While my flight down was comped by the fine people at Sony, bringing the significant other down was not, and last-minute flights from the middle of nowhere are not cheap. However, I was coming into some money soon (one hoped), and when was she ever going to get to see me on a game show again?
Let’s play the assumption game. Let’s assume this cool new job opportunity / promotion comes up, giving you a chance at a company position with people you genuinely like and respect. That’s cool, but let’s assume that you’re kind of involved with the company already, at least peripherally. Can you even compete? Can we assume your presence won’t smack of favoritism? Who cares what people think, do a good job and they’ll know you deserve to be there? Okay, that make sense, but what if after all that you get eliminated? What then?
Going into the PTQ weekend, Mike had two choices: U/G or G/W. He told the world that if he rocked the mock tournament with U/G, that’d be the deck for him. If not, the G/W machine would be his weapon of choice. True to his word, Mike took his innovative G/W anti-Boros anti-TEPS Extended deck to his local PTQ… and as suspected, it rocked the house against the good matchups. For the story of both tournaments, and both decks, read on…
In his previous article, Naoki Shimizu shared the reasons for ditching his popular Solar Flare deck in favor of something with a little more beatdown kick: the powerful U/G Scryb & Force deck. In today’s article, Naoki gives us the sideboard plan and matchup guide for all the metagame’s stronger contenders, and tells us the story of his own Standard odyssey on Day 1 of Worlds 2006.
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!
Today I want to explore a few multiplayer dynamics, and maybe share a deck from our “new” group. I hope that you’ll enjoy this tale of a multiplayer group and how as it changed over time – the strategies that were successful also changed…
I’m praying I got those early jitters out of the way, and will always, always remember to give nothing but last names from here on out, and that hopefully won’t be just for this round. During the break, Jeopardy! staffers come out to offer encouragement and exhort us to keep the round going — clear the board, that’s their mantra.
Now that we’ve established that the current Legacy environment is dominated by three decks (Goblins, Solidarity/Reset High Tide, and Threshold), how can you use this information? That is, to what extent is Legacy a “three-deck format” that is ripe for decimation by a well-designed rogue deck?
Stuart Wright, one of the world’s finest deckbuilders, rocked the Extended portion of Worlds with a deck of his own design – Flow Deck Wins. Harnessing a powerful aggresive start, and the backbreaking Destructive Flow to nobble the control matchups, Stuart’s 6-0 perofomance took him to a lofty fifteenth-place finish at the Big Show in Paris. Today’s article breaks down the sideboarding plans and brings some interesting matchup ideas, for those eager to make their mark at their next PTQ.
Boros Deck Wins. That’s more than a deck-name… it’s a fact. Swinging with the Little Red and White Men is a noble pursuit, but it is also extremely popular. With the mirror-match descending into little more than a coin flip, what exactly can we do to gain those important percentage points that’ll translate into game and match wins? With detailed description of his recent PTQ performance, Paul tries to smash the mirror into pieces.
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’s 43rd foray into the Magic Online Metagame sees him wax lyrical about both the Standard and Extended Premier Events on MTGO. While we all know of the popularity of Boros Deck Wins and Dragonstorm… what about Mono-Black Aggro? Blisterguy also revamps the card price data.
We’re up to the fourth taping and we’re running out of contestants. There are always a few extra would-be players, mostly locals who are generally the last chosen since they can always come back, whereas those of us who fly are kind of restricted to the day(s) we arrived. There’s five people left for four slots, so I like my chances.
Joshua continues his unconventional look at mono-colored strategies in the current Standard metagame. We’ve had Green and Black… today’s offerings are White and Red. Is the mono-colored strategy a real contender in this multicolored Magical age?
Joe Black wades into the Extended metagame debate with an interesting take on a tried-and-tested formula: Green/White Astral Slide. Decks based on the cycling mechanic have a number of inherent advantages, and cards such as Eternal Witness and Loxodon Hierarch bring a number of strategies and defenses to the table. Add to this robustness a powerful lock, and you’ve got a deck with the strength to take on all comers. Looking for an Extended deck for your next PTQ? Osyp has the answer…
