After going 25-0 with a budget build of the Cloudpost/Vesuva deck, Ben began working on the deck for competitive play. After a month of testing and hundreds of playtest matches, he’s come up with a deck that he feels is a winner. Unfortunately, he has no time to attend PTQs. Will you be the one to pilot his deck to a Pro Tour slot?
Improvement is a tricky thing to quantify. Sure, success is something we can all work towards, and this translates itself into tournament wins and strong performances… but how exactly do we measure our own development? This thoughtful article sees Tiago wax lyrical on the true definition of “levelling up,” and introduces three types of successful Magic player: The Talented, The Focused, and The Experienced. Which type are you?
John takes us through some of the tips and tricks picked up at the Planar Chaos prerelease tournaments. Some of the cards he discusses today are thus-far unloved… while some of them are hyped beyond measure. Where does the truth lie? John shares his thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of some of the more interesting sweetmeats that Planar Chaos has to offer…
Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!
Bonjour mes amis! Welcome back to another installment of that series that explores all things casual. Today I am going to be looking at the new Planar Chaos set with an eye towards Five Color. During the next few weeks, you can expect to see tons of articles and discussion on the new set, including numerous set reviews. As such, I try to distinguish my set reviews from theirs.
I know. I said I wouldn’t be writing this week. But hide those party hats in a hurry, boys, because that’s my (very ugly and outdated and The Monkees’d) mug sketchily leering at you in that Thursday column slot once again.
Like everyone else, I want to talk about Planar Chaos.
When I started playing Magic, Set Reviews were a dime a dozen. Writers, sensing easy material, would happily copy their word-count’s worth of extant material into a file and then run through it commenting in a flippant fashion on the cards that they didn’t care about, then have sparks of energy around the cards they really did want to talk about. As I started writing, I just assumed that Set Reviews were the Done Thing.
As everyone knows, Jeroen Remie loves the Rock. It came as a great surprise to many when he walked away from Pernicious Deed and friends at Worlds 2006, choosing instead to play Boros Deck Wins. Today’s edition of “Ask The Drama” brings us a couple of Rock-based questions for those aspiring Green/Black mages among us, and also tackles other points including the cost of being a pro and Remie’s view of TEPS.
New cards excite all Magic players, from the Level 6 Mage to the Kitchen Table Acolyte, and Raphael Levy is no exception. Today’s Pro Persepctive sees Raph share his two Planar Chaos Prerelease cardpools and final builds, plus a number of pertinent Sealed deckbuilding tips. Sealed Deck is, apparently, Raphael’s favorite Magic format. If you’re one of the many who think it’s all luck-based… think again.
Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!
Blisterguy brings us the usual update on the Magic Online metagames, both Extended and Standard, plus a reasoned look at how the new Timeshifted cards in Planar Chaos may be a move of pure madness and evil. He also breaks down the goodies that each color has to offer, and laughs in the face of the Blue mages who will undoubtedly claim that they are being stiffed…
Today I want to talk about the trails and tribulations of breaking a splintered metagame. First you may ask yourself what the heck I’m talking about and mutter something about all metagames being equal. Here’s the thing… usually semi-coherent metagames are shaped pretty early in a format’s life-cycle. You know X and Y are going to be the “best” decks and somewhat popular, while Z is good and even a bit more popular for some reason (Easier to play, easier to make, etc.). Then you have the rest of the letters filling out the rest of the metagame. Arrogant and / or confident players may be labeling all of these as byes…
Planar Chaos looms upon the horizon, soon to be legal and leading the masses into Damnation. Alright, I could have resisted, but it was so much more fun not to. As the saying goes, “Lead me not into temptation… I can find it just fine on my own.” I figured I’d start today off by mentioning a few interesting cards beyond the blatantly obvious ones (Groundbreaker is Some Good? O RLY?).
Having abandoned his G/W Extended deck from last week, Jamie faced a quandry. Where now for the archetypal Green mage? Thankfully, there are more strings to Jamie’s MTG bow than meets the eye… Mr Wakefield put down the Forest and embraced the power of the Swamp. Jamie also shares the tale of his Planar Chaos prerelease, and laments the brute power of Mind’s Desire in Extended… something we can all understand.
Despite taking on many forms, it’s safe to say that Big Mana Blue – be it U/W Tron or U/W Vesuvapost – is one of the more powerful control options in the current Extended metagame. Today’s “Deep Analysis” examines its position in the Grand Scheme, and looks at how it can be improved to shore up those tricky matchups. Personally, I think this is the best deck in the Extended field, and I hope everyone plays it at my next PTQ. Then again, I play Boros Deck Wins…
