Last week I rebooted an aging article series of mine called Building Your First Five. In that series, begun over four and a half years ago, I explained the path to building a Five Color deck. Through eventually nine articles and eight volumes, I investigated everything from ante to mulligans to building the best manabase you can. Today I will be continuing the same…
With the banning of Flash, the unbanning of Mind over Matter and Replenish, and the release of Future Sight, it is as if Legacy is completely new. This article is simply my observations and conclusions while navigating the new Legacy.
Players in this Standard environment are trying to metagame without obvious foils; besting the big three still leave you with potentially gaping holes in your armor, to some less-popular but nonetheless playable deck. It’s like skirmish, where everyone has a gun and regardless of how good the person who shot you is, if they shot you, you’ve still lost.
In my experience (I’ve played in I think seven or eight Regionals by now) the tournament is more or less a representative sample of the field, but a few trends tend to take hold. First, people love “cute decks.” It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean by that, but maybe you’ll get what I’m saying. Trendy decks. Decks that are a rage on the Internet but people are trying to keep “hush-hush.” Does Dredge fit that bill? Hell yeah.
In today’s You Lika The Juice, Bennie shares his updated Project X deck — now dubbed Project Z. He also brings us a strong cardpool and deck from a Future Sight Release league, and asks us to bring our builds to the forums. And to cap it all off, he tells the tale of his latest phone conversation with… Mark Rosewater!
Quantum Mechanics, Bolivian Dance, and Standard. Three things Rich Hagon knew nothing about last Wednesday. Join him as he attempts to rectify one of these deficiencies. Yes, soon you’ll know that Bolivian dance repertoire, like other Andean cultures, consists of pre-Colombian dances performed in rural areas during religious and secular community celebrations, as well as the European influenced mestizo dances performed at popular festivals and celebrations of patron saints. Welcome to SupremelyCulturedGamers.com.
It’s that time again. Time for Ted Knutson’s usual metagame breakdown and tho… Oh right, he doesn’t write anymore (insert sad face here). Well, then it’s time for all the Standard players to come out from their holes in the wall and actually buy physical cards. Come out into a world where Project X is actually playable, because a bunch of annoying pop-up screens won’t time you out. Time for the 2007 Regionals preview!
When I’m testing for a big tournament for Regionals, the modus operandi is usually to build a gauntlet, test, read, test, read, rebuild the gauntlet, settle on a deck, and, usually in my case, audible at the last second. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This year, I thought, might be different. For, you see, I found the deck I wanted to play very, very early in the testing process.
With Regionals a week away, I have had zero time to playtest or innovate. I’m going to play at Regionals, basically, cold. I’m guessing I’m not the only one in that situation. I’ll talk about how I’m going to choose a deck, in the hopes that it might help others in the same boat.
Frankly, if you haven’t decided on a decklist by now, you probably shouldn’t attend a tournament this weekend. Most people have a pretty good idea about what they’re playing, or (as in my case) they have it narrowed down to a deck or three and they just need to choose. So instead of just ordering you to play Awesome Deck #1, #2, or #3, I offer you the lessons you really need to know for this Saturday…
Regionals is coming… and Chris is prepared. This year, he’s armed with a funky-looking deck courtesy of a close friend. It’s black, it disrupts, and it beats down. Who knows, maybe it’s the missing tech that you’re clamoring for. If you’re still undecided on your 75 of choice, maybe Chris has the answers.
It’s Future Sight Release Week on Magic Online, which means only one thing… Release Week Premier Events! For my sins, I’ve entered three of these bad boys. My win record? Not so hot. Today’s Online Outlook takes a look at my three Sealed cardpools, reveals my builds (and records), and asks you folk if you could do any better…
Trivia week is back! Can you prove your prowess as a walking Magic encyclopedia? Only two perfect scores remain going into this final round of competition, but as many as fourteen competitors still have a shot at the title. Even if you’re not in contention, here’s your chance to show off what you know. Enjoy!
I cracked some truly massive White legends in my deck for the Future Sight prerelease, including a combo that – if left untended – completely shut down the attack phase. How nice! And since I’m celebrating this absolutely absurd card pool, I figured I might as well discuss some of the legends of Magic past, including an extended talk about the four Hero Scrubs of Magic.
Ben’s taking a break. When summer rolls around, it’s time to ease off and enjoy deserved respite from toil. I imagine he’s somewhere in the tropics, sipping Root Beer Coladas or something of that sort. Them’s the breaks. But look at the upside. You’ve got me. I’m Eli Kaplan and I write for this here site on occasion.
