This week, I take a look at Innistrad, the next big set that comes out later this month. I go through each colour, picking out cards that seem interesting or fun from a gaming or design perspective.

After that is a discussion of the recent Banned and Restricted List announcement.

As always, you’re more than welcome to shout at me at show@deckconstruct.com, or sway over to the DC Forums for a public natter about Magic.

You’ll also find DC hanging around, like a gargoyle that forgot which building it’s meant to be posing on, at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC, Armed With Stake In Hand

Links

Innistrad Card Image Gallery

September 20 2011 DCI Banned & Restricted List Announcement

Music Credits

Intro: Galdson – Life is good
Innistrad: Pau Viguer Trío – 37,5 KMS
Banned and Restricted: Stefano Mocini – Rebirth
Outro: Dave Imbernön – Nothing

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week the show is all about GP London, a rather large Magic bash that took place last weekend. The first part is about my experiences of day 1 of the GP, the Saturday.

After that, it’s time to focus on the Legacy event on the Sunday. This was a fun event, but one that convinced me that Wizards Event Reporter is the software equivalent of a goblin with a litre of petrol and a box of matches.

As always, your electronic words are always welcome at show@deckconstruct.com, or why not hit up the DC Forums for public discussion of Magic and no-Magic topics.

You’ll also find DC flinging words around on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Also, don’t forget you can record a question, shoutout or comment to be featured on the podcast, using Vocaroo.com or WeTransfer. Check out the outro for details.

Thanks for listening!

- DC D6 Rollers

Music Credits

Intro: Jonathan Araldi – Sunrise (Funky Mix)
GP Day 1: 2Inventions – Adelaide (Silencegroove Remix)
GP Day 2: Nique – Purple Ocean
Outro: Darth Phader – Supermulticorehyperbreakbeatdisco

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week’s show is about Affinity, past, present and future. To start off with I look at Affinity’s past including early versions of the deck and how it terrorised Standard for so long.

After that I look at present-day versions of the deck and also at challenges that Affinity faces as New Phyrexia rolls into various formats. I talk about my build which I’ll play at the Legacy event at GP London, and about how Affinity has reconfigured itself to be competitive in Legacy today.

Your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome as always at show@deckconstruct.com, or head over to the DC Forums for public discussion about all things MTG and not MTG.

You’ll also find DC creeping ninja-like around the social hallways that are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC Secret Service Song Selectors

Links

Legacy Affinity decks at MTGDecks.net

Skullclamp banning announcement

Eight Plus One – The reasoning behind the banning eight Affinity cards

GP Orlando 2004 Affinity deck techs

Vocaroo.com

DC WeTransfer

Music Credits

Intro: Jonathan Araldi – Sunrise (Funky Mix)
Affinity Part 1: Terrafusion – Forge City and T-Polar – Satellites
Affinity Part 2: 2Inventions – Adelaide (Silencegroove Remix)
Your voice on DC: Nique – Purple Ocean
Outro: Darth Phader – Supermulticorehyperbreakbeatdisco

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week show kicks off with a look at some topics that made news over the past week. The Action set finally got a name and new promo cards were shown off for Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. I’m not sure that I’ll always do a “news bit” like this, but this week it made sense.

After that is some discussion of Legacy, specifically the Richmond Legacy League and the discussion of dual lands that raged over Twitter a few days ago.

As always I’d love to hear from you at show@deckconstruct.com, and check out the DC Forums with its shiny new makeover!

You’ll also find DC going house to social house on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC AutoTune Rehab House

Links

New Phyrexia announcement

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 Promo Cards

The SCG cheap(er) card list

MUD Bugs

Music Credits

Intro: Jonathan Araldi – Sunrise (Funky Mix)
Recent news: Nique – Purple Ocean
Legacy: Terrafusion – Forge City
Outro: Darth Phader – Supermulticorehyperbreakbeatdisco

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week’s show starts with a look at the Eternal Weekend, a three-day Eternal formats event held last weekend in Madrid, Spain. This was a huge event, and a really big deal for European Eternal players.

After that is a look at some Standard decks that grabbed first place at various States tournaments last weekend. States 2010 was also a big deal, this time for North American Standard players.

As always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated at show@deckconstruct.com, and why not hit the DC Forums, too?

DC is also on the glittery social tubes known as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC Titans

Links

La Universidad De las Artes Lúdicas
El Santuario (The Sanctuary)
Factoria de Mishra (Mishra’s Factory)
Poison Stompy

Big Red
UB Control
Valakut Ramp
Vampires
Kor Weenie
Naya Shaman

The Tribe, by Sam Stoddard

Music Credits

Intro: Tab – The Freakout Tent
The Eternal Weekend: Alik Project – Moon Project
States Scars Standard: Strange Republik – Dust
Outro: Ensono – Wild Mind

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This show is all about Legacy. First up is a recap of the DC Magic Workstation League gameday 2, in which 7 brave players pitted their decks in furious online combat, or something along those lines.

After that is a retelling of the Richmond Legacy League Season 2 Week 10, in which another 7 brave players put cardboard on pub table in offline MTG combat.

Your feedback is, as usual, much appreciated at show@deckconstruct.com, and why not swing by the DC Forums, too?

You’ll also find DC on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC On Ice

Music Credits

Intro: Tab – The Freakout Tent
DCMWSL Gameday 2: Alik Project – Moon Project
RLL Season 2 Week 10: Strange Republik – Dust
Outro: Ensono – Wild Mind

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week, I step into the future and give some predictions of what kinds of cards and decks will show up once Scars of Mirrodin rotates into Standard on October 1st.

After that, I quickly share a few words on the Scars dual lands, one of which was freshly revealed today.

As always, your comments, suggestions and cookie opinions are more than welcome at show@deckconstruct.com, and don’t forget to swing by the DC Forums to talk Magic there.

You’ll also find DC hanging out as usual in the crazy worlds of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC Spartans

Music Credits

Intro: Tab – The Freakout Tent
Scars Standard Part 1: Alik Project – Moon Project
Scars Standard Part 2: Strange Republik – Dust
Scars Duals: et_ – Domino
Outro: Ensono – Wild Mind

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week’s show starts with a look at some M11 cards that have been spoiled so far, including a card that I think is the most underrated (so far). I offer some observations for each card, and also talk about a sneaky reprint cycle of sorts that seems to be happening across the core sets!

After that is a quick recap of week 7 of season 2 of the Richmond Legacy League.

As always, your comments, suggestions and thoughts on how to make the England football team better are welcome at show@deckconstruct.com. Also, check out the DC Forums for some friendly MTG and non-MTG chat.

You’ll also find DC in the social world at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC Decepticons

Links

Magic 2011 pre-release information

Music Credits

Intro: The Go! Team – We Listen Everyday
M11 cards: Giuseppe Mirabella – Recordame
RLL: Matthew Stevens – Airships
Outro: hisboyelroy – Yage Cameras (hbe’s fractured rework)

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

This week’s show is one that I’ve wanted to do for a long time: a primer for newcomers to Magic. If you’ve played for a while, you might already know everything I talk about in this show, but a lot of DC’s audience are newcomers to the game.

To start off, I discuss what some of the more popular formats are comprised of and some miscellaneous things, too.

Next, I go over some Magic terms you’ll come across.

Lastly, I explain some keywords you’ll find in the game, and end with an explanation of some Magic slang you’ll probably hear while playing.

As always, your feedback is very much appreciated at show@deckconstruct.com. Also, check out the DC forums, especially if you’re not sure about some part of the game.

You’ll also find DC on the usual social wires at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Thanks for listening!

- DC Bonk Factory

Links

Ertai’s Lament

Magic Workstation League thread (new link)

Music Credits

Intro: The Go! Team – We Listen Everyday
Formats and Miscellaneous: Giuseppe Mirabella – Recordame
Terms: Matthew Stevens – Airships
Keywords and Slang: General Fuzz – Acclimate
Outro: hisboyelroy – Yage Cameras (hbe’s fractured rework)

The DeckConstruct podcast is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Noncommercial licence. You can play it anywhere you want, and you can share it with anyone, but you can’t sell it, or make your own episode.

Welcome to the first ever article on Deck Construct regarding the Eternal formats! I am really excited to be writing about my favourite card game and my favourite formats!

Ok, a little about me first, just to kick things off, and then we will get onto the more interesting stuff! I  live just outside of London, UK and play both Legacy and Vintage and maybe a little EDH. I have been playing since Mirrodin and then took a break when I moved to London during Ravnica Block and then started again during Lorwyn. One of the reasons I stopped playing was that I was heavily into Standard and couldn’t justify the cost of playing it any more, with having to invest in new sets every 3 months. When I came back to the game, I had a look round at what I could play and what formats were doing well and I stumbled across Legacy.

Legacy was interesting, because I had always fiddled around with Vintage (or Type 1, as I knew it) and I had lots of staple cards that I could play right away without any investment. I came back with a Mono Black Control deck (with Duress, Dark Ritual and suchlike) and discovered a wonderful world! I got totally destroyed, as I didn’t know about cards like Tarmogoyf and Counterbalance, but I totally loved playing competitive Magic again! I then started building my collection, buying Dual Lands, and other staples. It’s not an easy investment, but the rewards are well worth it! I will talk about this as part of this series also!

So, onto the more interesting stuff! This series of articles will, hopefully, share my experiences learning about Legacy and Vintage and growing as a player, as well as giving deck and meta game advice and, with some luck, entertain you along the way!

Now, when I started playing Magic and was introduced to the older formats of Type 1 and 1.5 (which is what Vintage and Legacy were called Way Back When), I was mesmerised by all the broken cards and powerful plays you could make, sometimes winning as soon as the first turn! As I learned about the games, I have found that while decks can and do win on the first turn, its often much later in the game that players finally kill their opponent. That said, I do love me some combo and am known in southern England as “the Belcher Guy” and have made top 8 in 3 of our larger UK Legacy tournaments playing something like this:

1 Land Belcher

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spells (43) 4 Burning Wish 4 Chrome Mox 4 Desperate Ritual 3 Empty the Warrens 4 Goblin Charbelcher 4 Land Grant 4 Lions Eye Diamond 4 Lotus Petal 4 Manamorphose 4 Rite of Flame 4 Seething Song creatures (16) 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Street Wraith 4 Tinder Wall lands (1) 1 Taiga sideboard (15) 4 Blood Moon 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Hull Breach 1 Pyroclasm 1 Reverent Silence 1 Shattering Spree 1 Telemin Performance 1 Tendrils of Agony 4 Xantid Swarm

This is a typical build, although you can play a 2 land version that includes Black and has Dark Rituals in it. It looks to generate 7 mana to drop and then activate Goblin Charbelcher to Belch your opponent for up to 104 damage on the first turn or use Empty the Warrens with a Storm Count between 5-8 (sometimes even more!) to generate 10 to 16+ 1/1 Goblin tokens on the first turn. Most opponents will struggle to beat something like this first turn, especially if they do not know what they are supposed to counter. This deck is a true Glass Cannon and rolls over to several different types of hate, but your worst, worst, worst Enemy is Force of Will! This card will put a crimp in your game all day long, so this is only a deck to be played when you play in a meta that you expect lots of Aggro or other versions of Control such as Lands! and Enchantress.

Once I started playing the Eternal formats more seriously, I learned that a lot of games, especially in Vintage, often consist of several turns of Draw, Go, before someone resolves a win condition (Wincon) and something like Oath in Vintage can do either:

Terastodon Oath

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lands (18) 4 Forbidden Orchard 1 Strip Mine 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Tolarian Academy 1 Forest 2 Island 1 Tropical Island 3 Underground Sea spells (39) 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Jet 1 Mana Crypt 1 Mox Ruby 1 Black Lotus 1 Sol Ring 4 Oath of Druids 1 Tinker 1 Tezzeret the Seeker 1 Time Vault 1 Voltaic Key 4 Spell Pierce 4 Force of Will 2 Senseis Divining Top 1 Yawgmoths Will 1 Regrowth 1 Time Walk 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Ponder 1 Gifts Ungiven 1 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Brainstorm 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Lat-Nams Legacy creatures (3) 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 1 Darksteel Colossus 1 Terastodon Sideboard (15) 1 Terastodon 2 Show and Tell 2 Duress 3 Natures Claim 4 Ravenous Trap 2 Tormod’s Crypt 1 Bribery

This deck was played by Vintage Legend Rich Shay at an event at the beginning of the year and won the event quite easily. It can be very explosive and can lay a turn 1 Oath of Druids, using Forbidden Orchard and a Mox. This can then lead to a turn 2 Iona, Shield of Emeria, shutting off your opponent’s main colour. You can also take infinite turns using Voltaic Key to untap Time Vault or Tinker up the Robot of your choice (robot is an affectionate term for an artifact creature). If this plan doesn’t work, you can also play the control game and wait for your opportunity to strike, sculpting your hand into the perfect win!

Many decks will be built to be controlling, using Force of Will, Daze, Mana Drain and even perhaps Thoughtseize or Duress to slow down or stop your game plan in order for them to resolve their threats and win the game. Some of them use almost all of these and can be very successful and a complete pain to play against! I love playing these decks, but am not very good at them, so I will use this column to see if we can track my improvement and maybe learn something together.

I will be testing and posting about almost every type of deck in the coming weeks and months, so don’t worry if you aren’t 100% up to date with the Eternal formats and decks, me and you can learn together! I know I am excited about this!

As a final note, I haven’t managed to think of a cheesy tag line yet, so I am going to run a little competition for it. The one the makes me cringe the most or burst out laughing will get the contributor a mention in my next article. Entries close on Sunday, the 27th of June at Midnight GMT. Please post your entries in the comments section below!

Thanks for reading! (See, how awful is that as a tagline?!!?!)