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!]
Newly promoted Level 3 Mage Steve Sadin takes us though our next Spotlight on States article. We’ve had Red aggro from Dan Paskins, and White Aggro from Benjamin Peebles-Mundy… now it’s the turn of Blue-based beatdown decks! Steve brings us five decklists that see the Blue cards take an active part in the beatdown role, admirably paired by the other colors in the Magical spectrum. Aggression coupled with a touch of disruption… is this the recipe for success this weekend? Read on to find out!
Our Spotlight on States series continues today with Richard Feldman’s innovative take on a deck built around Doran, The Siege Tower. We all know that a virtual 5/5 for three mana is quite the bargain…. But what else does the Green/Black/White deck need in order to compete in the States metagame? Richard takes us step-by-step through the genesis of the final deck, and shares his matchup strategy and sideboarding plans…
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…
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…
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.
Our Spotlight on States series continues apace today… Benjamin Peebles-Mundy takes us through some of the ways in which you (or your opponents) can beat down with the kidney-stealing Kithkin Advisor Gaddock Teeg. BPM brings us five decklists in total: two dedicated Kithkin builds, two that rely on the non-Kithkin Green/White guys, and one decklist that’s sufficiently off the beaten path. G/W Aggro has a fine pedigree of late. Will it be enough to capture your State Championships?
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.
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!]
The 2007 Invitational was not without its fair share of controversy, particularly over the choice of competitors. And once the dust had settled after the first three rounds of Cube Draft, the current Vintage World Champion Stephen Menendian sat proudly at 3-0. Unfortunately, the Auction of the People did not go quite so well… for more details on Stephen’s performance in the first half of the tournament, read on!
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…
If you check the winning decklists from the past weekend’s StarCityGames.com $1K Standard Open, you’ll see that the winner took home all the marbles with a Mono-Green deck. The Green Machine, it seems, is firing on all cylinders. Today’s first Spotlight on States article takes a different view of Mono-Green, yet molds a deck that is undoubtedly brimming with power. Is this Mono-Green deck gonna rock States? Read on to find out!
So, you’ve scrubbed out at States and hit the side events… what now? It’s draft time! So far, We’ve touched on drafting with Elves, Goblins, and Faeries… today, Nick touches base with the nominally strongest tribe on offer in Lorwyn: Merfolk. Sure, we all know that Silvergill Douser is a first-pick bomb, and that this deck tends to play the control role. However, there are more intricate choices and decisions to be made when piloting our fishy friends. Let Nick lead the way!
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.
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).
