Quentin Martin was the primary deck designer of the deck that Sam Gomersall used to win a spot on the Englilsh National team last weekend. What deck is it, why does Quentin feel it is the best deck in Standard by far, and why didn’t “Q” himself make the English National team? The explanation is only a click away.
It is difficult to properly introduce Thomas Rosholm except to say that he is a long-time Pro Tour veteran, was one of the founders of the legendary Team Punisher, and his thug-nasty writing tends to rock your socks off. If that’s not enough to entice you, maybe the fact that he’s writing about two underappreciated decks for the Standard environment will pique your interest.
The changeover from Eighth Edition Standard to Ninth Edition Standard may not have an effect on the upcoming U.S. National Championships, but it is promising to make some waves for the World Championships. What has gone missing is every bit as important as what has come back, but I’m happy to see an impending massive change to the cards that make Standard work the way it does, and not so very sad to see some of the things lost along the way disappearing, such as Plow Under.
Continuing from where we left off from yesterday, we’ll now explore the final cards on my list on Vintage cards that create the most one-sided games.
Back on Monday, I mentioned that I had a personal list of cards that caused one-sided routs to occur. A guessing game then ensued for the two unrestricted cards on my list. Only one person managed to guess both cards (Mana Drain and Chalice of the Void), though many got one correct and other named cards were just below the top 10 on my list. As a result, I felt I should give the top 15 cards of my list with some reasoning behind each choice.
Today Carl continues his introduction to Type 4 by covering removal spells, creatures, bombs, and general stack composition as well as giving some guidance on Type 4 draft archetypes.
I’ve always loved the National Championships. My favorite of all was six years ago, when I finished second with the first version of Red Deck Wins. That tournament qualified me for the World Championships in Yokohama, which was simply great in spite of the fact that I ended up losing more than I won, and the report I wrote afterwards got chosen by Mike Flores as the first Editor’s Choice on the Magic Dojo. I never thought, particularly recently, that I’d play in another Nationals which could match that.
I’m going to skip out on the tournament report this week, because the tournament was…well, a disaster. I had bad
draws, played some of the worst Magic I’ve played in years, and thoroughly deserved to go home early. That’s fine by
me, because I’ve been looking for a break in the action for awhile now to talk about a few things.
The Kamigawa Block Constructed PTQs are in progress. We have several weeks worth of PTQ results, plus the results of two Grand Prix, and the format is shaking out. I’ve noticed that the decks seem – at least to me – to be really heavy in chaser rares. That could be a real effect, or could be because I am trying to get the cards online. Time for some research – Are this year’s Block Constructed decks more expensive to build than in years past?
Aside from Gifts Ungiven, the best deck in Vintage right now is clearly the very tricky Stax archetype and it has been for some time. Today Steve completely exposes the origins of Stax, the strategy behind the deck, and gives you all the keys you will need to win your next Vintage event, whether it be a local weekend tournament or the Vintage World Championships at GenCon.
Mark thinks he’s finally ready to tackle the tricky concept of velocity and begin to apply it practically to Magic situations, but he’s curious to hear your thoughts on this intriguing matter of Magic theory.
I spend a large chunk of my articles trying to make people in Vintage better players. This sort of teaching process has been a real learning experience for me. First off, I’d like to say it’s a very rewarding experience to help people get better. Second, it’s way harder than everyone told me it would be. I can see why some forum posters write long elaborate posts, but never write articles. You have to be way more coherent to do it. Oh, I was going to tell you another tip to get better right? Into the fray we go!
The faster you can play, the more matches you will win. Of course, you have to counterbalance that with the fact that playing too quickly will cause you to make bad decisions, costing you more than you gain by playing fast. There are a lot of good reasons to play fast, some of which are not well known, but none of them will save you if you’re making a lot of mistakes. The good news is that speed can be learned, both in general and for a particular deck or format. I consciously developed my ability to play at a hyper-fast pace and rather than weaken my play it made it better. First, I’m going to offer some motivation.
For people like me, who would have a gambling problem if they ever actually gambled and who are true Johnnies at heart, self-control isn’t easy to come by. The Danger of Cool Things isn’t limited to play situations in Constructed, but can already occur during the draft or deck construction portions of a Limited tournament. It is very useful to be aware of potential traps and this awareness is what I hope to contribute to with this article.
Have you ever found yourself getting bored with Magic? I know I do on a nearly regular basis. I used to be able to renew my interest by building Revenge of 1997, my wacky five color, Vintage-legal, control deck which is a blast to play, but that eventually stopped doing the trick. Revenge was only a temporary solution. It was a fun deck that only had serious opponents. I needed something new. I needed something extreme. I knew that White Castle was going to be too hard to find, so I went for something four times as extreme as Vintage: Type 4
