It’s not everyday that a sixty-card draft deck makes the Top 8 at a big tournament like States, but that’s what appeared to happen last Saturday in Richmond. Today Bennie explains what this crazy deck is, how it came together, and whether cards like Stinkweed Imp, Moldervine Cloak, and Greater Mossdog belong in future iterations.
Hello everyone! If you’re like me, you were happy to see the next stage of You Make The Card 3 pop up on magicthegathering.com Wednesday. If you’re also like me, you’re feeling a bit disappointed this time around. Follow me as I analyze the proposed mechanics and search for the golden needle in this fetid haystack.
Cephalid Breakfast very nearly won a Grand Prix last weekend, so you can be absolutely certain it will be played at upcoming PTQs. Bennie Smith takes the deck to the numbers and looks at all of the matchup data for the deck against every deck played in Pro Tour: Columbus to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie. If you plan to play Extended this season, this is information you must have.
Who says all the fun decks in Standard can’t win? How about a deck that combines Dragons, Beacons, Rude Awakening, and Meloku plus Fecundity to boot? Bennie returns from his holidays to give you the lowdown on a deck that is powerful, competitive, and downright fun to play!
I suspect that with Champions of Kamigawa, Wizards will revolutionize the way they design Legends. Being a Legend is an inherent enough drawback to warrant ramping up the power level. Not only do you run the risk of”dead” draws by drawing multiple copies of the Legend, but now the Legend is vulnerable to a unique form of removal: a copy of itself played by your opponent. With Champions, if you’re willing to run the deckbuilding risks, you can be rewarded with great power.
Now that Mirrodin Block Constructed is in full swing, with the top tiers filled with established decks (though there are still a few new spins cropping up here and there), I thought it would be interesting to think back on what didn’t seem to work in Mirrodin block as far as Constructed goes. As diverse as the metagame is with the banning of Skullclamp, there are still some major disappointments for the insatiable deckbuilders out there in both Block Constructed and Type Two.
Into this gloomy summer, a glimmer of hope appeared: the StarCityGames.com Power 9 Type 1 tournament. When it was first announced, I really didn’t pay it much attention. I mean, the last few Type 1 tournaments I played in I hadn’t been very impressed with neither the format nor my performance. It seemed that the great divide between Powered players and non-Powered players was huge and made the game elitist by necessity. If you didn’t have the resources to get Powered up, why bother playing? But later on I learned a few things that made me reconsider going to the tournament.
It seems in just about every single Oscar Tan article – and quite frequently in other Type 1 articles – the phrase”This is Type I, broken things happen” plays like a theme song you cringe to after hearing a gazillion times. About two to three months ago, after reading the latest iteration of this phrase and grinding my teeth in irritation, it occurred to me: why should Type 1 have the monopoly on that phrase?
As a long-time player of the game, I have to admit to being particularly intrigued by the prize given away each year to the winner of the Magic Invitational. The opportunity for a player to make his or her mark on the game with a card based on your own design, and sporting your likeness, is quite a gift back to the Magic community by Wizards of the Coast. I mean, what true fan of the game wouldn’t love this opportunity? Since I’m not very likely to get to make my own card, I thought it would be entertaining to look at this year’s proposed cards and separate the wheat from the chaff.
The simplest answer to the Major Problem runs something like this: Wizards R&D goofed up when they printed Skullclamp. It should have never been unleashed upon the Magic public. Just simply ban it and everything goes back to the way it should be, right? Now, while most people are debating the last part of answer, I’ve been looking more closely at the first part. Namely, I’ve been questioning whether Skullclamp was actually a mistake.
I’ve got a secret to share with you. It will get you qualified for Nationals at this year’s Regionals; it’ll get you in position to take the slot or the cash at your next PTQ. Yes, competitive Magic success can be yours for the taking, if you just listen to this one insight, this nugget of wisdom I’m willing to impart to you. Yes, it’s the Real Deal, the Magic Carpet ready to scoop you up and deposit you on the Gravy Train. If you want to Win And Win Big! then you better keep reading.
The buzz is in the air, the slow building excitement of a new Type 2 ready to be explored and exploited in the months leading up to Regionals. How will Darksteel shake up the metagame? Will any of the anointed Tier 1 decks stumble and fall? Will any Tier 2 or completely new archetype rise up to take their place? Will there be any secret tech that flies under the radar long enough to surprise and conquer like Ralphie Treatment or Turbo-Haups in years past?
Greater Harvester
I was a huge fan of Braids, Cabal Minion and played Pirates and other Braids decks to some success while Psycho-B*tch was around. Greater Harvester might be even better. There’s a ton of things going for this card; as a 5/6 it’s got a huge threatening body that can put away a game quickly if it’s ability disrupts your opponent for a turn or two. And that disruption ability! Having your opponent sacrifice two permanents each time you hit them is amazing. The only hiccup is the fact that your opponent will likely want to chump block, trading his worst creature for your least-needed permanent.
Wait just a minute though – that’s not really a hiccup at all since Black is chock full of removal!
Maybe you played in the prerelease. Maybe you’ve been following the spoiler on www.mtgnews.com; maybe you’ve read the official spoiler on Wizards’ Darksteel page. At any rate, you’ve got a brand new set of cards to digest, process, and evaluate for Constructed play. While I appreciate the folks who do a complete, card-by-card evaluation of the set, I’d instead like to share my thoughts on what I think is the cream of the crop, the sharp edge of Darksteel. That’s what we’re all really interested in anyway, right?
I keep running across people online and web articles bemoaning the current state of Type 2 as being”stagnant” and”boring.” Supposedly U/W Control, Affinity, and Goblins have the format in a stranglehold, that there are no other decks worth playing.
Really? I have a fistful of decks that say otherwise.
