The Invitational And What Decks To Look Out For
Brad Nelson talks about some of the newest decks to pop out of the Invitational, like Five-Color Control, Ramp Pod, Adam Prosak’s Illusions deck, and U/W Humans. Read what he’d play this week!
AuthorBrad Nelson
2010 Player of the Year Brad Nelson started his Pro Tour career as FffreaK on Magic Online and quickly catapulted to the top of international Magic success. He won GP DC, the 2014 Star City Games Players' Championship, and was 2nd at PT Amsterdam. He conquered Grand Prix Omaha in 2017 without dropping a single match, one week after winning the SCG Tour event in Baltimore. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest producing top-notch video and article content.
Magic Candy! Last Time For 2011
When it comes to power vs. consistency in Standard, Brad’s chooses consistency. These are the top ten decks for St. Louis this weekend and the Invitational next. But he wouldn’t touch some of these with a ten-foot pole!
Single-Set Block Constructed
This two-week-old, Magic Online-only format is taking shape as we speak. If you want to be part of the Magic, the time is now to start playing Constructed online for cheap.
U/B Self-Mill
Brad Nelson offers some advice for drafting a self-mill deck in Innistrad Limited. Try it out this weekend at the Draft Open in Las Vegas, but be careful about going all-in on the strategy. You might get milled out!
Drafting G/W
Brad Nelson took a break from Standard to draft Innistrad online. After 50 drafts, he’s gotten a pretty decent grasp of the format. In particular, one of his favorite archetypes is G/W Aggro. Try it at the Draft Open in Kansas City this weekend.
Magic Candy! States Edition
Brad Nelson makes a Top Ten list of decks he thinks are the best in the format right now and what he would play this weekend in each archetype. Brad’s looking to take it down this year!
Esper Control
Brad Nelson takes the control elements of Solar Flare and pushes them even further into control territory. After commentating all weekend in Indy, he has some thoughts on the direction of the format.
The Aggro Decks Of Standard
Brad Nelson builds and tests a Naya deck around Daybreak Ranger, one of his new pet cards. He also tries to take aggro to several different places in Standard, in anticipation of a control-filled metagame this weekend at Indy.
Innistrad Prerelease Weekend: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Brad Nelson is excited by what he feels may be one of the top Limited formats of all time. He gives you his want/trade list for the Prerelease as well as a powerful Bant Birthing Pod deck to kick you off for Standard.
States And Innistrad Standard
States is coming up, and Brad Nelson couldn’t be more excited! With Innistrad’s release just weeks away, he dives into the deckbuilding process with the latest spoilers.
Fixing Modern
Brad Nelson talks about prepping for the Pro Tour and overcoming road blocks. What should be banned to make Modern healthy? Brad thinks it only needs to be one card, one which may surprise you…
Good Times At Grand Prix: Pittsburgh!
Pittsburgh had so many good stories that a tournament report had to be written.
Mailbag Questions!
In this article, Brad answers a huge range of questions from who the top 5 players of all time are, how to prepare for events, and what he thinks of the new GP schedule.
Technology From Richmond
Brad Nelson had a blast commentating the Richmond Open last weekend and was pleasantly surprised by all the new innovation coming out from the players. He notes the best new tech here, so be sure to adapt for Boston.
Nationals: Not The Plan
Nationals turned into a disaster story for Brad. He brought David Ochoa’s Caw-Blade deck to the event and went 4-0 in Constructed, only to go 0-3 in draft. Then it all went downhill. What comes next for Player of the Year?