Pro Tour: Valencia is just around the corner, and Mike is getting back into the Extended swing. Today’s Flores Friday sees Mike throw out three novel and exciting Extended decks, and run us through some games on Magic Online. While, in their current incarnations, they may not be PT winners, they’re certainly decks to watch. And with Nike’s deckbuilding pedigree, who knows? Maybe one will make a Sunday slot after all…
Pro Tour: Valencia looms large in the schedules, and Extended is the format that all the cool kids love to play. Today’s Deep Analysis begins what promises to be an exciting series — in preparation for the PT, Zac Hill and Richard Feldman promise to share their testing process to a degree never before seen. Richard begins this week with a look at the Aggro decks in the format… and, in particular, the impact on the metagame of a certain Little Lhurgoyf That Could.
Time Spiral Block Constructed season is winding to a close, and it’s time to move to Constructed pastures new. Traditionally, Block Constructed is the least powerful of the sixty-card formats. Patrick Chapin has a decent antidote to this low-level play… Extended! With Pro Tour: Valencia looming large, the Innovator brings us his personal take on the current Extended metagame, with decklists, PLAY tips, and predictions galore!
Rivien takes a new look at a fringe Extended strategy today, utilizing two cards that he claims are criminally underused. While the deck won’t make waves on the tournament scene, it’s certainly some food for thought. Sadly, today’s Magic Grab Bag sees Rivien hanging up his metaphorical boots, and moving on to new challenges. I’ll let the man himself reveal why in his final article… good luck, fella! Don’t be a stranger!
The Ultimate Extended Tourney was a trial by fire of 32 of the top Extended decks of all time. It’s over, and we have a winner. That’s nice, but the winner in a format that never existed is not really relevant. Examining how and why decks did well in this format is relevant to anyone building decks for a new format, including Legacy for Grand Prix: Columbus, or Time Spiral Block Constructed for the PTQs.
The Ultimate Extended Tourney is winding down. It began with 32 of the most successful Extended decks of all time. It’s down to two now.Today, I’ll cover the last Elite Eight match (Survival versus CounterSlivers), and the Final Four matches.
The Ultimate Extended Tournament began with 32 decks, and it is down to nine. (Yes, nine.) Those nine decks contain a total of eleven cards that were, at later times, banned in Extended. It really is a battle of broken decks — but disruption is proving more important than brokenness. Force of Will is heading the disruption team — and Force of Will forces me to talk about Future Sight.
The Ultimate Extended Tournament began with 32 great Extended decks — including five from the season just ended. It is down to eight (or so), and these are playing it out. Can any of the modern decks compete with the best of 1999, or 2002, or the decks from PT Tinker? We are answering those questions.
Are today’s Extended decks as good as those of years past? To find out, 32 of the best of the best — including five decks from this past season — are fighting it out in a single elimination tournament. It’s a battle of monsters — and banned cards: Time Spiral, Memory Jar, Survival of the Fittest, Necropotence, Dark Ritual, Entomb, Tolarian Academy, Demonic Consultation and Replenish are all in play. Can Duress, Force of Will and Wasteland really beat PT: Tinker brokenness? Let’s find out.
With Jeroen Remie currently snowed under by exam work, John Pelcak steps nobly into the breach, bringing us the full story behind his excellent Top 8 performance at Grand Prix: Dallas. He plumped for the mathematician’s choice, the powerful and dominant Affinity. He flew in the face of Kataki-packers, and made it to the top tables! To find out how, read on…
I’m continuing with the Ultimate Extended Tournament. The concept is simple — take two dozen of the best Extended decks from seasons past, add some of the best decks from this season, and let them all battle it out. Round one is now over. We have upsets! The number one seed — JarGrim — is out!
Having pummeled the format into submission with Tenacious Tron (and Richard Feldman), Zac takes a look back over the recently-departed Extended season, and asks just what it was that made the format so damned fun. He breaks down the essential components required to make a Constructive format zing, and explains to the masses just why he hates Block Constructed.
I’m continuing with the Ultimate Extended Tournament. Round 1 is in progress. Some matches are done. What won? Force of Will — almost every time. What lost? Beatdown. Can modern decks compete? Maybe. One made it through round 1. A few matches have not yet finished, but we have judges watching them for slow play.
In a final attempt to qualify for Pro Tour: Yokohama, Zac brings us a deck of his own design that may just have the legs to take him all the way. Considering his last Extended offering was Tenacious Tron, a deck that went on to shape the metagame, then maybe Zac his deck will be the Last Man Standing at his approaching PTQ…
Extended innovator and grammar assassin John F. Rizzo attempted to smash the system with an exciting deck that was, perhaps, the oddest metagame choice for quite some time. Today’s Feature Article takes a Rizzoesque look at the conception, creation, and performance of the deck at a local PTQ. All this, plus the usual Rizzo humor and irreverence.
