Dark Confidant (henceforth “Bob”) provides one main function – card drawing. It can also beat, and can hold a Jitte, but card drawing is what it does best. However, that card drawing comes at a price – a significant price if you draw something like Ink-Eyes or Kokusho. I found myself wondering if it was possible to build a winning deck around The Great One and his abilities.
It’s States time! There is at least one deck that can mill an opponent’s library away, or deal 100 damage – all on turn 4. That’s a God draw to be sure, but it can be done. So, is the deck worth playing? Let’s see.
Years ago, you could get a free game win by catching your opponent on a rules error. That has changed. Today, both players are responsible for ensuring that mandatory actions take place, etc., and both players can get cautions and/or warnings if the game state gets screwed up. Judges are clamping down on “rules cheese.”
First of all, I want to stress that Wizards wants people to play with foils. They like seeing foils. They do not want judges to discourage foils. In fact, the Wizards folks make that point fairly emphatically. You can play with foils. You just have to be careful when you do it so you don’t wind up with penalties for having a marked deck.
Today I want to talk about sleeves. I want to tell you how to avoid penalties including game loses, match loses and even disqualifications, because you screwed up with your sleeves. Worn, folded or unusual sleeves all look different from other sleeves and, accidental or not, the result is marked cards. Marked cards are serious yang and should be treated appropriately.
As a player with years of tournament experience, I can give you some advice on how to get ready for a tourney – and how to avoid game losses for stupid mistakes. As a judge, I have to wonder why I keep giving out game losses for these same things. Jeez, people – this stuff isn’t hard. Winning a tournament is tough enough, don’t shoot yourself in the foot at the start.
I have played in a lot of PTQs, Grand Prix, and other big tourneys, and have my fair share of PTQ Top 8 pins. I’m a player. I’m also a judge, and have judged at Nationals, Grand Prix, Worlds and Pro Tours. Since I have a foot in both camps, I want to pass on some advice – judge to player. This is stuff that players should know, and judges wish they would know. This may not win you games and matches – but it may keep you from losing games and matches.
The spoiler is up; the set reviews are coming. I’m going to look at the set, too, but I’ll analyze it from a multiplayer perspective. Limited specialists can tell you how to draft it, and I haven’t tested enough to give you States previews, but multiplayer? I can do that. Is this a powerhouse set for multiplayer? Read on.
I have built decks for a number of multiplayer formats online. I usually play Two-Headed Giant, since the games are not overly long and because I don’t have any of the board sweepers or other cards to do well at bigger free for all games. Besides, Two-Head is fun. But how can you build a competitive deck when you don’t have a big online collection?
Last time, I talked about the effect of Wizards’ new multiplayer rules on Two-Headed Giant. Wizards’ new multiplayer rules also define the Emperor format – and the new rules will also change that format, which is a good thing. As it is currently played, the format is about as enjoyable as battling a blazing manure pile on a hot summer day. Let me explain what decks are sucking all the fun out of the format, and why.
At long last, Wizards is supporting multiplayer games with official multiplayer rules and sanctioned multiplayer tournaments. The first Two-Headed Giant tourneys are already in the books, and more will follow. So let’s look at the format, and decks to break it.
It’s good stuff.
I am trying to build an online collection from scratch. I have tried online traders, sellers, trading bots, leagues and drafts. You could even buy packs and bust them. Some of these ideas work. Some don’t. Let’s review.
The Kamigawa Block Constructed PTQs are in progress. We have several weeks worth of PTQ results, plus the results of two Grand Prix, and the format is shaking out. I’ve noticed that the decks seem – at least to me – to be really heavy in chaser rares. That could be a real effect, or could be because I am trying to get the cards online. Time for some research – Are this year’s Block Constructed decks more expensive to build than in years past?
It’s Block Constructed season. GP Twin Cities was a very long weekend, but now it’s over. I was judging, so I watched a lot more matches than almost anyone else there. Here are my observations about Kamigawa Block and how it’s shaping up.
The Eighth- to Ninth-edition rotation will be upon us soon, with the new cards tournament legal on August 20th. That is the week after US Nationals – after that event, Standard will be played with a new base set. The sheer number of cards rotating is huge; 162 of the cards now in Eighth Edition won’t survive the rotation, if the spoilers floating around the net are to be believed. Basic lands aside, that means that half the set is leaving. What’s that going to do to Standard’s heavy hitters?
