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Reposted by Mike Stein

armlx.bsky.social @armlx.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

While everyone is sitting in the Jace waiting room, I wrote a bit of defense and criticism of the prior draftable sets from 2026. If the concept of a good bad year for Limited exists, this is it. armlx.blogspot.com/2026/09/2026...

armlx.blogspot.com

2026 Limited: A Way Too Early Review

I'm slipping this right under the wire of Reality Fracture which likely changes the mood, but if you listen to the Limited enthusiasts abou...

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

All of my opponents so far are racing for the world record of number of misplays against Phyrexian Censor in a single game. Slow down and think carefully if this is in play, y'all. Flipping a battle counts, among other things.

Phyrexian Censor
{2}{W}
Creature — Phyrexian Wizard

Each player can’t cast more than one non-Phyrexian spell each turn.

Non-Phyrexian creatures enter tapped.

Quintorius muffled a sob as he watched the thing that was once Professor Pitnik “confiscate” yet another priceless historical tome.

3/3

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I split the difference and played half a run, Arena disconnected for all of Pack 3, good times

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Timely reminder that ALCQs that don’t award qualifications are pretty high rake Very few will be +$EV in this format I’m planning to do either zero or one run with no regrets or FOMO Being _done_ with small sets is gonna feel better than cashing

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Congrats @nomad-mtg.bsky.social, and thanks for writing up an awesome Limited tournament report! We're bringing back the dead art form, one person at a time!

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🎶 Ce - le brate the Moun - TAIN - KING! 🎶

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Arena Weekly Announcements says Contender Drafts are now their own matchmaking queue magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-...

A new Contender Draft event featuring Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit begins today and runs through September 29! Structured like Premier Draft but with its own matchmaking queue and prizing more akin to a competitive event (…)

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

takes a lot for me to hit :( on did I have fun in the match but this Sealed format got me there

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Here’s a joke for absolutely nobody that’s been in my head for 18 years and is now a BLUESKY EXCLUSIVE: What’s the only correct name for this card? —- 2 Artifact - Equipment Equipped creatures get +1/+0 and have wither. Tandem Equip 2 (This equipment can be attached to up to two creatures.)

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

boo, this one is a real word too

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Reposted by Mike Stein

Magic: The Gathering @magic.wizards.com · 17/07/2026

We briefly hop back in time to Minneapolis for the Limited Championship taking place June18th-20th! This is a Pro Tour level event that players have already been qualifying for, but now you've got the time and the place.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Similarly bad numbers for the Marvel Play Booster Arena Direct this weekend, and Slay the Spire 2 remains very good

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Sengir Autocrat's enters the battlefield ability: Serfs up Sengir Autocrat's leaves the battlefield ability: Serfs down

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Achievement unlocked in my No-Rare 90s cube Gushed in response to Orcish Settlers activation on my Islands

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I keep thinking about cycling Depower in my end of combat step moments after it’s too late to set the Arena stop. Should just always think about this before attacking.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

IPA is up on MTGO Fire up my official soundtrack and get in open.spotify.com/playlist/2EK...

open.spotify.com

IPA

Playlist · Mike · 47 items · 2 saves

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Congratulations to the Arena team for finally solving the hard problem of “counting how many boxes we have” (good move though, and this was probably harder to implement than it seems) magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-...

ARENA DIRECT (NEW UPDATE)
With this release we are adding a new feature for Arena Direct events where they can "sell out" based on a limited number of entries. Once the event hits its entry limit, players will no longer be able to enter that event and its banner will move to the bottom of the event screen and indicate that the event has sold out. Players already entered in the event will still have until the end of the event's duration to finish their matches. This should greatly reduce the need for replacement event reward.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Shout out to everyone who remembers this flavor text (but it’s _not_ Elephant Grass)

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Some new info on the Arena Limited Championship: - The only prizes will be qualifications to the Limited Championship, no gems or cash - Paper LCQ winners cannot play (Source: Wizards help desk ticket response to my inquiry)

The Arena Limited Championship will not have further prizes beyond invites to the paper Limited Championship. For that reason, players already qualified to the Limited Championship will not be allowed to compete for the sake of maintaining tournament integrity and avoiding the risk of collusion. Thanks for checking.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I've added an image of Noxious Newt to my tournament report because it's my favorite part of the story.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I believe this is a first, some SOS Collector Arena Direct winners will get some WOE Collector boxes instead

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Just occurred to me that I got Arcane Omensed 0 times the entire day. So many quiet types of luck.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

5-0-2 into the top 32 in the LCQ, excited to get to do a second judge-called draft this year. It’s the nostalgia hit I didn’t know I needed

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

DC LCQ hit the 512 cap, I guess people like real magic sets and days where daylight savings time doesn’t begin. Time to 6-1 a sealed, let’s go

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

my venture into a Premier Draft to practice for the PTQ tomorrow is not going well if you can't quickly tell why from this picture, thank you for the validation

an event that is currently live that could really use an "are you sure" window on registration

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

@mtgarena.com, I thought I was paying a premium in Contender Draft to play against better players, which I’d be eager to do. Apparently the player pools are shared with Premier? I hope to see more transparency around this for future events, as if true this definitely violated my expectations.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I will also not post my Arena Direct records for other extremes, so instead I'll just say: Opening hands with Library of Alexandria were more fun than opening hands with Strife Scholars

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I'm not going to break my resolution of no longer posting my Arena Direct records just because I had a nice run, so instead I'll just say: I am no longer having fun playing Library of Alexandria on Turn 1. It's a lot of pressure.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

First #MTGSOS trophy. GUx wasn't open at all, but GU X was. Math Crabs came mid-pack and were enough to let the mediocre X commons be a gameplan. Probably just worse than soup but a pivot that could hang. Mostly though I just want to say X gon' give it to you

$Deck 1 Paradox Surveyor (SOS) 208 1 Proctor's Gaze (SOS) 213 2 Ambitious Augmenter (SOS) 140 1 Pestbrood Sloth (SOS) 157 1 Preordain (SOA) 21 1 Divergent Equation (SOS) 43 3 Geometer's Arthropod (SOS) 191 1 Pterafractyl (SOS) 215 2 Noxious Newt (SOS) 155 1 Fractalize (SOS) 51 1 Fractal Mascot (SOS) 189 1 Quandrix Charm (SOS) 217 1 Burrog Barrage (SOS) 141 1 Matterbending Mage (SOS) 59 1 Wild Hypothesis (SOS) 167 1 Jadzi, Steward of Fate (SOS) 55 1 Cuboid Colony (SOS) 183 1 Knockout Maneuver (SOA) 54 1 Procrastinate (SOS) 64 9 Forest (USG) 348 8 Island (USG) 336$

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

I have had Turn 1 Library of Alexandria in both of my last two draft games

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Reposted by Mike Stein

armlx.bsky.social @armlx.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

The Arena kids are being properly educated by Top 5 uncommon in the set Mind Sludge 2026

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Reposted by Mike Stein

Sierkovitz @sierkovitz.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Early data for the SOS draft is in! Do exercise caution. Firstly - samples are small. Secondly - people are still figuring out what they are doing. Don't build your idea of a format on few games by ignorami! But there is definitely some use in it, so also don't ignore it. 1/9

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

excited for my middle school crush Daze to be back in a regular Limited format, but preemptively disrespected at how Arena timing tells will give it away

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Pretty cool Repulse👍👍 Also a pretty cool Lightning-Helix-style R + W ~= another color’s monocolor effect

Suspend Aggression
{1}{R}{W}
Instant
Exile target nonland permanent and the top card of your library. For each of those cards, its owner may play it until the end of their next turn.

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

related PSAs: this weekend’s Turtles Play Booster Arena Direct is the worst EV of any Direct I’ve looked at, and Slay the Spire 2 is very good

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

People are figuring out the Everything Pizza decks. My fellow Topping Truthers from the week one PTQ are being vindicated

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

My corner-case sealed tips from the 6-round LCQ last weekend, validated by this data: 1) Bias towards 2/4s for your filler. You wanna block April & Oroku Saki 2) If you’re the right shape of UR/Gx, maindeck Jennika’s Technique (Pyroclasm) for the cavalry/mutanimals/sally/triceraton metagame

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Lost a tough Everything Pizza mirror in the quarterfinals, no regrets! Now, sleep and Slay the Spire 2

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

4-1-1 to top 32 the LCQ @ Richmond My last ptq top 8 was Onslaught/Onslaught/Legions draft. Let’s go

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Eight competitive play achievements, one lifestyle (center)

https://soichirow.github.io/my-9-cards-mtg/?c=inv%3A57%3Aen%2Cpls%3A60%3Aen%2Cody%3A294%3Aen%2Cuds%3A40%3Aen%2Cinv%3A70%3Aen%2Cons%3A235%3Aen%2Cktk%3A184%3Aen%2Cogw%3A31%3Aen%2Cfdn%3A192%3Aen

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Notable news. Also inspires some Onion-style headlines: WotC Grants Extra Win to Both Players Who Made Draft 2 in The ALCQ Last Weekend

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Mike Stein @mrrepulse.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Another angle on Arena LCQ EV: They're essentially 260-player on-demand tournaments that pay only 1 winner, in a low-skill-edge game, with only $9.53 of each $25 entry fee going to the prize pool. That's _exceptionally_ swingy. I can't think of any comparable event in Magic history. Or even poker.

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