Today Romeo takes a peek at some interesting new Blue cards from Betrayers of Kamigawa and tries to add it all up to make a competitive new Mono-Blue Standard deck that is a bit off the beaten path. To help enhance Romeo’s swell verbiage and cheesecake links, we’ve also included some of Yawgatog’s outstanding photoshoppery to give you a sample of what is normally only available to Premium members. Enjoy!
Can you make a good version of all-common White Weenie for the Standard environment? How about mono-Red Land Destruction? Chris finishes his “all commons all the time” stint with a couple of new decks that earn mixed results.
This week Chris takes a crack at a reader request to make a competitive Standard deck for an upcoming all-commons tournament at a local store. Chirs found himself so inspired by the limitations that he created a bevy of decks for those of you on a budget to work with.
Over the last few columns, I’ve mentioned Shrine decks. It’s always been in the context of “What does this deck have in the sideboard for Shrine decks?” Most people, it seems, don’t understand why I’m worried about Shrine decks. The reactions have run the gamut from “You’re a silly man who makes me laugh with your worrying about Shrines” to “What a stupid idiot you are! No one plays Shrine decks!” I beg to differ – those decks are ubiquitous online. That means that someday soon you’ll be facing them in real life, too.
What do Heidi Klum, Elle Macpherson, and Two-Headed Dragon have in common? Nothing (we assume) except they all get mentioned in Chris’s article today. One he uses as the impetus for a new fun Standard deck while the other two are just there to root him on – you guess which is which.
Gd_Smrtn: So, are you working on any new decks?
Dr_Romeo: I keep wanting to do something with Phyrexian Plaguelord. He’s such a house, he’s been reprinted in Eighth Edition, and no one uses him.
Gd_Smrtn: What do you need to work on that?
Dr_Romeo: I don’t have any Plaguelords.
Gd_Smrtn: I’ll give you what you need, but you have to promise to write about the deck.
Dr_Romeo: Consider it done.
So, I started looking at a few of the most popular Extended decks like U/G Madness and Psychatog, and I noticed that Islandwalk might be good against them. Islandwalk usually means playing Blue, Lord of Atlantis, and Merfolk. Okay, it always means playing Blue, Lord of Atlantis, and Merfolk. Could such a deck work?
Last week, I mentioned a White Skies deck. It came about because I noticed two things – most decks aren’t running any fliers and most decks aren’t running any enchantment removal. Thus, my hypothesis became: A deck running aggressive fliers backed up by an enchantment that enhances the fliers can beat a deck running only or mostly ground troops.
Romeo stops back by to take a look back at 2004, otherwise known as “the year I got married in a Red Sox jersey and the Sox won the World Series.” On a more related note, he also includes two new rogue decks he’s been fiddling with for the last few months and some advice for the DCI.
Whenever a block is about to rotate out of Standard, I like to look back at some of the cards that saw little or no play but, dadburnit, it seems like they should have. Since Champions of Oompa-Loompa will be released in just over a month and will be tourney-legal in less than two months, Onslaught, Legions, and Scourge will be going the way of the dodo, the carrier pigeon, and common sense, taking with it some sadly overlooked cards.
The people have spoken. They like Blog Romeo. They like Romantic Newlywed Romeo. What the people really like, though, is The Pi$$ed-Off Romeo. As my man Ray Davies of The Kinks knows, you’ve gotta give the people what they want.
As Ted told you last week, I am plumb out of ideas. And, while the forum responses to my blog experiment seemed favorable, I didn’t feel it was very good writing on my part. I felt that you guys deserved better. So, while I sort through what I’m sure will be hundreds (if not thousands), of ideas for my next few columns, I’m letting Bobby Horowitz write one of them for me. He’s done this before and always gets great feedback. I need to watch some television and get my mind off of Magic. –
Thanks for understanding,
Chris
Okay folks, we have to be honest here. Romeo’s out of ideas. No really, there are only so many times you can write about Centaur Glade, Johnny Damon’s hair, the model for Eternal Witness, Lindsay Lohan, and playing Magic with your brother who lives in Iceland. Therefore, your job is to read Chris’s latest ramblings and then chime in with ideas for Chris’s next article. In the meantime, enjoy a variety of budget decklists Chris has been working with on Magic Online.
Follow Romeo as he takes you through his average Magic week, complete with awful new deck ideas, actual playtesting sections, and the usual assortment of cheesecake.
Overconfidence is a killer. Overconfidence tells me that I can take on that whole biker gang by myself because I just saw a Jet Li movie, or because I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Overconfidence makes you think that you’re invulnerable, that you can’t be beat. Even when you stink. You know what happens to people like that, doncha? Uh, yeah. They lose. A lot.
