Oscar returns from the dead to take a look at the best creatures and creature enchantments that Betrayers of Kamigawa has to offer and, for the first time ever, covers some of his own greatest misses in set reviews.
Recently Kyle detailed his thoughts on exactly why U/W Mind’s Desire is the right call in the current metagame. This past weekend he put his money where his mouth is and came back with a great tournament report to boot.
Welcome to week two of your daily deck dosage. I’m your host, the Deckmeista’ Abe. Do you like old cards? Today’s casual deck takes an old Fallen Empires theme and gives it a little twist. Let’s take a look at ye olde decke liste and see what is waiting for us.
This deck is simply built. You want to annoy your opponents by having a separate song for each card. You don’t expect to win the game, except maybe by annoying opponents enough that they concede. Each individual song deck is different, but here is how I’d build mine.
Let me start the article with this little explanation. I’m not saying play skill doesn’t count for anything in Vintage; otherwise the same people wouldn’t constantly place in tourneys. I’m simply illustrating that there are simplistic decks for those who are more inept or simply don’t want to think about what to play. In other words, tired of going X-2 at tourneys? Maybe it’s time to change to a more broken, albeit simpler, deck.
What if you designed a Type One deck that could literally cast every spell in the deck on turn 1 more than 50% of the time? Would this deck become the new powerhouse in Vintage and merit tons of bannings to shut down the engine, or is it possible that in designing such a deck with the current card pool, you actually made it too difficult to play? Stephen Menendian knows the answers to these questions because he designed it, played it, and is now here to tell the tale of this latest Meandeck creation.
Masashi Oiso piloted a Black version of Mind’s Desire to a Top 8 finish at Pro Tour: Columbus, but is that the version that most players will want to run for the PTQ season? Mark Young isn’t so sure, and in this comprehensive look at Mind’s Desire he examines the pros and the cons of the deck and its variations for PTQ players everywhere.
Mark’s article is the second in our full-blown Extended event where the best Constructed writers and deckbuilders in the world – including Mark, Jim Ferraiolo, Brian David-Marshall, Chad Ellis, and Mike Flores among others – give you the inside scoop on the new PTQ format for two whole weeks!
Kamigawa Limited hasn’t really encouraged blocking – but that’s about to change, and unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock, you know why: Ninjutsu. Any unblocked creature could turn out to be a Ninja in disguise, so it’s time to start thinking more about that Cruel Deceiver and whether it’s worth your Kami of Ancient Law, because a Throat Slitter might be lying in wait to knock him off anyway. But does the danger of a Ninjutsu smackdown make blocking your default option?
All right, you know the drill: I’m going to list tons of cards, then I’m going to rate them for both Champions of Kamigawa Block and Standard. Can Ponza work? Is the blue Shoal worth putting in your deck? And what Legends should you be concentrating on breaking?
The bad news is, we no longer offer $50 in credit. The good news is, two people will now win cash every week. Click the article and read on for details!
U/G will see a lot of play this season for a lot of the same reasons as last year – it’s cheap to build, relatively easy to play, has good sideboard options, and tends never to be purely outclassed. This is appealing to many players who just want to take a deck to a PTQ and run it without having to put a lot of time into playtesting or metagaming. So let’s go through the basics of Madness – I wouldn’t be me though if I didn’t have a few small modifications.
When considered in a vacuum, Order of the Sacred Bell is a stronger card than Kami of the Hunt. Unfortunately for us drafters, there are many more factors to consider than raw power; if there weren’t, we’d all be cramming our decks with Kashi-Tribe Warriors. The most important points to consider are synergy and mana curve… And this may not be Onslaught Block, but creature type still matters.
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The final installment of week one is here! When I sat down to write today’s article, I wondered at what sort of deck I could build. I thought about some of my previous articles, and then inspiration hit. Wouldn’t it be nice to build a deck using one or more of the cards that I tout in my Underused Card articles? Ah synergy, I knew you well.
So why did Ben Kowal choose to play this metagame sleeper and how did he end up as the number one seed coming out of the swiss, and finish one game short of making the finals? The details are right here!
