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Some less experienced players drop”mana curve” like a buzzword, but fail to truly grasp it. Some, for example, just clipped an old Beth Moursund”Deck Deconstruction” column from The Duelist, and the accompanying table for spells for each mana slot. The result is posts on the Wizards boards telling Type I Sligh builders that they need three- and four-mana spells to complete their mana curves, which would only slow the decks. Let me explain it to you.

New York Format was one of several formats used in an early Duelist Invitational. When a Snake Basket deck battled with an Elemental Augury deck in the finals of the Duelist Invitational, the Snake Basket deck emerged victorious. But it was Mike Long’s”Keeper” deck, the one with Elemental Augury, that became the foundation of the modern Type One control deck that Oscar Tan and others play today. All going back to a casual format deck played at an Invitational… And perhaps the most obscure casual format ever.

Supply. Demand. Scary concepts? Not really. If you want to understand why Magic Online is an economic market and thus ace your Economics 101 exam, step right up! And if you’re trying to figure out why a Foil Pernicious Deed is worth 50 tickets or what’s going to happen to your Birds of Paradise once 8th Edition comes out, we’ll show you that, too!

To practice building for this weekend, Mike and I dove into a card pool and built three decks separately from each other. We were both stunned by the depth of the card pool and found it extraordinarily difficult to make cuts within a color. Our solutions were very different, and I think we both understood the approach the other player was taking. I have put all of the cards in alphabetical order by color regardless of set – what would your team do with these cards?

The potential for card advantage exists in all sorts of places when you’re playing Echo Tracer – either by returning an enchanted creature or saving a creature (even itself!) after damage is on the stack. The problem with this card advantage plan, at least in White/Blue, is that you don’t care about being up on cards. As long as you have evasion creatures beating down on your opponent, they could have a hundred cards in their hand, for all you care.

The biggest vote against Seaswift is that there are so many other cards that perform similar functions: Ascending Aven, Mistform Dreamer, Keeneye Aven, Gustcloak Harrier, Dive Bomber, Aven Redeemer, Wingbeat Warrior – and those are just the commons. Whereas Echo Tracer is the only common bounce you will find.

I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of straight Onslaught drafts. With one color brutally handicapped in all but a single archetype, and another pair of colors unplayable together since they couldn’t handle Visara or Sparksmith, you were looking at a lopsided, bland format. But Legions helps to reverse all that.

How do pros do this all the time? How can they play the same deck over and over and over and over and over without wanting to just pick up a shovel and go ape-friggin’-s**t on the guy sitting across from them? “Tossing a Wonder into the graveyard for your Mongrel, huh? I don’t think so. Why not? Because, if you’ll look to your right, you’ll see that I just set your entire graveyard on fire, you piece of flying wurm dung! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”

How do U/R decks win? Sometimes the cards just go on autopilot, moreso than with any other color combination. When the cards come your way, you’ll find yourself stealing wins with a second-turn Sparksmith or fourth-turn Mistform Wall with Lavamancer’s Skill. Let me give you some advice to go by – it might help you improve your game with regards to this color combo.

I’m going to try something different; I’m going to try to go through my deck construction process in steps, as it occurs. Usually, I come up with an idea, then refine it while showering or driving or whatever. This time, I want to try noting the ideas and steps when they occur… And my main idea is killing with Pestilence.

Okay, I promise this will be a short grouse this time. That promise may or may not turn out to be a filthy lie, depending upon how worked up I get…

I realize that asking players to prepare for two similar things is very unfair. In school, I am sure none of you are forced to take, say, two related classes at the same time. Calculus and Chemistry? Probability and Statistics? That would be crazy! Give me a break.

Poor poor Masters players…

There is a simple principle that applies to Magic – and so many people ignore or forget this principle that I find it astounding. Remembering and following this principle will improve your Limited game a good deal – so what is it?