If I received a dollar each time someone said”Affinity has been hated out of the metagame”, I’d be Dave frigging Williams. Victims of their own success, Affinity decks have been rightfully feared since the Block began. Fast, consistent, devastating and deadly. But nowadays, their chances are scoffed and derided. Apparently, Ravager is as likely to win as a dolphin at a dog show.
So what’s changed?
Do any notable pros have obvious and exploitable tells, like scratching their head, or swearing furiously?
Looking to become a StarCityGames.com employee someday? Perhaps you can take a few hints of what (and what not) to do from the story of how Bleiweiss got his job.
I think the remaining cards are all fine cards to have in a deck focused on cogs. Version 2.0 can show up in the Casual Constructed room unapologetically and feel fine about its chances, rarely cringing at a draw. My recent stretch of games has proven that at least now I can sometimes have a winning streak. Each card now makes at least a modicum of sense.
Which means that now the changes get interesting. Today it’s time to play: Weakest Link.
Game One: Osyp is, simply put, a national treasure. His outlandish tales and bubbly personality are the envy of the whole Magic-playing community. As has been said before, women want him, and men want to be him. Osyp’s deck is Red/Green with like, you know, guys I guess? And some spells? Lands too, I think. This game, he kills Glissa and plays a haste guy, kills Tangle Golem and plays a haste guy, then plays another haste guy. Since I am incredibly non-masterful, I actually, somehow, did not win this game. I can think of at least two people who would have won it, but I’m not gonna name names. I don’t want to make anyone blush.
Crucible of Worlds was definitely the breakout card of the tourney. It seemed that everyone’s knee-jerk response to Crucible was to run it as a combo card with Zuran Orb and Fastbond, although after seeing the clunkiness of this combo pretty much everyone gave this up. Today, I saw Crucible of Worlds being run in tons of different decks to great success.
Jim Ferraiolo, no matter how he is photographed, looks like an ugly transvestite in pictures. He doesn’t look anything like this in real life, but the lens makes him looks like an ugly man in a wig with bright red lipstick. I don’t know why this happens. Jim may have kicked a puppy as a child, and now karma is getting him back.
I have the quick Chromatic Sphere, Leonin Squire, Leonin Squire start and am attacking early and often. He has removal, but it comes in the form of Devour in Shadow, so his life is still going down. By the time he gets Consume Spirit, I have a Trinket Mage and Aether Spellbomb, so his spells fizzle (and grab me more cogs). To add insult to injury, I have a Leonin Elder, which brings my life up to twenty-five. He Fireballs to try and clear the board, I save a Squire with the Spellbomb, drop a second Trinket Mage to join him and my opponent concedes.
That’s when current Player of the Year leader Nicolai Herzog perks up and asks,”Have I told you about the time I woke up next to a naked and handcuffed Eivind Nitter?” Here’s the rest of the tale as related to me by Nicolai through e-mail, as I may have been a bit too tipsy to get all the details right. (Yes, I may have thought Nicolai said,”Did I ever tell you about the time I woke up handcuffed to a naked Eivind Nitter?” Slightly different connotation there.)
Let me start by saying that it looks like the MD5 block is going to shape up to be more diverse than I thought it would when I wrote last week’s piece. In my defense (and it looks like I’ll be the only one coming to that particular party), when I wrote the thing a few weeks before it was put up here, the MD5 metagame really did look like it was going to end up being Affinity versus anti-artifact and that was it. I’m glad that it’s looking like it will be more open than that, and as a reward, I’m posting a whole article full of Block decklists to tickle your fancy!
Yesterday, I talked about my first experience at Fogo de Chao, the amazing Brazilian meat house located in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Chicago. Today’s Fogo story takes place at Pro Tour Chicago, 2003 and revolves around the exploits of one Geordie Tait.
You thought Friday was big? As MyFeetStink said in Thursday’s Forum thread,”The fun is in the journey, not in the destination.” Well strap yourselves in, kiddies, because we’re going on a bit of a roller-coaster featuring more game recaps and ch-ch-ch-changes!
This past Saturday, 167 competitors participated in the eagerly anticipated StarCityGames.com”Power Nine” Tournament!
Wondering what the top eight decklists looked like? Want to hear why the top eight finishers played what they played? All of that and more is just one click away!
