Good morning!
I hope you guys had fun at States. What did you play? I know you had a lot of options to choose from…
Cedric Phillip’s new specialty? (The deck many have called the best red deck they’ve seen to date.)
U/W Control?
Which is certainly Gerard
Fabiano’s specialty. (He made Top 16 of the previous weekend’s TCGPlayer.com 5K in New York with his list.)
A monocolor deck?
Matt
Sperling provides one for each color!
Titan Ramp?
Todd Anderson on the free side provided two optimal builds of the two major Titan decks, R/G Valakut and Mono-Green Eldrazi.
Perhaps you played one of the more rogue brews.
Patrick Chapin Machine Red
received a lot of acclaim. It features much of what Scars has to offer, including maximal usage of proliferate, Koth of the Hammer, and Vindicates on a stick in the form of Lux Cannon; it can even achieve metalcraft to maximize Galvanic Blast.
Sam Black brewed up a special one just for blue lovers:
Mono-Blue Eldrazi.
The addition to the Standard pool of cards like Ratchet Bomb, Lux Cannon, and Trinket Mage makes it possible for blue to play without the help of other colors. It has mana fixing, acceleration, sweepers, search, and even amazing finishers in the Eldrazi monsters.
The evolution of the U/R Control list can be followed if you read up Gerry Thompson
article
on the deck Jason Ford piloted to a fourth place finish at the New York 5K. Frost Titan really shines in this list, the king of the Titans. If you thought Frost Titan was good before; he’s even better here.
Patrick Chapin branched off of U/R into U/w/r Venser Control. Venser was certainly thought to be overrated when he first arrived on the scene, but it was soon verified to be the real deal. A five-mana planeswalker he may be, but he basically draws a card with the
addition
of loyalty counters! He can completely take over a game in the right deck.
Patrick Chapin provides the list
equipped to abuse him.
A quick fan favorite,
Gavin Verhey Darkvine list, a G/U/B Fauna Shaman deck, utilizes some of the best black midrange answers to complement the Vengevine package. Check it out ‘cause it’s on the free side, and you have no reason not to!
If you played any of these decks, comment in the forums on how the deck was for you! I’m sure our authors would love to hear from you guys on how the decks performed for you this weekend.
We had a few SCG writers discuss the more fundamental skills necessary to play this game.
Michael Jacob past few articles have brilliantly encapsulated what it means to combine theory and practice. His latest article is about playtesting. How to do it, how to evaluate the results, and how to optimize your time.
Read “Jacob’s Ladder — Playtesting.”
Terry Soh wrote a feature article on maximizing your marginal utility when playing Magic — it covers everything from choosing a deck, building a deck, mulliganing, and sideboarding.
Read “Making the Right Call.”
Will Gush take over Vintage as it has in the past? Our new Vintage columnist, Andy Probasco, talks about Gush’s impact on today’s format and presents us with a nifty decklist with the new Riddlesmith. (And it looks pretty insane!)
Read “City of Brass — Riddle Me This.”
Scars Limited is going to be one of the major tournament formats for a long time to come. Any information can provide valuable insight into this rather complex and engaging format. Brian Kibler is certainly preparing diligently by drafting like a maniac and battling at Grand Prix Sydney.
Read “The Dragonmaster’s Lair — Skin Deep: First Look at Scars Limited.”
Jon Medina dips his feet into the world of Magic Online trading… it’s definitely a new beast altogether from paper Magic, but if you want to give it a shot, Jon Medina has learned a lot from just a few months of intensive buying and selling.
Read “Going Infinite — Trading on Magic Online.”
To round everything out, SCG always provides its weekly supply of draft recaps for those looking to improve their skills in Draft. One of our exciting new features is the draft video recap. You can watch players on Magic Online discuss their picks and their plays in real-time!
Check out Matteo Orsini Jones’
new draft video series!
It’s free, so go check it out.
Check out our new “Drafting with” series with Noah Weil!
Check out our “Drafting with Anton” series!