I answer the questions! Magic Online edition

I stole this from the mtg.com page. It has some good questions that I thought I would like to answer.


Getting to Know You

Name:
Timothy Tyler "Ty" Thomason

Age:
29

Occupation: 
Student

Twitter: 
@ceciliajupe

Magic Online username: 
Miss Havisham

Guild affiliation:
Azorius

Where do you live?
 Houston, TX


You, Magic, and Magic Online

How long have you played Magic?
Seventeen years more or less.

What is the first set you remember from Magic?
Buying Ice Age starter decks at the Barnes and Noble. I remember having lots of Arnjlot's Ascent.

How did you learn to play Magic, or who taught you? 
A bunch of friends in middle school played. I picked up the rules watching them play and eventually got some cards for one of my birthdays.

How long have you played Magic Online? 
Since Onslaught. When I got back into the game around that time I started an account.

Do you stream? If so, what's your channel URL? 
Not very often, but I have done it in the past. http://www.twitch.tv/ceciliajupe

How often do you draft on Magic Online?
About once a month I'll do a couple of drafts. My logs on this computer say I've done 30 this year.

How often do you play Constructed on Magic Online? 
Almost all the time. If I'm logged in, I'm usually battling the two and six man queues. Occasionally I'll play
Daily Events if I really like my deck.

Do you play any casual formats on Magic Online? 
I'll play some when I think I'm tilting. I have a couple of fun decks I really enjoy playing in the casual room, and I'll play some Commander from time to time.


Magic Online's Beta Client

Have you tried the Wide Beta client? 
Yes

What's your favorite change that has been made? 
Separate windows for chat and games. Just more flexibility as far as what goes where.

Favorite formats to play on Magic Online: 
Standard, Legacy, Modern, Classic (soon Vintage I hope!)

Favorite draft format: 
SSE is pretty high up there.

Favorite Magic Card: 
Strangleroot Geist

Favorite piece of Magic art: 
Orcish Settlers

Favorite Planeswalker card: 
Venser, the Sojourner


Return to Ravnica

What do you think of Return to Ravnica? 
Draft is pretty good, better than old Ravnica only. Standard is fine, but Sphinx's Revelation is lame.

Did you play during the original Ravnica? 
Yes, it was when I first fell in love with constructed.

Favorite guild to draft in Return to Ravnica? 
Izzet. I love Teleportal and Nivix Gildmage.

What's your favorite non-rare first pack first pick in Return to Ravnica draft? 
Thoughtflare.


Silly Questions

If you were to get a Magic tattoo (or already have one) what would it be? 
Probably just the Azorius guild symbol.

If you could play Magic against anyone, who would it be and why? 
I wish I could have played with my dad. He was around when I was just learning, but passed away before I got good enough to teach him.

If you could play Magic Online against any villain AI from the movies, which would it be? 
Agent Smith from The Matrix

Top 10 Homelands Cards

It came up earlier, so here they are:

Top 10 Cards from the Homelands Expansion

1. Memory Lapse
2. Merchant Scroll
3. Serrated Arrows
4. Ihsan's Shade
5. Spectral Bears
6. Sengir Autocrat
7. Autumn Willow
8. Eron the Relentless
9. Sea Sprite
10. Leeches

Worst set of all time? Hardly! Prophecy is far worse!

Top 10 Cards from the Prophecy Expansion

1. Foil
2. Mageta the Lion
3. Rhystic Study
4. Glittering Lynx / Glittering Lion
5. Spiketail Hatchling / Spiketail Drake
6. Alexi Zephyr Mage
7. Avatar of Woe
8. Rebel Informer
9. Abolish
10. Flameshot

Man, that was tough. I suppose I'll honorable mention Chimeric Idol, since it was probably the most played card from the set, but it's just been way outclassed over the years.

So these are the highlights from what are in my opinion the two worst Magic sets. (I have Legions as the third worst, if you were curious).

Abzan Tokens at GP San Antonio

note: this was originally published on Asgard Games website back in 2012. I found it in my email recently, posting here for archival purposes - Ty (3/10/2021)




Grand Prix San Antonio Report
It’s been a while since my last article. I’ve been meaning to write more, but I’ve been really busy with school. But just because I haven’t had time to write doesn’t mean I haven’t been playing Magic. In October, I travelled to San Jose for the Team Grand Prix. My team finished 44th place after losing the last round of day 1 (11 rounds!) to miss the cut to day 2. Then three weeks later I won the sealed PTQ in San Antonio, so I’ll be in Montreal in February for Pro Tour Gatecrash. And this past weekend I returned to San Antonio, this time to play in the Standard Grand Prix. My record was 11-3-1 with two byes, and I finished 16th place for $600.

My preparation for the GP began right after I won the PTQ and no longer had to focus on sealed and draft. I put together the UW flash deck to play at the Monday standard tournament at Asgard, but I wasn’t that impressed. I considered playing BR zombies (with Thundermaw Hellkite in the sideboard), but I’m still not sold on the mana in that deck (see this article for an explanation http://www.asgardgames.net/2012/08/developing-your-mana-in-standard/). I tried various GW aggro decks, but they all seemed too gimmicky for me. With two weeks before the GP, I was either going to play Bant Control or Grixis Control, depending on which performed better in
testing. Then I found this list:

9 Forest
4 Gavony Township
3 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden

4 Arbor Elf
2 Armada Wurm
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Centaur Healer
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

1 Collective Blessing
4 Selesnya Charm
1 Staff of Nin

Sideboard
2 Armada Wurm
4 Chalice of Life
4 Cloudshift
4 Intrepid Hero
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

The things I liked most about this list were the maximum number of mana creatures, the four Borderland Rangers, and the four Gavony Townships. The first change I made was to add Garruk, Primal Hunter for the Staff of Nin and the Collective Blessing, and I moved Centaur Healer to the sideboard and put Strangleroot Geist in the main deck.
The sideboard got overhauled completely once I decided Chalice of Life wasn’t good enough (but it might be good enough now).

Garruk was very impressive from the beginning, so much so that I added a 3rd to the sideboard, and then added it to the main deck, eventually ending up with 4 between main and side. Strangleroot Geist was not as impressive. I couldn’t figure out what creature I wanted in that low curve spot. I tried Vhitu-Gazi Guildmage, Thalia, Mikaeus the Lunarch, and Wolfir Avenger, but wasn’t happy with any of them. In the meantime, my roommate, Will Lowry, was trying to get me to play a deck with 4x Abrupt Decay. I looked at this list, and decided maybe we could splash for the removal spell and then have access to the best replacement for Strangleroot Geist: Lingering Souls. I made the
changes and never looked back.

We both played the list at the SCG IQ in Austin. I lost in the top 4, but Will won the tournament. Now we had our deck for GP San Antonio, and we just had to put the finishing touches. After the final week of testing, this is what we registered:

4 Forest
4 Gavony Township
1 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Woodland Cemetery

4 Arbor Elf
2 Armada Wurm
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
2 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

4 Lingering Souls
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard
2 Triumph of Ferocity
3 Rest In Peace
2 Ultimate Price
2 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Loxodon Smiter

With this deck and two byes, I began my San Antonio Grand Prix journey.

Rounds 1 and 2 – Bye
2-0

Round 3 Herdman, William (UW Human Aggro)
Billy is a nice guy from College Station where he runs Clockwork Games. I’ve known him for years now. It’s unfortunate to play against someone you know at a big event, but I probably knew 150 or so of the 800 players so it was bound to happen eventually. Game 1 he had an aggressive start, but he flooded out as I bought time by chumping his Sublime Archangel with Lingering Souls tokens while Garruk drew me into the cards I needed to win. Game 2 he was stuck on 2 land and I had an early Garruk and he couldn’t recover.
3-0

Round 4 Simpson, Kyle (Bant Control)
Game 1 he double Farseeks into a turn 4 Armada Wurm. I have my own Armada Wurm, but can’t find a time to play it before I die. Game 2 I use Garruk to keep the pressure on him, forcing him to use his Supreme Verdicts, and then using my Thragtusks and Angels to finish him off. Game 3 he mulligans to 5 and never really is in the game.
4-0

Round 5 Froehlich, Eric (Bant Control)
Game 1 he is stuck on 3 lands, so I kill him quickly with Lingering Souls and Township before he can draw out of it. Game 2 is tricky, I try to keep enough pressure on him to force him to use his Supreme Verdicts, but he keeps having enough answers to delay, eventually setting up a Sphinx’s Revelation for 7. Luckily I had Golgari Charm to counter his first Verdict, and then Garruk kept enough pressure on him to kill him.
5-0

Round 6 Boyette, Wesley (4 Color Stuff)
Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and he has Huntmaster of the Fells early to slow me down, but I stabilize with Thragtusk and Angel and some Lingering Souls before he Bonfires me out of the game. Game 2 he Slaughter Games my Thragtusks and I flood out while he casts more Huntmasters and even Entreat the Angels!
5-1

Round 7 HOFFMAN, KRIS (Reanimator)
Game 1 I have enough pressure that he’s forced to use his Angel of Serenity on my creatures, and I then Selesnya Charm the angel and he can’t recover. Game 2 he mulligans to 6 and is stuck on 2 land for several turns. We play a 3rd game for fun and he can’t beat my Rest in Peace.
6-1

Round 8 Webb, Taylor (BR Zombies)
Taylor and I go way back. I played him in the top 4 of the first PTQ he ever won a few months after I won my first PTQ. We both won PTQs for Gatecrash on the same day, so now after 10+ years we’ll finally go to a PT together. Game 1 I had mana creature into Borderland Ranger, which let me ramp into early Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Game 2 he killed my mana elf and I couldn’t catch up, but game 3 I had Trostani and he couldn’t find an answer.
7-1

Round 9 May, Parker (Blue Reanimator)
Game 1 he had Lingering Souls and I couldn’t draw any of mine to stop him from just beating me down with spirits. Game 2 he cast Supreme Verdict twice to buy the time he needed, and killed me with more spirits and Craterhoof Behemoth.
7-2

Celebrations after day 1 were mostly tame; I just wanted to get to bed early so I could do well on day 2. We did eat Mexican food on the River Walk for my friend Jose’s 30th birthday, but I went to sleep soon after. Both Will and I made day 2 with 7-2 records with the same deck. We woke up early on Sunday ready to win out.

Round 10 Hammon, Conrad (Naya Midrange)
Game 1 he had 2 enter the battlefield tapped lands and didn’t get to Farseek until turn 3. He still missed land drops and I killed him with spirits. Game 2 I had Garruk early and he was flooded. We traded Restoration Angels and he Bonfired my team for 7, but I still had enough gas to follow it up and kill him.
8-2

Round 11 Schelling, Christopher (Grixis Control)
Game 1 he had an early Olivia Volderan, but only had 5 mana to use. I kept alpha striking with my team of lingering souls and borderland rangers to get him down to 6. He cast Forbidden Alchemy, keeping an unknown card but discarding Thundermaw Hellkite and 2 lands. At this point I put him on Mizzium Mortars, so I play Armada Wurm, and he doesn’t have an answer and has to trade his Olivia. A turn later, he dies. Game 2 he’s in control the whole time, including a turn 4 Olivia and a turn 6 Mortars on my whole team. Game 3 he mulligans to 4 cards, and I have double Triumph of Ferocity to draw 3 times as many cards as him, so he’s never really in it.
9-2

Round 12 Craddock, William (BR Zombies)
Game 1 he kills my mana elf, and I die on turn 4 with 2 Thragtusks in hand. Game 2 I have Nearheath Pilgrim paired with an Angel, plus Trostani and he can’t keep up. Game 3 looks ok for me as I have turn 3 Trostani and follow it up with Thragtusk, but his Bonfire on 2 and Falkenrath Aristocrat puts me to 3 life with only land in hand. He goes out of his way to keep me from getting a beast token to populate, so I’m stuck without a way to gain life…. But then I draw Armada Wurm! I gain 10, and attack him with Thragtusk down to 15. He draws the land he needs for Thundermaw Hellkite at attacks me for 9 in the air, so now I’m down to 4 life with no cards in hand. This time, I draw Ultimate Price! I populate a wurm to gain 5 more life, kill his dragon, and untap and kill him on the next turn, doing exactly 15 points of damage. I got very lucky to win this game.
10-2

Round 13 Gomez, David (GW Midrange)
David’s deck is very similar to the original deck I started from. I win game one with Garruk and Armada Wurm, slowing down his Township assault. However, games 2 and 3 I lose when I flood and never draw Gavony Township to match his. I was pretty unhappy losing this matchup.
10-3

Round 14 Carvalho, Pedro (RB Aggro)
With the last loss, top 8 was probably not an option, but winning out still meant at least top 16. Game 1 he has a very aggressive start with Stromkirk Noble and two Knight of Infamy, but I have a turn 3(!) Armada Wurm. He rips Bonfire and alphas, so I trade everything away and play Thragtusk. He dies shortly after. Game 2 I play turn 4 Trostani, he plays Hellrider and alpha strikes, but I have blocks to kill his whole team and stay at one life. I untap and play Thragtusk, this time gaining 8 life, and he concedes.
11-3

Round 15 Carson, Erik (Bant Control)
I’d seen him play an earlier round, so I knew he was killing people with Door to Nothingness. Game 1 I had Garruk in play basically the entire game, so he was always on the back foot. I kept an Abrupt Decay in hand to kill Chromatic Lantern in case he tried to kill me, but he never drew it. The game took about 25 minutes to play, but I was victorious. Game 2 was more of the same. I got him to Dissipate my Triumph of Ferocity so that my Garruk would resolve. He cast Sphinx’s Revelation at least 4 times this game, maybe more with Elixir. I had to spend one Abrupt Decay to kill his Pithing Needle on Gavony Township, otherwise I wouldn’t have enough pressure. I saved the other one for Chromatic Lantern, but he has a second one and showed me the Door on turn 4 of extra time.
11-3-1

An unintentional draw isn’t ideal, but still had a shot at top 16. I snuck in at 16th, with my round 15 opponent at 17th. Maybe he’ll play faster in the future.

The deck was a success. Will and I were playing next to each other Round 15, both at 11-3 with shots to top 16. He lost a close match to Gerry Thompson, but still finished in the top 32. My friend Jose played the same list in the TCG Player 5k on Sunday and split in the top 8 for $450, so everyone that played the deck made money this
weekend, except Andrew Sullano.

The deck is very good, I think I would play at least 70 of the same cards going forward. I want to add in a couple of Sever the Bloodline, and maybe an Akroma’s Memorial. If you have any questions about the deck, I’ll answer them. Just follow me on twitter!

top 10 lists

I'm going to try to do a weekly Magic related top 10 list. I did top 10 angels in my Restoration Angel post, and I've done a couple of others on the forums that I might transfer over to here, but today I'm going to give you the top 10 lands that do not function as mana fixing (ie. no dual lands, no fetch lands, etc.) I was talking about how good Treetop Village was earlier tonight, but looks like it doesn't even get to the top 10. I think it is the best manland of all time though, but I might be wrong.

Top 10 Nonbasic Nonmulticolor Lands Of All Time

1. Tolarian Academy
2. Bazaar of Baghdad
3. Mishra's Workshop
4. Strip Mine
5. Library of Alexandria
6. Wasteland
7. Gaea's Cradle
8. Ancient Tomb
9. Cloudpost
10. Dark Depths

BONUS!

Top 10 Manlands Of All Time

1. Treetop Village
2. Dryad Arbor
3. Mishra's Factory
4. Inkmoth Nexus
5. Blinkmoth Nexus
6. Mutavault
7. Celestial Colonnade
8. Raging Ravine
9. Faerie Conclave
10. Stirring Wildwood

Top Angels in Magic History

Last night at dinner, I mentioned to my roommate that Restoration Angel has supplanted Baneslayer Angel as the best Angel card of all time. It's another blatant example of creature power creep, and while it isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does restrict the available deck building options, especially in Modern. My biggest complaint about that format is the homogeneous nature of the card choices: if you play green, you play Tarmogoyf, etc. But enough about that, here is a timeline of the best Angel card in Magic through the years!

Alpha through 4th edition - Serra Angel
The first "best creature in the game", it was used by various control decks as a win condition that also answered multiple threats from your opponent. It also combined with Stasis to finish the opponent off quickly while you had them soft locked. Still a bomb in limited, she is one of Magic's most iconic cards of all time.

5th edition through Mercadian Masques - Vacant
WotC decided Serra Angel was too good, and took her out of the core set. Whether or not she would have seen any play during this time is debatable, but none of the replacements even came close. Warrior Angel, Radiant, Archangel, and others never were quite good enough to make it.

Nemesis through Planeshift - Blinding Angel
She took the defensive nature of Serra Angel and ran (or should I say flew?) with it! Locking unsuspecting creature decks out of the game completely, with their only hope to draw a Birds of Paradise to chump for one turn and hope that it resolved. Blinding Angel was a solid addition to permission based control at the time, since protecting her long enough usually led to victory.

Apocalypse through Judgment - Desolation Angel
Resolving this creature (with the kicker of course) was the best way to win a control mirror. A very dynamic card that could steal wins sometimes by being cast without kicker, she was one of many iconic cards from the enemy colored Apocalypse set.

Onslaught through Ravnica - Exalted Angel
No, she doesn't have the Exalted ability, but the Morph ability allowed for some fast beats. Not many aggressive decks could race an 8 point life swing starting on turn 4, and combined with Astral Slide and cycling cards, she could be impossible to kill. A long time player in Extended Scepter-Chant decks, she could be unmorphed on turn 3 with the help of Chrome Mox. Truly one of the best angels of all time, unfortunately relegated to the casual room with the printing of Baneslayer Angel.

Guildpact through Alara Reborn - Angel of Despair
The second black angel on the list shows that even when angels aren't the holiest, they still make for some great Magic cards. Angel of Despair's mana cost of 7 isn't unreasonable, but she spent most of her time coming out of the grave in Reanimator, Solor Flare, and Dredge decks. She is still a player in Legacy and can help you get out of many sticky situations with the Vindicate she brings along with her.

M10 through Dark Ascension - Baneslayer Angel
M10 brought a renewed focus on flavor, and a new focus on splashy creatures. Baneslayer was a workhorse in constructed, and nigh unbeatable in limited. The go-to threat for white control decks of the time, she obsoleted dozens of other creatures when she was printed.

Avacyn Restored through current - Restoration Angel
This card just does it all. From infinite combos with Kiki-Jiki, to value on Kitched Finks and Geist of St Traft, and just being an instant speed threat, all for the low price of 4 mana, Restoration Angel is easily the best angel of all time

And a bonus, the top 10 angels of all time, ranked!

1. Restoration Angel
2. Baneslayer Angel
3. Angel of Despair
4. Karmic Guide*
5. Iona, Shield of Emeria
6. Platinum Angel / Empyrial Archangel
7. Exalted Angel
8. Akroma, Angel of Wrath
9. Angel of Serenity
10. Emeria Angel

*Much in the way Worldgorger Dragon is one of the best dragons of all time, Karmic Guide makes the list almost solely on combo decks, and wasn't included in the discussion at the top.

GP San Jose Report

The team:

Will Lowry

Ty Thomason

Haibing Hu

Will has never done team sealed before, so Bing and I did the preliminary theory crafting. We wanted to split the colors RB, UW, Gx, with me on Rakdos, Bing on Azorius, and Will on the durdle deck. I was going to be seat B as more or less the team leader, but I have complete faith in my partners. In fact, they are both better at limited than me, that's why I chose them.

I hadn't done any real practice sealeds, but I did look at probably 25 or so pools on the website that let you generate them over and over. It seemed like the commons and uncommons were usually pretty close, so the biggest factor to the pool being good or not was what rares you opened. Since the last time team sealed was a thing, the rares have gotten much better. Also, they stopped making tournament packs and instead give you 12 boosters, which really leads to some crazy multiples of cards that couldn't really happen before. So I think team sealed is higher variance now that it used to be, but it's still a lot of fun.

Our actual pool was pretty week. I had a solid RB deck with 7 removals and a low curve, but it was nothing special. I built it pretty quickly then started helping Bing with the UW, but there just wasn't any. Will had thrown together a solid GW aggro deck, and the green cards weren't really there to support a 4-color build. I decided to give Bing the GW deck, since it was the second best deck and the goal was to give Will the worst deck, since he has some unnatural gift for winning with jank. So with the rest of the cards, we put together a UWr deck with multiple Hussar Patrols that could board into a Lobber Crew deck if needed. Will didn't have many win conditions other than Teleportal.

The tournament was 11 rounds. They weren't really prepared for 571 teams, and I'm not sure why. GP sizes have basically tripled in 10 years, why wouldn't team GP also triple? The biggest problem with the structure of the tournament in actuality was the cut to only top 2. Since it wasn't top 8, they couldn't have people make day 2 that couldn't get to the finals (though the two teams that snuck in at X-2-1 we out of contention the whole time). If they could have had top 4 or top 8 cut, we might have seen more people make day 2 and less rounds on day 1. 

We only had one bye, because I didn't realize Silver level pros would only get 1 at this GP until it was too late to do anything about it. Oh well, it was going to be a lot of winning to do in order to make it to day 2 anyway. We got some lunch during the bye, and came back for round 2.

It was a long day, so my memory is pretty blurry. This is the best I can do.

Round 2 we played a father and his two sons. Bing won early and Will looked like he was going to win, so Bing told me I should lose so the kids would like their dad better. I didn't do anything intentionally bad, but I didn't play the best in game 3 and lost after Will had locked up the match.

2-0

Round 3 I don't remember. I think it came down to my match and I got there with the Phyrexian Arena enchant land. 

3-0

Round 4 we played against Saito, Yasooka, and Satou. I destroyed Yasooka in two very short games, then watched Will make some silly plays against Saito and lose a game. Bing won game 1, lost game 2, and third game was looking interesting. Saito and Will were locked in a epic control mirror, and Bing was clogging the board with centaurs against Satou's aura deck. There was a judge call when Bing's opponent tried to stack some triggers in a certain order, but they were controlled by two different players so what he did was illegal. I don't think he was trying to cheat, but i'm not sure about the way the judge remedied the situation either. Will and Saito drew on time, and Bing need to top deck an answer to a flier to win so we could win the match, and he did. 

4-0

Round 5 is still a blur. We won

5-0

Round 6 we played against the French Canadian team Alexander Hayne, Pascal Maynard, and some other guy. Will won, Bing lost, but I won game 3 when Hayne got stuck on lands. 

6-0

Round 7 we got swept, their decks were much better than ours.

6-1

Round 8 I played my first rakdos mirror all day, and it was interesting. I was very tired and things were foggy, but my opponent made some interesting plays that allowed me to steal the match . I think this was the only match where we swept the other team.

7-1

Round 9 was against Christian Calcano, Tom Ma, and Aaron Schwartz. I played terribly against Calcano like I always seem to do, but Bing and Will got there.

8-1

With two rounds to go, we were in 11th, but it didn't look like X-3 was going to have a shot, so we needed one win. Well, it didn't happen. Both the pools we go up against in the next rounds were just better than ours, and we get swept both times.

8-3

Losing round 11 to not make it to day 2 was pretty awful. I think we way overperformed for our pool, Will especially. This ended my GP money streak at 4 and GP day 2 streak 6.

Sunday was relaxed. I played 4 rounds of states before dropping at 2-2, then did a cube draft and a 2v2 before going out for a nice dinner and watched the Texans game. As for the GP, I'm really happy the way our team worked together, and I think we got the most we could out of our decks, and it just wasn't enough. Hopefully we can team together again next time.

I Answer The Questions! 10/15

From SCG Providence:

What is your favorite card from Return to Ravnica?
Rakdos Cackler?

What's the best 1-drop in Standard right now?
Gravecrawler

What card from Scars of Mirrodin block do you miss most?
Green Sun's Zenith

Is U/B Tezzeret the ‘real deal?’
It's good, but I don't think its Tier 1.

Which Return to Ravnica limited all-star do you think can have an impact on constructed?
Chorus of the Conclave

Which planeswalker isn’t getting enough play in Standard?
If any, its Jace, since its the only good one really.

Is U/W/R here to stay?
UW is good, regardless of splash or not. So, yes.

From GP San Jose:

Who are your teammates, and why did you play with them? 
Will Lowry, Haibing Hu. Best players I know and I know their draft tendencies if we make it to day 2.

What color combination did you play in Sealed, and what was your most important card? 
Rakdos and Rakdos Cackler.

Do you prefer Team Limited, or Team Constructed? 
Unified Team Constructed is one of the best things you can do in magic.

Friday Thoughts

1. I feel like my last article was pretty poorly done. 
It was hastily written and you can tell. I said I would write a more in depth report from last weekend, but I probably won't. What I will do is point out some things I noticed in the few days since I wrote the article.

First, some quotes from two SCG articles this week:

"what are the best things you can do? Off the top of my head:

1. Turn 3 Jace, Architect of Thought.
2. Thragtusk into Restoration Angel (both per Patrick).
3. A Bonfire of the Damned in quite a few situations.
4. (All kinds of stuff you can do with Thragtusk, actually... Unburying it and Farseeking it are both hot, but regular old casting it can be more than good enough)
5. Cyclonic Rift into Rakdos's Return.
6. Early miracle Entreat the Angels (for the race).
7. Intangible Virtue into Lingering Souls & co.
8. Heck, blind flipping a Delver of Secrets hasn't started being bad or anything!"

(from What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up, by Mike Flores )

and this:

"Restoration Angel is the real killer, one that isn't seeing nearly enough play right now. Granted, there isn't a great shell for her, but she'll make her return someday."

(from Cin City Aftermath, by Gerry Thompson)

Well, my deck meets 4 of the 8 things in Flores list (2,3,4, & 6), and plays the Restoration Angels that Gerry T alluded to. That's something to think about.

I've been playing the deck on modo in the standard queues which are post rotation but no one has access to RTR yet except for reprints. I haven't lost any matches, but that's to be expected.

2. Modern Sucks
I realized this as I did the fantasy PT thing on facebook (see here). It was so much easier than the Standard or the Block Constructed one. The good cards in modern are so good you can't play anything else. Also, Aaron Forsythe tweeted top 5 cards in modern dailies: Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Kitchen Finks, Island, Verdant Catacombs. I updated my list to Scalding Tarn over Misty, and also Prismatic Omen as the Enchantment. But really, the format is pretty bad. There's a couple niche combo type decks, and everything else is pick 3 colors, play the best value cards in those colors. Valakut unbanning helps, hopefully they will unban more. Matt Sperling was right on when he said they should ban fetchlands. There's no drawback to playing 3 and 4 colors in Modern, at least legacy has Wasteland. The format is fun to play, but it's not fun to build decks for. I'm sort of glad I'm not going to Seattle.

3. Team GP this weekend.
If you don't know, GP San Jose is this weekend. Team Limited. I'm pretty excited. My team is me, Will Lowry, and  Haibing Hu. We're hoping to do really well, follow us this weekend in the coverage.

My Fantasy Pro Tour picks

so you can copy on Facebook, or make a better roster!

Planeswalker: 
Liliana of the Veil. It's a 4-of in what will probably be the most popular deck, Jund. It's not the best walker (Elspeth and new Jace are better, but without a home), but will definitely be the most played.

Large Creature:
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Combos with Restoration Angel out of the pod deck, nothing else i think is even playable that costs 5 or more....

Medium Creature:
Kitchen Finks. It was a top 10 Modern card on MTGO, I can't see Restoration Angel or Geist of St Traft catching it, considering those decks also play Finks.

Small Creature:
I'm going with Snapcaster Mage, but Tarmogoyf is close. Funny that Goyf is considered a "small creature". Do not pick Delver of Secrets

Instant:
Path to Exile. It was #1 on the MTGO Modern list, don't see that changing.

Sorcery:
Inquisition of Kozilek. There are a lot of different options here, including Serum Visions, Thoughtsieze, and Maelstrom Pulse. I think Abrupt Decay pushes Pulse out, and I think less people will play Serum Visions decks than Jund.

Enchantment:
Blood Moon. I don't even know if there is another option, maybe Threads of Disloyalty?

Artifact:
Cranial Plating. All of the "artifact aggro" decks play 4 of this, even if nothing else can be agreed upon. Would like to see it be Aether Vial, but that doesn't seem to be a popular strategy. Birthing Pod is a close second.

Non-Basic Land:
Hardest pick of the draft. Fetchlands outnumber shocklands, but which fetch? I went with Misty Rainforest, but Scalding Tarn and Verdant Catacombs are also good choices. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle could be a sleeper, but you don't really need to play the full 4 to get it to work so I didn't pick it.

Pro Tour Player
I picked Andrew Cuneo. He seems to always be on top of the modern format.

I Answer the Questions! 10/8

After a down week without any tournaments, we're back with more questions that need answering. All of these from SCG Cincinnati.

Are there any Magic 2013 or Innistrad Block sleepers in new Standard?
Thatcher's Revolt might be a sleeper

Which archetype will be the most popular in the room today?
Zombies

What’s the most underrated card in Return to Ravnica?
The Gates.

Will Delver of Secrets find a way to survive in new Standard?
Nope.

Which non-shockland Return to Ravnica card will have the biggest impact on Standard?
Jace

In what ways (if any) will Abrupt Decay change Legacy?
Delver decks won't have to play Lightning Bolt

Did Return to Ravnica affect your Legacy deck selection?
No

Which Return to Ravnica cards, if any, had an impact on your tournament or your preperation?
Abrupt Decay

Which Legacy archetype received the most help from Return to Ravnica?
BG variants. Actually playable now...

Which team-up (real or imaginary) would most entertain you to see winning Grand Prix San Jose?
Jose, Mo, Trevor

The New Standard

[Editor's Note: This was originally published on the Asgard Games website in October 2012. Sharing here for archival purposes.]

        This past weekend marked the first time Return to Ravnica was legal
to be played in standard, and it also saw with it the rotation of
Scars of Mirrodin block and Magic2012. Every year, this large upheaval
takes place, leaving players scrambling to create new decks and take
advantage of the unknown format until things inevitably settle down in
a few weeks. I noticed several decks I liked, and even more cards and
interactions that showed potential, but still needed work.

        Personally, I travelled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a standard
tournament with first prize being a full play set of Return to
Ravnica. My friend Tannon Grace and I played the exact same 75 card
list, and ended up splitting in the finals. Neither of us lost a match
all day. Here is what we played:

4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
2 Arbor Elf
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Restoration Angel
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Thragtusk

4 Farseek
4 Entreat the Angels
4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Oblivion Ring

4 Temple Garden
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Gavony Township
5 Forest
3 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Centaur Healer
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Garruk Relentless
1 Oblivion Ring

This was based on the block constructed deck I played at PT Barcelona.
The biggest difference between this and other Naya decks is the
inclusion of the full four copies of Entreat the Angels.  This card is
very good, and I’m surprised by the reactions I’ve gotten from other
players when they see it in my list. There isn’t any reason why it
needs to be limited to just UWx control decks; it works just as well
in a midrange deck like this. And, unlike my block deck, this deck
actually has the mana base to support it (though I am really looking
forward to putting stomping ground into this shell in the future).
Selesnya Charm out of the sideboard was very good all day long. I have
a more in depth report from the tournament up on my
bloghttp://tysmtgblog.blogspot.com/, but I will share this one story
to illustrate my point about Entreat the Angels. Its game 2 in the
first round of the top 8, and Tannon is on the draw against BWG
tokens. Turn 1, Tannon plays Avacyn’s Pilgrim off of a Forest. Turn 2,
he plays a Rootbound Crag and casts Farseek for Temple Garden. On his
third turn, he miracles Entreat the Angels for 2 Angels and plays
another land. The next turn, he miracles Entreat for 4 this time,
locking up the game and the match with 20 power worth of fliers.

        There were many other good decks that showed up that I think can be
real players with some more tuning. Most intriguing to me was a Bant
deck that utilized Thragtusk, Restoration Angel (expect every GW deck
to play max on these cards until next October), and Cackling
Counterpart. The best interaction in the deck is Cackling Counterpart
on Thragtusk and populate: each time you populate, you get another
copy of Thragtusk! This can get out of hand really quick. Once the
board is sufficiently clogged up, the deck would cast an overloaded
Cyclonic Rift to force through an absurd amount of damage, if it
hadn’t won already.

        The BGW Token list that made the top 8 was also impressive to me,
because it showed off how deceptively powerful the card Rootborn
Defenses is. When I played against it, my opponent cast lingering
souls on turn 3, and then didn’t flash it back on turn 4. I was very
confused, but as he kept 3 mana up the rest of the game, I started to
figure it out: he was saving Rootborn Defenses in case I tried to
Bonfire him! Combined with Vault of the Archangel, the deck could
create some blowout combat steps.

        A mono red deck made the top 8 as well, proving that sometimes the
Red Deck Wins, even in a world of Thragtusk and Centaur Healer. The
zombie lists playing Rancor also did very well, putting 2 copies into
the top 8.

        Jody Keith played a UWR control list to the top 4, and I was very
impressed by it. Cards like Syncopate and Dissipate performed very
well for him all day in a field of unsuspecting players after Mana
Leak rotated. His deck was very different from Todd Anderson’s SCG
Open winning list, but the same color combination. This shows that
there is definitely more than one way to skin a cat!

        Overall, the cards that impressed me the most this weekend from all
decks were Jace, Architect of Thought, and Huntmaster of the Fells.
Jace allowed all the blue control decks to quickly get up on cards,
and most of the time this was too much for the other decks to
overcome. Huntmaster of the Fells has seen his popularity drop off
since he debuted to much fanfare after PT Honolulu, and I think some
people might have forgotten about him. Tannon and I were able to
complete take over games with the werewolf, and I didn’t see a lot of
the other Naya decks running him.

        The new standard format looks very diverse so far, and I hope it
continues to be in the future. Good luck brewing!

Later
Ty Thomason

@ceciliajupe on twitter

More thoughts on the SCG Invitational

I'm making a separate post since I have some stuff I want to say, but I don't want to bury it in the tournament report. 

The Star City Games Invitational is a very good tournament, but still has flaws.

     Star City knows what they are doing. They run events so much better than just about any other TO, even better than WotC does sometimes. They have created a "real" pro tour for magic players. By this, I mean it's much easier to make a living by playing SCG events than it is to play WotC events. The prize money is almost comparable, and the travel costs are usually much less. That said, there is still room for improvement.

    The invitational tournament is very comparable to a pro tour. However, having some players with byes in the tournament is probably not a good thing. They eliminated byes from the SCG opens over a year ago because they were too good, and, while I don't think they are too good in the invitational ( an extra 7 rounds of play helps mitigate their importance), I feel like it’s not good for the tournament. Byes are given out at GPs so that the pro players have an incentive to show up and compete for less money. But when the real money is on the line, byes are an arbitrary advantage for a few people. Of the people with 2 byes at the invitational, 4 made the top 8 (Dave Thomas, Shaheen Soorani, Todd Anderson, Ben Friedman) and 5 more made the money (Gerry Thompson, AJ Sacher, Adam Prosak, Nick Spagnolo, Brian Braun-Duin). All but 2 made day 2. The argument can be made that they did well because they are good players, and they earned the byes because they are good players, but at the invitational level, everyone is good. Reid Duke only had 1 bye. This is the current Magic Online World Champion, played last month at the Players Championship, got 4th place at the Invitational in December, won a Standard Open, and top 4 a Legacy Open the same weekend. How he has only 1 bye and someone like Chris VanMeter has 2 when he hasn't even played a SCG event this year is crazy to me. 

    Maybe the goal of the invitational isn't to find the best player, but to reward the best grinders. I don't like that as a goal, as much as I otherwise enjoyed the tournament.

Todd Anderson claiming that the Invitational is harder than a Pro Tour is just wrong.

    He's since backed off his claim a bit, and I'm glad to see he's admitted he might have been exaggerating a bit, but many people tried to defend his claim when he first made it. This was my first SCG Invitational, and I've played at 3 Pro Tours in the last year. The Pro Tours are much harder. Even discounting the Limited portion of the Pro Tour event, deck building for a new format at the PT is at least 3 times as hard as trying to solve a lame duck metagame. 

   The twitter discussion soon shifted to a claim that the Invitational is harder than a GP. I disagree with this on a couple levels; in particular, the expected value for the Invitational is just better. Fewer players, more prize money for an equivalent finish, easier record to make the cut to day 2, one more round of competition. It’s a lot easier to have a successful tournament at the invitational. The player quality might be a bit tougher at the invitational by eliminating some of the really bad players, but you also lose out on the Elite pro level players. 

    Despite all this, the invitational still had the exciting feel of playing "Big Time Magic" for "Big Time Money", and it is still very challenging.

The Coverage crew does a poor job of choosing which matches to feature.

    This might come off sounding like I'm complaining that I didn't get a feature match, so let me address that first: I actually prefer not having feature matches, and I enjoy my relative anonymity among the Good to Very Good US Magic Player circle. I know, I'm writing this blog, tweeting, streaming, etc., but it's not because I want to be "Magic Famous". That said, I probably should have been featured at least once over the weekend, and for whatever reason, they kept going with the same players over and over again.

    I only got my feature matches at the SCG in DFW because I was good friends with one of the writers working for SCG at the time, and because none of the bigger "names" were at that event. My only other feature matches were earned by being undefeated at GP Dallas after day 1. But it's not just about me, or is it just SCG Coverage. Zac Elsik finished 17th at PT Barcelona, and they didn't even have a picture of him. I feel like coverage teams are too busy sucking up to the "name" players to go out and do a bit of research on who is actually doing good besides the big names. 

    All that said, the coverage is getting better and better with every tournament, and I'm excited about the future of the game.

Todd Anderson won the Invitational. Todd Anderson is employed by Star City Games. 

    I am making no accusations with this comment. I fully believe everything is on the up and up. But whatever loophole that allows him to compete should probably be closed, for the integrity of the game. In a world where someone can be suspended for a year and half because it "looks like they cheated on camera", perception is reality and I hope they fix the way this might be perceived.

Dave Thomas finally broke the curse!

   For about a year now, Dave hasn't done well at any event I've been at. As soon as he goes somewhere I'm not at, he does really well. Well, finally we both had success at the same tournament, and I'm really happy for him.

As for my performance, I'm only a little disappointed.

   My goal was top 8, and I finished only 1 win off of that goal, but I really wanted to do better. I think I could have played a better legacy deck, or at least a better version of my deck. Because of my finish, I'm close to qualifying for the next Invitational in Los Angeles, and I'm considering trying to go for it. 

SCG Invitational Report

This past weekend I played the Star City Games Invitational in Atlanta. I finished 21st, good for $500. I played U/W Miracles in Legacy and R/G Aggro in Standard. Rounds 1-4 and 9-12 were Legacy, and 5-8 and 13-16 were Standard.

Legacy Decklist

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
5 Island
3 Plains
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

2 Trinket Mage

2 Land Tax
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Counterbalance
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Entreat the Angels
2 Counterspell
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Terminus
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Sensei's Divining Top

Sideboard:
2 Humility
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Envelop
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Moat
1 Pithing Needle

Round 1 - Brant, Damian - UB Ad Nauseam Storm
Game 1 he duresses me twice and takes my two jaces. i'm left with only swords to plowshares and he kills me on turn 3. game 2 I lead with turn 1 top, he duresses, and i show him 2x counterbalance. i resolve the 2nd one and win easily. Game 3 he has no disruption, and decides to just go for it on turn 4. i have counterspell for his infernal tutor, then top into counterbalance to lock him out.
1-0

Round 2 - Simpson-Wolf, Andrew - Dredge
Game 1 he plays Putrid Imp and passes. I play Relic of Progenitus, he's not happy. I win easily. Game 2 he mulligans to 4, has no plays. I win easily.
2-0

Round 3 - Gerard Fabiano - BUG Delver
I lose two quick games where he stuck Dark Confidant and I didn't have the removal for it. I really liked his decklist.
2-1

Round 4 - Charles Kaufmann - RUG Delver
Chi is an old friend of my from my Charleston days, so it was a friendly match. Game 1 lock him out early with counterbalance and top. Game 2 he didn't have much to sideboard, and mulliganed 4, and I win easily.
3-1


Standard Decklist

4 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
9 Forest
2 Mountain

4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Dismember
2 Sword of War and Peace

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Thragtusk
1 Ulvenwald Tracker

Sideboard:
2 Zealous Conscripts
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Combust
1 Crushing Vines
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast



Round 5 - Corbett Gray - Green Summer
Game 1 i mulligan to 5, but lead with birds into borderland ranger. He has birds into Palladium Myr, but i topdeck bonfire on turn 3. He follows up with Elvish Archdruid, and I topdeck another bonfire. He then plays two llanowar elves, and I cast the bonfire from my hand. I win easily from there. Would have lost if I wasn't on the play. Game 2 he had two arbor elves but no forests, and I was able to kill off his other mana guys with ulvenwald tracker and win before he could cast primeval titan.
4-1

Round 6 - Shaheen Soorani - Mono Blue Delver
Game 1 i mulligan to 6 and keep a 4 land, birds, huntmaster hand. I draw a bunch of land and die quickly. game 2 is much longer, but i never draw bonfire and he gets me with talrand.
4-2

Round 7 - Dan Jordan - UW Delver
I win a long game 1 by just playing larger guys and eventually bonfiring his team. game 2 he mulls to 5 and never draws white mana.
5-2

Round 8 - Devin Manning - Delver
I was on my way to winning game 1 when he thought scours me and i flip over combust. that card isn't supposed to be there! After my game loss, i win games 2 and 3 by bonfiring at opportune times, he isn't very happy.
6-2

Round 9 - Stephen Mann - RUG Delver
He plays much slower than he needs to, so even though i win 2-0, we almost go to time. I play around spell pierce game 1 with counterbalance and top, but he has Izzet Charm! I didn't know the card was legal yet, it seems super awesome. Still won the game despite that blowout.
7-2

Round 10 - Bryant Cook - TES
The legendary Bryant Cook, know for playing TES, so i mulligan an otherwise solid hand without any disruption game 1, but i still lose. Game 2 i stick counterbalance and top. Game 3 i envelop his cabal therapy, he goes for it, but i have second envelop for his burning wish.
8-2

Round 11 - John Farrow - Omniscience
Side note: so many magic players mispronounce that card. at first i thought it was intentional / ironic, but now i think its just ignorance. Game 1 he turn 1 show and tell, i have no counter, he has omniscience + griselbrand into emrakul. Game 2 i stop first to show and tells, one with a counterspell, second with O-ring. I stick jace, but have to keep bottoming his good stuff, eventually he rips a burning wish for eye to nowhere to bounce my oring, then casts another wish for petals of insight, and i lose to grapeshot.
8-3

Round 12 - Jesse Piland - Bant
I played against him in GP Atlanta, but Bant is a much tougher matchup for UW miracles than it was for goblins. I lose in 3 after keeping a 1 lander game 3 and not getting there.
8-4

Round 13 - Ryan Hovis - 4 Color Pod
I lose game 1 when he naturally draws acidic slime, sun titan, and elesh norn. Could have beat any 2 of the 3. I win game 2 when he stalls on lands, and then bonfire perfectly game 3 to win when he can't kill me because he sided out his zealous conscripts.
9-4

Round 14 - Dan Musser - Zombies
I mulligan to 5 game 1, get my birds tragic slipped, and then he plays 2 diregraf ghouls. But i rip lands to cast my gas, he rips lands instead of spells, and i win easily. Game 2 is similar, except i'm never not in control.
10-4

Round 15 - Michael Hetrick - 4 Color Pod
I win game 1 with sword of war and peace. Game 2 i flood out and he has multiple thragtusks. Game 3 i get him to 1 and 6 poison with 2 silverhearts in play, but i can't do the final point before he double thragtusks and gets elesh norn to kill me.
10-5

Round 16 - Ross Merriam - UW Delver
I win game 1, then lose game 2 when i keep an iffy hand and flood, but still almost win with ulvenwald traker. Game 3 his hand is very slow and i'm able to continuously apply pressure and kill him with kessig wolf run.
11-5


Standard
Wins vs UW delver 3x, 4 color pod, zombies, and green summer.
Losses vs Mono Blue delver and 4 color pod.

Legacy
Wins vs RUG 2x, Storm 2x, Dredge
Loss vs Bant, Omniscience, BUG

I was really happy with Standard deck, somewhat disappointed with legacy list. Probably going to move away from the land tax version. Standard won't be the same again, but i might want more combusts if everyone moves to the mirran crusader version of delver.

I'll have more thoughts on the tournament up soon.

I Answer the Questions! - 9/25

I'll have a complete report from the SCG Invitational up soon, but in the mean time, I'll answer the questions!

In your own words, how would you describe the Invitational?
I love multi-format events.

Do you think that Show and Tell should be banned in Legacy?
Yes, it's only going to become more of a problem as they print more cards.

Will U/W Delver match its Indianapolis Invitational popularity in Atlanta?
Definitely in the Invitational, since all the good players like to play it for some reason.

How well do you expect Zombies to fare this weekend?
Zombies is too inconsistent, and not powerful enough in a field this tough.

What would your ‘dream team’ be for Grand Prix San Jose?
G. Taylor Williams and Minh Mai. Won't ever happen for many reasons.

If you could keep one card from Scars block until the next rotation, which one would it be and why?
Copperline Gorge, but I'd rather they just print Stomping Ground. Maybe Green Sun's Zenith instead.

What do you think of the fully-spoiled Return to Ravnica?
It's ok. There's a lot of hype, but outside of the dual lands I feel like it might be a let down. The dual lands back is REALLY exciting though.

Will the unbanning of Valakut in Modern influence Pro Tour Return to Ravnica?
Yes. It's pretty good against Jund, and if it's popular enough, Zoo can actually be a deck again. Helps increase the diversity of playable decks.

Does Stoneforge Mystic belong in control decks right now?
No. Terminus makes creatures unplayable.

Hidden Gems in Return to Ravnica

[Editor's Note: This was originally published on the Asgard Games website in September 2012. Sharing here for archival purposes.]

                The Return to Ravnica pre-release is next weekend. By
now, you’ve probably seen many of the cards on various sites, and
heard some opinions about the quality of some of the more notable
cards. Today, I’m going to look at a few of the off the radar cards
that I think will be important in the upcoming Standard format.

The Gate Cycle (Azorious Guildgate, Golgari Guildgate, Izzet
Guildgate, Rakdos Guildgate, Selesnya Guildgate)

RTR marks the highly anticipated return of the original Ravnica block
shock lands, so much of the focus has been on those, but I think these
lands are just as important! Others have already and accurately noted
the affect these will change the Pauper mana bases, and the importance
of them in Limited should be readily apparent.  In Standard, these
will be the 9-12th dual lands in a two color deck if you are playing a
color combination of one of the RTR guilds. This adds a level of
consistency to two color decks that should not be overlooked. Current
RB Zombie decks run only 8 dual lands, and therefore occasionally lose
to not having red mana to play the red spells in hand. The “enters the
battlefield tapped” drawback is much less of a drawback than most
people think, and I’ll happily play 4 Golgari Guildgates in my BG
Zombie list if it means I don’t have to play any basic forests.
Unfortunately, these only help half of the two color combinations, so
Gruul, Boros, Simic, Dimir, and Orzhov decks will have to find other
ways to make the mana work, or just not be played at all.

Rakdos Cackler

The power level of creatures being printed is getting higher by the
set, but this card is still very solid. It gives mono black aggro 12
one-drop two-power creatures, and the “can’t block” drawback hasn’t
caused Gravecrawler to see any less play. The fact that it also fits
into red decks can only mean that it will see that much more play in
the new Standard.

Centaur Healer

With Wurmcoil Engine, Timely Reinforcements, and Batterskull rotating,
there isn’t as much life gain available to deckbuilders. This guy
could show up out of the board as a speed bump in GW decks as they
build up to Thragtusk mana.

Giant Growth

The original pump spell is back, and it’s still incredibly efficient.
Luckily for everyone, all of the infect cards are rotating! The
difference between one and two mana is huge for cards like this. While
Selesnya Charm will see more play because of its flexibility,  the
“Green Brute Force” still has a place, especially with Fencing Ace.

Jace, Architect of Thought

Patrick Chapin wrote an entire article on Star City Games about how
good he thinks this guy is. Gerry Thompson and Brad Nelson each have
taken to Twitter declaring this the second best Jace ever after they
played with it. And yet, most people I talk to still seem to think
this card isn’t very good! Personally, I think it is much better than
Vraska (a card with 2 abilities that don’t actually do anything), and
it’s clearly better than Jace, Memory Adept. Even if you just use the
-2 ability twice, it’s 4 mana for 4 cards. He’s not going to control
the game like JTMS or Gideon, but that’s not his purpose. Like Jace
1.0, it’s best to look at it as a card drawing spell that occasionally
draws you much more cards. Also, the +1 is deceptively powerful. It
can blank an entire battlefield of Lingering Souls, and if you have
any creatures in play to protect Jace, they become much better at
doing just that. Don’t forget that the “ultimate” ability lets you
search your own library, too. You can Bribery their best creature, and
get a second Jace from your deck and use it right away! Comparing this
(or any planeswalker) to Jace, the Mind Sculptor isn’t fair, so don’t
let that cloud your judgment on this guy.

Martial Law

This is the real Dungeon Geists. Playing this againt an aggro deck
forces them to commit more creatues to the board, letting you punish
them with Supreme Verdict. I can actually see UW decks playing the max
4 copies of this, and just 2-3 Verdicts. Control decks will have to
find a different way to win in the mirror than just a single creature
or two, either going with Entreat the Angels or a milling strategy.

These are just the cards I think are being overlooked right now.
Obviously, cards like Lotleth Troll, Abrupt Decay, Dreadbore, and
others are going to be big players as well. And don’t confuse  my
recommendation on these cards as a speculation based on card pricing,
since card value isn’t strictly related to how good a card is (but if
you can get Jace at less than $20, it’s probably a good deal). That’s
all I have for now, I hope you enjoy your Return to Ravnica.

Ty Thomason

@ceciliajupe on Twitter.