Zvi answers more of your questions in this final installment, including “Are there killer combos in formats that are never discovered?”, “What’s the best combo in Standard that doesn’t involve a nine-mana sorcery?”, and “Will your love of combo inadvertently push the combo archetypes when you’re working for Wizards R&D?” Plus, the question that Zvi couldn’t answer!
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.
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?”
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!
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
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.
I’ve always been of the opinion that many otherwise solid drafters don’t take the necessary time to re-evaluate the older cards whenever a new set enters the format. Just because something was great in CCB doesn’t mean it’s still going to be amazing in CBS. Fortunately, I’m very interested in the subject and ready to help those of you that feel like slacking off.
Today, I’ll be going over the power of each uncommon and rare in the set, and possibly let you know about some hidden cards that people have not found to be good yet. Champions of Kamigawa was actually a fairly balanced set in terms of uncommons; it does have its Strengths of Cedars and Nagaos, but those are nowhere near to the power the Grab the Reins and Crystal Shard had in Mirrodin block. The best uncommon is Champions of Kamigawa is probably Honden of Infinite Rage, and there’s definitely something that tops that in Saviors of Kamigawa. Anyway, let’s look at the uncommons from Saviors…
My favorite Magic format of all time was the briefly infamous Extended environment following Pro Tour: New Orleans (also known as Pro Tour: Tinker) last season. That format was crazy. Vastly undercosted artifacts and Tinkers were everywhere. Entire games were decided by turn 3 or 4. Kai Budde lost a game in the Pro Tour to a turn 1 combo kill. I loved that format, but that environment is not what I’m here to talk about today. No, today I’ve come to discuss an even more degenerate tournament: Pro Tour: Philadelphia. Say what, son?
Thursday
4:06 p.m. Get home from work.
4:07 p.m. Mare tells me to take her upstairs or “face her wrath.”
5:30 p.m. Get dressed. Try to wipe silly grin off face. Fail.
5:31 p.m. Tell wife I’m going to win Regionals now.
I still remember the first Regionals that I qualified at. It was a rather different format from the current system, because rather than playing in a tournament, all you had to do was phone up and book a place at Nationals. The following year, I went 7-2 with my White deck which splashed for 4 Ray of Command, and every year after that, I managed to have enough ranking points not to have to bother. Up until last year, where I made a Red deck and qualified.
This year proved to be a bit more difficult…
With the announcement of Legacy Grand Prix, I began in earnest to look at Legacy once more. I watched part of a Legacy tournament at Origins and I searched through the major Legacy forums and Legacy websites. I fully intend on playing in the Legacy Grand Prix, and what’s more, I intend on breaking the format.
I don’t remember how I found it. Chances are someone at school told me about the place. My guess is it was Steven O’Mahoney-Shwartz. The first time I heard about him, he was in the lunch room buying Moxen for fifty each and then reselling them for ninety. Smart kid. Regardless of where the information came from, let’s just say that nothing in my life would have been the same if I hadn’t discovered Neutral Ground.
Vintage is full of Fish lately. Where does that leave us? We live in an environment without predators, instead allowing those lower on the food (power) chain to go unchecked. Why is this? The Fish have been the ones putting all the work into innovating and really getting down to the nitty-gritty. An important deck building skill is to examine the popular decks and figure out what exactly their weaknesses lie.
