Yesterday, I mentioned how competitive I was. A lot of people would never believe that. They see me playing cheap, rogue decks. They see me laugh while playing, sometimes even when I’m losing. How could this guy be competitive? He’s losing, and he’s having fun.
Trust me. I am.
While I call these set reviews “The Obligatory…”, I didn’t do one for Betrayers. Betrayers really didn’t seem very interesting and it was really hard trying to justify an entire article when the only card that I thought that would see play was Ninja of Deep Hours. In the end, I think that Umezawa’s Jitte is really the only other card from that set that is seeing play, unlike Champions where more and more cards are seeing play as time goes on. Saviors, on the other hand, looks packed with cards that appear to be both powerful, interesting, or both.
At the end of yesterday’s column, I was telling you about my crazy, stupid early days in Magic (Winter 1998 – Spring 1999). They had nothing to do with winning or figuring out the best cards for our decks. It was about hanging out with the gang…
We’ll be honest with you in the blurb here and tell you that the editors didn’t really know how to classify this article, but it includes a spiffy new Extended decklist at the very end, so we’ve placed it here in Strategy. However, before you get to the decklist, Richie speaks his mind about the state of Magic, the Player Rewards program, and the Top 6 Things He Dislikes about the game today.
One of the most common questions I get is “Why do you – of all people – write a column about budget decks?” Pull up a swivel chair, and let me tell you some things about me, things that drive what I do in From Right Field and how I do it.
Rick Rust delivers an awesome article today, taking apart what Saviors of Kamigawa has to offer the best decks in Standard as part of his set review, and then proposing not one, not two, but an astounding nine possible decks that try to abuse the new set including what could be a very saucy Reanimator build. This is great Regionals preparation for netdeckers and rogue players alike.
I will most likely be playing some flavor of Green deck for Regionals, since there are just too many good cards in that color not to play Green. Between all the mana-fixing, graveyard recursion, anti-artifact and enchantment weapons wrapped up in an army of tidy little beaters, you have the best creature base in the game, bar none. What goodies will Saviors of Kamigawa bring to the table to for the plethora of Green-based decks swarming the red zone?
There were many good combos this last week, but the best has to be from Chris Hyde, pointing out how Sekki, Seasons’ Guide was an automatic win with Pandemonium on the table. He even provided two decks — one serious, one for fun — for a neat little infinite combo that blasts the socks out of most people. (Assuming you’re not facing Engineered Plague, of course.) So Chris wins the $20!
So what’s next week’s challenge?
Tribal Wars.
We’re looking for decks based around a particular tribe, much like online Tribal Wars decks (albeit without the "online cards only" restriction). Obviously, throwing together a plain ol’ Goblins deck isn’t going to win you the Casual Challenge; the weirder and more creative the creature type, the better! So send in your article to Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2 today!
Today’s subject certainly isn’t a new one. In fact, there’s a little-known clause in the back of the Comprehensive Rules; it says all paid writers for Magic-related websites have to devote a certain number of words to rules issues in their first year, or the Wizards of the Coast are allowed to rent out a bunch of Microsoft’s thugs to beat some respect into you. That’s why Tim Aten is so tall and so angry: he doesn’t write about that stuff too often, so they’ve been stretching him on the rack for a while now. Since I’ve been doing this thing for about eight months now, I’m starting to feel the pressure.
I am struck with deck ideas all the time. Most of them are crap and I acknowledge that. However, it is critical to document your ideas. Most of my good ideas have started out as a crap idea that I shelved and then something strikes me and suddenly I get an “aha” moment and the idea clicks. Today’s deck is one such example.
If you’ve read my columns over the years, you’ll know that I like White. I don’t want to get into the psycho-social reasons for that. Suffice it say, I like White. With Regionals about three weeks away, readers have been flooding my e-mail in-box with one question: What Will Dr. Romeo Be Playing at Regionals?
After graduating Law School, Oscar Tan is back with his theoretical thoughts on the Theory of Interactivity (or something). In fact, Oscar and Stephen Menendian go head to head on this subject today in dueling theory articles, both designed to answer Master Magic Theorist Mike Flores. Peep both articles for yourselves and tell us who got the better of the debate in the forums!
Probably the most interesting article I’ve read all year is Mike Flores’ article on Interactivity. WARNING! ALERT! WARNING! I’d like to talk about Interactivity and Vintage. That means boring Magic theory to those of you who couldn’t care less. For those that do care, let’s parse what Master Flores has had to say on the subject and see how that applies to Vintage as a whole.
Pure Magic would be a world where there were no card pool constraints on a person’s deck choice, where there were no time limits, where everyone has perfect information as to the decks in the metagame and where no one made play mistakes. Unfortunately, Vintage, as defined by the rules of Magic and the banned and restricted list, doesn’t exist. What exists is a particular variant of Vintage called Tournament Vintage. It is essential to tournament success that you focus upon the actual features of Vintage tournaments, not just the features of the format as defined by the rules. In this article I am going reveal all of my secrets – all of the tidbits of knowledge I’ve picked up from my experience in Vintage tournaments.
Today, Mono-Green doesn’t have the tools to play Control. Yes, Green has some of the best Control cards in the format – but with neither Desert Twister nor Spike Weaver, the color simply can’t go it alone. Nevertheless, there’s still reason to celebrate Stampeding Wildebeest’s reincarnation as Stampeding Serow… especially when you think about pairing it with Kiki-Jiki in an R/G Mirror Breaker deck.
