Once again on his feet, Hashi’s stomach rumbled. Though he no suffered from injuries or fever, he was ravenous, and could barely wait to eat. As if cued, a small woman with white face paint entered his room bearing a tray. Setting it on the one small table in the room she bowed and left. Lifting the cloth, the odor of fresh, hot wantons and vegetable soup wafted up to Hashi’s grateful nose.
A couple of times a year, I like to publicly answer some e-mail that I’ve received over the past few months. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, a lot of questions are asked over and over. By doing this type of column, I can answer several people at once. Second, I get a quick column full of cheap laughs when I was otherwise stumped for material.
First of all, did anyone guess the reason why we had Peasant Magic on this week, of all weeks? It’s because this week ends on April 15th – a day when many American citizens are poorer. See, we’re so clever.
(For you foreigners, April 15th is tax day in America. We love it.)
In any case, Peasant Magic week was a good week for articles, with some of the highest-quality stuff we’ve seen yet. But in the end, it came down to two last-minute submissions: Roman Pazuniak’s How Many Ways Can You Go Infinite On A Common-Based Engine? and Dave Wong’s Peasant Magic: The Six-Deck Gauntlet, Plus The Commons You Must Own. It was a tough decision, since Dave brought some Peasantry experience to the table, whereas Roman’s decks were consistently neat. (Well, except for the ElfClamp deck, but you had to get that one out of the way.) In the end, experience won out in an extremely close call, and Dave took the $20 prize!
This week’s challenge?
Multiplayer Lockdown.
That’s right; we want to hear about your deck that shuts multiple opponents down in some interesting way. Tell us how it works, what decks it works well against, and more importantly what fiendish combo you’ve created to dominate (and, lest we forget, win) the game. Then send that puppy into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2!
Shortbus Severance Belcher (or SSB) was one of the hot new decks to come out of StarCityGames.com Power 9 Syracuse and its designer is back with a tournament report and instructional guide just in time for this weekend’s Power 9 in Chicago. If you are looking for a few pointers on one of the latest control-combo decks to hit the Vintage scene, you must read this article.
Some of these decks are funny enough that I thought to include a few for your enjoyment. These are examples of the absolute worst draft decks ever, and I hope that you enjoy them. To better illustrate how I got from three sealed booster packs to forty-five cards of poo, I’ll tell you how the draft started, what went wrong, and more.
A long time ago in a far-away metagame, there was an underplayed deck that relied on an obscenely low number of lands. This deck was amazingly fast and not many decks could keep up with its speed. This deck was called 9-land green, or Stompy, or one of any number of other names. Anyone that has played a very aggressive deck can tell you that the adrenaline rush you get from flooding the board with creatures and quickly disposing of your opponent is a great and wonderful thing… And you can do it for cheap.
As Hashi fell from the destroyed bridge, the wind ripped the air from his lungs. During his descent he tumbled head over foot; through sheer luck, he impacted the water with his feet pointed straight down. The impact buckled his knees and twisted one of his ankles, knocking the wind out of him. Pressing his way back to the surface, he gulped cold air. The new pack that Fumiko had given him was airtight, and served as a floatation device while he checked himself for injuries.
Many people think that the color of Yawgmoth’s Will needs little if any tweaking. I agree wholeheartedly. Black is the best understood color (despite that whole “can it be good, not evil?” issue), and it has had the most consistent abilities for ten years as a result. Black is a color with a little of everything, from good, reliable mechanics to good, reliable weaknesses. As a consequence of being so well mapped-out, Black teaches us a lot that can inform design and reformation of other colors’ abilities.
StarCityGames.com would like to officially welcome Constructed powerhouse Keith McLaughlin to our family of writers. Keith’s topic du jour is Medium Red, a deck that hasn’t received a lot of press yet, but one that will be a powerful player in the Standard metagame for months to come.
After he had buried Ishita next to his family, Hashi rested on a rectangular stone that had once been part of his home’s foundation. He contemplated the blisters that ridged both palms, cracked and stinging, then clenched his fists until blood ran from his fingers, letting it fall on the freshly turned earth.
Two PTQs, two sealed decks, one saucy, one not. Oh, and one burning question: Is Ornate Kanizashi playable in the maindeck in Betrayers Sealed? Did Martin Dingler complete his 1200km trek with a spot on the Pro Tour like Craig Stevenson achieved last week? You’ll have to read it to find out.
Niigata’s townspeople, terrified, clung together in shivering groups. Toshiro knelt weeping beside the body of his sister, his palms grinding against the smashed glass. Oblivious to the gathered mass of the townspeople, he suddenly jerked his hands from the ground, fresh cuts already oozing blood…
Pete checks in with an update about what he’s learned since his initial forays online, includes some basic trading tips for Magic Online newbies, and gives his evaluation of the usefulness of MTGO Leagues.
So the last time I wrote an article about porting a Vintage deck to Standard, I got quite a lot of positive feedback. With all of that, it inspired me to write this article on another potentially viable port: Stax. Don’t think it can work? You’ll be surprised at the lengths I go to in order to determine whether or not that’s true.
John Matthew Upton takes over the helm of SCG Daily this week and ventures into a realm few people have gone before on this here site here: fan fiction.
