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Betraying the Secrets of Kamigawa

When Champions of Kamigawa was introduced, my typical slew of articles on sealed deck construction was noticeably absent. I could offer a myriad of excuses for my lack of literary offerings, from being too busy at work to insisting that I still wasn’t quite moved in and had plenty house organization left to do. The reality was that I just didn’t understand Kamigawa sealed. It wasn’t until the Betrayers Team Sealed tournament at the Prerelease that the answer dawned on me. The key word that you need to understand in order to succeed at Champions Sealed deck is synergy.

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I Blame My Pajamas: 28 Men’s (and 3 Women’s) Opinions on Betrayers White

It’s Pro Tour week for Mr. Aten, so what does he do? That’s right, that lazy sack of meat farmed out the entire article to his friends and made them write the review of Betrayers of Kamigawa White. So why should you still be interested in this article? Because Tim has friends with names you might have heard of like Nassif, Parker, Kibler and Krouner, that’s why!

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #124: Three Extended Combos that Almost Work

Since I’m never content to play someone else’s deck, I spent a lot of time trying to break Extended. Since I’m not divinely inspired and am sorely lacking in “copious free time,” I didn’t. I will present three combo decks that each fail, each for different reasons. Golden Retriever is not better than the alternatives. Snap-Witness works, but not in this metagame. Finally, Food Chain Myojin is… well it’s just plain cool.

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SCG Daily – A Deck a Day: Token Resistance

Before I begin today’s deck, I want to mention that the idea for this deck came from my friend Aaron. Aaron witnessed me playing a Symbol Status for 12 creatures and declared it to be broken. Of course, I agree. I’ve always thought that Symbol Status was one of the best cards in Unhinged.

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Top Deck at Grand Prix: Eindhoven

Hi, my name is Ruud Warmenhoven and I have finished in the Top 16 at every Extended pro-level tournament I have ever entered. In all these events I played a weird deck that most people would call rogue and wouldn’t include in their testing. I have been seen casting such hits as Battlefield Scrounger, Constant Mists, Lightning Angel and now Sensei’s Divining Top and won games with them. The story of how I ended up playing the Top at Eindhoven involves the English, a drunken bar fight, and a man named Draco…

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Weak Among the Strong: Threats and Execution

The threat is stronger than the execution. I first read this strategic insight during a past life in which I played and studied Chess instead of Magic. Some Chess strategies simply don’t apply to Magic – Chess is a game of perfect information in which identical forces contest with all pieces beginning on the board. Magic involves imperfect information and each draw can radically change the balance of force available to each player. Nevertheless, many strategic truths apply as powerfully to Magic as to Chess… and this may be one of them.

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This Is Not A PTQ Report (But I Won Anyway)

Extended is my favorite format, so I get very down on myself if I play poorly. The expectations of my performance I hold for Extended far exceed what is reasonable, given my poor preparation habits. This is because I am old, and old people have no time to prepare. Don’t laugh, kids, it will happen to you one day.

Let me put this another way: I suck, but I’m not supposed to suck when I shuffle up Aluren.

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Damn You, Manifest Destiny! Another Theory On The Demise of American Magic

After reading Ben Bleiweiss’ article, I have my own pet theory on the reason behind the supposed death of American Magic. It’s not because of poker. It’s not the result of poor internet etiquette, either. My finger is pointed squarely at geography.

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Two Extended Formats, Two GPs

Today Zvi muses on the best versions of the best decks to come out of the last two Grand Prix weekends, including Tsuyoshi Fujita’s incredible Sneak Attack deck. Still think the deck is a fluke? Here’s a preview of Zvi’s analysis which includes an optimized decklist: “I love this deck. It goldfishes better than any other deck in the format…”

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SCG Daily – A Deck a Day: Burn’em and Send’em

I was considering ideas for the next entry in the daily deck-a-thon, when I decided to use a Betrayers card as the theme to the next deck. Of course, I didn’t know which card to use, so I took a look at a list of Betrayers cards until something jumped out at me. It always will, if you stare long enough.

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Ya’ll Got It Wrong – Common Misunderstandings About Pattern-Rector

Rosholm is one of those underground Magic writers that far too few people know about compared to how talented he is. He is also one of the most well-respected (and coolest) European Magic writers around and counts Tim Aten and Tomi Walamies among his fans. If Jack Kerouac had liked hip-hop, then Rosholm would be the Swedish Kerouac of Magic writing. Here’s what’s on his mind today: “A couple of people before me have tried to promote the Pattern-deck as a solid choice for these final weeks of the Extended season. Those players, I believe, have been both right and wrong. Pattern is a great choice for the Extended format in general, but their lists are not.”

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The Beautiful Struggle: Weird Science for CCB Draft

Funny things start happening after you get a few drafts under your belt with a new set. New avenues seem available. It’s easy to convince yourself that you are privy to the real tech, that some cards which everyone else thinks are crap are super-playable, and other heavily-hyped cards seem not so good. It’s too early to say whether every strange draft idea I have seen in the CCB format will prove itself worthy. But there are a couple of decks that I have drafted, or seen drafted, that really fascinate me and have proven to be at least playable if not good. This article is dedicated to those new draft ideas including one I like to call… Ninjank!

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Gifts Ungiven Belcher Control – The Primer-Type Thing

Those of you who are familiar with our Power 9 Event Coverage probably know all about the infamous Brass Man, a player adept at deckbuilding, amusing one-liners, and utterly smashing Stephen Menendian(s). For those of you who have not heard of this colorful character of Vintage, follow along today as he introduces his very saucy version of Gifts Ungiven Control that uses Goblin Charbelcher and Mana Severance as a combo win condition. If any of this sounds confusing or counter-intuitive, this excellent article is just a click away, prepared to explain the whole thing.

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Vintage Decks To Beat – March 2005

The Star City Power Nine Tournament Series!

With Syracuse in the books, the eyes of the Vintage community now turn to the next Star City “Power Nine” tournament in Chicago! Can Kevin Cron successfully defend his Syracuse title? Will new archetypes emerge in the wake of the Trinisphere restriction? Can anyone stop Team Mean Deck? These questions, and more, will be answered at the 3rd stop in the 2005 Star City “Power Nine” Tournament Series; Chicago! Make plans to attend!

In the meantime, check out the Vintage Decks To Beat for March 2005!

[Sat, April 16th – SCG P9 Chicago!]

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Religious Right or Liberal Left?

Sometimes, the most seemingly-trivial things can affect the strategy of your games. And when you’re playing Emperor or Two-Headed Giant, there’s one subtle fact which can affect deckbuilding in very interesting ways.

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