Extended is my favorite format, so I get very down on myself if I play poorly. The expectations of my performance I hold for Extended far exceed what is reasonable, given my poor preparation habits. This is because I am old, and old people have no time to prepare. Don’t laugh, kids, it will happen to you one day.
Let me put this another way: I suck, but I’m not supposed to suck when I shuffle up Aluren.
After reading Ben Bleiweiss’ article, I have my own pet theory on the reason behind the supposed death of American Magic. It’s not because of poker. It’s not the result of poor internet etiquette, either. My finger is pointed squarely at geography.
Today Zvi muses on the best versions of the best decks to come out of the last two Grand Prix weekends, including Tsuyoshi Fujita’s incredible Sneak Attack deck. Still think the deck is a fluke? Here’s a preview of Zvi’s analysis which includes an optimized decklist: “I love this deck. It goldfishes better than any other deck in the format…”
I was considering ideas for the next entry in the daily deck-a-thon, when I decided to use a Betrayers card as the theme to the next deck. Of course, I didn’t know which card to use, so I took a look at a list of Betrayers cards until something jumped out at me. It always will, if you stare long enough.
Rosholm is one of those underground Magic writers that far too few people know about compared to how talented he is. He is also one of the most well-respected (and coolest) European Magic writers around and counts Tim Aten and Tomi Walamies among his fans. If Jack Kerouac had liked hip-hop, then Rosholm would be the Swedish Kerouac of Magic writing. Here’s what’s on his mind today: “A couple of people before me have tried to promote the Pattern-deck as a solid choice for these final weeks of the Extended season. Those players, I believe, have been both right and wrong. Pattern is a great choice for the Extended format in general, but their lists are not.”
Funny things start happening after you get a few drafts under your belt with a new set. New avenues seem available. It’s easy to convince yourself that you are privy to the real tech, that some cards which everyone else thinks are crap are super-playable, and other heavily-hyped cards seem not so good. It’s too early to say whether every strange draft idea I have seen in the CCB format will prove itself worthy. But there are a couple of decks that I have drafted, or seen drafted, that really fascinate me and have proven to be at least playable if not good. This article is dedicated to those new draft ideas including one I like to call… Ninjank!
Those of you who are familiar with our Power 9 Event Coverage probably know all about the infamous Brass Man, a player adept at deckbuilding, amusing one-liners, and utterly smashing Stephen Menendian(s). For those of you who have not heard of this colorful character of Vintage, follow along today as he introduces his very saucy version of Gifts Ungiven Control that uses Goblin Charbelcher and Mana Severance as a combo win condition. If any of this sounds confusing or counter-intuitive, this excellent article is just a click away, prepared to explain the whole thing.
With Syracuse in the books, the eyes of the Vintage community now turn to the next Star City “Power Nine” tournament in Chicago! Can Kevin Cron successfully defend his Syracuse title? Will new archetypes emerge in the wake of the Trinisphere restriction? Can anyone stop Team Mean Deck? These questions, and more, will be answered at the 3rd stop in the 2005 Star City “Power Nine” Tournament Series; Chicago! Make plans to attend!
In the meantime, check out the Vintage Decks To Beat for March 2005!
Sometimes, the most seemingly-trivial things can affect the strategy of your games. And when you’re playing Emperor or Two-Headed Giant, there’s one subtle fact which can affect deckbuilding in very interesting ways.
Welcome back comrades! Gather ’round, for thy daily dosage of deck hath returned! Verily, our good captain Ted of the Knutsons hath summoned me for another round of writing, and my heart warms so follow along as I update my favorite deck of all time.
I’ve been on the forefront of 4-color Control’s design for years now. Over those years, I had slipped into the habit of tweaking the deck to survive, popularizing it, letting it get invalidated (either by hate or a substantial environment shift), then again tweaking the deck to survive. That is, until I felt that the format was too broken for it to even consider. Thankfully I don’t think today’s environment is too broken, and I have a new build to show you that has tested very well.
When Ken messaged me last week to tell me he thought he had written one of his best Limited articles ever, I was skeptical. He’s been semi-retired for some time, so I didn’t know what to expect. Friday’s article proved his case however, and part 2 just continues it by delivering the complete common-through-rares pick order for Betrayers in this powerful archetype.
If you’ve been reading sites like this for a while, you may have noticed that there are a lot of articles out there regarding the ever-elusive concept of “getting better at Magic.” Me? I’m here to promote good play the best way I know how: bad play – more specifically, pointing out opportunities for bad play. You may recall reading somewhere that, for each gamestate, there is only one correct play and everything else is a mistake. Well, I’m personally quite familiar with everything else. I have, at some point, bungled a game in pretty much any way you can imagine. It’s not that I’m a particularly bad player – I like to think I’m actually fairly decent – but if you play long enough and aren’t careful, it’s inevitable.
The most interesting matches of my season so far came back to back at last week’s PTQ in Milford. I was playing Aluren, and my first opponent was Jonathan Ward of Team MYR. We were both 3-0 at this point and he begins the game with something like Duress, Birds of Paradise, Cabal Therapy and I assume he’s playing Rock, so I Cabal Therapy him back on Vampiric Tutor. He shows me a hand of Worship, and Academy Rector. What the hell? If your PTQ season has gone at all like mine, I’m sure you’ve had more than a few of these strange moments and can share my pain.
When Scott Johns sent me the list of names on the Magic Writers Invitational, I winced. Never before had I seen such a wretched hive of scum and villainy. After much deliberation and more than a few shots of tequila, I finally settled on the five least repugnant invitees. Which five did I choose and what dirt do I dish on them? Find out inside!
