Fans,

Enjoy this great Deck Tech from Pro Tour: San Diego 2010 with Zvi!

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Hey Top8Magicians,

I posted a Bonus Exercise in this week’s Limited Information <www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/64> and I wondered what you would do.

You’ve just drafted and constructed the following deck:

Zendikar Draft Deck

Main Deck 40 cards
10  Forest 1  Kazandu Refuge 7  Mountain 18 lands	1  Baloth Woodcrasher 1  Frontier Guide 1  Geyser Glider 2  Grazing Gladehart 1  Greenweaver Druid 1  Highland Berserker 1  Mold Shambler 1  Oran-Rief Recluse 1  Oran-Rief Survivalist 1  Shatterskull Giant 1  Territorial Baloth 1  Timbermaw Larva 1  Torch Slinger 1  Vastwood Gorger 15 creatures	1  Gigantiform 1  Harrow 2  Inferno Trap 1  Khalni Heart Expedition 1  Savage Silhouette 1  Vines of Vastwood 7 other spells

You sit down for your first match and draw this hand:

Forest, Mountain, Mountain, Khalni Heart Expedition, Territorial Baloth, Baloth Woodcrasher, Gigantiform

Do you keep this hand on the play? How about on the draw? Why?

XOXO,

Steve

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Forget the buzz around Lotus Cobra and the rest of the Zendikar previews for a moment and read this fact sheet about how the SIXTEEN (!!!!!) Magic Online PTQs for Pro Tour San Diego are going to work. My The Week That Was column this week will include an interview with Digital Games Program Manager Michael Gills and MTGO superstar Brad FFfreaK Nelson. In the meanwhile you can check out all the details here.

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Brad Nelson, Michael Gills, MTGO, PTQ, The Week That Was, Zendikar

Despite being at the tip-top of the standings throughout the closing rounds of Dutch Nationals, potential Hall of Famer Frank Karsten lost in the quarterfinals of this year’s Dutch Nationals. It was a missed an opportunity for the Netherlands bring the same star power to the Team Championships as the U.S., Brazil, and Japan. Kevin Grove is the Dutch National Champion, playing Cruel Control The team will also include; Niels Noorlander, who wwas playing Faeries; Tom van Lamoen, who was playing an exciting red-white control deck with Swans of Bryn Argoll and Baneslayer Angel; and Johnny Niemeijer, playing JundBlood, as the alternate.

Tom van Lamoen was the reigning champ from last year’s Dutch National team and earned that title on the back of another unusual, non-combo Swans deck. After virtually dissapearing from the Magic scene for a year he made the team again with another unexpected Swans deck. He has reportedly said it will be his last National team berth since his pet card will not be legal next year.

Tip of the hat to Sven Dijt of manamaze.com for the link to the coverage and the decklists, which I have copied here for your convenience, as well as the story about Tom’s Swans (no relation to Tom Swan).

Dutch Champion Kevin Grove

Cruel Control
Kevin Grove - Champion
2009 Dutch National Championship

3 Island
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Meadow
2 Vivid Crag
2 Vivid Marsh
2 Mystic Gate
2 Sunken Ruins
2 Flooded Grove
2 Cascade Bluffs
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Plumeveil
2 Shriekmaw
4 Mulldrifter
1 Reveillark
2 Cloudthresher
1 Essence Scatter
1 Agony Warp
3 Firespout
2 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Cryptic Command
2 Hallowed Burial
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Martial Coup
1 Pithing Needle
3 Jace Beleren
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Liliana Vess

Sideboard:
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Anathemancer
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Runed Halo
1 Identity Crisis Read the rest of this entry »

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Dutch Nationals, Frank Karsten, Standard, Swans of Bryn Argoll

The ballots for the fifth class of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame have gone out and 2009 is shaping up to be an interesting year as many people see this year’s crop of pros as a potential “catch-up” season for a handful of players like Steve OMS, Chris Pikula, Justin Gary, Scott Johns, William Jensen, Mark Justice, Mike Long, and a host of others.  Antoine Ruel and Kamiel Cornelissen are the only two people new to the ballot with numbers that leap off the page so there is clearly room for someone from year’s past to make a move. Here are all the players on this year’s ballot (which includes players still eligible from previous ballots). Read the rest of this entry »

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Kazuya Mitamura may have won PT Honolulu but for the Constructed portion the winner was Jim Davis who went 9-1 with his cascade-based Jund deck. The Long Island, NY native wrote a tournament report for a local website about his unique approach to the format, which saw him choose to be on the draw in all the matches he won. In fact, the only Constructed match he lost was the last one when he veered from the script and chose to play first in the last game.

From his report:

The shocking revelation is that I chose to draw rather than play first. In fact, every single game in the constructed portion (save for game 3 round 16, which I will get to later) I was on the draw. This worked out very well because despite losing most of my die rolls in 10 rounds I was always exactly where I wanted to be as my opponents all chose to play.

Now, why draw? When I was first testing the deck Blightning was in the board, and it was simply devastating in the mirror. The deck has no card draw style card advantage, and needs its lands to get going, which means Blightning either stunted mana development brutally or spiked two big spells. This is huge because the way the