It’s a simple question, but only the simple-minded would give a simple response: why do we blunder? Clearly, “because we’re terrible” is not the answer. Even Pro Tour champions can overlook the trivial aspects of the game: Gary Wise famously punted a Worship lock by sacrificing a Wooded Foothills at 1 life, and more recently Gadiel Szleifer lost a winning position against Mark Herberholz at Grand Prix: Montreal by forgetting to pay for Slaughter Pact.
I’ve always liked Champions. It was a well designed set. Unfortunately, the remainder of the block had a very “been there” feel to me, and I was let down, but to this day, I’m still rather fond of Champions. It was fun from both a flavor and a card perspective. As I was looking through my excess cards, I came across Dampen Thoughts, then Oni Possession. It struck me that I have never built that Oni deck I wanted, nor have I ever built that Thoughts deck, not even in draft.
Stephen Menendian, the Voice of Vintage, is currently proclaiming that GroAtog is the most powerful force in the Vintage metagame. Today, he enters a tournament in order to back up his lofty claims… and this article chronicles each game, play-by-play, as Stephen powers toward the Top 8. Did he make it? Read on to find out!
Nationals competition really heat up this coming weekend, with both the U.S. and UK tournaments scheduled to highlight the cream of both nations. But how can we gauge the evolving metagame now the new core set has been integrated into Standard play? Ben looks back at Australian Nationals, the first major tournament to showcase the new card-pool, and walk us through some of the highs and lows we can expect to face…
You all know the drill by now… Rich Hoaen, Canada’s finest and grumpiest draft export, takes us by the hand and drags us through the rollercoaster ride of an 8-4 TPF Draft on Magic Online. From pick 1 to pick 45, Rich shares them all, and his final deck and draft performance are analyzed in the article, the forums, and beyond. Come join in the fun!
Today’s Online Outlook takes a peek at five recent Time Spiral Block Constructed 2x Premier Events. Each one qualified its respective Top 8 for the upcoming IPA event, and thus the turnout for each either placed in the top half of two figures or the bottom half of three. Many decks, strong fields, and an accurate look at the evolving metagame.
Tenth Edition has been released. By unanimous consent, we drafted tenth instead of Time Spiral / Planar Chaos / Future Sight last week at FNM. We will also, apparently, be drafting Tenth during some of the Summer Magic events at the local store. It’s just in time. People seem to have figured out Time Spiral drafting, and the drafts are getting old.
This is actually going to be an “issues” article, so those of you who have already slogged through my sad attempt at Duncanesque prose can go ahead and click that little arrow if you want. But I’ve done decklists for awhile now, I’ve tackled theory, and I wanted to get down to the root of something that’s been bugging me ever since a particular incident at Alex Kim’s house – and, really, for a long time before that.
With a Block Constructed PTQ season in full swing, and with Nationals competition fast approaching, today’s From The Lab seed Craig “The Professor” Jones in a theoretical metagame-shaping mood. By boiling the metagame conundrum down to the macro level of a small tourney, he makes some interesting positional claims and posits some intriguing theories. All this, and bonus Tenth Edition Sealed!
Last week’s Limited Lessons saw Nick take us through a TPF draft walkthrough pick by pick. One particular early choice saw Nick take an on-color Gemhide Sliver over the more powerful Griffin Guide… and he faced some heat for this in the forums. Such picks, however, are definitely worth examining with the overall draft dynamic in mind. Today’s excellent article begins to explain why abstract picks such as these are never cut and dried, and touches on why parroting picks from ordered lists and published walkthroughs is by no means the path to success…
You all know the drill by now… Rich Hoaen, Canada’s finest and grumpiest draft export, takes us by the hand and drags us through the rollercoaster ride of an 8-4 TPF Draft on Magic Online. From pick 1 to pick 45, Rich shares them all, and his final deck and draft performance are analyzed in the article, the forums, and beyond. Come join in the fun!
My deck of choice lately has been Poison Slivers, the new and very shiny aggro deck that’s gotten a lot of press and had a decent amount of success online. It also may be one of the most annoying decks to see play at a competitive level in some time. Ask your opponents what they think when you play the deck, and they’ll either be amused, or they’ll want to grab the nearest sharp object and get a’stabbin.
It really bums me out that all the work I did in exploring what I call the “classic” Dredge strategy got eclipsed and trumped by the successes of Reanimator Dredge, and later the silly Bridge from Below combo Dredge. Pre-Future Sight, Classic Dredge had gained valuable tools in Damnation, and Fa’adiyah Seer and I were fired up to play that beast at Regionals this year.
Don’t believe the title. Sealed maven and Japan watcher Eli captures a day in time with a very narrow Tenth Edition Sealed deck. Card analysis, Hall of Fame blather, play by play… this one’s got all the angles covered.
The Ferrett opened up some pretty darned strong cards at his release fest, so “strategy” wasn’t as big a part in the games as “luck.” So after some brief discussions on cards in 10th, Ferrett asks a Core question: is it possible to have a really good Core set?
