A couple of weeks ago, I did a drafting guide for the 5-Color Green archetype in Champions/Betrayers/Saviors. This week, I want to provide you with an actual Walkthrough, along with plenty of commentary that should help anyone trying to learn how to draft the deck better…. because there’s an important lesson in today’s draft on not compromising your mana base.
On Saturday night, I had a rough time at my local poker game. A newcomer had arrived, and he looked like easy pickings. He was drunk as a skunk, slurring his speech and absolutely reeking of alcohol. He literally did not even know the difference between the terms “check” and “call”….
Yet I simply could not beat the guy. Time and again he would call me down and show down a better hand. When I left the game, I was pretty angry – until I realized that karma must have been paying me back. After all, earlier that day I had played in my second Vintage tournament, and somehow managed a Top 4 finish out of thirty or so people.
London was no Barcelona. I didn’t expect it to be, since before my Top 8 in Barcelona I’d had plenty of practice and knew the format cold. I had tested every card, knew what I wanted to draft, and knew where I disagreed with other players and was happy to have them go the other way. Champions/Betrayers/Saviors is a different format, and I knew I was behind the curve. Presented for your edification are some of the lessons I learned – the hard way, sadly – at Pro Tour: London.
Zvi asked for questions… and man, did you flood him! Zvi answers questions on just about every topic around, from “How do you become a better player?” to “How far should R&D push the design envelope?” to “Why did Netrunner fail?” to “How dangerous is Blue, anyway?”
As the person who named the Ascendants (yes, I’m proud of my creative writer gig), I’d like to point out that Homura is the first and currently only card with “Human” in its name. Unfortunately, Homura’s creature type matters even less than Erayo’s. No Monk lords exist, and there’s currently debate in R&D whether Humans will ever have a lord of some kind. But fortunately, Homura has another ability that’s a little more enticing…
Stephen looks at the issues and strategies coming up for the rest of 2005 – including a look at the overall metagame, the deck that requires the least skill to pilot (and why this matters), how to use Gifts Ungiven properly in Meandeck Gifts (it’s not what you’d think), and his take on Pithing Needle. All that, and a brief look at the potential pitfalls of the 2006 Vintage Season!
Fish is one of the most popular decks in Vintage, and it’s equally popular in Legacy… and one of the reasons people love it is because it’s so darned customizable. You can build it out of almost any blue/x color combination, and it does well. But how do you need to change Fish to ensure its success in the creature-hostile Legacy format?
The incredible Mister Romeo discusses White Weenie decks in Kamigawa Block – including the all-fun decks “Tom Cruise” (cheap, white Samurai), “Ghost In The Machine” (featuring Spirits, in the material world), and, um, a white deck. That does something really cool, but it’s not much good, but when has that ever stopped Chris?
It’s time to unveil the worst, most evil, most vicious and most unfair deck in Magic history. This time out, however, it is not a deck that dominated tournament Magic for season after season. This deck was too mean to last more than a few weeks….
I looooove card cycles. Love ’em. I also love deck brainstorming, pushing myself to think of ways to use a quirky card. Put these two things together, and you have a wonderful way for me to spend the next five days. Here’s how it’s going to work: I pick a card cycle from Saviors of Kamigawa that I think has potential for capital-F Fun. Then, each day this week I’ll focus on one card of the cycle and brainstorm Standard deck ideas. So, um, guess which cycle I started out with?
I think of Magic as a battle of percentages. The easiest place we can see the percentages that define who wins what games is in deck matchups themselves, where Mind’s Desire is too quick for StOmpY and Tooth and Nail can outlast the average Mono-Blue Control… But the matchups themselves are not the only places where this math tocks and ticks; it just so happens that these are the only percentages that most Internet articles typically address. But there are other percentages in Magic, and you might just learn that deck matchups are not even necessarily the most important.
“One of your best articles ever Flores. I have bookmarked this article for re-reading before every tournament.” – JWakefield
“Amazing stuff Flores. I really feel as if I bettered myself by reading this article. Premium just paid for itself for the 2,341st time.” – misterorange
“This is one of the classics folks.” – cupofjoe
I love spirits. I just love them. In my previous articles, I’ve outlined ideas for spirit decks and detailed various strategies — I’ve built a lot of spirit decks, too. With Saviors, we have our last influx of cards. What spirits and arcane spells are worth playing?
With the end of a truly relevant Standard season, it’s time to settle in and take a look at Champions of Kamigawa Block Constructed with both the Pro Tour: Philadelphia results and the addition of Saviors of Kamigawa to the mix. The decks that you’ll be playing will hopefully be based on the cards that help break the rules of the game…. and taking a look at all three sets for Constructed-quality cards of this nature will probably tell you about the decks that you’ll be playing.
It’s the Daily, and this week I’m counting down the five most evil, twisted, and most of all hated decks in Magic history. The decks that made you seriously consider taking up a (comparatively) less painful hobby, like chewing your own arms off, or caber catching, or maybe polka. Today’s deck is second on the list; I’ll name it in a minute.
Before I do, you need to do one thing for me: Here’s an asterisk. Stare at it for 15 minutes.
Recently, Mike Flores used the term “velocity” to describe a certain type of deck behavior. In that article, however, he merely noted it as a conceptual notion, without offering any theoretical context or application. He attempted to demonstrate its presence, but in this author’s opinion and others, he did not accurately describe his observation in terms that have useful application. While what he describes is not deniable, his descriptions are ex post facto observations, and not a theory to be applied in a logistical matter to deck construction or play skill. This article will attempt to define velocity in terms that are more in line with other concrete Magic theories, and identify its application.
