Can you please introduce yourself and your role with Magic the Gathering, for those who may not know who you are?
Hi, I’m Aaron Forsythe, Director of Magic R&D. I was a pro player for a few years (two PT Top 8’s) before coming to Wizards to run magicthegathering.com in 2001. I now head the R&D department, overseeing design, development, creative, and editing.

What part have you played in the development of Magic 2010 as well as the changes coming with the set?
I was the lead designer on the Magic 2010 set, and was the catalyst and point man for the rules changes. (I had little to do with the changes to the tournament rules, although I am a fan of them.)

What do you think of these changes?
I think they were painful but necessary, and will end up mattering less and being easier to adapt to than most players imagine. Magic is too hard to learn, plain and simple, and we have to take steps to make that less true, even if that means upsetting a few apple carts along the way. We would do nothing to hurt the game intentionally; every decision we make is done so with the long-term health and growth of the game and its community in mind. Everyone here lives, eats, and breathes Magic.

Were there any you were not in favor of initially?
I was uncertain about mana burn leaving, but I’ve since become convinced of just how extraneous it was. The new combat rules were a tough nut to crack; once we agreed to take damage off the stack, coming up with a system that let damage prevention and regeneration work intuitively in multi-blocking scenarios was tough, which is where the ordered blocking thing came from. My only regret there is that it is way harder to explain than it is to play with that particular rule.

Obviously Wizards has tested and explored these changes in depth before announcing them, can you give us an idea of what sort of testing happened and how long you all worked on them?
The combat changes were being worked out during Shards of Alara design and development; you can see that cards like Carrion Thrash and Bloodpyre Elemental were worded such that the transition would have no effect on how they played. The rest of the changes were added sometime between Shards and M10 development. So the combat system in particular got almost a year of testing in our FFL [Ed. Note: FFL is the Future Future League, the internal league used for playtesting by Wizards] and limited playtests, with a variety of players from Pro Tour winners to beginners.

Combat is drawing a great deal of the attention in terms of changes seen to be negative. While the use of the stack in combat was counter-intuitive it was still inline with the way the rest of the game worked. This is seen as an illogical change as it trades one counter-intuitive issue for another. Why make the change?
People get hung up on the “other forms of damage use the stack so should combat” thing, when that’s the wrong way to look at it. Untapping your permanents at the beginning of your turn doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to. Drawing your card for the turn doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to. Same for the act of declaring attackers and declaring blockers, and the same for all the stuff that goes on during the end step (like discarding down to seven and damage clearing). The only part of the game that used the stack other than spells and abilities from cards was combat damage. Players just didn’t get that; we saw it time and time again. That might be hard to believe if you are surrounded by knowledgeable players or play online, but it is very, very true. There was this big inconsistency in the rules and it tripped up players over and over, so we removed it.

Some players fear that Wizards is making these sort of changes out of a desire to draw in new players without regard for current players, do you have any comment on this? Obviously the game is meant to grow.
If we wanted new players without regard for older players, we could have done something really radical like change the cardback and make everyone start over. In no way is that the case. Yes, these changes were made to get new players. The gaming environment has changed in the past decade. Video games have all these great learning tools and systems that we do not, which makes the barrier to learn a complex “paper” game like Magic even higher. We have to be willing to adapt. If we just kept catering to the same crowd, it would shrink over time just by natural attrition, eventually making this whole thing not viable. No one wants that. We need to stay ahead of any negative trends and not wait until something horrible actually goes wrong to try and fix things. And the enfranchised player has to understand that we do tons and tons of stuff for him all the time, like offer a robust prize-laden organized play system, a website brimming with content every day, complex new sets and card mechanics and limited environments, the list goes on. It’s easy to latch on to something you don’t like and think you’re being forgotten, but we know who’s out there buying boxes… we just want to make sure there’s more of them.

These changes are being compared to the major changes which came out with Sixth edition, how do you compare these rules changes in terms of effect on the game?
These changes are far less severe, but at the same time they are also less clearly necessary to the enfranchised player. These changes are meant to fix problems that are below the surface of what most people see or read about on major websites or at big events–they’re targeted at players that many of your readers don’t interact with, so it may be hard to understand our motives.

Tell us the truth, did Gleemax make you all put these changes into place so that he could squash his rival Mogg Fanatic once and for all?
Look, I love Mogg Fanatic. My original screen name after Tempest came out was “moggfanatic”. I put Mogg Fanatic in Tenth Edition. These were hard changes to make, but people just have to trust us that they’re for the best.

Thanks for your time. ManaNation and its fans appreciate you answering our questions concerning these rules changes in Magic 2010. Do you have anything you’d like to add?
To people that still don’t like these rules, the best analogy I can make for you is that they’re like an immunization shot or a tax increase — things you don’t particulatly want to be subjected to in the short term but that have a long-lasting positive effect elsewhere, often in ways you can’t notice. You have to put some amount of faith in us that it will all work out in the end.

Indeed. We truly do appreciate Aaron taking time to answer our questions!

You’re in your FIRST Pro Tour Qualifier for Austin and you’re sitting across from a person your first round that doesn’t look at you nor do they acknowledge you. They, in fact, don’t even say hello. You roll your die and you win the die roll, you opt to go first and the opponent just grumbles. You’re playing your favorite deck, you lay your land and pass your turn. Opponent plays an ISLAND! At this point, no matter what you’re playing, you should have an idea of the possibilities. Faeries, Reveillark?

Let’s change that a bit, what if your opponent plays a Forest. Do you have any idea what deck they may be playing?

Unlike chess or checkers, Magic is NOT played on a linear field. ALL of the possible outcomes are NOT within the battlefield, just a precursor to M10 rules, If you don’t have any idea what could be next, you’re probably going to lose. With this general statement, I’m saying that victory is based on your collection of facts and the execution of play afterwards. Let’s say the opponent laid an island and your 2nd turn has you faced with laying an island or a vivid land. Your hand has Broken Ambition and random 3 drop. Now, on this play, I’m foreshadowing the right play and that is to set up for a Broken Ambition for 1. Now if you’re opponent laid a forest, you might not concern yourself with what might be a turn 2 creature or spell and lay the vivid land for the efficient turn 3 play.

Remember, Magic is the sum of plays to which parity is completely on your side for the inevitable victory. Very few decks have a knockout play, and normally those are combo decks and very few of them exist in the current Standard environment. So you must lay like you’re working towards something, not just tapping and casting. Anticipating your opponent is a skill that is necessary for successful combat, not just magic but in virtually all aspects of life.

New scenario, your opponent is playing Jund/Cascade and you’re playing with Tokens. He has one card in hand, you have four (Plains, Cave of Koilos, Path to Exile and Kitchen Finks) and 4 lands in play. With nothing on either side but lands, the obvious play is the Finks. My question to you is, do you play the land? While the typical token deck does play the HUGE 5cc Cloudgoat Ranger, the Jund deck can play (and does) Blightning. Now this is an example of a NO-Wrong scenario. Play 1 - lay the land, leaving you with 2 cards in hand and possible loss of active card if said Blightning is cast or Play 2 - don’t lay the land and have 2 lands you can discard while keeping an action card in hand if needed. My Co-Host Patrick has a quote from the great Jon Finkel: “If you have a good play and a better play, then the good play is actually bad.” This motto is very much a FACT indeed true no matter what point of the game you’re in.

Let’s go a bit further, say your opponent has already played a Blightning earlier and you have 5 lands in play and 1 land in hand. I would bet that 90% of players would lay the land and say,”If my opponent is going to make me discard it anyway, why not play it.” The reason why you would NOT is to pull another Blightning out of their hand! Especially early, in the game, you’ve got your necessary land base. At this point, you’re living off of the top of your deck and you do NOT want to lose valuable cards. Even if you lose the useless land, it means the opponent has one less Blightning to ruin your day with. Then when you ARE holding something of importance you’re all the better.

This is how my mind works:
In Alara Block Constructed, I had an opening hand of Savage Land, Savage Land, Mountain, Rupture Spire, Blightning, Ajani Vengeant, Broodmate Dragon. Even before my opponent makes a play, I’m thinking T1 Savage Land, T2 Rupture Spire, T3 Mountain + Blightning, T4 Savageland, T5 Ajani, chocolate pudding. Now this is an example of how it works for ME. I anticipate, play and think of french fries. If the opponent does something to lead me to believe I should play differently, I do that. If I feel they’re cut on lands, I might work for a quicker Ajani (T4) to keep a land tapped, THEN I think of fried chicken. My opponent played a t2 Tidehollow Sculler, taking my Blightning. I changed my plan to T3 Savage Land, T4 Mountain + Ajani = Kill Sculler. If you have a plan, it helps you move your game along. This also informed me, that he was playing Robots. So I tried to hold my removal for Master of Etherium and Ethersworn Canonist. Remember, it’s the plan and not the absolute MUST.

If you don’t get my message at this point, you’ll need to message me directly through the forums. I’ll send you a response that will included a punch in your grill!

Anywhoo, I’m a bit hungry. So I’m going to end this now and grab some Taco Bell. If this helps or if you want to hear more, let me know.

Thanks!

Unity Entertainment ran a very good PTQ as the final part of the weekend, however they did choose a VERY small venue to host the location. They had around 230 in attendance for a 1 slot PTQ, which is HUGE. We were sitting literally rubbing elbows. It would be nice to have promoters utilize their power to upgrade or purchase Pro Tour slots at any time. It would’ve made for a more reasonable chance at winning the much heralded Austin slot or slots.

With that being said, it was a weekend of Standard gaming, and at this point in the Magic season you’ve probably figured out what the top 5 Standard deck lists are and what their weaknesses appear to be. The SCG 5K showed that there were no clear winner as best deck. In fact, the eventual winner wasn’t even a deck you would think would carry home the trophy. And second place went to Combo Elves!!! I’m not really going to go into a lot with this topic, but I thought you should see the winning deck list:

Elves Combo
By Charles Schutt

Creatures
2 Burrenton Forge-tender
4 Devoted Druid
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Mirror Entity
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Ranger Of Eos
4 Regal Force

Spells
3 Commune With Nature
4 Manamorphose
4 Primal Command

Lands
4 Brushland
5 Forest
2 Mosswort Bridge
1 Reflecting Pool
2 Windbrisk Heights
4 Wooded Bastion

Sideboard:
2 Burrenton Forge-tender
4 Chameleon Colossus
3 Cloudthresher
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Guttural Response
1 Treetop Village

I watched several of the matches the pilot of this deck played and it was THE perfect scenario for him. In a sea of 5 Color Blood decks, B/W Tokens, Faeries and Mono Red his metagame choice was more about pairings than it was about having the silver bullet to all of the aforementioned decks. I watched him beat a 5 Color Blood Player and a Token player simply because they could not stop the throng of Elves from taking over. With main deck Forge-Tenders and several ways to get them it put a huge set of handcuffs onto the Blood and it was simply too fast for the Tokens.

Other matches that I saw had players making bad plays against the tiny green woodland creatures, which I guess is a determining factor of wins and losses, but it seemed a bit of a fortunate result for what I feel is a brittle deck. I don’t want to take anything away from the achievement here, I’m basically saying he was Lucky (despite me not believing in Luck). Actually what I really want to say is that it is very tough to test a deck such as this. So many players are NOT combo-inclined so playtesting might equate to a waste of time as they can’t give you the quality of play that one would need against or for this deck.

I decided to play the Faeries and ended with a 6 Win 3 Loss record placing me at 40th place. While I enjoyed playing the deck, it conked out on me several times making this a tough decision for me in the near future. Here is my list:

Creatures
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite

Spells
2 Agony Warp
4 Bitterblossom
4 Broken Ambition
4 Cryptic Command
1 Jace Beleren
1 Oona’s Grace
2 Ponder
1 Terror
4 Thoughtseize

Land
1 Faerie Conclave
6 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruin
2 Swamp
4 Underground River

Sideboard
2 Puppeteer Clique
2 Flashfreeze
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Snakeform
2 Deathmark
4 Peppersmoke
1 Soul Manipulation

Let me first say that Sower of Temptation NEVER works for me in a sense that he always dies. I get to grab a victim for 1 turn at the maximum. To me, Jace works ONLY in a control environment. Oona’s Grace works better in the aggro environment because you can hold a land in hand with a Broken Ambition and decide which one to do at EOT or perhaps countering. I went with a couple of Ponders because I liked the idea of thinning searching for that ever elusive Turn 2 Bitterblossom. All in all, this version worked very well for me. The Puppeteers worked very well against the Green Decks.

I’m not going to go much into matchups as I think my losses were very non-typical for the deck. In the 9 rounds, I played Kithkin 1-0, 2 Swans 1-1, B/W Tokens 0-1, 3 Blood 2-1, 1 Faerie 1-0 and a Jund Ramp 1-0. Any questions, please feel free to jump onto the Forums or Message me directly.

Thanks for Reading!!!

Check it out: Official Rules Changes

Three theories what Worldwake is:

1. The real name for ‘Long’ the second set in the Zendikar block. Given the timing this seems the most likely though the naming doesn’t quite jive. Wizards applied for Worldwake in April, this would allow them plenty of time to get it complete and thus protect the set if that is its purpose. However, if we look at it as ‘World Wake’ and take it literally, Zendikar is pretty much universally believed to be jungle themed, and so it could be a spin off as the plane awakens to its latent Magical powers.
2. The name most closely resembles the recently announced ‘Planechase’ which is a variant for Magic. The similarities in name is the most compelling reason to follow this belief; along with Wizards’ current run of extras that they’re releasing to the hordes. The problem though is that Planechase made sense, you’re racing to the different Plane locations. How does Worldwake work? Perhaps players are travelling to new planes and awakening them to their Magical potential? We’ll see!
3. It’s actually the secret code-name for Chuck Norris’ new custom card type.

In the design of “real” sports, an athlete is measured by their foot-speed, bench press or even vertical leap. While playing high school and college baseball, I had been asked to participate in several drills and practices that allowed me and my potential to be “measured.” Football players go through the NFL Combine to add or take away from a players college accolades or statistics. It’s almost a way to chisel through any propaganda or marketing that might be added from their respective programs or “soft” athletic divisions. As most people don’t consider Magic to be a “sport”, it might be very difficult to argue (successfully) that there just might be certain indicators that would lead to a person’s success.

Back in the day, a couple of old friends of mine decided that we would form a team called ‘the Goodfellas.’ Not only did we take the name from one of the greatest gangster/mob films ever but we felt that it was something that we could identify with. The three of us weren’t just friends, but we had proven (at least on a local level) that we could play Magic by winning a variety of local tourneys as well as other random events. We added 3 more players, who had also displayed proficiency in the game. Whether it be by creating decks or winning with them, we invited these individuals based on a shared vote and open debate amongst the original three. A lot of times, people choose teams based on friendships or perhaps the fact that someone had enough cards to support the group. Our dedication was based on a goal of complete success. That PTQ season, all six of us qualified for Pro Tour Chicago.

Back to the point, if I could be a Pro Tour Magic scout, what would I look for to determine whether or not I have a future LSV or Jon Finkel in my sights? Now, let’s say I’m Dr Frankenstein and I’m trying to transform some random blob into a Pro Tour Champion. Here’s what I’d look for:

1. Any sign of intelligence - Jon Finkel MUST have a high IQ! While I’m merely speculating, based on what I know about the man outside of Magic he’s got a decent pedigree (meaning college education). Now this isn’t to say that a person who DOESN’T have a college degree should sell their cards and start signing up for your local weekly putt-putt golf league, nor does it mean that a person from Harvard automatically wins at this game. It just means that MANY of the Pro Tour Champions I know and have met ooze intelligence. Finkel, Vargas, De Rosa, Long, Gary, Buehler, Mowshowitz… the list goes on and on of people who are clearly higher education people. This game is one of analysis, logic and fundamental rules. Intelligence, in theory provides the essentials to succeed provided you can utilize it through those elements. What it also means, is that a person will ask to be enlightened or that a person will do whatever it takes to educate themselves toward success. I don’t believe a person wins at Magic alone. Intelligence, to me, isn’t the presences of knowledge but the desire to obtain knowledge.
2. Speed - Not too many people mention this, but speed is a HUGE factor in successful pro play. I’m not talking 100 meter dash speed. I’m talking about the ability to make a decision. The ability to analyze and take action. I’ll assume MOST of you are reading this via computer and that computer is probably NOT a 486DX computer or a Pentium 3. Generally, computer people want higher memory (RAM) systems or processors. Why do I know this? Because we don’t want to spend countless seconds waiting on our computers to think! As professional Magic has evolved, rounds are shorter so game play needs to go faster and it requires players to play accordingly. In Swiss play, one draw is forgivable but 2 might as well be a loss. I’ve known superior magic players who just take too long to play and they end swiss play at 5 wins 0 losses and 3 draws. Most of the time, speed play is something that is not identified or easily improved. Think “Speed Chess”. I typically play at the speed of my opponent. If you control the tempo of the match, you control the opponent.
3. Desire - I just finished watching Rocky V so forgive me for my rather obscure references. (Then again, if you’ve read my stuff before, I’m typically full of random references.) The desire to win is something that cannot be taught. The Rocky movies always fire me up because they ignite pieces of me that has always been competitive or to reach for that which is best. Years before the ALL-POWERFUL DCI, people played tournaments to win and if it was decided that you didn’t have a chance to win most people continued to play for pride. Now that everyone with a 1500 rating or higher thinks they have a chance of qualifying by rating (which is normally 2050+), they drop from tournaments whenever they are at 2 losses. Now there are several things I want to say about this, if you’re rating is LESS than 1950, STOP worrying about your rating! In the PTQ circuit, you need to TOP 8 two consecutive qualifiers to earn close to 100 points (admittedly a lot of that depends on the field). Even Top 8 for a Grand Prix rarely gains you more than 150. I hear so many people ask “what was your rating” etc and they do this to feel better about losing those hard earned points they gained playing FNM. My advice to anyone who thinks they’re better than their tournament result would be to keep playing. Unless you’re going to draft or play in another event, keep playing to see whether it was your playing skill or simply your choice in deck. If you desire to be successful you MUST keep playing. I’m not saying one should ignore their rating altogether, I’m simply saying that your true rating is based on your ability to PLAY. Doing this also gives you the opportunity to regain some of those lost points. Successful Magic play is not like purchasing a lottery ticket and scratching off “WINNER”, it’s an endless pursuit of perfection or perhaps something close. Now going back to sports examples, professional scouts ALWAYS indicate personal traits in their reports. In the NFL, a prospects affiliations can be considered important information into the type of employee they are considering. Will they have the heart to play under pressure or perhaps find that a hangnail will keep the person out of the game rather than leading to a comeback.
4. Physique - I’m sure many of you are going to disagree with me on this. I believe that a person’s physical health has a lot to do with whether or not they are equipped to play this game. Obviously, we’re not running miles or doing anything strenuous at all. Shaquille O’Neal comes to mind, as one of THE most dominating forces in the NBA, basically got fat and unable to play his position. He’s still (at 7+ feet tall) a VERY imposing figure, but I think that he’s really just weighed himself down and has become slow. It isn’t like he had a perimeter game, he dunked the ball 20 times a night and did nothing but dominate the floor. I just think that when he does get the ball, he doesn’t have the reflexes or the ability to quickly take charge anymore.

Speaking of slow, with all of the fast food that is available at our locations here in Florida, one could imagine getting a bit lethargic after a nice super-sized value meal. Is it possible that the physical state of your body can effect your mental state? I know some players who won’t eat anything during the course of a tournament. Weight gain is another thing that I think affects every aspect of your day. I believe it not only slows your body down but impairs decision making as well. Maybe not to a state of unconsciousness, but enough to take away the endurance that you might have have had at one time or it keeps you alert and awake. It’s only natural to get older, get lazy and quite frankly get fat. Perhaps maybe, this is why we feel old. this is why we feel like we can’t do the things we used to, because we conditioned ourselves to be unable to do those “things”. This is just a theory as there aren’t too many well chiseled Pro Tour Champions out there HA-HA. However, many of our champs are relatively young and presumably in better shape.

Maybe, I’m a bit abstract, but I tend to think there’s more to successful magic than just shuffling 60 cards. While the mind may do majority of the work for us, the body carries out the actions that the mind suggests. I hope this random jargon hasn’t bored you too much, I’m gonna get a big mac :)

Thanks for reading.

Mitamura’s Block Constructed deck
1 Arcane Sanctum
4 Exotic Orchard
2 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Mountain
2 Rupture Spire
4 Savage Lands
5 Swamp
26 lands

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Broodmate Dragon
2 Enlisted Wurm
3 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax
17 creatures

1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Terminate
17 other spells

Sideboard
4 Anathemancer
4 Celestial Purge
3 Infest
2 Magma Spray
2 Path to Exile
15 sideboard cards

– Trick

“In Play” is now “the battlefield” and “Out of Play” is “Exile” and “playing” is “casting”
Lending to better theming, Wizards in its infinite wisdom is changing some terms to be more thematic. Here’s the deal, I’m not a fan. It seems like change for change’s sake, but also I recognize that people do love the theme of the game and this enhances the theme.

Are people going to gripe? Yes. But really folks, what does it matter? This is nowhere near the Sixth edition rule change shake-up (we lost Interrupts, Enchant Worlds and turn phases changed among other things.)

To competitive play, this will change almost nothing. There’s not going to be any penalty for calling it ‘in play.’ It’s got no impact on gameplay, except that it makes rules text longer. People who don’t want to recognize the new text will just keep calling it the old names and life will go on.

Of these term changes, I think the one which makes the most sense is “Removed from game.” It makes more sense how things can now return from “RFG.” However the problem I foresee is why your sideboard is considered “Exiled.”

Some cards we know to expect in Magic 2010:

• Nightmare - Nothing special here. A very fun creature and one of my favorites from the Timmy inside me, but it’s been around for a while.
• Serra Angel - Always a welcome icon of the game, however she’s not looking quite as good as she used to, her flying 4/4 for 5 is a bit like your grandma’s caddy. A good comfortable ride but not exactly what you want to drive when you go to pick up your date.
• Black Knight - Though they still haven’t pictured Martin Lawrence on the card, it’s a good strong card and it will always have a place in aggro I think.
• Shivan Dragon - While it takes a great mind like Zvi Mowshowitz to return it to competitive play (albeit he ran it in the sideboard) BUT the card is another icon from the age of yore (means: the good old days.)
• Birds of Paradise - This is one of the true staples. It’s needed.

M10 + 10th edition for a year:
What does this mean? Well honestly I don’t think it will mean much. It means that the loss of cards in M10 is going to be hardly felt since they will still be in 10th edition for now. For those unclear, M10 is not knocking 10th edition out. We will have access to both 10th edition and M10 until next year when Magic 2011 (M11) knocks 10th edition out. Only then will the rotated cards really be felt.

Update: 10th edition leaves when M10 enters
It was pointed out to me on the forums that I had misread the rotation policy for the new core sets. The confusion arose over the fact that M11 doesn’t knock M10 out, M10 leaves with the old core set with the introduction of the new core set for the year. My apologies for the confusion. However, 10th edition doesn’t leave when Zendikar enters, it leaves when M10 becomes legal to play.

Possibly losing Mana Burn
This is still rumor as far as I can find, I haven’t found anything to confirm it, but it is a rumor that is hanging around so I figured I would address it. So what’s the big deal? It removes the danger of spells which enhance the amount of mana produced, such as Mana Flare or other spells. The benefit is that (new) players don’t have to deal with the penalties of too much mana. Aside from the possible acceleration, I don’t really see that making too much of an impact. It’s just another change that people are against.

I find this resistance to change to be a very funny point in stark contrast to our love for a game that, you know, is built on constant change with new cards being introduced regularly.

(All times EST)

New and Existing Magic Players Will Rule on Xbox LIVE® Arcade

Wizards of the Coast Launches Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox LIVE Arcade

June 3, 2009, Renton, Wash. — Wizards of the Coast today announced that Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers, an extension of the worldwide Magic: The Gathering franchise for Xbox LIVE Arcade, will be available June 17, 2009.

“We’re thrilled to introduce the Magic game experience to the Xbox LIVE community,” said Greg Leeds, President of Wizards of the Coast. “Duels of the Planeswalkers will allow both new and experienced players to develop and test their skills in the ultimate battle of wits.”

In June, fans can challenge game developers and famous Magic: The Gathering trading card game players in a Duels of the Planeswalkers tournament through Microsoft’s online Game with Fame and Game with Developer events. Game with Fame will take place June 20 and Game with Developer will follow on June 27.

Developed by Stainless Games, Ltd., Duels of the Planeswalkers, rated T-Teen, lets players simulate the Magic: The Gathering trading card game through lush interactive 3-D environments. The arcade-style game takes players on a journey through a vast Multiverse of unique worlds where they are deemed Planeswalkers, powerful mages who battle others for glory, knowledge and conquest.

Players can choose to battle against the computer or compete online against real-life opponents using Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade. With numerous game play scenarios, including multiplayer game mode, Duels of the Planeswalkers offers an unrivaled depth in which each game is different from the last. Wizards of the Coast is supporting this release with an exclusive promotional card, which includes brand new artwork, making Duels of the Planeswalkers a game that both new and existing Magic players will enjoy.

Introduced in 1993, Magic: The Gathering is the first and most widely played trading card game. With more than 10,000 different cards available, Magic offers an unrivaled depth of game play with several choices and customizations available for its players.

For additional information on Duels of the Planeswalkers, please visit: www.duelsoftheplaneswalkers.com

About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.

About Stainless Games
Stainless Games is a privately owned company based on the South Coast of the UK. Although best known for the creation of the multi-million selling Carmageddon franchise, the company has most recently become recognized as one of the world’s leading companies in the burgeoning Console Download market. For more information visit the Stainless Games website at www.stainlessgames.com.

Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, Duels of the Planeswalkers, Magic and Dungeons & Dragons are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. ©2009 Wizards.

Decklist
2 Brushland
3 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Murmuring Bosk
1 Plains
3 Treetop Village
4 Wooded Bastion
21 lands

3 Dauntless Escort
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
3 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knotvine Paladin
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Treefolk Harbinger
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
29 creatures

1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Path to Exile
10 other spells

Sideboard
1 Aura of Silence
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Everlasting Torment
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Pithing Needle
3 Thoughtseize
4 Zealous Persecution
15 sideboard cards

For today’s classroom I am going to break down a different approach to building a limited deck. It has truly served me well and I think you’ll like it also. It may be more valuable now more than ever considering the high ratio of Gold cards and the also high number of mana fixing tools available.

I haven’t really cleared it with Trick yet but I am going to use his list from the Prerelease so you can compare my build to his and Lee’s.

If you missed his list you can check it out here, as well as the cardpool, on the forums.

First a little background. When I first started playing I played in a limited PTQ during Onslaught Block. Prior to that I had only played with cards from a fellow teacher’s shoebox collection (You know, the cards that we consider junk but still hold onto). At the tournament a player sitting across from me mentioned his mnemonic device for building. I used it as well and went undefeated until the last round where I took an intentional draw.

I was such a noob that I had to be explained how ‘IDing’ worked. The Finals of course where Draft. I lost first round to the eventual 2nd place finisher which I was happy with since I had never drafted before. That’s right my first draft EVER was at a PTQ. I walked out with a lot more cards than I owned at the time. In fact, I probably gained more Rare cards that day than I had total cards before.

What is this tool that helped a total novice win out the day? That’s today’s lesson but first a brief quote from Wikipedia.

A mnemonic device (pronounced “neh-mon-ik”) is a memory and/or learning aid. Commonly met mnemonics are often verbal, something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something, particularly lists, but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered. This is based on the principle that the human mind much more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, sexual or humorous or otherwise meaningful information than arbitrary sequences.

The mnemonic device we’ll use today is B.R.U.S.H. Each letter stands for a specific type of card. I illustrate each letter and what it stands for as I pick out cards in Tricks pool that I felt fit. Understand that I am going to try to make these judgments quickly so my time is comparable to what Trick had for his build. Also, while some cards fall into multiple categories you have to chose the best fit.

B

The first letter is B and it needs to be a capital B. It stands for Bombs. These are cards that can radically change the results of a game. It is important to understand that a Limited Bomb is radically different from a Constructed Bomb. For an example let’s look at Nemesis of Reason. I haven’t seen a deck in constructed that would even consider using this card. Yet many experts have voiced that it’s a game winner in Limited. It has a big butt and wins the game in about 3 turns.

From Trick’s list I would put the following as bombs.

• Behemoth Sledge
• Necrogenesis
• Titanic Ultimatum
• Kiss of the Amesha

R

The R in BRUSH is classic. Many of you probably already know where I’m going with this. REMOVAL is a must have for any deck. Now removal can come in many forms. You have you classic “destroy” type of cards like Terminate. Or you can make something ineffective with Crystallization. You can force a discard with Blightning or chose a discard with Tidehollow Sculler. You can see this list can be pretty long.

From Tricks list I placed:

• Blightning
• Brainbite
• Branching Bolt
• Naturalize
• Naya Battlemage
• Resounding Scream
• Resounding Silence
• Sanity Gnawers
• Terminate
• Vectis Dominator

U

The U in BRUSH is probably the hardest to pick cards for. This and H overlap a lot in my mind at that what makes them hard to discern. The U stands for Utility or Usefulness. Cards that have multiple applications or apply themselves to make other cards better. The Exalted mechanic falls in this section. Many of the Exalted cards aren’t playable on their own but when amassed together they are imposing.

Here I listed:

• Akrasan Squire
• Angelic Benediction
• Ardent Plea
• Bloodthorn Taunter
• Ethercaste Knight
• Etherium Sculptor
• Godtoucher
• Mayael’s Aria
• Outrider of Jhess
• Sight-caste Sorcerer

S

The S cards win the majority of games in limited. While not Bombs they are just as likely to win a game. S stands for Strength. Meaning the Power to Cost ratio of a card (or Toughness to Cost) is favorable. Wooly Thoctar is a prime example of this. 5 power for 3 mana is substantially Strong. This category isn’t just for creatures. Might of Alara is a Strong type card as well since most Limited decks are multi-colored. Also cards that have abilities like Flying or Trample add to its potential Strength.

This stack would include:

• Bant Sureblade
• Cerodon Yearling
• Colossal Might
• Glassdust Hulk
• Gloryscale Viashino
• Goblin Deathraiders
• Grixis Grimblade
• Grixis Sojourners
• Grizzled Leotau
• Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
• Kathari Bomber
• Knight of the White Orchid
• Madrush Cyclops
• Naya Sojourners
• Putrid Leach
• Rhox Charger
• Rhox War Monk
• Spearbreaker Behemoth
• Topan Ascetic
• Windwright Mage

H

H is kind of a catch all. Items in the H stack are cards that help a deck to operate. Whether its card draw or mana cycling or tutoring they all help. This list is long and many cards in it will get cut. When I start building I almost never base a decision on any of these cards. All Cascade mechanic cards can fall in this category since the play a secondary card as well as thin your deck.

Our little helpers include:

• Bant Sojourners
• Bloodbraid Elf
• Captured Sunlight
• Ethersworn Shieldmage
• Grixis Panorama
• Jhessian Zombies
• Jungle Shrine
• Leonin Armorguard
• Messenger Falcons
• Mistvein Borderpost
• Pale Recluse
• Sanctum Plowbeast
• Steward of Valeron
• Trace of Abundance
• Valley Rannet
• Violent Outburst
• Welkin Guide
• Wildfield Borderpost

Next I make a mana table. For each letter I count the number of Mana symbols used. Here is mine so far.

This gives me an overview of the color and their possible strengths. Meaning that 5 Green symbols are in my Bombs and 13 are in my Strong stack.

From this table I can get a feel for my deck. While I have way too many cards right now I can already tell where my focus needs to be. The numbers bear out that I am a creature strong deck with few bombs and descent removal.

My obvious colors are Green and White but all of the others have to prove themselves. In the H category I do have a lot of mana help so I can bring in more than two colors easily but I don’t think I can reach all 5. Having no Conflux packs really weighs against going for 5.

I decide to focus on my S stack for colors. The only real regret that I would have in dropping Blue is Rhox War Monk while both Red and Black have some playable cards, most notably Terminate. So I decide to drop the Islands and keep the rest. That thins my stacks down to 42 nonland and non borderpost cards. Regrettably, I lost many of my Helper cards.

Now I whittle down based on what I feel is right. I don’t have a high number of 5+ power creatures so cards like Godtoucher hit the streets. I also cut the Vectis Dominator type of removal cards. Sure tapping something every turn is “like” removal but it doesn’t work very well for me personally.

After obvious cuts I put in obvious keeps. Bombs and critters where my primary focus. Finally I have this list from which I need to fill the final 4 slots.

• Akrasan Squire
• Bant Sojourners
• Gloryscale Viashino
• Goblin Deathraiders
• Grixis Sojourners
• Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
• Kathari Bomber
• Knight of the White Orchid
• Leonin Armorgaurd
• Naya Sojourners
• Naturalize
• Rhox Charger
• Sanity Gnawers
• Spearbreaker Behemoth
• Steward of Valeron
• Topan Ascetic
• Violent Outburst
• Welkin Guide

Pick four from these 18. That’s the hardest part. I went with:

• Naya Sojourners
• Rhox Charger
• Spearbreaker Behemoth
• Steward of Valeron

Now I have to decide the balance of Basic land I’ll need. Once again I count the mana symbols for all non-Borderpost spells. (I count Borderposts like CIPT lands). I come out with 20 G, 11 W, 6 B, and 13 R for a total of 50 symbols. (That made the math easy).

Now I take a ratio of each color over the total and set it equal to x over 14. (14 basic lands). For example in Green I have 20/50 = x/14 which solves to x = 5.6. That means I need about 5.6 Forests in my final build. White=3.08, Black = 1.68, and Red = 3.64.

Of course you can’t have .68 of a land and I’m not counting Jungle Shrine, Panorama’s, or Borderposts. They’re my wiggle room. When I look at my mana helpers I have a lot of help in Green and almost none in Black so I make some adjustments and end up with. 5 Forests, 3 Plains, 3 Mountains, and 3 Swamp.

So My Final Build looks like this

Lands (17)
1x Grixis Panorama
1x Jungle Shrine
1x Naya Panorama
5x Forests
3x Mountains
3x Swamps
3x Plains

Spells (10)
1x Behemoth Sledge
1x Blightning
1x Branching Bolt
1x Colossal Might
1x Necrogenesis
1x Resounding Silence
1x Terminate
1x Titanic Ultimatum
1x Trace of Abundance
1x Wildfield Borderpost

Creatures (13)
1x Bant Sureblade
1x Bloodbraid Elf
1x Cerodon Yearling
1x Grixis Grimblade
1x Grizzled Leotau
1x Madrush Cyclops
1x Naya Sojourners
1x Pale Recluse
1x Putrid Leach
1x Rhox Charger
1x Spearbreaker Behemoth
1x Steward of Valeron
1x Valley Rannet

So that’s how I go through building a deck for Limited. Feel free to post on the forums. I love ALL feedback positive and negative and I try to respond promptly to any comments.

As an aside I am currently looking for shoebox material. The last couple of years I have only purchased singles for decks and my box is getting thin. I let the kids in school take cards from the box and build their own decks. Some donate back but many do not. It is a really good tool for recruiting new freshmen and soften the cost of starting the game. If you would like to donate just email me at daneckstein@hotmail.com.

Class is dismissed.

Yesterday Lee Steht accepted an invitation from the DCI and Wizards of the Coast to be a member of the Magic the Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame selection committee. In his acceptance Lee said:

As a long time player and media spokesman, I would be honored to serve on the Magic Hall of Fame Selection Committee.

Thank you!

ManaNation, the Ultimate Magic the Gathering Podcast, is very excited to have gained enough of a following and attention from the fans to get Lee into the Selection Committee!

In the days of old, weekend tournaments running both days were common place. I recall having PTQs with attendance of over 300 people all vying for just 2 invitations seemed like the ONLY thing a “real” magic player could look forward to. Then on Sunday, one could supplement their weekend with a hefty cash tourney. This weekend brought back some of those fond memories as Unity Entertainment provided the Central Florida Regionals on Saturday and a PTQ for Austin on Sunday, and what a weekend it was!!!

While the Standard gauntlet has been thoroughly reviewed, analyzed and documented. I believe we’ve only touched the tip of what will be Standard in the future. Everyone knows that the percentage favorite right now is the popular Token deck. This deck comes in many variations and while I didn’t play to crush dreams at this years Regionals (as I’m already qualified for Nationals) I did watch. I did, however, participate in the PTQ on Sunday and this is what I ran:

4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Spectral Procession
2 Puppeteer Clique
3 Cloudgoat Ranger
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Murderous Redcap

3 Glorious Anthem
3 Ajani Goldmane
3 Path to Exile
4 Zealous Persecution
4 Bitterblossom

24 lands

Sideboard
4 Thoughtseize
3 Wrath of God
2 Wispmare
3 Batwing Brume
3 Burrenton Forgetender

This is a fairly standard build for this deck. One of the thing I found was that it simple to play but very difficult to sideboard. All I can say is weigh what you truly don’t need for things that you do in each match. :P

I started the day 0-2 in the PTQ and ended it at a 5-3 which was an ok 31st out of 154. Hopefully, this will help me stabilize any losses in points that might occur, but what I really want to point out is that so many players are to hasty in dropping when they begin a day badly or not to their expectations.

Top Level Magic is one of analysis, self analyzing and, just, time. All too often people chalk up the day as a loss and head somewhere to feed their faces. What a person should be doing is playing a few rounds more to see whether it is the deck, the player or the field. You can’t just look up the latest “winning” decklist, jump into a tourney and expect the best results. There are others who have spend countless amounts of hours testing and playing their decks to near perfection. On top of that, you might recover some lost rating points that just might be beneficial to you in the future.

Anyway, here are some of the matchups for me:

5 Color Control - 0-1 in matches 1-2 in games - While I feel Identity Crisis is a VERY good card, I just didn’t feel as if I could get away with tapping 6 mana and NOT running into a Cryptic Command or a Broken Ambition. Thoughtseize, to me, felt more versatile and easier to cast with a followup threat. The key here is to control their removal or card draw so they have to live with playing so many lands. The game I won was due to a turn 2 and turn 3 Sculler taking Wrath of God and Esper Charm. I left him with Broodmate Dragon, Cruel Ultimatum and lands. In game 3, I used Thoughtseize and Sculler to reach the same parity but drew lands instead of threats for what could have been the same result.

Sanity Grind - 1-0 in matches 2-1 in games - This deck is annoying to me. I don’t know that there’s truly any skill with it as their is randomness. While I think that this deck can possibly achieve a 50-50 matchup I think that it’s under peak draws meaning it’s not very good. You side out Path to Exile and Finks for Thoughtseize and you move forward with beat down. If you can take away the Howling Mine then you’re golden. However, if you aren’t able to shut that down, then take away Sanity Grinds.

GW Token - 1-1 in matches 3-3 in games - I knew that this deck would be played by many of the South Florida players, but I didn’t prepare for it like I should have. David Irvine is a very well known Pro originating from the South Florida area and seems to have decided this is the best deck at the moment. With that being said, it doesn’t take much for the sheep to flock. Don’t get me wrong, I respect David Irvine immensely and the deck IS a top tier deck. However, Irvine’s top 8 finish signaled what would be a very high GW attendance and knowledge of the Metagame is very important. It runs several of the same weapons as BW Tokens but has bigger creatures. Wilt-Leaf Liege with Finks AND Anthem make for very large guys which are just too tough for the BW version to overcome. One MUST save the PTEs to remove those guys and hope that you can gain permanent advantage and eventual victory. Wrath of God really should be cast to allow your blossoms or token generators to take effect.

Bant Aggro - 0-1 matches 0-2 in games - In theory, Bant’s biggest problem is that it gains by attacking with one guy. Scullers seemed to be a good beginning for me but too many lands allowed the enemy to regain momentum. Wrath of God served me well again. While Puppeteer also put things back to my court it just wasn’t enough. Countermagic can always help a deck maintain an advantage, but I think that Bant is merely a midrange middle tier deck at it’s current state.

BW Tokens - 3-0 matches 6-2 in games - While my strategy worked out vs BW Tokens, it was unfortunate that I had to play anything else :) Maindecking Zealous Persecution was helpful. On top of that Puppeteers grabbed Cloudgoat Rangers for more dudes, and that was all Maindeck. After the board, Batwing Brumes hit my opponents for 4, 6 and 8 allowing for HUGE lifeswings and game changing situations leading to my victories. I boarded out cards like Redcap and Path for Brume and Wispmare, because you can only lose if the opponent gains too much advantage and if that happens Brume turns the tide. Wispmare ideally takes Anthem but can and should take down early Blossoms.

That does it for my results and tournament analysis. I do think the new Jund Aggro is a fine concept and will probably run that in the future. I couldn’t help but feel guilty for not running the Fae, but maybe next time. I hope you enjoyed this bit of information. Wish me Luck at this year’s National Championship!!!

Discuss this Episode

This week’s episode is also delayed. It will be up late Tuesday. Lee and Trick look at the top 8 decks from the first Pro Tour Austin PTQ.

We all know the simple ways that math affects the game of Magic, but today I’m going to tackle how math should affect our deck building.

First, a simple question. Why is Street Wraith a playable card? Don’t laugh. When it was first spoiled many people stood up and said it was a four-of. What about this card made the experts take notice? At 5 mana for a 3/4 with Swampwalk it doesn’t hold water. So it’s got to be the second ability. Is there some way to make the life loss turn in your favor? (There are a couple.)

The secret lies in why we have 60 cards in our deck instead of 61. Or why you should only put 40 in your draft deck no matter how many bombs you pulled. The reason is math and more precisely the reason is probability. On its simplest level if you have 4 copies of a card in a 60 card deck then you have a 1 in 15 or 6.7% chance of randomly picking that card out of your complete deck. Of course it isn’t that simple. We have multiple cards drawn to start the game and various other factors like Mana requirements to take into consideration. Not to mention the randomness that sometimes causes us to draw over 20 cards before we see even one of our beloved combo pieces.

Even with all that taken into account we are still better off using a Street Wraith to essentially thin our deck to 56 cards. If you commit to always cycling the Wraith our simple probability shown above goes to 1 in 14 or 7.1%. While half of a percent doesn’t seem like much to most people a seasoned Magic veteran knows it could be the difference between making the Top 8 or heading home early.

I know what you’re saying. If the math is so good and the card is so great why don’t we see it on any Decklist that are out there. There are a few reasons for this.

First is that decks that are on the net become viral. Someone daring to change a list does so at their own risk. It trickles down. What the Pros play becomes what we play in the vast majority of tournaments, with only a couple of exceptions.

Secondly, the top level player deals with known factors and unknowns differently than we do. At the start of a game you KNOW your hand and you know what your deck is capable of. If that hand is bad the best players will mulligan. While the rest of us see the same hand as being good enough and we hope for the best. The uncanny sense of when to throw away a losing 7 card hand to exchange it for a 6 card winner is one skill that defines the best players. Street Wraith assaults the Pro’s mulligan skill. Now he has to look at one of the cards as a variable as he makes his mulligan decision. Is the potential of the free thinning draw good enough to keep his current hand. Keep in mind that I will lose my chance to mulligan if I go for it. Now the Pro player is reduced to thinking like us.

Combine these two factors and you see why the Wraith went from a top Uncommon to a Shoebox card.

But I didn’t come here today to talk you into playing Street Wraith. In fact I’ll take any cards that you want to mail me. I came here today to talk about how probability should enter into our deck building.

I’m going to share with you couple of tables that were made to show some percentages you need to be aware of.

When building a deck you need to have an idea about how many card slots you will need to reserve for mana. The answer to that question depends on your mana curve. A concept first popularized by a deck called ‘Sligh.’ If you have a solid early game presence and don’t plan on going much over 3 or 4 mana in any given turn (like Sligh) then you can have less lands than a deck that plans on winning the late game with a hefty 6 or 7 cc spell (like 5color control). Just as the number a lands you want to see in the game changes so does the number you want to seein your opening hand.

So if I built my deck with 14 lands I would probably see 1 or 2 lands for my opener. If I went up to 20 lands my percentages slide to most likely seeing 2 or 3 lands to start the game. And finally I could just follow the Rule of Nine and run with 24 lands. At 24 I still am most likely to see 3 or 2 lands but now my chances of 3 are much higher than 2.

This table is also useful for using multiple color decks. I may be running a Red/Green deck where I decide to have 22 lands but what mix of lands should I use? For simplicity I say you look at 14 Forest and 8 Mountains. Now the chart shows at 22 Land you’re most likely to see 2 lands to start with and you have strong chances for 3. Sliding down and comparing 14 to 8 we can see that the lands I’ll see will probably be one of each with a 2 land hand and 2 Forest with 1 Mountain with a three lander. If that works for your deck then that’s a good build. If you need to draw early Mountains for burn and don’t need Green until you drop you fatties then you should reconsider your mix.

Please note that multicolored lands can add to both types total. For example if I had 4 Stomping Grounds in the above scenario I would have 22 lands still but now I could have 16 Forest and 10 Mountain sources.

Comes into play tapped lands or the new Borderposts (which in most cases are the same) can use this chart as well. CIPT’s are fine when you have no spells that need that mana on that specific turn. You can’t exactly drop a Birds of Paradise one turn 1 when you just played Vivid Grove. So let’s say you have a deck with no 1 drops. Running 8 CIPT’s is okay since your probably are only going to see one at most in your opening hand any way.

While the first table dealt with opening hands the next table deals with timing of turns. Using a couple of assumptions like 1 draw per turn and 1 land per turn the table below shows you on what turn you can probably see the chosen card. The number in parenthesis shows by which turn at 85% certainty. I honestly use the second number most. 17 out of 20 games is a pretty reliable number to go by.

As an example if I have 4 of a certain card in my deck I have good chances of seeing it by turn 3 but if I require 85% certainty I can only hope for turn 16. My second copy has good chances of hitting by 17 but at 85% I won’t see it until turn 31. YIKES! Of course card draw and cards like Street Wraith will greatly change these factors. To keep it simple let’s say that Serum Visions puts you a turn closer since it draws only one card and Tidings puts you 4 turns closer since it draws 4.

I sincerely hope that these tables can help you with the subtle underpinnings of deck design. Here are two decks that I have designed that maximize the percentages.

The first list is a simple reanimator deck. If you are unfamiliar with the concept I would understand. There hasn’t been a strong pure reanimation deck in quite awhile. Graveyard hate is just too easy to come by and completely wrecks the whole idea. What a reanimator mage does is dumps some big, heavy, game changing, high casting-cost creature in his graveyard via some discard spell or ability. Then as soon as possible plays some spell like Zombify to bring that creature from the graveyard to play at a much reduced cost. Imagine only paying 4 for an Akroma, Angel of Wrath.

In my deck I tried to put in 4 general type of cards. The obvious reanimation spells, some nice targets for reanimation, some utility discard outlets, and I like to accelerate the mana a tad so I can reanimate on turn 3. To keep the math easy I started looking for 10 of each type with 20 land. Using either table above You can see that I can be 85% sure of getting each of the 4 pieces by turn 3. I am also over 40% likely to see each in my opening hand which makes mulligan decisions pretty easy.

For reasons to be revealed later I’m just going to say “targets” instead of actually telling you what I like to reanimate.

The Profs Reanimator
10 Targets – See end of Article
4 Llanowar Mentor - Counts as discard and acceleration (12 of each now)
4 Greenseeker
4 Thoughtsieze
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Vigor Mortis – If you have G in your reanimation deck you gotta go with this one.
4 Dread Return - Some potential targets play well with the flashback.
2 Makeshift Mannequin – I like the Instant speed but I do dislike the targeting thing.
4 Llanowar Wastes
10 Forest – 14 sources means 85% chance of first turn Green Source. With 16 Green one drops we have to have this level of confidence.
6 Swamp – 10 sources assures us of turn 3 or better. That’s when we are playing our Reanimation spells.

If I explained the numbers well you should see that this deck routinely puts a target in play on turn 3. No guarantees but strong potential is there. It does basically nothing to halt the opponent’s progress other than what your Chosen target may do.

Let that sink in and then see the abuse that I created using the Cascade Mechanic.

Everyone out there is talking about how Cascade can be maximized so that you can predict what second spell (or third in a cascade chain) will be. I can tell you that my second or third thought after reading and then rereading Bituminous Blast was the deck below. I honestly wished for a two or even one drop with Cascade.

The idea is basically the same as Reanimation without the Graveyard issues. My goal is to play my targets from my hand which does two things. First it allows us a greater scope of targets (i.e. Darksteel Colossus). Second it lets us drop the whole discard utility cards which allows us to increase the number of other factors.

So how does Cascade help to Animate cards? If you build the deck with the right curve you have potentially 36 cards that can be copies of Hypergenesis. And that Hypergenesis can be played without Suspend costs. All we have to do is make sure all of our cards have Casting costs of 5 or more. Not a problem with our targets and with a little help from Evoke it’s not a problem for our utility cards.

Hyperanimation by X
12 Targets
4 Ardent Plea - 3rd turn Cascade into Hyper
4 Violent Outburst - Same
4 Bloodbraid Elf – I didn’t use Demonic Dread since it requires a creature to target. I stopped my Cascade choices at 12. That is 85% sure to see in my opening hand. Basically no Cascade means you need to Mulligan.
4 Cloudthresher – Fairies go splat on this windshield and isn’t a bad Hyper target.
4 Shriekmaw – If you opponent foolishly plays a creature with your Hyper then you drop the Maw second and say surprise.
4 Hypergenesis

4 City of Brass
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Exotic Orchard
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Tendo Ice Bridge
4 Pillar of the Paruns – The only spells we’re going to consistently cast are Gold cascaders.

Now for the Homework. I want you to make a top 10 list of your favorite Reanimation or Hyperanimation targets.

Hope you like the lesson and please post. I love to hear from my readers. Even if you hate my work I would rather hear something than nothing. Hopefully I’m the first to get this idea for Cascade out there. Let me know if you’ve seen it somewhere else.

Class dismissed.

Interestingly, I found that I liked more cards from this set than usual. The bad part to that is that it will make my drafting choices even more complicated. Please work with me, as I have NOT seen all the cards I’m taking this list from a spoiler just so I can get your minds working earlier and faster :)

The forums are always a great place to debate and discuss my wrongs or rights so I can’t wait to hear from you.

• Ethersworn Shieldmage - With FLASH, this guy can be a game saving play! Many of the Earthquake/Firespout effects have spells cast in front of them to kill any of your trump cards in play that may prevent damage. The Shieldmage jumps in like a superhero to save the day at the point you need him most.
  
• Meddling Mage & Terminate - These two cards are classics and are VERY difficult to find, UNTIL now. For their power and cost you won’t find much that are any better.
  
• Deny Reality & Bituminous Blast - The Cascade mechanic has the potential to be HUGE. Unfortunately, the lower Cascade cards are no where near impressive.
  
• Mind Funeral - The card can’t be true! In limited this can be a HUGE turn of events for the poor soul who thinned out their deck of lands.
  
• Soul Manipulation - Life is about choices and I like having my cake AND eating it too :)
  
• Anathemancer - 5 Color Control decks beware! This guy can be used twice! 2/2 for 3cc isn’t too bad, let’s face it Fulminator Mage is pretty handy against all of those Non-Basics.
  
• Thought Hemorrhage - Imagine a world where Cryptic Command doesn’t exist in a game of Magic. A world where Lee Steht enters the MTG Hall of Fame due to his good looks, unparalleled charisma, and his accomplishments after being THE most dominant MTG player for 5 years straight. Well, you can make the first one come true.
  
• Bloodbraid Elf - 4CC Cascade with a healthy Power and Toughness. I like this guy for all of those reasons.
  
• Behemoth Sledge - I like this card much more than Loxodon Warhammer. I’m not sure if it’s the +2 on the tail end or the Trample, but this card will DEFINITELY find play.
  
• Dauntless Escort - This guy works similarly to Shieldmage (see above) but as I said, usually wrath effects are preceded by anti-ANTI cards that remove prevention or utility cards.
  
• Zealous Persecution - Whether it be Alara Block Constructed or Standard, one will see a few tokens or 1/1s here and there. Much better than Dry Spell!
  
• Double Negative - Key words here “UP TO TWO” I like this spell and I believe it works on Cascade effects or spells.
  
• Maelstrom Pulse - Vindicate has been long missed, but I like this card better. Despite not being able to shank an opponent’s land, I do feel that getting multiples of a card or permanent is much more advantageous.
  
• Intimidation Bolt - Get rid of your opponents 3 toughness guy AND the rest of the team cannot attack? Daddy likes.
  
• Sen Triplets - This card seems a bit ridiculous to me. The ONLY problem I see with it is that it has a Power and Toughness. Therefore, easily dealt with.
  
• Uril, the Miststalker - 5/5 for 5 is pretty common now. However, Troll Ascetic is arguably one of the all time greats and it’s merely due to it’s can’t be targetted. At a 5/5 body this guys bigger but will he be enough? We’ll see.
  
• Bant Sojourners - Cycling is a decent ability. One that can certainly win you a game. Add a 1/1 soldier to a cantrip gives you a permanent advantage that can really turn the tide.
  
• Jenara, Asura of War - Trick and I talked about this guy. Ideally a 5/5 flyer for 3 mana, nuff said.
  
• Wargate - Searching for Broodmate Dragon or Ranger of Eos makes players smile. Do I really need to explain?
  
• Slave of Bolas - I like the idea of using an opponents creature and then killing him. The cost is a bit higher than normal, being a Sorcery makes it even worse, but it is removal.

– Lee

This week Trick talks to Brian Kibler, a Magic Pro returning to the big show after five years off. He’ll be traveling to Hawaii for Pro Tour Honolulu. He has over 160 lifetime Pro Points, 2 Grand Prix wins, 8 Grand Prix Top 8s and is a well known deck designer. Listen as we discuss deck building, the new Pro Tour, Meddling Mage’s new art, and of course his advice for new players.

Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Head Games
1 Ajani Goldmane
2 Path to Exile
3 Galepowder Mage
3 Wrath of God

Spectral Procession; the engine behind some of standards most powerful decks. The ability to get 3 creatures for WWW on turn 3 is utterly ridiculous, and when those creatures happen to fly—well let’s just say things have a habit of getting out of hand extremely quickly.

Of all the Spectral Procession decks out there, I believe B/W Tokens is the most powerful. It has this advantage for several reasons. Firstly between Spectral Procession and Bitterblossom this deck has a truly obnoxious source of card advantage. It has disruption with Tidehollow Sculler (and Thoughtseize in some builds). It has extremely quick beats in the aforementioned Tidehollow Sculler as well as Knight of the Meadowgrain, and to some extent Mutavault. It has the spot removal to get rid of those pesky blockers or tempo disrupting creatures with Path to Exile and Terror. It also has the very efficient pump abilities of Glorious Anthem and Ajani Goldmane. Finally, the cream of the deck, the token generators. This curve is along the lines of Bitterblossom, Spectral Procession, Marsh Flitter, and rounding out the end, Cloudgoat Ranger.

All this equates to the most appealing part of B/W tokens, which is the card advantage. Virtually every single card in the deck gives you card advantage from the spells all the way to the lands. This card advantage is accomplished through several means. First, Bitterblossom, this card provides you with tokens in each of your turns with no additional mana investment required. Then we have the cards like Marsh Flitter, Spectral Procession and Cloudgoat Ranger the weakest of these giving you a minimum of 3 tokens all three which provide tokens with flying. The last source of significant card advantage in the deck is Windbrisk Heights, a card whose activation cost is nothing for a deck with as many creatures as this one and then provides you with a free spell, which can be anything from the continuous pump abilities of Glorious Anthem and Ajani Goldmane to the token producing powers of a Bitterblossom or Cloudgoat Ranger.

Want to see his breakdown for the matchups? Check the forum thread!

Saito (or Saitou, the proper spelling is unknown) played his Naya Zoo to the championships and beat Yuuyu Watanabe’s TEPS deck. This is his second Grand Prix victory in a row, having used the same (or very similar) deck to win Grand Prix Singapore just a few weeks ago.

Top decklists forthcoming…