I’ll do a card by card breakdown for all seventeen of the Ravager decks placing in the top 2 of European Regionals, and then talk about the rest of the current metagame. Then I’ll close with the latest decklists for a playtest Gauntlet. Well, what are you waiting for?
I am going to do something awful to my fellow writers. I am going to compare early metagame predictions with the actual metagame, as it is shaking out now in European regionals and the Type Two last chance qualifiers at PT: Kobe. I’ll do it to myself, too, and then I’ll give you a breakdown of the Top 8 decks from the European Regionals that have occurred thus far.
I can’t talk about the other decks I’ve been testing that are crushing the R/G and MWC decks, but I can talk about Ravager Affinity. Card by card, and color by color. I should warn you that I’m going to be heretical in parts of this article. For one thing, I’m going to argue that Blue does not belong in Ravager Affinity.
Nonbos are combos that almost work, but are either too slow or too inconsistent to win anything – at least, not every match in a long tournament. So, you ask, why should I read an article about combos that don’t work? Two reasons. First, knowing this may help you understand what a Regionals opponent is trying to do to you – at least in rounds one and two. These combos are good enough that people will try them. Second, I have wrongly called combos nonbos in the past. That means that there is a chance that I have the core of a real deck, but it just needs a little tuning.
Way back when Mirrodin was still just Bacon, I was in rapture over Stompy Stomp. I had some good decks, and some laughs, but once the set actually came out, and the name changed to Tooth and Nail, I never got around to using it. It was always on my “decks to build” list, but nothing more. Then Kevin started beating on me with a Stompy Stomp deck last week, and I decided it was time to give it another try. In Type Two, no less.
The amazing thing is that the deck actually seems to work. Early Darksteel Colossus beatings are surprisingly effective…
Turn 5 – At this point, I was generating infinite mana. It was turn 5 because everyone had been targeting me, and I had had my turn 2 Metalworker and turn 3 Thran Dynamo killed. Not good enough. As I put 500 Blue mana in my pool, a bystander asked”But how do you kill them?” I dropped Memnarch, turned to the bystander and said”This game, I’ll kill them with an FTK, a couple elves, that Steelshaper and whatever Steve has under that Bonesplitter. But since I’m stealing everything on the board, including lands, they’ll probably concede.”
The real question was, could I take what I learned about Voltaic Construct and build a competitive Type Two deck capable of generating infinite mana? Well, I could certainly try…
In more advanced game theory, you study problems where the payouts are uncertain, or where guarantees are available, or where other factors can influence the payout matrix. Multiplayer is like that. In multiplayer games, you have an ability that you can use without spending cards or mana. It’s an ability you can use even when you don’t have priority. Used properly, it can counter anything – even concessions.
It’s the verbal equivalent of what I put in these articles. No, not bulls**t. At least, not all bulls**t…
A new set is out, so it’s time for set reviews. Since I doubt Ted has seen enough of these so far, I’ll write one. However, I’m writing from the perspective of multiplayer and casual. That means I will simply skip all the cards aimed at limited, and many of the constructed-worthy but un-amazing cards. If I want a Blue flier for 2U in casual games, I will play Serendib Efreet or Skywing Aven before I consider Neurok Prodigy.
That does make the review a lot shorter, so I will flesh it out with some deck concepts, to make sure you get your money’s worth.
Teaching the game is actually pretty easy. Just buy them a precon, or give them a deck made out of draft leavings with some land mixed in. Then pull out your best deck – for me, that’s my Keeper with the foreign foils, but an Illusionary Mask/Volrath’s Shapeshifter deck works just as well – and beat them to pieces a dozen times in a row. They’ll be really impressed with the game when they see how hopeless their position is, and how complex the interactions are, especially with the errata.
Remember to play fast – you want to really impress them with your skillz. Nothing makes people more interested than watching someone do something complex and repetitive while not understanding what is actually happening.
Recently, I have been playing a lot of Emperor during casual magic nights. Some of the games are great, but some are just a pain — because of a fundamental weakness of the Emperor format. Too many decks we play are exploiting that weakness. I’ll tell you how to build killer Emperor deck to do your own exploitation, but I’ll also talk about how to make the format more reasonable. I’ll also throw in some solid-but-still-fun Emperor decks for your playing enjoyment.
In the spirit of the holidays, and the whimsy title, I am going to do a Christmas theme deck. It will be Red, Green and White, and all the cards represent Christmas themes or characters. That’s easy. Making it playable is harder, but I’ll do that, too.
David Price once said”there are no wrong threats, only wrong answers.” That’s true in duels, but not always true in multiplayer. If you don’t believe me, try casting a quick Sneak Attack in a big game. Unless you have a great hand and mana free, that is the wrong threat, because everyone at the table will be coming straight for you.
In multiplayer games, slow but steady is often better than attracting attention. Build up a solid position, deploy your forces, and then strike with your secret weapon. Of course, your opponents will be trying to deploy their secret weapons as well. You may get lucky, get yours off first and win the game. But if you don’t, you need an answer to their secret weapons…
I am sure I will not be the only person to mention that the recent bannings do some serious harm to Tinker decks. The banning of Tinker and Grim Monolith also hurt the Mana Severance/Goblin Charbelcher decks and even the Mind’s Desire/Twiddle deck. Cutting Oath of Druids gets rid of Scepter-Oath, and even some classics like TurboLand. The elimination of Goblin Recruiter eliminates the combo-Goblins decks. Finally, no Hermit means he won’t be Angry any more.
So the bannings may have gotten rid of several Combo decks, but don’t think that combo has left the building. There are a score of other combo or combo-ish decks that have potential. I’ll start by listing some of the more obscure possibilities, and then move on to the mainstream decks.
I used to love Extended. I have written more articles on Extended than any other (sanctioned) format. I play Limited, I like T2, but I have always loved Extended. At least, until now I have. The sheer power of the Tier I combo decks makes it futile to play any original decks. In a format where a turn one Isochron Scepter imprinted with Counterspell may be too slow, other non-combo decks have very little chance…
No, you cannot get infinite turns with Power Conduit and Time Vault. Although Time Vault’s Oracle-based errata says that it has counters, and it is technically true that Power Conduit can eat any form of counter, Power Conduit can only supply”charge” or +1/+1 counters. It cannot produce Time Counters. But it can put charge counters on Magistrate’s Scepter.
