Today StarCityGames.com is proud to bring you a first in Magic: the Gathering history – a Japanese writer brought to an English-language website. Masashi Oiso is widely recognized as one of the best players in the game right now and today he provides you a complete sideboard and matchup guide to Gifts Ungiven, a deck he has piloted to back-to-back Grand Prix Top 8s.
The best writers. The best players. The best Magic. Only on StarCityGames.com.
By now you have probably read the previous articles I’ve done on Kuroda-style Red and formed your own opinion – good or bad – on the deck that can be swayed neither by fact nor logic, certainly not the numbers. Today I’ll give you an updated decklist, a matchup guide, and explain how we tuned the second best deck in the format to beat pretty much everything else. Well, except the best deck…
The new Legacy format is upon us in the form of the World Championships at Gen Con and two Grand Prix towards the end of this year. Many people have questions about this fledgling format. If you’re one of those people, Ben’s written a complete guide explaining this history and rules of the Legacy format!
By the time of the Pro Tour, I’d gotten back into reading articles enough to have a fairly high understanding of what was going on in the Limited format we were testing for, and further exceptions had to be made: “I quit Magic, except for forty-card decks”. We made Day Two of the Pro Tour, in at 4-2 where the year before we were out at 1-3 and played on to 3-3, then lost during the draft. And lost hard. Probably because I was on a different page than the rest of the universe for a while, and thought the seating order and flow of packs was reversed, meaning I was trying to force entirely the wrong archetype from my seat, having practiced with one thing and then played another entirely.
This week in Ben’s Corner: Wizards reveals their plans for new dual lands in Ravnica, Legacy heats up at the Gen Con World Championships and the StarCityGames.com buylist is updated to include even more sets. Read on!
He’s been gone for over a year. He walked away from the game and the writing at the height of his powers. But like the mob, just when he thought he was out, we pulled him right back in. Draft strategy, wicked jokes, hilarious rants and more snark than you can shake a stick at. That’s right kids, Geordie Tait is back in the saddle again and if this first article is any indicator, he’s better than ever.
I am trying to build an online collection from scratch. I have tried online traders, sellers, trading bots, leagues and drafts. You could even buy packs and bust them. Some of these ideas work. Some don’t. Let’s review.
Teaming with Seth and Kevin reminded me why I played Magic, because of my friends and the experiences we shared. Going to qualifiers with two other players and having our fates in the tournament intertwined was a remarkable experience.
What’s this? A Block deck you haven’t seen before that mashes Gifts Ungiven and White Weenie, while featuring game against the rest of the field? Is that even possible? Craig Stevenson thinks so and he’s got the PTQ Top 8s to prove it. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you The Shinkatron
The problem, of course, is that Sensei’s Divining Top
is in all of the best decks! It’s in the fake best
deck (Tooth and Nail), the second best deck
(Kuroda-style Red), and the actual best deck (UrzaTron
Blue). No matter how good the players designing these
decks, they all put the terrible Top in to make sure
they don’t tap their mana efficiently so as to gain to
much of an advantage over their fellows. As near as I
can tell, the difference between horrible Tooth and
Nail and the actually good and successful decks is the
ability to get rid of the useless Sensei’s Divining
Top so that you no longer have to look at it.
I’ll cut to the chase; although some of you were miffed with my last draft article – which is allowed – I decided to continue on this path. While others with more impressive resumes engaged in the debate of what’s hot and what’s not in the CBS format, I felt that I could still serve a more mundane purpose on the ground, showing what pans out in practice rather than arguing theory.
Shortly after landing this job, I began my reign of terror as a writer, pushing the envelope to write a weekly strategy column while occasionally slinging mud, getting people to start to read the Neutral Ground website for columns, tournament reports, and other information as the newborn site grew into a popular website.
Today StarCityGames.com brings yet another new and deserving Featured Writer to the starving, huddled masses looking for tech and a good story. Nathan Xaxson straddles the line between hard-core gamer and theorist and guy who likes to sling spells while hanging with friends at the kitchen table. We think his articles will be appreciated by pretty much everyone and encourage you to try him on for size.
Today StarCityGames.com welcomes yet another new writer to the family, this time in the form of former Dutch National champion Rogier Maaten. Rogier’s first article deconstructs the Black/White spirit deck in full Kamigawa Block Draft. Back in CCB, this was one of the best archetypes around, but can it still perform with a new set added to the mix? What do you have to do now in order to win with this deck, and what does the pick order for Saviors look like? Enquiring minds want to know!
How big of a change will hit us on August 20? Let’s start off looking at each color, covering their gains and losses. Then we’ll look at the biggest changes overall, see how some of the popular archetypes are affected, and maybe even come up with a meaningful answer.
