Wednesday, February 10th – The hybrid Thopter Depths combo deck has dominated the Extended scene for a number of weeks. Today, Antoine Ruel throws it against Manuel Bucher’s Domain Zoo in an attempt to gain valuable insight into the matchup as Grand Prix: Oakland looms ever closer…
Monday, February 8th – There are essentially three phases to decks in Extended. They move to the point where they’re unknown and good, to where they’re on the uprise and still good because people aren’t prepared for them yet, and when they’ve hit their peak and bad to play because people are now overly prepared for them.
Monday, January 8th – With Grand Prix: Oakland this coming weekend, Patrick Chapin investigates a some interesting approaches to the format, powered by the planeswalker of the moment: Jace, the Mind Sculptor! With New Jace set to kick Standard into the stratosphere, will he do the same to Extended? Read on to find out!
Monday, February 8th – With tournament results flowing in unlike any other time in Magic history (due to Magic Online results), we are given constant updates on archetypes, card changes, and trends on what particular decks are popular or dying in popularity. As of right now, there are plenty of viable archetypes, so finding the right one for you is the real problem.
Friday, February 5th – Extended is proving to be a format in which any deck can flourish… at least, that was the case before Thopter Depths became dominant. Nevertheless, knowledge of any deck can take the pilot over the top. Today, Gerard Fabiano brings us his intriguing Death Cloud deck, alongside a funky PTQ-winning offering from Ken Adams!
Friday, February 5th – Manuel Bucher takes up his 6-0 Extended deck from Worlds, makes a few changes, and throws it against all comers in the MTGO Constructed queues! Does it still prove to be a contender in this combo-heavy metagame? Read on to find out!
Friday, February 5th – Earlier this week, the Ruel brothers played out fifty Extended games that pitched Thopter Depths against Scapeshift. Antoine shared the events from the Shapeshift perspective on Wednesday; Oli does the same for the Thopter Depths fans today!
Friday, February 5th – While I think that Worldwake has brought a scrumptious plateful of treats to appease our appetite for Standard change, I don’t believe it will have nearly as big an impact on Extended. That’s not too surprising, as any new set has to contend with about triple the number of cards in Extended as compared to Standard.
Thursday, February 4th – The Extended PTQs are ongoing. I want to look at the decks that are doing well – and those that are changing. Of course, this information is mainly valuable online. In the paper world, Worldwake may shake up the format a bit.
Thursday, February 3rd – In this week’s edition of Duel With Ruel, we actually get double our Ruel quota as Antoine battles his brother Oli! Today sees Antoine take us through the Extended Scapeshift versus Thopter Depths matchup from the Scapeshift perspective. Join in on Friday for Oli’s take on Thopter Depths.
Monday, February 1st – Last week I talked about the new “best” deck in Extended, but time has consistently taught us that something is only the “best” until people want to beat it badly enough. Dredge used to be the big man on campus, back in the day where Breakthrough and Ichorid were legal, but Wizards decided to print plenty of cards that gave the deck hell, and most of which are still around today.
Friday, January 29th – Earlier this week, Antoine Ruel announced his new matchup-exploring playtest column, and ran the first fifty-game matchup analysis: Faeries versus Zoo. Antoine dissected the games from the Fae perspective; his opponent, Manuel Bucher, brings us the Zoo perspective today…
Thursday, January 28th – In the first article in an exciting column series, Hall of Famer Antoine Ruel plans to aide our playtesting process by running fifty games of a key matchup in the current Extended format: Faeries versus Zoo. He analyses the matchup and the testing results from the Fae perspective, and suggests key strategies and card choices to try. Welcome aboard, Antoine!
Wednesday, January 27th – As you’re all aware, my first Extended PTQ this season went rather poorly. I played Zoo instead of the Faeries list I had brought with me, and as a result I ran into a field saturated with Fae, Martyr, and Scapeshift. Rough beats. But, as with all mistakes, I learned…
Wednesday, January 27th – The demise of Combo Elves as an Extended powerhouse has been greatly overstated, and the pointy-eared menace has been popping up in PTQ Top 8s with alarming regularity. Kyle takes us through his version of the deck, played by Billy Moreno to a PTQ finals position, and runs through all the fun you can have with a Cloudstone Curio…
