StarCity’s latest Featured Writer attended the Onslaught prerelease – and he cracked the cards he wanted! Of course, Michael doesn’t play to win… He plays for pleasure, as he analyzes the prettiest cards he saw at his prerelease.
I see possibilities in unloved cards. I am a one-man Isle of Misfit Cards. For example, while everyone is going completely ape slick over the beef in Onslaught (yes indeedily-doodily, Silvos is block rockin’ beats), I have to wonder why people aren’t playing Gurzigost… But, alas, Gurzigost is from all the way back in Torment.
Here’s the first piece of data that I find interesting: Despite the pitifully small sample, decks that featured Opposition in them finished 8-1 against the field. That’s right, 8-1 from three different builds of Opposition. But which deck has been faring the best in Ted’s testing?
I’ve monkeyed around with adding different colors to OBC Deep Dog in order to strengthen the mirror and maybe help against Sligh, but I discovered that Dog’s mana base is like a Porsche’s fuel injection: It’s very, very fine-tuned and it doesn’t like different kinds of gas. Black is right out. But what other color might work?
The numbers mix-up is done… And by Jeezum crow, the complete downloadable spreadsheet is here at last! And while gold cards may not be in Onslaught, but they’re still the lifeblood of many casual players! Find out Alongi’s top 35 picks, and his suggestions for multiplayer staples.
The metagame clock seemed to lay out the course of OBC fairly well, I think, only notably missing a few decks like”Pirates” and the Wake combo deck. Since Wonder Dog is a UG aggro-control deck, it should have beatdown enemies; that doesn’t seem to be the case with this deck, however, thanks to the cut-rate fatties. So what are the problems again when addressing the problems posed by format’s noted”best deck”?
#140, #142, #145, #143, and NOW it’s #144? Well, the Ferrett’s evidently gone off his rocker, but it’s too late to do anything now. And unlike the editor’s righteous inconsistency, I start off the blue section of the Hall of Fame pretty much the same way every time, telling you how blue has a lousy time in multiplayer – its natural strength in duel is its major weakness in group.
Today, we’ll be constructing a basic skeleton or framework for the 5-Color deck you’ll be playing. We do not want to fill it up with tutors, or removal, or mana, or whatever – not yet, anyway. All we want is the tasty nugget. Figuring out the skeleton, however, may be a little bit harder than it appears at first.
We begin with what was the most talked-about enchantment in Type I circles, obviously because this card has explosive potential…. But what deck does Future Sight belong in? With Future Sight in play, Academy can turn over Moxen and keep fueling cheap card drawers until it puts together the combo. But is it a good idea?
It’s easy to discount the actual process of deck shuffling as an afterthought, instead focusing on play ability and deck choice. While these characteristics are naturally important, it’s also very important not to make the mistake of overlooking the necessary skill of shuffling. Shuffling improperly or carelessly can give your opponent a decided advantage throughout the duration of a match.
It’s nice to see T2 and limited catching on – but multiplayer deckbuilders have been doing tribal all along. Looking back over my past articles, I see fun decks built around sea creatures, elves, zombies, soldiers and more. It’s a common multiplayer idea – but I want to talk about how to build such decks in general, not about any specific tribal deck.
Red’s trade-offs usually feel pretty chaotic -“I can get a powerful effect, but I’m likely to get burned in the process (either by actually getting burned, or losing random cards).” Black’s trade-offs are a bit more cold and calculating -“I lose this predictable resource to make X happen to everyone else.” So how does black fare in multiplayer?
During OBC Season, I got stuck testing R/G Beats extensively – and discovered that it was the Little Deck That Couldn’t. For States, I’ve been testing six different builds of U/W Mobilization – and once again, I have discovered that none of them work. Let me warn you why this is one deck you should not even CONSIDER taking to States – and wonder why I am so clearly drawn to sucktacular decks….
I’ve seen people do it:”End of turn, tap Flooded Strand to go look for a …” The point is that there is clearly no actual reason to use the fetchland – because you’re short on land! You want to draw a land next turn. Use the damned things right.
“Life’s just much too hard today,” I hear every player say. They just don’t appreciate getting killed. But maybe that’s just because getting killed means that they lose yet again. It gets tiring very fast. And do you know what they just lost to? To my broken Plague Post deck.
