With Regionals on the horizon, Richard returns to his intriguing Walking Anthems Standard deck, testing the important matchups and tweaking the card numbers. Hit / Run, Temporal Isolation, Necrotic Sliver… are they good enough for the final 75? His attempts to break the metagame are proceeding apace… does this latest version have what it takes?
E-mails, forum posts, and private messages in my StarCityGames.com mailbox provide me with some of my best inspiration. For example, one person recently asked me, in so many words, “Why do you hate Block Constructed with only two sets?” Because the Block’s not done yet. Sure, the Pros get to play a tourney with the two-set Block, but us regular folks don’t. So why should I waste time on the decks? Especially when the third set becomes legal on May 20th, and I have about ten million Standard decks to work on?
Regionals is coming, so it’s time to knuckle down! Today’s Beautiful Struggle sees Mark in a reflective mood. In order to maximize our successes at the approaching National Qualifiers, we need to squeeze the most out of our prospective deck choices. By looking at some successful decks from tournaments past, Mark examines the strategies and thought-processes that propelled the winners to the final table…
The Ultimate Extended Tourney was a trial by fire of 32 of the top Extended decks of all time. It’s over, and we have a winner. That’s nice, but the winner in a format that never existed is not really relevant. Examining how and why decks did well in this format is relevant to anyone building decks for a new format, including Legacy for Grand Prix: Columbus, or Time Spiral Block Constructed for the PTQs.
What happens with me at every release tournament is that I face The Choice. Do I go with the good build, the one that I know will do well because it’s packed with the 90% of the same damn cards I’ve been running at every event for the past three months…. Or do I go with the new and potentially weaker build that is stuffed with 40% of the new and crazy?
We all know what happened… White Weenie, a.k.a. the Great White Hype, failed to live up to its billing at Pro Tour: Yokohama. And we’ve heard from many folks who claim to know why. Of course, none of them actually played the Little White Men at the Big Show… that’s where Paulo steps in. This illuminating report examines why the metagame was no longer pretty fly for the White guys, and suggests that the approaching PTQ season may be a far more open arena…
Nick takes a break from top-end Limited strategy to talk about the Constructed deck that’s on everyone’s lips at the moment… Hulk Flash! With Grand Prix: Columbus mere weeks away, Nick shares all the info he has on this most promising of broken concoctions. He also compiles all the available data in one handy place! If you’re planning on running — or beating — this deck at the upcoming Grand Prix, this article is invaluable!
It seems that the world has turned its collective eyes towards Grand Prix: Columbus. In the second of today’s Legacy articles, Stephen puts down the Black Lotus and picks up four Lion’s Eye Diamonds to bring us a complete primer for the popular Iggy Pop combo deck! From an introduction to the bases, through card choices and strategies, to important matchup data and top-level strategy, this article has it all. Serious about Legacy? Let Stephen light the way…
This week’s puzzle deals with another card game – Mao. Mao is my favorite game that is played with a standard deck of 52 playing cards, but the nifty part is that the rules of the game are not explained up front to the players. In that vein, the rules for this puzzle are also left ambiguous. I have confidence that you will figure everything out, though. And this time, there’s a prize on the line… so good luck!
Countdown to Grand Prix: Columbus! Christopher Coppola presents a new version of this classic deck for Legacy, and discusses how it can better answer the faster combo decks in the format.
Rounding out our Spotlight on Future Site series, we have Mike Flores! As usual for Flores Friday, Mike will be dwelling on cards specifically for Constructed formats… and today’s article looks at the twenty most promising cards to come from the new set. In addition, Mike dismantles a lot of the myths regarding some of the more over-hyped cards in the set. You can be sure that Pact of Negation will make the Top 20 list… but Bound in Silence? And where does Mike stand on the Edge of Autumn debate? Read on to find out!
Craig “The Professor” Jones applies his analytical mind to the task of dissecting the White cards from Future Sight. In particular, White cards that may reinvigorate the fortunes of the Little Deck That Could —Block Constructed White Weenie. Is Lumithread Field enough to neuter Sulfur Elemental? Does Scout’s Warning offer hope against Mystical Teachings? And has Judge Unworthy been judged worthy?
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 TTP Draft on Magic Online. From pick 1 to pick 45, Rich shares them all, and his final deck and draft performance are analysed in the article, the forums, and beyond. Come join in the fun!
I promised last week that I’d look into Future Sight additions for Standard and its impact on Block Constructed play, so we’ll be starting with an analysis of where Future Sight fits in with the existing Standard format and what promising new cards might spawn as-yet-unseen archetypes on their strength alone. Future Sight has a lot of cards that fit into a particular theme or niche, and a lot of different niches to fill, so we’ll look at each of those niches in turn and expand upon where you can go with that to build upon the new cards’ strengths.
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to take a look at what’s new, what’s hot, and the lessons you could learn from players better than yourself. Along the way we’ll take a look at the absurdity of in-jokes and the wackiness that is Vintage Ichorid.
