Crazy Carl takes a look at what all the Type One players can expect this weekend at the Syracuse Power 9 event. Aside from profiling the decks to beat, Carl also includes an extended interview with Control Slaver master Rich Shay and some suggestions of how to metagame the field, all in his own irreverent style.
The short version of the story is this: I read Chris Romeo’s article. I was intrigued. I thought of a few cards I might have tried out myself. I kept thinking of cards. I thought of more cards. I thought to myself, “Self, there are a lot of cards that could get played in a mono-Black deck.” So many, in fact, that one could probably build three separate, respectable mono-Black decks from the available Standard card pool without topping four of any given non-Swamp card. Now, I’m not feeling quite that ambitious, but you get the idea: there’s a lot out there. Today I’m going to focus on the evolution of one such deck that proved to be surprisingly good in testing.
I’ve been thinking for a while about how to improve tournament reports and make them more useful for the people reading them, and I’ve decided that what I’m going to try doing is a more interactive style of report. For each of the crucial decisions during the tournament which decided how I got on, I’ll explain the situation and then ask you what you would have done in this situation, before explaining what I did and what I should have done. If there’s anything that you want more information about, then just post in the forums and I’ll do my best to reply.
What’s a boy to play in a diverse environment rife with aggro-control strategies? At first Terry wasn’t sure, but then he honed in on the idea of playing his favorite card ever in the environment (Eternal Witness), and soon found himself developing a Red Rock deck designed to bash the PTQ field to bits. In this detailed Primer, Terry gives you all the details you need to know in order to take this deck to a PTQ and do well.
You asked for it? You got it! StarCityGames.com readers asked to see more writing on the multiplayer Emperor format… And Laura Mills (who is now playing games weekly with Anthony Alongi) has stepped up to the plate! Read on as she dissects the two main strategies you can take in Emperor – mainly, how you view your generals.
For months now, Arcane has been a deck whose time had not yet come. It was always interesting, but few could doubt that such decks were outclassed in Standard while Block has yet to become important. Betrayers offered a number of new cards to add to the mix, but it was not until the announcement of The End of Affinity that it became time to look at a possible Standard build of an Arcane deck. The point of playing Arcane is to play two categories of cards – arcane spells and cards that reward you for Arcane spells. Before deciding on a theme, it would be best to meet the components.
Oath is perhaps the only archetype in the format that has been revolutionized by Champions of Kamigawa, thanks to one card: Forbidden Orchard. Despite the short time since its introduction, many individuals on both sides of the Atlantic have tried to use a variety of different cards in the deck. I thought it would be useful to dissect the various levels of success found by different builds in the last couple of months. In comparing the twenty Oath builds that have made Top 8s in major Type One events since October, only twelve cards were in all twenty decks.
“Craig,” said Ted. “Betrayers has just been released. How about doing a new series of Sealed Revealed?”
“Do I have to?” I replied. “I’m still a bit rubbish at Limited.”
“Well, we’re not forcing you to write more Sealed Revealed,” said Ted. “But if you don’t, we’ll have your legs broken.”
In my last article I talked about simplistic decks to play, but some of you may have noticed something in common with the decks – they were all fully powered, save Spoils Dragon, which doesn’t really help the people lacking any power at all. So I’m here to help out with your problems. This will be mostly an educational article, but I’ve tried to keep it somewhat interesting for those of you with short attention spans. Even if you are fully powered, you should probably read this to know what you’ll be up against.
You demanded it and we made it happen. Blog Fanatic returns for a two-week stint on SCG Daily today, and Ben kicks things off right, reminiscing about the early day of Neutral Ground and one player who simply could not beat him, no matter how good the odds.
You are playing in a PTQ this Saturday. It is the first round and you have no idea what anyone is playing. You are playing…let’s say Rock (Swords optional) and your opponent is going first. Your hand has plays for the first three turns of the game and the mana to make them so you keep as did the player across from you. Your opponent leads the game off with a Seat of the Synod and no play.
You draw your card for the turn and contemplate the Cabal Therapy in your hand. What do you name?
If you’re interested in becoming a better player or getting your hands on the latest tech, Insider Trading is not for you. This column is dedicated to the game outside of the game; the one that takes place when you sit down across from another player, flip open your trade binder and get ready to deal.
In his debut column, StarCityGames.com President Pete Hoefling offers a key piece of advice for becoming a more successful trader, taps the StarCityGames.com sales database to reveal which Betrayers of Kamigawa singles are really the most sought after cards of the set and lists twenty-five cards that should be in your trade binder, but probably aren’t.
Today Romeo takes a peek at some interesting new Blue cards from Betrayers of Kamigawa and tries to add it all up to make a competitive new Mono-Blue Standard deck that is a bit off the beaten path. To help enhance Romeo’s swell verbiage and cheesecake links, we’ve also included some of Yawgatog’s outstanding photoshoppery to give you a sample of what is normally only available to Premium members. Enjoy!
Here’s my promise: Despite costing many times less to build than most other decks reviewed for Extended on this website, our deck today will be able to put up a competitive game against every major deck except for Life. Once again, our deck may not be as good as the top tier decks, but it’s sturdy enough to make for long (by Extended standards), interesting games. Intrigued? Then come along my friends, for I have something fun to show you.
Getting better is not easy, and it’s not fun, at least not after a while. Sometimes when I’m feeling optimistic I like to look at how far I’ve come in the past year. U.S. Nationals was last summer. This spring I’m going to the Pro Tour, and even though it’s “only” a team event, I couldn’t be more proud of where I am as a Magic player. Still, getting better sucks, and if you are anything like me, you probably have some good stories about the growing pains you have gone through as part of improving your game.
