Battle of Wits? No, seriously. Battle of Wits? The other day, I was perusing magic-league.com, and I saw a Battle of Wits deck. I remarked to myself, “Hmm, looks like someone messed up and put the deck in Standard by accident. Ah, well.” I chuckled amusedly and didn’t give it a second thought. Imagine my quirked eyebrow and short bark of laughter, therefore, upon seeing that it had done so well at Minnesota Champs.
It’s not everyday that a sixty-card draft deck makes the Top 8 at a big tournament like States, but that’s what appeared to happen last Saturday in Richmond. Today Bennie explains what this crazy deck is, how it came together, and whether cards like Stinkweed Imp, Moldervine Cloak, and Greater Mossdog belong in future iterations.
States has come and gone, but Extended PTQs started Sunday, so it’s time to shift focus to the newly-rotated format where almost broken things can happen. Today Sean takes a look at the Extended metagame and provides eight starter decklists for those of you looking to do battle in the next couple of weeks.
Before the tournament Saturday, Mark Young was debating between two decks, Critical Kudzu and something rather rogue and not completely tested. His foolish friends convinced him to run the rogue deck and it landed Mark smack dab in the middle of his first Virginia States Top 8. What deck did he play? Why Greater Good Combo, of course!
Lately my draft results have been showing that the best two decks by far in Ravnica Limited are R/W and U/B. Since I’ve already said my peace about the U/B Mill deck, I figured it was time to discuss the fastest archetype in Ravnica Limited.
This will be the best report written about GP: Nottingham. Yes, I do dare to say that. The article you are reading now just has all the good stuff: an epic competitor’s story, the stories of not one, but two DQs at the GP, photos of your Magic heros in compromising situations and even a movie clip of two PT mainstays getting into a fight. [Sorry, no movies. – Knut, not hosting The Battle of the Pro Tour Stars] Oh, and if you read between the lines, you might even pick up a little strategy as well… You get all this, and the tale of a PT purgatory member slugging it out, battling for that elusive Top 32.
The foreigner name game, Tim’s weekly Top 5, and a complete guide to drafting Black/Green in Ravnica. The Limited master is back and is sure to leave his fans clamoring for more.
Yesterday, Teddy Card Game promised to write about the deck he was taking to States if the guy who designed the deck gave him permission to do so. That designer is none other than Seth Burn, and Seth has decided to reveal the deck himself! If you are still undecided about what you are playing at Champs, and are looking for the latest in hot tech plus a heavily tested decklist, look no further!
This past weekend, Mike had the rare chance to put his States deck to the test in an actual Ravnica-legal Standard tournament packed with Neutral Ground regulars. In today’s article, Mike discusses what he learned by playing in that tournament, and shares the decklist he’ll be playing in this weekend’s State Championship!
Haven’t seen your favorite weekly series of reminisces lately? Master Cunningham explains why and when you can expect it to be back.
Lifegain gets a bad rap. Really, it does. Those of us who started off as casual players remember one of the first things we learned when moving to a competitive scene is that Lifegain Sucks. So what would you say if I told you there was a potentially tier 1 deck for States that attempts to abuse lifegain to kill your opponent?
Year after year Teddy Card Game has provided the most accurate skinny on exactly what the Championships metagame will look like. He’s at it again this year with updated decklists, metagame percentages, latebreaking rogue options, and delectable cheesecake. This is the most wide-open Standard format in years… if you don’t read this article, you could be missing a crucial piece of information you need to succeed this weekend.
I wanted to bring you some red-hot new tech for States, I really did. I had an idea, and it had synergy, and it served a strategic goal, and it sounded just crazy enough to work. Sadly it didn’t work, at least not in the way I wanted it to. I thought I’d share the idea with you, though, so you can play with it yourself and maybe create a States-winning deck on your own.
If you had asked me one week ago, I would have told you that the deck featured in this article was my 100% recommendation for Champs. After this weekend I think the deck I posted last Friday may be the best deck in the format, but this deck is still really good and can easily take home a Top 8 slot.
Unlike Vintage, Legacy deck construction hinges more on “building blocks” rather than individual broken cards. It means that despite the huge card pool, there is actually a very restricted range of available tools (read: good cards) to use, many of which are highly conditional. Today I’m going to give you an extensive breakdown of the various building blocks available to Legacy deckbuilders and contribute a fresh deck of my own for your perusal.
