TagStandard

Tact or Friction — Drought Project

I looked at the cards I have in my MTGO collection and realized that my simple goal of acquiring four of each common of a set for a bargain price — usually 3-4 tickets — was a good policy, but actually not very doable in real life. Real life players do not necessarily have draft tables to chase, don’t have bots that will spit out cards at a 32/1 rate. These are the players who buy a few boosters, crack them, and gleefully build a collection in the exact opposite way in which you eat a gobstopper.

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The Online Outlook #7 — Raising the Standard

After last week’s foray into Time Spiral Block Constructed, it’s time for me to wend my weary way back to the Standard streets. As usual, Magic Online has been awash with Premier Events, and I’ve trawled the Top 8 replays in order to bring you what’s winning and what’s losing. As we’ve nine Top 8s to work through today, I won’t waste your time with any more pointless introduction.

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From Right Field – Born Again and Saved! The Ritual of Rebirth Precon-Decon

Chris takes two copies of the Ritual of Rebirth preconstructed deck, and smashes them together in an attempt to fuse a competitive casual deck from the resultant debris. However, this time he’s up against it. Where oh where is the precious removal? Can a deck survive on creatures alone? Or did Chris cave and supply some creature-kill of his very own? Read on to find out!

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Deep Analysis — Digging For Red Gold

During Constructed tournament downtimes, such as the current Two-Headed Giant Limited PTQ season, Richard has traditionally retreated to the seclusion of Magic Online for his sixty-card fix. This time, however, he has a mission — to become a better Deck Designer. While he is pleased with his ability to tweak decks, building them from the ground up is currently beyond him. Join him on his journey toward rectifying this deficiency in his game, and see if he can create a deck that breaks Standard wide open!

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The Combat Phase — Wakefield, Deck Designer

Jamie is in a contemplative mood this week. In the midst of this, he brings us a plethora of Standard and Extended decks for our perusal. Yes, there are Green cards here… but they are not alone. In his ongoing quest to place himself prominently on the Magical Map, his decks offer promise for anyone looking to try something a little different…

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Practice Makes Perfect! A Grand Prix: Kyoto Report *Top 8*

Grand Prix: Kyoto saw a number of new and exciting decks hit the Planar Chaos Standard metagame. One particular deck that raised a few eyebrows was the innovative U/G Urzatron deck packed with morphs and card drawing, created by Constructed specialist Naoki Shimizu. He made the Top 8 that day, after topping the swiss… and here’s his report on the both deck and the tournament!

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You Lika The Juice? – Gettin’ Wild on MTGO

Bennie faces off in this week’s Battle of the Bens with a few choice words for our own Mr Bleiweiss! He follows them up with a look at one of the new graveyard-acquainted cards from the approaching Future Sight, talks us through some Magic Online games, an jumps on the Wild Pair bandwagon with a few Time Spiral Block Constructed decks of his own…

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Magical Hack – April Fool, Part Two

After last week’s parody of a particularly florid Flores, Sean drops the quill and returns to touch-typing. He shares an interesting Standard deck that utilizes four copies of the two Suspend Guys du Jour: Detritivore and Aeon Chronicler. With an IPA Qualifying Event locked firmly between his beady little Swayze eyes, he cocks and pulls and lets fly with both barrels!

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From The Lab – Time Spiral, One Month On

With the Time Spiral Block Pro Tour just around the corner, Craig “The Professor” Jones is forbidden to talk of super-secret Block technology on pain of catapult. Instead, he takes a long look at the Top 8 Standard decks from Grand Prix: Kyoto, and takes us through some of the more questionable predictions he made for the new Standard format when the cards were fresh off the production line…

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Tact or Friction — Rock Garden

Rock deck owners never put the deck away. They don’t. We just quietly have it, tucked behind all the others, in its own little deck box. It’s almost always got special sleeves, too. Not too new, don’t want people thinking we’re sleeving it up for the next tournament. That’d be silly, because, you know, Rock’s No Good Right Now. But like your favorite dancing shoes, or that embarrassing shirt with the slogan, or that beanie your grandmother gave you and you just can’t bring yourself to get rid of, you keep it.

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Peebles Primers — Taking Dredge to the Top 8

What is it with Dredge strategies and players called Ben? Taking a leaf out of Bennie Smith’s book, BPM takes hi own tweaked G/B Dredge deck and throws it into the IPA Qualifying Tournament ring. Today’s Peebles Primers takes us through the tournament step by step, with comprehensive game walkthroughs along the way. If you’re after a fringe strategy with the power to take home the prize, the look no further than your graveyard!

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From Right Field – Necromancing the Stone: The Sequel

When I left you last week, I was doing quite badly with a Black and White deck inspired by and built around Necrotic Sliver. Part of the reason was that I had run in directly into a gauntlet of tournament-winning decks. The other part was that the deck sucked. I was in a bit of a pickle. I have called Necrotic Sliver one of the two best non-rare creatures in Planar Chaos. Of course, I had to build a deck to prove that point, or no one would believe it.

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The Combat Phase — Being In The Moment

Can it be true? Has Jamie finally succumbed? Has he joined the Dark Side, and picked up an Island or two? Is he coming round to the Way of the Control Mage, ready to leave mana open and counter spells left, right, and center? There’s only one way to find out… Read on!

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Magical Hack: April Fools, or The Long Road To Regionals

Really, I don’t know where to begin with the intro for this one. Sean, it seems, has gone mad… and handed over the bulk of his column to someone else. I won’t spoil the surprise, but if you’re looking for top-notch Standard matchup analysis, this will be the best — and strangest — you’ll see this dec(k)ade…

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Tact or Friction — Broken Pieces

I have a handful of bones today. Bits and pieces of decks that might have a full structure if you can find them. Nuts and bolts, structures that I’ve been busy bashing against one another, trying to find the right angle at which they become round pegs. Then, once I have properly-functioning not-good-enough decks, I can waste my time trying to make them good enough to compete in metagame of square holes.

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