With Scourge looming ever closer, there has been a real crimp in deck analysis for the current Standard format – and judging by my inbox, I’m not the only one wishing there were a few more articles for today’s format. Fortunately, we’ve had some significant events in the last few weeks to give us an intriguing look at how this dizzying environment continues to shape up. Amazingly, the format looks to have become even more diverse.
While flavor was the primary motivation for Form of the Dragon, and while it did end up being rather flavorful, it’s also ridiculously powerful in Limited. The”non-flying creatures can’t attack you” gives you an excellent way to”not lose,” while the”five to any target each turn” provides you the complimentary way to”win.” In case this is too complex for you all, I’ve enlisted my friend Joey Bags to help round out advanced strategy like this.
Tournament Operator Mike Guptil found another (slightly less well-known) player passed out in the elevators. Upon being awoken, that player was very drunk and very disoriented, and was asked to leave the premises (though I doubt he could find the exit without some help). In case you’re missing the point, Grand Prixs are great times – but try not to destroy the hotel and venue, and also do your best to pass out in your room or a friend’s room. This can result in compromising photos of you that get posted on the internet.
At the risk of looking like a scrub (okay – more like a scrub), I am going to build dragon decks. This is partly because the new set is so dragon-friendly – and partly because I am getting some flak for playing too many combo decks. Even my beatdown decks generally have some”surprise, you all lose” elements. I’m trying to build something that only wins by beating down.
Ever seen a Magic card that was misprinted or defective in some manner? Quite a unique find, no? Now… how about over FIVE-HUNDRED different ones?!?!
After collecting misprinted Magic the Gathering cards for years, I have decided to sell my collection. If you’re into this sort of thing, you won’t be disappointed. Enjoy!
Starr Kaplan told me,”It may be useful for Magic players themselves to know… What they can do to change society’s perception of the average Magic player.”
I have a better idea! Perhaps it would be more useful for members of so-called”society” to know what they could do to change the perception that the average Magic player has of them.
Wizards totally dropped the ball on the cards, at least in terms of the storyline. The cards do not do the novel justice. The flavor texts in Legions supported the storyline to some extent, although there was also a great deal of supplementary information not covered in the novels. Even though Scourge doesn’t add anything significant to the Scourge storyline, it certainly does not support the story put forth by J. Robert King. The flavor texts are bland, boring, and weak – especially in the wake of the strong pool of ideas in the novel.
What this article is concerned with is color combinations. If you play a two-color deck, you have ten choices of what two colors to play – some obviously better than others. This article is going to look at the history of Onslaught Block drafting format so far and discuss how each color combination has fared – and then I will look ahead and try to predict which combinations will be the best, and which should be avoided in OLS drafts.
I want to focus on what I feel is the most important aspect to drafting in a three-set format: This concept is called the cut-off. While it is far from a new concept, I believe that in this format it is far more important, as it is the aspect of the draft you can most control, and it will lead to more powerful decks.
Magic players are notorious for complaining about bad luck and wishing that skill was a bigger factor in determining the winner of the game. What’s that old expression?”Be careful what you wish for”? Team Rochester Draft is the most skill-intensive format Magic has to offer. That’s great news if your team is better prepared than the opposing team, and really bad news if you’re not. There are no excuses. If you want the edge (and in this format, it can be a big one), you’re going to have to work for it – and I’ll show you how.
I was working on tweaking U/G to my satisfaction for Regionals, and Brad put together this rogue-ish deck built around the Unholy Triumvirate of Cabal Archon, Rotlung Reanimator, and Withered Wretch. I chuckled at his efforts – after all, didn’t he know about Compost? Compost destroys mono-black decks. I decided to humor him by hauling out U/G against his horribly untuned deck… And got my clock cleaned. Hmm. Maybe this deck has some potential after all.
This article has been in the works with Stephen Menendian, a.k.a. Smmenen, the Paragons’ other law student, for several weeks now, but I wasn’t home mornings (evenings in the United States) because of my law internship. Then Gush got restricted – so hell, we did the games on the last day of my internship, at 2:30 a.m., and with me loaded with tequila from the mini-party with Joey, the other intern. Interesting? Definitely.
My U/G Threshold deck had all sorts of torturous ways to get cards into the ‘yard, including the card-disadvantageous Breakthrough and the non-threatening Hapless Researcher. Not coincidentally, with all of those cards taking up slots that would rather be used to put giant Wurms into play, the deck went 3-3-drop at Regionals. But now, all you have to do is have 1U open when anyone plays a spell, and bingo! Instant threshold… And a lot of freed slots that can make it similar to other U/G builds. And what’s that about a card that might break Extended Tinker?
Certainly something was broken in Growing ‘Tog, and it cannot be denied that the sheer size of its men made so many decks unplayable. If restricting Gush is your solution, though, you have to justify it due to synergy with other cards since it just isn’t that powerful on its own. (The closest analogy is Frantic Search.) The problem, however, is that you have no other alternative except for Psychatog, unless you want to ban Fastbond, which is impossible because Tolarian Academy, Memory Jar and Yawgmoth’s Bargain would have to go first… And it may well be that restricting Gush still doesn’t stop the deck.
Of course, I was prepared to play a normal match, but I got the vibe that things might be a little skewed when he dropped every land in his hand on the first turn and motioned for me to do the same. Then he attacked me with his lands. I took three. I played some guys and passed the turn. He played a Remove Enchantments and said”go.” I attacked with some creature and he played Gaseous Form to block. I complimented him on thinking outside the box.
