This article contains a Top Ten list, a rant about Team Sealed Qualifiers and the state of Virginia Magic, and a hint about the newest StarCityGames.com Featured Writer. How can you resist?
“But, Romeo,” you say, since no one but my Momma calls me Chris,”I’m not gonna have any fun if I don’t win a few matches.” So, build a deck that has a great record against what you think the most prominent decks will be. In other words, as our Esteemed Editor wrote about in his last piece, create a metagame deck. “What’s a possible metagame deck look like,” you ask? Oh, I have theories, yes indeed…
I have just realised that I have never played in a Team Sealed event before, and Team PTQs are coming, so what strategies do I have to employ to do well in such an event?
Despite my hopes and wishes, Arcbound Ravager is just flooding the field. This is by no means breaking news to anyone who has played in a Type Two tournament lately. Regardless, it’s still upsetting. I don’t plan on whining about how this and that should be banned, because that accomplishes nothing. Instead, I would like to give everyone a quick update on Lynch Mob and let everyone know how the deck has evolved in light of the newest changes in the metagame. Oh, and I’d also like to fill you in on a competitive Darksteel Reactor deck. No, I’m not kidding, so click the link already…
The overall opinion on the format seems to be that Black is the dominating color, and Green is pretty bad unless you can get in a position where you’re one of two drafters at the table pulling for it. The pick here seems to be Spikeshot Goblin without a question, though you could make a case for the Den-Guard or Trolls if you want to fight strongly for either color.
Jerry, the pilot of this draft, explained that he wanted the Glimmervoid for a Standard Affinity deck and didn’t think the pick affected the overall result of his draft.
Tim Aten’s back, and this time he’s blowin’ s*** up! Not clicking on this article would be the biggest mistake you make this month, and maybe even this year. All your friends are reading this article, so why aren’t you? Don’t be that guy! Click on the link, kick back, and watch as the master of mayhem guides you through his latest Pro Tour: Qualification, plus delivers a heaping helping of the usual randomness, slang bangin’, and music recommendations.
People bemoan bombs in Limited. They claim that it removes a measure of skill from the game. Well it does. I can’t deny that. In fact, I have been told by an R&D employee that the reason they make bombs is so bad players can occasionally beat good players. If the same people won each and every time, the tournament scene would die out, or so the theory goes. I think it would just encourage practice. I am not here to argue the merits and drawbacks of bombs. I am here to tell all of you bomb haters that Mirrodin is the block for you.
Here is the thing: I’ve saved talking about this deck for awhile, mostly because I think it is one of the more powerful choices for Regionals and I like to save the better decks (and Rogue decks) for later, if possible. The thing is that I think people are severely underestimating this deck, and I would like to bring it back into the limelight.
Whenever a new set comes out, a freakish occurrence spills into the Magic world. Players completely forget everything they knew before the metagame shifted. Or at least, it seems like writers live in that world, and the rest of us sit there wondering what’s going on. People discuss matchups that have already been discussed three or four hundred times before. I haven’t yet seen a name for this phenomenon, but I’m sure we’re all pretty familiar with it. Hopefully, I can avoid that. I am going to talk about a previously known archetype that never pushed above tier 2 in the previous format, but it’s been changed by Darksteel enough that it’s reasonably interesting.
And so the wheel turns. Last month the Five Color Council voted on the status of four cards. This month, we vote on three more cards, plus there are a couple of issues to attend to.
Your first eight picks in any draft are magical. In these picks, the influence of what you have taken in the draft so far means nothing. What should I do in these first eight picks to be a better drafter, flow reader, butt kicker? I want to wreck things like second turn swinging Glaivemaster with a Bonesplitter on him.
My purpose here is to present what I believe to be the gold standard for Tendrils-based combo at the moment. If you enjoy absolutely wrecking people as much as I do – instilling fear and intimidating based upon the strength of your deck, I present…
Thanks to the recent French and German Regionals, we now have a first glance at what the metagame for the U.S. Regionals may look like, and it’s pretty much what was expected: Ravager-Affinity, R/W Slide, and Goblin Bidding. There are a few other culprits (like the quite fun and imaginative”Rat Deck Wins” coming from the French side of things), but those three aforementioned decks pretty much comprise the foundation of your testing gauntlet. What I want to look at today is a deck that may have game against all three of the decks above: R/G Control.
What’s the biggest problem on the Pro Tour today, and how would you go about fixing it? Also, what’s the favorite Good Man of the Week you have bestowed?
