I played an updated (and final) version of the Beasts deck at Wisconsin States, ending up 5-3. Only one of the losses was a blowout; the other two were very close. I lost, I think, because I made minor mistakes.
As it was Thursday, and I had only two days to go, I started looking around the net for ideas. Two stood out: Sean McKeown’s B/R Control deck and Jens Thoren’s Wake deck. I played them both against each other a bit and then gave them the acid test – Deep Dog.
Jimmy Bean, my playtesting partner, wrote about Black/White AstroGlide yesterday – and today, I’m here to tell you how close I came to taking the whole damn thing. Plus, I have match coverage of the VA finals!
So you’ve all heard of Rizzo’s Foily Five – but do you really know what it is? Well, Nate Heiss has hold of Rizzo’s Foily Five for a scant few months before he has to send it back… And he wants all the signed foils he can get to lure Rizzo back into the game! Send ’em in and maybe he’ll start writing again, folks!
Nick Eisel, the #1 ranked Magic Online Limited player and recent 5th-place finisher at Grand Prix – Philadelphia, encountered three separate Turn 4 Exalted Angels in his Sealed deck matches at Philly, and beat two of them – despite the fact that he couldn’t remove them from the board. So how do YOU beat the bombs when you have nothing? Nick’s willing to share his secrets on breaking Onslaught Limited….
The initial reactions in my mailbox were as varied as they were ecstatic. For multicolored control alone, Darren Di Battista posited that maybe they shouldn’t be used because they might hurt colored mana development later on. What’s the approach you need to take to the new Onslaught fetchlands?
I thought that the R/W Astroglide deck played a lot of cards that didn’t really do anything besides cycle (which, I grant you, is the concept of the deck)… And if the Lightning Rift was ever countered/disenchanted/sent to the graveyard in any fashion, the deck didn’t do much. But Astral Glide and Mesmeric Fiend? Ouch.
Looking back, I was always on the verge of winning the games I lost. That means that I either made some mistakes or the deck wasn’t quite fast enough. Careful review of the games reveals the former not to be the case, so I must fault my design – any suggestions are appreciated, ’cause I’m gonna stay rogue for now.
Yesterday was Election Day here in the United States – did you vote, can you vote, do you even care? Whether you do or not, I think it’s time to take a look at a card that’s extremely appropriate: Corrupt Official, from Mercadian Masques.
I had been planning to make my”Road to States 2002″ articles a huge, expansive series of articles covering every possible archetype and different permutations of decks. Unfortunately, when one is working three different jobs and trying to actually test for States, that does seem to cut into one’s writing time…. So I’ll try to make up for it with a marginally entertaining tournament report.
The second and most recent build of the Beast deck abuses Anurid Brushhopper, Glory, and other such cards to create a virtually unstoppable beatings machine… And already it’s made some showings at a few States tourneys. What is the origin of this deck, and what does its sideboard look like?
Berto: How did you do?
Me: 4-3.
Berto: You should have made a better deck.
Wifey: But did you have fun?
Me: Lemme think about it for a minute.
Wait, didn’t you, uh, quit? Yep. Still am, too. But dude… States. Like I’m gonna miss States. Prereleases come and go with nary a concern, but States is like, something, well, that I just plain ain’t gonna miss. Even if everyone is still mad at me for not lettin’ the door hit me where the Good Lord split me.
“But, Chris,” you say,”I have some extra money that my grandmother sent me for my birthday, and I’d really like to spend it on a Beast deck with a ton of rares in it. What do I do?” Well, first off, you have to realize that, while I can hear my Self when I talk to my Self, I can’t hear you when you talk to me. Unless you got my phone number. Which would be a great trick, since I don’t have a phone.
