Intentional Draws… a blight on the game, or a harmless level of strategy? Today’s Chatter of the Squirrel puts the humble ID under the spotlight. Zac attempts to drain the moral quagmire and present the dilemma in easy-to-digest terms. So, are Intentional Draws the last refuge of pure evil? Whatever your stance, this is one article that’s guaranteed to put the cat amongst the pigeons…
Grand Prix: Stokholm… Time Spiral Sealed Deck. And the one missing thing from Tiago’s resumé? A Grand Prix Top 8. After a successful Day 1, Tiago was sitting pretty for Day 2 competition. However, as we all know, the wheels fell of his wagon somewhere. So where exactly did it go wrong? Tiago reveals all…
Countdown to Grand Prix: Columbus! In his pre-Grand Prix: Columbus article, Dan surveys some of the most successful Legacy players in the format and shares their thoughts on the upcoming Grand Prix and the emergence of Hulk Flash.
When preparing for Pro Tour: Yokohama, Mr Pelcak planned on running his homebrewed Red/White Control deck. However, when White Weenie started making mincemeat of that particular seventy-five, he audibled into the popular Mono-Red deck that almost took him all the way. Today, he shares the highs and lows from the tournament, and suggests some ideas for the deck post-Future Sight.
Jeroen is low on questions again, folks! Get them sent into [email protected]. For this week, he rounds out the current batch with a couple of corkers. First up, he takes a look at the Block Constructed metagame, and updates Raphael Levy’s quarterfinal deck from Pro Tour: Yokohama. Then he looks at two uncomfortable-looking Standard decks, and offers his advice… All this, and much more, in the week’s Ask The Drama!
Today’s Deconstructing Constructed takes a two-pronged approach. First, it looks at the older Constructed formats, tackling a couple of pertinent points and rounding out with an interesting take on Flash in Vintage. Second, it looks at the Standard metagame and bemoans the strength of Dragonstorm, before leaving us a fun-looking Angel Control deck that could prove powerful for Regionals…
Now that the entirety of Time Spiral block is released I think it’s starting to sink in just how ridiculous they’ve made Blue… again. People are chatting about it in the forums and such, and I wanted to spend my time this week adding my two cents on the subject before we shift into Regionals high gear. Imagine for a second if Teferi was Green… the cynical answer would be that they’d strip away Flash and add three generic mana to the casting cost.
Taking over from Rivien Swanson, and appearing here every Wednesday, we have the one and only Richard Hagon! It’s been a while since he last wrote, but the man from Mox is here to take you through all the comings and the goings, the throwing down and the throwing up, and all the news that’s fit to print from the Pro world.
Raphael Levy, Hall of Famer, current leader in the Player of the Year race, has undoubtedly tasted his fair share of lucky breaks. However, there’s an old saying out there… one that states “you make your own luck.” Is this indeed the case? Is it possible to influence such random events with a little tenacious guile? In today’s Pro Perspective, Raph talks about the nature of Luck itself, and reveals that those lucky topdecks may not be so lucky after all…
Jamie Wakefield, the archetypical Green Mage, takes a long look at his Magic-playing tendencies of late. He’s tinkered with Black/Green, Blue/Green, even Red/Blue… is a more multicolored path his ticket to success, or should he return to his Mono-Green roots? He also warns of the dangers involved in teaching Magic to three people in two languages while drunk, and offers some handy tips for the sartorially-challenged amongst us.
Dragonstorm in the strongest deck in Standard. As such, everyone is gunning for it. However, life can be difficult for the self-proclaimed Combo Killers when the tools at your disposal are nullified by a timely Gigadrowse. So what can we do? Richard takes a proactive approach, and looks for answers to the puzzle by examining the available disruption. He brings us four exciting decklists today, at least one of which can produce fantastic results against the 800-pound gorilla in the format.
When Chris attempted to break Standard with Necrotic Sliver, his ideas fell on stony ground. Two weeks of testing and tweaking, and nothing to show for his time. So he threw the doors open to the forum folk, and begged for ideas. They replied in their droves… and today’s article bears the fruit of their labors. Three deck, each with differing degrees of success… and one deck that may well be the Next Big Thing. Intrigued? Then read on!
Don’t take this article’s title the wrong way: I’m not advocating actual cheating at Regionals. What I mean is, this year’s Regionals format allows you to play an unusually high number of decks and cards so powerful that they are like cheating. Part of this is due to the Storm mechanic, which is inherently strong. However, another part comes simply from the ways in which the Wizards of the Coast are toying with costs, drawbacks, and power levels: is it okay to have a Black Lotus if you have to wait three turns for it?
The Ultimate Extended Tournament took far longer than I thought. Even though I was stuck in the past, the world moved on. I’ll fast-forward my way through a recap, but I have a lot to catch up on: City Champs. Vintage. Future Sight. Magic Online. The scarcity of PTQs. And more.
This is a companion article to the classic article “Who’s The Beatdown?” by Mike Flores. It explores the different ways to play aggressive decks, and the ways to win more while doing so. It was inspired by Mike’s recent comment that there was no more strategy worth writing about for beatdown or burn decks. It is suitable for players and Goblins of all ages, though those with Elvish sympathies may find some scenes distressing.
