This series of articles was written in response to a series of comments by various casual players who decried the existence of a casual metagame. Of course, as the creator of the Framework, I obviously disagree with that claim. These articles set out to demonstrate to casual players that there is an underlying taxonomy to Magic decks that can be studied and understood.
States didn’t go so well for me this year; just your standard 2-2 drop filled with your standard play errors and your standard deckbuilding mistakes. Some interesting stuff did happen which caused me to re-assess my mental game, and I may write about that at a later point, but for now I bet you’d like to hear about someone doing well at States. Thank goodness for Sean Vandover.
Jeroen Remie, two-time Battle Royale champion, took a leaf from the Holy Book of Wakefield for this current round of play. Cards? 62. Lands? 26. Fat monsters, removal, and fun. Was it enough to bring down the grumpiest player on the Pro Tour? You’ll have to read the article to find out…
Richie took his honed Angel control deck and threw it squarely in the face of our champion Jeroen Remie. Would the stronger strategy and critical mass of destruction spells ruin Heroin’s day? Read on to find out!
Agnostically speaking, Blue is the most powerful color in Prismatic. Every deck runs a solid base of Blue cards, and more often than not, simply by dint of having effects like Compulsive Research and other card drawing, it represents a lot of the best effects in the format. Black and Red are both good colors, and hard to cut — but only because of how they interact with Blue.
Evan continues his excellent series of video articles with an examination of the various advantages that can be gained through a dedicated deck strategy. There’s card advantage, creature advantage, resource advantage… and if that’s not all, he shares a tricky Time Spiral Sealed pool for us all to play along at home.
Blisterguy has cashed his sixth place Nationals finish into a trip to Paris for Worlds, and he’s on the lookout for Standard and Extended tech! Unfortunately, Magic Online can’t help him this week… still, there’s always the joy of the pineapple-inducing Price Guides to keep him busy.
In my little jaunt of looking for mono-colored decks that thrive in Prismatic, the lure of the Almost All-Basic Manabase was powerful. I mean, really. But there’s also the lure of some nonbasics. As soon as I hit upon the lure of going with All-Basic… I found the siren call of the Coffers.
Ben has decided to play along with the Great Designer Search from MagicTheGathering.com. *DISCLAIMER* If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee, Ben gives you full legal permission to use any of the ideas and cards contained in this article.
While my record at Champs this year would indicate otherwise (2-3-3… yes, three draws!), I actually took away some positive vibes from the tournament. At first I was pissed – pissed at myself for not just buckling down and going with my first deck choice, and pissed at Wizards for making an environment that seemed overly stuffed with counter/Wrath decks.
Chris chronicles his highs, and especially his lows, from his time at this year’s Champs tournament. He also talks of an intersting change in the philosophy of his budget column…
Prismatic has proven to be an interesting field in which to venture. For a start, I found the format very deep. In normal Magic, you have sixty cards to work with; that’s not a lot of space, especially when anywhere from sixteen to twenty-four of those cards are occupied with the process of sitting around tapping for mana.
Peter brings us the complete rundown of the top decks appearing at the Wisconsin Champs Tournament 2006. There’s the Top 8 decks, of course… that’s a given. Beyond that, however, there’s plenty of innovation to be found. Green/Black beats, Locket of Yesterdays, and infinite turns in Standard? All are represented by decklists here!
In which The Ferrett impersonates the old multiplayer writer at Magicthegathering.com, stealing his very identity in order to do well with a card pool so good he can completely misbuild it and still walk away with a winning record.
Before anyone asks, “Heroin” is Jeroen’s nickname…
Rich Hoaen steps to the Battle Royale plate, eager to bring down the mighty Jeroen Remie. He’s been here before, of course – with a false beard, proclaiming to be Billy Moreno. Can the Canadian master of disguise steal Jeroen’s crown? Read on to find out!
