I received a number of drafts that needed analyzing. Unfortunately, I can only do one at a time if I wanna do ’em right, so we might as well start with one of the more interesting ones I received… A draft where someone got lured away by powerful cards that left him relying on luck to salvage his mana base.
The match had been perfect for StarCityGames coverage; Laura Mills, former writer for StarCity, was up against Elliot Fertik – a sporadic writer for StarCity. Two internet writers, from rival sites, going head to head in Round 2? How could you miss it? Includes a tremendous error, done twice in a row!
Eight damage smashed across the table to crush Jeff. Still on the fifth turn, Rofellos and Cradle poured a waterfall of mana into Ostrovich’s pool, summoning another Hermit, a Ravenous Baloth, a Call of the Herd, a Slate of Ancestry, and… Oh hell. It was over.
Baby Huey looked over at EDT, energy sparking from his eyes. After all, he and EDT both sat on the same side of the Feature Match table, facing off against Kastle and Dougherty.”Come on, EDT, we gotta take these Your Movers down!”
EDT smiled wearily.”I intend to,” he replied quietly.
After decks that were predominantly Red featured so strongly in the last Grand Prix Top 8 at Reims, you would expect Red to make a strong return engagement in New Orleans – especially as the folks with three byes stepped into the fray. So where did Sligh go to?
The card in question this time is Screeching Buzzard. My dilemma with this card, which I discovered while doing a Rochester Draft at CMU: Rachel took a Buzzard over a Severed Legion, and it was unanimously decided that this was a mistake. A little later, I stopped to think. Was this such a bad pick? I brought up the idea to Crosby that perhaps this was not such an error.
When I asked a fellow player recently,”Do you mind if I play you with a totally broken deck that’s illegal in all formats?” he was intrigued and said no. When he saw that it wasn’t High Tide or Replenish, he was even more interested – and I got to show him the joy of complete and utter insanity.
That seems to be the issue at this point, doesn’t it? How do casual groups, which tend by nature to be fluid and harder to define, decide how to be rigid and strict? How does a diverse group decide on a simple, solid guideline? The answer’s pretty simple: They can’t. And you can’t save everyone from bad deckbuilding.
TnT crushes The Deck. And all I had was five lands, a Brainstorm, and a Mana Drain, a very weak hand; my opponent had a God hand for a deck that should crush me. What did he do wrong? Also, for the first time ever on StarCity, the complete and unedited INVINCIBLE COUNTER-TROLL!
Let’s discuss the dearly departed and the new arrivals of Magic, and see what happened. What were the issues that pushed your hot buttons in 2002?
Odyssey Block was great. It was the block that made me realize that the folks at Wizards R&D are extremely creative people. They may never run out of ideas. As a matter of fact, it kind of reminds me of Urza’s block. Urza’s block was SO full of good stuff that we STILL can’t find the bottom of it.
One thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three articles. That’s how many pieces StarCity has published over the past year. That’s an average of 6.83 articles every weekday for your pleasure – or about three and a half million words. That’s the equivalent of 3,800″How I Spent My Summer Vacation” articles, seventeen Stephen King novels, or half a Rizzo article.
So what was the best article? The funniest article? The worst article and the weirdest story? Find out if I mentioned you by name!
Casual Magic ‘04 – Better Than Ever! Tired of players who take Magic way too seriously? Want to be able to build decks using most of the cards you own? Interested in playing Magic simply because it’s fun? Then Casual Magic is for you! But what is Casual Magic, and why should you be playing…
I’m not gonna be subtle today. I was gonna hold back on this one, saving it for when I really wanted to get even with an aggressive multiplayer group – but to heck with it. I’m gonna share it with you. Warn ’em, my conscience tells me. Warn these people about my deck…
