My 5-Color deck reflects an inner anal-retentive nature that Taeme, a.k.a. Iain Telfer, loves to point out on roughly a biweekly basis. It is focused on two colors, and the other colors will feature no more than eighteen cards each. Not nineteen: Eighteen. Only eighteen. Damn straight I’m sticking to that.
The next Constructed PTQ season is going to be Onslaught Block Constructed. The first of these qualifiers will be held Saturday, June 28th at Origins – but because this event is happening before July 1st, Scourge will not yet be legal. This gives us an excellent opportunity for a last look at the pre-Scourge Onslaught Block Constructed metagame.
Pompous, arrogant, subhuman scum. Every single one of you. You think you are smarter, faster, and more desirable to the opposite sex than other players, simply because you choose to play Wake… And I think it’s time someone cut you egotistic scum down to size.
The discussion is deeper than anyone has talked about. In fact, it relates directly to the advancement of knowledge for our game. And aside from Ben Bleiweiss complaining to me over AIM, nobody else is discussing it. So it looks like it’s up to me to eat the parfait, and explain why not having decklists for every deck played at a Grand Prix or Pro Tour is the biggest problem in the game today.
The Mono White deck has been getting some recent play online. Scourge has only been out for a couple of weeks, but already there is a buzz developing around the decktype – and yet I’ve seen a lot of radically different deck lists and philosophies: What I’d like to do is break down the possibilities for Mono White and give the reader the tools to build a better Mono White deck.
In Houston, I once witnessed an eight-year-old kid (who inherited his brother’s cards once he went into the army) trade a Juzam Djinn for a Mahamoti Djinn. He didn’t want to do the trade initially, but the jerk adult who pushed for it got him to change his mind by pointing out how the Juzam”hurts” him while the Mahamoti not only flies, but has greater toughness…
Each year, I put off the scheduled column for a week and sift through reader mail a second time. Today’s the day. I’ll answer questions on the Type One World Championships, defend my dislike of Back to Basics yet again, and try to calm Anthony Alongi the heck down.
The more you try to outwit your opponents and get in their heads, the more you can forget the obvious. I see players all the time trying to be like Mike McD in”Rounders,” setting their little traps, doing more acting than Robert De Niro, not realizing how obvious it is that they’re full of BS. You don’t want to be so tricky that you trick yourself. Oftentimes, the easiest play is the best play.
If you want to know what happened in Scourge the novel but don’t have the time to read the whole book, this is your source for a storyline update unlike any you’re likely to find on the internet – three hundred and ten pages are summed up in just over five thousand words.
I answer more letters – this time from Aaron Forsythe asking about reprints, Wayne Alward bemoaning the sad fate of his created mechanic, and the most touching letter I ever received.
Former StarCityGames.com writer Richie”BSV” Proffitt continues to improve after a failed gastric bypass operation, but remains hospitalized. Click here for a special message from Richie…
I remember watching the finals of Nationals in 1995. The guy who beat me with the netdeck is playing it out versus some godawful Shivan Dragon special. He is losing anyway, as a sideboard with loads of Glooms and Flashfires is quite good against white weenie. I look at the winner’s expression, and wonder what he feels like. Would it be like the best thing ever, or more like a nice warm feeling in the stomach? I would like to be a National Champion myself. Maybe someday I will.
StarCityGames.com had always been among the largest Magic the Gathering buyers in the world, but our sales had increased to a point where we simply could not buy enough cards to meet the demand. With that in mind, we knew something had to be done…
Since the first day the Legions spoiler hit the web, there has been a scramble to build a good deck that includes Withered Wretch and/or Graveborn Muse. Both cards offer very powerful effects, but each had trouble finding the right team to go with them. After some initial practice with Stephane Damizet’s winning zombie deck, I have to say that I’m quite impressed.
Longbow Archers is probably the dumbest card to remove from the base set. Seriously, they ejected a solid 2/2 for WW, and brought in Sword Dancer? That’s like trading gold bullion for bronzed puke, and I can’t imagine the reasoning behind it. Well, actually I can – they probably couldn’t fit the first strike reminder text in the box alongside”This may block creatures with flying.” If they’re so mindful about space, perhaps they can tell me how best to maneuver my foot up their collective poop chutes (with a minimum of chafing on entry or extrusion on exit)?
