This article is largely written for players who have a decent grip on the basics on Magic strategy and/or are fairly accomplished players. I’m guessing even a lot of awful players with a sound grip on logic can make some use of a few of the guidelines listed below, but if you are a complete novice or a true master of the game, you may not find it very useful. You have been warned.
The one and only blisterguy gives you a tale so great, so brilliant, so riddled with sheep that it might just take three parts to tell, and at the end you will all feel it is worth it. Do not miss this report.
Dear Dr. Mox,
I’ve been playing Magic since the launch of 4th Edition. I’ve stuck with it through 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th without complaint (other than my twenty-four hour blackout and so-called “rampage” after the release of Prophecy, but I’ve made my peace with that). 9th Edition is now in the shops, and I think it’s the best thing in the whole world. If the cards were people, I would throw a big party and invite them all. Except Sengir Vampire, of course, because he’d only complain about the garlic dip.
Previously, I explored some of the potential avenues of development for the up and coming Legacy Grand Prix. This time, I’m going to take a look at a more entrenched deck: R/G Beats. This deck won’t be nearly as prevalent as Goblins was this weekend at the Legacy World Championships, but it has some pretty solid game against the field and is something you need to be aware of if you want to succeed in the format.
The way Adam Chambers drafts is not how everyone else drafts. Rumors of his goofy pick orders and fascination for fatties and Snidds have abounded for months, so the man known as “Baby Chamby” felt it was time to step forward and explain why he drafts the way he does, and how it might just work for you too.
More than a few cunning plays and alterations are devised whenever a new set rears its head. Here the author submits for your approval and digestion a few noteworthy strategies and approaches to foil them. These are all relatively new gameplay situations granted to us from Ninth Edition or Saviors of Kamigawa that may crop up and ruin your Standard netdeck. Be wary of “bad players” randomly busting out “bad” cards to ruin your day.
In the cut-throat arena of Kamigawa Block, what is the informed Weapon of Choice? Never fear! I have examined the metagame and mined all available data and will provide you everything you need to know to win at Block Constructed, regardless of race, creed, gender, or basic intelligence.
I qualified for U.S. Nationals this year from the Pro Players Club. I got my first taste of the Pro Tour a long time ago when Tim Bulger (Tbulge), Nate Siftar, and myself won a team PTQ for Pro Tour: Boston, but I’d never been to Nationals before. Let me just say that this year was an interesting experience that started out quite well.
It’s only a month now until Kamigawa Block draft fades away leaving Ravnica in its place, but the format will still be present on Magic Online for considerably longer than that. I figured today would be a perfect time to give you my final thoughts on playing or drawing in the format, and adjust some minor pick orders in the earlier sets to correspond with what Saviors has done to the format.
First turn, I played a Goblin Lackey. Second turn, Lackey came across to dump Kiki-Jiki on the table, and EOT of Brandon’s turn, I copied it. I untapped and sent in the Lackey and his clone, using one free Lackey trigger to dump a Goblin Matron on the table. The Matron digs up Mogg Fanatic from my deck and I play it for free using the clone’s trigger. I then played Intruder Alarm, cloned the Fanatic a million times, and sacrificed all of them aimed at Brandon’s dome. Ah, the sweet taste of surprise.
So I recently went looking for one last Kamigawa Block deck to cheapen up. Obviously, Gifts Ungiven wasn’t going to be it. Way too many rares. I’d already looked at cheap Black Hand. I’d built and played a G/R Aggro deck (“And the Horse You Rode in On”), a mono-Red Burn-centric deck, and several cheap White decks. I even worked on Hondens. I was out of ideas. I turned to the wonderful StartCityGames.com KBC PTQ deck database for decks that might use The Romeo Treatment.
Yes, it is I, the good doctor, back once again to grace the fair, forthright and dolphin-friendly pages of StarCityGames.com.
Today StarCityGames.com is proud to bring you a first in Magic: the Gathering history – a Japanese writer brought to an English-language website. Masashi Oiso is widely recognized as one of the best players in the game right now and today he provides you a complete sideboard and matchup guide to Gifts Ungiven, a deck he has piloted to back-to-back Grand Prix Top 8s.
The best writers. The best players. The best Magic. Only on StarCityGames.com.
By now you have probably read the previous articles I’ve done on Kuroda-style Red and formed your own opinion – good or bad – on the deck that can be swayed neither by fact nor logic, certainly not the numbers. Today I’ll give you an updated decklist, a matchup guide, and explain how we tuned the second best deck in the format to beat pretty much everything else. Well, except the best deck…
The new Legacy format is upon us in the form of the World Championships at Gen Con and two Grand Prix towards the end of this year. Many people have questions about this fledgling format. If you’re one of those people, Ben’s written a complete guide explaining this history and rules of the Legacy format!
