AuthorOscar Tan

If people complain about Mishra’s Workshop, it’s because they haven’t read all the articles on how to play against TnT (or how to build tight decks in the first place). The more intelligent protesters, though, shout out against the deck’s real power: Survival of the Fittest. DCI’s reasoning on Entomb is as scary as it is senseless, because if you believe they’re serious, then Survival should have been the target because it draws every turn with Squee.

In this age of instant opinion polls and online message boards, the single most dangerous thing in the world is an uninformed opinion. The DCI just proved it isn’t immune, either.

The DCI stopped restricting cards in other formats and just bans them if it absolutely has to, because restrictions add an undue random factor. Many games might feel like topdecking a bomb in Onslaught Sealed, for example. Thing is, this actually makes Type I fun and different, which begs the question: Should we change the banned and restricted list, even if everything seems to be fine?

“Morph trigger” is actually Echo in reverse. You get the ability and a creature by paying a lot of mana spread over two turns. Now, compare Bone Shredder to Skinthinner. With the Urza’s Legacy predecessor, you get the Terror ability you need up front, then decide if you can spare 2B for a puny 1/1 next turn. With the new Legions version, you have to pay for the 2/2 before you can pay 3BB for the Terror you really wanted.

Mark Rosewater recently discussed what slice of the pie White should get. Maybe this is a good week to talk about White Weenie. And let’s face it: If Rosewater presents Marge Simpson as a color’s mascot, we’re not expecting much.

One build of Stompy, three builds of Sligh, all angry things up in your face. And, of course, the usual Raksian analysis!

When I saw Goblin Piledriver, I thought it was a strong card that nevertheless wouldn’t work in Type I. It didn’t occur to me that you could throw them all into a deck and see their individual drawbacks set aside by sheer weight of firepower.

TnT crushes The Deck. And all I had was five lands, a Brainstorm, and a Mana Drain, a very weak hand; my opponent had a God hand for a deck that should crush me. What did he do wrong? Also, for the first time ever on StarCity, the complete and unedited INVINCIBLE COUNTER-TROLL!

2002 was possibly the most eventful year in recent Type I history, and everything that people expected to happen in 2001 instead happened in 2002. How did it change the Vintage scene… And, of course, The Deck?

Last week, Oscar looked at twenty of the best Vintage decks to see whether he could afford to cut Vampiric Tutor; this week, turning towards Cunning Wish targets, he looks at all of the viable instants that can be fetched with Cunning Wish in an attempt to build his sideboard.

The Deck is changing thanks to the new Onslaught fetchlands… And now that an entire color has gone the way of the dodo, can Vampiric Tutor be far behind? Oscar looks at Vampiric Tutor’s effectiveness against twenty decks in the Vintage metagame to see whether it makes the cut in the new Type One….

Over the last two months, a number of people e-mailed to ask about”budgetizing” Type I decks, especially”The Deck.” Since Christmas is just around the corner and people may make some major purchases, this might be a good time to talk about it… And let me tell you, substituting the Power Nine, like Inquest suggested, is a terrible idea.

Several weeks ago, TnT went toe to toe against the best control players in Virginia and New York at the Virginia States Black Lotus tournament. Can Oscar do any better against a deck that can throw out threats as easily as you throw out excess Tahngarth’s Glares? Watch and see!

“The Deck” players everywhere are looking at Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand and scratching their heads. It’s not a question of whether or not to use the fetchlands, but how… And years’ worth of mana-tuning intuition is suddenly out the window.