Today Ben takes on the weightest issue of them all: the health of Magic players everywhere. If you are fed up with being overweight, having too little energy, getting tired walking up stairs, having low self-esteem, or are just looking to improve the general quality of your life, The Bleiweiss is here for you.
Dave looks ahead at what he thinks might get banned in Standard next week, laying odds on what combinations of cards might get the boot and what that will mean for those of us looking forward to playing a fresh, Ravager-free Type Two format.
Since I won’t know until next week what the bannings are going to look like, I’m going to go a different way this week. I’m going to address some cards from Betrayers of Kamigawa that we fun-loving players might be interested in. Please, don’t think of this as a set review. Think of it more as, um, a review of some cards in the set for uh… Constructed or something.
Last week’s Multiplayer Combo Challenge was a success, getting an astounding twelve people to share their thoughts on the greatest multiplayer blowout decks. So the question on everybody’s lips is: What’s next week’s challenge?
The Top Five Multiplayer Creatures.
Of course, as always, there’s a catch. Given the Kokusho-packed articles from last week, Kokusho may not be on your list. Remember, articles that simply give the five cards along with a one-paragraph description probably will not win; we want decks to go with the creatures, and a good idea of what sorts of players/strategies these creatures do well against. Pick your five favorites – but back it up with anecdotes, strategy, and above all, fun! The winner gets $20 in cold hard cash!
The winner of last week’s contest? Well, there were a lot of fine entries, but in the end Chris Franson won for “The Best Multiplayer Combo?” It wasn’t the most entertaining deck out there – Staff of Dominance-based decks are depressingly alike – but Chris not only did a fine job of explaining both his decks, but provided an alternate build and discussed other cards that could be used. And that’s the sort of thing we like to reward!
As Oscar wraps up his Vintage Betrayers set review today, he begins to despair at the quality of cards in the new set. Is there nothing playable in Vintage coming out of this middle set, ow will the Instants, Sorceries, and Lands provide a hidden gem that we’ll be talking about in the years to come?
Rich Hoaen is the secret Limited Assassin, stacking up result after result with hardly a word written or said about his outstanding skills. By starting a regular column here at StarCityGames.com, this loveable Canadian is out to change all that, delivering his insightful Limited commentary gleaned from hundreds of drafts straight to our readers. Today Rich takes a peak at the Top 10 Over and Underrated cards in Champions – valuations that will stay true even with Betrayers of Kamigawa now in the mix.
In one of the most amusing Blog Fanatic installments yet, Ben tackles some of the weightier issues in our game, like how to hate your arch-rival out of the metagame, and the proper way to teach your teammates how to catch cheaters in the act!
Who is the mysterious Mr. Nice and what powers does he have over the game of Magic? How did Mr. Nice help Ben overcome his arch-nemsis, Vinny “The Pimp” Falcone? And just what about all those Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere? The only way to find the answers to these questions is to tune into today’s Blog Fanatic!
Dave takes a second look at his updated version of the speedy Standard deck known as “Frog in a Blender”, this time with added Betrayers cards. As if that wasn’t good enough, he also includes a Block Constructed version of the deck and tells the story of his losing ways at the Betrayers of Kamigawa Prerelease.
Our favorite Scouser continues his journey of Limited improvement today with a considerably more difficult card pool than he opened on Monday. Which colors does Craig end up in and which ones do you think he should have chosen? State your opinion in our forums.
I’ve been playing a lot of multiplayer Magic lately…with college students. You know what that means if you’re a working stiff like me? You get to see supposedly-grown “men” cry like four-year-olds when you pull out your $300, forty-eight rare Sneak Attack deck.
“That’s no fair!” they cry dejectedly. “You can afford all those good cards, while all of us combined only own a tenth what you have!” So I then showed them that I can win without rare-filled decks… And so can you!
The short version of the story is this: I read Chris Romeo’s article. I was intrigued. I thought of a few cards I might have tried out myself. I kept thinking of cards. I thought of more cards. I thought to myself, “Self, there are a lot of cards that could get played in a mono-Black deck.” So many, in fact, that one could probably build three separate, respectable mono-Black decks from the available Standard card pool without topping four of any given non-Swamp card. Now, I’m not feeling quite that ambitious, but you get the idea: there’s a lot out there. Today I’m going to focus on the evolution of one such deck that proved to be surprisingly good in testing.
Crazy Carl takes a look at what all the Type One players can expect this weekend at the Syracuse Power 9 event. Aside from profiling the decks to beat, Carl also includes an extended interview with Control Slaver master Rich Shay and some suggestions of how to metagame the field, all in his own irreverent style.
Vinny Falcone. Vinny “The Pimp” Falcone. Vinny “I got your number Mr. Ben Bleiweiss” Falcone. My nemesis. My scourge. My some other name of a Magic set. Vinny, Vidi, Vici. He came, he saw, he conquered. There’s one person in all of Magic who has my number all of the time, and that person is — say it all at once, and say it loud — Vincent Falcone.
We’ve gone through a lot of fads in our multiplayer group, but we have played with Vanguard cards for over two years since they were introduced to our playgroup. There’s nothing like Bitching into Lyna to give all of my creatures shadow, then Bitching into Mishra to kill several players with one shot. So what are the Vanguard cards, and what are these strange Bitch rules that have made the Vanguard cards so much fun for us?
