The goal of this article is quite ambitious: in the middle of the Block Constructed season, with multiple Grand Prix behind us, I’m going to argue that there is a viable (possibly tier one) rogue deck available for Block. It’s a control deck with tremendous utility and a ton of play decisions that has game against all of the most popular decks and favorable matchups against most.
Greetings, and welcome to our new weekly debate series, where the Bleiweiss and I take on one of Magic’s more pressing issues: Selecting 9th Edition.
And so we are blessed with Viashino Cutthroat versus Viashino Sandstalker. Ted will try to tell you that the Sandstalker is better. He’ll tell you that the Standstalker has seen play in bad Red decks from 1997, and that a couple of people did badly with Sandstalker at States this year. I’ll tell you this: 100% of the decks that have lost in the past three years of Type Two have lacked one crucial ingredient. This ingredient is Viashino Cutthroat. Plenty of decks with the Sandstalker have taken game loss after game loss, but not a single Cutthroat can be attributed to a losing deck in Standard for a long, long time!
So last week John wrote about the theory and build of what he feels is the optimal version of Tooth and Nail. This week he took it for a spin in the real world, and came oh so close to qualification.
It’s weird looking at just how quickly sets were released back in the day. Back in 1994, there were seven sets released in twelve months! Imagine if sets were released faster than every other month in the modern era – people would have quit the game in droves due to their inability to keep up with the cards!
I like my deck names to be short and catchy. Some examples of my decks from the past include Wood, Limey.dec, White Noise, The Marksman, Gray Sligh, and She-Hulk. I tell you this because I want you to come up with my deck name for me. That’s right: I am going to do no independent thinking of my own whatsoever. This experiment has generated a nice community vibe in the Forums, and it’s about time I take advantage of that vibe.
Tell me what you think my deck’s name should be.
Tournaments are rarely won by the player who had the cleverest deck. The reason rogue victories are so memorable is that they are uncommon and unexpected. We remember the Decree Deck, the Solution, Scrounger TurboLand, and so on because we expect victories in their breakout environments from other choices. Most of the time, tournaments are won by the luckiest players making the fewest mistakes, playing the best tuned versions of consistent archetype decks. But how do players select which decks, specifically, that they will bring?
Each June, I’ve taken to taking a step back and just assessing where I am, in column form. The column meter is now at 140, and this annual retreat into a written fortress of solitude has become very valuable. Though perhaps I find myself in the mood for something more mellow in 2004.
The problem with banding is that hardly anyone understands what it does. And since Rule of Law is designed to give people understanding of the rules, it only makes sense that I at least try to tackle banding (and its ugly stepsister,”bands with other”).
Recently, there have been a few different decks to catch my attention, trying to pass themselves off as new archetypes despite being just slightly different from already existing or well-known decks. So today, I’m going to pull a JP Meyer and tell everyone that they’re wrong, and I’m right. (JP quotes sprinkled in to make sure you at least”heh” a couple of times.)
I woke up Monday morning to find this message in my e-mail box:”My suggestion is that you not tease your readers with unfinished stories. Especially not after telling them they would only have to wait another blog to hear the finale.
Oh and you have a cute butt.”
In last week’s draft, I had a hand of: Infused Arrows, Suntouched Myr, Thought Courier, Raise the Alarm, Arcbound Worker, 2 Swamps. Do you mulligan this hand or not?
Let me be clear and say that I think Qumulox is a good, solid finisher for my deck. He has won me countless games. The only times I have been unhappy to draw him is when I couldn’t find the UU in his cost, which said more about a problem with my mana base than anything else. If you have been following along with your own Nuts and Bolts experiment and want to keep the deck to budget-proportions, keep Qumulox right where he is.
For my own deck, however, I guess I’m going to try and up the style points.
Our favorite Type One curmudgeon hasn’t been heard from in weeks!
