With U.S Regionals a mere week away, Japanese Constructed specialist Naoki Shimizu offers his formidable insight into the Standard metagame. He takes a lingering look at the power cards from Future Sight, and sees what role, if any, the new cards will take in the popular decks in the format. This article is essential for those players looking to march to the Regionals Top 8 table.
Grand Prix: Kyoto saw a number of new and exciting decks hit the Planar Chaos Standard metagame. One particular deck that raised a few eyebrows was the innovative U/G Urzatron deck packed with morphs and card drawing, created by Constructed specialist Naoki Shimizu. He made the Top 8 that day, after topping the swiss… and here’s his report on the both deck and the tournament!
One of the more popular innovations to return with Time Spiral was the Morph mechanic. Playing a card face-down feels so decadent. Of course, when a Morph hits the table, everyone has to assume it’s the perfect answer to the problem at hand. Naoki takes us through some of the finer points of Morph play, from the simple to the sublime, and walks us through a few of the Planar Chaos goodies than can spread the Morph Love.
In his previous article, Naoki Shimizu shared the reasons for ditching his popular Solar Flare deck in favor of something with a little more beatdown kick: the powerful U/G Scryb & Force deck. In today’s article, Naoki gives us the sideboard plan and matchup guide for all the metagame’s stronger contenders, and tells us the story of his own Standard odyssey on Day 1 of Worlds 2006.
Naoki Shimizu, the creator of the popular Solar Flare Standard deck, has recently turned his back on his most prized creation. In the first part of this interesting series, he takes us through the design of his current favorite deck: Scryb & Force. It has posted fine results for him, and he believes it has merit in the post-Worlds metagame. Today’s installment deals with the origins of the deck, and its first outing at the Lord of Magic Championships…
Naoki Shimizu (the creator of Solar Flare), fresh from his excellent performance at Japanese Nationals, made the Top 8 of the recent Lord of Magic Championship (a Standard tournament in Japan) with an innovative Blue/Green deck of his own design. Today’s article examines Naoki’s take on the best builds for current popular decks, and it takes a brief look at the current Japanese metagame. Oh, and there’s the decklist from his Top 8 performance too. The best writers, the best players, only at StarCityGames.com!
For his first article on StarCityGames.com, Naoki Shimizu delivered a detailed breakdown of the genesis of his metagame-shaping creation: Solar Flare. For his second article, he takes the deck and updates it for Time Spiral. The maverick deckbuilder sifts through the Time Spiral goodies and brings us four separate builds for us to tweak and test, perfect preparation for those attending Champs, or the StarCityGames.com $1,500 Standard Open on October 21st.
In his first article for StarCityGames.com, Naoki Shimizu – fresh from his Top 8 performance at Japanese Nationals – takes us through the step-by-step process behind the creation of one of the standout decks in the Standard metagame – the fantastic Solar Flare. If that isn’t enough, he also shares his tournament report with style and humor. The best writers, the best players… only at StarCityGames.com!
