People, I’ve got Death Cloud on my mind like Georgia. A lot of the decks I’ve been cooking up lately have been trained on finding the proper combination of Magical Cards that turn an otherwise symmetrical spell into a one-way trip down Broken Street. There are two particular builds that I’m working with right now — one mono-Black and one Black/Green.
Sometimes the best advice you can give someone is the last thing you’d ever think of. I found this out pretty quick when I received an absolutely overwhelming response to my article last week on stepping up your game. Most of the things I addressed in that piece are things that are second nature to me, and what I consider to be the ground level attributes of any winning player. While they are very basic, they are also essential to winning play.
Anyway, since I only touched the tip of the iceberg last week and got a huge response from you guys, I figure it would only be fitting to go a little deeper into the topic this week.
As expected, I wasn’t able to finish a new article, and as promised, here are the answer to the puzzle at the end of my last article.
Part of the success that players have comes not only from the cards in their decks, but how well they know the deck. This finally sunk into me two nights before the tournament, when I made the fateful decision to play my old standby, Ghey Red. The deck is built around mana denial. When your opponent cannot cast anything, feel free to win with Cloud of Faeries, otherwise known as the”Most Humiliating Death in Type One.” Supporting Blue’s counter power in Force of Will and Daze (a dark horse card if there ever was one) as well as Red’s artifact destruction and burn, the deck can buy a lot of time for beatdown. It packs one of the strongest sideboards in T1 and, despite everything it does to wreck, hardly anyone sideboards against it.
So what does a kid with a 2019 Contructed rating who can’t PTQ do for fun? Well apparently he goes 17-1 last weekend, winning oodles of prizes with a beatdown deck running four Skullclamps. Then he riffs on how Limited is like Legos, gives you deck construction recipes to avoid, and tosses in a rogue Vedalken Archmage deck to boot.
I’m back with all the news that’s fit to print about Sarnia Affinity, the control Affinity deck that’s grown in popularity amongst Type Two players ever since it was first unveiled by J.M. Babin at Ontario Provincials. I’ve pretty much taken over”official” Sarnia Affinity deck development post-Provincials, first cleaning it up and putting together a decent sideboard for the first article and now, putting together, testing, and publishing the post-Darksteel edition.
Way back when Mirrodin was still just Bacon, I was in rapture over Stompy Stomp. I had some good decks, and some laughs, but once the set actually came out, and the name changed to Tooth and Nail, I never got around to using it. It was always on my “decks to build” list, but nothing more. Then Kevin started beating on me with a Stompy Stomp deck last week, and I decided it was time to give it another try. In Type Two, no less.
The amazing thing is that the deck actually seems to work. Early Darksteel Colossus beatings are surprisingly effective…
Phil Stanton is the best Type One writer you haven’t read. He’s logical, insightful, and downright entertaining. He’s even achieved the coveted JP Meyer Stamp of Approval! So with those qualifications, how can you pass up taking a peek at what”Dr. SylvanBunns” has to say today, which just happens to investigate whether there really is a lack of White in the Vintage metagame and what Wizards should do about it?
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present you with a new breed of zombie deck. Yeah, that’s right, count ’em. Thirty. Thirty glorious, rotting fleshbags that want to eat brains and wander about with arms outstretched! That’s what I call tribal. But I digress. Let’s step away from this madness to take a closer look at this deck.
Yes, those are four Maggot Carriers…
The first time I played against a Suicide Black deck, I figured the guy was an idiot. Sure, Carnophage was a 2/2 for one mana. If he wanted to attack with it, though, he’d have to lose a life every turn. Being new to the game, I figured I was golden. I dropped my Shadow creature on my second turn and passed. He paid his life, dropped Unholy Strength on the Carnophage, and put me at sixteen. Then, he dropped his second Carnophage. Gulp. When the game ended, he was at two life, and I was dead.
In the past few years, Suicide Black has fallen out of favor. Luckily, we got a few creatures in Darksteel that scream to be used in Suicide Black decks.
When I first joined our multiplayer and casual Magic circle, I probably owned all of five Portal cards. Why would I need Portal cards, after all? I had a highlander Five Color deck with over 300 cards, several decks for each major sanctioned type, a more competitive Five Color deck, and a variety of casual decks. And yet, no Portal cards. Recently, Wizards of the Coast released official Oracle rulings for all Portal and Starter cards. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed before your playgroup uses these fine cards. Let’s go over them:
Now you’re a seasoned veteran. You’ve witnessed the birth of ten new sets and watched the metagame evolve. Prerelease cards fill three whole pages in your binder and the Player Rewards program has made you a rich man. You’ve gone from a Timmy to a Johnny to Spike and back, and you attend PTQs regularly. You are the Stack Master, the Combat Damage King, the Timing … okay, you’re really good, and you’ve got your eye on the Pro Tour. Then you finally make it, and the dream is complete. Now the only thing left to do is win $30,000, and get your face on an invitational card. Is this the pinnacle of achievement? Or did you lose something along the way?
So, you’re sick of the theory articles. You want Geordie to go back to writing tournament reports and strategy. You want to hear about him getting stopped at the U.S. Border and slinging spells. You want him to riff on Tim Aten’s DC10 skills and complain about bathroom facilities, while throwing in some toilet humor, the usual grousing, and bite-size tidbits of Mirrodin-Darksteel Limited strategy. Well fine then, here ya go!
The question is, are you man enough to read both parts? Highly doubtful my friends, highly doubtful…
More of the same, including epic battles against Tim Aten and the dinosaur… E.D.T.! Don’t miss it!
What I am offering up is a list of points that you should think about if you ever want to improve your game. While I realize this type of thing has been done many times before, I think I have a number of things to hit on that many people haven’t covered, and that I find very important to anyone looking to get better at Magic, especially Limited. These are things that changed me from a mediocre player into a pro player years ago, and they are general enough that they can work for everyone.
