Old favorites, and new hotness! I will be talking about this new Liliana, expect more in Monday’s column.
This is *mainly* for myself to keep track of iterations of deck ideas that I have so I don’t lose various versions of them.
Chaz’s Corner- Using our brains to do stuff!
Delving (pun intended!) into M13 and Standard..ish.
So in case any of you have been living under a rock…or being a Deranged Hermit, M13 has been officially spoiled on MTG mother site. I must say, a tad bit disappointed and some other players share my sentiment, now, that’s not to be confused with PLAYABLES. This set certainly has a good amount of them. I do think though that core sets suffer inherently an identity crisis, and doesn’t really have a “direction” per say other than bringing back old favorites/mechanics and some new flavor as well. We have more to cover than usual, since ive been on a work/RL hiatus!
That being said, I’m REALLY excited, as you should all be because I’m going to do an initial look and deck-building using some really interesting M13 cards. This will not be a review, the in-depth review of M13 will be done by the LECast and posted separately.
I will cover the more boring stuff (admittedly Standard as of late) later in the article.
Firstly….
Old favorites, and new hotness! I will be talking about this new Liliana, expect more in Monday’s column.
«A Liquor Never Brewed … Dark, Spicy Decks For Semicompetitive Play»
“A Long-Awaited Throwback”
Hey brewers! It’s good to see all of you again. While the site went through a short hiatus, I’m happy to say that we’re back on our (reliably late) schedule. I’d like to start off today’s article with a story. It’s brief, so no worries.
Once upon a time, I was drunk, bored, and making a deck. Upon its completion, I eagerly texted one of my testing partners with the following: “Hey dude, I made a Dredge deck!!!” I spell pretty well while intoxicated.
His response was “Oh, really? Legacy?” I responded “No, Standard!”
The deck went through many iterations to become what it is today. I say today because, while all common sense leads us to believe that this “once upon a time” fairy tale of booze and bad decisions was around Ravnica, it in fact was about two months ago. I have had some pretty surprising successes with it at FNM, including smashing in a seasoned delver player’s face, but by no means recommend taking this anywhere relevant money might be involved. That being said, it’s one of the most fun magic decks I’ve ever played.
We’re back! Got some catching up to do, and we here at LECast apologize for the hiatus, but we are back and going to keep on keeping on.
PLANECHASE 2!! Some awesome new cards for EDH/Legacy/Vintage!
Chaz’s Corner - Using our brains to do stuff!
Looking at Pro Tour Block AVR, and checking out some results from my workshop!
Well folks, it’s that time again! Come on in, take a seat and allow me to stimulate those brains and make those neurons spark. For this week, I have a couple goodies to share with you, and I dont mean the traditional goodies, I’m talking fire and brimstone goodies. But before we get into my exciting twist of a deck, let’s look at what has transpired this past week.
Pro Tour Avacyn Restored:
Now I’m not usually a big fan of Block Constructed, nor really follow it all too much (mainly because it really isnt a thing in most of New York) but none the less, the pro’s played it and I think especially INN Block is interesting to look at. That being said, the top 8 lists can be seen here:
«A Liquor Never Brewed … Dark, Spicy Decks For Semicompetitive Play»
“Personal Preference Over Sense and Sensibility”
Brewmasters, assemble! While I did not have the opportunity to see the Avengers this week (as I have a severe aversion to seeking out fun and doing social things that involve paying $20+ for a ticket, some popcorn, and a Noah’s Ark full of screaming children and face-slobbering teenagers), I did have the opportunity to play 2 AVR drafts and check out the latest results of post-AVR standard tournaments. Both of these things are relevant to today’s brew discussions for different reasons that I will reveal haphazardly and in a painfully slow yet rewarding manner. If you wish to just scroll down and skip to the deck, you can, but know this: your dignity will be forever tarnished and I will shake my head in disapproval of your attention span.
Firstly, I’d like to quickly talk about how Star City Open: Providence broke ground for the post-AVR meta… because it didn’t. Perhaps it’s because we haven’t had enough time with the new cards, or a lack of availability, or a lack of playtesting, but 98% of the cardboard winning that prize money is some Matrix-status déjà vu. There are some notable mentions – Wolfir Avenger is doing good things in r/g decks of all varieties, Chaz’s top pick of Zealous Conscripts is making its way into sideboards, Cavern of Souls has made ramp a bit scarier, and Delver style decks are slowly being put on the backburner. The upside to this is that we know what to prepare for – at least, for now. The downside is a fear that, despite AVR’s size and hype, the meta might not evolve as much as everyone wanted it to (because an evolving format is a healthy format). As brewers, this acts as a double-edged sword: we can keep brewing to fight a meta we’re already familiar with, but the inevitability of just how good decks like r/g, wolf run, etc are is a potentially colossal brick wall to stare down.
Chaz’s Corner - Using our Brains to do stuff!
Taking the Critical Lens to AVR and the implications on Standard.
Chaz here! Welcome to my Monday Column, the first one so this will be, well, extra awesome! I wanted to take this time and let you (the readers) know that I have been playing MTG for most of my life, and while there has been others who have no doubt played longer I feel after being with the game so long you pick up what generally are the “damn! that’s amazing” or “wow, that’s terrible” cards are. For the most part I tend to lean to “wow, that’s terrible” cause well, let’s be honest..a lot of cards are!
Now most of you may be saying, “well yeah Chaz that’s great but why should we even listen?” and it is a valid thought, but I will squash it by saying that I am not a pro at this game, nor aspire to be, but I do have a long standing to be a sort of “Innovator” or calling cards that end up going the distance in Standard or old Extended (now Modern). Never the less! I do have some experience, I have been 1720 in Limited rating (before these BS Planeswalker points) and have top 32 at a Grand Prix, as well as won a JSS (back when they were actually around).
That being said,(and not to be confused with tooting my own horn) let’s get down to business shall we? AVR and standard, oh well, where do we start? Ah! I know where:

