Reviewing The Second Edition Of The Magic Online Cube
SCG Legacy Open: Seattle 2010 winner Kyle Boddy reviews the second edition of the Magic Online Cube, including the changes he does and doesn’t like, his top three favorite archetypes, and more!
Feature Article – A StarCityGames.com Legacy Open: Seattle Winner’s Report
Monday, June 21st – At the last StarCityGames.com Legacy Open, Kyle Boddy picked up a deck a few minutes before the tournament, and cleaved the field like a hot knife through butter. Today, he shares his thoughts on the tournament, the deck, and the format, in perfect time for the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in St. Louis this weekend!
Setting the Stage for Standard: Mono-Blue for a New Standard, Part Two
StarCityGames.com writer Mike Flores pioneered the current renditions of Mono-Blue Control decks in Standard, and Gabriel Nassif recently took the deck in a slightly different direction at French Regionals. What does Kyle think about Nassif’s new version and how has MUC been faring in his testing of the new metagame, particularly against the supposedly problematic Tooth and Nail matchup? The Boddy knows…
This Fire: Mono-Blue for a New Standard, Part One
Now that Affinity got the full axe in Standard, we have a more diverse and open format in which the question “Does this beat Affinity?” no longer has to be asked. This is probably a good thing overall, allowing for future deck innovation and the ability to be free of the “best deck” syndrome. However, it also means the Mono-Blue – a deck that was tricked out to beat Affinity – has to undergo some serious changes in order to retain its status as one of the best decks. Let’s take a look at how you should modify the deck to get the best bang for your buck in the new format, shall we?
This Fire: Momentum and Inevitability
What does a Darksteel Colossus surrounded by thousands of Agent Smiths have to do with helping you win more at Magic? You’ll have to read the article to find out!
This Fire: PTQ Tournament Strategy
In my last article, I wrote about the Blue/White Mind’s Desire deck that I plan on playing in the upcoming PTQ season. This article will focus on tournament pointers that I believe will help you play your optimal game at the PTQs. This guide is meant for the beginner to moderate level of Magic player, but most people could probably benefit from perusing the article once or twice as well.
This Fire: Mind’s Desire *PTQ T8 Report*
Recently Kyle detailed his thoughts on exactly why U/W Mind’s Desire is the right call in the current metagame. This past weekend he put his money where his mouth is and came back with a great tournament report to boot.
Fighting the Red Decks — Mind’s Desire in Extended
I knew that I wanted to play something that wasn’t Red Deck Wins, but was open to the possibility of playing Goblins, for the sole purpose of not wanting to interact with my opponent. I had to do way too much of that during the Block Constructed season playing the Freshmaker deck, and I have to deal with a lot of it in current Standard when I am playing mono-Blue control, so I just wanted to combo someone or attack with thousands of goblins simultaneously, completely oblivious to the opponent’s resources. Unfortunately, nothing struck my fancy other than Oiso’s Blue/Black Mind’s Desire deck, which I shuffled up and played several games against various builds of RDW. The results were not good…
Neo-Freshmaker in Standard
What do you do when Mono-Blue has been hated out of your area? If you are Kyle Boddy, you go back to your roots and redesign the deck with the unspeakable name so that it can win again in Standard.
In Search of 1900 and What it Means to Me
In my last article, I went over my mono-Blue build* for Standard and detailed some of the matchups and card choices. I also said that my Constructed rating at the time was 1888, and that I needed at least 12 points by December 15th, 2004 to earn two byes on rating for GP: Boston and GP: Seattle. On that point, I was wrong — I needed 18 points. Time to whip out the Standard decks and grind for a while, I guess…
Not Another Irrelevant Format…
Being unable to attend States because of travel plans was also a good reason to stay out of Magic — not to mention that the new Standard was going to be just like the Mirrodin Block. Or so I thought. At the behest and nagging of Cedric Phillips, who boldly proclaimed that the new Standard format was not only passable, but fun, I decided to look into playing Magic again. I hardly knew what I was getting into, especially when I figured out that decks that look so bad on paper actually turn out to be quite good.
The GFC Freshmaker and the Lost Art of Deckbuilding
Four PTQs have gone by in the Ohio Valley for Pro Tour: Columbus, and all four have featured at least one copy of the GFC Freshmaker in the Top 8. In the first PTQ of the season at Origins 2004, three people (including myself) made the final cut with the deck. There have been eight Top Eight appearances by teammates/partners of the GFC in those four PTQs, with more than twice as many top sixteen performances in the same PTQs. I only have one question for you: Why aren’t you playing this deck?
Grand Prix: Oakland — In Short, I Told You All *20th Place*
“If you see a Fangren Hunter in your pack, take it! Put it in your deck, add lands, and shuffle up — It Is Awesome.” — Random Magic Online Quote
Translation: Avoid Green and win!