[Free Article] My Favorite Things: 2009

[voltron00x]

I had some fun with my article this week.  I start off going through my favorite cards from all of the Magic sets from 2009, and choose my favorite new card of the year.  Iona, Spell Pierce, Bloodghast, and the Zendikar fetches all make good candidates.  Can you guess my favorite?  You might be surprised... although you can probably guess my favorite card overall in 2009. 

[Hint:  It rhymes with Bloath of Fluids]

I also address the 5C Stax lists from the Philly Open IV in greater detail, and have a brief tournament report from the Blue Bell Vintage tournament on 12/5.  I played B/R Stax, my first time playing with Workshops in an actual tournament setting.

In non-M:TG related content, I also go through some of my other favorites from 2009:  favorite book, cd, videogame, and so on. 

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/18456_The_Long_Winding_Road_My_Favorite_Things_2009.html

Enjoy!

[sean1i0]

That was a fun article, Matt.  I won't spoil the surprise for those who haven't read it yet, but I am tempted to agree with you on your favorite new card(s) of the year.  All of those you named have had such an enormous impact already and I can't wait to see what they will continue to do in months and years to come!  Thanks for keeping up the Vintage/Legacy articles!

[2nd_lawl]

what no hexmage?

[personalbackfire]

Good article Matt, I enjoyed it.

 I would like to forget about that play during our match, but I somehow knew it would show up in an article. God we were good that day! haha

 Thanks for keeping up the Vintage/Legacy articles!

This. I believe you and Steve do a great job at providing weekly relevant info on our format. This keeps the format relevant and goes a long way in keeping players interested, and attracting new players. For all that I just wanted to say thanks, and to Steve, since I am sure it can seem like an unrewarding task from time to time.

[LotusHead]

My opponent had Key out and played a Vampiric Tutor, which resolved, and I Helmed the Time Vault off the top of his deck.

HAHAHAH!

Great article.  My favorite cards of 2009 was definitely the Zendikar Fetchlands.

It's great being able to draft and walk away with fetches.  Any fetches. I will draft Zendikar until I can draft it no more.  Fetches are the gifts that keep on giving.  Walking away with Vintage Staples each week makes me want to give WOTC 10-12 bucks each week happily, as opposed to my usual 0 Bucks.

[BruiZar]

Your PS3 list sort of sucks. Uncharted 1 and 2 are all you ever need to play. its the best adventure game ever. Beats Fallout 3, beats MW2, beats Bioshock, beats em all

[Doomsday]

Your PS3 list sort of sucks. Uncharted 1 and 2 are all you ever need to play. its the best adventure game ever. Beats Fallout 3, beats MW2, beats Bioshock, beats em all

What?  No love for Street Fighter 4?  Best fighting game in a while.

[voltron00x]

There really is no pleasing some people... hopefully I'm not the only one that thinks its funny that my personal list of my personal favorites is getting criticized as "wrong".  As I stated in the article:

Full Disclosure: I didn’t own a PS3 until last month, so a good part of the PS3 catalog was not part of my videogame experience this year. 

This was not a "PS 3" list, nor was it meant to be the "best" game of the year, just my personal favorite.

Regarding Uncharted 2 (Uncharted 1 was not released in 2009 and had no DLC or add-ons in 2009):

Uncharted 2 - I haven’t played this yet because I just got a PS3, but I played the demo and it is awesome.

Regarding SFIV, which I do own for 360:

Street Fighter IV - Best fighting game I’ve played in years.

Sheesh 

[Doomsday]

Just for clarification, I was responding to the guy that I quoted (who said the Uncharteds were the only ones worth playing).  Thanks for another great, free article though.

[voltron00x]

My bad.  SF 4 was pretty awesome. I just wish I wasn't terrible at it.

[psyburat]

The best album of the year was clearly Dethalbum II.

[Prospero]

I had some fun with my article this week.  I start off going through my favorite cards from all of the Magic sets from 2009, and choose my favorite new card of the year.  Iona, Spell Pierce, Bloodghast, and the Zendikar fetches all make good candidates.  Can you guess my favorite?  You might be surprised... although you can probably guess my favorite card overall in 2009. 

[Hint:  It rhymes with Bloath of Fluids]

I also address the 5C Stax lists from the Philly Open IV in greater detail, and have a brief tournament report from the Blue Bell Vintage tournament on 12/5.  I played B/R Stax, my first time playing with Workshops in an actual tournament setting.

In non-M:TG related content, I also go through some of my other favorites from 2009:  favorite book, cd, videogame, and so on. 

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/18456_The_Long_Winding_Road_My_Favorite_Things_2009.html

Enjoy!

The Road was awesome, though terribly depressing.  No Country was better and the film was damn near perfect.  The Coen brothers are awesome, no?

I picked up The Fountainhead last week and finished it five days ago.  I don't know where you stand politically, but I think if you're open minded you could really enjoy it.

On a business related point, I don't know that I would pay a great deal of attention to the lists that the 5CStax decks played at Philly IV.  I don't say this because none of us made the top 8, but because I feel that there were a few flaws in our conception of what the metagame would be.  I know that, personally, I didn't have as much hate for Oath as I would have liked. 

As you noted, Dredge was 6% of the field.  Still, even with this in mind, I think that the 5CStax decks out there have to react to Dredge's recent victories by remaining at a high state of readiness for the match.  This means somewhere in the neighborhood of eight cards to be brought in for games two and three, at least.  Efforts should be made to find multifunctional hate that works well, and works well in multiple matches.

Hahaha, and your music taste is impeccable.

[FAVO!!!!1]

On a business related point, I don't know that I would pay a great deal of attention to the lists that the 5CStax decks played at Philly IV.  I don't say this because none of us made the top 8, but because I feel that there were a few flaws in our conception of what the metagame would be.  I know that, personally, I didn't have as much hate for Oath as I would have liked.  

As you noted, Dredge was 6% of the field.  Still, even with this in mind, I think that the 5CStax decks out there have to react to Dredge's recent victories by remaining at a high state of readiness for the match.  This means somewhere in the neighborhood of eight cards to be brought in for games two and three, at least.  Efforts should be made to find multifunctional hate that works well, and works well in multiple matches.

On top of that, you also have to consider the fact that Tez is still very much active in our metagame.

I did this yesterday as I was attempting to build a "The Deck" fixed for our meta, so I'll post it here. This is a short list of all the arch types and how often they top 8ed in our area, and where they placed in the top 8 (2 Blue Bell events, NYSE 3, and the Philly Open 4)

Tez (12)                          2 2 2 2 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 5
Dredge (4)                      1 3 3 5
Aggro/Fish Varients (3)     1 1 5
Oath (3)                         1 3 5
Stax (2)                         3 5
Red Shop Aggro (2)         3 5
TPS (2)                          5 5
Steel City (1)                   3
Counterbalance (1)          5
Painter (1)                      5
Landstill (1)                     5
Dragon into Tez (1)         5

Clearly, Tez is STILL the metagame favorite, despite the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge. Of course, this doesn't mean its the best deck to win the whole thing. But you still need to prepare for it, despite all the hype based around Oath and Dredge (which is clearly deserved, as the recent developments on those decks are pretty nuts.) So if your dedicating 8 sideboard slots to Dredge, you need to think about where the rest of your slots are going to go.

I'm not well versed in the making of a stax list, but I would imagine you definitely have a lot of homework when it comes to sideboarding.

There really is no pleasing some people... hopefully I'm not the only one that thinks its funny that my personal list of my personal favorites is getting criticized as "wrong".

By the way, I'm quoting this in my sig... That was well worth the epic lawlz.

[BruiZar]

Your PS3 list sort of sucks. Uncharted 1 and 2 are all you ever need to play. its the best adventure game ever. Beats Fallout 3, beats MW2, beats Bioshock, beats em all

What?  No love for Street Fighter 4?  Best fighting game in a while.

Only got love for Street Fighter 2 TURBO.

And let me rephrase that, it's not that the other games aren't worth playing, it's just that they all look and feel terrible after you've experienced Uncharted 2

[2nd_lawl]

everyone knows the PEE ESS TRIPLE has NOGAEMS

[sorcutt]

It's great being able to draft and walk away with fetches.  Any fetches. I will draft Zendikar until I can draft it no more.  Fetches are the gifts that keep on giving.  Walking away with Vintage Staples each week makes me want to give WOTC 10-12 bucks each week happily, as opposed to my usual 0 Bucks.

That's freaking hilarious.  

That was a great and insightful article.  I think the Alara and Zendikar blocks + M10 are really pushing me to try formats other than T1.  Not to mention I've been getting into EDH and there are some great cards in the recent sets for that format.