The Times they are a changin

Thanks to Bob Dylan for the title of today's blog.  Although the album came out in 1964 some 2 years before even I was born, my feeling towards Bob Dylan are a metaphor to the content of this blog.  Here is a performer who has grown over his long career and adjusted with the changing times.

The Legendary Mr Bob Dylan.

FNM Relax has been going since July 2012 and has tried to cater for the many diverse tastes of Magic players out there.  It has never been the place to play the latest net deck and has tried to maintain an atmosphere of friendly competition as well as being somewhere that nurtures new players and helps to make them understand the game in more depth without feeling like they have just been physically assaulted.

We seem to have developed some strong players in that time; Mark Smith, James Brooks and Micheal Shillitoe to name but three.  However, in order to give people the best experience I feel it is very important to listen to feedback and where possible act on it.  To this end we have changed the formats slightly with the start of the New Year to make things more fun for people and encourage participation.

Some cards are just too good...

So with effect from 1st February 2013 we are going to make even more changes.  At present we have an 8 week cycle of formats which includes Standard, 2 Headed Giant, Legacy, Pauper and Modern.  We have one of these formats that just doesn't really work in the grand scheme of FNM Relax despite our best efforts and that is Legacy.  There is just no such thing as "casual" Legacy at the end of the day, or if there is those who have actual Legacy cards will win against a casual Legacy deck every time.  There are also other formats which people would like to play more of like Standard and 2 Headed Giant.

Too busted for casual...

On top of this several Relax players have turned up for drafts recently (and I hope a whole bunch of them will do so on release weekend the 2-3 February 2013) and really enjoyed them.  So Mark Smith has managed to do what I couldn't and come up with a 12 week cycle of formats to give people what they want and it looks like this;

• Standard.
• Pauper.
• Draft.
• Modern.
• Standard.
• Two Headed Giant.
• Draft.
• Pauper.
• Standard.
• Two Headed Giant.
• Draft.
• Modern.

I would normally, at this point, apologise for mucking around with the formats and say sorry for the list that is up on the Patriot web site not being right, except that the list has not been changed to the current formats so it is not going to make much of a difference!

Stoneforge Mystic -  broken even if it is in Chinese.

Drafts in Relax will be £10 with everyone getting a booster in prize support.  A lot of FNM Relaxers tend to buy boosters afterwards anyway so hopefully the additional price for playing draft will no effect people adversely, and £10 for 4 boosters is pretty sweet really.  However, there is a caveat to draft in Relax; draft is a whole different set of skills (Mike Radford may well have written a couple of excellent blogs about it which can be found here and here).  As a result anyone who could be considered "Elite" players (sorry Joe Alexander that includes you) will be banned from Relax drafts.  The only exception to that is me as I am running the damn thing!  I shall try to play nice...honest.

A copy of Clique without an Eduardo joke...

So to look at the formats by date from here to rotation (when "Friends" comes out) here is what it looks like:

01 February 2013	Standard.
08 February 2013	Pauper.
15 February 2013	Draft.
22 February 2013	Modern.
01 March 2013	Standard.
08 March 2013	Two Headed Giant.
15 March 2013	Draft.
22 March 2013	Pauper.
29 March 2013	Standard.
05 April 2013	Two Headed Giant.
12 April 2013	Draft.
19 April 2013	Modern.
26 April 2013	Standard.
03 May 2013	Pauper.
10 May 2013	Draft.
17 May 2013	Modern.
24 May 2013	Standard.
31 May 2013	Two Headed Giant.
07 June 2013	Draft.
14 June 2013	Pauper.
21 June 2013	Standard.
28 June 2013	Two Headed Giant.
05 July 2013	Draft.
12 July 2013	Modern.
19 July 2013	Standard.
26 July 2013	Pauper.
02 August 2013	Draft.
09 August 2013	Modern.
16 August 2013	Standard.
23 August 2013	Two Headed Giant.
30 August 2013	Draft.
06 September 2013	Pauper.
13 September 2013	Standard.
20 September 2013	Two Headed Giant.
27 September 2013	Draft.
04 October 2013	Modern.

I have even colour-coded it which may help.  That means this Friday is the last ever FNM Relax Legacy event, if you haven't tried it yet give it a go it is great to play so many amazing cards - it actually makes you smile when you see your hand!  Oh for those that have not yet guessed all of the card images I have used this week are in my deck (even the Chinese Stone Forge)!  Have a good week and be well I will be back on Friday with the Magic version of new year resolutions.

If you go down to the Don today...

So a change of plans today.  Firstly I'd like to congratulate the following for qualifying for this Octobers Invitational last weekend;

Steve McAleer

Joe Alexander

John Kay

Chris Parks

Michael Shillitoe

Alistair Kennedy

Andrew Munro

They join the 17 others already qualified.  There will be more qualifiers between now and October but more on those after Gatecrash comes out.  Today the block is brought to you by one of those already qualified, the master of Legacy Owen Debenham.  Here is Owen's take on what to expect if you want to win the SCG Legacy Invitational this Sunday.

If you're going to the Star City Games Legacy Invitational Qualifier on the 13^th then you'll need a Legacy deck. When you're making a deck you need to figure out what you want your deck to beat, because as much as you want to beat everything, in a format as wide as Legacy you won't be able to. Once you've worked out what you need to beat you have to find out how to do it. I'm going to look at some of the more common effects in Legacy and how best to combat them.

Here is a list of the cards you are going to have to take into consideration if you want to win and not just hand over your hard earned money to Meta Games for no apparent reason other than them getting richer.

Things to beat:

Stifle/Wasteland/Rishadan Port/Sinkhole

Spell Pierce/Daze/Flusterstorm

Hymn/Thoughtseize/Cabal Therapy/Inquisition/Duress

Deathrite Shaman/Rest in Peace

Terminus/Deed/Verdict/Moat

Swords/Abrupt Decay/Liliana/Innocent Blood/Karakas

Engineered Plague/Perish/Dread of Night

Bob/Sylvan Library/Jace

Thalia/Teeg

Stoneforge/anything

Counterbalance/Top

Tendrils/Show and Tell/Glimpse of Nature

Dredge/Belcher/Lava Spike

Aether Vial/Cavern/Abrupt Decay

Delver/Goyf/Tombstalker/Mongoose/Clique

Mana Denial

Legacy players are often greedy with how many lands they play. Other players take advantage of this by playing cards like Wasteland, Rishadan Port and Stifle. Not being able to play your spells is one of the least fun ways to lose so you should probably try to avoid it There are two important things to remember when building your deck to beat these effects; one is not to play too many expensive spells - often the same decks will be playing Daze/Spell Pierce to abuse the fact that they constrain you on mana. The other is to just play more lands. Often people will play a few basics and think they've solved the problem, but the best response to people disrupting your mana is to simply play more sources.

Hand Disruption

Legacy players love playing cards that let them tear your hand apart. Turn 1 Thoughtseize, turn 2 Hymn to Tourach is a common play. Generally the way to beat discard is to either just draw more cards; them one-for-oneing you over and over is much less impressive when you've had a Dark Confidant or a Sylvan Library in play the whole time. It's also important that if your deck relies on a few important cards, like most combo decks, that you play as many ways as possible of finding additional copies after one has been discarded. You'll usually see combo decks running the full 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder, 4 Preordain for exactly this purpose. Another thing worth noting is that Stoneforge Mystic is particularly vulnerable to discard the turn after you cast it - if you're planning on playing Stoneblade it might be worth running a second Batterskull as back up.

Graveyard Hate

Graveyard hate has always been present in Legacy - no one wants to lose to Dredge after all - but Return to Ravnica contained Deathrite Shaman, now one of the most common maindeck cards. Whilst Deathrite Shaman isn't going to remove your entire graveyard it can make it difficult to resolve your reanimation spell, and it will mean that when you draw a Knight of the Reliquary later in the game it won't automatically be a 10/10 any more. Another card in Return to Ravnica is Rest in Peace. This card doesn't see much main deck play but is a common sideboard card in white decks, and when resolved completely shuts off any graveyard based interaction. With Leyline of the Void, Relic of Progenitus, Grafdigger's Cage and Tormod's Crypt all being played it's rare to find any deck without some amount of graveyard hate in the 75, yet with Deathrite Shaman being so popular the full graveyard 'sweepers' have somewhat fallen out of favour.

Removal

Removal is played in every format; if people are playing men other people will be wanting to kill them but in Legacy you have access to the best removal ever printed. Abrupt Decay is probably the most common piece of spot removal at the moment, but Swords to Plowshares, Liliana and Karakas can also deal with some of the harder to kill creatures. If you play Standard you'll know about how powerful a miracled Terminus can be but in Legacy that card works entirely differently. The decks playing Terminus in Legacy are also playing Sensei's Divining Top and Brainstorm, allowing them to miracle Terminus pretty much at will. If you're playing creatures you need to be prepared to rebuild after they all die at instant speed for a single white mana. Depending on the kind of creatures you're playing you might see Engineered Plague, Perish or Dread of Night out of sideboards.

Unfair Things

Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame, Rite of Flame, Goblin Charbelcher, Lion's Eye Diamond, kill you. There are a lot of decks trying to do unfair things in legacy, sometimes as early as turn one. You could be facing Show and Tell for Griselbrand or Emrakul, Ad Nauseum into rituals and Tendrils of Agony, Glimpse of Nature followed by absurd numbers of Elves amongst other things. There are too many combo decks to have specific hate for all of them but there are cards which are good against a lot of them. Many combo decks rely on resolving a single key spell which makes cheap counterspells like Spell Pierce good. They'll often have their own counterspells, or discard to take yours, so it can be better to be proactive with discard or 'hate bears' like Thalia, Gaddock Teeg or Ethersworn Canonist. Almost all combo decks will have ways of recovering from your hate so it's important that either you're able to completely lock them out with something like Counterbalance or Trinisphere, or you close the game out in a reasonable amount of time.

If you have the cards or can borrow them you should really consider going to Doncaster this Sunday to play Legacy. It's easily the most diverse and interesting format with far too many powerful interactions for me to talk about here. No other format will have people going into the tournament aiming to win one turn one with others planning on winning on turn twenty (if their opponents don't concede from boredom before then).

Thanks Owen that was, as expected a great insight into the meta of Legacy.  I will be back on Monday with a lot of information about changes in FNM Relax following the release of Gatecrash.  Until then play a lot of cards and good luck to all those going to Doncaster this weekend I hope it is worth the £30 for you.

2012 - The Magic Year in Review...

So, Christmas and New Year are over, I started to write this blog at the end of 2012 and then started playing on my Xmas present from Rob - Minecraft on the 360, and that was that.  The world didn't end on the 21st December and so we have a whole lot of Magic to look forward too.  As it will be New Years Eve when this goes live on the Internet it seemed only right to jump on the ubiquitous band wagon and do one of those "Review of the Year" things that they love to do rather than make new TV programs.  

Firstly lets have a look at the year that was on a monthly basis;

January

Standard was a tale of two decks (what a surprise) with UW Delver and Wolf Run Ramp.  People were pondering flipping their Delvers and Thrun the Last Troll was waving a bunch of burning swords around.  January also saw the Pre-Release of Dark Ascension the second set in the Innistrad block.  Sadly there were too few outstanding cards to follow on effectively from the monster that was Innistrad.

*Sigh* It had to be didn't it...

February

The release of Dark Ascension was both frustrating and disappointing.  What had been one of the best limited environments ever suddenly had one less good booster in it and the experience became worse not better.  At Pro-Tour Dark Ascension Brian Kibler faced John Finkel in an epic encounter.  Sadly John Finkel proved that no one blocks at Pro Tour and Kibler had triple Galvanic Blast for the win (yes really).  Meanwhile, Zombies started eating brains in standard.

One of the other things from Pro Tour was how good is this guy!

March

Rumour was rife in March with a new banned and restricted list due out.  Delver was too powerful, Snapcaster was going to be banned, Vapor Snag was going to be banned etc.  In the end they banned Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue in block constructed.  Everyone said "Oh yeah, that makes sense".  

Suddenly every other word out of players mouth was "Tempo"

Would have been the biggest anti-climax ever, but then we had...

April

We had been told earlier in the year that we would no longer get promos or support for release weekend but would rather have a Release FNM Promo.  We were also told that we would have a new and unique addition to future pre-releases to offset this loss.  So we got to Avacyn Restored - a meh set if ever there was one, with a few stand out cards (Bonfire of the Damned, Terminus, Cavern of Souls) but not much else.  Pre-release was centred around opening the Helvault to claim its contents!  This was a fantastic piece of marketing, that with just a little more care and attention to the contents would have been a game changer.  Sadly as I predicted (smug mode on) the only thing it held was disappointment.  Wizards consider this a triumph as they got loads of people to pre-release and not many people complained about it!

I keep this at home, as a reminder of why we can't have nice things...

April would have been a massive let down all over had we not also had the news that the October set would be called "Return to Ravnica" - nice save WotC!

May

We had another Pro-Tour which was block constructed and won by Alexander Hayne with a highly tricky and technical miracles deck...

Lucky top decking seemed to be the flavour of the month and RUW miracles wasn't a thing unless your name was Rob Tinsley.  We had some Magic World Cup qualifiers - these didn't make up for not having any Nationals any more.

Can you deal with my mad top decking skillz?

June

June saw the latest instalment of the highly popular Duels of the planeswalkers on Xbox, PS3 and  steam for PC.  The promos were from M13 and came in a mini-booster with some other cards from the new core set.  Duels also featured planechase for the first time.  This was the first year that I didn't buy it on Xbox 360 and Steam (the PC promo was Serra avatar).  This was the month we also got a new set of planechase decks.  Sadly by this point I found the whole game about as enjoyable as having hot needles inserted into your nether regions and decided to give it all a break till M13 came out in July.

 

Planechase complete with Bloodbraid Elf and frickin' Ninjas!

  July

M13 and FNM Relax.  This was a good time to be playing MTG.  A new slightly down powered core set with some great cards - Omniscience, Thragtusk, Far Seek, Tormod's Crypt etc.  We also instigated this blog and FNM Relax - an alternative FNM for those whole didn't want to play like they were at Pro Tour all the time and finish early enough to go to the pub.  That seems to have turned out quite well so far - but more on the future of FNM Relax on Friday (spoiler alert)!  On a personal note I also won Pre-release for the first time which was pretty sweet.

 

Combine with tokens and Kill You!

August


We got to see our first official Returm to Ravnica card in Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.  People still maintained that Shock Lands would not be back in the set - boy how dumb do they look now!  It was announced that Pro Tour is coming to Ireland in 2013 - no wonder Rich Fuller keeps going to PTQs.


We also had announcements for Commander's Arsenal (I'm still going what the hell on this one) and we had Zombies Rising to tier one.  Another nice addition to the whole affair was Planeswalker points achivements.  Every Xbox owner will tell you we love achievements!

 

Getting there in Zombies.

September


Was all about Return to Ravnica.  Sweet shock lands and cracking cards like Abrupt Decay, Sphinx's Revelation and others.  The guild packs were flavourful and fun, enhancing the pre-release experience unlike the dreaded Helvault.  People had fun and FNM Relax got more players.  Delver also had its last hoorah as the imminent depature of Ponder and Vapor Snag spelt its doom.  I don't think many tears were shed as Scars block went bye bye to make way for Ravnica (part 2).


Oh they also unbanned Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle in Modern, cause that is a fun deck to play in a format.

 

Did we really ever need to see this monstrosity again?

October


Ravnica is on the shelves and Delver dies for lack of Tempo!  Everyone is very keen and no one really notices that Return to Ravnica is great for value but overall is a bit lacklustre.  We also started a new era in Sheffield MTG with the first Patriot Sheffield Invitational tournament and the creation of the Steel City Patriots from the top 6 at the invitational.

 

How good are these cards?

November

Undoubtably the best part of a great month in Magic was the Sheffield PTQ, not just a PTQ but the Carlsberg of PTQs.  Great turn out, top side events and a Sheffield local in the  final.  Thanks to Nick for doing the results table without a hitch, I had to say that as he is sitting next to me right now... (LOL)

 

Almost an auto win in limited.

December

Sadly we don't get another of the world's best PTQs in Sheffield but Manchester still have their PTQ that they have every season.  Thank god for Manchester the Gathering or is it Wizards of the Manc?  December ends with the first official spoilers from Gatecrash the follow up set for the Return to Ravnica block.

Sorry for the gap in blogs this was due to me needing a break over Christmas and New Year and then falling prey to MInecraft - please see my Pyramids below.  If I can keep off Minecraft for the week I will be back on Friday with more.  Don't forget this Friday it is the debut of "Proper" Pauper where any common goes except Frantic Search and Cranial Plating.

Deck building 101

I have started this blog about 4 times now and have not been able to capture the feel for the subject in quite the right way.  I've tried mentioning net decking and it's strengths and weaknesses, using your intuition to look for cards with natural synergy and several other tacks.  I was not happy with any of them so I have started again once more.

Deck building is an art form all of its own some people get it and some don't.  That is a fairly negative statement to start with but its true.  There are some really great Pro Magic players who can't build a deck for toffee!  Others, and I will name Mike Flores as a prime example here, are truly innovative deck builders whose ability as players does not reflect their understanding of card synergy and deck design.

Mike's knowledge and deck building skills do not translate 

to as many wins as they should.

So what can we do to make ourselves better deck builders?  There are things which we can ask themselves when looking at cards to put together which may help when it comes to building decks.  Rather than do a top ten tips list I am going to use a number of words to remember when building decks and hopefully this will provide you with a "formula" to use when building decks.

Lets take a look at the above card.  This card is a prime example of "value" with regards to mana cost against what it potentially does.  A 1 mana 1/2 guy is slightly above the standard for 1 mana which is good in itself.  Then we look at what he can do once he doesn't have summoning sickness; turn 3 Thraktusk - no problem, make your Lightning bolt say BR deal 5 damage to target player - sure thing, exile the snapcaster that you flashed in as a chump blocker and gain 2 more life - and why not?  This card is amazing it also stops the mad rush of Stromkirk Noble from getting in ad gaining +1/+1 counters (its not a human but an Elf - oh wait elves are like a deck or something I think).  Value is all about cards that "do" something other than just give you a man, mostly with Enter the Battlefield (ETB) effects.  Prime examples of these are Snapcaster Mage, Restoration Angel and of course the M11/M12 Titans cycle.

A card with obvious value...

So value is a card that costs about what it should but has extra benefits and is something we look for when we are building decks.  Not all cards that have ETB/keyword effects are worth playing.  Trained Caracal is a bad card but people keep including it in decks at FNM Relax, please don't.  Some cards have greater value in other formats than they do in standard, Deathrite Shamen is very playable in Legacy as an anti Tarmogoyf card among other things.

A game winning combo with Restoration Angel.

The second thing I want to look at is Synergy.  I looked up the definition of synergy and found this;

"Synergy is when two or more forces come together with a positive effect."

Kiki Jiki in combination with various other cards was a massively strong combo in the recent Modern GP where it would win out of nowhere and people found it very hard to do anything about it.  

Synergy is talked about a lot when it comes to Magic, not just in combo but for all decks.  Cards that work together can make exceptionally strong pairings and give you massive advantage against your opponent.  For synergy to really make an impact your deck has to have a purpose or plan, it needs to do something and for you to know in advance what that thing is.  I know that sounds kind of obvious right?  You would be amazed how many people don't know exactly what their deck does and lose games as a result!  Mike Boon tells a great story of a game he played one time at quite high level where he had to tell the guy he was playing how to play his deck!  If you have a clear idea what your deck does you should find it easy to build decks with synergy as you can recognise which cards will work with which in order to obtain your desired outcome with your deck.

Why do I see this card so much?

There are some cards which are the opposite of value and I just wanted to pick on one of them right now - Wayfaring Temple.  When you play this card the only creature you can be sure you will have is itself.  This means you are paying 3 mana for a 1/1 guy that comes in and does nothing.  If you have some guys or tokens in play he is bigger and should you be lucky enough to get him through to a player (he doesn't have trample so can be chump blocked all day) you get another token, as long as you had one to start off with.  That's a lot of ifs.  Good cards don't need ifs, they are good cards that get better if...  For the same price Centaur Healer gives you a guaranteed 3/3 creature and you get the incidental life gain of 3 when it comes in as well for the exact same amount of mana.  This fortunately goes into the next essential element of deck building - consistency.

Consistently good in so many things.

Thragtusk has been seeing high levels of play all over the place recently.  His synergy with Restoration Angel is obvious, chump block with him, flash in Restoration Angel, Target Thragtusk, Blink out get a 3/3 Beast, blink in gain 5 life and now have an extra 6 power on the table to swing with.  So how do we make sure that we can do this consistently?  Well 4 Thragtusk and 4 Restoration Angel make the likely hood of pulling off the above much greater.  Consistency is about far more than just putting 4 of each key card into the deck it is about every card in the deck getting you closer to winning.  In this case Farseek is your friend to ramp a bit and drop a turn 4 Thraktusk.  A turn 3 Garruk Relentless that gets flipped will help you go find the Angel or Thragtusk if you need them, and make your deck more consistent.

Sometimes the right common is the perfect piece of the puzzle.

In my Eldrazi ramp deck that I played in Standard when Rise was legal every card in the deck worked towards casting Emrakul and his Eldrazi buddies.  Explore allowed me to consistently drop a turn 3 Primeval Titan and go get those Eldrazi Temples/Eye of Ugin.

So next time you want to build a deck for FNM remember these words:

• Value
• Synergy
• Consistency

That's all for the blog until after Christmas.  Mr Smith and myself will again be teaming up to take on all challengers this Friday in 2 Headed Giant at FNM Relax with a combination of Esper tokens and Bant Tempo.  So from all at Patriot Games Sheffield and the Magic team let me wish you;

Merry

Christmas

and a 

Happy New Year!

Future Sight

So another week is with us.  Firstly let me apologise for the lack of a blog on Friday but work got in the way!  I will endeavour to bring you the blog on deck building this Friday instead.  Seems my Standard deck was very good on Friday as it won all 4 matches without loosing a game.  Sorry to Henry Hart who has apparently been beaten by me every week he has come along, what can I say the computer is not your friend Henry.

This Friday is Modern Pauper and I am playing a Bant version of my soldier deck from last time.  I have not got the full list yet but it may well have these fellas in it:

War!  What is it good for?

This is the last Modern Pauper event at FNM Relax as we go to full on Pauper from January.  Te soldier deck I played last time worked really well but it was very one dimensional and I decided that by going 3 colours I could have a lot more possibilities and make the deck far stronger.

That's enough about pauper and FNM Relax and I think it is time to look at what is coming up over the next few weeks.

This Sunday is a festive Steel City magic tournament with standard @ £7 and a draft later on in the day if standard went a bit wrong for you @ £10.  As always Mark will put up boosters or store credit in prize support.

I got one of these last time with my store credit...

FNM will continue over the Yuletide season with 2 Headed Giant on the 21st December 2012 and a fond farewell to extended on 28th December 2012 before it is replaced by Modern in the New Year.

Kiki Pod - just what we needed!

Our first FNM of 2013 will be Standard on 4th January with something very special the following day.  As you are well aware we had an invitational tournament in October which went down very well - for full details see here and here.  We have decided to do it again in 2013.  Here are the players who have already guaranteed their place in the invitational 2013;

Robert Tinsley
Andrew Mather
Daniel Cocking
Andy Sims
Mike Boon
Patrick Bateman
John Roberts
James Brook
Diarmuid Verrier
Grzegorz Flis
Fabian Quinn
Stephen Kay
Richard Tinsley
Adam Pollard
Matt Cooper
Owen Debenham
Matteo Orsini Jones

This year the entrants were invited based on their results in tournament's and on their contribution to the Magic community of Sheffield.  Next year there will be a chance for people to earn an invitation by being in the top 4 of a qualifier event, the first of which will be on Saturday January 5th 2013.  We will actually be running two tournaments that day with Standard starting at 10:30 am and Modern starting at 12:30 pm.  The price for each tournament is £5 with 2 boosters going into the prize pool for each player.  The top 4 from each event will receive an invitation to the tournament in October 2013 for a chance to be a member of Team Steel City Patriots and gain a sponsorship package similar to that enjoyed by the team members from this year.

But that is all for next year and we have not finished this one yet!  Patriot Sheffield will have a number of events over the Christmas break which look like this;

Thursday 27th December 2012

General casual play and testing for January 2013

Friday 28th December 2012 

EDH from Midday onwards and FNM from 6pm

Saturday 29th December 2012 

A festive Christmas draft at 11am full details next week

So there are many, many reasons to come play MTG at Patriot Games Sheffield.  See you soon.

A Standard approach

So this week at FNM it is Standard, I didn't define FNM between Relax and Elite as both are Standard this week.  Standard is a funny format - I still think of it as "Type 2" from way back when, because they stopped us playing all of our sweet old cards.  I was one of the many who massively objected to my old cards becoming worthless and voted with my feet by quitting Magic.  As always though just as I thought I was out they pulled me back in!

So MTG is like the Mafia now?

However, type 2 has become the "Standard" way of playing magic and it has changed the face of the game and has created a more accessible way for people to enter the game to begin with.  Other than actual  limited, Standard is the most limited format in Magic - there is currently a total of 1,109 different cards legal in Standard.

However, it has to be noted that standard is the most open and diverse it has been for a number of years with no CAW Blade or Delver deck to be the defining deck of the format at present.

I didn't break standard - I am Standard!

I am not a massive fan of net decking but I thought it might be useful to look at the top decks from this weekends Star City Games Standard Open:

Naya midrange 1st place

Creatures (24)

4 Avacyn's Pilgrim

4 Huntmaster of the Fells

4 Loxodon Smiter

4 Restoration Angel

4 Thragtusk

4 Thundermaw Hellkite

Lands (24)

4 Forest

3 Mountain

4 Cavern of Souls

3 Clifftop Retreat

2 Kessig Wolf Run

4 Rootbound Crag

4 Temple Garden

Spells (12)

4 Selesnya Charm

4 Bonfire of the Damned

4 Farseek

Sideboard

3 Angel of Serenity

2 Zealous Conscripts

2 Rest in Peace

2 Garruk Relentless

2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

4 Pillar of Flame

_______________________________________________________________________

We even have a playable dragon in Standard...

Jund Midrange 2nd Place

Creatures (14)

2 Deathrite Shaman

4 Huntmaster of the Fells

4 Thragtusk

2 Thundermaw Hellkite

2 Olivia Voldaren

Planeswalkers (5)

2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

3 Liliana of the Veil

Lands (24)

2 Swamp

4 Blood Crypt

2 Cavern of Souls

3 Dragonskull Summit

1 Kessig Wolf Run

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Rootbound Crag

4 Woodland Cemetery

Spells (17)

3 Abrupt Decay

2 Ultimate Price

1 Bonfire of the Damned

3 Dreadbore

4 Farseek

2 Pillar of Flame

1 Rakdos's Return

1 Sever the Bloodline

Sideboard

2 Deathrite Shaman

3 Vampire Nighthawk

2 Appetite for Brains

1 Blasphemous Act

1 Bonfire of the Damned

2 Pillar of Flame

1 Rakdos's Return

2 Slaughter Games

1 Cavern of Souls

So very good - try her with Basilisk Collar in extended...

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5 Colour Control 3rd Place

Creatures (10)

4 Huntmaster of the Fells

4 Thragtusk

1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight

1 Griselbrand

Planeswalkers (2)

1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Lands (26)

1 Alchemist's Refuge

1 Blood Crypt

3 Cavern of Souls

1 Dragonskull Summit

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Hinterland Harbor

1 Isolated Chapel

1 Kessig Wolf Run

4 Overgrown Tomb

2 Rootbound Crag

1 Steam Vents

1 Sulfur Falls

2 Sunpetal Grove

4 Temple Garden

Spells (22)

3 Chromatic Lantern

2 Curse of Death's Hold

1 Detention Sphere

1 Abrupt Decay

3 Sphinx's Revelation

1 Ultimate Price

4 Farseek

3 Lingering Souls

2 Rakdos's Return

1 Supreme Verdict

1 Terminus

Sideboard

1 Door To Nothingness

2 Centaur Healer

2 Rhox Faithmender

1 Curse of Echoes

2 Rest in Peace

1 Abrupt Decay

2 Tragic Slip

1 Jace, Memory Adept

3 Duress

Will see more play come Gatecrash.

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B/R Zombies 4th Place

Creatures (29)

4 Blood Artist

1 Bloodflow Connoisseur

3 Bloodthrone Vampire

4 Butcher Ghoul

4 Diregraf Ghoul

3 Falkenrath Aristocrat

4 Geralf's Messenger

4 Gravecrawler

1 Hellrider

1 Zealous Conscripts

Lands (21)

6 Swamp

4 Blood Crypt

4 Cavern of Souls

4 Dragonskull Summit

3 Rakdos Guildgate

Spells (10)

4 Brimstone Volley

2 Searing Spear

3 Tragic Slip

1 Flames of the Firebrand

Sideboard

2 Rakdos Keyrune

1 Vampire Nighthawk

2 Zealous Conscripts

2 Ultimate Price

1 Dreadbore

4 Pillar of Flame

1 Rakdos's Return

2 Sever the Bloodline

Brainssssssssssssssssssss!!!

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U/W Control 5th Place

Creatures (14)

3 Augur of Bolas

4 Restoration Angel

4 Snapcaster Mage

3 Geist of Saint Traft

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Jace, Architect of Thought

Lands (23)

8 Island

3 Plains

2 Cavern of Souls

4 Glacial Fortress

4 Hallowed Fountain

2 Moorland Haunt

Spells (21)

2 Runechanter's Pike

4 Azorius Charm

4 Dissipate

2 Essence Scatter

2 Sphinx's Revelation

2 Think Twice

3 Thought Scour

2 Unsummon

Sideboard

2 Detention Sphere

1 Oblivion Ring

2 Dispel

2 Negate

2 Purify the Grave

2 Righteous Blow

1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

3 Supreme Verdict

Card advantage and incidental life gain - Boo-Yaa!

This really is a massively eclectic mix of decks.  There is full on control, including the holy grail of Magic in 5 colour control as well as uber aggro in the form of B/R Zombies and the whole thing got won by Naya midrange.  The top 3 decks all ran 4 copies of Thragtusk who seems to be the right card at the right time just now.  With all these top tier possibilities I am looking forward to what we may see on Friday.

That's all for today but I will be back on Friday with the first part of an article on how to build a deck.  I know that there are a number of people at FNM Relax who have asked about this so I hope the blog will answer these questions.  Goodbye till then.