To get an idea what the environment for that tournament will look like, I decided to talk to people who play in the place that runs multiple Standard tournaments every hour of the day and night: Magic Online. I began by asking Matias Gabrenja, who finished 13th at Worlds, what he thought of the online metagame…
When I consider Thieving Magpie, as it was commissioned for Urza’s Destiny and painted by Una Fricker, I see a wonderful painting that is crafted in the naturalist style and pays tribute to a prominent naturalist and painter of the 19th century – John James Audubon.
I told you I’d be back. It was a while ago that I had to take my leave of you, the most wonderful audience a writer could hope for, in order to do a little life maintenance. And now we’re about to find out what I’ve got left in the tank, because a story needs to be told, and I have arrived to do the telling.
I remember talking to the Ferrett about OMC, a.k.a. the inestimable Josh Bennett, and I said something to the effect of”I think I can be as good as OMC when I’m on my game.” We weren’t talking about Magic, as I’m sure you know. His response was both correct and slightly stinging:”You’re not OMC,” he said.”No one is.”
My first deck at my first Pro Tour was slow out of the gates and low on tricks to help me outplay my opponents… But with Savages on the board and manageable pressure from the other side, it was like a combo deck. Nerves? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have butterfly tokens in my stomach.
There are things the Sideboard coverage will not tell you. They have to do with dreams, and hope. And loss. The Pro Tour knows about joy and victory, glitz and glamour and fraternization. But it knows about pain.
More than anything it was the people who made this story, and I think the report makes this clear. From the event staff to the designers to the players to the judges, Magic aficionados both great and small, they’re all part of the great Magic mural, and together comprise a tapestry of vivid color and vital life and enjoyment. The tale of these people is one that deserves to be told, and now I’ve done my small part.
I have no clue why people are talking excitingly about Planar Guide. It shifts creatures for a turn. So? You get to Fog for four mana. Or maybe kill a token or two. Maybe abuse a 187 effect here and there, or flip over a morph creature. Dodge a Wrath effect. Still, considering that this cleric is all of a mighty 1/1 and requires a lot of mana kept open to use it, it just doesn’t thrill me that much. Break the Guide and prove me wrong.
Mark Rosewater recently discussed what slice of the pie White should get. Maybe this is a good week to talk about White Weenie. And let’s face it: If Rosewater presents Marge Simpson as a color’s mascot, we’re not expecting much.
Chicago is one of the few cities to which I can go where it’s colder than home. Lisa and I blew into the Windy City for the ’03 installment of the Pro Tour on the tail of the arctic wind. Fortunately, the weather was the only low point of the weekend, and we stayed inside enough to not have to worry about it.
I’ve already heard some buzz about Seedborn Muse – and justifiably! A non-symmetrical Awakening that can swing? Sign me up! Unfortunately, all I’ve heard so far is adding him to an Opposition deck. While he certainly won’t detract from the deck, I don’t think he’s necessarily worth the slots. Sure, he combines well with Opposition but… Shouldn’t you already be winning if you’ve got an Opposition out?
In my past articles, I’ve talked a lot about preparation for tournaments. This week I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to focus on all the elements of a Magic tournament that don’t involve playing. Let me tell you how a pro shuffles, how he prevents deck registration errors – and above all, the common methods that people use to cheat innocent victims and how to counteract them.
(Editor’s note: I believe that this article is a”must read” for ANYONE interested in tournament Magic. As such, I have decided to repost it in case anyone missed it on Friday. Enjoy! – Pete)
At StarCityGames, we’re always making advances in writing technology. In order to speed up the writing process, we’ve already created the Fill-In-The-Blank Set Review and the Fill-In-The-Blank Tourney Report… But alas, our forums are still filled with angry people. People who have to spend a half-hour at work condensing their venom and vitriol into words. What if we could give you that time back?
I have played some standard on Magic Online lately, and my favorite deck right now is monoblack control. I have done quite well with it, winning something like 70% of more than a hundred matches. Is this good? I haven’t played a lot of Standard in Magic Online before, so I don’t know if you need like 75% wins in order to show that the deck is good. The opposing decks did seem okay, if we exclude the guy who used Cabal Ritual to power out a speedy Dusk Imp.
It seems that my last few columns have touched a couple of nerves… Mostly in a good way, which is not always what a writer strives for. So let me respond to you all, show you the options my fans have presented, and show you a couple of new Soldier decks I’ve been working on.
