Why Battle For Zendikar Is Great
Sam Black has played Battle for Zendikar Limited and he is in love! Today he shows you the direction you’ll want to take each color pairing, and then he provides some great ideas for Modern decks featuring Eldrazi!
AuthorSam Black
Sam Black is professional Magic player who's known for his love of building decks that attack formats from unexpected angles. He's made the Top 8 of sixteen GPs covering every format as well as three Pro Tours, but he's particularly proud of his less common accomplishments, including a Top 4 at the World Championship, a win in the Team World Championship in 2008, and winning a car in 2007.
Video: The Legacy Cube!
Sam Black has a little fun with his video this week by taking on the greatest format in Magic: Cube! See him navigate the recently posted MTGO Legacy Cube here!
My First Battle For Zendikar Standard Decks
Sam Black isn’t content to just port old archetypes into new Standard. See the new archetypes he’s created that incorporate strategies we haven’t yet seen!
Video: Jeskai Artifacts In Modern!
Want a deck off the beaten path? Looking for some Modern innovation? Sam Black is always a good source of sweet new decks, and today, he delivers with this crazy stack of spellbombs and trinkets!
My Hopes And Fears For Battle For Zendikar
Sam Black understands Magic at an advanced level that many of us can’t hope to be aware of. So what does he think of Magic’s upcoming set so far? See the things he’s most excited (and worried…) about when it comes to what Battle for Zendikar will mean for Magic!
Video: Amulet Bloom In Modern!
Sam Black is breaking his old favorite back out! See the master pilot one of the hardest archetypes in Modern before #SCGWOR’s $5,000 Premier IQ!
Contemplating Battle For Zendikar Standard
World Championship Top 4 competitor Sam Black has made a living off of understanding deckbuilding implications beyond most of us. See the vision he has for the future of Standard as we approach the release of Battle for Zendikar!
Video: Mono-White Devotion In Standard
Hot off of a Top Four finish at the Magic World Championships, Sam Black takes you for a ride along with his Mono-White Devotion deck from that tournament as he puts it through its paces.
The 2015 World Championships – *4th*
The World Championships is the year’s hardest tournament, and this year there were especially huge swings as Sam Black went from fourteenth place to fourth with one timely 4-0 in Standard. He shares his thoughts on the event and its formats inside.
The Last Minute
The experience is the thing – what does it mean to just fully immerse yourself in the most difficult and prestigious event of the year? Sam Black shares what he can of his preparation for this event by showing what it feels like to be a competitor at a challenge this incredible.
Video: Abzan Constellation In Standard
With the recent metagame shift in favor of Abzan Aggro and Hangarback Walkers everywhere, Sam Black reprises a deck from Pro Tours past to build a big Devotion-themed Abzan Constellation deck and win all creature matchups.
Feeling Lost In Standard
With this much shifting around in the Standard format, Sam Black feels lost – when will the dynamic changes stop and the format settle into one place? While he waits, he has a few ideas for what the next gyration might look like in order to get out ahead of it.
Video: Gather the Pack Abzan
Sam Black takes an Abzan deck featuring new Magic Origins option Gather the Pack through a four-round Standard event!
Standard After Grand Prix San Diego
Sam Black has been following the ins and outs of Magic Origins Standard, and with four different archetypes winning each of the last four weeks it’s really hard to pin down what deck will be the right call for #GPLondon and beyond.
What I Didn’t Play At Pro Tour Origins
While the Pro Tour has come and gone and we all know what “the best decks” were from that event, that’s actually a very narrow slice of what is possible in Standard. Sam Black opens up his playtesting notebook to showcase just how widely he and his team looked in search of the best deck.