Wednesday, May 27th – Kyle Sanchez took his innovative Cascade deck to battle at a recent PTQ in Houston, with excellent results. While he didn’t quit pick up a blue envelope, his deck propelled him into the Top 4. With an alleged super-matchup versus the popular Swans deck, could this be the deck to take home the bacon at Grand Prix: Seattle? Read on to find out!
Tuesday, May 26th – I never miss Regionals if I can avoid it. Even if I scrubbed out, Lord knows I could use the diversion. I’d like to tell you about all my various decks I built for testing, but between the release of Alara Reborn and Regionals, it was mostly building decks with Jund Hackblade and discovering that they sucked. I ultimately settled on B/W Tokens…
Tuesday, May 26th – With Barcelona gone and Seattle looming large, it seems the breakout Standard deck runs over forty lands… That’s right, Seismic Swans Combo is here to stay. Adrian Sullivan examines the various builds that succeeded at the Spanish Grand Prix, and suggests a useful amalgamated list for testing purposes.
Monday, May 25th – Barcelona has come and gone, and while Patrick Chapin didn’t set Spain alight with a strong finish, the deck he played has a definite role to play in the emerging metagame. He takes us through his pre-tournament deck thoughts, and shares his personal opinions on some of the top strategies in Standard.
Friday, May 22nd – For the U.S., the Regionals Championships are in the books. For me personally, it’s been an exhausting couple of weeks between the Star City double-PTQ weekend and then Regionals the following week. I characterize myself as a “casually competitive†player, who mostly just likes to have fun with Magic, but who likes to step up and compete when PTQs, Regionals, and States comes around.
Friday, May 22nd – All of the buzz on the few days leading up to Regionals was somehow about Turbo-Fog. A Japanese Regionals tournament was won by a deck that confidently played 4x Holy Day, and the imagination of players everywhere was seemingly throwing off all sorts of sparks.
Friday, May 22nd – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to take a look back at Regionals 2009 — How I scrubbed right out, the awesome new decks revealed from all across the country, and how I redeemed myself by Top 8ing the PTQ the next day. Let’s go!
Thursday, May 21st – It was two days before Regionals, and I still wasn’t sure what to play. I had been testing Chapin’s 5CB deck and liked how it felt, although I was thinking about removing the Cryptic Commands (sacrilege!), and I was also talking with Adam Prosak about his merfolk deck. Then I got this text from Max McCall: “Check your Facebook. Bill Stark has a Fog deck he claims is insane.â€
Wednesday, May 20th – It seems like every writer this week is writing about Regionals, and I’m no different. We’ll see tournament reports, deck lists, bad beats, and lucksack wins. We’ll hear of bad matchups that were won, easy games that were punted, and everything in between. But not here. This is my Regionals story. Buckle in; I tend to drive a little fast.
Wednesday, May 20th – At Regionals this past weekend, Kyle Sanchez and friends sleeved up his intriguing Cascade deck in their attempt to crack an invite to Nationals. While they never made it, they came pretty close. Today, Kyle shares his thoughts on the deck, and talks us through its good and bad matchups.
Wednesday, May 20th – With Regionals now behind us, and the Standard Metagame evolving as the results roll in, Manuel Bucher takes a look at the second-most popular Tier 1 token deck in the format: Green/White. He shares his personal build, which sports some unusual choices, and walks us through the sideboarding plans for a selection of important matchups.
Tuesday, May 19th – The date: Thursday night. The setting: My dining room. Six Magic players are sitting around a large wooden table, testing out decks, playing Magic, trying to finalize their decisions before Saturday’s Regional Championships. Five of them have a very real idea of the deck they are playing. One does not.
Tuesday, May 19th – After battling in my local Regional Championships this weekend, I can safely say that the metagame is shaping up to be a very interesting one. There are a lot of good archetypes, but the problem is that most of them rely on the same engine: Spectral Procession and Windbrisk Heights. This combination can lead to devastating effects, and completely turn a game in one person’s favor, one who has no business winning the game.
Tuesday, May 19th – For Regionals this past weekend, Adrian Sullivan audibled into Turbo-Fog at the last moment. Sadly, it didn’t work this time. However, it did mean that Adrian had the time to prepare considerable analysis on the 270-deck metagame makeup from the Chigaco tournament. There’s also an interview with the winner!
Tuesday, May 19th – The Regionals results continue to roll in, and Sam Black is ready with some innovation. While he never played Regionals himself, he did witness an interesting combo deck pick up a qualification in Chicago. Today, he presents the idea for those of us with Standard tournaments on the horizon, while also suggesting that the demise of the Fae is not as foregone as we may assume…
