Okay, enough is enough. I am sick and tired of these watered-down G/B Cemetery decklists popping up all over the internet. Not because I’m sick of hearing about it, but because they’re all wrong.
A deeper examination of why Richard feels he’s right.
Rumor has it that today’s guest star might be funnier than Osyp. Rumor also has it that he might also be short, well-dressed, and Canadian. Guess you’ll just have to click on the link and make up your own mind.
Welcome to the StarCityGames.com Regionals Tech Center; now updated to include the most comprehensive Regionals 2004 deck database on the web! Hundreds of top eight decklists from around the world are at your fingertips!
Last week, in the Philosophy of Fire, I talked about the death of one of my pet decks. Though I had put considerable effort into the Big Red deck, its burial ended up being bearable for me because I had another Rogue deck that I liked even more. This deck was the culmination of dozens of hours of testing and tuning and theory in working with another designer for whom I have a lot of respect. He spilled the beans in his own column on another site, so I figure, especially if I am not playing the deck anyway, I’d write a more exhaustive article, talking about the development of the deck and how we came to the conclusions we came to.
Some of you probably wonder just how I spend my time when I’m not trying to disparage Standard and Limited Green. The answer is simple: I try to desecrate Ravager Affinity. In this case,”try to desecrate” is not synonymous with”succeed in desecrating.” I’ve gotten so desperate that I’ve even turned to that feeble multiplayer Magic fall-back, Cowardice, thinking that if I can’t stop Affinity players from winning, I might as well make winning as annoying as possible for them. Sadly, I realize that my hopeless squabble with the best deck in the metagame is of no concern to you. I know there’s a combo here somewhere, but since I can’t find it, I’ll indulge in one of the safest genres of Magic strategy writing: The Deck Update.
It has been a long time since I wrote an actual article. And while I intend to include some strategic content, this will undoubtedly find its way into the”Issues” section. I sit here in my cubicle in my cushy state job. I sit here making more money in a week than I made playing Magic in all of 2003. I sit here with as good a benefits package as you will find in a job right out of college. I am sitting here unfulfilled.
Phimus Pan was literally the only person left that I wanted to team with. Despite what Roberto Gonzales may feel, two people does not a team make. To my rescue came James Davis. His team did not fare well in Phoenix, and his other Phoenix-based teammates did not want to make the 7.5 hr trek to New Mexico. Pants Pants Revolution was born!
Person 1: Who are you teaming with for the Grand Prix?
Person 2: John Pelcak and Gadiel Szleifer
Person 1: Who?!
Person 2: They’re, um, children.
Person 1: What the hell are you thinking? Why not team with good people?
Person 2: They’re good. We’re gonna do fine. Just you wait.
Everyone dies someday. This is a universal fact. Some, however, are doomed to do it more than others. Have you ever said a prayer, or even spared a kind word or thought, to the recently deceased 1/1 dork that held off an opposing monster so you could win the game next turn?
My past few articles have recapped the metagame. I’ll do that once more. In addition to the decks from previous Regionals, I have collected over one hundred top 8 decklists from Regionals that have occurred this month. That information is as current as anything you can get. It is time to decide what deck to play.
For some reason, my limited game has been suffering terribly sinceDarksteel was released. When drafting MMM on Magic Online, I rarely ever missed the semis, made the finals about half the time, and won a handful. My rating jumped from about 1620 to 1775. Enter Darksteel. Now I’m back down to 1660. What am I doing wrong?
I have dissected a variety of Hulk Smash builds – fifteen total – looking for the trends in winning cards. This actually worked out a lot smoother than when I did the same thing to Keeper, because Psychatog is a card which invites much less flexibility to a deck that uses it, whereas Keeper is nothing but metagame customization. The first thing I did was amass a set of thirty-eight cards (and one sideboard card) that were played in all fifteen builds available from my metagame summaries of the last six months.
This week isn’t about a deck or that final sideboard card (although Black decks really need Echoing Decay for use against Soldier, Goblin, and Insect tokens). No, this is about being ready for The Regionals Experience.
