MTG Salvation

I haven't written an article here in quite a while. There are a lot of reasons for that, mostly having to do with real-world things taking up much more of my time lately and my not playing very much recently. The complete and almost total unplayability of MTGO also had a lot to do with it. Now that v3 is up, I've been playing a bit more lately; and having not played the v3 beta at all, I figured I'd review it and share some thoughts on the state of Magic.

Ok, we're going to start off this review with a look at the new cards in standard from Xth Edition, Cold Snap, and Time Spiral. Huh? What? Why are you looking at me like that? Wait, what's that you say? Isn't this the Lorwyn review?

Well, the Prerelease is over, and Lorwyn is officially here. Lorwyn brings us a lot of new cards, and the return of tribal themes to Magic for the first time since Onslaught Block was around. There are however, quite a few significant changes between the two blocks. For one thing, unlike Onslaught, this set is almost completely devoid of mass removal. For another, rather than have a secondary theme in the set, Wizards just decided to up the number of tribes.

So, the burning questions on everyone's mind are: what tribes are good? What tribes are bad? Well, I'm here to answer that for you. Or at least pretend like I know.

Slide is like the Rodney Dangerfield of decks: its won Worlds—TWICE, and everyone only discusses what it can't beat. No one ever talks about the raw power inherent in a three-card independent combo that lets you two for one your opponent while casting a cantriping Regrowth for one mana. I'm guessing a lot of you (OK, maybe one or two) thought about Slide and then decided against it. After all, the conventional wisdom on Slide is that it beats aggro, splits vs. control, and loses to combo. This assumes, of course, that Slide is built as a control deck.

Xth Edition is bringing a lot of changes to Magic: The Gathering in Standard, and to a lesser degree, in Extended as well. Many people would argue, and could very well be correct in this assessment, that the re-introduction of good, playable manlands from Urza's Saga is the biggest format shifting event to come out of the set. In Extended, this is probably true. In Standard, it’s not even close. Circle of Protection: Red is gone. The end. Finito. Buh-Bye. Story Circle is still around, but it requires a much higher level of commitment to White than the CoPs ever did. The absence of the CoP comes at a time when there is more playable burn in Standard than has been the case in quite a good long while. Not sure about that? Let me give you a rundown. Lightning Helix, Electrolyze, Psionic Blast, Seal of Fire, Incinerate, Sudden Shock, Char, Rift Bolt, Demonfire, Disintegrate, Molten Disaster, Beacon of Destruction, Fiery Temper, Assault/Battery, Guerrilla Tactics, Tribal Flames. This isn't a comprehensive list, and some cards on it (like Guerrilla Tactics) haven't seen play in awhile, but all of the cards listed were or are tournament staples in competitive decks.

Currently, Beach House has three things going for it that really help address the deck's two big weaknesses. Let's look at how you could shore up those weaknesses even more.

Planar Chaos introduced a new twist on the timeshift concept by reprinting cards (some old, some not so old) in different colors. Some truly iconic and powerful cards were moved: Ball Lightning, Serra Angel, and Healing Salve (ok, just kidding about the Salve). However, there is one timeshifted sorcery, that costs four mana, that is fundamentally going to change the way Magic is played in Standard, Extended, and possibly Legacy.

The first Standard competitive decks to feature the Urzatron (Urza's Mine, Urza's Tower, and Urza's Power Plant) appeared during the Mirrodin expansion set, and neither the first, nor the second deck to utilize these three supermana lands featured Blue in them. The first deck to competitively use the Tron was Mono-White Control. I'm going to start out talking about those old mono-white decks because that's what this deck most closely resembles.

Legacy is a format Wizards of the Coast has recently been trying hard to promote, it has the largest cardpool outside of Vintage, and thanks to a well maintained banned list, is very balanced and open. Legacy is also dominated by a very short list of decks, namely Threshold, Goblins, and Solidarity. However, there actually are other decks that can go ahead and fight against all of these deck types.

This deck started out life as an attempt to create a hybrid madness/destructive flow deck based roughly on the aggro flow archetype. Eventually, it became a lock deck. Kind of a lot like Stax actually. Yeah, I know, 5c Stax, in extended. I get how absurd that sounds on the face of it, and once I show you the decklist it makes even less sense.

I'd like to start this article by pointing out something most of you probably aren't aware of, and that's that Thallid has the fastest goldfish of any one drop in Standard right now.

Madness is a pretty crazy mechanic in theory. Intentionally discarding your own stuff seems like, well, the crazy mental hospital kind of madness. Yet the deck has made an impact in every format it has ever been legal in.

The single most common reason people lose games in Magic is because of mana issues, be it mana flood, mana screw, or color screw. Whether you're a dedicated Netdecker or regular Rogue, this article will teach you how to avoid experiencing any of these any more than is absolutely necessary as dictated by the laws of probability.

Yawgmoth's Will is arguably the single most powerful card ever printed for use in constructed magic. It's so powerful in fact, that some have argued for banning it from Vintage, the only format it's legal in. The only counter-argument offered is usually "We don't ban cards in Vintage". Playing cards directly from your graveyard is that broken of an ability. All of which really makes me wonder what the hell Wizards was thinking when they printed a new (well, almost) version in Standard.

Obviously, there are some issues with this deck. Like namely, it sucks. After poking around some Legacy forums for a bit, I got a quick education on exactly why it sucks.