When looking at a new Standard season, it’s always a good idea to peak back at the previous year’s Block Constructed Pro Tour and see what ideas you can take from that tournament. Today Flores uses Masashiro Kuroda’s winning deck from Kobe and turns it into what may once again be one of the best decks in the format.
This week, I have been taking 8th Edition precons, adding enough lands and commons to make them Constructed legal, then turning them into turbocharged racing machines. It’s like NASCAR… if NASCAR started with lawn tractors. Little lawn tractors. It’s Friday, and the only deck I haven’t powered up is Speed Scorch, the goblin thing, so fire up the torches and let’s start cutting.
While Kenji Tsumura and Gadiel Szleifer were battling for $10,000, Rick was over playing in the $2,000 Amateur Standard event and learned quite a few things about how Red decks work in this environment.
Once Knutson’s only barn, Star Wars Kid (Chris McDaniel) has since graduated to Featured Writer, Level 2 Pro, and a solid slinger of spells. Today this Taking Back Sunday team member gives you a look behind the scenes at the development of the winning Pro Tour: Philadelphia deck, shows you the humble beginnings of his version of the deck, and explains why sometimes it’s just not possible to get a good night’s sleep before the Pro Tour.
Deciding to play the right deck is critical to Type One success. This article is going to provide a comprehensive overview of the six best Mana Drain decks in the format. It will trace the trends in development thus far and bring us to some very recent design innovations. The trend that was already in the making has suddenly blossomed at the same time as the restriction of Trinisphere, resulting in the most broken Drain combo decks ever.
I’m spending my week turning the horrible 40-card 8th Edition precons into amazing Constructed decks. I tuned Expulsion for Standard, turned Lifeboost into a killer Peasant Magic deck and converted Heavy Hitters into a smashing Vanguard deck. Today I tackle Sky Slam, which is destined to become a new Type Two archetype.
Yesterday, I introduced you to the amazing new StarCityGames.com deck database, showing you all of the cool new features… or at least all the cool new features you could find by looking at a single deck. Today, we go over the Season Summaries, which give you the metagame at a glance.
I’ve now spent… must be close to a hundred hours on MODO. I just can’t imagine getting back into Magic without this tool. Without a store nearby to play in, it would be impossible. Without being able to test my deck a couple hundred times before Regionals, it would be impossible. Without being able to see what everyone else is working on and how the metagame is developing, doing well at a sanctioned event would be the equivalent of buying a Powerball ticket. And yes, I’m still working on the Elf deck – but that’s not the only deck I’m working on…
Mr. Grydehoj takes you on a wild ride into the world of one-power creatures, where no matter what you try, the decks don’t quite end up working. That doesn’t stop them from being fascinating experiments in deckbuilding.
I’m busily turning the 8th Edition precons into well-oiled machines, one per day. On Monday I turned Lifeboost into a steam-powered chicken plucker soaked in rancid olive oil. Yesterday I turned Expulsion into an electric pencil sharpener, dripping with the SAE 30 I drained from my tractor. Well-oiled machines indeed. Today it’s time to tackle Heavy Hitters.
A Gifts Ungiven deck that uses Goblin Charbelcher and Mana Severance, but completely removes Goblin Welders from the deck? Can that possibly be good? Our favorite Frenchie Vintage writer thinks so, and there’s a good chance that you’ll see more than a few people running it at the Vintage Megaevent in Paris this weekend!
Today Zvi reviews everything that happened at Philly, including his own performance at breaking down the format (one that Randy Buehler and Mike Flores said he nailed in the coverage), plus he discusses the payout structure, the surprise decks, and the two topics that had everyone at the site buzzing all weekend: The Players Hall of Fame and the Pro Tour Players Club!
Taking Back Sunday not only won a Pro Tour this weekend, but members of the team were posting solid results two weeks ago in Detroit as well. In today’s article, TBS member John Pelcak explains how the Online E3 tournaments helped him prepare for Detroit, and how he ended up fighting for the Top 8 after starting Day 1 with a loss and Day 2 all the way down in 63rd place.
I’m following in the footsteps of JMS and Chris Romeo and turning precons into powerhouse decks, at the rate of one per day. I’m also doing it on the cheap: using the precon plus whatever I get from five drafts. Given that, I’m aiming for winning half my games in some competitive format – in other words, I want the decks to have a reasonable chance.
We’ve been working on it for the past three months. And now it’s time to reveal the new and completely revamped deck database in all of its glory!
Step in. Take a look around. Don’t be scared.
