When the Portal sets became legal in Vintage, it was like three whole new expansions entered the field at once. Sure, everyone knows about the cards that got insta-restricted… But how about Dong Zhou? Or the unique and powerful effect of Riding the Dilu Horse? Abe breaks open some cards to see what kinds of decks you can build!
Fresh off his 4th place finish at Pro Tour Los Angeles, Chris “Star Wars Kid” McDaniel returns to discuss the powerful Heatbeat Combo deck, recap his entire Pro Tour experience and offer his perspective on the controversial semifinals match against Billy Moreno!
The First Law of Mentat: A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it, and flow with it.
Kevin Binswanger offers a very thorough analysis of the Star City “Duel for Duals” tournament results and the overall state of the Legacy metagame. A must read for anyone preparing for the upcoming Legacy GPs.
Gadiel dissects the many Extended archetypes seen at Pro Tour Los Angeles, then follows it up with his recommendation for the current PTQ season.
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?
