Arcbound Ravager art sold for 45 200 USD

Some of you may point Black Lotus as the most expensive card, but what if we focus on only Magic art. Did you know, that oryginal art of Arcbound Ravager was sold lately for $45,200? The second highest public auction was half that amount. Ravager topped the most recent public auction of Force of Will by Terese Nielsen from Eternal Masters on eBay, sold for $21,319.99. It was priced so high, because it is the card Affinity is built upon. Only paintings, that are the crux of a deck can rival with Arcbound Ravager. For instance, Mishra's Workshop or Oath of Druid. I'm sure other arts will hit $50,000 or more soon.

Should you play around pump spells in Limited?

Let’s say my opponent attacks a 1/1 into a 2/2 in Limited. Can I play around it? I can just not assing blockers and take 1 damage. But, should I do it? Usually not. If you take a hit now your problem will not vanish - in next turn you probably will have the same dilema. The threat for you, that your opponent is holding a Giant Growth is worth less, than actually casting it and loosing your creature. You need to ask yourself a simple question - is this possible threat going to hurt you more now or later. Force your opponent to cast it in a less profitable scenario for him. In most early-game situations, you want to make them cast it as soon as possible. What it is killing now is less important than what it would kill in the future. Remember, this card is not going away, if it is not used now, it will be casted later.

To sum up, if my opponent attacks their 1/1 into my 2/2, I’ll usually block, because the Giant Growth is going to get roughly average value in this exchange—I can’t stop it from getting the same value later on or potentially more value.

However, if I have an instant-speed removal spell in my hand or a trick of my own, then I might not block because I know the Giant Growth is going to be worth less in the future as I have ways to deal with it.

Mana Fixers in Limited

The newest mana fixer is Navigator's Compass. It gives you 3 life and it may turn your one land into another untill end of turn.
It fixes your mana, but it costs you a card, what in this case is treated as a card disaventage. In other words, it doesn't replace itself or trade with an opposing card, in contrast to a card like Prophetic Prism which replaces itself while fixing your mana and is therefore usually a card you should play. As a general rule, you should not play with Navigator's Compass or other mana fixers that leave you down a card.

An exception to this rule is when you desperately need any mana fixer, because you are playing 3 or more colors. Another example is synergy with the card. For instance, if your deck is both full of “historic matters” cards and deficient in historic cards to turn on all these historic matters cards, then sometimes it's correct to play the Navigator's Compass.

Deck size in Limited format

As a general rule, you almost always want to play exactly 40 cards in Limited because it maximizes your odds of drawing your best cards, since in Limited your 41st card will be by definition worse than the first 40. Larger decks are less consistent.

The only one exception to this rule that you should be aware of is when playing against an opponent trying to mill you. How to defend against this scenario? Sideboard in every card that is remotely playable in your colors as well as enough basic lands to keep your deck stabile. For instance, if you have six playable cards in your colors in your sideboard, bring them in along with four additional basic lands. So, your starting library will be 50 cards now and it buys you some time to kill the opponent. The reason you don't want to bring in 100 basic lands is because then you will only keep drawing land cards. In spite of playing against mill deck it usually still has some creatures to deal you some incidental damage, so 100 basic are not a good idea. In many cases those just extra few cards in your library will be the difference between a win and a loss. Drawing a weaker card that you boarded in will only rarely cost you a game against a mill strategy. Remember, that your liberary is your main resource here, not life total. However, mill strategies are not popular in Limited.