Slivers are one of the favorite”tribes” in Magic for a reason: They bridge the gap between casual and competitive players. A casual player can rave about Slivers, and Grumpy McTournamentman won’t walk over and smack him in the head. So let’s look at the Slivers and see which ones may be tournament-worthy and which ones are not, and then create some preliminary Standard decks to look at.
This week, we’re going to do something that journalists call Interviewing Yourself. This is a technique in which the writer asks himself (or herself) questions that he (or she) then answers. In theory, this is supposed to give the writer (and, by extension, the reader) some Deep Insight into His (or Her) Own Mind. In reality, it’s a cheap way to get a column.
When you publicly bitch about Wizards on the front page of one of the Big Three Magic websites, you’re going to get attention. When Wizards actually steps up to the plate and provides you with the information you were complaining about, you better be ready to come correct and cough up the analysis…. And so I did. Here’s everything I can figure out about Onslaught draft from Draft 3 of Chicago, as well as the story of what it was exactly that I showed to the ladies in New Orleans.
I’m not ready to say Legions is the new Homelands, as others have – there’s more than three playable cards in this set – but the list of cards I’d call tournament-playable is short. But middle sets are often lacking in that department, as it’s the final set in block formats that tend to have the bulk of the bombs. While lacking in cards for Constructed environments, though, this set is going to be a blast to draft.
In my last article, I left off by saying that I was sufficiently confident in my Turbofog deck that I would run it in a sanctioned tournament. Well, this I did, and I have a report that verifies two things that I have recently realized:
1. Turbofog is tournament-viable
2. I am a ninny… Well, I’ve known that for a long time, actually.
There are the Hyped-Up Cards, the cards that may or may not be good, and the cards that are solid gold but nobody knows or accepts this fact yet. A good example of a Hype card from this set would be the Mistform Ultimus – I mean sure, he’s a Squirrel Cat Beast Efreet Island Fish Dragon Townsfolk Druid Bandit Lord – but that doesn’t mean he’s good, even if he pretends to be a Necrosavant, Walking Dead, and Ball Lightning at the same time. After all when you get right down to it, the Ultimus is just a damn dirty ape.
By now, the cat is clearly out of the bag when it comes to the Standard B/R Reanimator deck. All right – that’s an understatement. The cat escaped the bag aeons ago and is currently shooting craps in the alley with a 40 oz. in hand. Reanimator has been making the rounds on Magic Online for a good month and a half, and the deck had a large number of disciples running it in the Masters Gateway tournament as well.
There are many more common flyers in this set than there were in Onslaught, so don’t be lured into the idea that the skies are safe this weekend. You should play Slivers if you have them, especially if it’s rare, because otherwise you may get elbowed by Shifting Sliver. If your opponent has Mountains and you’re doing combat math, always add four to the total you think they can attack you with… All these and many many more!
Legions is really breaking all the rules here, being a set composed entirely of creatures – meaning no sorceries, instants, enchantments, or artifacts – and you begin to see that really, you’re gonna be up the creek unless you get some help. So if you don’t know Sealed or just need advice from a roaming marmot, I’m here to help!
Masters players, being the best of the best, like to play controlling decks with all the answers. The feeling is that as long as the deck has the tools to make the win possible, they will outplay their opponent and achieve the victory. Tog, with its card drawing, counter magic, creature control, and game-ending Upheavals, fits perfectly into the Masters players mindset… So I created another deck, which did beat Tog…
The man’s made his name here critiquing art and telling us how important it is to Magic. And here comes the 8th Edition, specifically redesigned just to make the art larger. What does the man who breathes artistry think of it?
The biggest complaint I get from beginning Magic players is that they don’t have the money to invest in all the rares for those decks, thus disqualifying them from tournament play. My response to this is always”trade for what you need.”
One build of Stompy, three builds of Sligh, all angry things up in your face. And, of course, the usual Raksian analysis!
The deck did well enough that I decided to bring it to play between rounds during FNM. After beating each U/G deck that crossed my path, and a variety of others, I started seriously considering this deck as a real contender… And since then, I have personally piloted this deck to over 80 wins in 101 games.
As many people know, I’m the decklist guy for most major events for Wizards at this point. I type between 110-130 wpm, depending on how tired I am. For a 345-person Rochester draft tournament, it would take a single person, using my shortcut program, twenty-three hours of continuous typing to finish the first draft pod alone.
