Tiago headed into his Nationals adventure with a clear goal in mind – to become the first ever two-time Portuguese National Champion. While his efforts proved ultimately fruitless, his take on the metagame was perfect. This report describes the ups and downs Tiago faced in the tournament, and provides some advice for those players yet to make their own Nationals journey.
Today, Rogier brings us a comprehensive article describing the thought-process behind Heartbeat in Coldsnap Standard. This combo deck is one of the trickier weapons in the current metagame, but Rogier peels away the layers of mystery surrounding the shaping of the perfect combo kill. His new build is surprising, but the advice he offers is unmissable. Still blinded by combo madness? Rogier is here to help.
Rich moves from the mean streets of Ravnica to the icy tundra of Coldsnap! Today’s installment of Drafting With Rich sees the Canadian maestro share a full triple-Coldsnap draft, from pick one to pick forty-five, with brief commentary on strong cards and deck performance. For a more detailed analysis, come join the forums!
For the North American Challenge, Ben turned his back on the Tron deck that sent him to Worlds… turning instead to the powerful Erayo Ninja deck that ravaged German Nationals. Mr Lundquist, heralded as “the future of American Magic,” took home all the marbles, swinging for two and drawing a card all the while. This interesting report chronicles the highs and lows from each match.
After a month-long break in which he toured America, Jeroen is back with a bang! He picks up where he left off, answering reader’s questions and queries. Today’s article covers the art of the Limited manabase. How many lands? How many accelerants? When and where is it appropriate to splash? He also lifts the lid on the pro player mindset, revealing the depth of their involvement with Wizards and official decisions… Jeroen, it’s good to have you back!
Rich moves from the mean streets of Ravnica to the icy tundra of Coldsnap! Today’s installment of Drafting With Rich sees the Canadian maestro share a full triple-Coldsnap draft, from pick one to pick forty-five, with brief commentary on strong cards and deck performance. For a more detailed analysis, come join the forums!
Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin takes us through a sample day in his life, a day packed with conflict and deck testing. He shares his latest Standard decks – Quiet Jushi, B/U Haakon, and Pitch Necro ’06 – and thrashes them against a number of the top contenders in the modern metagame. With Coldsnap finally in the Standard mix, everyone is looking for the Next Big Thing… has Patrick found it?
Billy Moreno has a mission – an article a week on all things Magical. Today’s first offering covers the last few months of his Magic life, including Pro Tour and Grand Prix stories. He also presents an innovative land-abusing beatdown deck, Summer Boom Boom. Third turn dragons, massive Vinelasher Kudzus, uncounterable card drawing… could this be the deck to break the metagame wide open?
Rich moves from the mean streets of Ravnica to the icy tundra of Coldsnap! Today’s installment of Drafting With Rich sees the Canadian maestro share a full triple-Coldsnap draft, from pick one to pick forty-five, with brief commentary on strong cards and deck performance. For a more detailed analysis, come join the forums!
Richard talks us through his latest incarnation of the B/W Orzhova Maxima deck, with specific reference to his performance – and the performance of team-mates – at the U.S. Nationals (and Grinders). While the results weren’t exactly as planned, the development of the deck was perfect for their proposed metagame… sadly, their opponents didn’t get the memo. This frank and enlightening article highlights the strengths – and weaknesses – of high-level tournament playtesting.
Last week, Stephen shared his preparation and deck choice for the “upcoming” Vintage Championship – Five-Color Pitch Long. Today’s article sees him share his views on the tournament. He discusses the current Vintage metagame, tells us where he thought things went right – and wrong – for him, and speculates on the future of Vintage Magic.
Today sees Rich’s last plunge into the world of Ravnica Limited… from Monday, Drafting With Rich moves onto Coldsnap! As usual, the Canadian Limited maestro shares each pick, from one to forty-five, of an 8-4 Draft on Magic Online. He shares his preliminary deck and match thoughts in the article, and joins in the more detailed pick discussions in the forums.
While Coldsnap Limited is the new kid in town, qualifiers for Pro Tour: Kobe continue unabated. Today, Josh looks at an intricate RGD Sealed pool, and offers his thoughts on the format as a whole. RGD Sealed seems like it’s been around forever… but there are, as always, fresh insights to be learned. Plus, for those who enjoy building Sealed pools, Josh adds a bonus pool for discussion in the forums…
Maximilian Bracht took home all the marbles at German Nationals 2006 with an innovative Erayo / Ninja deck… and Mike liked the look of it. Today’s article sees Mr. Flores fling the quirky Standard creation against all comers in the Magic Online 8-Man Standard Queues. He documents each game, and waxes lyrical on the strengths and weaknesses of the deck in the current metagame. Overall, it worked for Mike… can it work for you?
Rich continues his excellent series of RGD 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!
