For my last day, I’m going to be a bit more lighthearted. I’m going to respond to some forum comments and e-mails that the first three or four days generated, and I’ll tell some actual game-play stories. Some are funny. Some are sad. Some are brilliant. Some are head-scratchers. All are true, even if I get the details a bit munched up. In the end, there’ll be a bonus, too!
Kanoot delivers his 2005 Regionals Preview, complete with the usual snarky commentary, cheesecake, and predicted metagame percentages. As if that weren’t enough, there’s also discussion of the Hall of Fame ballot and a request for advice on who deserves the fifth slot on the list, The Kitchen Sink, Quotable Quotes, and Yawgatog highlights from the entire month of March. It’s not just an article, it’s an extravaganza!
This is a super special version of the normal Power 9 Preview article, because we have an added element to accommodate for: the presence of the SCG Shooting Stars! This may seem like one of the most daunting tournaments in a very long time thanks to that presence, but you should treat it no differently than you treat your average high profile tournament. There will still be a dense concentration of people you can beat if you play properly, and that includes the guys wearing the t-shirts. The biggest weapon you can have against these competitors is familiarity with the format, so let’s get down to brass tacks.
Hot on the heels of Terry Soh’s Troll and Nail sideboard revolution, michaelj goes into some detail about those extra fifteen cards you get to play with in up to 66% of your games. What’s the difference between a sideboard Flores likes and one that gets the boot? The answers are inside.
More than just a discussion about Zvi’s forays into Vintage ahead of this weekend’s Star City Power Nine tournament, it also includes rules to follow for Vintage deck design, Zvi’s list of Control Slaver, Hall of Fame discussion and more!
Two years ago, Jens Thoren won the Invitational with a tricky little creation designed to abuse Mirari’s Wake in concert with Mirari and Cunning Wish; seven months later, modified versions of the deck proved to be among the most powerful weapons in Regionals and Nationals tournaments around the world. On the other hand, Jon Finkel 3-0’ed the Standard portion of the same event with a Battle of Wits deck which proved mostly irrelevant in both States and Regionals. How do the Invitational decks stack up this time around and more importantly – how are each of the decks affected by Saviors of Kamigawa? Step inside my office friends, as we attempt to find out.
Josh turns his fascination towards off-the-wall decks on Blue/Green Beats – a deck that has been flying under the radar until today, but one that Mr. Claytor says has a lot of power ready to be harnessed.
Saviors is here, and it brings a lot of potential to redefine the metagame. The set contains some cards that could force some changes. It’s too soon to know how strong their impact will be – we won’t actually know that until after Regionals, but it’s not too early to speculate. It’s also worth considering whether some old cards might be reinvigorated by the changes.
Over the years, Richard Feldman has written some excellent articles often discussing variations of decks that are ahead of their time. Today is no different, but to truly get your attention on what Richard thinks Mono-Blue should look like for this Regionals, we will post the following three lines:
The Win Condition
3 Proteus Staff (Win Condition #1-3 of 4)
1 Goblin Charbelcher (Win Condition #4 of 4)
Over the past three days, I’ve tried to give you some insight into how I went from Guy Who Had Never Seen a Magic Card to Guy Who Writes for StarCityGames.com about Cheap, Rogue Decks. I did this because there are people who want to know why I do what I do. Others have never met me but are still convinced that they have me pegged simply because they’ve read my writing. I fear that they’re dead on.
You know that Mono-Blue Urzatron deck that’s been floating around Magic Online, but that no one has really written about yet? Well Quentin Martin has the inside scoop on what the deck looks like and what it plays like. If you want something fun, goofy, and quite controlly to play at Regionals, this might be your lucky day.
While I call these set reviews “The Obligatory…”, I didn’t do one for Betrayers. Betrayers really didn’t seem very interesting and it was really hard trying to justify an entire article when the only card that I thought that would see play was Ninja of Deep Hours. In the end, I think that Umezawa’s Jitte is really the only other card from that set that is seeing play, unlike Champions where more and more cards are seeing play as time goes on. Saviors, on the other hand, looks packed with cards that appear to be both powerful, interesting, or both.
Yesterday, I mentioned how competitive I was. A lot of people would never believe that. They see me playing cheap, rogue decks. They see me laugh while playing, sometimes even when I’m losing. How could this guy be competitive? He’s losing, and he’s having fun.
Trust me. I am.
Nick’s been drafting the new set a lot since the prerelease and has compiled a solid list of cards that are either falling well short of the hype, or that are absolutely dominating some drafts. Which ones are which? Now that would be cheating… Regardless, this article should give a nice boost to your Saviors Limited learning curve.
The Invitational Winner discusses his winning deck, the unconventional sideboard plan he developed for it, and how he developed the best version of what is widely considered the best deck in Standard.
