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Crushing Vintage Without Power Nine: The Manaless Ichorid Primer

We all know the “complaints” folk have about Vintage… gripes such as “it’s a degenerate format,” or “there is a dubious level of skill required to succeed.” Perhaps the strongest moan involves the cost of the cards themselves. So what would you say to a competitive, powerful Vintage deck that uses exactly zero copies of the Power 9 cards… a deck that Stephen Menendian believes will warp the format for many months to come? Interested? Then read on…

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #17

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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Time Spiral Draft – Green/Red

Bastien Perez made the Top 8 of Pro Tour: Kobe with an innovative Green/Red “swarm” strategy based around suspend, storm, and Strength in Numbers. Since that fateful Sunday, little has been written about this powerful archetype – the major players have instead been scrabbling like truffle-pigs for the Blue cards. Nick attempts to redress the balance with this article, penning a comprehensive primer for those looking to first-pick an Empty the Warrens…

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Alternate Paradigms Part 1: Down, Up Top-Down – Exploring New Decks in Extended

Today’s Flores Friday dives deep into the murky waters of the Extended metagame. Mike shares his theories of deck design and creation – perfect timing for those hoping to blow the format wide open at their next PTQ. The decks he posts here today produce interesting results when battling the Tier 1 builds of the format… but the true value of this excellent piece lies in the description of the process.

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #16

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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2006 Vintage Year in Review, Part 2

Last time out, the inestimable Mr Menendian dealt with the ups and downs of the Vintage year from January to June. Today’s article deals with the second half of the year. Stephen breaks down the results from the major tournaments in the latter half of 2006, and shares some of the stronger decklists that appeared along the way. The future for Vintage in 2007 looks very rosy indeed…

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Worlds 2006 – How It Happened, Part 2 *T8*

Tiago’s run in Worlds was fraught with peril – not from the competition he faced, although that was stiff indeed. An altercation with an insane hotel manager left Portugal’s finest without a bed the night before his Top 8 performance… things were so grim he planned on ditching the tournament at the final hurdle. For that story, and for top-notch match reporting and draft analysis, look no further than this inspired offering from one of the best players in the game!

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #15

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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Worlds Report, Part 1: Cab Drivers From Hell and Not Another Audible!

In his last article, Paul shared the U.S. Team’s preparation for Worlds. Today’s follow-up deals with Day 1 of the main event itself. Paul audibled at the last minute to a new deck, and posted a positive result. Of course, that’s not the whole story… as with all tournament reports, there’s a healthy dose of humor and color to be had.

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Why I Threw Solar Flare Away — Part 1

Naoki Shimizu, the creator of the popular Solar Flare Standard deck, has recently turned his back on his most prized creation. In the first part of this interesting series, he takes us through the design of his current favorite deck: Scryb & Force. It has posted fine results for him, and he believes it has merit in the post-Worlds metagame. Today’s installment deals with the origins of the deck, and its first outing at the Lord of Magic Championships…

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #14

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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The Unsung Cards of Time Spiral

Everyone’s been reading Drafting With Rich, right? You all know that Blue is the best color, don’t you? Even if the grumpy Canadian loves his Black and Red spells, there’s no doubting the power of the sea. However, while we all know the obvious cards to look for, it’s our 21st-23rd cards in any given deck that separate the good builds from the great ones. Today, Limited expert Quentin Martin takes a look at some of the more marginal cards that can shine in the triple Time Spiral format. Some of the cards he champions, and some of the theories he posits, are definitely worth discussion…

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #13

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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Worlds Extended – My Performance

By the time Extended rolled around, Worlds was over bar the shouting for poor Josh. Even though his lack of desire and unfortunate pairings led to a subpar personal performance on this third day, the deck he ran with was one of the breakout stars of the format – Dirty Kitty. Today he shares his thoughts on the deck, and looks at a number of other interesting creations that performed well in Paris.

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How (Not) to Split a Fact or Fiction – Guest Starring Mark Herberholz!

EOTFOFYL – A common acronym back in the day. It stands for “End of Turn Fact or Fiction; You Lose,” and it will be heard a lot in the coming Extended PTQ season. There’s an art to splitting a Fact or Fiction, and perfection comes only once a number of factors have been considered. Today’s Flores Friday examines a sackful of practical Fact or Fiction decisions; Mike takes us through each one, and Heezy shares his own philosophies.

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