Today I will be breaking down picks in a M11 draft. I will be using the packs generated by the draft simulator at magicthegathering.com.

Pack 1 Pick 1:
Child of Night, Cloud Crusader, Thunder Strike, Azure Drake. Yavimaya Wurm, plummet, Arc Runner. Jace?s Erasure, Tireless Missionaries, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Condemn, Dragon?s Claw, War Priest of Thune, Vengeful Archon

Pick 1: Vengeful Archon
This card is a good bomb. The person to your left is getting a weak signal though since you are shipping a pack where white is the best color and taking a white bomb. It is ultimately okay since you will be looking at two packs with good white cards as compared to those on your left who are looking at one pack with good white cards.

Pack 1 Pick 2:
Cloud Crusader, Nightwing Shade, Mana Leak, Runeclaw Bear, Vulshock Beserker, Gravedigger, Lava Axe, Disentomb, Demolish, Armored Cancrix, Reassembling Skeleton, Angel?s Feather, Sunpetal Grove

Pick 2: It?s between Gravedigger and Cloud Crusader. I would ultimately go with Gravedigger because he is a better card and you didn?t ship any great black in pack 1 so as long as black gets passed to you its open.

Pack 1 Pick 3:
Volcanic Strength, Cultivate, Liliana?s Specter, Blinding Mage, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Palace Guard, Preordain, Primal Cocoon, Incite, Cancel, Elixir of Immortality, Chandra?s Spitfire

Pick 3: Blinding Mage
There is no other card that your deck needs more than this. It is removal.
Pack 1 Pick 4:
Cloud Elemental, Giant Spider, Giant Growth, Infantry Veteran, Disentomb, Pyrretic Ritual, Fog, Bog raiders, Excommunicate, Ornithopter, Prized Unicorn

Pick 4: Excommunicate
This pack is fairly lackluster for the deck, but Excommunicate isn?t a terrible card.

Pack 1 Pick 5:
Cultivate, Act of Treason, Safe Passage, Aether Adept, Harbor Serpent, Holy Strength, Tome Scour, Goblin Tunneler, Incite, Nature?s Spiral

Pick 5: Safe Passage

Pack 1 Pick 6:
Quag Sickness, Fiery Hellhound, Diminish, Wild Griffin, Sign in Blood, Greater Basilisk, Giant Spider, Back to Nature, Glacial Fortress

Pick 6: Quag Sickness
This pack is full of great cards. We need the removal so the Quag Sickness is taken over the Wild Griffin without much thought.

Pack 1 Pick 7:
Naturalize, Blood Tithe, Harbor Serpent, Solemn Offering, Hunter?s Feast, Unholy Strength, Ajani?s Pridemate, Demon?s Horn

Pick 7: Ajani?s Pridemate
Since it is still early in the draft, we don?t need to worry about picking up Solemn Offering over a creature that we need for the maindeck.

Pack 1 Pick 8:
Negate, Siege Mastodon, Rotting Legion, Silvercoat Lion, Rise from the Grave, Wall of Frost, Goblin Chieftain

Pick 8: Rise from the Grave
This card is better in a deck that has good things to bring back. Having the Archon makes this card better than any of the other cards in the pack.

Pack 1 Pick 9:
Plummet, Arc Runner, Jace?s Erasure, Tireless Missionaries, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Dragon?s Claw

Pick 9: Plummet or Jace?s Erasure
I would probably take the Plummet so that there are less things at the table that can kill my Archon. Taking the Erasure is probably not worth it since there were not a lot of Tome Scours being passed around.

Pack 1 Pick 10:
Lava Axe, Disentomb, Demolish, Armored Crancrix, Angel?s Feather

Pick 10: Disentomb

Pack 1 Pick 11: Elixir of Immortality

Pack 1 Pick 12: Fog

Pack 1 Pick 13: Tomescour

Pack 1 Pick 14: Back to Nature

Pack 2 Pick 1:
Cloud Elemental, Mighty Leap, Nether Horror, Lightning Bolt, Pyroclasm, Stabbing Pain, Wall of Vines, Ajani?s Mantra, Armored Cancrix, Fling, Whispersilk Cloak, Wall of Frost, Lilliana?s Caress, Leyline of the Void

Pick 1: Whispersilk Cloak
Pretty unimpressive pack two open for us. Whispersilk Cloak isn?t bad but I was hoping to open removal.

Pack 2 Pick 2:
Scroll Thief, Sacred Wolf, Child of Night, Cloud Crusader, Thunder Strike, Azure Drake, Nether Horror, Giant Spider, Aether Adept, Rotting Legion, Juggernaut, Deathmark, Earth Servant

Pick 2: Juggernaut
I like the Cloud Crusader a lot, but the Juggernaut on turn four is just a better play.

Pack 2 Pick 3:
Stormfront Pegasus, Runeclaw Bear, Quag Sickness, Fiery Hellhound, Diminish, Doom Blade, Ice Cage, Giant Spider, Goblin Picker, White Knight, Diabolic Tutor, Roc Egg

Pick 3: Doom Blade
In my opinion the best common removal spell in the set. Happy to see it and a pack full of playable cards. Something we want is bound to table.

Pack 2 Pick 4:
Sylvan Ranger, Rotting Legion, Safe Passage, Fling, Bog Raiders, Lava Axe, Goldenglow Moth, Unsummon, Infantry Veteran, Rise from the Grave, Ornithopter

Pick 4: Rise from the Grave
Very unexciting pack to follow the last.

Pack 2 Pick 5:
Inspired Charge, Barony Vampire, Phantom Beast, Garruk?s Companion, Bog Raiders, Lava Axe, Goldenglow Moth, Unsummon, Relentless Rats, Glacial Fortress

Pick 5: Barony Vampire
Once again, another lackluster pack.

Pack 2 Pick 6:
Barony Vampire, Sacred Wolf, Harbor Serpent, Stabbing Pain, Wall of Vines, Ajani?s Mantra, Armored Cancrix, Jace?s Ingenuity, Call to Mind

Pick 6: Barony Vampire

Pack 2 Pick 7:
Runeclaw Bear, Siege Mastodon, Augury Owl, Sylvan Ranger, Rotting Legion, Awakener Druid, Voltaic Key, Silence

Pick 7: Siege Mastodon
I think Rotting Legion is playable, but I like the fact that Siege Mastodon comes into play untapped to block stuff.

Pack 2 Pick 8:
Palace Guard, Hunter?s Feast, Maritime Guard, Blood Tithe, Alluring Siren, Wurm?s Tooth, Necrotic Plague

Pick 8: Necrotic Plague
After playing with this card, I came to the realization that it isn?t that bad. It is easily playable in a deck that needs removal with a large amount of creatures or gravediggers.

Pack 2 Pick 9:
Wall of Vines, Ajani?s Mantra, Armored Cancrix, Fling, Liliana?s Caress, Leyline of the Void

Pick 9: Fling

Pack 2 Pick 10:
Scroll Thief, Sacred Wolf, Child of Night, Nether Horror, Deathmark

Pick 10: Child of Night
We need the two drop.

Pack 2 Pick 11: Roc Egg

Pack 2 Pick 12: Unsummon

Pack 2 Pick 13: Relentless Rats

Pack 2 Pick 14: Wall of Vines

Pack 3 Pick 1:
Llanowar Elves, Assault Griffin, Azure Drake, Barony Vampire, Maniac Vandals, Sacred Wolf, Merfolk Spy, Terramorphic Expanse, Wall of Vines, Demolish, Serra Angel, Autumn?s Veil, Alluring Siren, Leyline of Anticipation

Pick 1: Serra Angel
Basically an uncommon bomb.

Pack 3 Pick 2:
Cloud Elemental, Cultivate, Goblin Piker, Mighty Leap, Hornet Sting, Demolish, Merfolk Spy, Infantry Veteran, Viscera Seer, Fog, Mind Control, Wurm?s Tooth, Celestial Purge

Pick 2: Mightly Leap
Sadly I hate shipping Mind Control.

Pack 3 Pick 3:
Beserkers of Blood Ridge, Mana Leak, Inspired Charge, Incite, Cancel, Duress, Squadron Hawk, Goblin Tunneler, Jace?s Erasure, Shiv?s Embrace, War Priest of Thune, Cyclops Gladiator

Pick 3: War Priest of Thune
This pack is full of red goodies that we can?t take.

Pack 3 Pick 4:
Phantom Beast, Squadron Hawk, Cancel, Primal Cocoon, Mind Rot, Brindle Boar, Bloodcrazed Gobline, Awakener Druid, Autumn?s Veil, Roc Egg, Mass Polymorph

Pick 4: Roc Egg

Pack 3 Pick 5:
Sylvan Ranger, Silvercoat Lion, Goldenglow Moth, Viscera Seer, Wall of Vines, Fling, Infantry Veteran, Lava Axe, Elite Vanguard, Serra Ascendant

Pick 5: Serra Ascendant
With the Pridemate and Child of Night in our deck, there is enough of a benefit from this card to take it over the Elite Vanguard

Pack 3 Pick 6:
Thunder Strike, Cloud Crusader, Nightwing Shade, Hornet Sting, Fling, Unsummon, Excommunicate, Ember Hauler, Nature?s Spiral

Pick 6: Cloud Crusader

Pack 3 Pick 7:
Wild Griffin, Negate, Fiery Hellhound, Phantom Beast, Nether Horror, Ice Cage, Call to Mind, Wild Evocation

Pick 7: Wild Griffin

Pack 3 Pick 8:
Augury Owl, Hunter?s Feast, Unholy Strength, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Palace Guard, Dryad?s Favor, Honor of the Pure

Pick 8: Honor of the Pure

Pack 3 Pick 9: Leyline of Anticipation

Pack 3 Pick 10: Infantry Veteran

Pack 3 Pick 11: Jace?s Erasure

Pack 3 Pick 12: Autumn?s Veil

Pack 3 Pick 13: Wall of Vines

Pack 3 Pick 14: Hornet Sting

I was recently emailed by someone who asked me to discuss post rotation extended. In this article that is what I will be focusing on, post rotation extended, with a small discussion on the new standard with Magic 2011.

The main concern with a few of the people I know is whether or not the format will be healthy and diverse when Timespiral block rotates out. Faeries is the deck that will survive almost unharmed. The big loss with the rotation is Ancestral Visions. One problem with trying to analyze this future metagame is that there will be a whole new set, Scars of Mirrodin. Most people will be looking at Lorwyn era standard and block decks for inspiration. This is a good place to start looking. Some of the big decks were Elves, Fae, Demigod Red, 5CC, Boat Brew, Reveillark, and BW Tokens. These were all strong decks during the standard format in which they were legal. I think that Jund will also be a deck to look at for the new extended. I would not worry too much now though about this new extended. Since the metagame is largely unknown you can only test for a hypothetical metagame in which the decks are mostly unchanged. It is better to wait until Scars of Mirrodin comes out to really start testing this new extended. But for now I think it will be like standard was a year ago, with Fae as the deck to beat.

Magic 2011 has proven to be a strong set. This weekend will be the first set of PTQs with M11 Standard. I think the big thing is whether or not the Fauna Shaman decks will live up to the hype. M11 has quite a few cards that could very well change the metagame. I don't foresee this as a bad thing since Jund, the bane of standard, has to worry about whether or not running blightning in main is a good idea. Blightning is one of Jund's strongest cards because of the cascade mechanic. I think control will make a larger showing than expected because it gained one crucial card, Mana Leak. We'll see though.

Most of the time, I am not that excited when a core set is about to come out. There is usually nothing I find exciting about a new core set. This is not the case with M11. I am finding M11 to be very interesting, for both constructed and limited. The set seems like a very strong limited set, especially for a core set. It seems that all of the colors are strong in limited. Green as always has strong creatures and mana fixing. Red has good mid-range creatures and removal. White has good early creatures and removal. Blue has mass creatures with evasion and card control. Black has the best removal and solid creatures to back it up. I am personally looking forward to drafting M11. It seems like a fun set to draft.

For constructed this set has many different new cards to offer. The card I am most excited about is Mana Leak. I love 2 mana counterspells. Mana leak is a great one. I am glad to see that R&D sees that 2 mana counterspells are not overpowered. I think since they are increasing the power creep of all the colors Mana Leak is a great blue card to include that matches the new power level of the other colored cards. It is an almost guaranteed counterspell on turns 2-5 but on turns 6+ it may not be guaranteed. It will most certainly become a staple once again in the standard metagame.

Another card I find that could see a lot of constructed play is Destructive Force. Wildfire was a great control and mid-range card when it was in standard. For one more mana you kill one more land and do one more damage than Wildfire with Destructive Force. I think there are ample cards to abuse with it to make it a standard powerhouse. Everflowing Chalice and Borderposts are a great way to accelerate into Destructive Force while being able to keep some of your mana sources. The 5 damage it deals is quite a bit since it kills almost everything that would be in play, one of the most important creatures it can kill being Baneslayer Angel. I am very excited to see this card printed.

The titans are obvious powerhouses for both limited and constructed. I think the one I look most forward to playing with is Primeval Titan. Being able to bring in nonbasic lands from your deck is a serious advantage. One of the decks I want to play it in before the card rotates is Warp World. I love the std deck. It is potentially one of the most fun cards that I think has ever been printed. The list would look something like this:

We are now in the middle of the std ptq season. I have been asked by several people recently what to play. That is a very tough question to answer. The metagame is fairly diverse right now. Although there are the three decks sitting at the top, there are several second tier decks. Mythic Bant, UW Control, and Jund are currently the three "best" decks in std. Jund is still the technically the "deck to beat". The problem is that whenever someone asks me what deck they should play in the next ptq, I answer it by telling them what I would play in the next ptq. What I am comfortable playing may not be as fun of a deck for someone else. I also may understand the deck better than the person asking. There are many different factors into why I would chose to play the deck I say. One of the most important factors is that I am comfortable playing the deck. I would rather someone play a second tier deck they know very well and are comfortable with than play a first tier deck they know nothing about and are confused when playing it. You may be playing the best deck in the format, but if you don't know the deck very well you are probably more likely to make mistakes playing that first tier deck than playing the second tier deck that they know very well. Std is very healthy right now with plenty of good decks to play. The best way to prepare for a ptq is to practice. If you pick a deck and practice with it, you are more likely to do well with it than a deck you didn't practice with, no matter how good that deck is.

So instead of relying on someone's opinion on a deck, try testing multiple decks out to see what you like to play. Tournament Magic can get pretty serious but you still want to have fun playing. But for those still interested, here is the 75 I would play at the next ptq.

Next Level Bant

Hey there, my name is David Thomas. I am a local Katy player and will be writing an article at least once a week here at 3rdcoastcards.com. As of now, I have no set agenda for the topics of each article so they will likely be chosen spur of the moment. Today's article is about my first Pro Tour Experience, Pro Tour San Juan.

I qualified for the Pro Tour from my total rating. It was after Grand Prix Boston that I realized that I had a shot at qualifying for the Pro Tour off my rating. I grinded 8-man draft pods until I was lock in for top 100 total.

To practice for the event I mostly played with locals and used Magic Online. Thanks to some friends in the area, I was able to grind in practice matches using generic decks from block. From these results I came to the conclusion that I wanted to play UW Control at the PT. Jace is just too good not to play. I started with your standard UW Control list and went from there.

Here is the 75 I played at San Juan.