Just when you thought Kamiel was done with Magic as he fell off the train last year, he comes out of nowhere and wins a 1400 man Grand Prix. I mean considering that he's one of the all time greats of the game, that shouldn't come as a surprise. BDM interviews
Kamiel on how he got started playing the game and the things that he had to do to get to where he was. I really like these stories as you get to know the pros on a more personal basis and hey at one point in there lives, they were in the PTQ trenches too trying to be the next Kai.
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Kyle gives us several variants and directions where the Twilight's Evening/ Patrician's Scorn combo can be utilized. Should there be black for Beseech the Queen? Blue to add a protective element to the combo? G/W for Glittering Wish? Kyle covers all the
bases and actually makes solid lists for all of his decks. I enjoy looking at his articles as he makes decks and card choices very similar to how I would build them and hopefully you can pick out one of these decks and try them out!
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There are a couple of decent decks that Feldman posts in his article. The first is a red deck wins variant which tries to cram in as many powerful cards as possible including Tarmogoyf, Fulminator Mage, and Bitterblossom. My issue with the deck is that is
only plays 2 copies of Incinerate and Fulminator Mage HAS to be worse than Boggart Ram Gang which has been insane in testing. It looks like there is some promise but it definitely does require some tweaking. The second deck he presents is a quick red deck which Bill Stark presented to us earlier and I must say...don't bother. The last deck is a little interesting although it's a Doran deck with no real good finishers. No Profane Command or Garruk and I think the lack of reach is the deck's biggest problem. One of the most annoying things in the Doran vs Faeries matchup is the Bitterblossom so I can see why the Ronom Unicorns shined in that particular matchup.
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Tom demonstrates to us the Counterbalance Mirror matchup via a match from Magic Online. Since Tom has had a ton of experience piloting the deck, I figured I'd watch his video presentation only to be slightly disappointed. His opponent was playing at a sub
par level and kind of got screwed for a bunch of turns with a Sensei's Divining Top in play. Tom made a couple of mistakes as well but with a couple of misplays on his opponent's part and some tight play later on, he managed to pull through. I didn't learn too much about the Counterbalance Mirror in this matchup but I did learn a couple of things on just piloting the deck itself. A good example of this was the fact that you really should slowroll the sacrificing of fetch lands for as long as possible until you have a Top in play as that allows you to look through many more cards and having shuffle effects on the board allow you to dig for whatever you need to find. A fine article but perhaps a stronger opponent would have yielded a better video. < less
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BPM talks about the hottest deck in Extended right now. A creation of your U.S. National Champion Luis Scott-Vargas, it's got a lot of 2 and 3 ofs, which is typical with his decks. Regardless of that, the numbers come together and form a tight little package
that is capable of beating just about any deck. I wish that Luis kept this deck secret for a bit longer as it would have surely been a good call for the upcoming Extended GPs but now that the cat's out of the bag, we probably need to make some tweaks or play a different deck altogether. BPM just roughly goes over the deck but he clearly has not played the deck enough to really understand all of the match-ups. It is still a fine article with explanations to why the cards are there and just talking about the deck means he's in the loop with regards to extended. < less
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In this portion of Uri Peleg's World Championship run, he talks about the draft portion of the tournament and goes into pretty good detail about the matches that he played. I really enjoy reading the specifics within a game and how people think during various
game states and reading how he thought showed me that this guy really knows to play. His second deck seemed a bit loose as B/W is a pretty bad comination but I guess with Dread and Profane Command, it's possible to peel out of a few games. < less
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Pat continues to give us his latest innovations with two more viable combo decks in the current standard. The first is a Swans deck with Telling Time and Ponders to search out combo pieces and the other is a Juniper Order Ranger Enchanted Evening deck that
seems extremely fun to play. It also has Greater Gargadon + Kitchen Finks + Juniper Order Ranger to gain infinite life. As long as there isnâ€~t too much permission in the format, this deck should be a definite contender for type 2.
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Pat continues to give us his latest innovations with two more viable combo decks in the current standard. The first is a Swans deck with Telling Time and Ponders to search out combo pieces and the other is a Juniper Order Ranger Enchanted Evening deck that
seems extremely fun to play. It also has Greater Gargadon + Kitchen Finks + Juniper Order Ranger to gain infinite life. As long as there isnâ€~t too much permission in the format, this deck should be a definite contender for type 2.
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Not sure why Reubs sets out beat the Red decks per se, there are many more decks to consider. Anyway, he unveils yet another Glittering Wish control deck. You'll have to get used to the way Reubs states the facts, but beyond that it's a fine read. It'll leave
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After reviewing the U/W draft archetype in Shadowmoor, Nick throws us a bit of a curveball by showing us how to draft what most consider to be one of the worst archetypes in Shadowmoor: R/B. The problem with R/B currently is that there is a lack of good low
drops and the good removal spells are kind of expensive and can lead to very clunky draws. However removal is a rarity and both Red and Black are the removal colors so it is possible that just drafting a ton of removal can get it done. Nick goes over the important commons to draft in this archetype and what to look for when going these colors.
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Steve takes a look at the undefeated decklists from Brussels and goes over what it takes to have an undefeated deck at hard tournaments such as Grand Prixs. Among the undefeated decks featured masters such as Gabriel Nassif, Rafael Levy, and Antoine Ruel.
Of the decks I was most impressed that went undefeated was Levy's as it did not look like anything special but it did feature an awesome curve and sometimes being able to kill your opponents before they can set up to stabilize will get it done.
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Ever count the number of games you win and lose in a certain matchup when playtesting? Sure you do. Ever count the number of games you won on the play and the games you won on the draw? I'm pretty sure the group of people that do that are much less. I too
am guilty of this and after reading Sullivan's article on the fine art of playtesting I know I definitely learned a lot and my playtesting sessions will definitely go a lot smoother and have more information than they did before.
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One important aspect in Magic is the clock. Sometimes you are give X amount of turns to take down an opponent and Flores talks about the importance of doing things as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are also some general tips on racing an opponent
and the appropriate strategies to take when doing so. A bit confusing to read at first but I eventually got the point.
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"First off, I know a lot of people have been waiting for it, and it's finally here. The last few kinks have been worked out and Shadowmoor drafts are now live. As of now the information and pick orders that the bots use is in its very early stages. These will
be improved as people use the utility, so please no "OMGZZZ, 8tH PIX FLAME JAV!?!?!?!"
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The interesting part about this article is not what The Ferret has to say about why certain Shadowmoor cards are good in multiplayer. Because those remarks have been made by most other competitive writers in the past weeks. What is interesting however, are
the Six Challenges mentioned in the title and how they play a big role in any and all multiplayer games.
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Fairly interesing forum discussion about what decks should/could be included in your Standard testing gauntlet. As always some posts are best left unread, but there is a decent amount of good info there.
This is a very solid piece. Jeremy takes Standard's top decks and analyses which Shadowmoor cards could be added, if any. Then he takes a short look at some new cards that could make a splash innew archetypes. The reason I feel this is a good piece, is that
he doesn't just want to cram new cards into existing decks. He is analytical and doesn't shy away from downright disrespecting some cards.
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Jeez Zac Hill has been chattier than usual these days with a whole lot of irrelevant banter about his life. We want MAGIC CONTENT! Anyways the thing to look for in this article is the Swans deck that he posted. Seems like a nice controlling deck with a
lot of removal and has just the important pieces of the Swan Combo to go off. Literally, skip everything and look at the list and try that baby out for a spin.
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With PT: Hollywood and the big StarCityGames standard tournament coming up, BPM brainstorms up some decks for them. The first being an interesting G/W Mana Ramp deck featuring the powerful Oversoul of Dusk, which I've always wanted to put into a deck but
just didn't find the right place for them so far. The deck looks pretty sweet and seemingly bashes aggro but it looks like it still can't really beat Faeries. So then BPM went with a couple of aggressive decks including a G/R Warriors deck which looks pretty exciting although it doesn't have as much reach as I'd like. If there was a way to fit Flame Javelin/Tar Fire/Rift Bolt the deck would really get in there. Hrm...maybe I'll try that.
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Gerry tells you just about everything you need to know about the current state of standard for Pro Tour: Hollywood. I would definitely listen to him as he is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to all things magic as he spends roughly 8 hours a day playing
it. Sad to say, I was hoping he would keep some of the things he said hush hush as there is some stuff that I've stumbled upon and hoped nobody else would. Too bad Gerry plays 8130408 times more than me and already knows everything I do so enjoy the article and I will bet any amount of money that the pros will come to the same conclusions as Gerry.
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