Kmaster TPF Draft

I'm going to post this and see what happens. TPF NixPax is this week. It's a lot of fun but not very high EV. NixTix in two weeks. Here's a draft I did this morning, nothing ridiculously bomby, just a good example of what I like to draft in the format.
Pack 1, Pick 1:

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?"

Horizons, New and Otherwise

The Bazaar of Moxen results are up, and we have an old favorite in Canadian Threshold that made an appearance.

World: hear me on this one.  Stop playing Canadian Threshold.  I'm not going to make the argument that it isn't very good - there's power in surprise, and there's an inherent frustration with playing against the deck; and if people are moving away from things like Zoo, things like Canadian Threshold get better.

But Red isn't known to be a fantastic support color; why Nimble Mongoose, Tarmogoyf and Grim Lavamancer when there's Knight of the Reliquary and Terravore available?

Also, the enemy of the deck (Swords to Plowshares) can be contained with our friend Mental Misstep.

Misstep the Horizons | The Rusty Machete

10 Creatures:  
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Terravore

28 Spells:  
4 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Daze
4 Stifle
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Swords to Plowshares

22 Lands:  
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Wasteland
1 Forest

15 Sideboard:  
3 Divert
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
2 Krosan Grip
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Submerge

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.

8 Standard decks to consider for the new format

We both know why you guys are here.  It's time for some decklists.

Legacy - Legacy decks are now 56 cards...

We now start every deck with 4x Gitaxian Probe.  Haven't you heard?

Bringing Down the Hammer: When Should a Card be Banned?

Given the recent dominance of Caw-Blade decks in Standard, many people have been calling for the banning of the more powerful cards in the deck, most notably Stoneforge Mystic and Jace.  Certainly, when the top 8's of GP's contain 32 copies of a card, talking about banning that card is not unreasonable, and even though UW Caw-Blade has been the deck to beat since PT Paris people have still been struggling to find ways to beat it.

My Nationals Qualifier Experience

For several reasons I'm not going to write a detailed tournament report for the Nats Qualifiers, mostly due to the fact that the matches I played either were too 1 sided to really be relevant or too complicated to be described accurately.  Instead, I will discuss the Caw-Blade list I used to win the local qualifier last Sunday, provide some stories from the weekend, and give my thoughts on the current Standard.

Caw | The Rusty Machete

9 Creatures:  
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Squadron Hawks
1 Sun Titan

24 Spells:  
4 Preordain
3 Oust
3 Mana Leak
2 Spell Pierce
4 Jace the Mind Sculptor
1 Jace Beleren
3 Gideon Jura
1 Into the Roil
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Mortarpod

27 Lands:  
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Plains
4 Island

15 Sideboard:  
4 Flashfreeze
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Condemn
1 Day of Judgement
1 Divine Offering
1 Jace Beleren
1 Celestial Purge
1 Twisted Image
1 Sun Titan

Nationals Qualifier Report Part 2

After a loss in Top 8 due to misunderstanding the deck, I was ready to redeem myself at the Qualifier in Flint on 4/30. Kurtis, Matt, and I showed up and again the event was 33 players, which meant 6 rounds of swiss. Kurtis was no longer playing R/U tempo, and was instead playing U/G ramp. Matt was on a list very similar to mine.

Nationals Qualifier Report Part 1

On 4/23 a 33 person Nationals Qualifier took place at Get Your Game On. A pretty stacked field of ringers battled for 6 swiss rounds. Connor Ullmann took down the event with U/W Cawblade, which composed half of the Top 8. This tournament was my first time playing Caw as well, so I'll walk through some of the matches and notable moments of the day. Enjoy!

Rusty Draft Video SOM 8-4

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WizardKmaster#p/a/u/0/Kgiju0gy_nU

April 27th - Nats Qualifier CawBlade

In today's installment of Daily Decks, I will show you the CawBlade deck I played at last Saturday's Nationals Qualifier at Get Your Game On. Tournament report will be coming soon.

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.

NPH - Let's talk Legacy

I've got to preface this entire review talking about Phyrexian mana in general; this is a game of resources.  This brings me back to a Vince Lombardi speech of, "This is a football."  When we're handling a new concept, it doesn't hurt to remember the basics of how and why we use certain cards in Legacy.

New Phyrexia Spoilers *Part 2*

Time to continue where we left off

April 20th - Legacy LoamBrews

I've got the itch again.

No, not that one.

New Phyrexia Spoilers *Part 1*

To make up for the lack of recent decks, I bring you a special treat today.  Due to a leak that came out Tuesday the entire set of New Phyrexia is now known, and having looked through it, here's a list of the cards I'm most excited about.

*spoilers*

April 13th - Regionals Decks #1

This past weekend a PTQ for Nagoya took place in Garden City. Basem Askoul made the finals with an innovative U/G Scapeshift deck, and we will bringing you his report shortly.

For now, all eyes are on the prize, AKA Regionals this weekend. Today we'll take a look at the first of many standard decks that are viable options for the tournament.

April 12th - Caleb Durward's Bant

It's pretty rare that I build and play something that someone else made for Legacy; I like my brews.  But when a single person does enough testing and is articulate enough about it, you have to take notice:

April 8th - Legacy UGB Tempo

This was intended for yesterday, but we got offset a day.

Anyone following Starcity Eternal articles has probably seen the UGB list championed by Brian Demars.  If you haven't - it's a Dark Confidant deck that has hand disruption, a lot of soft counters, and tempo spells.  Recently, at an Invitational Qualifier, this deck popped up, asking the question "Is it safe to play Dreadnought again?"

April 7th - Japanese Bant

Apologies to everyone who was expecting a Daily Deck yesterday, but schoolwork kept me too busy. To make up for it, I'm going to take a look at one of the more interesting competitive Extended decks just in time for the PTQ on the 9th.

April 5th - Zenith Zoo

On Tuesdays, I'm intending on telling people what I will be playing for weekly Legacy, and how I got to the deck.  Here's another take on Zoo, if you're not sick of it already.

April 4th- Pauper Storm

What do Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal have in common?

April 3rd - Legacy MUD Poison

Hello everyone and welcome to my deck primer on Legacy MUD Poison.

April 2nd - Standard Kibler's UB Poison

Remember, these aren't just decks that we've been playing; they're decks that spark some thought.

April 1st - SOM/MBS White Weenie

Kicking things off for this month, we have former Rusty writer (and now Premium StarCityGames Writer) Ari Lax!

4 Pack Sealed - A Short Primer

I'm a fan of sealed, as a format; which is good, because I'm terrible at drafting Scars block.

That's one of the reasons why we haven't been publishing any drafts, haters.  I'm terrible at drafting, and as Tristan Shaun-Gregson can attest to from Channel Fireball: people want people who are good at limited.

However, after the Release events for Mirrodin Besieged ended, the 4 pack Sealed events started.  30 card decks, 2 packs of Scars of Mirrodin and 2 packs of Mirrodin Besieged.  Here are some major differences:

- 30 cards is really weird.  If you think about it in percentages, every card you draw in a constructed deck is 1.6% of the total deck, a 40 card deck is 2.5% of the total deck, and a 30 card deck is 3.3% of the total deck.  I'm sure this doesn't mean anything to some people but I do enjoy some good math.  The chance of drawing a specific out is higher, and if you're anything like people I know: you can just will the proper card to the top of your library.  Bombs show up, but answers to bombs show up.
- Poison is harder to build.  There will still be nuts poison decks, but they're even more rare in this sealed.
- Metalcraft is harder to achieve.  With less cards, even though you're seeing a higher percentage, the threshold for good metal has to be lower.
- Synergy oftentimes goes out the window for just strong cards.
- Screeching Silcaw and Shriekhorn are real cards.  A slower controlling deck can't get hit by the Silcaw two times and expect to win the long game without a Zenith.  You get hit once, and now you have to get aggressive.
- 13 lands is probably where you want to start.  It's roughly the same proportion as 17 lands in a 40 card deck, so you can have a similar curve.



Other than that, the prize payout is not abysmal.  1 pack for 1-2, 3 packs for 2-1, 5 packs for 3-0.

Starting in April, Daily Decks!

Sorry about the gap, people.

MBS Phyrexian Sealed - Winning without Infect

I figured since I haven’t posted an article in an eternity, that it was time I put forth the effort and did one.  Usually I don’t like playing in MODO Prereleases because they are such –EV (check the prize structure), but because it was with faction boosters, I didn’t care.  I ended up getting a really good pool, and eventually settled on this deck:

Need Jaces? How many?

 

You can guarantee your favorite Rusty writers will be there.

Get some!  (Jaces)

Jokesin' with Non-tier—4 Color Control (Part II)

Part II of the 4 Color Control leaves off from deck observations of last week's article, and continues with the sideboard plan.

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

SCG Open Report Part 1: Standard (19th)

Recently, the Star City Open series has skyrocketed in popularity due to an impressive prize structure and the appeal of back to back tournaments in 2 different formats, and therefore double the chance to get some cash money.  With Indianapolis being withing reasonable driving range, plenty of the guys from Ann Arbor decided to head down and teach some lessons about Standard and Legacy.  I was able to borrow Show and Tell/Sneak Attack from Amir to play in the Legacy event (more on that in a later article), and had a Valakut list that was performing at or above 50% against every major deck that existed pre-besieged, and it even got some awesome new additions.

Then I discovered the existence of this monstosity:

Jokesin with Non-tier—4 Color Control

In my hiatus with my 5 dollar decks I have been playing around with different ways to challenge myself with building budget decks. This was spurred mainly because the competition at my local magic store has been terrible. I even brought a deck that I had just made with cards that I got for free...so yes, non-chase commons and uncommons (look for a future article on this deck!) and managed to clean house with it. Next I started trying to develop a deck using sub-5 cent commons only...and surprisingly it's 50-50 in the casual room of MTGO (look for this one in the future too). Eventually I stopped caring about playing magic in the store and haven't been to a competition in quite a few weeks.

Kai Draft #28 (ME4 8-4)

Team Wild strikes again! This time bringing you a Master's Edition 4 draft. Enjoy!

Pack 1, Pick 1:

Legacy Weapon - A Legacy review of Mirrodin Besieged

As with any set review; make your own conclusions of the set.  I'm looking for cards to make it into my Legacy playables binder.  If you're looking for just a summary of cards I think are worth picking up for Legacy, skip to the Leeches!

Kmaster's Guide to Trolling

Nicky closed his eyes. The specter of war loomed much too oppressively in his mind. The guttural battle cries that had heralded such violence so recently still resonated in his armor. The enormity of the carnage he had witnessed - nay - committed, forced his eyes open. The young planeswalker scoured the sky for the faintest glimmer of green mana, anticipation wrapped in dread. His senses confirmed his hopes: the Green Sun would not rise for many hours. He would have time to rest and gather his mana, and he would need it. For Nicky knew, as soon as the Green Sun reached its zenith, the lifeless hulk at his feet would be reinvigorated. And it would be back with a vengeance. As Nicky closed his eyes once more, he could hear, as if it were a whisper on the battlefield of tomorrow, a single menacing curse. 

New Year's Draft

New Year's Day draft video here at last! Watch part 1 now : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdn6DObKFCg

Matt and I talk while waiting for the draft to fire. Hilarity ensues. Drafting process + gameplay will be available tomorrow.

Rusty Draft Video #1

Check out Rusty Machete's first draft video here!

PTQ with Kmaster

Hi everyone!
Today I'm going to bring you my report for the first PTQ for the extended season that I've attended offline. I'll share my decklist, some of my games, and analyze the Top 8 results. Enjoy!

Drafting with Dread_ #2 - UZ/UZ/UL

So, after getting pretty bored with SOM drafts, I decided to do a Urza's Saga/Urza's Saga/Urza's Legacy draft for fun.

For those of you unfamiliar with the format, this is the infamous "Pestilence at common" set, where black is by far the best color - at least in Urza's Saga; thanks to cards like Expunge, Befoul, and Corrupt all at common. Black is so good, in fact, that at least half the table will often be drafting black. So far, judging from my (minimal) experience, I would say the basic color rankings are Black Red/Green Blue/White. In terms of archetypes, the format is pretty straightforward, with mostly aggressive decks, and a few slower controllish decks. The theme here is enchantments, and there are a lot of them, so enchantment removal is often maindeckable.

Pack 1, Pick 1:

Feature Article - King of the Scrubs - What I learned from 'winning' a Legacy Event

Hi, my name is Amir Gamzu, and I’m a Magic player.

I’ve been meaning to pen something for the Rusty Machete for quite some time, so I’m taking a page from Basem’s book and using a tournament win as a catalyst. In the future, you will likely see articles about my favorite formats; Cube, Type IV and EDH or about collecting as that’s really what I’m best at, but for now this is what I call a tournament report.

Extending the Format

Hello Everyone! I'm back after a fairly long absence from Rusty Machete (and, to a lesser extent, Magic in general) with a look at what's going on in extended- with the first modo ptq done and several real-life ptq's soon to come, we've no time to waste.