After a brief sabbatical for Canadian Nationals, Rich Hoaen is back! In this popular series, the Draft Master takes us through an RGD draft from pick 1 to pick 45, sharing his draft process every step of the way. He supplies a final decklist, and comments on the build and performance. For more detailed deconstruction, come visit the forums!
Welcome to my new series, Tribal Bible, dedicated to exploring the murky depths of our new format, Standard Tribal. My goal is to provide insights on three decks per week, hopefully each with a different tribe. A slant towards quirky, small tribes should be expected – partly because smaller tribes are more interesting to me, and also because the more members a tribe has, the more paths there are to take.
The legend that is John F. Rizzo recently covered the U.S. Nationals 2006… and you knew he’d have an article dedicated to his experiences there! An epic read of mammoth proportions, packed with John’s signature style. Learn just what goes on behind-the-scenes of a major tournament… and learn the truth about Kelly Digges. As per with JFR, this is not for the timid reader…
After two consecutive English Nationals failures, Craig went to the 2006 tournament with a self-confessed “good feeling.” That good feeling was enough to send him to the top of the standings and see him crowned the last English National Champion! Indeed, his win was so mighty he began referring to himself in third person. (Seriously, how am I meant to introduce this with any dignity?) Part one of his entertaining – and long – report is within!
What to cut? The eternal question. While sixty cards is the benchmark, many mages refuse to acknowledge the detrimental effect suffered when forcing those extra power-cards maindeck. Pat breaks down the logistics of such a ploy, and argues that while it may seem innocuous on the surface, the damage it can do can be telling….
With the Ferrett on vacation in sunny England, Eli fills his considerable clown shoes with another Ravnica Sealed excercise! The cards this week are juicy… can Eli extract the fruiy goodness and make a deck fit for a king? As always, the forums will be packed with alternate builds and strategies… come join the discussion.
Adam returns with further tales of Magic folklore. Today, he talks of the nature of folklore, and sets the scene for the coming week, promising a thought-provoking series of intellectual debates.
Three weeks ago I went to the Coldsnap prerelease. The next day my cat died. These are not, on the surface, related phenomena…
Kelly shares his thoughts on Magic’s newest set, and tells a poignant tale with a strong, affirmative message.
Mike completes his examination of the Aggro-Ideal archetype with a look at the matchups to be faced in the current Standard environment. He supplies handy sideboarding tips, and outlines the strategies you need to pilot the deck to a successful finish. Yes, the deck has a couple of high-profile bad matchups… but the good matchups are abundant. Is this the deck for you? Read on to find out!
Josh takes an introspective look at his own personal performance at U.S. Nationals. While his Standard deck was undoubtedly powerful, both Coldsnap and RGD draft supplied hidden pitfalls that prevented him going far in the tournament. So, what went wrong? And in the harsh light of day, what steps can be taken to put things right?
With the first of possibly several “Magic Weekends” behind us, the U.S. National Championships, Italian National Championships, and English National Championships are all in the books, and in at least two of the three cases we have enough information to work with…
I’m afraid that right now, unless Legacy has some more major circuit events like another Grand Prix or even a Pro Tour, it will be resigned to fall back into stagnation. There is little innovation, and that’s partly due to the fact that the format is still underplayed. C’mon — four Goblin decks in the last Top 8? Solidarity is still the only viable combo? What’s up with that?
Once a while, me and the boys get together and run the BOO (Build Our Own) experience. We’ve been doing this for quite a while. The last incarnation was the third attempt. The BOO experience is a total one: card names, casting costs, function, flavor text, art… After they’re made, we shuffle ‘em into packs and draft ‘em up. It’s a pretty simple process: make 45 interesting Limited cards, and play with them. The power and flavor quotients are entirely in your hands.
In desperate times, there are many promises you make that eventually you don’t keep. For me, “never go back to Scandinavia” was one of them. It started with Grand Prix: Copenhagen 2002. I was chilled to the bone even though I was wearing all my winter clothes. Funny thing was, old people were walking on the street wearing only short-sleeved shirts, and young people were riding bikes while wearing only t-shirts.
At least I can say I help up my part of the bargain the last time I went through this. Unfortunately, the other Ben resorted to babbling buffoonery bereft of brainpower and proved that he was the weaker half of the Ben squad. No more, I say. From here on out, I will only follow in the footsteps of Papa Knut, patron saint of correct choices and dashing good looks. And Papa Knut spoke unto me and said:
“You are doing Nantuko Husk. That is all.”
And the heavens shook with his words.
