Wednesday, May 20th – With Regionals now behind us, and the Standard Metagame evolving as the results roll in, Manuel Bucher takes a look at the second-most popular Tier 1 token deck in the format: Green/White. He shares his personal build, which sports some unusual choices, and walks us through the sideboarding plans for a selection of important matchups.
Wednesday, May 13th – Over the last few weeks, Olivier Ruel and Manuel Bucher have provided us with a comprehensive ranking of the cards in Shards of Alara and Conflux, with regard to all the relevant draft archetypes. Today, they move onto the cards we’ve all been waiting for… Alara Reborn!
Wednesday, May 6th – In the fourth part of the excellent Discussing Draft series, Manuel Bucher and Olivier Ruel move onto their Top 20 card lists from Conflux, across a number of archetypes. Today, it’s the turn of Bant, White-based Aggro, and the all-popular Five-Color Control. Antoine Ruel also weighs in with his own White-based Aggro list…
Wednesday, April 29th – Last week, Olivier and Manuel began an excellent series of discussions on Shards of Alara draft. They continue today with pick orders and debate on the Naya, Bant, White Aggro, and Five Color Control archetypes. Plus, there’s a bonus section with Antoine Ruel! This is a must-read for anyone serious about improving their forty-card game.
Wednesday, April 22nd – Alara Reborn, Magic’s first all-gold expansion, is unveiled this coming weekend at Prerelease tournaments around the world. Manuel Bucher, the creator of the popular Five-Color Quick n’ Toast strategy, is excited at the goodies the set will bring. Today, he shares his opinions of some of the cards unveiled thus far, and suggests a couple of decklists for Standard and Extended…
Wednesday, April 15th – Alara Block Constructed promises to be dynamic, interesting, and wildly colorful. In today’s Positive EV, Manuel Bucher brings us an excellent introduction to the format, outlining the five premier strategies and decklists. He then steps outside the box and brainstorms a four-color base-White control list. Enjoy!
Wednesday, April 8th – With Shards of Alara and Conflux offering a plethora of multicolored options, and Alara Reborn promising more, is there anything to be said for running straight two-colored tempo beats in AAC draft? Manuel Bucher believes there is. He examines three two-color tempo archetypes, and rounds things off with an interesting Block Constructed deck!
Wednesday, April 1st – In today’s Positive EV, Manuel Bucher touches on three topics of particular importance. The first section discusses sideboarding against a deck and player rather than an archetype; the second sees Manuel share two off-the-radar Extended lists for those still gunning for Hawaii. Finally, there’s talk on how Alara Reborn could reshape Quick n’ Toast… in theory.
Thursday, March 26th – With Extended on everyone’s mind, for the next week or so at least, Manuel Bucher takes us through his ups and downs at the hand of the competition at Grand Prix: Singapore. His deck of choice? Faeries, of course.
Wednesday, March 18th – Faeries… you just can’t keep them down. At Grand Prix: Hanover, Manuel Bucher piloted the tiny Blue menace to a repectable Top 32 finish. In today’s Positive EV, he explains his fresh build, takes us through the top matchups, and shares his game-by-game Grand Prix report!
Wednesday, March 11th – Manuel Bucher rocked up to Grand Prix: Chicago with minimal testing. Sadly, his result mirrored this. Instead of dwelling on Legacy, he’s turned his eyes to the Extended metagame. With Extended Grand Prix tournaments in both Hannover and Singapore, and the Extended PTQ season rolling on, Manuel shares a few interesting decklists, and adds some general tips in the Conflux Extended metagame.
Friday, March 6th – Manuel Bucher entered Pro Tour: Kyoto with high hopes. As part of the Chapin/Nassif super team, he felt his deck was tricked out to handle all comers. Sadly, illness and some bad decisions saw him missing Day 2… here is his analysis of his Standard choices, and a brief tournament report on his performance.
Wednesday, February 25th – The next stop on the Grand Prix trail sees the Magic populous descend on Chicago for a weekend of Hot Legacy Action. Manuel Bucher, currently living it large in Kyoto, brings us his White Stax deck, and talks about the four artifacts that he believes underpin the format. If you’re looking for a powerful deck for the coming GP, this is the article for you!
Tuesday, February 17th – This weekend sees the next installment of the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard open series! In the first of a new weekly column, Manuel Bucher talks us through the true effect of Conflux on the most powerful archetype in the format: Faeries. He shares his latest list, alongside extensive sideboarding tips for all the metagame contenders…
Friday, January 23rd – After a bout of intensive Extended testing with Patrick Chapin, Manuel Bucher decided on the funky Gifts Faeries deck for Grand Prix: Los Angeles. He posted an excellent 11th-place finish, and today he reveals his sideboarding plans alongside his blow-by-blow tournament report!
