“Hi, my name is Dave, and I’m a Wits-aholic….”
“Hi, Dave.”
“But back when Battle of Wits occasionally won tournaments, Toby and Brock ran the same number of counterspells: Thirty-six. Are there even nine counters in Standard today that are worth playing? And does that mean that Wits is dead?”
Before you start the Hall (which begins today), read this primer so you know how to get the most out of its new, interactive features! Damn, we’re starting to look good on this site – and we’ll look even better now that Alongi’s announcing his StarCity retirement, which should also boost our image.
Anyhow, I was playing this Etherlords computer card game with a couple of other guys. I had a good time, and after about five games, I wondered aloud to myself what was so different. Then I realized: There were no lands. And hot on the on the cranial-pathway-burning heels of that thought was this:”Man, this is nice.”
Wizards shouldn’t write articles how they’re vexed with the fact that I’m allowed to judge a set on its own merits – and not as it is presented in their carefully-presented propaganda induced visions. Strangely enough, they weren’t featuring Skittish Valesk as one of their preview cards.
This is the reward for winning the Invitational? Ouch! If I were to ever be immortalized on a Magic card, I’d be hoping for a better overall effort. I think an Invitational card should be clearly-focused on the character, and it should faithfully capture the likeness of the winner of the Invitational. This is, unfortunately, not the case with Voidmage Prodigy.
Here is a depressing little fact: Almost no rogue decks win major tournaments. Jamie Wakefield’s PTQ win with Secret Force is legendary partly because of Jamie’s writing skill and partly because he was like the Little Engine That Could – failing repeatedly with the same deck before finally qualifying. I’m the king of rogue decks, and if I really wanted to win, I wouldn’t go rogue… But if I did, here’s the basic steps I’d take towards making a competitive deck.
I asked a few of my friends why they hadn’t gotten into Five Color yet; after all, they enjoyed watching Five Color play. Was it the ante? Getting the cards? Not having any powerful cards? Not wanting to use sleeves? Nope; they didn’t want to build the deck, because they didn’t know where to start. And if that is you and why YOU’RE not playing Five Color, then just read on.
Thoughtbound Primoc really reads:”If your opponent is playing bad cards, he may gain control of this creature sometime during the game, if your removal and Sparksmith doesn’t get rid of the 1/1 after he pays 2U for it.”
Blackmail is clearly a second-rate Duress. But is that bad? Well, actually it is – unless you can find a deck that wants four more discard slots. You know, though, that no deck wants all that discard, the simplest reason being it sucks to strip an empty hand while a weenie beats down on you. Discard is just disruption; you need other things to win you the game.
Goblin Sligh might just be fast enough to work in Extended. First turn Lackey, second-turn Flunkies, attack for one, drop Goblin Piledriver. Third turn Piledriver #2, Reckless Charge it, attack for twenty-one!?
Island
This is the land that makes blue mana. If you have two of them untapped, your opponent will always worry that you have a Counterspell. As such, many people consider this the best land ever printed. And for good reason! If you have two Forests untapped, what is your opponent going to be scared of? Double Giant Growth?
Three decks from Dave’s testing gauntlet – including one further refined, with playtesting results and feedback from readers. Wanna see the Meddish U/B Wizards deck? No? How about a Burning Bridge deck that’s all the Rage… Or maybe not, now that it can’t PLAY Rage? All right, will another Mono Black deck satiate you?
Geordie won his PTQ this weekend drafting W/R. No less a figure than Kai Budde says that W/R is the way to go in Onslaught Draft. And what card is key to the W/R archetype? Well, you know it’s not a card that begins with”G” or later, but maybe you oughtta read the article to find out.
The question everybody wants to know right now, though, is what are you packin’ this time? You’ve got a tough job ahead of you, I’ll tell you – because you’re losing a lot of power from the Invasion Block and not getting much back from Onslaught. That leaves many thinking the top decks might just be Standardized Odyssey Block decks.
Imagine sitting back with a half dozen lands, a Prodigal Sorcerer, Words of Wilding, Sindbad, a Quirion Elf, and four 2/2 bears in play. Pretty harmless – even an Overrun won’t do all that much. Oh, and two Arcane Denials, a Jungle Barrier and Force of Will in hand – because you are about to tap three mana and play a card that says”game over.”
