Once again, I compiled statistics from all of the PTQ T8s I could find. Here are the numbers for the entire period this format has been played. Is there a secret Affinity-killer that is on the rise in Block? The answer to this question and more is but a click away, plus bonus coverage of Sheldon Menery’s Multiplayer Challenge at the World Championships.
It’s now halfway through the Block Constructed PTQ season. So far, the block looks pretty solid. A lot of decks have game, and nothing — not even Ravager — is dominant. It’s time for an overview and some breakdowns.
In his latest article on mtg.com, Paul Barclay introduced draft multiplayer rules and asked for feedback. Since I play a lot of multiplayer, I have some feedback. I’ll go through the rules as released, with the rule sections in Italics, and spout off about them. Then I’ll talk about the things these rules don’t cover, and other problems (and I’ll throw in some MD5 stats at the end).
It’s still early days for the MD5 metagame, and I’m a bit short of decklists. However, I can give you the breakdown of the results so far. I will also do a card by card count for Mono-Green T8 decks, and do a very short report/analysis on the Mono-Green I took to T4 in a thirty-eight-player GPT last weekend.
I started writing this at Nationals, where I came one match short of grinding in – but I lost that match, and the whole format (Type 2 w/ Skullclamp) is dead anyway, so I’ll skip the tourney report. Instead, I’ll talk about netdecking and the performance of netdecks. I’ll throw in some Magic the Puzzling stuff, and finish with an overview of the MD5 metagame so far.
This was originally 15,000 words, was based on the MTGNews spoiler and was submitted way back before the prerelease, but that was the straw that broke Knut’s back. He put up some of my other articles first, then got so sick of set reviews he begged a rewrite. A shorter rewrite. Much shorter. So I combined and rewrote it, and cut anything already said by others. I’m also looking at the set from a multiplayer / casual standpoint, and I’m skipping anything that is not new and interesting for that format. That keeps it short.
A lot of people have published articles about the next great combo. They all run something like this: “Play these cards do this and win. Turn 5! No, 4! 3! It’s great! / It wrecks the format! / It shows I’m amazing!” These people have no clue. You don’t build combo decks to goldfish. You build combo decks to play in tournaments. That means you have to build a deck that can survive an active opponent, not a goldfish.
I want to talk a bit about what makes a card broken, and what makes a format healthy. As the StarCityGames.com writer with more articles about combos that don’t work than anyone else, I am also going to talk about combo decks and their impact on the format.
The original Visara is still great in multiplayer. In many games, the creature count gets high enough to cut the casting cost. The fact that the Avatar is not a Legend is also useful — I have had three out at once. The Avatar is a good, solid control element — which is the type of game I usually play. In Constructed duels, Visara is almost always better, but in multiplayer, Avatar of Woe rules.
For Article #100, I decided to write about my 100 favorite Magic cards. It’s self-indulgent — so sue me. I include some multiplayer goodies, some fond reminiscences and — in a couple cases — some near trash for which I have an unreasonable attachment. In those cases, I’ll tell you why they are worth getting
This is Whimsy number 100. Actually, I have published a lot more on StarCityGames.com, but some were unnumbered, and some were two-part pieces. Whatever. This is one of those arbitrary milestones — a big, round number — so I am going to do something self-indulgent. I am going to write about my one hundred favorite magic cards.
My past few articles have recapped the metagame. I’ll do that once more. In addition to the decks from previous Regionals, I have collected over one hundred top 8 decklists from Regionals that have occurred this month. That information is as current as anything you can get. It is time to decide what deck to play.
Ravager Affinity is not an unstoppable Juggernaut. It is not the end of Type II. It does not define the format. Defining a format takes more than Ravager Affinity has got. To prove that, I’ll give you some decklists that wreck Ravager, but first, some metagame musings.
I haven’t done a tournament report for a while. It’s time. I also haven’t written about T1 for a while. It’s time. I also haven’t won a big tournament for a while. It was about time. March 20, 2004. The big 5-Proxy T1 tourney. It was time.
I now have at least partial top 8 listings from eleven German, five French, two Polish, one Swiss, one Hong Kong, and one South American Regionals / Nationals. If you are looking for breakdowns of all the Top 8 decks from foreign Regionals, quirky decklists, and analysis of what cards are getting played in each deck, you’ve come to the right place.
