Richard Feldman delivers quality, thought-provoking strategy articles, week-in week-out. Today’s offering is no exception. He breaks down the popular Midrange archetype into two distinct categories, and examines why they are so popular, and why they can be so powerful. If you’re a fan of Midrange decks, or if you simply want to know how to beat them, then this article is unmissable.
Kyle spent this past weekend judging at the Texas Regionals tournament, and in this, his first in a weekly series over on the free side of the site, he brings us the lowdown on the Top 8 decklists. He also shares Cedric Phillips’s winning build of Solar Flare, and brings us a huge dose of the usual Sanchez mayhem!
It’s the Friday before Regionals, and Mike Flores reveals the deck with which he’ll be battling in the weekend trenches. So, what’ll it be? Go-sis? Blue/White? Hell, something with Nessian Courser (this season’s Critical Mass)? Nope, is none of those… Alongside his starting seventy-five, Mike shares an intriguing concept: Vector Magic. As for his Regionals deck… well, you’ll have to read on to find out!
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. I’m your host, Evan Erwin. Today we’re going to talk about the myriad of deck choices available to you and I this Regionals season. Ready to take a stroll through DeckMart and proceed with purchase? Right this way…
Regionals is always an interesting challenge, as the role of the savvy player or designer is to accurately estimate the upcoming metagame and position themselves either to dodge the brunt of the incoming attack or to pick at the weak flank that is left revealed with a surprise assault. This is the distilled essence of everything fellow Friday writer Mike Flores believes in, when it comes to picking a deck for a tournament, saving you several thousand words to bring the essential lesson: know your enemy, so that you may better defeat them.
For his final step on the Road to Regionals, Craig “The Professor” Jones takes three of the top Standard contenders — Dragonstorm, Dredge, and Zoo — and throws them at each other in a battle to the death! With decklists, sideboarding plans, and game scenarios, he breaks down each deck with a wealth of impressive info perfect for anyone hoping to excel at this weekend’s Magical Pool Party.
In yet another Road to Regionals offering, Mark “Heezy” Herberholz — king of the Red/Green beatdown — shares his thoughts on the aggro deck du jour, with special reference to his recent ten-game set versus Mike Flores and the much-discussed Dredge deck. Aggressive strategies are an excellent choice for a diverse Regionals field, so get the top tech from the best in the game!
Players in this Standard environment are trying to metagame without obvious foils; besting the big three still leave you with potentially gaping holes in your armor, to some less-popular but nonetheless playable deck. It’s like skirmish, where everyone has a gun and regardless of how good the person who shot you is, if they shot you, you’ve still lost.
Regionals is mere days away, and by now you should all have chosen your starting sixty. After all, you’re always well-prepared for the big tournaments… right? For those of you who still harbor doubts, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy continues his excellent Primer series. Today is the turn of Craig Jones’s favorite deck, and the aggro option that has fallen from grace of late: Zoo. Does the addition of White give the powerful Gruul beat machine a run for its money? Is it the deck to take you to Nationals? BPM reveals all…
As a break from the Constructed and Standard madness, Tiago Chan offers up this excellent companion piece to last week’s Identifying and Applying a Game Plan article. Last week he talked about Constructed. This week, it’s the turn of the forty-card game. Limited has a metagame, and archetypes, and in many ways mirrors its sixty-card stablemate. So why not be prepared each time you draft, and identify your game plan?
In my experience (I’ve played in I think seven or eight Regionals by now) the tournament is more or less a representative sample of the field, but a few trends tend to take hold. First, people love “cute decks.” It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean by that, but maybe you’ll get what I’m saying. Trendy decks. Decks that are a rage on the Internet but people are trying to keep “hush-hush.” Does Dredge fit that bill? Hell yeah.
In perfect time for Regionals, Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin brings us the complete lowdown on his super-top-secret Regionals deck. As the leaks about the deck continue to grow, what better way to prepare yourself for Korlash beatdown that to get the deck primer from the innovative creator himself? With decent matchups against the major players in the current metagame, has Patrick done it again? Read on to find out!
Quantum Mechanics, Bolivian Dance, and Standard. Three things Rich Hagon knew nothing about last Wednesday. Join him as he attempts to rectify one of these deficiencies. Yes, soon you’ll know that Bolivian dance repertoire, like other Andean cultures, consists of pre-Colombian dances performed in rural areas during religious and secular community celebrations, as well as the European influenced mestizo dances performed at popular festivals and celebrations of patron saints. Welcome to SupremelyCulturedGamers.com.
It’s that time again. Time for Ted Knutson’s usual metagame breakdown and tho… Oh right, he doesn’t write anymore (insert sad face here). Well, then it’s time for all the Standard players to come out from their holes in the wall and actually buy physical cards. Come out into a world where Project X is actually playable, because a bunch of annoying pop-up screens won’t time you out. Time for the 2007 Regionals preview!
With under a week to Regionals, Jeoren clears out all the Standard questions from his bulging mailbag in this extra-long edition of Ask The Drama! He looks at a number of interesting decks sent in by readers and fans, and gives his opinion on their choices and builds. And who knows, maybe one of these reader-built decks will be the one to pilot you to Nationals!
