Po Panda recently asked"...what is your number one favorite deck to play?" and this poor innocent soul had no idea what a can of worms they'd opened, so here is my not so brief answer.
Introduction
Wow, this is a really rough question. Speaking a guy who is sometimes sighted as the reason Ante failed, helped make Storm a thing during Time Spiral Standard, and (responcble?) for the Grove of the Burnwillows is still a $15 card ( I attended a PTQ decades ago, oops), my favorite deck is a broad concept, but I'll try!
General format and deck information can be found through the <Stronholds Format information Page> while specific decks will be individually linked to more comprehensive media resources.
Rotating Formats:
Standard... to me is all about the Grind, and the deck I reach for most often these days is...MR Artifacts.
Alchemy...is my real choice of Grinds, I'm still about Mono White Clerics It's a beast, but maybe not as budget friendly for the new guys!
Eternal Formats
Historic was the second format which was added to Arena, to prevent the Ixalon block from rotating off, and the repeat of the public outcry which occured with the prior block. Mono Blue Tempo was my first real deck to invest in, and it continues to evolve. Though I can build dozens of good historic decks, this is one of the few which stays active, only rarely reaching for others due to meta reasons. It's also the blue deck which I use to complete corner case color challenges.
Explorer is still a very recent addition, from a budget perspective. Even though I have the collection to build several decks, I really haven't invested much specifically for this format. I think I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop?! Mono Blue Tempo is an easy answer, and my version really doesn't revolve around any Digital Only Cards introduced with Alchemy. Mono Red is also a solid choice, as the concept is so basic, you can often build a reasonable facsimile of the meta deck while using more budget accessible substitutions for the more wildcard intensive portions of the deck. I really can't think of many "must have" Rare or Mythic cards for this archetype, though several builds lean more heavily than others.
Sub-Format Overlays
Brawl is my favorite format, but sadly the one I don't spend enough time in! Content creation dictates that I'm often chasing the latest thing over my personal favorited. Of late, my most played deck is Gates Combo Sliver Queen. I also have a Shrines/Enchantress build, which I'm dying to talk about. I'm really looking forward to today's MWM, Brawl showcase and it gave me a chance to talk about (shhh, super secret tech) my Atsushi build, which breaks the Singleton nature of Brawl! Jodah looks really interesting, but this early in the season, I've only gotten 2 copies, making Standard out of the question, but Brawl is for All! Brawl deck archives over on Aetherhub, is one of the reasons I'm excited to get to 500 subs on YouTube.
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