Visions from Beyond- Back to Basics

Visions from Beyond- Back to Basics

Hello once again readers! This is Samuel Wells, bringing you another Vision From Beyond. I am back with yet another deck primer. This week I will be being going back to a deck that was a house in the last standard and has been getting coverage now.

It seems like everyone has talked about monsters as a deck, it was just a matter of what the flavor is. Do I stick with Jund and use the most powerful removal in the format? Is Temur monsters finally viable now that we have Sagu Mauler and Savage Knucklebalde? Does Naya get to slip in with Elspeth? I do think all of these decks do deserve this speculation, and I certainly have participated in this speculation. But I am most excited to go back to basics and work on a GR monsters list. One thing that I was struggling with consistently with all of the three color variations was what I could include and what I needed to cut. I always felt limited and that I was leaving out cards that felt vital the deck’s strategy. Just as an experiment I decided to go with just two colors and see where that went. The deck started coming together very quickly and what’s more, the deck felt like I got to play everything I wanted and I wasn’t trying too hard find the cards to fill the last slots.

Without anymore hesitation here is the deck;

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1215828

*Note, the “?” in the decklist are 4 Xenagos, The Reveler. Tcgplayer was not cooperative tonight.

This deck really acts as an all in type of strategy that really is not trying to interact with the opponent, but rather trying to force the opponent to interact with me. I cut down on the spells that interact with the opponent down to just 4 lightning strike and 2 setessan tactics in the main. The rest of the main deck are threats and creatures tat help you ramp to your threats. This deck is very slim and wants to play a linear game one, preferably a linear game two in the best of matchups.

Welcome newest writer- Julian Munoz! Bushiroad Informant

Welcome newest writer- Julian Munoz! Bushiroad Informant

Hey guys how's it going. I know this is primarily a MTG group, but was wondering how many of us in here play any Bushiroad TCG's? Regionals for CardFight Vanguard, Futrure Card BuddyFight, and Weiss Schwarz are this weekend at the Hilton Albany, 40 Lodge St, Albany, NY 12207.


I'll be there this weekend and have been asked by Chaz Volpe to take some pics and possible videos of the event.

My Teammate and I with the NA President of Bushiroad!

Visions from Beyond - Embracing the Monochrome

Visions from Beyond- Embracing the Monochrome

Greetings readers! 

This is Samuel Wells, back with more Visions From Beyond. Khans standard is kicking off now and deck speculation is at its peak right now. Most decks that I have seen speculation on are people trying to make the different wedges viable. Temur monsters, Mardu midrange and the like. All of this talk about these three color midrange and control has led to me wondering, will we see viable mono colored decks in standard this season. For the purposes of going more in depth I will exclude the red aggressive decks because they are already receiving extensive talk as one of the decks post rotation. I am interested in looking at the prospects and the plausibility of devotion once Khans of Tarkir comes out.

The three main devotion decks of this past standard were mono-green, mono-black, and mono-blue devotion lists. Each of these decks have been discussed to death and many people have declared that these decks will die as RTR rotates out. The only deck that people have seemed confident about it surviving rotation is mono-green devotion.

The speculation around mono-green is centered around two creatures that people have predicted to be the best in the next standard. These creatures being Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix. The hype for Caryatid is more for the three color midrange decks that will be popping up in the coming standard, but it is still the best ramp spell, it buffs devotion, and it it still helps to block a lot of early threats. It is everything that people have been using it for and it is not just swept away by Supreme Verdict. Having a slower board wipe really helps cards like this because you get more time to set up and go off with the deck. The card that gets the biggest boost in the upcoming format is Courser of Kruphix. Courser’s interaction with fetchlands is ridiculous. The fetchlands end up not damaging when you have Courser on the battlefield. And you get to shuffle away cards that you don’t want to draw, because courser allows you to see the top of the deck, when you have a fetchland. 

"Presents and Stuff" -Paul

Presents and Stuff

by Paul ‘Frodo’ Muller

Its Thursday! This means only one thing: it’s time for a look at competitive magic and a review of the Invitational this past week. Last Sunday, Tom “The Boss” Ross took down the invitational for the second time in a row. Talk about being on a heater! First off, I would like to congratulate him on the win. He is a prime example of how playing the decks you know can add those few percentage points to your win rate and push you over the top. He came into the weekend with everyone in the room essentially knowing 140+ of his 150 cards, and he still was able to crush the field. We all knew Ross would be on Rabble Red and Infect; the surprise, however, was not his deck but Reid Dukes'. The invitational runner up was playing four (count them - FOUR) Genesis Hydras. We've all had an idea of the power of this card, but for the most part no one had found a real home for this powerhouse until now.

**On a side note, a big congratulations to one of our strong local players, James Rynkiewicz, who placed 13th overall in the invitational and for following up that performance with a top 8 Sunday in the legacy portion of the Open series. James did much better than I did this weekend when It came to magic. **

On Saturday I started round 1 game 1 of the Open with a mull to 5 keep 1 land playing Jund walkers vs U/W control featuring Detention Spheres and no Planar Cleansing. It should be close to a bye for my deck, but variance was having none of that.. I kept my one scry land hand and . . . died with one land in play. Just one of those games. In game 2 he died horribly by way of Rakdos’ Return and 4/4 lands thanks to Nissa. Game 3 was a marathon affair which finally ended with him casting a third Revalation followed up by an Aetherling.

'Competitive Magic' -with Paul 'Frodo' Muller

Competitive Magic- with Paul ‘Frodo’ Muller

Happy Thursday to all my insane magic friends!

This weekend is SCG New Jersey featuring the invitational. It will be three days of insane magic fun, but if you're like me it's really only two days because someone here couldn't grind out those last few points (that would be me!!). However, who cares, we have an insane local tournament with standard on Saturday and legacy on Sunday. Thanks to the invitational these tournaments will be insane due to all the magic players who traveled for the invitational and had a run of bad luck on Friday. This is going to raise the level of competition in the open series even more! So, what should I play on Friday, if I'm in the invitational? Well, to start, let's address the idea that the standard metagame in an invitational is different than your average tournament.

There is usually a higher than average number of control and mono black and blue because these decks have a high amount of play to them. This meta, however, opens the door for burn, so honestly for the first time in my life I'm going to suggest burn, Will O'Neil you're welcome. In addition to burn being well positioned against these controlling decks, it has the most insane matchup vs. rabble red, thanks to cards like Searing Blood. If however you don't feel like you can play a deck like this to its fullest, I would suggest you play the deck that you know the best. The math suggests this will give you 4.7% higher win rate against an open field. So, now with standard out of the way, you still need jam legacy for four rounds. While everyone owns a standard deck, very few own legacy.