With the unrestriction of Gush in Vintage — alongside some other wholesale changes — Stephen has revisited the old Vintage powerhouse, GroAtog. With the full complement of Gush, plus the usual plethora of strong, cheap spells, does the deck still have what it takes to be a dominant force in the New Vintage metagame? Plus, Stephen also shares his thoughts on the DCI restrictions, and questions their policies going forward.
That’s right, folks… he’s back! 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 examined in the article, the forums, and beyond. Come join in the fun!
Kyle spent this past weekend judging at the Texas Regionals tournament, and in this, his first in a weekly series over on the free side of the site, he brings us the lowdown on the Top 8 decklists. He also shares Cedric Phillips’s winning build of Solar Flare, and brings us a huge dose of the usual Sanchez mayhem!
This week’s puzzle deals with players that are somewhat less impressive. They are so bad, in fact, that they cannot even manage the game state properly. Even “Bad Beat” Phil would be appalled. If you’re looking to win yourself an RGD draft set (or two for a perfect score), this is the week to start, as the fifth puzzle competition begins. All competitors are welcome, just send me your solutions each week via PM by Monday at midnight. Good luck, and enjoy!
In yet another Road to Regionals offering, Mark “Heezy” Herberholz — king of the Red/Green beatdown — shares his thoughts on the aggro deck du jour, with special reference to his recent ten-game set versus Mike Flores and the much-discussed Dredge deck. Aggressive strategies are an excellent choice for a diverse Regionals field, so get the top tech from the best in the game!
For his final step on the Road to Regionals, Craig “The Professor” Jones takes three of the top Standard contenders — Dragonstorm, Dredge, and Zoo — and throws them at each other in a battle to the death! With decklists, sideboarding plans, and game scenarios, he breaks down each deck with a wealth of impressive info perfect for anyone hoping to excel at this weekend’s Magical Pool Party.
Regionals is always an interesting challenge, as the role of the savvy player or designer is to accurately estimate the upcoming metagame and position themselves either to dodge the brunt of the incoming attack or to pick at the weak flank that is left revealed with a surprise assault. This is the distilled essence of everything fellow Friday writer Mike Flores believes in, when it comes to picking a deck for a tournament, saving you several thousand words to bring the essential lesson: know your enemy, so that you may better defeat them.
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. I’m your host, Evan Erwin. Today we’re going to talk about the myriad of deck choices available to you and I this Regionals season. Ready to take a stroll through DeckMart and proceed with purchase? Right this way…
For those of us who aren’t heading to Regionals this weekend, there’s still a plethora of play to be had waiting in Magic Online’s Future Sight release tournaments. Eli gives us a quick study of a solid pool and how to approach it.
It’s the Friday before Regionals, and Mike Flores reveals the deck with which he’ll be battling in the weekend trenches. So, what’ll it be? Go-sis? Blue/White? Hell, something with Nessian Courser (this season’s Critical Mass)? Nope, is none of those… Alongside his starting seventy-five, Mike shares an intriguing concept: Vector Magic. As for his Regionals deck… well, you’ll have to read on to find out!
In perfect time for Regionals, Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin brings us the complete lowdown on his super-top-secret Regionals deck. As the leaks about the deck continue to grow, what better way to prepare yourself for Korlash beatdown that to get the deck primer from the innovative creator himself? With decent matchups against the major players in the current metagame, has Patrick done it again? Read on to find out!
In my experience (I’ve played in I think seven or eight Regionals by now) the tournament is more or less a representative sample of the field, but a few trends tend to take hold. First, people love “cute decks.” It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean by that, but maybe you’ll get what I’m saying. Trendy decks. Decks that are a rage on the Internet but people are trying to keep “hush-hush.” Does Dredge fit that bill? Hell yeah.
As a break from the Constructed and Standard madness, Tiago Chan offers up this excellent companion piece to last week’s Identifying and Applying a Game Plan article. Last week he talked about Constructed. This week, it’s the turn of the forty-card game. Limited has a metagame, and archetypes, and in many ways mirrors its sixty-card stablemate. So why not be prepared each time you draft, and identify your game plan?
Regionals is mere days away, and by now you should all have chosen your starting sixty. After all, you’re always well-prepared for the big tournaments… right? For those of you who still harbor doubts, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy continues his excellent Primer series. Today is the turn of Craig Jones’s favorite deck, and the aggro option that has fallen from grace of late: Zoo. Does the addition of White give the powerful Gruul beat machine a run for its money? Is it the deck to take you to Nationals? BPM reveals all…
Players in this Standard environment are trying to metagame without obvious foils; besting the big three still leave you with potentially gaping holes in your armor, to some less-popular but nonetheless playable deck. It’s like skirmish, where everyone has a gun and regardless of how good the person who shot you is, if they shot you, you’ve still lost.
