Gifts Ungiven
It’s not quite Intuition, and it’s not quite Fact or Fiction. You can’t use it as a tutor for unrestricted cards like with Intuition, and your opponent chooses what you get, unlike FoF. There are still some no-win sets with this. Think Yawgmoth’s Will, Recoup, Black Lotus, and Lion’s Eye Diamond. There might also be some crazy combo kill with this as well. I’m not going to give up on it just yet.
Despite the fact that I fully planned to hate Champions, the gameplay was surprisingly palatable. It had a unique feel – that happy feel of equipment ported from Mirrodin, the ridiculous bomb critters of Onslaught but without the generic morph-o-rama dope mana curve, and a reliance on weird burn and enchantments that was uniquely its own. There was no auto-save if you built a crappy mana base, as there had been in Mirrodin’s colorless approach and Onslaught’s 2/2 for three.
I had a bunch of very tense and close races – that feeling that good deckbuilding skills really mattered, which I haven’t had in any set since Invasion.
What’s more awesome than awesome sauce? It’s Ben’s look at Champions of Kamigawa in Vintage! Last time around, Ben invoked the ire of the entire Vintage community with his less-than-respectful look at the Type 1 community and Fifth Dawn. Will this be another flamefest, or will the Vintage community heed Ben’s words and rally around his Vintage metagame instincts? Look inside, then post your thoughts in the forums!
Ben has repeatedly taken Wizards of the Coast R&D to task for their failure to boost the power level of White, easily the worst color in Magic. White’s the worst color in Vintage, the worst color in Extended, the worst color in Onslaught Block, the worst color in Mirrodin Block, and arguably the worst color in Standard. How bad was White this past year? It was so bad that Ben devotes an entire column bemoaning the fate of his favorite color.
During the Extended season of winter and spring 1999, Jamie Wakefield made a rather interesting observation. The dominant decks of the time was of course High Tide, but there were other decks of comparatively brief lifespan that also won very quickly; all of which were capable of a fourth turn kill. The thing is, during this extremely fast and high-powered format, even the mono-Red beatdown decks were getting into the act. Jamie’s observation? The burn decks were playing like combo decks. They had fast kills too, but they had to draw a certain way in order to get them.
Now, my butlers tell me the prerelease is this weekend, so I’ll be gearing my card analyses with that goal in mind. Not only will I provide you feedback on all the preview cards from the last week, I will also be discussing the strengths of the various colors that the spoiler has shown this far, and I have devised a prerelease Choose Your Own Adventure story to help round out your weekend. If you are looking to get a leg up on your Champions prerelease experience, you’ve come to the right place.
So after last week’s fake-out, Tater-Hatin’ Tim Aten is back this week to tell you why Japanese players are tough opponents, how nice guys finish (at least against him) and to fill you in on almost all of the happenings at the 2004 Magic World Championships. Hop on board, kids – it’s going to be a wild ride.
Many of you know Ben as one of the columnists of the site, but he’s also the General Manager of StarCityGames.com. One of his job duties is to set all of the buy and sell prices on the website. This means that he’s in the thick of determining the values and trends of Magic cards 24/7. Join him as he takes a look at the best cards you can trade for at the Champions of Kamigawa pre-release this weekend!
I think Ken’s Top Ten Mistakes aren’t really mistakes at all. He simply misjudged a few bombs, or was not paying attention to the same website he writes for. Let’s take a look at a few of his points and some of his Top Ten”mistakes”, along with some of my own recommendations before I tell you the things you really need to learn about MD5 Limited.
I was thinking about building a spelunking theme deck, and thinking about spelunking brought me to remembering my scouting days, which brought me to merit badges and “Voila!” I had an article idea. Sometimes it really is that easy. Let’s take a look at five decks inspired by Boy Scout Merit Badges. Each of these decks is designed to be halfway decent, and yet also gives plenty of room to the theme, and not competition.
The field of the Championships was wide open with a variety of decks from all aspects of the metagame represented in one form or another. Even combo, Tendrils-based or otherwise, had a decent showing with a Goblin Charbelcher deck making it to the semifinals, something most wouldn’t have expected before the event. There was also another deck flying under the radar. Only a select few had the privilege of seeing it in action, and the name of the deck, whispered only in the dark, shadowy catacombs of the convention hall was… Revenge.
I heard that Mike Turian recently got the new R&D job that Wizards had been advertising. I was just wondering would you or any other Pro still playing the game ever consider taking a job in R&D, or is playing on the Pro Tour too important?
I’m taking the day off to work on a super-secret project for StarCityGames.com, but I want your mail! Do you have any questions for me? Are there any stories that you’ve been burning to have me tell? Have you wanted to hear more about Bob, Anthony, Eric, Vinny "The Pimp" Falcone or any of the other cast of characters from the blog? Send your e-mails to [email protected] and the best of these e-mails will be compiled into an upcoming reader mailbag extravaganza!
The cunning solutions to Jeff’s puzzles, including the very tricky Thieve’s Auction play and a puzzle that will probably occur hundreds of times at the various State tournaments.
You’ve been on the Pro Tour for some time now and it seems like you are friends with a majority of the pros. I was just curious if you ever get intimidated when playing against someone?
