Confession time... I'm the Mono-Red player at my local game store. I started playing Standard when I was a freshman in high school, and I didn't have a ton of extra money to buy cards. My only option was to win FNMs and other small tournaments in order to win packs to build a collection slowly. The easiest way to win, and spend the least amount of money was picking up a Red deck. After a while, I enjoyed winning games quickly, so that I could eat in between rounds. I took my budget option to my first larger tournament, SCG Regionals, in Nashville, Tennessee. This tournament was a total of 250 people, and our typical FNM was about 20 people max. I was very nervous, and I was looking at this t

Standard is a great place right now. There are a variety of decks that are competitive, and many decks that are still unexplored. The last bans have changed the landscape of the format from a brewer's nightmare to a brewer's paradise. Being a brewer myself, it was difficult choosing a particular deck that I wanted to try to move up the rank ladder. The deck that I decided to take a look at is Simic Mutate. After having a blast in one game with Simic Mutate, I knew that this was the deck that I wanted to write about. Simic Mutate is not a completely new deck, but I believe the new additions from Zendikar Rising gives Mutate the ability to consistently snowball with a powerful engine. Looking

Here we are again, a new standard format. Omnath, Locus of Creation, Lucky Clover, and Escape of the Wilds were all banned in Standard. At t

Hello All! Wizards of the Coast just dropped a BOMBSHELL of an B&R announcement today! After a very polarizing Grand Finals weekend tournament, Wizards felt that now is the time to take actions against some of the cards that the community has been calling for. This B&R hits a few different formats so we'll be taking a look at everything and implications going forward for each of the formats! First off lets start with Standard: Omnath, Locust of Creation is Banned Lucky Clover is Banned Escape to the Wilds is Banned This is surprising but not that surprising. Omnath was a card that has been deemed far too strong since it's release a few weeks ago. The 4 Color Omnath decks were dominating the

New Format With the Banning of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, it's Mono-Red Aggro's time to shine. Uro's life gain has long been a thorn in the side of aggressive decks, but it is time to believe in the Cleave! The State of Standard Before we take a look at Mono-Red, let's take a look at the current format. Standard holds a new boogie man, Omnath, Locus of Creation. Omnath comes from the same mold of Uro, a combination of card advantage, ramp, and life gain. As we have seen before, this mix is powerful enough to warp the format around a single card. Unlike most, I like when there is a clear villain in standard, because it is the best time to metagame for a tournament. Looking at the differenc