AuthorChris Romeo

So I recently went looking for one last Kamigawa Block deck to cheapen up. Obviously, Gifts Ungiven wasn’t going to be it. Way too many rares. I’d already looked at cheap Black Hand. I’d built and played a G/R Aggro deck (“And the Horse You Rode in On”), a mono-Red Burn-centric deck, and several cheap White decks. I even worked on Hondens. I was out of ideas. I turned to the wonderful StartCityGames.com KBC PTQ deck database for decks that might use The Romeo Treatment.

As far as this week goes, as I promised I wanted to look at making budget versions of some of the decks that are clearly the king of the hill of Kamigawa Block Constructed, starting with Black Hand.

The beats just won’t stop as the inimitable Mr. Romeo keeps plugging away at block, looking for decks off the beaten path that give up their wins more easily than a Grinch gives up an ounce of Christmas joy.

Any scientist or artist will tell you that it’s best to look at failures not as failures but as opportunities to learn. Thomas Edison used to say that, “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” This keeps you sane, especially when you know that you’re going to miss your goal a lot. There are a lot of failures in Magic, too.

The incredible Mister Romeo discusses White Weenie decks in Kamigawa Block – including the all-fun decks “Tom Cruise” (cheap, white Samurai), “Ghost In The Machine” (featuring Spirits, in the material world), and, um, a white deck. That does something really cool, but it’s not much good, but when has that ever stopped Chris?

Chris revisits his love of Shrines, this time with a strictly Block Constructed flavor. What Ideal cards does this deck gain from Saviors of Kamigawa, and what does Chris’s build look like? The Fourth of July answer is inside.

That Romeo guy is always thinking ahead, preparing an extra special article on Kamigawa Block Constructed Red decks to help ease your transition from Regionals to the PTQ Block season. Huzzah!

For my last day, I’m going to be a bit more lighthearted. I’m going to respond to some forum comments and e-mails that the first three or four days generated, and I’ll tell some actual game-play stories. Some are funny. Some are sad. Some are brilliant. Some are head-scratchers. All are true, even if I get the details a bit munched up. In the end, there’ll be a bonus, too!

Over the past three days, I’ve tried to give you some insight into how I went from Guy Who Had Never Seen a Magic Card to Guy Who Writes for StarCityGames.com about Cheap, Rogue Decks. I did this because there are people who want to know why I do what I do. Others have never met me but are still convinced that they have me pegged simply because they’ve read my writing. I fear that they’re dead on.

Yesterday, I mentioned how competitive I was. A lot of people would never believe that. They see me playing cheap, rogue decks. They see me laugh while playing, sometimes even when I’m losing. How could this guy be competitive? He’s losing, and he’s having fun.
Trust me. I am.

At the end of yesterday’s column, I was telling you about my crazy, stupid early days in Magic (Winter 1998 – Spring 1999). They had nothing to do with winning or figuring out the best cards for our decks. It was about hanging out with the gang…

One of the most common questions I get is “Why do you – of all people – write a column about budget decks?” Pull up a swivel chair, and let me tell you some things about me, things that drive what I do in From Right Field and how I do it.