Gideon Jura
This week Stephen examines the block constructed format to find what can still hold value after this falls standard rotation.
Mike Lanigan discusses the impact of the cards of New Phyrexia on Standard’s Vampire archetype.
With the exception of Splinter-Twin, however, the new metagame is very similar to the metagame before rotation. Edgar Flores won the first SCG Open with NPH legal with a UW CawBlade list that looked very similar to the pre-rotation lists. In this metagame there are a number of cards that are being underplayed, in my opinion, and here are the top 5.
We’ve had 2 weeks of Opens to see the impact New Phyrexia has had on the Standard and Legacy tournament scenes. I’m going to focus on Standard, since the Grand Prix this weekend is Legacy, and will almost certainly have more players than the SCG Open series gets. Waiting on that will give us a bit of a better view on the format. However, for Standard, there’s no reason to wait, especially since the format hasn’t really undergone much of a change.
Following up on his post earlier this week, Stephen Moss drops a few more bits of financial information on what to sell off and how not to get hurt in the process.
Chad revisits Standard to maximize value during PTQ season.
Neale takes a reader’s Rafiq deck from common to commanding for head’s up play, and challenges you to do it better. Think you can handle the firepower?
With a new format becoming available for the first time Friday, it’s time to take a quick look at what’s available. For the most part, these will be aggro or combo decks, since control decks need to be built towards the metagame. As it stands, Caw-Blade is the premiere control deck in the format, and it can be played as-is with the mere addition of Batterskull.
Corbin Hosler has an exciting announcement for Insiders this week that will give them a huge advantage when trading! He also checks in on the Standard and Legacy metagames and has a few tips for the cards you should be selling now.
Seeing the results from the National Qualifiers and thinking back on the article I wrote on Vampires, I was led back to that deck. I really love this Vampire deck and what it is capable of, I play it well, and I have had more success with it than any other deck this season. With all those things being true, how could I not play it again?
Anthony Avitollo, our resident cube master, breaks down or completely blasts some of the best (and overhyped cards) for cubes from New Phyrexia!