424 competitors, and the results mean something different for everyone. 177th can mean Level 3 for next year, 17th can mean falling out of contention for Player of the Year. Let Rich Hagon be your guide round the men and math of Pro Tour: Valencia, including his inimitable explanation for the non-victory of Dredge, your very own Andre Mueller Home Impressions Kit, and more!
At California States, I’d say there was a hefty chunk of Blue decks complimented by a bunch of Tarmogoyf decks. At the upper tables you could see Cryptic Command being flung around in practically every other match, probably more during the later rounds. A huge number of Teachings and Pickles decks were hanging around the top twenty tables or so, many of which looked like the TSP Block Pickles decks but with Cryptic kicked in…
That’s right, folks… I’m back! After a prolonged article hiatus, I’ll back to delivering the goods on a weekly basis. However, the old Online Outlook format is no more… Instead, I’m touching on all things Magical. Today, I’d like your help with some clerical duties, and I bring you a triumphant Top 8 Champs report!
I like the fact that Wizards prints good stuff at the rare level. I like the fact that Tarmogoyf is $35 — not Tarmogoyf specifically, but the occasional chase rares that everyone has to have at a tournament. And you wanna know why? Four reasons, and only two of them are business-related.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to a very special edition of the Magic Show! Three months ago, you guys voted to send me to this thing, and now you get to see what I saw. Watch Kenji go nuts, me explain how I lost to Nakamura, hear from the man who created Tarmogoyf, and more. It’s all inside!
[Editor’s Note: This article was posted on Saturday, rather than the regular Friday… so today you have a chance to watch if you missed it!]
Lorwyn cards are legal now, and it seems like no one cares. Newer sets tend to have less of an impact on Legacy rather than older sets. Future Sight brought us the format sweeping Tarmogoyf, so Lorwyn is a letdown by comparison. Personally I tend to find the sets like Lorwyn more intriguing for Legacy. I’ve been going through Lorwyn looking for cards that are better than people give them credit, based on the experiences I picked up looking at other formats and judging. I also put some of the new Lorwyn cards to the test in Goblins.
It’s funny how telling one week can be, in the world of Magic: the Gathering. While the professional world was torn between a Grand Prix in Brisbane and the Invitational in Essen, a certain little event was run far from these other two on the distant shores of the New World that seems to have distilled a lot of the thoughts and discussion about the Standard format. Some look at the decklists and say, “Elves? Really?” I know I did.
Welcome back, my friends. Last week I created some decks for you using various Lorwyn cards. Today I want to follow that article, but instead of listing a bunch of decks, I will just give you some deck ideas. Today is meant to prime the pump of your own deckbuilding skills.
Obviously, clearly, and undoubtedly, Grave Pact is just so very made for No Rest for the Wicked. They go together like peanut butter with jelly, fries with that shake, and yo’ momma with me. “Oh, snap!” In fact, it’s so easy that I didn’t even really try it. Of course, it could be that it isn’t as easy as I think…
I have this little problem. Every deck I build that doesn’t have Molten Disaster in it seems to be losing to Troll Ascetic. My Molten Disaster deck ain’t that hot either, if the Troll deck draws Loxodon Warhammer. Let me go back to the beginning, however. I originally wanted a Blue deck with, at a minimum, Scrying Sheets and Cryptic Command. So I built this…
I didn’t get a chance to playtest as much this past Friday as I’d like to; I got my wires crossed with Jay and he ended up committing to doing some Lorwyn Sealed at the local Friday Night Magic. Still, I went down there and grabbed some games in with him as I could, and think I’ve finally found the deck I want to run…
For a variety of reasons, I will be judging this coming weekend, not playing. I’ll babble a bit about what I would have played, then list five sure-fire ways to lose at States (in addition to playing my decks.) Everybody should them already — but I’m sure I will watch at least a ten percent of the field lose to one or more of these on Saturday. [Editor’s Note: Congratulations on article 200, Pete! Here’s to article #300!]
In a States field, I want to be doing abjectly powerful things. My deck contains Mind Stone, Shriekmaw, Cryptic Command, Damnation, and Scrying Sheets – all cards that I consider to be among the most powerful in the format right now. Moreover, not only do I want to be doing powerful things, I want to be doing powerful things against the broad spectrum of decks that you can expect to see at a tournament like States.
Part 2 of Rich Hagon’s Magical odyssey takes him to Essen for the Invitational. Musings on multiple formats, some thoughts on some of the game’s best, and the sickest draft deck in history (possibly).
This article will be broken into two parts. One will be about a U/W/R midrange deck I’ve been kicking around since Brion Stoutarm came out, and the second concerns a U/B Faeries aggro control deck that is on the short list for decks I might play at States. The first half of the article will be dedicated to the Faerie build, and the second half will be with the lesser-tested midrange Brion deck.
