Yesterday, I discussed combat tricks; today, I’ll discuss the ULTIMATE combat trick in Onslaught Limited – Morph. In fact, I’ll even give you a chart that shows you what creatures that vanilla 2/2 could morph into, based on the mana your opponent has open!
When Theo actually managed to get a Mirari down (round 8, well after my deck should have produced one), I was pretty sure we were finished. But lo! Hope springs eternal. I drew Capsize… And that’s where The Mistake came in.
All right, so we forgot to put up Michael’s effort to be daily yesterday. Would it help if we put up not one, but TWO articles at once? We thought so!
Every time a new set shows up, we get a slew of”the new Standard” articles, telling us how a whole host of new decks based around unlikely card combos will be wrecking Standard in a months time. If a deck has been eating up tournaments for a year, and it’s left intact by a rotation, why should it stop winning? Jim looks at the current top decks to see who comes out unscathed.
I’ll discuss the usual threats in Onslaught block in order to get you ready for Saturday’s Game: Instants that can ruin your day,”falters,” and things that will downright wreck you if you’re not careful. In fact, I’ll even give you a chart that shows you what combat tricks they’re likely to have, based on the mana they have open!
Okay; Grand Prix Cleveland is long gone. This article, however, is not about the new Type Two, or a card-by-card analysis of the newest set. This is an article telling you why Team Academy was right:
I’m s**t.
Now, my first impulse when looking over the Onslaught spoiler and casually observing the available Goblins was,”Nice try, Wizards, but…” But Steven’s deck made me take another look. I may not be King of Beatdown, but it seems to me that a red goblin deck can really dish out some major damage.
The first thing to mention about upcoming Standard is that, unless things changed dramatically, we’re going to be looking at a lot of U/G for at least the first month or two, unless I’m really missing something. The second thing to mention is that the resulting Tier One control deck will either remain U/B Tog, or be Upheaval based, or be U/W based.
There are two basic sideboarding options for an aggro deck. First, it can add threats and speed up; second, it can add control elements, moving towards aggro/control. The first option seems to be the most intuitive, but it’s actually the most difficult to pull off.
It just occurred to me: I hope this card has Morph. Because if I was ever forced to use it as my 23rd card in Sealed, I could play it face-down, and never activate its Morph ability, and NEVER HAVE TO LOOK AT THE GOD-AWFUL ART ON THIS CARD. Gah.
Assuming that Weathered Wayfarer works for any land, as it currently reads, then this is a recurring tutor every turn for any land, and that is quite powerful in 250. If it reads like this at the Pre-release, then I will personally recommend that it be placed on the October Ballot for restriction.
Hey – in a unique and definitely nonreplicable experiment, I’m going to be looking at a different piece of Onslaught art every day for a week! I chose to address Snapping Thragg first because I find it very refreshing in is execution; its primary strength is in its loose and casual approach.
Mistform Mask
This will be great at the kitchen table in multiplayer games. See, you can get twenty or thirty of these and put them under that leg that’s short and that causes the table to wobble. This prevents spillage of beer and chips onto the playing surface, thus keeping your Child of Gaea and Teeka’s Dragon safe and clean.
For multiplayer, I see a lot of interesting cards, although I am depressed about Insurrection. Altar of Dementia and Reins of Power was a powerful, but reasonable, deck. Altar of Dementia and Insurrection is pretty awful – it just wins in way too big a style. A few other cards have similar impacts – and I hate to see any simple combo that just wins too easily.
“I wonder,” said The Ferrett, ruminating on the uncanny amount of potheads who play Magic,”Whether playing stoned makes it easier or worse. I mean, it’d be more complicated… But on the other hand, everything might fall together. Either way, it’d make a hell of a tourney report.”
I did not know what a madman Ted Knutson is.
Even though The Holy Kanoot had never smoked before, he may (or may not) have actually performed the experiment, ingesting illicit drugs that StarCity does not condone in order to see whether it helps both your play AND your astigmatism. You may not agree with what he did… But after a man makes a sacrifice like that, how can I not publish his findings?
