Oh, the Ways You Can Play Pt. 2

Features

Matsi883

8 December 2013

1682 views

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to Oh, the Ways you can Play. This is/will be a multi-part series on popular formats in Magic: the Gathering.

We are going to start by listing all the formats that we will discuss. Those formats are:

The Limited Formats

(Booster) Draft

Sealed (Deck)

The Constructed Formats

Block Constructed

Standard (Sometimes called Standard Constructed)

Modern (Sometimes called Modern Constructed)

Legacy (Sometimes called Legacy Constructed)

Vintage (Sometimes called Vintage Constructed)

Pauper

Commander/EDH

The formats in italics are the ones that we will be discussing today. Those formats are Block, Standard, and Modern. Those are Constructed formats.

What I will talk about…

When I talk about each format, I will talk about three things.

1a. I will state an overview of the format. I will state the sets legal in the format and I will also give the Banned/Restricted List for the format.

2a. If the format is a Constructed format, I will give a link to a sample decklist that won a recent Grand Prix. I will also give a link to the most recent Grand Prix in that particular format. I will also link the recent Grand Prix Finals from that format.

2b. If the format is a Limited format, I will give a link to a sample of a format. I will also give a link to the most recent Grand Prix in the Limited formats.

3a. I will tell you why that particular format is a good format and why you should play it.

Random Notes

• This is the second of a three-part series. The first part can be found [here](http://tappedout.net/mtg-articles/2013/nov/24/oh-ways-you-can-play-pt-1/). There is no need to read this series in order, but you can if you want to.
• After I finish with Commander/EDH and Pauper, I will do some less popular formats, thanks to wcdorrell’s suggestion. I will plan the order I write about them in at a later time, but right now I will be writing about Two-Headed Giant, Noble, Horde, Planechase, Team Sealed, and Archenemy. If thre are any other formats that you want me to write about, post them in the comment section.
• The metagame are the decks you can usually find in a Grand Prix.
• Grand Prix are “professional Magic: The Gathering tournaments, awarding cash prizes, Pro Points and invitations to Pro Tours.” (Wikipedia) The Top Four people from the Grand Prix go to a Pro Tour, which is a Grand Prix-like tournament for invited people only. If you want to know how you can get invited,[this](http://www.wizards.com/magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=mtgcom/protour/howtoqualify) is a good link for you.

And now, the formats:

Block Constructed

1. Block Constructed is a Constructed format where the cards legal are the cards in that “block,” or group of three sets released in the fall, winter, and spring, hence the name. Block (Constructed) is played like any normal Constructed game; you build a 60-card deck and play your game with it. The banned list for all blocks in Block Constructed is found here.

2. Block does not have Grand Prix, but it is used for one Pro Tour a year: the Pro Tour after the release of the spring set. A link to that last Pro Tour can be found here. The finals of that Pro Tour are below. The decklist that won the Pro Tour can be found here. And lastly, here is a link for the Theros Block metagame.

3. You should play Block Constructed because it encourages creativity. The bigger size of the card pool, the less creative your decks become and the more powerful net decks become. In one-set Block (Block before the second set is released), most pros don’t tries to tackle it, so every build you have is a homebrew. Block is also the cheapest Constructed format (a tier one deck costs $4.50), so Block is a good format for just getting in to tournament play.

Standard

1. Standard is a Constructed format where your deck has the cards that are “up to the standard of Wizards design,” or the last sets that came out, hence the name. Cards legal in Standard are cards released in the past two blocks. In this case, Standard consists of Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon’s Maze, Magic 2014 Core Set, Theros, and Born of the Gods (when it comes out on February 7th, 2014). Currently, there is no banned list for Standard, but if that changes, the banned list can be found here.

2. The last standard Grand Prix (at the time that I wrote this) can be found here, and the deck that won that Grand Prix can be found here. The finals of that match are below To get an idea of the Standard metagame, this is a great link.

3. You should play Standard, for starters, because most people do. Standard is the largest format to the point where my LGS (Local Game Store) has two FNM (Friday Night Magic, a sanctioned Magic tournament every Friday Night) tournaments, and one of them is Standard, every week. In the 2013 Grand Prix schedule, 13 out of the 45 Grand Prix were in Standard, second only to Limited, of which there were 22. Also, as I have said before, the smaller the card pool is, the more creative your decks are. Standard is the deck-builder’s format (usually) because Block is too small to count. Lastly, you usually open a lot of the newest sets. So most of your cards will be from Standard-legal sets, making it cheaper to play Standard than any other Constructed format (excluding Block, but nobody plays one or two-set Block, and three-set block is about as expensive as Standard).

Modern

1. Modern is a Constructed format where the cards in your deck use the “Modern” card frame, hence the name. The sets that are legal in Modern are from 8th-Edition and Mirrodin on, which was when the new card frames were introduced. There is a ban list in Modern, and you can find it here.

2. The last Modern Grand Prix can be found here, and the deck that won it can be found here. The finals of that Grand Prix can be found below. And the Modern metagame can be found here.

3. You should play Modern because it is a very powerful but balanced format. It is the perfect mix of everything. In Standard, there is balance but not a lot of power. Legacy and Vintage are very powerful but they have some very broken decks. Modern has power (for example: Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf), but balance too. It can also be called a poor man’s Legacy. Legacy is a powerful format with a lot of broken stuff, and Modern is a cheaper version of that, but with a more balanced metagame.

Conclusion

See you later. Next time, the formats will be Legacy and Vintage.

Until next time, may you have fun playing the format that suits you the best.

Matsi883

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