Dan Paskins makes a timely return to StarCityGames.com… with Worlds just around the corner, the King of the Red Mages breaks down the Goblin Empty The Warrens deck for Standard. In fact, he’s so consumed by the flame that he touches on the Extended build too! Still undecided about what to play at your next Constructed tournament? Why not take the honorable path and beat down with the little Red men?
I’ve wanted to write about this deck for so long. Part of it’s the devious fun of slinging cards that barely make the cut in draft. Part of it’s the fact that when you lose to this deck you actually want to chug bleach by the gallon. Part of it is playing four copies of cards that are restricted in Vintage (well, sorta).
As we’re all aware, Mike has had a modicum of success of late. His State Championship win, piloting the innovative “This Girl” deck, goes a fair way to banishing the “Bad Player Flores” nickname once and for all. By his own admission, his success is largely due to his fine analysis of the intricacies of the endgame – sculpting the proceedings in order to steer the game to an inevitable victory. Today’s theoretical excercise takes us through the thought process behind such structured play…
Poor Bennie. Not only did I make him wait and wait for his turn on Battle Royale; not only did he turn up with his pet strategy to find himself facing the Anti-Bennie Deck; not only did he lose rather quickly, going down in three games straight… but I’m also making him write all about it! Sorry Bennie! Better luck next time.
Eli Came. Eli Saw. Eli Conquered. His Budget White Weenie took home all the marbles against Bennie’s patented NiceDraft Dredge deck. Indeed, the battering was so severe that Bennie still walks with a limp. Want the gory details? Read on!
Blisterguy reaches his fortieth column concerning all things Magic Online! Today he sets the scene for the coming World Championship in Paris, mining the Premier Event data in order to extract some nuggets of metagame-shaping goodness. Will his predictions come true? Read on to find out!
Chris takes his first monthly Magic budget and spends it on some tasty Black cards. With a passing resmeblence to Craig Jones’s Pact Huk deck above, has Chris’s deck got the makings of a true contender? Read on to find out!
Craig “The Professor” Jones has been beavering away at Constructed testing this past month… and as a member of his testing team for Worlds, I can safely say that we’re doing our best to break the formats. The metaphorical night is young, and today Prof presents us with one of the “nearly-decks” that has occupied our testing time. Fun, powerful food for thought… and just maybe, with a little tweaking, it can go all the way…
States is my favorite time of the year in Magic. New cards, new possibilities, and rogue decklists that may not be so rogue anymore by the time the champions are crowned – what’s not to like? I can’t help but obsessively review the results, studying the different archetypes, identifying new sideboard tech, and searching for rogue decklists. By rogue, I mean different, unexpected, or underrepresented. Anything outside the norm.
Earlier this week, Nick Eisel weighed in with some interesting thoughts on the use of Stormbind in Time Spiral Standard. Today we have Stuart Wright, one of the premier deckbuilders in the UK, sharing his personal take on the card. He brings two decklists to the table, and takes us through other ideas and directions with which we can explore the synergies presented by the current Standard cardpool…
Our second challenger for the Battle Royale crown is our man in Japan, Eli Kaplan. As a teacher, it is safe to say that Eli is probably ready to impart some “old school” wisdom into the Battle framework… What will he do with his twenty-five bucks?
As Rich Hoaen abdicated the Battle Royale crown, we have two new contenders today! The first? Bennie Smith. Can you guess what he’s bringing to the table? Let’s face it, everyone knew it would be a dredge deck… but is it enough to go all the way?
Blisterguy takes on the Extended scene (sadly without corresponding Magic Online Premier Events), and presents a couple of lists for our perusal. He also shares the current marketplace prices for Time Spiral cards, for those looking to improve their electronic collections.
If time has shown me one thing, it’s that I can identify a crap deck with relative ease, because I’m often stupid enough to put them together to see if they play. I’ve tried the Ratcatcher Deck, I’ve tried the Bombshell deck, and I even tried the Brooding Swallow. They’re not that good, but they are cheap.
After Chris’s revelation that From Right Field will be “abandoning” its budget roots for future articles, the forums made their thoughts abundantly clear. Chris responds to the detractors… so where does it leave us?
