It’s now halfway through the Block Constructed PTQ season. So far, the block looks pretty solid. A lot of decks have game, and nothing — not even Ravager — is dominant. It’s time for an overview and some breakdowns.
In the past month of playing at least a draft a day, I’m fairly certain that I’ve broken the MD5 draft format wide open with a single archetype. I basically go into every draft with the idea of forcing this deck in some shape or form, since the deck is extremely flexible and maximizes the power level you can obtain, while still keeping up with the tempo of the format.
Now with free Rogue Deck List! Recently Chad Ellis and others have published on a deck that I was working on (shh shh secretly) a while back. I will go into detail later as to why I disagree with a lot of what Chad thinks. First of all, here is my version…
Mike Flores is a buffoon. I can say this because I know him better than most of you, and nearly anyone who hangs out with or talks to Flores for an extended period of time will come to this realization. Oh, don’t get me wrong… Flores is brilliant. But he also has innumerable flaws, many of which I will detail here in this very article.
I’d like to turn my attention back to the things that can make small differences in games. Maybe these fundamentals will only increase your odds of winning by a few percentage points, but that can add up. Let’s say your mulligan decisions increase your odds of winning by 5%, attacking properly increases it by 5%, proper playtesting boosts your chances by 7%, and identifying some of your errors and preventing them gives you a 6% edge. You have just increased your chances of winning by 23%. On a long enough timeline, if you keep plugging holes in your game, your losses will exclusively be to bad luck.
Today’s question of:”Can you explain some of the nicknames some players on the Pro Tour have acquired? How did William Jensen get to be known as ‘Baby Huey?’ Why is Eric Taylor so ‘Danger’ous? Since when is ‘Beverly’ a nickname for ‘Nicolas?'” is answered by none other than the Dragon Master himself, Brian Kibler!
My thrill, when it came to pro competition, was the accomplishment and not the reward. When I won money at Pro Tour: Mainz, I was thrilled that I had finally finished in the money, more so than with the money I had won. Sure, the money was good, but the part I felt best about was having done so well. This attitude is what separates the true professional Magic players from the weekend warrior Pro Tour players. Gung-ho, must-win Pro players have their eyes on the prize.
The only constants, from October of 1995 until the summer of 2002, were the specter of my parent’s divorce, and the game of Magic. The divorce would take me on a soul searching journey up and down the Eastern seaboard, across the seas, and into my heart and mind.
Do you think it’s a good idea for Wizards to let players decide which cards will tournament-legal and easily accessible for the next two years?
Since Phoenix is a creature, I figure it will win this week’s vote regardless of whatever silly words Ben and I put on the page discussing the merits of each card, but this is a vote the mtg.com readers may get right. For once.
Here’s the updated Oracle text for Hammer of Bogardan as of August 1st, 2004:
Hammer of Bogardan deals 3 damage to target creature of player wayyyyyy slower than Barbed Lightning and a turn later than Volcanic Hammer.
RRR2: Skip the rest of your turn. Use this ability only during your upkeep.
Four PTQs have gone by in the Ohio Valley for Pro Tour: Columbus, and all four have featured at least one copy of the GFC Freshmaker in the Top 8. In the first PTQ of the season at Origins 2004, three people (including myself) made the final cut with the deck. There have been eight Top Eight appearances by teammates/partners of the GFC in those four PTQs, with more than twice as many top sixteen performances in the same PTQs. I only have one question for you: Why aren’t you playing this deck?
As a special thanks to Jay on the last day of this tremendous experiment, we are running Blog Elemental in the Strategy section. For those of you just catching up with Jay’s deckbuilding, we encourage you to relive the excitement by checking out the Blog Elemental archives. Here’s a snippet from today’s article:”It’s also interesting to note that since version 2.0 of the deck, I’ve had a very respectable 64-11 record in the Casual Constructed room of MTGO. That’s probably a higher winning percentage than I would expect from an evolved preconstructed deck built for casual play.”
For the PTQ recently held in my neck of the woods, I decided to go with Big Red, primarily because I liked that it had game against the entire field, and in the words of teammate Chris Fox, “when in doubt, burn ‘em out.”
Those of you who were around the old Magic Dojo site might remember a series I did at the end of 1999 called Rule of Law. With this introductory article, I hope to resume it here, picking up where I left off.
