Extended, it seems, is a wide-open format. The variety of the stronger decks in Pro Tour: Valencia was staggering, and new strategies sat proudly alongside format stalwarts like Domain Zoo and Dredge. One such innovative deck was the Feldman, Hill, and Lybaert offering, Rock and Nail. Today’s Deep Analysis takes us through the concepting and initial design of the deck, which place both pilots in the money when the final cards were flopped…
So, when last we met I was 2-5 in the Mockvitational and about to play four rounds of Standard. The interesting thing is that three of my remaining four opponents — Christian Calcano, Asher Hecht, and Gabe Carlton-Barnes — were 1-2-3 in the standings at that point. So much like baseball’s Washington Nationals, I would get a chance to spoil the dreams of some New Yorkers in October. Calcano was even wearing a Mets jersey, it was just too perfect. I would also have to play Mike Flores, who was my main competition for the ignominious last-place finish…
Every once in a while, I get an e-mail or StarCityGames.com in-box message asking about this deck that I mention which inspired my very first Magic column. The deck was called Ants in the Pants, and I wrote about it for a defunct web site called 7Towers.net. Given that people still seem interested and that I couldn’t finish any of the sixteen article ideas I had this week, I decided to reprint the piece here…
Hello again, my friends. It’s been a while since my last article in which I simply build decks for you. I figure that you are due. Additionally, I historically write an article with decks featuring the newest cards directly after my Five Color set review. Let’s keep that history intact and build a few decks for your consumption.
Tribes, tribes, tribes… in Lorwyn Draft, you must pledge your allegiance early. Yesterday saw Nick Eisel walk us through some of the finer points of Goblin drafting. Today, it’s the turn of Benjamin Peebles-Mundy, championing the Faerie tribe. While their synergies may not be as eye-pokingly obvious as some of the other tribes, their raw power when combined cannot be denied. Removal, evasion, and trickery… it’s all here!
I have a funky deck idea I threw together as a lark that actually crushes the Kithkin deck fairly well as I cast about for something to stop the White Weenie menace. It’s a weird mutant blend of Haakon/Nameless Inversion recursion with Slivers, tied together by an innocent looking Bear named Woodland Changeling…
Sure, the tournament went well, from a certain point of view. Covered my costs, picked up a decent amount of Pro Points, designed a great deck. That’s for another time. We’ll talk matchups and why it’s a great choice for the PTQ season, deal with all of that. Now, though, my mind’s on the Magic experience. Put the academia aside and indulge me, just for this column. “Playing the game” is only half of it. For right now, it’s time to see the world.
Pro Tour: Valencia is over. The results are in. Where does Extended go from here? What does Lorwyn do to the format? Should we care — and is it worth the price? Let’s look at some numbers…
In today’s article, Stephen reflects upon his first Pro Tour experience as seen through the eyes of a Vintage player, and reveals his 2007 Magic Invitational submission! As you can probably guess, it’s pretty strong… but if made, would it see Vintage play?
Pro Tour: Valencia was destined to become Adrian Sullivan’s triumphant return to the higher echelons of the game. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as well as he’d hoped… but he still left the sunny Spanish shores with plenty of lessons by which we can all hope to improve our game. If you’re serious about reaching the next level, let Adrian show you how…
Lorwyn is here, and drafting decks that adhere to strict tribal guidelines is obviously the key to success. But in a format awash with tribal options, which tribe is the correct way to go? While early wisdom suggests Merfolk or Faeries as the Lorwyn powerhouses, it’s clear that the Goblin tribe has a lot to offer. Removal, efficient guys, evasion, finishers… it’s all here! Let Nick show us how it’s done…
Picking up from where we left off last week, I’ll be taking a look at a few of the aggro decks that are available in the current Standard metagame. To ensure a little diversity, I picked a deck that has been close to optimized, one that’s largely in the concept stage still, and one that needs to be refined a little more.
With almost a full two weeks on the road doing nothing but playing, talking and writing Magic, it’s easy to see why Rich Hagon thinks he’s the luckiest man in the world. Join him for the first week of tall tales, a large dose of Metagame theory and definitive proof that he knows what he’s talking about (see article title for details.)
The new PTQ season is coming. The road to Kuala Lumpur runs through Lorwyn Sealed. It’s time to sweep up the cobwebs and start practicing a new format. Eli steers us through a potent pool of 75 in search of the perfect build.
A whopping twenty percent of the cards in my deck this week are named using this same, trite formula. Oh, sure, it’s easy to port the card’s name into German or Japanese – but it’s also hackneyed, light on flavor, and is probably done by some sort of automated Card-Name-O-Matic 3000(tm) in the back room to save Wizards’ some time. So what is the lamest card naming process ever?
