Is losing frustrating? Yes. Tough on the psyche? Yes. Part of Magic? Yes. I’ll never deny that it is. You know what else is part of Magic? Whining. Complaining. Griping. Bitching. Sometimes when you’re on tilt, you gotta let it out, man. And some bad beats make great stories
Though I’m known as a Constructed specialist, my biggest Magic weakness stems directly from Constructed – you see, I like new weird decks way too much. When the rest of Team YMG has long since chosen their decks for the Pro Tour, I’ll still be working on some new, rogue deck idea. So I’m going to indulge my passion. I’m not going to give you the umpteenth article about Tog, U/G Madness, or Slide – no, it’s going to be a month of off-the-beaten-path decks.
U/G Madness is Tier 1 for a reason. This deck harnesses a lot of raw power and offers the potential for some of the most unfair draws available in competitive Standard. It falls somewhere between the polarizing effects of the other two Tier 1 decks, not as controlling as ‘Tog, not as aggro as R/G. In the same vein, U/G doesn’t have many bad matchups, and also has few amazing matchups. So what are the issues involved in a U/G Deck, and what do the pros argue about?
I untapped and cast Wheel numbers two and three during my upkeep. He pitched all seven cards to the first Wheel (taking twenty-eight damage), drew seven more (fourteen damage), pitched them (another twenty-eight damage) and drew seven more for a final fourteen points of damage. Over a hundred damage in his end step and my upkeep phase. Lifegain is not a winning strategy; my Dreams deck, on the other hand, seems to be.
Ted offered you $50 for your best secret Regionals tech – and now he’s going to let you choose the winner! Five strange, but potentially-abusable decks have been chosen – so read the top five and see what the authors had to say about them!
What you are about to read is a report of one the most screwed-up Pro Tours by far. Pyromancers, twenty-six-land goblin decks, Explosive Vegetations that are used in the role of reanimation spells, people boarding Rorix in every conceivable matchup, and the Withered Wretch-Silvos-Akroma, Angel of Wrath deck that made top8. All this in the city of water and old buildings… And in the country that brings you the ex-porn actress/present parliamentary representative. I will most definitely not be discussing those all in detail, as it would just blow my mind.
Cloudreach Cavalry is the most situational card on the list in terms of when you draft and play it. I wouldn’t recommend playing this with fewer than five birds/mistforms in your deck, but if you have eight or more birds, especially if a few of them cost three mana, this card becomes a powerhouse. And please, don’t play Aven Envoy to make this card more powerful. For that matter, don’t play Aven Envoy to Amplify your Stingers and Warhawks. Just don’t play it. The Envoy, I mean.
Much like P.T. Barnum faking his own death in order to see what people would say about him, it turns out that a fake resignation brings the nicest people out of the woodwork to tell me how great I am. It was great, and I have now vowed that I ever get the chance to engineer my own demise, I’m takin’ it. For those who didn’t get the joke, though, April Fools.
If Keeper is really the best deck Type One has to offer, then we need to explore its weaknesses. We need to find ways of defeating it. Even the toughest nut can be cracked, and I will show you how to crack this nut in five easy steps.
Too often I would be dealt lethal damage before I could”go off”. The card that finally made the deck work was Phage the Untouchable. No other card in the game has the power to end a game in one turn so reliably, and in so very many ways.
I soon stopped laughing over his Force Spike, however, when he attacked me and pumped his guy +19/+19 for the kill! That was insane. I complimented Dennis on his innovative deck idea, and he admitted that he had found it on the internet.
It’s not really a strategy article per se, but I figured you folks ought to hear it first from me: Starting in May, I’ll be going from a site with thousands of daily readers to a site whose weekly unique visitors can be counted in millions – well, half millions, anyway – but I’ll have to get used to it. My fan mail will be different. The lingo will fade. And above all, I’ll really miss editing StarCity.
Truth be told, I’m still not entirely satisfied. I still wish I knew a way to fit Krosan Tusker in the deck. I still wish I could feel more comfortable with the deck’s mana situation in general, actually. I still wish I knew a card – something like Centaur Glade or Flamewave Invoker – that could help me better abuse the large amounts of land along with Seedborn Muse. I still wish I had another month or two to hammer out these issues. The Marksman is far from perfect, even for a casual deck.
I’ve been inspired by the enthusiasm that Skirk Fire Marshal has encouraged in my fellow StarCity gamers. The new version of Goblink sports more benign-looking monsters, quality spells – and this time, a fighting chance. It’s still got the problem factors that plagued the original Goblink, but this is hopefully the start of Goblink’s revival.
I don’t have much to contribute on drafting strategy – so this is where the article should end, right? Actually, no; this is where it really begins. A lot of people head straight in, study the cards, make the best pick and start lovingly constructing their forty-card bundle of joy… And that’s really bad strategy, since there are several tricks you can use within Magic Online to shape your optimal drafting strategy.
