Julien continues his exploration of the Guilpact cards for Limited play. After dallying with the Gruul, and pontificating over the Orzhov, our Magic prodigy spouts forth on the trickery of the Izzet guild. Tips and tricks for the Blue/Red wizard, a mere mouse-click away.
Julien continues his series examining the Limited potential of the all-new Guildpact set. After yesterday’s Black and White Orzhov offerings, Julien whips out a ladle to stir up a bucket of Gruul. The Red and Green cards of Guildpact, laid bare.
Last week, we rounded out our Constructed review of the Guildpact cards, penned by our Resident Genius Mike Flores. This week, Limited magic gets a chance to shine. Julien takes the helm, giving an in-depth review of Guildpact for Limited play. Today? The Black and White barnstormers of the Orzhov Guild.
Julien concludes his in-depth examination of the Dimir guild with a flourish. Deck make-up, comparative strengths and weaknesses, and strategies to help us pull back the reins when a draft begins to go bad. Invaluable advice from one of the game’s best.
Julien takes us through the ins-and-outs of drafting the Dimir strategy in its many incarnations. Card evaluation, tips and tricks, pitfalls and problems discussed, by one of the hottest talents in the game today. Everything the Blue/Black mage needs for victory. Need I say more?
If you’ve competed in a couple of drafts in this format, you’ll certainly have recognized moments when Selesnya is at its best. I’ve drafted Selesnya many times and I agree that it is among the better archetypes of the format, but I’ve also experienced a few problems with drafting this deck…
For my last column of the daily series, I didn’t have a subject yet as I hoped something would pop up to me while I was busy doing the others. It didn’t, so I settled for another Limited article, this time about the Golgari guild.
In the last Limited format (CBS), I mulliganned a lot less often than usually only because of the cards-in-hand cards like Okiba Nightwatch or Spiraling Embers. The current Limited format seems as if it’s stabilized to a “normal” amount of mulligans that should be taken. You might even mulligan more often than usual because of the common dual lands; they are the easiest way to catch up with your opponent in cards. I’m sure you’ve all read an article that thoroughly discusses the theory of mulliganning, so I’ll list the criteria once more and discuss them briefly.
When your buddy walks up to you after a round to check up on your result, do you think he’s interested in the bad beat story? As Josh Ravitz always says, “Not interested in the story, just tell me your record,” yet we share the story anyway. It’s useful for us to be able to disregard the bad plays we made and blame it all on random chance.
When you talk to someone about Ravnica booster drafts in general, they will very often mention how bad it is to be the Boros drafter. I’m saying the Boros drafter because in my experience about one in three drafts has only one person drafting that guild, and there are very rarely more than two. Here are a few hints on drafting this guild that should save you from having one of those oh-so-common miserable Boros draft decks I keep seeing.
Today, I’ll talk about an unorthodox method of turning a game around in your favor. Often referred to as Jedi Mind Tricks or bluffs, this is the kind of thing that separates the good plays from the masterful ones, and will always produce a good story. First, I’ll show you a situation from an old Standard format in which a bluff could be justified…
So I didn’t have a great Worlds, but what I did have was an awesome Standard deck that might just be one of the best decks in the format. Dark Confidant in a Blue Control deck? Oh yes, we’re just that crazy.
Julien Nuijten is “The Champ” for at least a couple more weeks and he’s not letting the world forget about it, nabbing two Grand Prix victories in the last three months. Today Julien discusses his Extended Psychatog build (complete with matchup analysis and sideboarding guide) while telling you how Dr. Teeth and Big Stinks play nice together.
Guild Week in the 2005 Championship Deck Challenge concludes with the World Champ taking a look at what the Golgari Guild has to offer for States. Clearly Green/Black Control builds are best served by playing the Gifts Ungiven engine, but what does a more aggressive deck look like?
B/G/u Gifts Ungiven is the best deck in Kamigawa Block. What? You already knew this? I’m not going to write about why the Gifts deck is the best deck by far in this block format, as the results of every Grand Prix held in this format will tell you the same. What a lot of people don’t know is how to play the deck correctly. If you look at the PTQ results, you’ll see that there are a lot less Gifts control decks in the Top 8s than there are at Grand Prix, and we all know that the best players in the game don’t usually play PTQs. Why should you care about how to play the best block deck around? Because there’s a very strong chance that a version of this deck will also be a Standard powerhouse when Ravnica arrives.
