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?
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
As I’ve said before, I love Mirage Block. In terms of flavor and game play, nothing beats the African-themed sets. Mirage introduced two keywords to Magic, Flanking and Phasing, the latter of which is known as the most confusing mechanic in the game. Just like anything else though, once you understand the mechanic, there has to be a way to break it. Right?
If you’re anything like me, you find lands boring. At best, they’re there to cast your Craw Giants, and at worst, they sit around mocking you, singing, “If you wanted to pay the cumulative upkeep on Yavimaya Ants, maybe, you shouldn’t have put them in 4-Color Hippo Survivor Madness!” But in the Old Days, things were different. Back then, lands were hyper-cool, and all the women looked like characters from a Tom Tykwer film.
When a fifteen-year-old is carried by his older teammates on Day 1 of a Grand Prix as he stinks up the joint, most of us would consider that par for the course. Except when that fifteen-year-old happens to have a Pro Tour Top 8 to his name and is a member of the gravy train. In his victorious tournament report, Gadiel explains why U/G is horrible in Team Sealed, riffs on friends and opponents alike, and even competes for the title of “Biggest Magic Jerk” against Michael Clair, only on StarCityGames.com!
As I promised last week, today we will go over the two most popular “combo” decks in the format – Desire and Aluren – and see what their place is in this metagame. Now I know some people consider Life a combo deck, but I don’t. I mean, gaining infinite life is kind of lame, wouldn’t you say? Now casting a ton of free spells, that’s more like it!
Champions Team Sealed isn’t quite as much fun as draft, but it is certainly skill-testing. Chris Manning, Bruce Cowley and I have played in a couple of PTQs and Day 1 of GP: Chicago (sadly, our lack of byes meant we were one of the 6-2 teams that didn’t make day 2). So far, none of our card pools have been extraordinary (most have frankly been on the poopy side), but sometimes that just means you learn the most about how a format works. Here are some of the key lessons I’ve learned about Champions Team Sealed.
