JP chimes in with his thoughts on Interactivity, the changing applications of Force of Will and Mana Drain, plus some words of advice for those of you attending all these giant, rocking Vintage tournaments coming up.
The worst offense yesterday had to be in 303, where I took the Blademane Baku over Genju of the Falls. Forgive me for this transgression. Honestly, when I sat down and typed out that draft, even I felt like calling myself a moron in the forums. I came up with a lame excuse why I passed it, but hey, let’s just pretend I was on both crack and PCP when I did that. Except on June 3rd. That’s my court date.
If you play Magic Online, you are probably aware that the Vanguard release events are starting this week. But which avatars are the best and what decks do they belong in? Star Wars Kid’s got your back on this one, as he reviews the best of the avatars today as well as covering some of the major bugs you should be aware of before you participate in this new format.
Yes this event is real, and Scott Johns, editor of MagictheGathering.com, is here today to clear up some misconceptions about the event and to answer some of the more frequently asked questions he’s seen on the forums.
Today KK shares what he’s been thinking about the Magic world at large, Grand Prix: Detroit, and the concept of banning Umezawa’s Jitte. In Limited.
I-375 is an odd road. If you’re going to the Marriott Renaissance Center, where Grand Prix: Detroit was held, you don’t so much exit I-375 as it suddenly becomes a street in the middle of the city. There are many differences between a highway and a city street, and one should be prepared for these changes. My friend Jeff, who was driving the car we took from our Motel 6 to the site Saturday morning, was not prepared. As a result, we took the hard right turn at the end of I-375, not at the recommended, leisurely thirty-five miles-per, but at a highway-standard fifty-five to sixty. Some clever readers may already know what’s coming up next.
Abe gears up for the second part of his attempt to create a Base Set that he’s comfortable with by listing his uncommons… and we can almost guarantee that some of his choices for “good beginner cards that won’t overpower the format” (Rule of Law? Humble?) are sure to be controversial.
Today’s primary focus is the last deck I worked on before I called it a day: Five-color Green control, with White as the secondary color. The goal as I’ve said before is to get the most of the good cards in the format that you can and sling the big spells to the best of your ability. This is at the very least a noble attempt to achieve that objective.
If you’ve been around Rich Hoaen for any period of time, you’ll understand that he’s probably better known for his powers of flatuence than he is for his Magic play. This is in spite of the fact that he’s consistently one of the top Limited players in the world. Today you get the story of how he finished second at Grand Prix: Detroit and while you’re reading, feel free to count the number of his opponents that actually had no idea who this “Rich Hoaen” guy is.
Hello once again. So much has happened since yesterday. How about that Pro Tour Player’s club, eh? What about the return of Family Guy, huh? Remember that last article of mine, do you? Me neither, so I’m stalling for time while I reread it. I learned a lot from yesterday’s draft, and especially the kind and not so kind forum responses from the article. Many thanks to all who wrote in and crushed my fragile spirits! In the spirit of the fine forum responses I received, I shall detail the lessons I learned yesterday and use them to guide me in today’s draft.
The return of Sean McKeown to regular writing curiously coincides with a return of obscure French article titles, moody song lyrics, and more Standard decklists than you can shake a stick at, including what Sean would be working on if he were playing in the Pro Tour: Philly LCQ this weekend.
A while ago Kyle Boddy wrote an article on the concepts of momentum and inevitability, which was based off an article written by Flores. It was an interesting topic and really got me thinking about what inevitability actually means in different formats. Inevitability itself is hard to explain, since between two decks with similar strategies and speed, there is nothing truly tangible to argue one way or the other. It becomes completely dependent on the board state and resource position when two decks of similar types square off typically. Here’s my basic definition of inevitability…
In his second-to-last article before the Pro Tour commences, Zvi takes a look at the various Hana Kami decks and searches for broken synergies with this seemingly innocent 1/1 spirit.
The reason I wanted to wait an extra week or so on describing the March data was to find some continuity between Trinisphere and post-Trinisphere metagames. Fortunately, the connection isn’t “games are over on turn 1”. The connection is Mana Drain. Any look at the March tournaments begs the question of what will now disappear from the Vintage metagame, and what will be playable that wasn’t before.
Pugg Fuggly is not a sane man. In fact, we’re not even sure he’s human. When he came to me and told me his idea about doing a daily draft walkthrough and then using forum feedback to adjust his strategies each day, I tried to talk him out of it because I knew it would be an insane amount of work to pull off. That didn’t stop him, and now you get five straight days of hot drafting action. Please, take pity on the man – read this article and then help him out in the forums!
