Advanced Metagaming
Part theory article, part Regionals report, and part strategy article containing an updated version of Staff-Go, this article has something for everyone.
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Rule of Law 9 – Reading the “Friendly” Card or “As”, the Word, Turns
Today, I would like to offer advice on how to read a card. I will focus more on rules text, and on certain words that have specialized meanings in Magic, as that is where confusion is rampant. Most of this is obvious, but everyone can benefit from a few reminders.
Lessons From Bob Maher
What did michaelj end up playing at Regionals? How did he do? Why, after all these years, is he still looking to The Great One for inspiration in his play? The answers to all these questions and more are just a click away.
Life In An Aquarium: Learn To Be A Predator
Vintage is full of Fish lately. Where does that leave us? We live in an environment without predators, instead allowing those lower on the food (power) chain to go unchecked. Why is this? The Fish have been the ones putting all the work into innovating and really getting down to the nitty-gritty. An important deck building skill is to examine the popular decks and figure out what exactly their weaknesses lie.
Gleaming the Cube
The best Magic format of all time happens to the the Cube draft. If you have never heard of this type of format before, don’t worry, I’m here to explain it and provide a complete listing of what you can do with a Cube and what is in my personal Cube that I play with pro Magic players around the world.
It’s Back – Five-Color Green in CBS Draft
It seems like at least once a block, Five-Color Green turns into not only a decent strategy, but a dominant one. Today Nick provides the details on how to draft the latest rendition of what can be a very powerful archetype.
SCG Daily – Mommy’s Little Monster: The Taste of Ink
Delicious stories from the Magic Invitational. E-mail Osyp and bug him about his own Invitational Report while devour Tim’s goodies.
May-June Type One Metagame Breakdown
You know the drill people. Pip steps up and compiles the numbers, and then teaches you things about the Vintage metagame you can only learn from his analysis, and you can only find his analysis here at StarCityGames.com.
SCG Daily – Mommy’s Little Monster: Hulluhback Bearl
Dear Tim Hoyt Aten,
You’re officially insane.
Love,
Knut
Silvestri’s Vintage Grab Bag, Vol. 1
Welcome to the grab bag, boys and girls! Today I’ll be covering a number of topics including underrepresented cards in the current format and opinions about which decks are viable in the current metagame, so I hope you’re ready to take notes.
Mox and Nail — A Florida Regionals 2nd Place Report
Tired of hearing about Tooth and Nail yet? I’m sure everyone is, but the list I’m sharing with you today is somewhat different from the traditional, bland, boring, uninspired build and it earned me a slot at U.S. Nationals.
The Origins of Zvi
How exactly does one go from geeky chess club kid to Pro Tour champion and now employee of Wizards of the Coast R&D? Was he bitten by a radioactive mosquito? Or perhaps struck by a bolt of lightning? Today Zvi shares the story of his Magical origins including providing readers with some of his earliest deck designs.
Finding the Gifts Deck
Gifts Ungiven was just an overhyped, underpowered Fact or Fiction clone. Or that’s what we thought in the beginning. Now it’s the engine for most of the best control-combo decks in Vintage, but what build is the correct one? As usual, the conclusions I come to in this article may be a bit off the beaten path, but man do they make a good deck.
Walk Like a Savior – The First CBS Draft Walkthrough
As I could not make it to Regionals this year, most of my recent play has been in drafts of the new Champions-Betrayers-Saviors variety. I am liking this format a great deal more than I did CCB – I couldn’t really comment on whether it’s a better format, but I know that I’m far more comfortable with it. That probably has something to do with the frequency of my drafts, which is way up, and as a result I’m in a much better position to comment upon drafts than I was a few months ago. The finer Limited writers on this here site here haven’t been quite as aggressive with the new tech as I was expecting, which is a shame, but I’m more than willing to fill the gap. That’s right, kids – I draft more, and you benefit!
SCG Daily – Mommy’s Little Monster: Longview
Today, I’ll be casting my votes for the Magic Hall of Fame. Unlike with the Writer’s Ballot for the Invitational, I’m not actually on the panel, so my vote is completely meaningless instead of just 95% meaningless. Before I tell you my four choices, here’s a quote from Brian Kibler about an undisclosed product: “I’m no marketing genius, but I do know teenage and preteen girls.”