My first installment took a look at Tooth And Nail and Elf And Nail and looked at some cards that could be added to these decks from Fifth Dawn. I also discussed a bit about what benefits Affinity would gain from Fifth Dawn and how they might impact the matchups for the tooth decks. This round, I would like to talk about the three other important matchups for the Tooth decks – Goblins/Bidding, Mono-White Control, and Ponza.
Welcome to the Type 1 portion of combo week! My disclaimer for this article is that not only is building new decks in Type 1 freaking hard, but building combo decks are even harder because the benchmark is ridiculously high. You’ve got Draw-7 and Belcher, which both have a fair number of potential turn 1 kills if you want to go for speed, and if you want to go with more mid-game power, you have Dragon and its ability to draw three extra cards per turn. That said, I’m treating this more like an experiment and I’m giving it my best shot.
Here is the list of cards for which I can take credit in Fifth Dawn.
I will be competing in PT Seattle and I would like you explain to me how we can share the colors in Team Rochester draft.
David Williams just won 3.5 million dollars in the
World Series of Poker in one weekend. Before that, he’d won $40,000 total
over a successful four-year Magic career – which, if you do the math, means
he could have earned more working at a gas station. Given those cold hard
figures, why would any sane pro play Magic?
When a new set comes out, you basically have to learn to draft all over again, and I try to get in there and run team drafts as soon as possible, usually starting off by using product that was won at the prerelease. Well, I didn’t attend a prerelease this time – I was otherwise occupied (and keep your smart remarks to yourself). It had to do with my sister’s wedding. Regardless of the reasons, the point is that I couldn’t attend, and no one from Sarnia won any product, so I’ve had a much harder time than usual practicing. That said, I’m still here for you, with an analysis of the cards that have gone up and down in value with the introduction of Fifth Dawn.
In this article, I throw Psychatog up against Belcher because, as the Type One control deck with the fastest goldfish and the most disruptive anti-combo elements, it will properly stress test Belcher’s weak spots at the same time the fast goldfish diminishes the chances of midgame recovery through topdecking. Another advantage of Tog is that we don’t have to resort to hosers like Null Rod, Damping Matrix, or even Trinisphere to see if Belcher can overcome them – we are testing a standard array of cards that many decks will have, including Force of Will.
Difficult though it may be to accept that Mark Gottlieb would ever stoop to preview a Constructed-playable card on MagictheGathering.com, this is precisely what occurred a few weeks ago. Granted, his article on Endless Whispers toiled under the assumption that the high-casting cost Black enchantment would only be played by the kind of people who use Force of Nature to deal direct damage, yet he did mention one creature worth considering, the oft-maligned Leveler. You think I’m kidding, don’t you? Well check inside for some Type Two combo insanity.
On Monday I’ll list my Fifth Dawn names and flavor text credits. Today, though, I thought I would comment on an unexpected reaction I had to Fifth Dawn’s release… Card names and flavor text I didn’t write, but wish I had.
Fifth Dawn is all the rage, and the banning of Skullclamp now makes this deck an even more serious contender. The eminent death of Elf and Nail (remember that is this deck’s hardest matchup) will allow this mono-Red control deck to wreak havoc on the newly formed metagame. If the Fifth Dawn became legal today, this is what I would be playing with from the new set.
Longtime Pro Tour vagabond Noah Weil is back with a set review that only a Pro could write. Noah even takes time out of his busy schedule to provide some possible decklists for upcoming Nationals competitors. If you want a real insider’s take on all the goodies present in Magic’s newest set, look no further!
I want to talk a bit about what makes a card broken, and what makes a format healthy. As the StarCityGames.com writer with more articles about combos that don’t work than anyone else, I am also going to talk about combo decks and their impact on the format.
The deck started out as a Bloodshot Cyclops deck, but that proved too slow with all of the Skullclamps and Arcbound Ravagers running rampant. Now it’s more of a Synod Sanctum deck than anything else. Stealing, hiding, and then keeping an opponent’s creatures has held my interest for a long time, but I personally can’t wait for banning and Fifth Dawn to shake up people’s decklists.
Today’s Ask Ken is handled by the inimitable, unstoppable, untouchable Gary”MF” Talim.
