Feature Article - The Bastille-Bastion of Basem #1

Greetings my fellow magicians, my name is Basem Askoul, and I am very excited to debut my very first magic article here.  Most of you know me from Get Your Game On where I've had some modest success across various formats; I also have in my possession one PTQ top 8 pin (did it!).  That nonsense aside, I like to believe that people know/respect me due to my friendly attitude and funky deck design (some good, mostly bad).

Feature Article - Mike Shentu Draft #1

Glad to be able to finally draft Scars, because M11 really was not fun at all. Let's get started.

Pack 1, Pick 1:

Kai Draft #25 (SOM 8-4)

I've drafted this format a total of four times before today. And one of those was a disastrous PTQ Top 8 draft. That also happened to be the only draft I didn't draft poison. Well, it's time to learn what to do when the infect creatures aren't coming.


Pack 1, Pick 1:

Road House (Write for us!)

About 2 months ago I had moved to Ann Arbor and most of my free time was being gobbled up by work and more work.  I haven't been able to keep up with what is being posted on The Rusty Machete and I haven't had time to edit articles into works of art.

Time heals all wounds.

Kai Draft #24 (SOM 8-4)

Scars of Mirrodin is now available for drafting online. Let's go!

Pack 1, Pick 1:

Kelley's guide on how to top 4 FNM having never played the set!

I had not been able to play Scars up to Friday because I had to work the last two weekends.  Usually I will attend the Fat Pack Battle, Prerelease, and Release events, but this time it just didn't work.  I didn't even get to pick up my preordered boxes until Friday.

So basically I had no freaking clue what I was going to do.  I knew that the planeswalkers were good, Ratchet Bomb, most of the mythics, etc, but I had no idea what commons or uncommons were good at all.

A PTQ Top 4... and More!

Today, I talk a bit about what Scars limited has to offer, both in terms of sealed and in terms of drafting, and featuring examples from this weekend's past PTQ in Detroit. With the limited PTQ season in full swing and two limited GPs coming up, this may be the most (or only) relevant article I ever write!

Insights into Standard.

With the new standard format still fairly new there is still a lot to figure out as far as what deck you want to play, which cards are good, and which cards are not really all that good. There is just so many different decks and cool ideas. So I am just going to offer some insight on what I think are the best cards to play and talk about what I think the best deck in standard is. I will also cover the cards that seem neat, but we should stay away from.

Jokesin' with MonoBlue

Howard's brought you the aggressive Joros deck, now check out his spin on control.


Introducing: Jokesin' with MUC

8 Reasons to be Attacking in Scars Draft

So you're playing in a PTQ this season, and you made top 8 on the back of a busted sealed pool with plenty of removal and every bomb imaginable. You're pumped, thinking you should have a good shot of winning a free trip to Paris and the PT invite.

Wait, now you have to draft? Hmm, guess all those bombs aren't going to help you anymore. I guess you have to learn how to compete with fair cards.

MI States 2010 *Top 8*

This past weekend I attended MI States and Top 8'd the event with Valakut. Read on for gameplay, fun stories, and tales of Trusty Machete!

Reaching for Victory - 2 - Sealed Build

Sealed Build for Richard Franklin's pool, PTQ Paris on 10/10/10 in Garden City.

Richard Franklin's Sealed | The Rusty Machete

14 Creatures:  
1 Chrome Steed
1 Copper Myr
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
2 Gold Myr
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1 Iron Myr
1 Necropede
1 Skinrender
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
2 Snapsail Glider
1 Sylvok Replica

9 Spells:  
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Glint Hawk Idol
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Revoke Existence
1 Shatter
1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Turn to Slag
1 Venser, the Sojourner

17 Lands:  
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Plains
3 Island
5 Mountain
5 Swamp

2 Sideboard:  
1 Words of Wilding
1 Reach Through Mists

What do you like, and what do you not like about it?  Post it up in the comments!

Reaching for Victory - 1 - Build this pool!

Richard Franklin has given us his sealed pool from the PTQ on 10/10/10, and this is great practice for anyone who intends on trying to qualify.  Show us how you would build it in the comment section!

How Rich built it will automatically be published tonight at midnight.

(Edit: Forgot to include the land.  There is a Blackcleave Cliffs.)

Sealed Pool | The Rusty Machete

7 White:  
1 Abuna Acolyte
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
1 Kemba, Kha Regent
1 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Revoke Existence
1 Seize the Initiative
1 Soul Parry

12 Blue:  
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
2 Plated Seastrider
1 Screeching Silcaw
1 Steady Progress
1 Stoic Rebuttal
2 Thrummingbird
1 Turn Aside
1 Twisted Image
1 Vault Skyward
1 Vedalken Certarch

8 Black:  
1 Contagious Nim
1 Moriok Reaver
1 Painsmith
1 Plague Stinger
1 Psychic Miasma
1 Relic Putrescence
1 Skinrender
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

11 Red:  
1 Assault Strobe
2 Flameborn Hellion
1 Furnace Celebration
1 Goblin Gavaleer
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
2 Ogre Geargrabber
1 Shatter
1 Turn to Slag
1 Vulshok Heartstoker

10 Green:  
1 Blight Mamba
1 Blunt the Assault
1 Carapace Forger
1 Cystbearer
1 Ezuri's Archers
1 Tel-Jilad Defiance
2 Wing Puncture
1 Untamed Might
1 Withstand Death

34 Colorless:  
1 Auriok Replica
1 Chrome Steed
1 Clone Shell
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Copper Myr
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Darksteel Myr
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Glint Hawk Idol
1 Golden Urn
2 Gold Myr
1 Golem Foundry
1 Grindclock
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Iron Myr
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Memnite
1 Necropede
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Perlious Myr
1 Razorfield Thresher
2 Snapsail Glider
1 Strata Scythe
2 Strider Harness
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Throne of Geth
1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Vector Asp
1 Vulshok Replica

1 Land:
1 Blackcleave Cliffs (RB)

1 Multicolor:
1 Venser, the Sojourner

The Obligatory States Article

I'm going to apologize up front that this article does not contain decklists. If you were planning on straight copying a 75 with some sideboarding advice, I recommend you legitimately learn how to compete in large events.

Pre-States Standard

With school and quiz bowl starting up, I've been a little busy lately, but I'm back to offer my views on standard going into states and some strategies that I think might (not) be viable.

Jokesin' with Joros Part II

Note: for those of you seeing Joros for the first time, please check out this article first.

So yeah, it’s been about a week since my last article! I hope SOME of you took the time to try running this deck, but if you didn’t cause the deck looked so jank, it’s understandable. I did a lot of play testing with the build I wrote about, and it did well...extremely well.