You demanded it and we made it happen. Blog Fanatic returns for a two-week stint on SCG Daily today, and Ben kicks things off right, reminiscing about the early day of Neutral Ground and one player who simply could not beat him, no matter how good the odds.
In my last article I talked about simplistic decks to play, but some of you may have noticed something in common with the decks – they were all fully powered, save Spoils Dragon, which doesn’t really help the people lacking any power at all. So I’m here to help out with your problems. This will be mostly an educational article, but I’ve tried to keep it somewhat interesting for those of you with short attention spans. Even if you are fully powered, you should probably read this to know what you’ll be up against.
“Craig,” said Ted. “Betrayers has just been released. How about doing a new series of Sealed Revealed?”
“Do I have to?” I replied. “I’m still a bit rubbish at Limited.”
“Well, we’re not forcing you to write more Sealed Revealed,” said Ted. “But if you don’t, we’ll have your legs broken.”
You asked for it? You got it! StarCityGames.com readers asked to see more writing on the multiplayer Emperor format… And Laura Mills (who is now playing games weekly with Anthony Alongi) has stepped up to the plate! Read on as she dissects the two main strategies you can take in Emperor – mainly, how you view your generals.
In StarCityGames.com’s never-ending quest to improve the Casual and Multiplayer section, we will now be offering the $20 prize every week to the person who writes the best Casual and Multiplayer article. The twist? The article has to be on the topic we’ve chosen for that week.
That’s right: Each week, we’ll choose a different Casual and/or Multiplayer topic for you to write about, and the person who provides the best in-depth analysis wins an easy $20! This week’s topic?
The Best Multiplayer Combo.
Remember, we’re not just looking for a deck; we want the strategy of how to play it, what sorts of other decks and/or people disrupt it, and ideas on possible alternate builds. So send your submission into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2! Your money awaits!
If you’re so clever, do something REALLY cool. Look into the friggin’ future, or something. Tell us what Magic will be like a few years down the line. I bet you a dollar to a duck’s ass that you can’t do it.
Prove me wrong, Mox. I dare ya.
Marty
California
It’s that time of year again and the pressure to restrict something in Vintage has never been greater. However, there should be no restrictions unless tournament data tells us that something needs to be done. I will briefly list out the winning decks from major tournaments over the last six months and then summarize the relevant data for the six tournaments that will point us toward what we are looking for.
Yeah, I scrubbed out in Nagoya after starting 3-1 and needing one more win to make Day 2. Here come the details…
Getting better is not easy, and it’s not fun, at least not after a while. Sometimes when I’m feeling optimistic I like to look at how far I’ve come in the past year. U.S. Nationals was last summer. This spring I’m going to the Pro Tour, and even though it’s “only” a team event, I couldn’t be more proud of where I am as a Magic player. Still, getting better sucks, and if you are anything like me, you probably have some good stories about the growing pains you have gone through as part of improving your game.
Here’s my promise: Despite costing many times less to build than most other decks reviewed for Extended on this website, our deck today will be able to put up a competitive game against every major deck except for Life. Once again, our deck may not be as good as the top tier decks, but it’s sturdy enough to make for long (by Extended standards), interesting games. Intrigued? Then come along my friends, for I have something fun to show you.
Today Romeo takes a peek at some interesting new Blue cards from Betrayers of Kamigawa and tries to add it all up to make a competitive new Mono-Blue Standard deck that is a bit off the beaten path. To help enhance Romeo’s swell verbiage and cheesecake links, we’ve also included some of Yawgatog’s outstanding photoshoppery to give you a sample of what is normally only available to Premium members. Enjoy!
The term Metagame, like the terms postmodern and existentialism, gets thrown around a lot by pseudo-intellectuals who don’t actually know its meaning. The word metagame means, most simply, the types of decks that are being played in a geographic area. The metagame includes both deck archetypes and individually tuned decks. For example, the metagame for an area might consist of control decks. There might be one prevalent control deck, or a couple of different types, but control decks are being played the most overall. The metagame is what will determine whether your deck succeeds or fails.
In the first half, I went over the restricted list and covered the mechanics which appeared in the restricted cards. To recap, they were undercosted cards (Ancestral Recall), overpowered cards which cannot properly be costed (Balance), mana producers (Black Lotus), cards which are overpowered in multiples (Black Vise), tutors (Demonic Tutor), and combo engines (Dream Halls). In this half, I’ll go over some of the other cards that are unrestricted in Vintage that might fit into one or more of these categories along with some of the commonly requested restrictions.
One cannot doubt that Control Slaver has been growing both in popularity and success in Vintage. Many prominent players were critical of the deck at first, but it has since put up enough results to convince the skeptics. While the deck’s ability is beyond dispute, what has not been settled is the question regarding the optimal build. In this article, I focus on an important issue that many players face when constructing their Control Slaver lists: should the Intuition/Accumulated Knowledge engine be in the deck?
After whipping through the frenetic world of Affinity and Tooth and Nail yesterday, today Dr. Moxenstein turns his keen analytical eye on Green/Black and Mono-Blue in your favorite Friday Night format.
