After whipping through the frenetic world of Affinity and Tooth and Nail yesterday, today Dr. Moxenstein turns his keen analytical eye on Green/Black and Mono-Blue in your favorite Friday Night format.
One cannot doubt that Control Slaver has been growing both in popularity and success in Vintage. Many prominent players were critical of the deck at first, but it has since put up enough results to convince the skeptics. While the deck’s ability is beyond dispute, what has not been settled is the question regarding the optimal build. In this article, I focus on an important issue that many players face when constructing their Control Slaver lists: should the Intuition/Accumulated Knowledge engine be in the deck?
In the first half, I went over the restricted list and covered the mechanics which appeared in the restricted cards. To recap, they were undercosted cards (Ancestral Recall), overpowered cards which cannot properly be costed (Balance), mana producers (Black Lotus), cards which are overpowered in multiples (Black Vise), tutors (Demonic Tutor), and combo engines (Dream Halls). In this half, I’ll go over some of the other cards that are unrestricted in Vintage that might fit into one or more of these categories along with some of the commonly requested restrictions.
The term Metagame, like the terms postmodern and existentialism, gets thrown around a lot by pseudo-intellectuals who don’t actually know its meaning. The word metagame means, most simply, the types of decks that are being played in a geographic area. The metagame includes both deck archetypes and individually tuned decks. For example, the metagame for an area might consist of control decks. There might be one prevalent control deck, or a couple of different types, but control decks are being played the most overall. The metagame is what will determine whether your deck succeeds or fails.
Abe has a deck with three hundred and fifty of the worst cards in Magic in it. He reaches in, pulls out a card… and no matter how bad the card is, he has to build a deck around it. What five dreadful cards does he draw this time, and what sorts of decks can he assemble when the core is a sucktacular card?
Fresh off a Top 4 finish at Pro Tour: Nagoya, Murray Evans is here to give you the skinny on how to draft the deck that carried him to another Sunday finish: Blue/Red. In addition to detailing how to draft it in Champions Limited, Murray also gives you updated information on what will be good for the archetype out of Betrayers and tells you whether or not he thinks the deck will still be viable when the new set rotates in.
Dear Doctor Mox,
Don’t you realize that TYPE TWO is the only true Constructed format? Who cares if there’s a PTQ season ongoing? FNM is the tournament that separates the men from the boys!
Come on, Mox! Pull your finger out! Give us the skinny on the Standard scene!
Aaron,
Renton, WA
Though he didn’t post a stellar record at Pro Tour: Nagoya, Ruud managed to bring back some interesting stories and solid strategy from his travels. Whether you are looking for opinions about ninjutsu or salsa dancing with Japanese hotties, this report has a little of everything.
Oscar takes a look at Betrayers Artifacts and Enchantments today as well as continuing the replay of “Oscar’s Greatest Misses.” Is there anything in the new set that will make a dent on Vintage, or does the whole set whiff when it comes to playable new cards? Only the Oscar knows…
Zvi begins to apply Betrayers of Kamigawa cards to Standard in order to gauge whether any of them will change both the current metagame and the post-banning one that will be coming in March. He also includes a new Red deck in Standard, weighs in on Aaron Forsythe’s announcement from Friday, and gives his opinion on the current Invitational voting.
Dear Doctor Mox,
I’m terrible at trading. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve handed over my valuable rares for a handful of diabolical tat. Once, I even traded away my packed lunch, my bus-fare and my trousers. I had to walk home hungry with my bits a-floppin’. Help me, Doctor Mox. I’ve Pale Moons in every pocket, Solarions on every surface, and Mudholes coming out of my mudhole!
How does it feel for a relative unknown to scrape and claw their way back into contention for a Pro Tour Top 8 only to finish 9th on tiebreakers? Tiago Chan now knows the feeling, and he shares the tale of his entire weekend with you in this report.
I can’t remember a time when Blue wasn’t my favorite color in Magic. I’ve heard a number of top-notch players say it is one of the worst colors in triple Champions draft, and while I believe they have some good arguments to back this statement, I simply cannot agree with it. It could be a matter of personal preference, my extreme dislike for Black, or a number of other things, but I still draft Blue quite often in CCC (on MTGO) and believe it to be one of the top colors in the format. With that in mind, it’s time to look at the impact that Betrayers will have on my beloved color.
We now return to our continuing saga of Chad Ellis, the young…well, the not old…okay fine, he’s really old, former Pro Tour player. Extended season now beckons – the format that took Chad to his first Pro Tour ever. Will he be able to continue his streak by winning GP: Boston? Will he even make Day 2, or will he have to try his luck at the Day 2 PTQ? Read on, and see things from Chad’s own perspective, as he writes both before and after the event.
