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Inside the Metagame – Regionals 2004: W/R Slide

Well folks, Regionals is right around the corner. The Regionals metagame will look similar to the metagame for States with a few changes from Darksteel. The decks that Darksteel will yield will undoubtedly pop up soon after Pro Tour: Kobe shows us what the pros will do with the new cards, but until that time I will go over a few of the staple decks in the environment that wont be much affected by Darksteel. Each week I will bring you a standard deck that will be a factor in the metagame. The first of these decks is W/R Slide – a deck that has been strong since Onslaught was printed, and was cemented as a top deck at Pro Tour: Venice.

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Darksteel and Five

In case this is your first time reading one of my set reviews, allow me to get the ground rules out of the way. One of the most boring things about set reviews is that so many cards which are marginally useful are reviewed. There’s only so many times I can read comments like,”Okay in sealed, bad in Constructed,” or,”Not the worst choice in a theme deck, but poor quality for tournament decks.” I have better things to do with my time than to review a bunch of chaff and filler. That will give me more time to discus the Darksteel goodies.

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French Food for Thought : A Standard Gauntlet with Darksteel

With Regionals on the way, it’s time for all of us — except the few happy qualified for Kobe – to focus on Standard again. This format before Darksteel was a bit boring because of the domination of Affinity and the White control decks. Now, with the introduction of Darksteel, it’s certainly a better time for innovation. I’m going to take a look at updated versions of the three tier 1 decks that you should be testing all of your latest creations against.

If you’ve ever wondered what one of the Top Ten players in the world thinks about when he dabbles with new decks in his favorite format, check inside!

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18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (80-61)

Welcome back to the second part of my Top 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time countdown! I’m glad you’ve decided to rejoin me for the next in our hit parade of the inept, as we examine the whats, whys, and hows of bad Magic cards. Today’s breakdown features platinum hits like Saproling Infestation and Goblin Game. Where will they rank in terms of Magic booby prizes? The answer is only a click away.

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From Right Field: Oh, Geez. Not Another Elf Deck.

Elves needed a better way to get reusable growth effects.
Enter Isochron Scepter. We all know the tricks that this cheap, uncommon artifact can do. We all dream of the draw where we get a Chrome Mox and an Island on the first turn so that we can drop the Scepter, imprinting Boomerang. Of course, some of us just dream of having four Chrome Mox. But that’s a different story.

The Scepter hasn’t been looked at through the minty fresh glasses of the Green mage, though…

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Unbreakable: The Darksteel Cards in Constructed

I’m standing around, waiting for my flight to start, when rising voices at one of the other flights attract my attention. From what I could glean of the argument, somebody was not running a card in his deck, and all of his friends were mocking him for it. I moved forward to catch the details, and I saw the card in question: Darksteel Gargoyle. The guy was of the opinion that he could be dead by the time he could get the seven mana to play it.

That story is basically my way of saying this: yeah, I know that the indestructible cards are good in Limited. Really good. Crazy good. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s about Constructed formats, and what we can do with these titanic trinkets on February 20 and thereafter.

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18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (100-81)

There are over 6000 unique cards in Magic. Only one hundred cards made this list (0.6%). Considering that virtually no two cards are created equal, that’s quite a testament to both R&D’s ability to design useful cards, and the flexibility players have shown in finding strange uses for seemingly underpowered spells. Previous”worst of” lists on the net have named cards such as Phyrexian Dreadnought or Lion’s Eye Diamond as”worst cards of all time,” which is a farce, given that both of these cards appear in tier one Type One decks. You won’t be seeing any rubbish like that in my list.

So how would I define a card which would belong to the Magic Hall of Shame?

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You CAN Play Type I #124: Deconstructing Darksteel, Part I – Creatures

Incidentally, my goal here is not just to point out the top picks. I see the traditional set review as a beginners’ intellectual exercise, and I’m more interested in the thought process, especially articulating why some hyped”Timmy” cards glitter but aren’t quite gold.

As my habit goes, we start with the simplest category, creatures. Talking shadow price, we’re mainly talking power-to-mana ratio (see”Counting Tempo, Part II”). Even if you’re interested in the ability, you’ll still prefer it come with a decent-sized warm body.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #89: Politics and the Multiplayer Dilemma

In more advanced game theory, you study problems where the payouts are uncertain, or where guarantees are available, or where other factors can influence the payout matrix. Multiplayer is like that. In multiplayer games, you have an ability that you can use without spending cards or mana. It’s an ability you can use even when you don’t have priority. Used properly, it can counter anything – even concessions.

It’s the verbal equivalent of what I put in these articles. No, not bulls**t. At least, not all bulls**t…

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Control in the 2004 Vintage Metagame

The past year has changed control decks a lot. Fetchlands have strengthened mana bases. Stifle, coupled with the classics, Gorilla Shaman, Wasteland, and Strip Mine, have given control decks the tools expand their repertoire of mana denial, helping to slow the game to a point where they can effectively answer everything the opponent throws at them. Psychatog emerged as one the best kill cards ever, while Decree of Justice provided a virtually uncounterable and, thanks to cycling, never dead win condition.

Today I’m going to take a look at more decklists than you can shake a stick at and pinpoint the control decks to beat for the 2004 metagame.

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The Magic University: I See Dumb People

So I was talking to Mike Flores the other day, and Mike told me,”You know, the great thing about writing Magic Theory is that it immediately rules out all the dumb people from reading your articles.”

I replied,”Well, Mike, the fact that they can’t talk never seems to hinder their ability to type ‘STFU n00b!’ in response to my theory articles.”

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The Power of Bad Cards

When Mirrodin first came out I constantly joked about finding a way to break this card. Apparently, I’ve come close to doing it, as I’ve drafted”The Hysteria Deck” three times with a total record of 8-1 in matches. Basically the only constraint here is that you need lots of large Green men and you can basically count the Hysteria as a”trick” of sorts, since there’s no way your opponent is going to be playing around it right off the bat. I’ve stolen games with a surprise Malachite Golem or Clockwork Condor before, even when my opponent knew the awful Red rare was lurking in my deck.

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18,000 Words: Randy’s Game

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve cast an eye towards the state of White in Magic. One might think from these articles that I’m wholly unhappy with how the game has been developed. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As far as I’m concerned, Magic is healthier than it’s ever been before, and the person who deserves the most credit for surge of vitality the game experienced from Invasion forward is none other than Randy Buehler.

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Why Green Loves Fireshrieker

No clear consensus emerged from my last article about where to go next. Some folks wanted me to try and turn one of my Betrayal of Flesh decks into something worthy of Friday Night Magic, others wanted me to do the same kind of pseudo-brainstorming I did with Betrayal but using another one of my Mirrodin Class I cards. In the end, there seemed to be slightly more people wanting me to move on from Betrayal of Flesh (due in large part, apparently, to people thinking Betrayal is a pretty boring card), and more people mentioned Fireshrieker than any other choice.

The people have spoken. Fireshrieker it is.

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