Mike Lanigan discusses the impact of the cards of New Phyrexia on Standard’s Vampire archetype.

My quest led me down past Mirrodin, into the evil depths of Darksteel, and out along the treacherous path of Fifth Dawn. As I pressed onward, I looked back through the Scars of Mirrodin. Looking back from that perspective, it didn’t seem quite as bad. Nightmares of the Ravager long since overcome, only to be replaced over and over again. With the [card Jace, the Mind Sculptor]evil demon[/card] lurking everywhere, sometimes it’s hard to remember clearly what it was like in the past.

This time around, things are different. The story is not the same. We have [card Jace, the Mind Sculptor]the villan[/card] but no clear path to victory. In that regard the present is like the past.

The next few short weeks, this CawBlade deck continued to dominate tournaments from local FNM’s to large Star City Games hosted events everywhere. The young mage, Mike Lanigan, read articles, built decks, and tried his best to build a comparable strategy that could take down this “Jund-like” beast (or “Faerie-like” if you prefer).

No, this isn’t English class, but it is a look into why wording can be so important in Magic.

Gregory gives you a full-set card by card design review of Mirrodin Besieged.