Well, I'm under the weather a bit and been busy with work. Believe it or not, my nickname of ToreroTutor does not mean i help you find combo pieces from your library, but actually my job. Finals season is a busy time for me. Anyhow, where to start!?
Howzaboutz over with the SCG talent search?
Molten Between Two Volcanoes by Valeriy Shunkov is one of the best SCG articles I've seen thus far. He does an amazing job of breaking down all matchups from the perspective of the Valakut pilot. While there's many good decks in Standard, anyone who's "in the know", is saying that Valakut is far and away the best deck. He breaks down his own decklist and compares it to @G3rryT's list, talks about strengths of both decks. I also like that he provided a bit of strategy of how to play against the deck at the end. Sweet article, that was well written and easy to read. Earned my vote this week.
While over on SCG, I ran across one from one of my favorites. They really have to separate the Talent Search stuff from the other "Select" writers. I feel like Sam's stuff gets lost in the spam of articles that all go up at once on that half of the page. When Sam tweeted, "How many decklists are too many in a format overview?" I was worried. But, as usual, he delivered with: Extended 7 Ways by Sam Stoddard. A really great overview of the upcoming extended season, and combine this with the tech we should be seeing coming out of Worlds, and I'll be able to slam together something for the first wave of PTQs.
Speaking of World's tech, the Brewery over at QuietSpeculation.com was way ahead of the curve in talking about the new Caw-Go deck revealed at Worlds yesterday. Even SCG said that they won't be releasing Kibler's article on the deck until tomorrow. Dylan Lerch put together Dissecting Standard Caw-Go. His analysis, as always, was extremely detailed. He discussed all the card choices in detail, as well as the strengths of the deck, and also raises some points on the card chocies that weren't obvious. One thing that I belive he overlooked about this deck, is Squadron Hawks synergy with Jace TMS. He mentions that it can be used as a post-brainstorm shuffle, which is certainly a plus. My first reaction was: "Holy shit, how did I not think of this before? I can put 3 hawks in my hand, brainstorm, and put 2 back. Cast another, and get my 2 squadron hawks back." The Brainstorm+Squadron Hawk combo becomes a true Draw 3 + fliers. I love me a draw-3.
Yet another World's tech article came from PV at ChannelFireball.com. This is the first enjoyable read I've picked up from there recently. He talks about the version of U/B control he is playing at Worlds. In My Standard Deck for Worlds, he talks about card choices and sideboard plan against the field. Talks about sweet tech like Mindbreak Trap also. Another thing he does is drop some knowledge form his other testing matchups like Demon of Death's Gate in B/r Vampires against Valakut as a sideboard tech option. While very informative, the article was somewhat dry.
Twitter-spam-a-holic @smi77y put up a piece over at ManaNation.com about his most recent brewing success: G/W Tokens. I was somewhat surprised to see this. He does a great job constantly promoting his own site, 60cards.com, and had written about this deck at length there. Perhaps this was an opportunity for him to plug his site, and he jumped on it. In either case, it was a great article. The deck is a blast, as I've toyed around with it myself, but isn't the type of thing I'd typically sleeve up for an FNM. The sideboard guide is complete, and the deck is strong enough on its own merit that one could pick this up and play it successfully right away. He really cuts right to the chase describing the general game plan in most matchups as well as his reccomended sideboard options.
I wish I could have done more on the blog this week, but illness/business prevailed this time. Here's to hoping I can get a regular schedule going for next week!
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