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SCG Daily – The Golden Age #11: Flanking

Flanking, unlike Rampage, is conceptually and theoretically simple. In Mirage Block, there were 17 creatures with Flanking, 13 of which were Knights and two of which were Legendary Creatures that were Knights at heart. As Mike Flores has noted, the majority of flankers are three-mana 2/2s; they’re even more concentrated at a single casting cost than the common Bushido creatures in Champions of Kamigawa. A side effect of this is that it’s difficult to build a Flanking-centric deck without burdening yourself with more three-drops than are attributed to the landlord’s daughter. If, however, Flanking and Bushido creatures are seen together, things become interesting.

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Fighting the Red Decks — Mind’s Desire in Extended

I knew that I wanted to play something that wasn’t Red Deck Wins, but was open to the possibility of playing Goblins, for the sole purpose of not wanting to interact with my opponent. I had to do way too much of that during the Block Constructed season playing the Freshmaker deck, and I have to deal with a lot of it in current Standard when I am playing mono-Blue control, so I just wanted to combo someone or attack with thousands of goblins simultaneously, completely oblivious to the opponent’s resources. Unfortunately, nothing struck my fancy other than Oiso’s Blue/Black Mind’s Desire deck, which I shuffled up and played several games against various builds of RDW. The results were not good…

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Dusting off the Dinosaurs

In the past year, StarCityGames.com has interviewed him and imitated him both to great degrees of success, but we all know there is only one Jamie Wakefield, and he hasn’t picked up a Magical card in five years… until now. What brought Jamie out of retirement, what deck did he play, and what does the man, the myth, the legend have to say about the state of the game today? It’s all here folks, so what are you waiting for?

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The Huge Ask the Editor Blowout Special!

For one day and one day only, Teddy Card Game answers all the questions that he never got to during the normal run of the series (all 24 pages of them). If you’ve ever wondered about Kanoot’s thoughts on… well, just about anything, there’s probably an answer contained within – he even remembered the cheesecake. For those who’ve been clamoring for a little more Ask the Editor, this is your last chance to get in on the action before it disappears… FOREVER!

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The StarCityGames.com Week In Review!

There is so much going on at StarCityGames.com that we just can’t spotlight it all on the front page! Whether you’re wanting to apply for our new full-time job position or just looking for special deals, this one’s for you!

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Titlemonger

Magic’s greatest crank makes a return today dissecting Magic Online etiquette, the difference between a bad draft and a Nick Eisel draft, and instructs you how to raise your Magic Online rating by an easy 20 points in one simple step. If you’ve never read a Jon Becker article before you are in for a treat, and if you have, how can you not click?

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The Sordid History of U/G Threshold

Before you get too far into this article, please keep in mind that this is the sordid history of U/G Threshold, rather than a proper one in the vein of Deck Histories and Concepts or some such. Rather than mentioning such actually successful masters of the Mongoose as David Humpherys or Raphael Levy, this article is going to focus on a series of decks designed by yours truly and Brian David-Marshall since Odyssey Block. BDM and I love this deck to what can only be considered an unhealthy degree and if you play it you might too.

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What to Expect at Waterbury

With Waterbury fast approaching, I’ve decided to try and give you, the people, my views on the format. I’m fairly narrow-minded, so I’ve spent the past four months exclusively playing combo of various flavors and Stax. Player interaction is for the weak. My Mana Drains, dual lands, Library of Alexandria, and to a lesser extent Force of Wills have lain idle, only to see play when I want to test against them. Is this indicative of what Vintage players will see this weekend? We shall see…

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SCG Daily – The Golden Age #10: Goblin-Free Article

I’ve never been a big fan of theme decks. If the theme is outlandish enough, I’ll be interested, but “Cat Evening” and “Sexy Cardboard Women Unchained Night” at the game shop just aren’t my cup of tea. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have respect for theme deck builders though. Sure, there may only be 22 Cats in Magic (Okay, Okay. 23, including Wirecat.), but at least, they’re scattered throughout a lot of sets. Not like Chimera or Slivers. But hey, that’s just me. Maybe, it comes from my fear of roleplaying games, from my dread of sitting at the kitchen table someday, using Goblins and Merfolk to recreate the fall of the Bastille. Again. You may be different though. And if you are, you probably adore Fallen Empires.

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Extended in Seasons Past: 2000 to 2001

This is the second in a series of articles recapping past Extended seasons. Since all Extended seasons follow similar paths, this history is prequel to the new season that is about to begin, and many of the decks discusses here are the grandfathers of decks you will be playing in the weeks to come. Some may even have old-school deck that you can delve into to solve problem matches. This article is also interesting, in and of itself. Enjoy.

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Fumbling Towards Adequacy

Bad Player Flores publically revisits a recent string of mistakes in order to better explain many of the theoretical concepts he has discussed in the last year and hopefully make us all better players in the process. Don’t be ashamed for Mike folks, just learn from him and try not to make the same mistakes he does.

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The Magic Jerk – The Joys of the Net Deck

In this ironically titled article, Clair looks at the perils even good players often have when picking up a deck for the first time and expecting to win with it at a tournament. None of us can expect to replicate the success of Olivier Ruel when we first pick up the Frenchman’s deck, even if you’ve got the illustrious michaelj around to help you try and “make the deck better.”

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SCG Daily – The Golden Age #9: Dam It!

I know you’ve all been wanting it. I know that each and every man jack of you wake up at night in a hot sweat and wonder, “When, o when, will Adam Grydwhatever devote another article to cards from Mirage Block?” Well, my friends, sometimes, prayers are answered… and I brought a Tombstone Stairwell deck with me to boot.

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Tainted Red Decks – A Look at Goblins in Extended

Students of the Paskins School are generally known for turning their noses up at players that add other colors to Red decks, citing them as “tainted” and wondering why anyone would feel the need to defile such a glorious color with unfortunate impurities. This week, however, Dan takes a look at recent Goblin decks in Extended and comes to the conclusion that there are some very good reasons to add Black cards to everyone’s favorite Red men.

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Predictions for Vintage in 2005

The man known as Zherbus takes a moment to look into his crystal ball and predict what a new year of Magic will bring to the Vintage format. What sort of controversial items are on the plate for this year and how much does this esteemed Vintage pundit agree with the vile Bleiweiss? You’ll have to read the article to find out.

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