Grand Prix: Providence results are in!

And let me tell you; I'm excited.

Forceless Bant winning the whole thing? Hive Mind? Stoneforge Mystic as four of the five (nonland) creatures in a deck?

We're in business now.  But the question that always arises after a Grand Prix: "Is the format healthy?"

Legacy Weapon - Of Paladins and Puresteel

I only made a brief mention of Puresteel Paladin when I was talking about the set, but let's take another look at him.  I've been asked about my building process, so I'm also going to go into that in this post.

April 25th - Post NPH Eva Green

Eva Green is a deck that has fallen out of favor over time, but I think the existence of Mental Misstep will give people a reason to play Suicide Black with Green again.

April 20th - Legacy LoamBrews

I've got the itch again.

No, not that one.

SCG Open Report Follow-up: The State of Legacy

I'd like to start this article by saying that I am not a Legacy player.  I have likely played under 20 Legacy events in my life, with the vast majority of those being weekly Get Your Game On events when the top 4 split after playing an unexciting 4 or 5 rounds.  I have previously chosen to write about Legacy as little as possible, since the format is not important at a PTQ level and other Rusty contributers (aka Gandhi) are much better equipped to tell you about the format than I am.

However, after witnessing what was going on at the SCG Legacy Open I decided to write down my full view of Legacy as a format.  Of the people that were playing in the event, the vast majority of them had very little idea what was going on in the format.  Whether it was Ari's opponent who had to ask him what he meant by the phrase "storm count" or the fact that one of my opponents was playing enchantress, it simply bewilders me that someone would drive several hours to pay $30 for a 9 round tournament where they have no real idea what's going on.

I'll admit that in Ann Arbor (and southeastern Michigan in general), Legacy is a much more popular format than most anywhere else in the Midwest, and the quality of players at Get Your Game On is relatively high (in fact, 3 Game On regulars made top 16 in Indi and another 2 made top 32).  This doesn't change the fact that most decks people are playing in Legacy can be vastly improved upon.

SCG Open Report Part 2: Legacy (12th)

Standard on Saturday was ok.  I made some money, but wasn't really satisfied.  It was time to step my game up for the Legacy portion of the weekend.

Here's the deck I played, which Amir was kind enough to let me borrow for the weekend.

Show and Tell | The Rusty Machete

10 Creatures:  
4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Simian Spirit Guide

30 Spells:  
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
1 Lotus Petal
1 Seething Song

20 Lands:  
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Island
1 Mountain

15 Sideboard:  
3 Blood Moon
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Firespout
3 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away

Legacy Mox Tournament Report

Last Saturday, Get Your Game On held a legacy tournament, with first place being a Mox Emerald and the rest of the top 8 getting other fairly good prizes. I don't have much experience in the format, having only played in a handful of weekly events with decks I've borrowed from others, but after clearing my schedule for Saturday and confirming I'd be able to get the necessary cards I decided to give the event a shot.

Legacy Weapon - An Introspective, then Thinking: Thinking about Thinking

An Introspective

I spend a lot of time thinking.

Someone could even argue that my geometry teacher, Mrs. Richards, from middle school was right.  The quote that often goes through my mind is "Someday, someone will pay you to sit in a room and think."  While I also spend a lot of time working (computer programming often requires a lot of thinking as well), I spend a lot of time thinking about Magic.

Feature Article - Taking Down a Tournament with Hushmi

I played in the “Blue Duals” tournament at Get Your Game On last weekend. I split with the other players in the top four taking home 1 Underground Sea, 1 Tropical Island, and 1 Volcanic Island. I played the following list:

Scars of Mirrodin: A Comprehensive Legacy Set Review

Sorry to have fewer updates than normal for the last couple weeks, I have moved from my hometown to the great city of Ann Arbor, pushed out a big release for a project that I've been working on, and have been playing too much Ascension.  But we have a new set, and that means a set review!

Again, I will try to highlight the cards that actually pique my interest, and should you want to skip the comments on chaff, just look for the cards that stand out.

Remember, this will be taken in the context of Legacy.

Legacy Weapon - 3 - Getting Wild with Wildfire

Let's start this off with a quick primer:

I was wrong.  I originally said that Inferno Titan wasn't good enough in Legacy, in the sense that if you were going to cheat him into play - he "Doesn't do enough.  Period." as I was talking about in my set review.  However, I didn't realize that if there were a shell to actually cast this guy (and protect him from the standard 1cc white removal of the format) this guy crushes creatures and people incredibly quickly.  Here's where he's castable on turn three:

GP Columbus Report- Top 64 with Fae (Part Two)

Join me for the conclusion of my report on Grand Prix Columbus, complete with a bonus standard decklist for the Midwest Masters Championship this Saturday!

Kai GP Columbus Report *Top 64* Part 1

GP Columbus was my third ever Legacy event, and the first one that wasn't a Get Your Game On Wednesday night event. Given that I knew the format was too complicated for me to learn in the time I had, I was constrained to not play a combo or control deck since I wouldn't be able to pilot it correctly. So I had Gandhi give me a GoyfSligh list, which would catch unwary opponents with their pants down.

GP Columbus Report- Top 64 with Fae (Part One)

GP Columbus was quite the grind, and it was a ton of fun. Battling with faeries, I managed to take down a grinder, make day 2, and then ID the final round into the top 64. Read on for the first part of the full tournament report!

Beep Beep Storming Through

Ari Lax went 9-0 on Day 1 of Grand Prix Columbus with his take on the Ad Nauseum Tendrils archetype. He narrowly missed Top 8 due to a slew of bad matchups on Day 2 as well as some misplays. Join him on his quest to becoming a Level 5 Pro!

Rogue Legacy Ideas- Part 3

In the final installment of my brief look at some legacy cards/lists before the Grand Prix, I'm going to provide my views on the card Brainstorm in a response to A.J. Sacher's SCG article that went up today and then I'm going to go over some of the cards that will be in my deck this weekend.

Rogue Legacy Ideas- Part 2

Today, I'm going to look at some of the cards I think will be well-positioned for the GP and thinking about how to beat some strategies that you will surely encounter should you choose to play this weekend. I'm also going to talk about a special promo that I'm running related to the Grand Prix!

Grand Prix: Columbus - You Must Learn Control

Here's some control decks!  I won't be including a specific way of beating them, since that path relies on what deck you play, and how you play your deck a lot more than the specific plan of these decks.

Rogue Legacy Ideas- Part 1

In preparing for the upcoming grand prix, I've come up with ideas for some interesting decks. The problem, is, as usual, that most of them are just downright terrible. That being said, I'm still going to share some of the thought processes that went into them and what cards I think will be good and bad to be playing this weekend.

Grand Prix: Columbus - Combo Your Face Off

The biggest card pool also means the most potential combos, here's a brief look into various combination decks that you may end up sitting across from.