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!