Though I’m known as a Constructed specialist, my biggest Magic weakness stems directly from Constructed – you see, I like new weird decks way too much. When the rest of Team YMG has long since chosen their decks for the Pro Tour, I’ll still be working on some new, rogue deck idea. So I’m going to indulge my passion. I’m not going to give you the umpteenth article about Tog, U/G Madness, or Slide – no, it’s going to be a month of off-the-beaten-path decks.
Our preliminary all-over-the-map results led many on the team to feel the deck was just not consistent. Darwin, however, was continually posting good results and was going to run the Dragons. In discussions and playtesting with Darwin, I realized it wasn’t that the deck wasn’t consistent – it was that I (and others on my team) were playing it wrong in certain matchups. Wanna know how to play the biggest deck around?
Discussions, decklists, tales of Mike Flores’ most inexplicable game loss, and interviews with the runner-up and the winner give you the lowdown on the biggest local money tourney in New England!
To get an idea what the environment for that tournament will look like, I decided to talk to people who play in the place that runs multiple Standard tournaments every hour of the day and night: Magic Online. I began by asking Matias Gabrenja, who finished 13th at Worlds, what he thought of the online metagame…
In my past articles, I’ve talked a lot about preparation for tournaments. This week I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to focus on all the elements of a Magic tournament that don’t involve playing. Let me tell you how a pro shuffles, how he prevents deck registration errors – and above all, the common methods that people use to cheat innocent victims and how to counteract them.
(Editor’s note: I believe that this article is a”must read” for ANYONE interested in tournament Magic. As such, I have decided to repost it in case anyone missed it on Friday. Enjoy! – Pete)
Masters players, being the best of the best, like to play controlling decks with all the answers. The feeling is that as long as the deck has the tools to make the win possible, they will outplay their opponent and achieve the victory. Tog, with its card drawing, counter magic, creature control, and game-ending Upheavals, fits perfectly into the Masters players mindset… So I created another deck, which did beat Tog…
The testing results are in… And lo and behold, changes need to be made! What problems did you note with StarCity Beats – and hopefully corrected in StarCity Beats 2.0?
In last week’s article, I gave you guys a untested deck I designed and asked you to playtest it, using the feedback option to let me know what you have learned in StarCity’s forums. As of the time this article was written, such feedback was only starting – but I realized that I’m thinking of a process that’s more involved than most people’s concepts of playtesting. I decided that for this week’s article, I would share my ideas on playtesting so you can get crackin’!
Right now, YMG is focussed on Standard for the Masters and Draft for the Pro Tour – but I had an idea for an Extended deck, and considering my team is working on other formats, I thought I’d try out something new. I’d like to work with StarCityGames.com readers in the same way that I work with my team: I give you guys my concept and decklist, you all test it and show me where it’s weak. Are you up to the challenge?
Last weekend, the Extended season started with a very loud bang in the form of an 833 player Grand Prix in Europe. Clearly, this was a tough tournament to play in – but a lot can be learned from this bloodbath, which left 819 casualties on day one. The Day One survivors provide a snapshot of what decks are good in the post Houston metagame, because no bad decks are going 7-1-1, that’s for sure. What deck does Rob think that YOU should add to your playtest gauntlet right now?
The main deck served me well enough: Benzo gets lots of easy game one wins versus players who have their answers in the sideboard. The real key to my success was in our sideboarding plans. As my opponents were boarding in cards that allowed them to beat Reanimator decks in their testing, I was bringing in cards that changed the way my deck worked. The cards they sideboarded in were simply inappropriate to deal with the deck they were facing in game 2… So let me show you how, and why, you sideboard against The Rock, TurboOath, U/B Reanimator, Aluren, Tog, Infestation/Upheaval, Enchantress, and Angry Ghoul.
Want the scoop on Extended? StarCity’s got the inside track! First of all, read Rob Dougherty’s article on how he developed the Reanimator deck that got him second place at Pro Tour Houston – why he abandoned the Zombie Infestation plan, what cards he tried in it that didn’t work, why he wanted the transformational sideboard, and how Dave Humpherys’ gave him the two cards that pushed it over the top.
I recently placed 4th at PT Chicago playing . I’d like to share the insights I gained into the Fires deck through sixteen rounds of Pro Tour Play (including a post-PT Chicago decklist). First of all, I just have to say that this deck is by far the most fun thing going in type two….
