Here’s a confession for you: I am not good at drafting. It’s tough to admit that when “drafting” is the default mode of most serious Magic players, but I haven’t truly gotten a draft format under my belt since Invasion. But the Mana Gods understood my plight this weekend, and handed me a draft with picks that literally built my deck for me.
For the last two weeks, Teddy Card Game has spilled the Constructed beans on the posers and the powerhouses from Time Spiral. This week, we have Jeroen Remie sharing his thoughts on the Limited strength of Magic’s newest and most exciting set. Today we have the White cards… Jeroen brings us detailed common pick orders, the strong uncommon cards to look for, bomb rares and bum rares, the Timeshifted gamebreakers, and a sample winning decklist! The best writers, the best players… only at StarCityGames.com!
For his first article on StarCityGames.com, Naoki Shimizu delivered a detailed breakdown of the genesis of his metagame-shaping creation: Solar Flare. For his second article, he takes the deck and updates it for Time Spiral. The maverick deckbuilder sifts through the Time Spiral goodies and brings us four separate builds for us to tweak and test, perfect preparation for those attending Champs, or the StarCityGames.com $1,500 Standard Open on October 21st.
What exactly is a tempo deck? My own definition is more then likely a simple one, and it can be put up for debate. I feel that a tempo deck is any of many decks that use a creature beatdown strategy and back up those men with something else besides burn spells. It may be hand disruption, countermagic, or land denial.
I was intending on kicking off the Dailies with my Geezer’s Guide to Purple, but I felt the need to share something that recently came up amongst some of my Magic-playing friends. Each day we toss around a few emails debating various thoughts on Magic, deck ideas, and Magic news, as a nice distraction from the humdrum banality of the workday (and, you know, actual work). Recently, there was a flurry of emails that started innocently enough…
Mike has a voracious appetite for Standard Constructed playtesting. Today’s Flores Friday sees the Resident Genius bring us his Top 10 tips on how to thrive and survive in the coming Time Spiral Standard maelstrom. He shares two strong decklists – one U/G, and one more experimental – and waxes lyrical on some of the stronger threats and answers available in the fledgling format.
Josh is keen to avail himself of a free trip to Geneva, and has climbed off the Gravy Train in order to slum it on the PTQ circut with the rest of us. He failed last weekend, but has high hopes for the season as a whole. Last weekend’s cardpool is presented today, for us to dissect and discuss, alongside some Time Spiral Limited theory and a dose of tournament reporting. Attending Athens this weekend? Or planning to ace a PTQ? Then maybe Josh can help…
With Grand Prix: Sydney now behind us, Sean takes us through the make-up of the undefeated decks of Day 1. We know that the balmy days of Ravnica multicolored goodness are now behind us… can Sean guide our Limited hands in a winning direction?
Evan completes his entertaining week of video articles with a look back at set reviews past… and some of the hideous evaluations made therein. Warning – This video may cause milk to squirt from your nose. (If you’re drinking milk, of course. If you’re not drinking milk, that’d just be wierd.)
So we’re about to be smacked with the end of Kamigawa Block, and I for one am applauding.
Well, not entirely. I have a shameful secret… there are some cards I’m actually going to miss. What I’m presenting today are the soon-to-be murdered corpses of three decks of mine that won’t survive the rotation intact. This is something of a bummer to me, because really, these might have been good decks.
Ben continues his review of Time Spiral with Black. Unlike other set reviews, Ben’s unique look at Time Spiral includes a history of Charms, a spat over a cat, and a review of the most phallic piece of Magic artwork in years. You already know that Smallpox and Sudden Death are great cards – come learn about the rest of Time Spiral in today’s article!
Ted continues his look at the Timeshifted cards of Time Spiral. Today’s installment deals with the remainder of the pack… Green, Gold, Split, and Artifacts. The Green cards we’ve seen thus far did little to whet our collective appetites – do their Timeshifted brethren cut the proverbial mustard?
Raphael Levy, extreme Magic Road Warrior and new inductee to the Magic Hall of Fame, presents the first of what promises to be an exciting article series. Committed to scaling the dizzy heights of the Pro Player Club Level 5, he will be chronicling his experiences here. Today’s pages from his Magic Diary look at his preparation for Athens and Kobe, and include some interesting ideas on drafting mono-colored decks…
After last week’s Battle Royale articles went live, the forums were convinced that Sean was doomed to failure in three swift games. While he didn’t quite take down the mighty Jeroen, he certainly didn’t disappoint in the entertainment stakes…
Jeroen’s land destruction deck appeared to be the perfect foil to Sean’s Karoo-happy budget offering. That said, Jeroen had reservations going into this match… even if the forum-folk decreed it as an easy victory. When the chips were down, it was anything but…
