Star Wars Kid checks in with tales of his most recent adventures, including money finishes at two recent Grand Prix and detailed analysis of some of his more subtle mistakes at recent premier events.
From a purely strategic point of view, there are a good many reasons to play Desire at your next Extended tournament. The first (and probably best) reason is because the deck is just hard to play against unless your opponent has dedicated a large amount of time to it — which, given that you’re at a PTQ, is doubtful. So let me walk you through the intricacies of the deck that got me all the way to the Top 4 at Los Angeles.
Fresh off his 4th place finish at Pro Tour Los Angeles, Chris “Star Wars Kid” McDaniel returns to discuss the powerful Heatbeat Combo deck, recap his entire Pro Tour experience and offer his perspective on the controversial semifinals match against Billy Moreno!
In case you missed the memo, Wizards of the Coast ran a $5,000 sanctioned Standard Two-Headed Giant at Gen Con after running an unsanctioned Two-Headed Sealed event at U.S. Nationals. The verdict on the new format? Ridiculously fun. Star Wars Kid reports on the initial Two-Headed metagame today and includes the decklists that took him and a small child to the Top 4.
Once Knutson’s only barn, Star Wars Kid (Chris McDaniel) has since graduated to Featured Writer, Level 2 Pro, and a solid slinger of spells. Today this Taking Back Sunday team member gives you a look behind the scenes at the development of the winning Pro Tour: Philadelphia deck, shows you the humble beginnings of his version of the deck, and explains why sometimes it’s just not possible to get a good night’s sleep before the Pro Tour.
If you play Magic Online, you are probably aware that the Vanguard release events are starting this week. But which avatars are the best and what decks do they belong in? Star Wars Kid’s got your back on this one, as he reviews the best of the avatars today as well as covering some of the major bugs you should be aware of before you participate in this new format.
SWK: Hey, I think I broke the format.
Knut: Oh really? What are you playing?
SWK: Well, it’s 60 different cards, so it’s tough to tell you.
Knut: Oh no – you got hooked on Singleton, didn’t you?
SWK: Yeah. All I wanted to do was make a Mind’s Desire deck because I figured it would be funny to try a combo deck with a bunch of one-of’s – I never expected it to be any good.
Knut: Ship it…
A few days before the prerelease, Ted Knutson asked me if I wanted to play in the StarCityGames Richmond Power 9 event. My only experience playing Vintage at that point was one event at GenCon 2004, but I figured I wasn’t doing anything anyway, so why not give it a shot. If I scrubbed out, I could always hop in a prerelease flight, right? Sadly my day went too well to get any action with Betrayers, but I was rewarded with a Mox Pearl for my “inconvenience”.
If you plan on going one-for-one with Affinity, you are doomed from the start. Their “normal draw” is often good enough to overcome several pieces of early hate. For months now people have been trying to find ways to overcome such obstacles, and it finally seems that at least one deck has shown up that has a good enough matchup against Affinity, while still being competitive against the rest of the field. The deck approaches hate from a different perspective, stopping the artifact threat before it enters play and can have any affect on the game.
Some people will go to any lengths, just to get results and improve their Magic games. Star Wars Kid is not one of those people, but you can still learn from the story of how he went from never having qualified for a Pro Tour to ninth place at the largest American Grand Prix, all in the course of a single weekend. This scrub’s for you!
TwelvePost was made for a format much different from that of current Type Two – there were no Biddings, Goblins, Decrees, or even Akroma’s Vengeances. It took advantage of fast mana lands to cast game-winning spells as quickly as possible. Its principle was if you can’t out race them, overpower them. Few things are more powerful than an 11/11 indestructible trampler backed by Leonin Abunas and Platinum Angel. Currently Affinity has a tough time removing Platinum Angel and Abunas game one, as many versions only have Shrapnel Blast to remove the pair. Killing both requires them to draw two of only four cards and they still have to kill you. Limiting your opponent’s outs like that is pretty good.
Welcome, welcome to the corner of all that is janky and fun, where high casting cost doesn’t matter, just as long as the card is boooombtastic! See the deck that is loads of fun to play, and is just scary if it gets rolling! Hear the screams of the damned as they suffer a miserable death to your amazing deck of Junk! Feel the flames of Oblivion licking at your feet, just waiting to snuff out your essence!
A Darksteel legal deck containing an infinite damage combo is just a click away!
