Sean follows on from his excellent web article last week with a practical theory that attempts to break down the Time Spiral Block metagame. Wiffle balls, mattresses, and footprints in the sand… Sean also brings us three solid-looking decks that incorporate the format’s favorite two-drop — Tarmogoyf, the Little Lhurgoyf That Could.
Happy Thursday to you all! Welcome back to the next installment in the updated Building Your First Five series. This is the fourth entry in the series. The previous series took five articles to get the final decklist finished, and then there were several articles on the restricted list, showing how to upgrade a deck, and then an article on miscellany. I intend this series to go to five articles, like the original.
I didn’t go to Regionals this year. I intended to play. I wanted to play. I built the deck. I even had it sleeved in the first new sleeves I’ve bought in a year, those new, shiny, black, “official” Magic: The Gathering sleeves with yellow lettering. Sweet, huh? So, what’s a poor boy to do when he’s all dressed for Regionals with no place to go? He makes it up! What follows is the story of how I would have won Regionals… had I attended.
Some people have told me that Mono-Red is actually terrible now that Future Sight has entered the format. I have to admit, much like in Standard, there is a strong case to be made for adding Forests and Tarmogoyfs to fight alongside the Gargadons. Or maybe adding Blue cards and Bridge From Below, and running the Bridge-Reanimator deck. Or maybe throwing the Red cards in the trash and trading for Korlash, Heir to Blackblade before it’s too late.
I played at Northern Regionals. I took my modification of Josh Silvestri’s rework of Evan Erwin’s Glittering Control deck. My highlights included a turn 3 kill. The lowlights included a couple play errors that cost me Top 8. I’ve also included the Top 8 decklists, and a breakdown of all the Regionals Top 8 decks across the U.S. and the world. Enjoy.
In the wake of Regionals we will be/have already been bombarded by “the best” builds of all the well-known archetypes, and we’re seeing The New Face of Standard’s Tier 1 decks galore. What I’d like to do here is shine the spotlight on some decks that traveled off the beaten path, anything from an interesting variant on to a totally new creation, that performed well enough to make Top 8 and earn a spot on MagictheGathering.com, if not an invite to Nationals.
I’m going to introduce a new theory today. I’ve found the theory both extremely useful and extremely easy to implement once you “get it.” It covers much, much more ground than I’m going to be able to spell out here, but hopefully once I supply the skeleton it shouldn’t be difficult to infer more logical extensions from the specific example I’ll be using. I’m calling it “initiative.”
Talen’s column has moved from Thursday to Tuesday, and this has caused a little upheaval in the Lee household. Today’s offering is a selection of seemingly random thoughts and rants on a number of Magical subjects. Prismatic, R&D, Magic novels, Mike Flores, crap rares… Talen reveals all.
It’s going to be a few weeks before Rich Hagon is back on our screens, with Tales from the Tour, Grand Prix Goodness, Nationals News, Regionals Rancidity, and Core Set Carnage. So, to keep you going, he’s left a few queries that need answering, Because Asking Questions…
I’ve always preferred making decks to playing decks. Something about the essence of crafting your own weapon to bash the other guy really pleases me. However, because I enjoy designing decks so much, it means I have many decks that go wrong, decks I have to discard because they just aren’t good enough. Over the years, I’ve developed a system to help me when I start work on the base of a deck, and to keep track of where I thought the deck was inferior to existing decks.
After two long weeks of Future Sight Limited heartbreak, I’m back on the trail of the elusive Standard Metagame. Reports of the demise of Dragonstorm are greatly exaggerated… or are they? Plus, some new takes on the old Aggro favorites. And a Top 8 deck that… well, I saw a peanut stand, I saw a rubber band, I saw a needle that winked its eye… but I think I’ve seen about everything, now I’ve seen a turn 1 Fly(ing Men).
Last weekend, I had the honor of watching South Texas’s finest compete in Regionals. Sadly, none of the finest made Top 8, and when the dust settled we were left with a new crop of Texas champions. While I was judging, one deck in particular caught my eye: a Mono-Blue Snow deck, featuring a ton of permission spells backed up with Teferi, and Aeon Chronicler as the kill condition.
This week, The Ferrett takes a break from Sealed discussion to talk about something that not enough Magic novices consider: Controlling information. There are a lot of articles devoted to giving yourself an edge at tournaments; this is a very basic primer on how not to hand your opponent the edge by mistake.
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to talk about how I fared at Regionals, the list I brought, and how the metagame shaped up.
Picking the right deck for a tournament is essentially a matter of tactics, and as such can be analyzed carefully to determine what the most effective tactic might be, based upon a set of criteria. Let us leave any impenetrable analogies behind us, and pick up an easily-understood analogy that is quite fitting: military warfare.
