Jeroen steps to the plate and answers a myriad of reader-posed questions regarding the format on everyone’s minds… Standard with Time Spiral! He brings us his thoughts on Counter-Burn, an in-depth look at Green/Black aggro-control, and the place of Mono-Blue Draw-Go Control in the current environemnt. This is invaluable reading for those planning to demolish all competition this coming weekend!
The Champs articles keep on coming! This time it’s the turn of Mark Young. He takes us through the evolution of Urzatron decks, in both U/R and U/W, and even offers up a R/W build for those crazy enough to run with the Boros Legion… The Standard metagame promises to be extremely diverse. Are the defining decks of the format available in this article? Read on to find out!
Not all Champs competitions are held this weekend… some have been and gone. Blisterguy, the winner of his 2005 Champs tournament, posted an incredibly similar result this year. The top 3 decklists are within, alongside the usual plethora of Magic Online Premier Event statistics and card ticket prices…
It is in the mind of almost every single rogue (“bad”) deck designer to one day discover an archetype, to be the man with their name in lights, and the one who gets to bequeath a stupid name upon a deck and hear people recite it whenever they chat about matchups. It’s a pipe-dream, of course, since enthusiasm and a lust for glory only make up a small fraction of good deck design, with hard work, skill, and an ability to play the game as well as build for it make up the majority of the rest.
Evan Erwin was on-site when the new Solar Pox deck won the StarCityGames.com $1,500 Standard Open – and he got it all on video! Today’s article sees this incredible deck face off against opponents in Round 7, and both the quarter- and semi-finals! Thinking of playing this deck at Champs this weekend, and wanting to learn how to play the deck from first-hand successes? Come look and see!
Last week was another Lava Blister of a Quicken Hits column. Sorry about the fact that there wasn’t a lot of Super Secret Tech, what with States coming up. Give me an Honorable Passage, though; you don’t Peek at my column for Tek. You come here for the Cheap Ass decks. Like Zombies! 2k6, the deck that I Predict-ed that I would play at States. This Surprise Deployment really Outmaneuver-ed some folks. For many, there was a simple Wave of Indifference. Today’s column is for those with a Thirst for Knowledge, those who want to know what makes Zombies run like Clockwork Gnomes.
Yesterday, I laid down the rules — of sifting through old decklists, seeing what goes missing, and seeing what can fill those holes — and started work on Snow Dad. Snow Dad lost its entire engine, so it becomes a very different deck in the exchange — other decks are far more subtle shifts. We lost a card advantage engine, so we’ll use a new one — the rebel toolkit.
Split second’s not the only thing to get excited about in this set: Morph and Buyback, two of Type 4’s most sought-after mechanics, have returned. With over thirty cards for consideration, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Time Spiral may be the best Type 4 set ever.
So-called “straight” Counter-Burn strategies haven’t been popular in a while. Let’s face it: the tools weren’t there! Countermagic was neutered, and while the burn has always been available to set the world ablaze, both lifegain and efficient creature beats served to stymie the archetype. Nowadays, however, we have a few more arrows to our bow… And so I refine a potential U/R deck over the course of three builds, playing each against U/G Beats, Rakdos, and Solar Flare to see how they shape up!
Last time, I talked about White, my favorite creature color; this time, I’ll talk about my favorite spell color. The top Black commons are all removal spells, and the top Black creatures allow you to cast your spells either cheaply or at unexpected times. Beyond the top picks, you have to start playing fair, but the strength of Black lies in its effects, not its bodies.
We all know that the tiniest mistakes can lose the game… But what kinds of mistakes might lose you that Top 8 slot at Champs? Mike Flores walks you through four sample Standard scenarios where subtle details make the difference between the right play and the wrong play. Want to know what sorts of things the pros look for when they’re deciding how to respond? Look no further!
Evan Erwin was on-site when the new Solar Pox deck won the StarCityGames.com $1,500 Standard Open – and he got it all on video! Watch interviews with Ken Adams, the deck’s creator, as well as a complete video of both games of the finals! You want to see how Solar Pox rebounds from having one of two Haakons Castigated out of the game, then having the rest of his hand Persecuted? Watch and see!
I recall the little debate that shook the forums here on StarCityGames after Evan Erwin wrote his Battle Royale Round 6: Live Nude Girls article. Geordie Tait, manly man that he is, leapt onto Erwin like Evan was a May bishop… All for the offence of misusing poker terminology in a Magic article. But despite that Evan was wrong, I still have a slight problem with Tait’s argument. It’s not that he’s made factual errors; it’s that he’s made theoretical ones.
The Timeshifted cards read like a “who’s who” of star players from tried and tested decks. There is a heckuva lot of power sporting those natty purple expansion symbols, and anyone thinking they can just turn up to a Standard tournament in the next few months with a tweaked version of an existing archetype is going to be in for a nasty shock. That shock can be alleviated by actually indulging in some *shudder* history, and looking back at these decks might give some clues as to how the purple cards might impact the forthcoming Standard format.
Some point in the not too distant past it simultaneously dawned upon the Magic community that this game was going to be here for a lot longer than most of us ever expected. Long after every other fad – from the hula hoop to the pog – had faded into Americana novelty, Magic has continued to thrive. Building on the past is the theme of Time Spiral. And while set designers have mined Alpha for ideas since the earliest expansions, until Time Spiral we have never seen a set thematically centered on nostalgia. And nostalgia — or at least building upon the past — is what Vintage is all about. That’s why, good or not, Time Spiral is the first set review I’ve ever written for Vintage.
