Ted’s contest has been screwed by random circumstance twice – once by getting it in just a little too late for a Friday posting, and once by the technical problems we were having yesterday morning. So let’s try this again: HELP TED SELECT THE DECK HE’LL PLAY AT REGIONALS AND WIN A FOIL!
I have no quarrel with people who throw around twenty-point Drain Lifes or someone who triple-Spirit Links their Exalted Angels. These may be examples of sick, disgusting excess – but at least these people are advancing the game state. They are actually doing damage, not hiding behind unassailable walls and gaining life for the pure sake of gaining life. Well, friends, I want to say that I have the cure for this never-attacking, death-by-boredom madness…. And it’s something I work with every day.
I wrote last week’s Back to Basics column because I thought I had to clarify a concept discussed in the previous week’s column. Now, it turns out that I have to clarify the clarification, and people ribbed me that the beginner’s article still went over the beginner’s heads.
How many cyclers do you need to run Astral Slide in the maindeck… And how many do you need to make it a good deck? What are the minimum number of soldiers you need before you can reliably use Piety Charm? How many birds must you have before you can play Airborne Ai – okay, that was a trick question. But if you wanna know the bare minimums before you can start putting tribal cards and Peer Pressures in your decks, start here – oh, and I’ll give you ten hints as to how NOT to name your team so you don’t sound lame.
It’s the 8th Edition Core Set Spoiler List… once again, courtesy of the MTGNews.com Rumor Mill
[DISCUSS 8th EDITION CORE SET IN THE STARCITYGAMES.COM FORUMS!]
In addition to being incredibly fun to play, Elvish Succession is a very powerful deck. I’ve had better results with this deck than any other deck I’ve tested in the current Standard. If I were playing in Regionals, this would be the deck I would play. And what do I mean by fun and powerful? I mean drawing your deck as early at turn 4, having infinite mana, gaining infinite life, having infinitely-large Husks, Elves, and Fallen Angels, creating infinite bear and insect tokens, and rebuilding your library into all creatures whenever you like.
Pete Hoefling has been running StarCityGames.com successfully for years – even before it was a world-class website. He’s made a lot of great decisions and has truly had a positive impact on Magic as a whole. And just this past weekend, Pete started up a new format called”Casual Magic,” and it’s a combination of tournament and casual Magic that has been getting casual players old and new out to play together.
Going through the deck database, I also ran across some distinctly”rogue” builds that qualified some enterprising players who dared to turn their back on netdecking and go their own way. I thought I’d present the decks that I found particularly fun.
I could spice up the story by saying that I prayed to the almighty and dropped a flying elbow on my deck, but I just calmly flipped the top card of my deck onto the table… And it was Upheaval. So I played my land, and ended with a hand of five lands and Wild Mongrel. Her board didn’t have any early drops – just Arrogant Wurm, Wonder and Equilibrium, and her next two draws didn’t reveal a chump blocker. I realized that I no longer had the right to complain about any topdeck ever.
I was at least respectable enough to play Magic Online for free for almost five months; take that for what it is, but I felt it was time to write a draft walkthrough. But I don’t know about you, my gentle readers, but I learn an awful lot more when I lose a draft than when I win one. So let me analyze my bad picks in exquisite detail so you can avoid my mistakes and possibly learn from them.
Magic has a small number of fundamental rules: One land per turn, one attack phase per turn, a certain maximum power-to-mana ratio for creatures, and one card drawn per turn. Breaking this last rule – one card per turn – is one of the most basic yet most powerful strategies in the game.
Make sure all your decks have a chance against green. Only one of our decks could beat opposing fatties consistently, and our performance suffered because of it. Try to build your decks in such a way that at least two of the decks can handle any given matchup without problem. On a similar note, make sure all the decks have some answer to the premiere commons that other teams are likely to have – like Sparksmith, Wellwisher, and Lavamancer’s Skill.
This is a list of good, solid multiplayer cards – the cards to look for if you don’t have them. Each group starts with really inexpensive cards – generally commons, all available cheaply. Then I throw in a couple slightly more expensive cards towards the end, and finish it up with one or two expensive cards that are nearly always worth it.
I met jeers of”you suck” and”You have no skill.” People were furious, ready to slap me across the face, fuming in frustration. I definitely felt unwelcome, and I wanted to leave as quickly as possible to avoid any confrontation or possible problems. People were screaming, angry. All because I tapped two Islands, played a card and said,”No.”
