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?
After running U/B to two largely nondescript performances at high-level Time Spiral Block Constructed events, Kenji was looking for something a little different when preparing for Grand Prix: Montreal. The deck he finally settled upon propelled him into the Top 8… and today we have the story of that preparation. From Turbo Land, to U/G, to straight Mono-Blue, Kenji shares his deckbuilding tips and brings us the latest version of his deck, with comprehensive sideboarding strategies for a number of major archetypes! If you’re interesting in qualifying for Pro Tour: Valencia, you can’t afford to miss this!
After weeks of proclaiming the power of control decks involving Blue and Black cards, especially in Time Spiral Block Constructed, Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin has finally seen the light. For his first PTQ in years, he plans to thrown the Green and White beatdown machine into the ring! So what exactly can the Innovator bring to the G/W mirror-match? Here’s a hint: there’s a clue in the article’s title…
Usually, I fill the beginnings of my articles with vivid stories of past nights or awkward occurrences. This time, however, I’m going to cut to the meat of the article… so, without further ado, I present a deck of my own creation: Touched by a Sanchez.
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!
With multiple high-level Constructed tournaments taking place around the globe featuring seats at the World Championships up for grabs, Rich Hagon gives us a guide to Choosing Your Deck. Drawing on the disciplines of psychology, politics and philosophy, but sadly not physiology or physiognomy, the man from mox is heading for Nationals with a clear idea of what you should play if you’re good, and an even better idea of what you should play if you’re not.
This article replaces The Online Outlook, which will be running tomorrow.
Nationals is fast approaching, and the deadline for Tenth Edition’s Standard debut is actually today… so, what can we expect of the new metagame? Mike takes a timely look at all the major players pre-rotation, and places them in the Winners or Losers enclosure. Some decks gain, while some fall from grace. If you’re looking to form a picture of the evolving metagame before it officially arrives, this article is invaluable.
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!
Tenth Edition brings with it many interesting things, and one of the more noticeable things it brings is two years of “X Marks The…” jokes that are inevitably going to pop up in gaming articles until we finally see Eleventh Edition. Now that we’ve officially seen all of the cards and can work with an official card-list, I’ve decided it’s prudent to take but a single week away from the Block Constructed meddling in order to try and figure out what the summer Standard environment is going to look like.
