Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to be taking a look at the results from Pro Tour: Kyoto where Gabriel Nassif took home the top prize courtesy of Patrick Chapin and crew’s Five-Color Control list, and I snagged an exclusive interview. We got big news on next year’s Magic Cruise, what Legacy looks like for Grand Prix: Chicago, and more. Let’s go!
Kyoto, Don’tcha Know?
So this past weekend there was a Pro Tour just a few miles further than I was able to travel in the land of the rising sun. This meant that although I couldn’t be there, the MagicTheGathering.com coverage team was there to pick up the slack. And boy, did they. I don’t know if you noticed these little improvements over the years, but the coverage team really outdid themselves this time. Before we get to the tech, let’s talk about how it was presented.
First, Twitter is the best thing to happen to Magic coverage in just about forever. I highly suggest that Wizards embrace this completely and fully, with every possible coverage person Twittering their heart out. This gives you incredible real-time updates in ways never seen before. In years past you’d have to wait hours as coverage pieces were written, edited, formatted, uploaded, and finally posted to the coverage site. With Twitter you get an instant update letting you know what’s going on and who is doing well. Twitter let me know that Luis-Scott Vargas made 7-0 long before the pairings or standings reflected it, and it provides the immediacy that allows Magic reporting to shine.
Second, the video guys stepped it up a notch. Considering I do this sort of thing week in and week out, I noticed some improvements. The nice name titles beneath the hosts didn’t go unnoticed, but the most impressive thing I saw was Deck Techs are uploaded to YouTube in full-blown 1280×720 High Definition. That is just impressive. Hell, I’m not doing High Definition Magic videos yet, and here they are, kicking ass at it. So a tip of the hat to the boys behind the curtain.
Anyway, the tech is here and the tech is Wall of Reverence and Broodmate Dragon. The first has been universally panned as a role-player in casual, and the second has seen very little play up until now. I expect both of these opinions to change quite a bit. First, Wall of Reverence is just insane as a Turn 4 follow-up to Plumeveil. Gaining 4 life a turn until Wall of Reverence killed is No Joke, and a 1/6 that can block pretty much every played creature in the format is nice as well. Broodmate Dragon, aka Double Dragon, is finally getting its due as well, called “The Savior” by no less than Guillaume Wafo-Tapa and one of the best six drops you can hope for. Eight power of creatures and two blockers for six mana? It’s difficult to top these stats, folks.
Moving down the decklists, you’ll notice a ridiculous abundance of Ajani Vengeant. The word is out, he’s patently absurd, and he’s been winning tournaments for months now. Planeswalkers have always been quality, but Ajani Vengeant has only picked up in playability as the days wear on. His ability to punish Five-Color Control is second to none, and with his Lightning Helix ability along with Kitchen Finks fighting off the red decks, my guess is we’ll see Ajani in winning lists for some time to come.
Volcanic Fallout is certainly a home run from Wizards of the Coast, as there were a mere three Faeries decks in the Top 16, with one sneaking into the Top 8 amongst the other R/W competitors. Thank you Wizards of the Coast for finally driving a stake into the heart of Faeries. Yes, the deck is by no means dead, but it has serious and I mean serious problems overcoming an instant, uncounterable Steam Blast. That is definitely a good thing.
Red and White are certainly getting their due in this Pro Tour. To contrast with Faeries, there were twice as many R/W decks in the Top 16, including three that made Top 8. This means you can expect Celestial Purge to be even more maindeckable in this metagame, and Goblin Outlander a certified monster in the Blightning Aggro deck.
The most interesting deck to me is Dark Bant, a Noble Hierarch-led monstrosity that features Ancient Ziggurat in order to curve into Noble Hierarch – Doran, the Siege Tower – then drop a devastating Rafiq of the Many to smash for almost three quarters of your opponent’s life total on Turn 3. Now that is some sickness. Smash with Doran the Explorer, get Exalted thanks to both Noble Hierarch and Rafiq, take 14? That’s just unfair, I tell you. No wonder it made Top 8. It’s also a unique oddity, much like player of the year Shuhei Nakamura lone Seismic Swan. This is a deck that features a lot of card drawing, the Swans of Bryn Argoll and Seismic Assault combo of course, and plenty of burn and counterspells. It also features an incredibly diverse sideboard, something of a hallmark of Japanese decks in order to push their percentages right where they want them.
Overall, I think the split format did what Wizards of the Coast expected it to: It gave us the best all-around Magic player in the world right now, and I think a testament of that is watching Gabriel Nassif and Luis Scott-Vargas in the finals of this Pro Tour. And now, thanks to the Wizards of the Coast marketing team, here is an interview with the winner himself, Gabriel Nassif:
((NASSIF INTERVIEW))
MC2: This Time It’s Serious
All right boys and girls, I don’t know about you, but I can tell you the highlight of my year so far has definitely been the Magic Cruise that I embarked on just a few weeks ago. I hope everyone enjoyed the Magic Cruise show as much as I did making it. It was an incredible experience I feel very fortunate to have been a part of.
You remember it, don’t you? ((SHORT CLIP))
Oh, wait a minute. We’re not just going over the Magic Cruise here…we’re talking about the next Magic Cruise! Hell yeah, baby! That’s right, building on the success of this year, Legion Events is going to be holding a Magic Cruise in 2010 to the Caribbean! Are you ready to island-hop on the Carnival Freedom all the way to Jamaica? That’s what I’m talking about. And you thought we were on a boat this year, just wait until you see what we got planned for this one! We’re talking about oodles of Magic events, tons of opportunities to have fun at port, and plenty of Cruise Qualifiers all around the country to get you there. You know the R/W Kithkin/Reveillark deck, the “Boat Brew” got its namesake by winning Brian Kowal a spot on the ship, and now it’s your turn once again to take off to the ultimate Magic vacation destination.
Check out legionevents.com/cruise for more details, and be sure to sign up soon… there are only 50 Magic Player slots available to purchase and I can assure you they will go fast. Do note that those 50 are going to be supplemented with over a dozen Cruise Qualifiers and that there is no limit on non-Magic player slots. Thanks to Legion Events for inviting me back for another year, as I’ll be filming the sights, sounds and good times direct from the Caribbean.
Legacy Shmegacy
Okay, it’s been since May of 2007 that we got another Legacy Grand Prix, and the Magic populous has turned once again to that Almost Busted(tm) format. You know, Legacy as a format is a funny thing. It’s kind of like the difference between the girl next door and the Playboy model. Sure, one is sultry and photoshopped to perfection, doing all sorts of unfair things to various parts of your body, whether that’s blood flow or deviant thoughts. But the other is sweet, sincere, and just not quite as crazy. You know what they say, no matter how good looking a girl is, somebody somewhere is tired of her crap. And that to me speaks a lot about Vintage, a format virtually guaranteed to bring you blowout after blowout. Sure they’ll be highly intricate decision-tree-ridden blowouts that balance a hair on the edge of a knife in the five or so turns each game lasts, but Legacy gives you what I consider a much more fulfilling existence.
However, Legacy is not without its faults. While Vintage is restrictive in its access to extremely expensive cards and ridiculously overpowered cards, Legacy is restrictive in that some strategies are so powerful they are repeated with slight variation over and over again. For instance, Tarmogoyf is the motherfrickin’ man. Now you know this, and I know this, but in Legacy they really know it. What was once the Best Creature In Every Format has become The Best Creature In Legacy By A Country Mile. Virtually every deck save Dredge in the recent Grand Prix Trial at the StarCityGames Center in Roanoke Virginia last weekend featured the overpowered Lhurgoyf. And that’s not all. The Combo You Can’t Get Away From will almost always, without fail, be Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top. It was annoying as hell in Extended, and it’s frickin everywhere in Legacy. In a format defined by one drops and two drops, this mondo combo will be everywhere in Chicago, and I suggest you have a plan for it.
The Aggro Deck That Will Never Die in Legacy is Goblins. It’s just ridiculously powerful. Goblin Lackey is a creature that must be answered in some regard, and to not do so will generally kill you. This is both fun, exciting and interesting as it is fascinating to watch “good” players play with this deck versus those who have just picked it up or aren’t quite as skilled in its complex interactions. Knowing which Goblin to play and when, which Goblin to tutor for and when are incredibly delicate decisions that can completely decimate or assist your opponent in one way or another. For those looking to play this deck in Chicago, I hope you’ve studied how your deck really works and are ready to make the difficult adjustments necessary when a Phyrexian Dreadnaught or Standstill hits the board.
Meanwhile, In the Ben Bleiweiss Was Totally Right As Usual camp, Natural Order and Progenitus saw its way into no less than three top decklists from the Grand Prix Trial. Many had dismissed this combo as mere fantasy or not worthwhile, but it has proven to be incredibly scary and incredibly powerful. Protection from Everything is not something Legacy provides you a lot of answers to, as you’re generally limited to Wrath of God which sees little to no play in that format, and with another dork hanging around for their Innocent Blood, you can rest assured that your 10/10 will clean up soon after. I’m pretty sure after this weekend the “I’ve Been Killed By Progenitus” Facebook group is going to get a whole swath of new members.
Grand Prixs are always huge, fun events, and finding our way back to Legacy after almost two years between major tournaments will be thrilling as well I’m sure. So break out those old cards, dust off those Force of Wills and Sinkholes, and get yourself to Chicago. Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards… so you don’t have to.
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
eerwin -at- gmail -dot- com
dubs dubs dubs dot themagicshow dot teevee
I wonder how many have visited cubedrafting.com lately and seen the amount of work I’ve done there…