This will be the actual best report written about GP: Nottingham. Yes, I do dare to say that. The article you are reading now just has all the good stuff you were waiting for in part 1: an epic competitor’s story, the stories of not one, but two DQs at the GP, photos of your Magic heros in compromising situations…
Pro Tour Los Angeles showed just how great the new Extended format can be, with rogue decks and old favorites duking it out for the title of best deck and $200,000 in cash and prizes. However, there is a ton of information out there to sift through, so where do you even start? I’m here to throw you a lifeline in this sea of information and give you the insider scoop on what the coverage staff saw at this past weekend’s Pro Tour, including news on the controversial semifinals, good decks that flew under the radar, and what you should and should not play in the upcoming PTQ season.
Adam continues to look at the vast underbelly of real world mythology and folklore that much of the game is drawn from.
For three years, Vintage was in a perpetual state of expansion. Every other month a new deck emerged that seemed to shake up the format. The first half of 2005 was no exception. Uba Stax, Gifts, and a plethora of new Mana Drain decks emerged as contenders in a constantly fluctuating field. Vial Fish briefly surfaced as a great metagame deck and Oath has been in a constant state of revision. However, several things have noticably affected Vintage in recent months…
A lot of you don’t want to hear this, and, frankly, I don’t know why. I have once again convinced myself that there are ultra-rares and ultra-uncommons.
SCG Daily has always, like a lady of easy leisure, been something of a mixed bag. Some weeks, you get wit and Swiss bondage from Dr. Mox; other weeks, you get genuine, solid, collard-greens-and-fried-chicken strategy. Or dating advice. Yet never before, not even so many months ago when I became the first sucker to volunteer for the first three weeks of SCG Daily, never before will you have seen an SCG Daily series like this.
Flores overcomes the “bad player” label (however briefly) to make the finals of the New York State Championships, where Flores-designed decks utterly dominated. It sounds like one of Mike’s wet dreams, but for once it’s reality. If you want to know the updated build of two of the strongest decks in the new Standard metagame, check inside.
This was meant to be a series of articles leading up to my trip to Worlds in about one month’s time. A little a bit about Standard, a touch of Draft and maybe even a bit-sized portion of Extended, but no. Now it’s a freakin’ tournament report about how I won my champs with some silly Black/Green/White aggro deck. What can I say?
I’d fallen hard for the speedy beats of WW/r (henceforth referred to, more eloquently and appropriately, as "White Lightning") ever since I got a hold of the Ravnica spoiler, well ahead of Knut’s extolling. I had a pretty well tuned version for almost a month. Unfortunately, you know how it goes with the latest “best deck”… I had a very bad feeling that I was going to be walking into the lion’s den wearing T-bone underwear, but it was far too late for me to scrounge up another set of Ravnica lands.
All your questions get answered today, including the revalation of Kanoot’s favorite goblin and the answer to: Who would win in a fight between Morphling and Superman?
Wizards of the Coast has announced the release of the long-lost third set from the Ice Age block. Coldsnap will be released in July of 2006. What should you know about this new set and how do I suggest you prepare for the new release? Find out inside this week’s Ben’s Corner!
Also this week: By popular demand, I’m offering up ten lots of four of each of the 100 Most Essential Extended Commons. Click on this article to read the full details of this package.
The Best Player Syndrome comes when you are the best player in your multiplayer group… Or at least people think you are, anyway. Abe developed the Best Player theory several months ago, but in recent weeks he’s had some new ideas on it. So how do people react to the Best Player, and what can you do if you are the Best Player?
Battle of Wits? No, seriously. Battle of Wits? The other day, I was perusing magic-league.com, and I saw a Battle of Wits deck. I remarked to myself, “Hmm, looks like someone messed up and put the deck in Standard by accident. Ah, well.” I chuckled amusedly and didn’t give it a second thought. Imagine my quirked eyebrow and short bark of laughter, therefore, upon seeing that it had done so well at Minnesota Champs.
Far be it from me to say that Wizards doesn’t know what it’s doing, but sometimes people like to play with cards from a different set. A non-existent set, to be fair, but no less fun for its lack of mass production or corporeal presence. A bunch of us were sitting around one day, drafting Cube/Champs block, and having a fun, although pedantic time. “What if”, someone suggested, “We draft with cards the players made? What if everyone creates cards for a draft, and then we draft them? Wouldn’t that be a fun time?”
Yes it would.
Progressing at writing is not unlike progressing at Magic. The more you work at it, the easier it gets to perform at a high base level and the more you can excel at something beyond the rudimentary skills of the game. Having been intimately involved with the recruitment and training of Magic writers for years now, I have come up with a silly tiered system that describes where most writers fall in the community hierarchy.
