While the PTQ format is Two-Headed Giant Limited, I’ve decided to work on my Constructed skills by scratch-building decks in Standard. To that end, I’ve made a rule for myself: whatever deck I play, I must have come up with it myself.
Last week I watched some replays, did some figuring, and eventually concluded two things: one, that Dragonstorm was the best deck in the MTGO Standard format, and two, that Gruul Beats was on the rise. Frank Karsten’s Wednesday article confirmed this, showing that DS captured 20% of the Top 8 slots in Premier events, with Izzetron coming in second at 15%, and Gruul slots growing from 5% to catch up with Dralnu at 10%.
The next-most successful deck after Dralnu was Splitting Headache at 6%, so it’s safe to say that the most important Decks to Beat are Dragonstorm, Izzetron, Gruul, and Dralnu, in that order.
… But man, Decks to Beat just ain’t what they used to be. The top four decks, put together, make up 55% of the Top 8s on MTGO. Even if I can come up with a deck that beats all four of them, I’ve only solved half the format!
Check this out. Early Kamigawa Block results had White Weenie at around 43% of the field, Black Hand at 21%, and the next-most-popular deck at 7%.
If you could beat two aggro decks with similar strategies (WW had Hokori and a five-mana Overrun effect in Charge Across the Araba, while Black Hand had a Mind Sludge knock-off in Sink into Takenuma), you had 64% of the format in the bag. 64% by beating two aggro decks! Ah, the good old days.
Historically, I’ve been much better at solving a small number of specific matchups than at wide-open formats, so two- and three-deck environments are pretty much my forte. I know that the key to an open format’s heart is playing a powerful deck, but that’s easier said than done when the enemies that powerful deck needs to beat have such focused strategies.
Before I sat down to playtest Red Gold from last week, I decided to try and ramp up the power level of the deck a little. I didn’t mention it earlier, but on the way to coming up with that deck, I actually went through every single combination of four colors before settling on Red, Green, White, and Black. My reasons were as follows.
Kird Ape is the best aggressive one-drop in the format, and I have to play Red and Green to play him.
Martyr of Ashes isn’t all that aggressive, but it’s the only other Red one-drop that looks good in an aggro-on-aggro fight. (I can’t play Shadow Guildmage because I can only fit 12 Black producers into 22 lands, and 4 of them are Pillars. Having to draw one of eight specific lands to be able to play my one-drop is unacceptable.)
I need some kind of hand disruption to fight Dragonstorm, because countermagic is easily trumped by Gigadrowse. That means Black for Rise / Fall and White for Castigate.
Hit / Run is awesome against Dragonstorm and Dralnu, and pairs very well with Martyr of Ashes against aggro.
Watchwolf, Lightning Helix, and Boros Swiftblade are all excellent additions to a beatdown deck, so I want White as one of the four colors as well.
All the Blue-based configurations I played had Lightning Angel instead of Giant Solifuge, which I liked a lot against the other aggro decks… but I couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that the list was just worse for having cut one of the major contributing colors to make room for the one Blue card I actually wanted to play.
Then I got an email from Wayne P. of Australia (TROMp on the forums). Wayne showed me a four-color Zoo deck he’d been working on, which featured Gemstone Mine instead of Pillar of the Paruns. I had avoided Gemstone Mine in my original build because I could foresee running out of mining counters before Giant Solifuge was ready to hit the table… but as soon as I realized that playing both Gemstone Mine and Pillar of the Paruns would let me splash Lightning Angel into my four-color deck, I was sold.
If I had one of those nametags that said “Hello, My Name Is…” I would fill it in with Greedy McGreederson in all caps.
Gemstone Mine actually helped the deck along more than I realized at first. By cutting Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] for it, I now had 12 non-Pillar sources of Black and Green in the deck! This enabled Shadow Guildmage at one, Dark Confidant at two, and any number of delicious monochrome sideboard cards. Before going too far overboard, however, I decided to stick with my original early-game curve in order to preserve mining counters for Lightning Angel.
A few test games indicated that I was having more trouble than I liked hitting my colored mana sources on time, so I moved the pair of Sedge Slivers to the board to fit two bonus lands: Adarkar Wastes and Shivan Reef.
Vintage mastermind Stephen Menendian will often write out an entire playtest session, game-by-game, hand-by-hand, discussing each play as he goes. I’ve found this very helpful in learning the intricacies of the matchups he writes about, so I’m going to give it a whirl here and see what you guys think.
The first fish I decided to tackle was the biggest: Dragonstorm.
Red Gold’s opener: Sacred Foundry, Stomping Ground, Blood Crypt, Pillar of the Paruns, Gemstone Mine, Kird Ape, Rise / Fall. This hand has about four thousand too many lands. Mulligan!
Next six: Blood Crypt, Overgrown Tomb, Gemstone Mine, Pillar of the Paruns, Watchwolf, Sulfur Elemental. This isn’t great, but I certainly can’t expect better from a five-card hand; keep.
Dragonstorm’s opener: Mountain, Dreadship Reef, Lotus Bloom, Gigadrowse, Remand, Bogardan Hellkite, Seething Song. Definite keeper; any topdecked mana source lets me play Hellkite on turn 4, and I have Gigadrowse and Dreadship Reef available for control matchups. (It’s generally a good idea to playtest Game 1 as though you didn’t know what your opponent was playing, because you usually won’t in a tournament situation. Factoring in how good a hand is against control decks seems silly when you know your opponent is playing aggro, but if it’s a play you’d make in the tournament, it’s generally a play you should make in testing as well.)
Red Gold will play first in the first five games, and DS will play first in the remaining five.
Game 1
Red Gold: Overgrown Tomb, go.
Dragonstorm: Draw a second Hellkite. Play Dreadship Reef and Suspend Lotus Bloom. (By the way – why play Dreadship Reef here instead of Mountain? Well, the Mountain doesn’t really give the DS player any extra plays to make, but with a topdecked Island, the Reef will let him leave open Remand mana and make a storage counter if the Red Gold player doesn’t present any targets for Remand. Plus, leading with Dreadship Reef could cause the opponent to put you on Dralnu, which is one of the reasons I’d suggest Dragonstorm players adopt a second Dreadship Reef instead of the singleton Calciform Pools.)
Red Gold draws Rise / Fall. [Borat Voice/Grin] Is nice!
This second turn illustrates an annoyance of playing three-mana monochrome guys like Sulfur Elemental. I’d love to play Watchwolf off Pillar of the Paruns here, but if I do, I can’t play the Elemental turn 3 because Pillar doesn’t work with him. Instead, I have to play Gemstone Mine here, and drop a mining counter to lay the Watchwolf. Next turn I’ll have to blow a second mining counter if I want to play the Elemental. Sadly, this appears to be the optimal play.
Dragonstorm draws Sleight of Hand, still has no Blue sources, and passes.
Red Gold draws a second Gemstone Mine, plays Blood Crypt untapped, attacks with Watchwolf, and flashes in Sulfur Elemental before damage to pump the Watchwolf to 4/2. (Remember, wait ‘til after “no blockers” are declared to pump with Sulfur Elemental. Make sure it’s too late for him to be Gigadrowsed or intercepted by a Hellkite that you would have wanted to cast Hit / Run on before you commit your mana to the Elemental.) Dragonstorm puts a counter on Dreadship Reef on the end step.
Dragonstorm draws Steam Vents and plays it untapped (down to 15 life) to allow for Remand and / or Gigadrowse on the opponent’s turn. Lotus Bloom arrives from RFG Land next turn.
Red Gold draws Sacred Foundry and plays Fall. It is Remanded, and the cantrip yields the card Dragonstorm. Uh oh. RG plays Pillar of the Paruns and replays the Remanded Fall, sacrificing Gemstone Mine. Fall hits Gigadrowse and one of the Bogardan Hellkites, missing the second Hellkite and Dragonstorm. RG hits for seven with Watchwolf and Sulfur Elemental, and ends the turn.
Bloom comes in, and DS (8 life) peels Hunted Dragon. The on-table attackers will take him to 1 life, so he has two options. One, he can sacrifice the Bloom to play Hellkite and Wrath the table, with plans of riding the 5/5 to victory from 8 life. Alternately, he can try to Sleight into Seething Song. If he sees one, he can cast the Dragonstorm and win the game, but if he doesn’t, he has to hit a land or a Rite of Flame to just be able to cast the Hellkite this turn and have any kind of shot at not getting burned out or swarm-attacked to death in the next few turns. Hellkite seems like the best option, so he Songs it out, clearing away the Wolf and Elemental and dealing one to the opponent’s dome.
Red Gold draws…Hit / Run. Opponent at eight? Bogardan Hellkite in play?
How. Lucky.
1-0
This game was a classic example of two things: 1) Red Gold does all sorts of mana backflips to play the cards it does, but it’s those high-quality beatdown cards that let it defeat a turn 4 Bogardan Hellkite despite only drawing four spells the entire game. 2) What do you call it when someone removes the skin of a banana in an uncivilized manner? Oh right, savage peels.
Game 2
Red Gold’s opener: Overgrown Tomb, Pillar of the Paruns, Adarkar Wastes, Martyr of Ashes, Boros Swiftblade, Rise / Fall, Lightning Angel. Deal!
Dragonstorm’s opener: Island, Steam Vents, Sleight of Hand, Telling Time x2, Rite of Flame, Dragonstorm. Keep!
Red Gold: Pillar, go.
Dragonstorm draws Lotus Bloom for the Actual Nuts. Plays Island, Sleight (taking Island over Bogardan Hellkite), and Suspends Lotus Bloom.
RG draws Lightning Helix, and plays Adarkar Wastes and Boros Swiftblade.
Dragonstorm draws Bogardan Hellkite and plays Island.
DS draws Rise / Fall. Seems good. He plays Tomb untapped and Fall, hitting Dragonstorm and Telling Time. Seems even better! RG attacks for two with Swiftblade, and DS casts another Telling Time at end of turn. (Telling Time ends up in hand, Gigadrowse on top, and a Hellkite on the bottom.)
Dragonstorm draws Gigadrowse, and plays Steam Vents untapped in order to Gigadrowse the Swiftblade next turn. (He’s taking two from the Swiftblade even if he doesn’t Drowse it; this way, by effectively paying two life to tap it, he can be sure to take no more than two damage due to pumps.)
On RG’s Upkeep, Swiftblade, Pillar, and Tomb are Gigadrowsed. Red Gold floats Pillar mana into the draw step for Lightning Helix. (We all know that we can float mana in our upkeep and only take mana burn if we don’t use it by the end of our draw step, right? Good.) RG draws Sulfur Elemental, but can’t play it; instead, he settles for casting the Helix on his draw step and passing.
Bloom comes in for DS, and an Island on the draw step. The choice is to play Hellkite now or try to Telling Time into something better. He’s still at 13 against a solo Boros Swiftblade, and Hellkite doesn’t rely on storm, so he might as well go for the Telling Time option. Since he’s not holding Remand, he casts Telling Time in the main phase in case he hits a Sleight of Hand or another TT. Telling Time yields Dragonstorm and two Rites of Flame, so he takes a Rite and puts the Storm on top. Island, go!
Red Gold draws Kird Ape and plays Fall, scoring Bogardan Hellkite and Telling Time.
DS draws Dragonstorm and casts Rite of Flame into Dragonstorm for two Hellkites.
Red Gold doesn’t find a Hit in two turns, and loses.
1-1
Not much I could do there. He hid a Dragonstorm using Telling Time – I couldn’t have possibly made him discard it — and Hit, my best weapon against a resolved DS, was nowhere to be found.
Game 3
Red Gold’s opener: Stomping Ground, Caves of Koilos, Pillar of the Paruns, Blood Crypt, Kird Ape, Martyr of Ashes, Lightning Angel. This is a borderline hand, as it has only three spells and a lackluster curve-out. However, a six-card hand with more than three spells would only have two lands in it, and I would prefer four lands (including a pretty much guaranteed turn 4 Angel) and three spells to two lands and four spells (or, obviously, three spells and only three lands), so I’ll stay at seven.
Dragonstorm’s opener: 2x Island, Dreadship Reef, Rite of Flame, Telling Time, Remand, Seething Song. This hand does nothing broken at all; it can produce only six mana so far, so it needs to find 2-3 more mana sources and either a Dragonstorm or a Hellkite in the first three turns or so. I ship it back, get a no-lander, ship that, get another no-lander, and settle on Steam Vents, Lotus Bloom, Seething Song, and… Dragonstorm? Wow. Keep in a heartbeat.
Red Gold leads with Stomping Ground and Kird Ape.
DS draws Shivan Reef, plays Steam Vents, and Suspends Lotus Bloom.
RG draws Watchwolf (ding!) and plays it off a Pillar after attacking for two with Kird Ape.
Dragonstorm draws Gigadrowse and passes.
Red Gold has both lands Drowsed on upkeep (Dragonstorm knows the only way he can lose here is to hand disruption, and wants to buy another turn in which to topdeck Remand or another Gigadrowse to stop any discard spells that might ruin the plan). Red Gold draws OG Tomb, plays Blood Crypt, and swings for five.
DS draw Shivan Reef and plays it.
RG draws Stomping Ground, plays Caves of Koilos and Lightning Angel, and attacks for eight.
Bloom comes in, and DS draws Island. Island, Seething Song, Dragonstorm for 3 Hellkites. That Wraths Red Gold, and takes him down to 12.
Red Gold draws Lightning Helix and loses.
1-2
Nice four-card hand!
Game 4
RG Opener: One-land hand, and the one land is Pillar. Ship that back for a no-lander (hey, this game again!), ship that for Blood Crypt, Pillar of the Paruns, Adarkar Wastes, Boros Swiftblade, and Sulfur Elemental. This is actually a pretty solid hand, for five cards.
Dragonstorm’s opener is one spell, and it’s Telling Time. This is returned for Shivan Reef, Island, Lotus Bloom, Seething Song x2, and a Bogardan Hellkite. Keeper.
RG leads with Blood Crypt.
DS draws Rite of Flame, and plays Island and a Suspended Lotus Bloom.
RG draws Gemstone Mine, and plays Adarkar Wastes and Boros Swiftblade.
Dragonstorm draws Telling Time.
Red Gold draws Sacred Foundry, plays Gemstone Mine, attacks, drops in Sulfur Elemental before damage, and clocks in a total of four points. DS casts Telling Time on the end step, seeing Bloom, Song, and Island. The Bloom is shipped to the bottom.
DS draws Seething Song and plays Island.
RG draws Sacred Foundry and attacks for seven.
Bloom comes in, DS draws Sleight of Hand and plays it, taking Remand over Mountain. DS cracks Bloom, play Seething Song, Seething Song, Rite of Flame, and Hellkite, Wrathing and doming for two, with Remand mana open. Vicious.
RG draws Brute Force. Is awkward. Plays Sacred Foundry.
DS draws Dragonstorm. Is also awkward (would have been real nice last turn), but DS is still way ahead. Hit for five with Hellkite.
RG draws Helix and plays Sacred Foundry. No dudes to attack with, frown.
Dragonstorm draws Sleight and plays it, taking Hunted Dragon over Bogardan Hellkite. DS attacks for 5, and eats three from Lightning Helix on the end step.
Red Gold draws Kird Ape and plays it. It is Remanded (cantrip hits Shivan Reef), and replayed.
DS draws Rite of Flame. One play is to cast Rite into Hunted Dragon, but that play is guaranteed to lose if the opponent has a second Lightning Helix. He could also just attack with Bogardan Hellkite and take 2 back from the Kird Ape, but that would take him to 4; that play scoops to Char (which can be expected from any red deck) or Giant Solifuge. Finally, he could also sit back on the Hellkite and block for a turn, as any topdecked mana source (to enable the DS in his hand), Bogardan Hellkite (dome for 5 to put the opponent in Helix-proof lethal attack range while getting a blocker, without creating Knights for the opponent as Hunted Dragon does), or Gigadrowse (attack for 5 and tap down opponent’s offense so as not to die to Char or Solifuge, then play Hunted Dragon next turn for the Helix-proof win) wins it. That’s practically every card left in the deck, so he opts to wait for one turn and keep the Hellkite back on defense.
RG draws Overgrown Tomb and attacks with the Ape. Opponent blocks with Hellkite, and it dies to Brute Force.
RG draws Shivan Reef. Ding! Play it, play Rite, Song, Dragonstorm, get 3 Hellkites, win.
1-3
Sigh.
This section is getting pretty long, so I’ll do one last game and cut the rest so I can talk about other things. (I have notes for games 6-10 maindeck, and another five post-board games; email me if you’d like to see them.)
Game 5
Red Gold’s Opener: Sacred Foundry, Gemstone Mine x2, Martyr of Ashes, Kird Ape, Boros Swiftblade, Brute Force. Nice! Keep.
Dragonstorm’s Opener: Mountain, Rite of Flame, Seething Song, Sleight of Hand, Gigadrowse, Remand, Dragonstorm. Blech. Ship it back for Steam Vents, Shivan Reef, Mountain, 2x Lotus Bloom, Seething Song. Keep; if I can topdeck action by 4th turn, I am in business, and even if I don’t, I’m probably not going to combo off any more slowly than I would have with an average five-card hand.
Red Gold leads with Sacred Foundry and Kird Ape.
DS draws Rite of Flame, plays Steam Vents, and Suspends one of the Lotus Blooms. (He only needs the mana from one of them to combo off turn four, so he might as well stagger them for Storm purposes.)
RG draws Watchwolf, plays Mine and Wolf, and attacks for one. What a beating!
Dragonstorm draws Gigadrowse, Suspends the other Lotus Bloom, and plays Shivan Reef.
RG draws Lightning Angel, attacks for four with Ape and Wolf, then plays Gemstone Mine, Martyr of Ashes, and a Swiftblade.
Dragonstorm draws its namesake card. Nice timing! Mountain, go.
On Red Gold’s Upkeep, Gemstone Mine and Sacred Foundry are Gigadrowsed. RG draws Sulfur Elemental and sends in the team.
Bloom comes in and Dragonstorm draws Sleight of Hand. Play Rite, Song, DS for 3 Hellkites, which clears the board and deals 11 to the dome.
No outs here, not even Hit. Concede.
1-4
I ended up rallying (cough) to 3-7 by the end of the set.
What did I learn?
Surprisingly, the mana was never a big problem. I almost always hit my drops when I wanted to, despite their funky casting costs and the fact that I was a five-color, base-Red deck. (The 23rd and 24th lands helped with that.)
The biggest thing I learned was that extra damage is a really poor strategy for beating Dragonstorm. Even if I do assemble Brute Force and Swiftblade, that’s only six to the dome; there were multiple games when even a Hit for eight wouldn’t have finished the opponent off, because I’d been so effectively disrupted by Gigadrowse and Remand.
After bringing in Castigate and Seal of Primordium (I went with that over Krosan Grip to take out Lotus Bloom, because I figured it would be better in other matchups despite being more vulnerable to Remand here; it performed well), I worked my way to a 3-2 post-board record when something dawned on me.
“You know,” I said to myself, “I’m not actually doing anything powerful here.” Lightning Angel is a versatile and aggressive card, but she still dies to Char against aggro and is markedly worse than Giant Solifuge against control decks and Dragonstorm. My best combo plays are Boros Swiftblade plus Brute Force and Martyr of Ashes plus Hit, and those aren’t even game-winners! They only give me an edge, and even then only when the circumstances are right. (Kill my Swiftblade? Oh, nice two-for-one I just handed you. Llanowar Elf and Burning-Tree Shaman post-Martyr? Hm… Hit not so strong here.)
My mind started to wander back to Benjamin Peebles-Mundy Dredge Primer. At that time I was still working on a Rakdos deck, and was lamenting my inability to play Castigate in it. I wondered what would happen if Peebles’s article led Dredge to be more popular, and sketched out a hypothetical White splash in the Rakdos deck for Castigate, Stonecloaker, and Worship. (How cute is Worship plus Sedge Sliver? Don’t you want to just give it a hug?)
The R/B/W didn’t look half bad, despite losing Blood Moon from the board, but I wanted a faster clock to back up my disruption. Thus, I went with Red Gold instead.
After being pleased with Seal of Primordium against Dragonstorm, I wandered the Internet in search of a beater with a similar effect. A lot of DStorm’s wins come from Lotus Bloom’s +3 mana boost, and being able to kill it before their main phase means the only way they can get any value out of it is by casting a draw spell off it or enough Seething Songs to fuel a Bogardan Hellkite with no help from the Sorcery-speed Rite of Flame.
The only Seal-ish creature I could come up with, though… was Necrotic Sliver.
Necrotic Sliver. Haha.
Oh, that’s a good one. I’ll get right on playing that guy.
But hey, he is Black/White… that would fit in the Rakdos deck with the White splash.
But, like — Necrotic Sliver? An actual Gray Ogre with a super-expensive ability?
Heh, at least he’s a Sliver… that means if I draw a Sedge, he’s a 3/3.
Oh, and he’s White, too – so he’s a 3/1 with Sulfur Elemental. That’s also a respectable clock, I guess…
Anyway, one thing led to another, and next thing I knew, I was waking up the next morning beside this sexy little number.
Creatures (23)
Lands (23)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
I imagine that a lot of players probably tried to add a Sliver subtheme to their Boros decks, but drawing a pair of Sinew Slivers is not all that exciting; it still only gives you a couple of Watchwolves. Sedge Sliver, besides adding the Drudge Skeletons ability (Regeneration: playing well with Worship since 1998) also pumps all my Slivers, giving me eight walking Glorious Anthems in my deck. Necrotic Sliver seems a lot more appealing when there are twelve other creatures in the deck that pump him to three power, let me tell you.
Unfortunately, with all the time I spent recording fifteen straight games of Red Gold (again, email me if you’d like to see the last ten), I only had time to invent this thing and pit it up against Dragonstorm to make sure it would be worth further investigation and tuning. I posted a much more reasonable 6-4 finish in the maindeck, with two of the losses coming from mulls-to-five on my part.
Why did this deck do so much better against Dragonstorm?
Believe it or not, it actually deals a comparable amount of damage to Red Gold — despite playing no one-drops, much less the excellent Kird Ape. A Sinew Sliver and a Sedge Sliver combine to attack for exactly as much damage on turn 4 as the Watchwolf / Sulfur Elemental combo from Red Gold… except that on the following turn, I can drop another Sedge or Sinew Sliver to cash in another two points of free damage. Sulfur Elemental pumps twelve different creatures in this deck, compared to Red Gold’s eight. Cautery Sliver can come through for a few extra points on the game’s final turn, and in one game his damage prevention ability bought me enough time to play a Necrotic Sliver post-Hellkite, activate it on the next turn to remove the 5/5, and rebuild my team the turn after for the eventual win.
Ironically, I never actually used a Necrotic Sliver to blow up a Lotus Bloom. Not once.
I did, however, use it twice to kill Bogardan Hellkites for the win, and am excited by the prospect of having that guy on the table with three mana open against control decks. (Electrolyze, you say? Fine; say goodnight to Urza’s Tower. And no, you can’t draw a card from that.)
I decided to bench Rise/Fall for maindeck Castigate despite the fact that the two-for-one is likely better against aggro, because I’m not playing Martyr of Ashes anymore and don’t need to concern myself with my Red card count. Besides, let’s be honest: I really don’t think I’ll be needing help against Gruul with Sedge Sliver, Worship, and Lightning Helix all maindeck.
Besides the Slivers, the other Big Deals in this deck are Worship and Dark Confidant. Confidant is absolutely the Man of the Year for a midrange aggro deck like this. Back in my Orzhov Basilica beatdown days, I would frown upon any hand that did not contain Castigate or Kami of Ancient Law, my two ways to fight that season’s Heartbeat of Spring combo deck… unless the hand contained Dark Confidant, in which case I knew I’d have a solid chance of finding one of those two disruption spells inside the first 3-4 turns. The same idea applies here, except with Castigate, Worship, and Hit / Run (ouch).
Worship’s value against Dragonstorm is deceptively simple. If I play it, and my opponent combos out with Dragonstorm, he must kill all of my guys and me on that single big turn. Any less than that, and I survive at one life, whereupon I untap and play a creature to stay alive for the following turn. It’s really hard for Dragonstorm to remove guys in game 1 after going off, as it turns out. (Post-board, when they have Pyroclasm and Repeal, things will get a bit trickier… but then again, I’ll also have Honorable Passage and Rise / Fall, so who knows?) I hardly think I’d need to explain how strong maindeck Worship will be against the format’s aggressive decks.
I don’t want to preemptively shelve Red Gold, but Walking Anthems gets me really excited.
It’s both powerful and synergistic, and has the potential to fill the gap in midrange aggro that was left by the disappearance of Umezawa’s Jitte, Shining Shoal, and the effectiveness of Kami of Ancient Law (who still exists as Ronom Unicorn) as a combo hoser.
I hate to leave you hanging with another decklist that hasn’t been put through the paces yet, but I don’t think Craig would appreciate it if I spent more time playtesting and sent the article in on Thursday morning with a smiley face and a note that said “better late than never!”
So, barring any further mid-testing brainstorms that lead to entirely new decklists, I should be able to run this thing all the way through the gauntlet this week. We’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, I’d like to know: what did you think of the game-by-game breakdown? Was it useful or boring? Should I do more (or less) discussion of individual plays and mulliganing decisions next time? Was anything unclear? Have you ever eaten at Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Los Angeles? Isn’t it unreal?
Let me know in the forums.
Until next time – you stay classy, Internet Community.
Richard Feldman
Team :S
[email protected]