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A Deck a Day: Andre Rison

The final installment of week one is here! When I sat down to write today’s article, I wondered at what sort of deck I could build. I thought about some of my previous articles, and then inspiration hit. Wouldn’t it be nice to build a deck using one or more of the cards that I tout in my Underused Card articles? Ah synergy, I knew you well.

The Past as Prologue: Extended in 2002-2003

In the fourth installment of Peter’s series searching for tech in the bones of Extended seasons past, he examines the great set rotation of 2001 and then explores the new decks and old archetypes that arose, including many that you will see this coming season.

SCG Daily – A Deck a Day: Godo and His Maul

Bonjour mes amis! Today we have the fourth installment of the Daily Deck-a-thon. Today’s deck revolves around a Champions of Kamigawa card named Godo, Bandit Warlord. We are going to build a Red/White deck based around both of Godo’s abilities. Let’s take a look at the deck first, shall we?

The Anatomy of a Vintage Team

Until now, Teams in Vintage have simply just “been”. There has been no classification, code of conduct, or any real structure to how a team is formed. Teams tend to sprout up as if nothing went into its formation and rivalries are formed among people who don’t even know each other. In this article I plan to help end all that with clarifications of what really matters in the world of teams.

Weak Among the Strong: Revisiting the Scarce Resource

The scarce resource is a fundamental strategic concept, whether in business, life or Magic, but it doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. Understanding scarce resource theory will help you draft, sideboard and make tough judgment calls during play, and is just as important a fundamental as card advantage or tempo. If you’ve been looking for a general guide that will lead you to making better plays, this is it!

Benevolence and Foliage: White and Green in Betrayers of Kamigawa

This is going to be a long one, so I’ll keep the introduction short. This is a first look at the Constructed quality of Betrayers of Kamigawa. Since my expertise is only in Standard, I’m going to leave Limited and Extended evaluations to other people. I’m also going to give a separate rating for a card’s Kamigawa Block Constructed worthiness, since that format is quite different from Standard.

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Keywords!

It’s that time again. It’s time for the release of a new set, full of plenty of new cards waiting to be sprung upon the magic populace. New cards are, fundamentally, a cool thing. New toys to play with means more fun for everyone, right? And better yet, if those new cards have a new ability, some interesting mechanic to tinker with and build around, that creates even more possibilities! Every keyword added to the game gives players more options for deckbuilding, more choices of what direction to go. Keywords are an all-around good thing. This is Wizards of the Coast’s attitude, and I agree with them. To a point.

SCG Daily – A Deck a Day: Enchantment Beats

Welcome back to the third installment of your daily dosage of deck. Today we are going to feature an old 250 combo in a neat, tight, sixty-card deck. The goal of the deck is simple, and I think that many of our readers might like it. It is a bit rare-heavy, but that can easily be changed. Let’s take a look.

Extended White Weenie Part II: The Rest of the Matchups

In Part I, we looked at some of the most extreme matchups for Extended White Weenie, both the worst (board-locking NO Stick and Pernicious Deed-packing Rock), as well as what we initially thought of as some of the best – Red Decks. While the various Rock decks and U/W control were about as bad as expected, and Red Deck Wins was maybe even better than expected, Goblins didn’t turn out as expected at all. In this section, we will round up most of the rest of the expected Extended metagame and begin to determine if White Weenie is bad or just misunderstood.

SCG Daily – A Deck a Day: Blew Skies

Welcome to the next installment of A Deck a Day, the column where we rustle up a deck for you casual players. Many of my regular readers probably know that I’m on the Five Color Ruling Committee (or Council, I can never remember which, and I always see it abbreviated 5CRC, so I don’t even know). What many of you may not recall is that I also sit on the Peasant Magic ruling body as well. Although I recently had a Peasant Magic article published in Scrye, I haven’t written here about Peasant Magic for a while. Let’s change that today.

Taking Stax To A Tournament – Deckbuilding And Metagaming Guidelines

Stax has been an important part of the Vintage metagame since its introduction in early 2003. Back then, the card choices were pretty easy due to the limited amount of broken stuff. Sphere of Resistance, Smokestack, Tangle Wire and Meditate were indeed the only lock components available before Mirrodin for an artifact Prison deck (Winter Orb does not fit in Stax’s game plan). Now, we have plenty of new tools in the form of Chalice of the Void, Thirst for Knowledge, Trinisphere and Crucible of Worlds. Nevertheless, card slots are not expendable and choices have to be made in order to have the most finely tuned build according to your metagame. This article will provide general guidelines for answering most of the questions you should ask yourself if you want to take Stax at a Vintage tournament.