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You CAN Play Type I #102: The Control Player’s Bible – Head to Head With Stax
With all the excitement about artifacts this week, I decided to move up a feature of an artifact-based deck. Since fellow Paragon Steve Menendian already drew the Growing ‘Tog feature and I couldn’t find other notable Stax players like Matthieu Durand, I pulled a couple of very exciting games against someone you probably don’t know. Today, we welcome Guillaume Cardin, a student from Montreal. While he enjoys Type I, his higher-profile achievements include piloting U/G Madness to the quarterfinals of the last Canadian Nationals….
Dragon*Con Every Year, Please – Tales from Grand Prix: Atlanta
I’ll do the responsible thing and issue a warning: This article, like nearly all my articles, contains links to scantily-clad women. It may also contain references to and stories about sex, marijuana, alcohol, and sundry other adult concepts. It is meant to be read by fine, upstanding adults who would never dream of emulating any of the lunacy that may or may not occur as part of the events depicted here. If these sorts of things don’t appeal to you, then feel free to hit your”Back” button and seek out other, more palatable authors with names like”Bennie Smith,””Anthony Alongi,” and”Peter Szigeti.” I promise I won’t be offended.
As for the rest of you… Come on in.
The Biggest Con In Magic Is The Draft Walkthrough
Of course, invariably the person who is writing the walkthrough wins the draft, which just serves to make the whole thing look rather contrived. But if people are reading the walkthroughs to learn, then surely it would be far more useful to read about drafts where things didn’t go according to plan. Writing about a draft where everything goes perfectly is like writing a software manual without a troubleshooting guide. You’re basically saying,”This is what should happen; if it doesn’t, then you’re on your own.”
This is my draft. It didn’t work out. Let me tell you why.
The Biggest Con In Magic Is The Draft Walkthrough, Part 2: The Actual Play
Looking at my card pool, it was tricky to build a deck. I had some powerful cards, but not enough and what I had was somewhat lacking in synergy. Basically I had two choices. Firstly, I could play my best twenty-three U/W cards along with seventy land, giving me a deck with decent mana but with some bad cards and capable of very indifferent starts. Alternatively, I could go the U/W/r route and have a deck of mostly powerful cards that lacked synergy, all held together by a shaky mana base….
The Adventures Of The Bug And Super Skrull: Dave’s PTQ Report
When playing in the mirror, we found that the more streamlined Goblin build would generally beat the”beefier” build. So I went for the quicker approach, adjusting the sideboard so I could downshift as needed, depending upon the matchup. Goblin Pyromancer replaced Starstorm, which was our own little bit of tech. There are definitely times where Starstorm is the better card… And there are times where giving all your Goblins +3/+0 for an alpha strike and/or serving as a Tivadar’s Crusade works, too. My results with the card were mixed….
Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #76: Going Rogue, Part II
In Part I of this article, I discussed the why and how of rogue decks, and provided some general rules for their construction. Now I’ll build one, to provide a practical example of the process. The trick was to find a rogue deck concept that hasn’t been thoroughly discussed in articles and forums already. I think I have one: Intruder Alarm, Squirrel Nest, and something to animate lands, like Vivify. So what happened when I tested this deck in a modern Standard environment, what were the two pitfalls I had to avoid – and how did the deck turn out?
Breaking The Silence: PTQ Top 8 Report
I realize a U/W Control Onslaught Block decklist is nothing new, but it was groundbreaking when my teammate Ian Welter came up with the idea a month and a half ago. The extra month I had to test the deck before Grand Prix: London made all the difference. My deck was better tuned, and I knew how to play it better than the hordes of people who had been playing it for only a week….
The Latest OnBC Tech… P.T.Q. Richmond, VA – Top 8 Decklists!
Goblin decks with Goons instead of Piledrivers? You betcha! Check out the SIX teched out Goblin decks that blazed their way through the swiss rounds at this past weekend’s Pro Tour New Orleans Qualifier… then check out the U/W deck that took them down…
Living The Dream: Day 2 At Atlanta!
My love for Block Constructed put me in danger of not playing in the Grand Prix. I thought about preparing for the Grand Prix, but decided against because I knew what I wanted to play. A lack of preparation made me think I was not going to do well, so I just wanted to have as much fun as I possibly could. How can you not have fun reanimating big stupid creatures? That is the only reason I went in playing Reanimator! It had some game against Wake with all the disruption main, and with Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Phantom Nishoba, and Visara, it had some game against the aggressive decks of the format like Goblins and U/G. In theory, the deck seemed strong, and in truth the amount of fun I was going to have Stitch Togethering some dorks would outweigh my overall results regardless.
Choose Your Own Adventure: What Splash Should You Use?
Nick’s back with his series on the tiny decisions in Magic, and this one’s a doozy: You have a base-black deck. What should your splash be? A very in-depth analysis of how you should look at Limited decks, and how a bad choice can lead to cards that have no synergy with the base color’s plan of attack…
Mining the Crystal Quarry: Reanimation And Its Impact On Multiplayer Games.
When Torment came out, Hypnox was the card that caught my eye as something to try to make usable. Then the ruling came that Clone, when cast copying a Hypnox, would indeed take away an opponent’s hand. That was just begging for someone to put it all together. Now, Reanimator decks in multiplayer have to be as speedy as possible to contend with the greater number of threats. Unlike a duel, decks in multiplayer need to last longer and have a long-term plan. This deck has both raw power and a late game.
Mirrodin: First Impressions
You know, the other day I found out Mirrodin was The Artifact Set and I thought only one thought…
That maybe now was the time…
The day would finally come…
Manakin would be reborn!
Richmond, VA – OnBC Qualifier This Saturday!
Still looking to qualify for Pro Tour New Orleans? This Saturday… look no further than Richmond, Virginia and an exciting day of OnBC action head judged by Sheldon Menery!
Back to Basics #7: Counting Tempo (Part III)
In Part I, we recapped card advantage and summed up that drawing extra cards is like taking extra turns. However, this is put in context when you consider that an extra turn has other components aside from an extra card draw. In Part II, we went further and showed that you also maximize your mana in a particular turn by paying the lowest mana cost for a given effect. In 2003, however, I feel that even the concept”mana” as broadly discussed doesn’t cover everything about tempo; today, we’ll track tempo in the way that Rob Hahn did – attack phases.