During 1999’s Extended PTQ season, a mistake by his teammate forced Michael Flores to ask the question “Who’s the Beatdown?” Six years later, another Extended format prompts him to re-examine the strategies he advocated in what may be the greatest single Magic article of all time. The Limit of Interactivity challenges Michael’s own conclusions, and, while it categorizes Extended decks into two distinct groups, this time they aren’t “beatdown” and “control.”
Wrapping up our Extended Mega-Event is none other than Brian David-Marshall. Instead of covering Solitary Confinement as he originally planned, today BDM brings you a staggering array of potential rogue decks that are already making their impact on this Extended season. If you are looking for something off the beaten path (and in some cases way off) to play this weekend, or maybe just trying to survey some of the randomness you might see at your local PTQ, then you must read this article.
Well, I was gonna start off with a nice review of Betrayers White for Limited but “someone” beat me to the punch. Someone always seems to beat me to the punch, although sometimes someone is someone else. Or something. That notwithstanding, I feel that it’s my civic duty to write a Limited set review. It’s my “area of expertise.” I guess I’ll start with Green and work backwards, tragically overlapping with Eisel in one of the weeks. And since you’re paying for this advice now, as a signup bonus, I’ll toss in Red this week at absolutely no extra charge. You’re actually saving money by purchasing a StarCity premium account. If you have any questions about the math on that, allow me to refer you to my business associate Rodman. He’ll explain everything.
Mike Flores and I spent the weekend losing at Magic, but I’ll spare you the boring details of that sad tale and instead focus on a discussion we had after the tournament was over. What came up on the car ride home wasn’t how to beat the combo decks that ran rampant in Boston, but why our Red decks were suddenly incapable of winning. There were two decks in the Top 16 that tried to win with Red men and burn – the rest of the Top 16 is filled with combo, combo and more combo, until you reach the Top 2 where you find a deck that combines two combo decks in one! So why can’t Red decks keep up? It’s a thing we termed Interaction.
I remember the first time I saw Skullclamp. I had just shown up to the Darksteel prerelease and a friend of mine had the Clamp in play. I had to read the card three times before I could believe what I was reading, and it was clear that this card could do some serious damage in Constructed formats. Now we have another one-mana artifact warping Constructed environments. This time it didn’t even make me blink when I first read it, and I think most people missed its power until it had been played enough to show itself. Aether Vial is no Skullclamp, but it is still fundamentally broken and is probably hurting Magic, especially Extended. It should go.
Dear Doctor Mox,
Why does Wizards make bad cards?
Do Randy and Mark hate me?
Sincerely,
Tiny Tim
P.S. I cry myself to sleep at night when I think about the possibility of opening up another Twist Allegiance.
What would you put in the ultimate anti-metagame deck? Akroma and Worship against RDW, plus Cabal Therapy, Duress and Cranial Extraction against combo and Scepter-Chant, a fast Planar Void against Reanimator, and Pernicious Deed against weenie and Affinity. Infinite Eternal Witness recursion would be nice, and a turn 3 kill would round it out. So, is there such a deck? Yes, actually, there is.
Looking for cool new card interactions in the new set? Well, John’s read Bennie Smith’s article and come up with a heaping helping of fresh new Betrayer-ready combos! How about a combo that provides an infinitely-large creature, or infinite life, or infinite life loss, or infinite mana, all by swapping a single kill card….
In the first part of this series, I introduced a new Type One deck. It was an attempt to break the format – A deck that will take a great deal of time to completely master, will test your limits, hone your skills, and demand elevated focus. In this article, I’m going to explain and justify the various card choices and show how to play them correctly.
In Zvi’s wrap-up, he details whether or not Green got the shaft in Betrayers (as usual), checks under the hood for playable artifacts and lands, and lists his Top 9 cards of the set. If you’ve been following along, or even if you haven’t, this is not to be missed!
Cephalid Breakfast very nearly won a Grand Prix last weekend, so you can be absolutely certain it will be played at upcoming PTQs. Bennie Smith takes the deck to the numbers and looks at all of the matchup data for the deck against every deck played in Pro Tour: Columbus to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie. If you plan to play Extended this season, this is information you must have.
Until last year, Terry Soh was just a kid from Malaysia who couldn’t get a draft in his home country. Now he’s a bonafide Pro Tour star, with two Grand Prix Top 8s, a National Team slot, and two Pro Tour Top 8s to his name. How did this leap occur? Terry thinks you can do the exact same thing he did, and he’s willing to give you the steps necessary to accomplish just that.
Can you make a good version of all-common White Weenie for the Standard environment? How about mono-Red Land Destruction? Chris finishes his “all commons all the time” stint with a couple of new decks that earn mixed results.
Extended decks or goofy theme decks? Who the hell cares man, it’s Ninjas vs. Pirates in the latest installment of SCG Daily from Doctor Mox!
Set reviews often come across as boring because writers include way too many cards in their review: “Come one, come all, to the Giant Set-a-Thon where Mega Magic Reviews are held! You’ll hold onto your seats as I count through every single card, no matter how obviously useless or powerful! Rar!” Instead of listing every card, and then saying how much it sucks in Five-Color compared to previous cards, I’ll just skip the bad ones altogether to bring you only the noteworthy Betrayer cards of Five-Color.
