Landstill doesn’t make Top 8, but still produces a respectable finish. Solidarity hated out. Suicide Black Revisited makes it to the final. Flame Vault is awesome but super-hard to play. And you all mocked me. Shame on you.
Johnny “hasn’t played Magic in five years” Rizzo takes his homebrew to the first Extended PTQ of the year. How does the man do when battling against the likes of Mouth and the legendary Go Anan? The answer is inside… somewhere.
It will take some time to unpack and understand the results of Grand Prix: Philadelphia. Two Goblins decks, one Lion’s Eye Diamond/Auriok Salvagers combo, three aggro-control Threshold decks, a Black/White disruption deck, and a Lightning Rift cycling deck is a Top 8 that nobody could have predicted. To the passing observer, the Top 8 decklists will suggest a metagame and an environment that did not exist, so today I’m going discuss Legacy in general, the metagame, and the Flame Vault deck variations in some detail.
So this is the one where I wade into an honest-to-goodness draft queue and force that five-color thing I so relentlessly promoted. Does the deck live up to the hype, or will I lose the scant remainder of my already depleted reserves of credibility? Read on!
One of the more interesting decks that no one noticed in Los Angeles was a deck called Crazy Pedro, an aggro deck designed by last year’s Extended Pro Tour winner Pierre Canali. Tiago Chan made Day 2 with the deck and says that it’s better his performance would indicate. If you are looking for a rogue creation to battle with at your local PTQs, this may be your lucky day.
Sorry, but those of you looking forward to my Bounceland draft walkthrough are going to have to wait another day. I know, it’s torture for me too. At least I get the opportunity to tie up a few loose ends, as well as some that aren’t very loose at all.
Yep, this is one of those random, mixed-bag, kitchen-sink type articles all writers do once in a while when they’re struggling (except the good ones). Did I say struggling? I meant thriving!
It’s rare that we get an article this amusing, particularly by a submissionist. Therefore I demand that you read it right now, oh ye few readers who know enough to scroll all the way down the page to the Humor section. We’ll even form our own club and have T-Shirts that say something catchy like “I scrolled all the way down StarCityGames.com and all I got was this lousy humor article.” Anyway, enough rambling. I promise the article inside is much funnier.
A well-written and even moderately amusing look at some of Ravnica’s more peculiar rules issues. Even Ravnica experts can learn a thing or two this time from Mr. Riesland’s writing.
Today we submit to you one Johnathan Pelcak, who, while reviewing his Pro Tour: Los Angeles experience, also attempts to explain why he thought playing a Dragonstorm deck was “a good idea.”
Julien Nuijten is “The Champ” for at least a couple more weeks and he’s not letting the world forget about it, nabbing two Grand Prix victories in the last three months. Today Julien discusses his Extended Psychatog build (complete with matchup analysis and sideboarding guide) while telling you how Dr. Teeth and Big Stinks play nice together.
The most controversial writer in Magic produces more of the same, except completely different stuff from yesterday in his quest to explain where he’s been, where he’s going, and how he came up with his latest Extended creation.
During my last daily deck-a-thon, there was a forum comment regarding the fact that a lot of my decks couldn’t be played online, because I like using older and unusual cards to fill out slots in my decks. So I created four fun decks that can be built Online for a reasonable price… And a very whacky theme deck!
Back when I was a regular on the tournament scene, you’d see people show up with decks like that one that they peeled off a Pro Tour deck listing, and yet didn’t put in the requisite test drives. Believe it or not, no deck really drives itself, no matter how good the engine is. It may seem like it, but it just can’t, and people who say it does are really underestimating player ability as a deciding factor in deck creation and performance.
If yesterday’s exploration of a league build-in-progress_ was a departure from my typical article, then so will this be. A departure. Sort of. It’s about a new draft archetype that may or may not be good, but after this article will certainly exist at least, and that’s something.
Most writers have a file of articles and article ideas – stuff they’ve put off, or haven’t got quite right, or that they really want to write about when they get time. I was cleaning out that folder and pulled together – hey, who am I kidding? It’s a pile of unrelated topics, including my PT LA, MTGO rants and problems, poker, broken cards and other random topics. Enjoy.
