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Necessary Evils and the Death of the Last Rogue Deck

Last week, in the Philosophy of Fire, I talked about the death of one of my pet decks. Though I had put considerable effort into the Big Red deck, its burial ended up being bearable for me because I had another Rogue deck that I liked even more. This deck was the culmination of dozens of hours of testing and tuning and theory in working with another designer for whom I have a lot of respect. He spilled the beans in his own column on another site, so I figure, especially if I am not playing the deck anyway, I’d write a more exhaustive article, talking about the development of the deck and how we came to the conclusions we came to.

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Building with Wicker: Dusting off the Effigy

Some of you probably wonder just how I spend my time when I’m not trying to disparage Standard and Limited Green. The answer is simple: I try to desecrate Ravager Affinity. In this case,”try to desecrate” is not synonymous with”succeed in desecrating.” I’ve gotten so desperate that I’ve even turned to that feeble multiplayer Magic fall-back, Cowardice, thinking that if I can’t stop Affinity players from winning, I might as well make winning as annoying as possible for them. Sadly, I realize that my hopeless squabble with the best deck in the metagame is of no concern to you. I know there’s a combo here somewhere, but since I can’t find it, I’ll indulge in one of the safest genres of Magic strategy writing: The Deck Update.

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A Love of the Game

It has been a long time since I wrote an actual article. And while I intend to include some strategic content, this will undoubtedly find its way into the”Issues” section. I sit here in my cubicle in my cushy state job. I sit here making more money in a week than I made playing Magic in all of 2003. I sit here with as good a benefits package as you will find in a job right out of college. I am sitting here unfulfilled.

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“Thanks, B” featuring Phimus Pan, James Davis, and Lil’ John *Winner*

Phimus Pan was literally the only person left that I wanted to team with. Despite what Roberto Gonzales may feel, two people does not a team make. To my rescue came James Davis. His team did not fare well in Phoenix, and his other Phoenix-based teammates did not want to make the 7.5 hr trek to New Mexico. Pants Pants Revolution was born!

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Do It For the Kids, Yeah

Person 1: Who are you teaming with for the Grand Prix?

Person 2: John Pelcak and Gadiel Szleifer

Person 1: Who?!

Person 2: They’re, um, children.

Person 1: What the hell are you thinking? Why not team with good people?

Person 2: They’re good. We’re gonna do fine. Just you wait.

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Interview With A Chump

Everyone dies someday. This is a universal fact. Some, however, are doomed to do it more than others. Have you ever said a prayer, or even spared a kind word or thought, to the recently deceased 1/1 dork that held off an opposing monster so you could win the game next turn?

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #99: Regionals — Decisions, Decisions

My past few articles have recapped the metagame. I’ll do that once more. In addition to the decks from previous Regionals, I have collected over one hundred top 8 decklists from Regionals that have occurred this month. That information is as current as anything you can get. It is time to decide what deck to play.

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Ask Ken, 04/27/2004

For some reason, my limited game has been suffering terribly sinceDarksteel was released. When drafting MMM on Magic Online, I rarely ever missed the semis, made the finals about half the time, and won a handful. My rating jumped from about 1620 to 1775. Enter Darksteel. Now I’m back down to 1660. What am I doing wrong?

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Hulk Smash! – Dissected

I have dissected a variety of Hulk Smash builds – fifteen total – looking for the trends in winning cards. This actually worked out a lot smoother than when I did the same thing to Keeper, because Psychatog is a card which invites much less flexibility to a deck that uses it, whereas Keeper is nothing but metagame customization. The first thing I did was amass a set of thirty-eight cards (and one sideboard card) that were played in all fifteen builds available from my metagame summaries of the last six months.

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Ask Ken, 04/26/2004

A draft scenario which I haven’t seen discussed a lot is when the best three cards in your first booster are of the same color. What do you do if you get Molder Slug, Deconstruct, and Fangren Hunter in your first pack?

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Il Neige en Mai – Mono-White Control for Regionals

I’ll make my introduction short here. I have a 1900 rating that is steadily climbing. I’ve played in three JSS tournaments this season, making two second-place finishes and a third-place finish. Don’t worry – I’m not about to present another awful”rogue” deck, but rather a guide to playing the best deck in Standard, for your Regionals encounter.

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Two Guidos, an Asian, and $1500 Big Ones

Judging by the title, you’d probably guess that the two Guidos held someone up for $1500 bucks using an Asian as a hostage. This is what happened (more or less), when John Fiorillo, Dave Chung, and I took the amateur prize at Grand Prix: DC this past weekend as “The Chicken Sandwiches.”

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The Philosophy of Fire

So why, you may ask, in an article called The Philosophy of Fire, are we talking about archaic deck archetypes and focusing on a card that is restricted in every conceivable format? The reason is that Necropotece gives the average player the most concrete understanding of the interaction between cards and life of any archetype or mechanism. The Philosophy of Fire will do the exact same thing, but instead of trading life for cards from your own deck, it speaks about the relationship of trading cards for your opponent’s life. Specifically, the goal will be to translate a hand into a dead man.

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