Yesterday, I spoke of my first Magic match. While it wasn’t at a tournament, and thus it never counted as a true competitive contest, it was my first series of games against a tournament-savvy opponent.
I was determined to break the streak. I hadn’t made money in a Magic tournament since Grand Prix: Chicago aside from appearance fees (I even had to look it up because I couldn’t remember the last time I made money). Worlds was a chance to make a difference, because if I didn’t, I was done.
The creator of Extended’s hottest new deck takes but a moment to bask in the glory of his elevation from scrub to cool kid on the block before going right back to telling you exactly what is on his mind.
Yesterday, I told you of my first forays into the Realms of Magic. Simple games played with my friend Sene, cards dealt on the living-room rug in front of a two-bar electric fire. Drinking Dr Pepper, laughing, and swinging with Vizzerdrix. That was how I learnt to play Magic.
Today, I’ll tell you how I learnt to play Magic.
It’s Extended season. The metagame is vast and varied, and PTQ attendance seems to be way up. I played in Madison, along with 195 others, and I’ll break down what worked, what didn’t, and what to expect at the PTQs. With 15 decklists, including a Top 8 Reanimator list!
Phil Stanton has recently retired from the supercomputer business. Since no one else has stepped up, and since I inspired his template, I have decided to take over where he left off. Thus I give you the full Vintage Metagame Breakdown, complete with musings on the format and whether certain cards have crossed the threshold from broken to bannable.
If you read last week’s column — and if you didn’t, I hope Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo leaves you a loaded dirty diaper for Chrismahannakwanika — you know that I was trying to develop a cheap “creatureless” Mono-Black Control deck. After a week of reader suggestions and a bunch more testing, I think we may actually have something.
So I didn’t have a great Worlds, but what I did have was an awesome Standard deck that might just be one of the best decks in the format. Dark Confidant in a Blue Control deck? Oh yes, we’re just that crazy.
For my Daily Series, I faced a dilemma. I’m not as clever as some authors, nor as funny as others. I’ve no uber-tech to share, or wacky decklists. While I’ve been to the Big Show, I’ve never eaten at that bloody sword restaurant or mised onto the Price is Right.
So what can I bring to the table?
SCG.com is proud to announce the first two Power Nine events of the 2006 season – to be held on back-to-back days!
Legends singles have been dropped up to 50% in price.
Read about our holiday sale on Ravnica product – and much more – in this week’s edition of Ben’s Corner!
Astral Slide decks have been on the rise lately both at the PTQ level and at the World Championships. Today Flores shows you the version of Slide that he’s been running and fills you in on his latest tournament performance with the deck.
Teddy Card Game covers the coolest cards and combos that he saw firsthand at the World Championships. Looking for insights and analysis on some of the best decks to come out of the final Pro Tour of the year? Look no further.
Have you ever wanted to bring a constructed deck to a draft tournament? Think of how easy it would be. You’d roll over everyone. None of the matches would be close. I can’t offer you that, but I am going to show you how – using one of the new keyword mechanics – you can come even closer to that dream.
I worked in a gas station for nearly a year and the worst thing about the job, other than the bizarre hours, the monotony, the loneliness, the incompetent upper management, the paperwork, the monotony, scraping out the toilets, the fact that a chimp could have done my job, the fact that many of my co-workers couldn’t, cleaning the pumps, sweeping the lot, and the monotony – was the people. I mean, okay, the vast majority of the people I encountered there were perfectly nice and relatively normal, but it seemed like there was a substantially larger concentration of jerks there than in the world at large.
Rather like Magic tournaments.
You naughty boys. Peter knows just what you’ve been looking for all week and he finally gives it to you, Mary Poppins style? What in the…
