Fresh off a twelfth place finish at Grand Prix: Austin, Osyp takes time out of his busy schedule and turns his thoughts back towards Standard for a day to take a look at what Red has to offer players who are participating in Champs. Is Red good enough to compete in a metagame ruled by Affinity and Tooth and Nail? See what Joe Black has to say before you make up your own mind.
This is probably my favorite subject to write on, since I love talking about over and underrated cards and helping people figure out the format. What cards are you overlooking, and which ones should you be drafting higher? The Eisel knows…
Card pool two saw us playing with explosives. There were genuine bombs in a couple of colors, and the debate over the correct build is still going strong. So what does card pool three bring us, I wonder? For a start, it’s bringing me Repetitive Strain Disorder and a hearty hatred of Blue, as I’m sick to death of typing the word “Soratami.” However, I will press on and continue our daily discussion of Limited card valuatino and proper Sealed Builds in the article and particularly in the forums. Follow along, kiddies!
When we talk about Kamigawa instants, we just have to start with Splice. On the surface, it’s a card advantage ability that lets you pay an additional cost when you play a spell to sort of Buyback the Splice spell. This could be problematic, however, when you consider the Sneak Attack problem (see “Six Beginner’s Delusions You Meet in Heaven”) since you have to play a bunch of Arcane spells to make use of Splice. Moreover, last week (see “Championing Kamigawa”), we concluded that the Arcane sorceries aren’t very appealing, with only Lava Spike and Eye of Nowhere priced below three mana.
That said, the biggest lesson I learned from the most recent Waterbury was really something I already knew, but somehow forgot. The larger the Vintage event, the more randomness you’ll encounter. It’s easy, for example, for me to keep tabs on Myriad’s 40-50 player metagame. You have some New Hampshire guys, usually half of the Hadley crowd, some Bostonians, and of course the Mighty-Mighty Maine-tones. You know the decks that people play will be pretty close to the last months, but with all the easy calculations of taking metagame trends into account. Big events like Waterbury are far more different.
Craig continues his quest to get better at Limited Magic and drag the world along with him. He even requests that all of his readers help him out by chiming in with their opinions on his decks and the format in the forums. Here’s what he has to say about today’s card pool: “Card pool one was uninspiring, to say the least. Even the stronger colors were missing key cards in important areas. As we’ll soon discover, card pool two has some powerful spells, but throws up some difficulties of its own.”
How has Champions of Kamigawa enhanced the possibilities of Cowardice? In the opinions of most tournament players, the new block has not in the least changed the viability of Cowardice-based decks. To these unbelievers, to these ultra-orthodox I’d-rather-draft-Shatter-than-Lightning-Coils-types, Cowardice has always been and will always be a junk rare. This, despite my best efforts. Now, I’d be the first to admit that my previous best efforts just weren’t good enough, but unfortunately, an abundance of forum posters have beaten me to it, and all I can do now is concur: This time last year, Cowardice had no place in a non-Friday Night tournament. But today, the world is different.
This week Pip produces the usual numbers, takes a look at the Vintage Watch List, and then riffs about a resurgence of Psychatog decks before analyzing some of the more lamentable decks seen at one of the GenCon Vintage events. If you are looking to stay on top of the Vintage metagame or play in the upcoming StarCityGames.com “Power Nine” tournaments, this article is a must read.
If you haven’t visited the StarCityGames.com Online Store lately, here’s what you’ve been missing…
Red week continues for our deck challenge, with renowned Red Deck master Dan Paskins (along with playtest partner John Ormerod) chiming in with his take on a viable Red monstrosity for States. In addition to championing a deck of his favorite color, Dan also takes a look at an unexpected deck that he says just might have some potential in future Standard environments. Curious as to what the mystery deck is? The answer is only a click away.
Star City’s favorite Scouser (for those of you not from Great Britain, that’s someone from Liverpool… he’s sort of like the Beatles, except short and bald) is back from a hiatus with a mission on his mind: To become better at Limited and drag the world along with him. To further this goal, he will be taking a daily look at a variety of Sealed Deck pools for the next two weeks. If you want to get better at building sealed decks and are looking for a leg up on your competition this PTQ season, then this article series is for you.
Those of you who read Brian David-Marshall’s MTG.com article last week probably already know the outcome of this report, but what you don’t know is exactly how Chad got there or what he has to say about Rochester drafting Champions of Kamigawa. As a bonus, Chad has also provided all the decklists for the top 8 draft of his PTQ, so you can see exactly how things play out in this new Limited format.
We can’t run Tony’s opening paragraph on the front page because this is a family website, but it goes without saying that he’s pissed off at the behavior he’s seen in both casual and competitive circles recently, as well as on our very own forums. If some blithering idiot has textually assualted you online recently and you’ve been looking for a place to vent, Tony is there for you.
ELDER DRAGON HIGHLANDER UPDATE
Before Worlds, I wrote about the Elder Dragon Highlander format, complete with a deck competition and challenge at Worlds. Today I’ll be reporting some updates to the format, as well as issuing a new challenge.
I thought it might be interesting to detail how I started from scratch to test a new format, and which decks I am currently testing. In the course of this article, I will present three different decks for your consideration. None of these decks are the finished article, they have all received some testing and seem to be based on sound principles, but you’ll need to test and adapt them further before they are tournament ready. Oh, and I’ll also explain the rules of the game “All Elves Must Die!” a classic tournament subgame that’s fun for Red Mages the world over.
