In years past, Jim Ferraiolo has produced decks on the cutting edge of Standard technology, earning numerous players Top 8 berths at States, Regionals, and Nationals alike. This year he’s participating in Control week and serves up a new flavor of Opposition-esque goodness for your consideration.
Oscar the Lawyer produces what may be his final set review ever, and has lots to say about the goodies that Ravnica may or may not have provided the Vintage community.
Ted asked us if anyone would like to cover Constructed articles for States. He needed someone to do a deck in each of the viable archetypes, requesting for a group of someones to brave control. Recently the thought had occurred to me that far too many people have no idea exactly what it is they should do when they cast a Gifts Ungiven. They just do what they read people often go for, or they screw up really bad. It’s normally the latter on the PTQ scene, so today we’re going to cover Gifts decks for States and teach you how to cast that silly spell.
How do you take 60 pages of text and summarize it in one pithy blurb?
John.
Friggin’.
Rizzo.
Parental Guidance is suggested.
Last week, I threw a trio of deck outlines (they had been tested but not rigorously so) at you as jumping off points for the class to refine their decks. We’re going to do the same thing this week, but first I thought that I’d answer the excellent questions that some of your classmates came up with.
Fantastically talented Premium chop artist Yawgatog takes the reins of the Daily this week and proves that he’s nearly as funny and amusing with the text as he is with the images. You would have to be a fool not to read SCG Daily this week.
I opened a sealed deck that I was quite happy with as it finally let me utilize the power of the Golgari and contained a nice splashed bomb in Flame Fusillade. I lost all three matches I played with it, and apart from one I lost to an obvious misplay, I don’t know why I lost. Ravnica appears to have an extra degree of difficulty from your typical Limited environment and though I wasn’t successful last weekend, I did manage to learn a lot. I also have a nice sealed deck exercise for those of you that are interested.
What I’m looking to do here is a little bit different than most articles because this is a Choose Your Own Adventure article series for looking at Standard in the weeks leading up to States. I’ll start with three decks, one aggressive, one controlling, and one with a combinatory element, to be discussed, tweaked, and (perhaps by some adventurous few beyond just myself) tested if they look interesting. It’s an opportunity to allow for an exchange of ideas, among people who might be interested in using the Forums… but who might not be interested in contributing to any one particular thread, as elements of the deck in question hadn’t caught their interest. Consider this a place where ideas can change hands, and profit everyone involved, so long as people are willing to ride along with the experiment.
Due to our high volume of Ravnica orders, Ben’s Corner will not be appearing this week. However, I did want to make the following announcements:
1) Ravnica Foils will be entered into inventory Friday afternoon. Please click the “Click here to be emailed when it’s back in stock!” button to receive immediate notification the second each Ravnica foil is added to inventory.
2) Pro Player cards have been given their own category, and are now available for sale. Buy a Kai today!
Have a great weekend, attend your local Ravnica Release tournament this weekend, and I’ll see you all next week!
– Ben Bleiweiss
– General Manager, StarCityGames.com
Scoping out the individual metagame is critical to winning in multiplayer — but it’s even more crucial for enjoying it. Coming to the table with the wrong style of deck can result in hurt feelings and group breakups that make Jessica and Nick look tame. Thus, let us examine the types of metagames that tend to appear in multiplayer groups, and the best decks to sweep the each kind of group.
The creator of Type 4 speaks out – and according to him, Ravnica is not only the most powerful set that Type 4 has seen since its creation, but it’s got more solid cards than all of Kamigawa Block combined! So what are the top 20 Ravnica cards that will change the face of the infinite format?
While working on the Ravnica Constructed Review articles, one of the new cards that really stood out to me was Sunforger. Sunforger costs three mana to play and three mana to equip, giving its bearer +4/+0. In and of itself, this repertoire would make Sunforger almost strictly worse than Loxodon Warhammer, a card long on potential itself, but one that has been completely absent from Constructed deck for the past two years. On a lark, I actually posted a potential Sunforger deck in the Ravnica Artifacts section… but later realized it might actually be good.
By now, you should have asked the girl you’ve chosen previously in the week on a date. Some of you will have to try another woman next week, and some will already have been on their dates. As that was covered in yesterday’s installment, we will today look at date two and beyond. Making it work in the long run.
JP tells you about the new duties he has assumed in the community while also providing the skinny on all the cards from Ravnica that should make an impact in the Vintage world.
Yes, I’m a tool who wrote Yet Another Set Review. However mine focuses on Legacy. You know, that new format where you absolutely want all the new tech?
