Friday, March 28th – Merfolk, it seems, have gripped the public imagination. Earlier this week, we had Benjamin Peebles-Mundy and Kyle Sanchez sharing their builds. Today it’s the turn of Sean McKeown (below), and Adrian Sullivan. Adrian offers his own opinion on the phenomenon, and talks in detail about the builds offered by our other writers…
Friday, March 28th – With Extended now behind us (more or less), Constructed maestro Mike Flores turns his eyes back to the most popular 60-card format: Standard! Today’s Flores Friday see him try his hand with his beloved Mishra strategy against a number of the top-ranked decks in the modern metagame. Is he on to something?
Thursday, March 27th – Kyle Sanchez rocked up to an Extended PTQ with a powerful Rock deck… and things went horrifically wrong. However, he’s not one to quail in the face of despair… Instead, he turned his afro to Standard. Today he presents a couple of decks for our delectation. One has a rogue feel, and the other is decidedly more fishy…
Thursday, March 27th – One of the most potent units of Magical currency is the decklist. While a lot of us are content to sleeve up winning creations built by others, the actual act of deck creation is where true riches can be found. Today, Richard takes us behind the counter and walks us through his deck creation thought process step by step… and gives us a promising Standard decklist into the bargain!
Wednesday, March 26th – If you check the Top 8s of Standard events both online and in real life, you’ll soon see that Faeries is the deck to beat. One way of taking down the flying menace is through copious use of Islandwalkers. Enter Merfolk, one of the more under-appreciated tribes in Lorwyn Constructed. BPM takes us through his own brand of Merfolk goodness, examining an archetype that is definitely on the rise.
Wednesday, March 26th – The current Standard metagame is awash with options. One limiting factor, however, is the prevalence of a two-mana enchantment that spews a 1/1 flyer each turn. After a brief dalliance with a Teachings deck, LSV picked up a deck from the desk of Gerry Thompson and friends. While it looks familiar, it operates on a different level… and it plays like a dream. Intrigued? Then read on!
Tuesday, March 25th – Right now, Standard on Magic Online, at least as far as 8-mans go, looks to be 90% composed of four specific decks: Faeries, Elves, Red Deck Wins, and U/W Reveillark take up a huge portion of every single one I enter. Perhaps this will change as the high cost of Morningtide cards has dropped down to the normal Magic Online flow, i.e. anything that isn’t utterly ridiculous costs between 1-3 tickets.
Monday, March 24th – A hearty congratulations is in order for Ryohei Masuno and Taischi Fujimoto who both managed to navigate through a difficult two days of Japanese GP competition with Elf decks. That said, they weren’t really playing Elf decks… I’ll show you an Elf deck!
Monday, March 24th – After many months of intense Magical preparation, today’s Innovations sees Patrick Chapin letting his hair down and waxing poetic. He brings us his thoughts on Standard, shares an amusing story or two, and makes a few predictions about the upcoming Pro Tour: Hollywood…
Tuesday, March 18th – Ever since I saw the results of the burn deck that succeeded at Grand Prix: Shizuoka, I’ve decided that it would be one of my main decks to try out for the new Standard format. Of course, I’d love to play my Faeries deck some more, but on Magic Online there’s the slight issue of procuring a set of Mutavault and Bitterblossom without trading in an organ or two. As they say, if you can’t join ‘em, play Red and burn them to a crisp.
Tuesday, March 18th – In Standard Reveillark mirror matches, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy has a fantastic record of success of late: twelve wins, one loss. Today, he takes us through three mirror match games in exquisite detail, play by play and card by card. The deck is a definite contender in the modern metagame, and knowledge of the mirror is of paramount importance if you’re looking to succeed…
Thursday, March 13th – With the revelation of Shadowmoor’s funky theme, Dave is pining for the fjords of Ravnica. Okay, there weren’t fjords in Ravnica, but Dave is still looking to play more than two colors in Standard one last time.
Wednesday, March 12th – With the results from Gran Prix: Shizouka in the books, it appears that there’s a new king: Blue/Black Faeries. With a favorable matchup against the major players, including the old king Red/Green Big Mana, the entertaining Reveillark combo, and the popular Black/Green Elves, the flittering faeriefolk are a serious force. Today, BPM takes a look at the GP-winning build, and walks us through the pertinent matchups, including the important mirror…
Tuesday, March 11th – Today I’ll be having a look at the fresh results from the Standard Grand Prix in Shizouka, hopefully giving us some insight into the Standard format a month before Pro Tour: Hollywood.
Thursday, March 6th – Finishing out with the last of the Tribal Equipment, Dave gets all covert under the protective blanket of Cloak and Dagger.
