This is it, folks, the massive conclusion to Zvi’s Saviors of Kamigawa set review. Which Green cards and artifacts are worth playing? What card gets the award for best design? Which cards make Zvi’s Top 10 list for the entire set? The answers to these questions and more are just a click away.
Gadiel wraps up the tale of his Pro Tour victory with the inside scoop on the events of Day 2 right through the finals, including some stark refutations of what the commentators thought he should be doing versus what the right play actually was. This article is worthwhile for the Flores and Buehler beatings alone!
As a quick review of this series’ previous articles, let’s list all of the cards worthy of consideration in the final build of a Mono-Green deck. Beside each of these cards’ names will be notations, each of which will have playability rankings. If a particular build of Mono-Green isn’t mentioned, it’s because the card in question is unsuitable there; for example, although Rhox might have a place in Big Green, it’s definitely not going into Green Weenie. For the purposes of this article, I’ll assume that Elf-based Green Weenie and Medium or Big Green with equipment are bad ideas. This latter point is highly controversial, and you’re free to play whatever form of Mono-Green you like, but it’s key to my understanding of the deck.
Given the results of French Regionals and the Last-Chance Philadelphia qualifiers, it’s probably safe to say mostly-Green (it’s not mono-Green, so stop calling it that) is, if not Tier 1, knocking at the door. I’ve been testing the hell out of Green Party, the deck from my last article, and I’ve made the some discoveries and learned some lessons about the strengths and weaknesses of the deck.
Pity Edd Black. He’s written some very funny articles, and has been in second place every week he’s written…. but somehow he always gets edged out. In this case, he had a darned fine Star Wars-related article on Emperor Multiplayer that was a lock… right up until he got knocked out at the last minute by the “How-did-he-think-of-that” hysteria of using Topsy Turvy to reverse the turn sequence and go infinite in Emperor. Workable? Maybe. Funny enough to be worth $20? Yes.
Don’t worry, Edd. Your day is coming.
Though the entries were few and far between this week, next week oughtta get your blood boiling:
The Most Creative Saviors Of Kamigawa Combo.
That’s right; develop a deck (and an article explaining the deck, of course) based around at least one Saviors of Kamigawa card. It doesn’t have to be an infinite combo – just some weird combination of cards that wins games with style. The more unique the win, the better the prize, as long as it’s within reasonable limits. So send your article into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2 and you could win $20!
That which is rogue may come to define the format. The idea of a virgin Regionals is intoxicating. It is almost as good as the old meatgrinders used to be. The only reason the meatgrinders were better is because the formats would change every few hours. However, Regionals has the advantage of scale. And with Regionals in mind, I’d like to take a first look at Saviors of Kamigawa with an eye for how it will fit into the new Standard environment.
I’ve been holding back the rogue in me for months…. And I can’t stand it any longer. The release of Saviors of Kamigawa provides an ideal time to reexamine rogue strategies. If they didn’t work before, maybe a new card or two in Saviors will push an old rogue concept over the top. So let’s take a look at 12-land Belcher, Gifts Ungiven Control, and a U/R Fish-style deck.
Today’s bonus game in Zvi’s set review is the color tally where Zvi adds up all the stars for each color and tells you which one comes out on top. In addition to that info, he also tells you which cards from Red (like say… Thoughts of Ruin) earned the Mowshowitz stamp of approval.
Like many people, I am very excited about the editor’s idea of getting the Pros to play Vintage and see if they can dominate in the next big tournament. Being shamefully ignorant of the format, I thought I would have a look at the coverage of the tournament in Richmond this weekend, to see what sort of competition Zvi and the gang would have. I learned all about lots of new concepts such as “Stax”, “TPS”, “Meandeck Tendrils” and “Gifts Belcher”, as well as recognizing some old favorites such as Oath and Fish. So then I thought I’d read the coverage to see which of these decks was coming out on top. And got an odd sense of déjà vu…
Unlike previous entries in the Grand Reweave Experiment, I love this deck. It possesses a ton of what Mike Flores has called Velocity; although you are not gaining card advantage per se, every card in your deck accomplishes more and more, until late in the game it seems like each draw step just breaks the opponent. It’s not uncommon for a Reweave that you draw in the opening hand to still be working your opponent over well into the late game, transforming Meloku tokens into Yosei over and over until you end the game with The Unspeakable.
It took four days, but today Grydehoj finally shows his true, traitorous colors. After giving you three full articles full of awesome green spells and creatures, today the yellow-bellied Dane betrays all you Green fans by proposing other colors to sully the beautiful color of nature.
That Wakefield guy is always coming up with new decks that break the mold. Today he not only gives you his current Elvish beatdown decklist, but also discusses the other end of the Green scale with a decklist that focuses on an overlooked uncommon from Mirrodin.
Today Zvi covers all that black has to offer including a few real winners, an entry that gets no stars whatsoever, and a photoshop that you have to see to believe.
So what did Martin learn from writing this excellent series and how will that knowledge help you as we transition to an environment containing Saviors of Kamigawa as well? That’s what today’s wrap-up article covers, so check it out.
Congratulations are in order to StarCityGames.com’s Magic Invitational winner Terry Soh! Today Terry takes a peak back at his Magic career, how his attitude and abilities have changed over the years, and what going to the Invitational meant to him.
