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A staggering amount of Magic content is published each day each day on a plethora of content sites, blogs, podcasts, and discussion forums. No matter how honest an effort you make, it's easy to fall behind and miss incredible articles because there just isn't enough time to read everything.
To that end, we've collected some of the best articles of the week covering a broad range of topics. If you're looking for articles, these are the ones you don't want to miss!
On C/Ube
When you cut the rares from your cube, you lose access to some of the splashy cards like Planeswalkers that define "traditional" cubes. But when you add uncommons like Flametongue Kavu and Skullclamp, it's not exactly a pauper cube either. In this article Eric Klug shares his cube list and philosophies and tackles some of the misconceptions about his Common/Uncommon Cube, complete with sample decklists and photos:
GatheringMagic.com: Eric Klug (@klug_alters) - C/Ube
I love to cube. More specifically, I love common/uncommon cubing, henceforth referred to as C/Ube. You can find my list here. It’s because of this love that I want to spread the joys of drafting C/Ube with as many members of the Magic community as possible. But before I do that, I feel the need to first set the record straight. There is a misconception about what sort of environment C/Ube provides and misunderstandings as to how to draft decks that are both fun and successful within it.
On Approaching Naya Aggro
Voice of Resurgence has taken over Standard in the last few weeks, and Naya seems to be the deck that's best poised to take advantage of this. You get to play the defining creatures of the format, and your threats match up well against the control and midrange decks. Willy Edel has been playing Naya for the last few months, and even introduced the idea of On-Demand Naya; that you could build Naya to be favored against any combinations of decks and cards as long as you were willing to give up ground in other matchups to make space. Needless to say, when Willy Edel has something to say about Naya in Standard, it's best to pay attention:
ChannelFireball.com: Willy Edel (@bazardebagda) - Domri Naya Primer
Recently, I wrote an article about how I came to the Naya list I used to Top 8 at GP Guadalajara last month. Since then, several people have asked for an updated list, sideboard guide, “on-demand” lists, or just general advice on how to play the deck against the most popular matchups.
Naya is still a great choice for the upcoming Standard GP and the remainder of the PTQ season. It is a deck that naturally preys on aggro (not Bant Hexproof, though, which is bad) and stumbles against control decks. Against midrange, the matchup is pretty much even and highly depends on how you build your own version.
On Naya Matchups
So Willy Edel wrote an awesome primer that goes into detail on why Naya is good, how to approach building it, and how to think about playing it. It's almost perfect that, in the same week, Brian Braun-Duin recorded a set of matchup videos featuring his take on Naya. This is an awesome series of videos that shows you how the deck plays against some of the more common strategies in Standard. Brian does a great job of talking through his decisions and there's a lot to be learned from these videos. If you're interested in giving Naya a try, you definitely want to check out Brian's article first:
StarCityGames.com: Brian Braun-Duin (@BraunDuinIt) - Rade Againt the Machine
I feel like this deck is fairly well positioned right now. It has the tools to go over the top of the other Naya decks that are more aggressive, yet it still has the power level to compete with the various midrange decks of the format. Control is pretty nonexistent at the moment.
For the most part, I've kept his list intact, but I did want to make a few changes to account for a shift in the metagame and my own personal preferences.
For one, I'm playing Rest in Peace in my sideboard. I feel like Rest in Peace is one of the best cards in the format that nobody is really considering or playing at the moment. It's a solid value card against Junk Reanimator—it won't win you the game, but it can dilute their strategy—and it's the best card in the format against Junk Aristocrats. Likewise, it is very good against the Act II version of The Aristocrats, although it isn't quite the same game ender there.
Against Junk Aristocrats, it severely limits or completely and utterly invalidates Lingering Souls; Varolz, the Scar-Striped; Doomed Traveler; Young Wolf; Voice of Resurgence; Skirsdag High Priest; Blood Artist; and Tragic Slip. The powerful and synergistic Junk Aristocrats list becomes a pile of Squires and Grizzly Bears with a Rest in Peace in play. You could probably beat them with a pair of Mindless Nulls, a rusty nail, and a roast beef sandwich at that point.
On Reid Duke and Jund
Ever since he won the Magic Online Championship Series with an innovative Jund deck featuring Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows and the newly-printed Liliana of the Veil, Reid Duke has been associated with Jund. It was no surprised that he played a sweet Jund deck at Pro Tour Gatecrash, and that he's continued his explorations of the deck with Dragon's Maze. This week Reid joined Scott MacCallum on his stream, Compulsive Research. Each week Scott invites a guest and plays Magic Online for a few hours with the goal of learning as much as possible along the way. Scott is an awesome host for the stream, and the combination of awesome stories, lessons learned, and insane guests makes this a stream you don't want to miss:
LegitMTG.com: Scott MacCallum and Reid Duke (@mrscottymac and @ReidDuke) - The Duke of Jund
I have a confession to make: I love Jund.
In any format that Jund is legal and remotely well-positioned, I will likely be playing it. Modern Mastery saw me take Jund to GP Toronto, and I was very happy with its play even if I did not make Day 2. Jund is traditionally the most midrange of all the decks in a format. It plays a bunch of powerful cards, with versatile removal and effective disruption designed to progress the game to a topdeck war, where the card quality of Jund will ultimately outpace the opponent’s. Jund is the most played deck in any given Standard tournament today. It is very popular because of its linear game plan and resilience against the field. If there was going to be anyone that I would want piloting us through the demonstration of this deck, it was of course none other that the Jund Master himself, Reid Duke.
Reid has been a longtime advocate of Jund across a number of formats. He has been called the progenitor of the deck for Modern, and everyone looks to him for the lead on tech for it in Standard. He has also been working with Owen Turtenwald at length since preparation for PT Gatecrash, where Owen took their collaborative efforts to his first Pro Tour Top 8 finish. Reid’s intimate experience with the deck and his decidedly “Canadian” attitude made him the only choice for this project.
On Deadbridge Chant
What do you get when you combine Deadbridge Chant and Séance? It's a sneak peek at Chris Lansdell's most recent FNM brew. Chris's column, Achievement Unlocked, speaks to the FNM player in all of us. Sure, maybe Naya or Jund is the best deck, but somtimes it's about the experience rather than the wins. You can't tell awesome stories about populating Craterhoof Behemoth tokens if you don't go for it, right? If you're looking to channel your inner social-player and have a blast playing the kind of decks that epic stories are made of, look no further than Achievement Unlocked.
ManaDeprived.com: Chris Lansdell (@lansdellicious) - No Chants in Hell
Battle Plan
A quick review of the Durdle’s Guide entry for Deadbridge Chant gives me my first achievement goal:
Target 1: Have both Séance and Deadbridge Chant in play The main reason for putting this together. As I said in my review, hawing these two together just doesn’t feel fair in the slightest. The amount of things that happen in your upkeep can sometimes make you forget to draw a card it’s that good.
Target 2: Populate an Angel of Serenity token Pretty much as disgusting as it sounds. Clearly if we’re running a graveyard strategy in Junk colours we’re going to be playing the Angel, and bringing it in with a Séance while you have Trostani out is basically a nasty lock against any creature deck.
Have two Chants in play together Because THAT’S fair.
A little short on the targets to start with, but the decklist might yield some more.
On Community Deckbuilding
When Adam Styborski first took up his quarters in The Command Tower a few weeks ago, his vision for the column included unprecedented community involvement. Now, several weeks later, we're really starting to see how that has played out. Over the last few weeks, Adam has asked the community for suggestions and ideas for a Melek, Izzet Paragon Commander deck. Now, he's assembled a 99 card deck built based on suggestions from the readers. This week, Adam tackles the issue of tuning a deck that may be pulling in many directions at once, and looks at your suggestions for changing the deck to be more streamlined and focused on a particular goal.
DailyMTG.com: Adam Styborski (@the_stybs) - The Masters
Creating a Commander deck from scratch can be tough, but even just changing a deck you already have can be hard. When you're talking about sixty, seventy, or even more unique cards the options can be daunting.
That's what we were faced with two weeks ago when we gathered together the submissions for a Melek, Izzet Paragon Commander deck built from many of your suggestions.
It's a Melek deck that elicited mixed reactions, exactly as I had hoped. We asked ourselves a straightforward question: What simple changes would you make to this deck to improve it? (Alternatively, what's wrong with this deck and what would you do differently?) Some of you answered that you would wouldn't change much, and that you loved the deck.
Great. Stop here and skip to this week's prompt at the bottom, unless seeing how others did change perfection is something that still interests you.
For most of you, there were plenty of tweaks, changes, clarifications, and adjustments you'd make yourselves. Even many of you who liked the deck still shared some changes you'd apply. Today, we'll run down a lot of your feedback and apply what we can to turn the dials on this Melek deck all the way to eleven.
If you have suggestions for next week's recap you can mention us on Twitter, or share throughout the week in the comments below.
