So, September has comfortably settled in which means that summer is winding down (where did it go?) and school season is upon us again. It also means that a new Arena season has kicked off with me finding my way back into the Silver tier in Standard.

Let’s just say it’s not been a great run. Granted, I’ve been playing decks that are not top meta but that has translated to an absolutely abysmal track record. At the time of this post, I’m holding a 8-28 record for the current season. Yep, that’s not a typo! How bad is it? I’ve fallen from Silver 1 to Silver 3!

Three decks in particular have contributed to this less than stellar run:

• Green Stomping deck – 3 and 9
• Black Crime Pays deck (an evolution of an earlier version) – 2 and 7
• Red Prowess deck – 2 and 7
• Boros Convoke – 1 and 3

I’ve deliberately tried to stay away from the top meta with Boros Convoke being my sole attempt at something looking more like a higher tier deck. Instead, I’ve played some mono-coloured decks in Best of 1 as well as playing more Best of 3.

While this is somewhat frustrating, it is to be expected given that I’m deliberately trying to stay away from what has been confirmed to work. Could it lead to a new Tier 1 deck? Sure, but I also know that I’m not that good a deck builder.

More frustrating were today’s games. I’d not played too much but I finally had to pause and walk away. In my last three games, I drew one land to start. Worse, in all three, I had to mulligan down to four cards as I kept drawing one land hands. Needless to say, I notched up three more defeats with those hands. It was time for a break.

The Red Prowess deck that I was playing today only has 18 lands. I know it’s greedy but a mono-coloured deck should let you get away with it with better odds than a multi-coloured one. Then again, maybe I’m too greedy. It might be time for some time with pen, paper and probabilities.

If you play enough Magic, there will come a time where you will run into such a situation. But what are the odds of that. I’ll need someone to help me with the math but I know that it’s going to be pretty rare.

This is part of Magic, I fully recognize that. Much as mana floods can happen (and have happened to me), mana screws happen. I just hope that my run of bad luck has come to an end and that I can get back to at least winning a bit more frequently. Maybe I just need to dust off the old Red Aggro deck!