Ask Ken, 05/04/2004
Are you not winning as much because you are taking a less competitive approach to Magic or is it the other way around?
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Tough Nuts – A Balanced Type One Metagame? Part I
In the past, Vintage was not a tough nut to crack. With a minimal amount of research you could either completely break the format by importing an Extended favorite, finding a deck the Germans were working on and perfect it, or stumble across it through greater experience. Not so anymore – at least for the foreseeable season. The DCI has done its job and restricted all of the egregious offenders leaving a remarkably balanced format. No less than seven new archetypes have emerged this year as real competitors, as well as revamped approaches to old favorites.
Tough Nuts – A Balanced Type One Metagame? Part II
More of this in-depth look at the fastest growing format in the game.
From Right Field: The Aftermath
You probably didn’t win your Region. Since I like to state the obvious, you probably aren’t a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, either. Interestingly, there are about the same number of U.S. Regionals champions as S.I. swimsuit models. Go figure. Anyway, you didn’t win your Region. You most likely didn’t finish in the money. Heck, you may not have had a winning record. Yet, you were sure that you had a good chance of at least winning some prizes or else you probably wouldn’t have wasted the time and energy to participate. So, what happened?
MWC+
It seems weird to write in the space after Regionals. We’ve been talking about it for months now as the end-all be-all of tournament glories, and now that it’s over, I feel so empty. It’s a good thing I can fill that space with the box of product I won! Herein I will detail my completely original decklist and the path to Regionals glory.
Just kidding, I only wish I could claim this as an original decklist. Granted, I have never seen or heard of anyone playing this deck, but that doesn’t make it original; all I did was take my crappy infinite life deck and hybridize it with MWC.
Ask Ken, 05/03/2004
I was just wondering if there were any good places to play Type II in or around Pittsburgh.
Regionals Decklist Dossier: The Bad and the Ugly
Haphazard blending is pretty much a recipe for disaster, and unfortunately its how a lot of rogue and pet decks end up in the Bean Bracket. A lot of the decks that I’m going to list below resemble this remark, but first I want to talk about the tier two stuff that at least some people will be playing at Regionals tomorrow. If you’re seriously considering qualifying for Nationals, then you would do well to stay away from the following criminals.
MMD Drafter’s Guide – Red, Part I
This week we’re going to do Red, so settle in and try to enjoy yourself while we explore the wonders of playing broken spells and attacking with whatever mediocre creatures you managed to pick up seventh pick and beyond.
MMD Drafter’s Guide – Red, Part II
So comprehensive and joke-filled that we had to break it into two parts.
Inside the Metagame: What am I playing? Regionals 2004
I’ve never had this hard of a time deciding what to play for a tournament. There are so many good decks, and the format looks like it can be broken wide open since there are only two big decks – Affinity and Goblins, with the third deck TwelvePost on the rise. I have gone through many phases with this format, and I’ll detail most of them for you before revealing the deck I’ll be playing this weekend.
The Angel Gambit
What our Goodstuff deck tried to accomplish was to present several gambit type problems to a beatdown format. By using mana acceleration, and both Exalted Angel and Ravenous Baloth, plus a card like Vine Trellis, we tried to make these decks either have an answer for our greater tempo swinging beats, or to force them into an extension of resources that we could then capitalize on with Wrath or Vengeance.
You CAN Play Type I #131 – The Control Player’s Bible, Part XIX.1: Head to Head: Ravager
When a recent column of mine suffered a typo and got labeled, “You CAN Play Type II”, some wise guys joked it might be a “The Deck” against Ravager head to head. Talking about curious decks, though, Ravager actually heads the list of recent Type I novelties.
Roanoke, VA – Friday Night Magic and Rejects Rare Draft Return to the Star City Game Center!
Come check out the gaming at Star City Games this weekend! We’ve revamped our Magic schedule and we’re now presenting tournaments in the shop every Friday and Sunday! This week, get some last-minute testing in for Regionals at Friday Night Magic (tournament sign ups begin at 6:00pm and the tournament begins at 6:30pm). The format is Standard.
After Regionals, wind down with the fan favorite Reject Rare Draft! Each player gets three ‘packs’ of fifteen rares each, and then decks are drafted as per the usual booster draft rules. Afterwards, the players play rounds of swiss in one of the most wacky and fun formats in all of Magic! Registration begins at 10am and the tournament begins at 11am. Thought it goes without saying, we’ll say it: You keep what you draft, so come on down and have some fun!
A full listing of in-store tournaments can be found here!
Ask Ken, 04/30/2004
1st pick 1st pack, I was presented with some dross, Goblin Charbelcher, Terror, Arrest, Leonin Skyhunter and Skyhunter Cub. What’s the right call here?
The Cream Rises – Your 2004 Regionals Metagame
I was going to call this article”Flores spilled my f***ing deck!” but that seemed petty and childish, so the current title says it all.