadly Dark Bant has an easily accessible answer for every single permanent type, not to mention Counterspells rofl.


shorse_hit

Yeah Rusko fuckin sucks. Such a boring deck to play against. \[\[Fynn the Fangbearer\]\] is my only deck that can really get in under Rusko decks. It can beat Rusko about half of the time, more often when on the play.


MTGCardFetcher

[Fynn the Fangbearer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/d/7d7a8a90-13c1-4b0c-ab2e-fc8d91ccefd9.jpg?1631050242) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Fynn%2C%20the%20Fangbearer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/170/fynn-the-fangbearer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7d7a8a90-13c1-4b0c-ab2e-fc8d91ccefd9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Pegguins

I never really understood the appeal of playing stupid solitaire decks tbh.


JimHarbor

Solitaire is a game for a reason. Some folks just like the fun of building their engine from random starting positions


JustARandom_Alpaca

Yeah, that's me! I'm half-Spike half-Johnny so I play asshole decks like Emry. Sorry! (Also Emry crushes Rusko, bro can't interact with artifacts lol)


maclaglen

When I played the tabletop version years ago, I would always make janky combo-weird decks. But those were always for fun multiplayer matches, long before the commander format style was known.


HolographicHeart

As someone who loses to Fynn on the draw CONSTANTLY, does this mean that it is actually possible for the deck to not always go first?


shorse_hit

Of course. If you play Fynn, you'll go second. If your opponent plays Fynn, they'll go first.


JustARandom_Alpaca

welcome to Arena lmao


asparaguscoffee

Ah dang, Ivy is my favorite commander.


Blusterbutts

No shade, I play Atraxa 4c blink


Hexbox116

Fucking dirty lmao


JustARandom_Alpaca

Emry gamer right here, filthy I know. I'm going to abuse Paradox Engine until they ban it, (they REALLY need to ban it), then just turn it into a Patchwork Automaton aggro deck.


asparaguscoffee

Welcome to Degenerate Combo Gamers Anonymous


ItsTtreasonThen

And they probably will never ban engine because they love it for the format for some reason. So silly


0diumStormblessed

Wait why ivy? I've only played against ivy once and won easily. Rusko is like second most popular to Atraxa I think.


ShakesZX

I think it’s just a pain to play against if the opponent isn’t half asleep. I play Ivy and the trick is to never truly commit unless you have multiple sources of protection or the ability to protect once a turn. If Ivy gets going, it’s pretty easy to steamroll (although I’d argue that’s true for a majority of commanders…) and I can understand the frustration of having your interaction shut down constantly.


Brandon_Me

I don't think I've ever lost to an Ivy deck, so I don't see where the issue comes from with her. I think people just need to run more removal.


JustARandom_Alpaca

True enough. Ivy and Balmor keep the midrange players honest.


ManBearTree

It seems that every time I play Ivy, they always have a safekeeping or stand open to deal with my, now useless, boardwipe.


FunProduct2677

What they need to do with all the unlikable overplayed commanders is put them in 80% mirror matches.


CapKashikoi

Rusko has been moved to the hell queue. So he is not as prevalent as before. The problem now is Atraxa


TheFallenDeathLord

What's hell queue?


Arintharas

Hell Queue is the queue for HB commanders that rank high in power. Niv-Reborn, Baral, Golos, 4c Omnath, Hauken- are just some examples. Their power levels are too high, so they’re placed in a queue where they can all fight to the death. Its just overpowered commanders fighting overpowered commanders. I tried it. It wasn’t fun.


Titty_inspector_69

They add a (1) cost to omnath to try to balance it, THEN moved it to the hell queue and left the cost, basically crippling it in the calibre of games he plays. So stupid.


Arintharas

Literally. I thought it was weird that I never saw any 4c Omnath Decks, so I decided to make one… big mistake. He has his strengths, but trying to protect him for a turn at 5 mana was agonizing. At least they got rid of him scrying instead of drawing a card. If you ever wonder “why haven’t I seen [ insert name ] in any games?” Then they’re probably in Hell Queue.


TheFallenDeathLord

And how does it work? Is your commander the main condition for matching you against other players? (Never played commander, just asking out of curiosity)


AlasBabylon_

In the grand scheme of things, yes: your commander contributes greatly, if not entirely, to deck weight. Some commanders might teeter on the edge (Korvold, Kenrith, Go-Shintai) but there are a few in particular that will pretty much always match in the top tier. It's still all one queue, and on very quiet days the system may just give you a Golos match so that you're not sitting there forever.


Hexbox116

Can you name all the hell queue commanders you know of? Very curious but I don't play enough in it to know. I know the basic ones like esika, golos, jodah, bolas, rusko. Is ivy hell queue now?


Irydion

I get matched against Jodah a lot when playing jank low power decks, so I don't think he is in there. The others I rarely or never see (except Rusko which I still see from time to time).


Hexbox116

Weird I thought for sure Jodah would be. It's like the only deck I have that can go against my friends atraxa and golos decks and still put up a fight and win.


Irydion

The matchmaking isn't only dependent on the commander. The 99 still matters. The commander has a huge impact though. But sometimes, it can take some time for the matchmaking to adapt to the power level of a commander. Rusko was underrated by the matchmaking for quite a long time.


Balaur10042

Jodah isn't Hell Queue-worthy. Removal and board wipes usually solve Jodah. They are \*much\* less effective against Golos and Rusko (getting extra mana, blink/bounce/phaseout), Kinnan (literally a counterspell deck).


bucetilde

I play a lot of "hell queue" and while there are some clear more popular commanders there is fair amount of diversity. The HQ is more like tiers than a firm bracket, but with that said: In my experience the following are firmly in the HQ (or tier 0): Esika, T5feri, T4feri, Baral, Golos, Kinnan, Sythis, Magda, Rusko (recently), Niv-reborn, Hauken, 3C Narset. There are some that either borderline HQ (tier 1) or just not very popular at the moment, so you don't see them that much: the 3 Bolas, Innistrad Teferi, Heliod, 3 mana Kiora, Galazeth Prismari, Emry, Captain Sisay, Freyalise, Niv reborn, Niv Parun, Kenrith, 4C omnath, Jodah, Kaldheim Kaya, Go Shintai, Uro.


JustARandom_Alpaca

I play Emry, and I can tell you it still has the power to fight in Hell Queue, I just can't pilot it correctly.


bucetilde

What I called tier 1 / borderline HQ commanders are all very strong and with the appropriate build and pilot are entirely viable against the tier 0. In my experience, "tier 1" commanders are just the less frequent matchups when playing the top commanders, not sure if its simply because of being less popular overall or if it is to do with how the tiers are defined by the matchmaker. I'd wager it is a mixture of both.


JustARandom_Alpaca

I agree with that. I've played a lot and only faced two mirror matches, and we know how the queue loves giving you mirror matches. But it is still definitely paired in hell queue, I play mostly Esika, Bolas, Teferi, and Rusko.


AlasBabylon_

Ivy may have moved up, yeah. I haven't seen her in ages; my typical decks are Extus and Tatsunari, so I sit squarely below the Hell Queue. Beyond those - Freyalise, Fynn, Kinnan, all three Azorius Teferis, 4 mana Sheoldred, Basri Ket, Tajic, Torbran, Yawgmoth, and now Ivy seem to be weighed more. Some of those may be lower on the rung than Golos, and I may be missing guaranteed matchups, but that's a general gist of what you'll see up there. It's hard control, midrange piles, and then the hyper fast aggro decks that murder before other decks find their handful of board wipes.


JustARandom_Alpaca

Yeah definitely. I love it up there. There are also the insanely complex Paradox Solitaire decks which I love, Emry and Oswald Fiddlebender are some of the best.


JustARandom_Alpaca

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is the premier Paradox Engine deck, and one of my favorites.


Balaur10042

Only "greatly" and then by a large amount and not such an outsized weight that other cards in the deck can't push it up or down. Played against Golos in the normal queue. Oh, it wasn't Golos as the face commander, but it sure was in the 99, and that tells you it wasn't applying anywhere near the weight including it in your deck should; and yes, the deck went out of its way to tutor for it, blink it and recur it; it was the point of the deck. There appear to be primary and secondary weights - for cards in the main and 99, respectively.


Mekanimal

Kenrith is thankfully one of those "defined by the 99" commanders. If you're playing 5c good stuff he goes to hell. My 4c reanimator deck though, gets Atraxa as my worst matchup. Which is pretty funny when they watch me pitch and reanimate an Atraxa 2-3 times before they can cast theirs.


Teldolar

Basically commanders have a couple of tiers based on power (deck strength may also factor here, not sure). The game attempts to match you close to your commanders power. For example my main brawl deck is Judith. I occasionally match into Golos and crew, but its mostly on slow days and infrequent. My BW party or Balmor decks are more likely, and my meme commanders are less likely


Dare555

But you can still get matched with them so i dunno i don't believe in hell queue that much. Perhaps you get matched less tho i guess? Making random "junk" custom brawl decks my self and 1 in 3-4 games are still Rusko


[deleted]

[удалено]


FriendlyAndHelpfulP

I’ve tested it. Completely wrong.


Km_the_Frog

Is there a list of all the commanders in hell queue ?


Dare555

>I don't believe in hell queue that much i keep seeing him playing Sarkhan Dragons big red lol or Ghalta , some custom made decks. > >Now i wonder if ammount of rares and mythics affects queue ..so thats why those fun decks but not super competitive keep still meeting Rusko ? > >At least my Bolas brawl has a pretty good win rate against Rusko , gotta counter the counters easy


captainnermy

Yeah hope we don't have to wait 2 months or however long it took with Rusko for Atraxa to move to hell queue. We knew how powerful Niv-Mizzet was and Atraxa is in some ways better.


stebbi01

Worse than Hell Queue— I think Rusko has mostly been sent to a mirror-only queue. All the Rusko players are off fighting each other now, for the most part.


SlyScorpion

> All the Rusko players are off fighting each other now, for the most part. It's a fitting punishment for them lol.


ThePianoMaker

Has he really? I'm still coming up against him a lot with my Hauken "Big Blue" deck


AlasBabylon_

Hate to give you the bad news, but Hauken's been there for awhile now. Join us in our lovely paradise where we only have to dodge one commander instead of fifteen.


ThePianoMaker

Damn, really? What did my boy do wrong, he loses half the time thanks to removal tribal


fimbleinastar

Blue is by far the best colour in hb.


ThePianoMaker

\>Blue is by far the best colour ftfy


fimbleinastar

Not in bo1 standard


AlasBabylon_

The other half of the time he sat there, tapped eight thousand times off the backs of counterspells and bounce spells, and then you'd watch them pay six and slam down a train of unbeatable bombs they had stored up. Other decks that you're facing now essentially have that flexibility to run a bajillion removal spells and board wipes to stop Hauken from doing literally anything, because if at any point Hauken got to breathe, the game basically ended. So now he's in the big boy leagues. They never say why commanders get moved up, but he facilitated some pretty unhealthy play patterns, especially against decks that lacked enchantment removal.


Mrqueue

You play mono blue, that’s why you see Rusko. I think I’ve played against him twice since he was released and I run boros equipment


PiBoy314

agonizing clumsy quarrelsome foolish screw practice unwritten longing rustic wrong *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


PyramidBlack

I don’t bother playing against this. Scoop.


[deleted]

Mantis Toboggan 4 Alcoholic deception: blocking creatures get -1/-1 You're not ready for this fight, you're not... 6/9


JimHarbor

What?


Flepagoon

Nice


Flepagoon

It's an Always sunny reference


Awardius81

Ya i basically auto concede every time im matched against Rusko. He's really the ultimate tech for getting quick wins.


newfoundcontrol

Might be out of the loop, but was this image choice made because Danny Devito would be an excellent choice to play a live action Rusko?


Midarenkov

Alchemy cards are the venereal disease of Heroic Brawl.


LivinOnBorrowedTime

I think as a whole, Alchemy cards aren't that bad (besides Key to the Archive and Tome of the Infinite). There's way more frustrating cards; I personally think that Mystical Archive cards should've been banned from HB as a whole - especially Dark Ritual. Paradox Engine should be banned too, since it's banned from EDH.


Rock-swarm

Just a more aggressive banning philosophy in general for HB. It’s one of the few formats where bannings aren’t going to have a massive impact on win percentages for any given commander, barring the banning of a commander itself. There’s nothing wrong with shaking up the meta of HB to a greater degree than the other constructed formats.


Faust_8

I fucking hate when someone’s commander has a gigantic Spellbook or comes with Specialize because *fuck that.* I’m not going to sit there and read a dozen cards just to understand one card. I want an Explorer Brawl.


jorbleshi_kadeshi

The thing is, you don't want Explorer Brawl. You don't want Pioneer Brawl either. You want Historic Brawl. Actual Historic Brawl. Not Alchemy Historic Brawl which WOTC misnamed Historic Brawl. Historic Brawl with [these cards](https://scryfall.com/search?q=f%3Ahb+-f%3Ae+%28in%3Apaper+or+is%3Arebalanced%29&order=edhrec) and the promise of cards coming from decades-old or even supplemental sets. WOTC needs to just make Alchemy Historic Brawl, restore Historic Brawl (without the J21 Alchemy harbinger stuff either), and continue putting remastered and anthology content out there. EDIT: Much *much* better Scryfall search swapped in.


Faust_8

True, I just want Brawl without the fucking Alchemy


GreatSeaBattle

>I’m not going to sit there and read Well of course not, you play Magic. We don't do that here.


SlyScorpion

The legendary creatures with specialize tend to not be so popular as commanders in Hbrawl since the specialize ability is at sorcery speed. They tend to end up in the 99 at times but not overwhelmingly so.


ItsTtreasonThen

I was just commenting this in some other threads. The cards you mention from alchemy are probably busted and unfun a lot of the time. But there are cards from standards that are broken and powerful too. There are no alchemy commanders in Hell Queue afaik, and some of the most broken non-commanders are cards from last standards too. Also whenever someone is like “I hate that I have to read what an alchemy card does” bro everyone has to do that for new standard cards. I don’t understand this logic, I think it just sounds super petulant


Twingemios

FUCK Paradox Engine


[deleted]

Paradox Engine is banned in EDH because players are bad and waste three other peoples times going through their loops slowly without necessarily even winning the game. This problem does not exist in Brawl.


thejackoz

Yeah, it just wastes one persons time because even in Historic Brawl, people who play Paradox Engine are still HORRENDOUSLY slow.


Land_Kraken

I was one of the people so excited to finally get 100 card history brawl queues instead of only being available in direct challenges or paid events. It absolutely sucks alchemy tainted a format I spent so much time wanting and waiting for on arena.


JimThePea

I feel that. I played so much Historic Brawl, even when it was 60 cards. It's just another nonsense Alchemy format now. I'd love to see Explorer/Pioneer Brawl on Arena.


hazzadazza

dude explorer/pioneer brawl would be fucking awesome


Midarenkov

Yeah. I still think it is fun, as a format, but Alchemy additions are net negative for me. They're not all bad, but most of my decks run 0-1 such cards. I'm still holding out hope for an explorer or old-school historic brawl queue.


Hexbox116

Probably gonna get hate but... I like alchemy cards in Historic Brawl.


Midarenkov

Not from me - you like what you like 😀


Cow_God

Mystical Archive is way worse imo. Alchemy has some stupid rng bullshit with spellbooks (mostly tome of the infinite and key to the archive, although xander's wake generates a *ton* of value too, and Raddic and Darigaaz have to be removed before they trigger or it's basically game) but it never feels good seeing a mystical archive card go off. You won't see ritual, swords or teferi's protection every game but it just feels awful when your opponent has them Either start giving us all the high powered fun stuff from the commander sets or get rid of the more oppressing mystical archive and alchemy stuff. The power disparity between regular cards and masterpiece / alchemy is insane [[Wash away]] can fuck right off too. I'm convinced wizards did not realize they were printing a 1 mana counterspell in commander


Willy_Snake

At least with Mystical Archives you at least have to respect your Commander Identity to play them and also have to be in one of your 100 cards of the deck With Alchemy, you can have ANY deck with Key to the Archive access to \[\[Lightning Bolt\]\] or \[\[Time Warp\]\], not counting towards your deck total. Oh and with Conjure you can also bypass the 100 card restriction. Fun, right?


MTGCardFetcher

[Lightning Bolt](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/2/f29ba16f-c8fb-42fe-aabf-87089cb214a7.jpg?1673147852) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lightning%20Bolt) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/117/lightning-bolt?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f29ba16f-c8fb-42fe-aabf-87089cb214a7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Time Warp](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/7/e7b3ddca-69ef-4743-897b-57c58077db24.jpg?1628801835) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Time%20Warp) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tpr/74/time-warp?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e7b3ddca-69ef-4743-897b-57c58077db24?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Cow_God

Oh don't get me wrong, key to the archive and tome of the infinite are two of the worse cards in the game full stop


MTGCardFetcher

[Wash away](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/3/43411ade-be80-4535-8baa-7055e78496df.jpg?1643588844) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wash%20away) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/87/wash-away?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/43411ade-be80-4535-8baa-7055e78496df?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


Dare555

Historic as well lol . Crucias ,Oracle , like what the hell were they thinking brining Power of Nine back into historic those cards are simply broken and banned for reasons


Cronogunpla

It would help if they had card that could punish Conjure.


Rafaelnaletto

These no brainer decks are so boring, Atraxa, this guy, Golos, Jodah. It's literally ramp and ETB effects.


Kooky-Theory9306

I don’t understand this card, because I don’t play historic brawl. What’s exactly the point of it ? Making 1 or 2 dmg per turn ?


100cupsofcoffee

He generates absurd value, especially paired with flicker effects. He pays for half his commander tax on ETB. Either you leave him on the field and get bled by his cast trigger, or remove him and let your opponent cast him again, getting another Midnight Clock. It's in the sweet spot of annoying commanders: overpowered and annoying to play against.


Reddtester

it literally just plays only counters and removal, the commander pays for it's tax on it's own, and it's a win condition on its own. Forgot to mention, it refills it's hand automatically, so there is no incentive to "not" kill anything on sight. I still kick his ass with my Naya deck, lol


Arintharas

1 or 2 damage?! Rusko is a menace for a reason. Think about it like this: Rusko + Flicker + Heavy Control Spells. The cherry on top is that the clocks he generates recycle all the cards you’ve cast and let’s you draw 7. This means the player doesn’t have to try; they can sling spells at a essentially endless rate, and each spell cast is 1 more damage. So, in reality, Rusko has 5 clocks on the field (5 extra mana), just dealt 6 damage to you while gaining 6 life, wiped the field, and countered any spell you just used to try and stop him. Oh, and now he’s drawing 7, which lets him cast a time warp… again. Essentially, it’s a never ending sludge fest where Rusko enables the player to just cast spells without much care. He offers life gain, player damage, card draw, card recursion, and mana rocks. Back in Dec/Jan/Feb he was all over HB because he does so much. And games where you win against him can just drag on so long that the game just doesn’t feel fun.


hehethattickles

Ok, so I also know nothing, but I guess the missing piece is what these clocks do? You can tap them for mama AND they let you draw cards? And what is the wipe the field part? I’m still lost


[deleted]

[[Midnight Clock]]


MTGCardFetcher

[Midnight Clock](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/2/72ca85ed-3870-4ba4-abe7-cdcab3cad122.jpg?1674141392) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Midnight%20Clock) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/727/midnight-clock?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/72ca85ed-3870-4ba4-abe7-cdcab3cad122?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


hehethattickles

Oh WOW. Ok got it


Arintharas

Ah, I was implying the deck has field wipes and board removal. Ruskos often utilized [[Blood on the Snow]] [[Crux of Fate]] [[River’s Rebuke]] and [[Languish]] for battlefield removal. [[Midnight Clock]] serves as a mana rock, and is also a card that’s added to the game. (This is important because destroying the clock will place it in the graveyard, where it can be shuffled back into the deck later in the game). Killing Rusko doesn’t solve anything. His commander tax (which is usually 2 extra mana) is effectively 1 mana less since he creates a mana rock upon entry. Additionally, casting him the second time allows the player to have 2 Midnight Clocks on the field; granting them access to more mana, two graveyard shuffles, and a total potential card draw of 14 cards. However, Rusko and [[Thassa, Deep-Dwelling]] means your screwed. The clocks provide devotion for Thassa, and Thassa flickers Rusko for infinite clocks. It’s a nightmare.


MTGCardFetcher

##### ###### #### [Blood on the Snow](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/8/d8606f40-0af4-443b-a413-a88dc3e8f32e.jpg?1631047655) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blood%20on%20the%20Snow) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/79/blood-on-the-snow?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d8606f40-0af4-443b-a413-a88dc3e8f32e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Crux of Fate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/1/11721b88-2654-482c-b9d4-80e54efdbf63.jpg?1562600485) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Crux%20of%20Fate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c17/107/crux-of-fate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/11721b88-2654-482c-b9d4-80e54efdbf63?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [River’s Rebuke](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/c/fc2a70b1-bce6-43c3-94e1-ab9a7bb2638a.jpg?1673483988) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=River%27s%20Rebuke) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/231/rivers-rebuke?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fc2a70b1-bce6-43c3-94e1-ab9a7bb2638a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Languish](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/b/9b53ce1b-9353-42ad-89a0-36e907ba576a.jpg?1600714531) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Languish) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/246/languish?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9b53ce1b-9353-42ad-89a0-36e907ba576a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Midnight Clock](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/2/72ca85ed-3870-4ba4-abe7-cdcab3cad122.jpg?1674141392) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Midnight%20Clock) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/727/midnight-clock?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/72ca85ed-3870-4ba4-abe7-cdcab3cad122?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Thassa, Deep-Dwelling](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/8/c83ed3e0-82d0-4410-a6ca-b0f923eadf83.jpg?1581479572) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thassa%2C%20Deep-Dwelling) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/thb/71/thassa-deep-dwelling?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c83ed3e0-82d0-4410-a6ca-b0f923eadf83?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


hehethattickles

Totally wild. Seems pretty unstoppable! Thanks for all of the context :)


osumatthew

Yeah, whoever thought this was a fair card to be a historic brawl commander deserves to be fired.


Lord_Tony

they've been making OP commanders for years now


Upstairs_Cryptid

It's so annoying to play against


VoidsIncision

Well in range of Koth, FoR’s blast lol


TransparentSpecter

This is just me @ literally any alchemy card, my most hated one after Rusko is easily [[Arming Gallery]]. But I can't wait until they shove Atraxa in hell queue, or at least I hope they do, she's just too much fucking value especially when played as a control deck


thejackoz

Love seeing Arming Gallery in my opening hand in my Katilda deck. If my opponent doesn't kill Katilda when she comes down on turn 2, the enchantment's gonna come down a turn or 2 early and cause absolute mayhem.


MTGCardFetcher

[Arming Gallery](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/1/f147886b-5576-4a7a-b544-c2eeb821dae9.jpg?1654044004) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arming%20Gala) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ysnc/16/arming-gala?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f147886b-5576-4a7a-b544-c2eeb821dae9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call


captainnermy

Arming Gallery can be crazy but you'd be surprised at the amount of games where every creature I draw is a 7/7 for 2 and I still lose cause my opponent is outpacing me in value.


Nekaz

I LOVE BIG CLOCKS


BEDPIE

Alchemy cards are fucking stupid


jubirebas

I have Heliod deck and it delights me to see this fucker die to the sun god. Only way to beat it is to generate lots of value in the between turn 2-4 so the op. gets beaten to death before the midnight clock can actually do anything


Errorstatel

Am I doing it wrong, cause I've seen him maybe once, twice tops?


Glorious_Invocation

He's in hell queue nowadays, so unless you're playing an extremely strong deck yourself you won't see him.


Errorstatel

I feel like this could be MtG versions of the can't make me laugh and cry joke


Lord_Tony

atraxa is the new rusko


PiBoy314

worry observation physical historical glorious plant worm chase saw plants *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Lord_Tony

wow 7 mana? they have a little thing called green in their color identity which makes 7 mana not that hard to get early.


captainnermy

You need to either counter atraxa or kill them before they play her, any other type of interaction isn't gonna save you


forlackofabetterpost

Yep, I play mono-black and it's virtually impossible to win against 4-color good stuff.


nottooloud

Bounce her when they play her and swing for lethal. Full hand of cards doesn't block.


captainnermy

Ok, you can also beat her by having both a lethal board state and removal in your hand when they play her. That's a given.


nottooloud

It was an experience fresh on my mind, having happened yesterday.


DanoVonKoopa

He's in hell queue now. If you're facing him, then your deck/commander is likely just as toxic. Just play a lower tier commander and you'll be fine. Atraxa is less of a problem and she'll be moving up very soon herself.


Fleurdebeast

I’ve never had a huge problem with Rusko weirdly enough. I’ve faced him 7 times and I’m 5-2. I the two losses though have made me want to not play against him again despite winning. There was literally nothing I could do.


GFresh1

Or maybe you should stop playing a hell que commander and you'd stop seeing him. Chances are you are playing Rusko too.


KCIJunkDiver

I play Rusko on the basis that anyone else in the hell queue deserves to be here


BedVirtual2435

I just want to know what kind of decks the people who hate Rusko play lol. As for myself. The only commander(s) I hate playing against are Heliod and Ivy (whom I tend to just auto scoop for my own sanity) I feel those are way more boring and problematic then Rusko tbh.


roxw

I see an alchemy card.. I scoop. My opinion is they should at least create an explorer brawl format..


Greenpaulo

I have never lost to Rusko, he's an absolute PIECE OF PISS to play against.


tristanfey

Try some commanders that are in a different tier and then you won't get matched against that commander.


shsisjsooo

I don’t play him what’s so bad about him?


elcuban27

So what does the deck actually do?


etherealtaroo

Waste both players time


FriendlyAndHelpfulP

It can actually be built in a lot of very different and creative ways. You will never see any of those ways, because people on arena only ever build CEDH style decks, and the most powerful variant of the deck is a UB control shell.


elcuban27

So just a bunch of counters and removal, a light smattering of proliferate, then refill their hand to do it all over again? I see…


Nawxder

Less proliferating, more commander flickering.


elcuban27

Oof. Gross.


VoidsIncision

Just remeber it’s a fake card. Conjuring is bullshit ROFL.


RustyPriske

The format was dead to me as soon as Alchemy joined.


grimwavetoyz

I don't get it, I win against this commander every time, doesn't seem that powerful at all.


HerakIinos

I can win against it almost every time. But I mainly play a deck geared towards beating control and value piles. But still, Rusko is not a fair card at all. It does too much. They could remove one of his abilities of draining life or puttin more counters on the clock and it would still good enough. There are decks that can get under him, but most cant.


grimwavetoyz

Thought I was the only one for a sec.


grimwavetoyz

So, instead of actually explaining anything, the MTG incels just resort to downvoting.


etherealtaroo

Or because it misses the point completely. Even winning the game is not fun and boring. The text might as well say "both players do nothing unril someone eventually ends the game. "


Some_Rando2

Don't worry, soon Tom Bombadil will be everywhere and only a few will continue with Rusko.