Happy Monday, Wizard people.
How have you been doing? How were your Scars of Mirrodin Release events? Did you open a Koth? I know I didn’t.
I did draft a decent R/W Metalcraft deck where I was able to imprint Blade-Tribe Berserkers on a Mimic Vat (yes, with metalcraft on). But then I got wrecked by a B/G Infect deck in the finals. (His only non-infect guy was Steel Hellkite, and he had double Untamed Might. Must be…) I can tell Scars Limited is going to be such a blast!
Last week on StarCityGames.com Premium, we had some epic Scars of Mirrodin set reviews of all different flavors. Like, the full double rainbow of flavors.
For you traders out there, Jonathan Medina broke down the set, rating each rare on a scale of one to five and indicating who you should be trading your rares to: tournament-playing Spike, the EDH player, or the Casual player. As for the bulk rares… well, Jon tells you exactly which rares you should be dropping right now because these have nowhere to go but down.
Read “Going Infinite – Who to Trade Scars To.”
Is the latest addition to Mirrodin going to radically impact Eternal? Apparently not everything slapped with the title “Mirrodin” and “artifact set” is going to turn Eternal on its head. In fact, Mox Opal may be the worst Mox yet for most Eternal decks. Matt Sperling crunches the numbers on Mox Opal, brews up some lists (Infect in Legacy??), and talks about some of the better cards in store for Legacy and Vintage.
Read “Scars of Mirrodin: Eternal Set Review.”
Looking to update your U/W Control list? Shaheen Soorani evaluates the metagame and the best cards in Scars of Mirrodin for this Tier 1 archetype. You best be prepared because U/W is not going away for some time.
Read “The Icy Grip – A Control Player’s Scars Breakdown for Standard.”
The glorious return of Zvi Mowshowitz and his infamous set reviews! Complete with witty flavor texts. (I enjoy the punny ones, myself, but some people don’t appreciate a good pun. Shame on you.) Zvi’s beef with Scars of Mirrodin is the drastic decrease in apparent power level, particularly that of the commons and uncommons. Is this Wizards’ attempt at curtailing the power creep that’s been occurring ever since Lorwyn block? If so, this may be a good trend for Magic as a whole. If not, then Scars of Mirrodin will be the ugly scar on the face of Constructed for the next couple years. Well, at least the mythics are good… or are they?
Read “I Came Back for This?”
Blue/White
Black
Red
Green
Artifact/Land
Holy Mother of All Set Reviews, Batman! Is this thing really upwards of 55,000 words long? What could Patrick Chapin possibly have so much to gush about in Scars of Mirrodin? Didn’t we establish this set was terrible? Full of Limited fodder with barely any Constructed applications? Despite whatever you or anyone else thinks about Scars, Chapin finds a way to make almost every card do
something
in Constructed. This set review contains five unique decklists, wordplay, set/card design tips, evaluations on cards for all formats including Limited, and hidden links for the observant reader. It’s an information treasure trove and well worth the price of admission.
Read “Innovations – Scars of Mirrodin Set Review”
Artifacts Part 1
Artifacts Part 2
Red/Land/Gold
Green/White
Black/Blue
So, you want decklists for the
2010’s (a.k.a. States)?
It’s this coming weekend after all, and if the TCGPlayer.com 5k in New York City was any indication… innovation is in short supply. (Or maybe it’s just the cards that are in short supply, which makes sense. Maybe you should
order some…
if not, at least trade like a Medina, and get your game on for this weekend.)
By the way, if anyone Top 8s with an Infect deck, I’ll award you X Mulldrifting Rewards points, where X is the number of total poison counters your opponents had at time of death. Not because I’m normally a fan of winning with “bad” decks or because it has anything to do with
the card Mulldrifter — but because I
personally
would find that
badass
. And hilarious. (Seriously,
link me
to your results/tournament reports/something.)
But all right, you want
real
decks. I know, I know. Let’s see what our Premium members have been brewing up lately.
When it comes to unfamiliar formats, usually it’s the consistent, fast aggressive decks that have the greatest potential to outperform the metagame while everyone’s occupied with trying cute, suboptimal tactics. Nice Ramp deck that taps out every turn… Gerry Thompson is a believer of trying aggro in new formats and revitalizes familiar archetypes like Mono-Black Vampires and Dredgevine from previous Standard. What do these decks lose/gain? In addition, he compiles the fastest aggro decks in each color, including Goblins, Elves, and White Weenie.
Read “One Step Ahead – Brewing Aggro Decks for States.”
What the heck’s gotten Brian Kibler all up in a tizzy? Apparently 1/3s. If I should be giving away Mulldrifting Rewards points for anything, it should probably be for Top 8ing with Scroll Thief / Aether Adept. Check out these sweet Ophidian lists, and start putting your Jaces to good use… by bouncing your opponents’ creatures for tempo!
Read “The Dragonmaster’s Lair – Dragons and Angels?… Just Snakes and Jellyfish!”
Our Select authors had a lot of offerings for the 2010’s as well. Check it out.
Todd Anderson updates the Mono-White Affinity list. Wait, there’s an Affinity list? Check out what people have dubbed the new Sovereigns of Lost Alara combo in Standard.
Read “Constructed Criticism – The New Affinity.”
States has always been an arena made for the truly creative deck designers to shine. Gavin Verhey teaches us the value of innovation and provides three full decklists to surprise your enemies with… and yes, half a decklist. (You fill in the other half.)
Read “Flow of Ideas – Three and a Half New Standard Decks.”
All right, even if you plan on playing a rogue list for States, you should still have a good gauntlet to test against. Or, you can just pick up one of these more established lists and hope to run over all the brews. The most popular decks I’d expect to see are U/W, Ramp, and Mono-Red Aggro. (Again, judging from the TCGPlayer 5k from the weekend, the current metagame agrees.) Max McCall has ‘em all lined up. Go get ‘em, boys and girls.
Read “Ideas Unbound – Gauntlet for States.”
You wanted free entertainment…? You got it.
The debut of Robert Frowney Jr. and his alter ego Sherlock Domes! Possibly the only entertaining tournament report I’ve ever read comes from Master Wordsmith, Geordie Tait. But my favorite part was his “Flavor of the Week” section at the end, where he discusses depictions of
women on Magic card art.
Read “Incendiary, My Dear Watson.”
Don’t miss this week’s
The Magic Show #208!
Evan Erwin covers what happened at his Prerelease in Los Angeles and even gives us some spicy decklists from Gerry Thompson himself.
What makes Prereleasing a nightmare for The Ferrett? The pictures really tell the whole story, but hey, he didn’t let
that
stop him from his first Scars of Mirrodin Sealed Deck event.
Read “The Scars of Mirrodin Prerelease Dilemma.”
Pro Limited player Anton Jonsson brings us two M11 draft recaps this week. Follow along starting from pack 1, pick 1. Read his thoughtful insights on his picks, his plays, and overall opinions on the colors and archetypes.