fbpx

AuthorJosh Silvestri

Josh is credited for having created Stacker3 and successfully modifying Food Chain Goblins for Vintage. He currently writes about the Vintage and Extended formats.

Deconstructing Constructed – Doran Tales From Grand Prix: Kobe

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, August 5th – Faeries wins… again. That said, for those of you who haven’t read the coverage, if not for a missed Treefolk Harbinger attack (Doran was in play) we’d likely have a different champion and I’d be prancing in the streets. So all hope has not been erased… yet.

Deconstructing Constructed – Frying Fish For Vintage And Ideas For Block

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, July 29th – This week will be a split article, half focused on Block Constructed and half on Vintage. If you’re interested in reading about current iterations of Vintage Fish, read on! If you want to read about the new – and hopefully more interesting – Block Constructed decks we’ve been cooking up, they’re here too!

Deconstructing Constructed – Forcing Golgari In Shadowmoor / Eventide Draft

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, July 25th – This week, let’s try talking about something a little different, away from the usual Faeries du jour, or even the Block Constructed format at all. I’m going to take a break and talk about something I’ve been enjoying lately: Shadowmoor-Shadowmoor-Eventide Draft, and forcing colors.

Deconstructing Constructed – Thoughts on Eventide

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, July 15th – Today I’ll be going over some thoughts on Eventide, and its impact on Block and possibly Standard. I’ll also recap some of my thoughts on the impact of cards I saw in Limited play at the prerelease this past weekend.

Deconstructing Constructed – Introducing Kirukin

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, July 8th – No other deck is even close to Faeries in terms or performance or numbers making Top 8s every week. I know, you’ve been hearing this for the last few weeks, but it really needs to be understood. If you aren’t playing Faeries, you need a damn good reason why.

Deconstructing Constructed – Magic Online: Epic Fail

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, July 1st – There’s no easy way to say this… Magic Online is currently unplayable tripe. The majority of the current development team should be fired, and outside consultants with a clue should be brought it. No, I don’t care that they got a horrible task to start with; I’m just going to pretend to be Ranty Mc Drinks A Lot for this section of the article.

Deconstructing Constructed – The PTQ Season: Results and Technology

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, June 24th – Now we have a better idea of what to make of the current Block Constructed format. Unfortunately for many people, it seems the more things change the more they stay the same. Faeries is the top dog in Top 8 appearances and wins, and it seems like that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Deconstructing Constructed – Block Chatter and a Regionals Report

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, June 17th – Today’s Deconstructing Constructed contains talk on Block Constructed, Vintage and the new metagame, and an entertaining Regionals report from guest writer April Yu!

Deconstructing Constructed – Block Control With a Side of Rants

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, June 10th – Today will be a bit of a mixed bag. I’ll be going over some rants on Regionals, the so-called announcement of new restricted list in Vintage, and then Lorwyn Block Constructed control decks. Let’s get started!

Deconstructing Constructed – Grand Prix Lessons

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, June 3rd – Grand Prix: Birmingham is now done. Shock of shocks, Kithkin and Faeries took the top two slots, and both featured three copies respectively in the Top 8, joined only by Raphael Levy’s Elemental control and Manuel Bucher’s Command control deck. These results are basically in-line with what a number of people thought might happen at this Grand Prix considering the short break from Pro Tour: Hollywood for this new format.

Deconstructing Constructed – Block Overview

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Thursday, May 29th – At the moment, there seem to be a few decks that are humiliating the rest of the field in various Top 8s in Grand Prix Trials and other Block Constructed tournaments, including the most recent double Pro Tour Qualifier in Hollywood. From what I hear, Mirrorweave Kithkin took Friday’s PTQ, and Saturday’s was likely won by Faeries but I haven’t seen confirmation anywhere.

Deconstructing Constructed – Beating the Fae

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, May 19th – With so much of the field on Day 2 of the StarCityGames.com $2000 Open tournament being Fae, not to mention the combined wins and Top 8 numbers of the deck, the only reasonable thing to do is focus all efforts in beating it.

Deconstructing Constructed – Dissecting the Star City Games $5000 Open Day 1

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, May 12th – The Star City Games $5000 Open Day 1 Top 8 was filled with Green cards, which would be a good sign if they didn’t miserably fail in the face of even more Faeries. Still, it can give one hope that the metagame won’t completely debase into Faeries versus non-Faeries, although I fear we may already have reached that point.

Deconstructing Constructed – Mono-Green: Now With Fewer Elves

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, May 6th – I’ve been spending most of my time lately trying to create an aggro deck that was close to mono-colored and didn’t get blown out by Pyroclasm/Firespout/Wrath of God. Of course, I could just say that’s Faeries… I’ve played the deck for the past six months. However, the idea of playing against decks with a large amount of good hate every round is daunting.

Deconstructing Constructed – Red Deck Wins, Maybe

Read Josh Silvestri every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, April 29th – With the release of Shadowmoor, the Red deck has once again come to the forefront of many designers’ and players’ minds. Today, I’d like to go over some of the more debatable inclusions and possible design choices the deck will likely face in the future, all of which spring from player preference and metagame consideration.