Cards
So most of my Magic comments these days are usually related to 5color highlander, since it's primarily what I've played since Sam introduced me to it some 9 years ago.
However, I of course used to play a lot of 60 card constructed (and even used to to well in tournaments back when I still went). Also around Kalamazoo no one played 5color until the last year (finally!!), and so I'd put together decks for that. This was mainly limited to getting some people to play Block Party for some time and making decks for local Vintage tournaments, since there was a huge Vintage scene in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek/Lansing/Grand Rapids (we can say SW Michigan) area for awhile, and all my friends played (and most had power).
Well, so my only friend who plays cards in Tokyo plays 60 card constructed. He was facing off against my 5color stack the last year because that's all I'd brought initially on the plane, but I promised him when I went home for break I'd bring some other decks back with me so there was some more variety (he has a number of decks assembled). His decks are more casual, but certainly they are not by any means bad, and although he's not a huge rules guru and doesn't have a ton of really great cards, he's got decent cards and certainly knows how to play well. He, also like me, is not really really up on newer cards, but has a few here and there that caught his eye (much like me). So, the format is basically 60 card constructed with something like Vintage B&R, although Legacy B&R would probably be just as acceptable, since mainly it's a matter of older cards being legal like dual lands and some other stuff (StP, and so on).
As a note I will say that I'm hardly a rules guru either. I used to really really know my shit, but along with not keeping up on cards, I also don't keep up on some fine points of rulings as much either. I think the only ruling I was wondering about recently was how Compost would work with Wheel of Fortune in terms of active player, when the cards are drawn, and when they are discarded. Does it matter who plays the Wheel? Do you always or never draw extra cards on black discard, or do you just mill? Do you even mill? (This came up, incidentally, since Carter expressed interest in building enchantress hi-5, and asked if I had any input, and I named an absolute slew of cards and different approaches, and I'd mentioned Compost as potentially decent, particularly in multiplayer, although myself I'd tried it for awhile in non-enchantress but multiplayer and it wasn't spectacular -- certainly it'll whop a camel's ass with Oath, esp. in multiplayer). But even to the extent that I know rules, I'm not too picky about things, though I do insist that things are worked out correctly if we know how, and if it seems relevant we might look up rulings, but usually I'm fine to just agree on how it makes sense something would work based on rules reasoning.
Chase and I haven't had a chance to play yet since I got back (maybe this weekend) so there will be more posts forth-coming.
For now I'll say that my Block Party decks are 1 from Mirage (3-4 color Song of Blood + Ertai's Familiar + Barrow Ghoul / Circling Vultures / Necratog) and 1 from Rath Cycle (Curious George, a mono-U metagame deck from back in the day which is control with a mana curve basically; they are good Block showcases as well, including phasing, flanking, shadow, buyback, and licids. Sam, if you're reading, I'd like to say that since you're in the real scene these days and also in the know, why isn't Block Party an officially supported format? To my opinion, it's got to be easily one of the top constructed formats of all time, even only having played it a little bit. It firstly allows both new and old players to reasonably play without needing cards they don't have. The deck-building cost, at least until it gains wide-spread popularity or unless you are playing one of the most recent blocks, is probably the lowest in all of constructed tournaments even for what would probably be top tier decks. If you think about it, there were lots of cards that might have been $20 rares back in the active block, but many of them are now much cheaper. I think I spent maybe $20-$30 on each of my block decks (although 4 Wastelands these days will rather kick your ass for price). And even if Block Party did pick up, there are so many blocks and so many good block rares that I can't imagine prices could inflate that much on any specific cards. The final reason I think it's interesting is that metagaming is just really amazing. There's tons of depth to the format. I agree the depth might be a slight hindrance to newer players, which might be argued against my above point of accessibility, but this is more the problem of not knowing how to build a sideboard or metagame and maybe being surprised than a problem for deck construction itself. And certainly it would be a better way for a player to learn cards than trying to pick up one of the other older formats, since at least deck construction card pools are still limited, and for a given deck, you only need to consider a very few number of cards relatively speaking.
And of course one might believe that it could be bad because some blocks would totally dominate, but personally I highly doubt it. I mean, the Mirage deck I was playing, when a similar variant was played by two people at the DCI invitational years ago, neither one of the players did that well. But I was playing with it against hardcore Ravager before many/any bannings (I think, in fact, he was playing 4@ many of the cards now listed as banned). Once I was maindecking some Uktabi Orangutans and knew how to play against the deck, I was at 50% win ratio, and we didn't sideboard (although one could call Uktabi's sideboarding, although it's not clear to me that this would be a bad choice for the maindeck in a universal Block Party format). I'm not sure, but I don't think many other decks even in Mirrodin block could really claim this, and certainly not by only adding 4 copies of one card that already fits into the main deck from a standard build that is blind of Ravager-styled decks.
And Curious George was giving a serious beating to my friend's Tooth and Nail deck as well, and Curious George was a Rath-cycle metagame deck, not even what you'd call a standard deck from the block. Granted it's one of my favorite decks of all time, but the point remains that fucking random janky decks I made could hold their own against what are probably some of the more powerful block decks ever. Personally I think Curious George would dominate the hell out of a lot of decks, but it's a very flexible control deck, so this isn't very odd.
Onto Vintage. So when prompted by friends to play in local Vintage tournaments, where I could either borrow some cards from them, proxy, or just not care about power, I was like, meh, I'll play Stasis because Stasis doesn't care that much what it's playing against. Even not playing Vintage at all, nor really playtesting, I won one tournament and did no worse than about even number of match wins and match losses. Of course Carter has also commented that I'm the best Stasis player he's ever seen, but I can't attest that he's seen many Stasis players, and I have variously played Stasis since like 1994. I think this comment arose more from him watching me play a lot of games, seriously disagreeing with something like half of all my plays, and then I'd turn around to win the game from how I'd done things. That could be like just saying Carter doesn't know much about playing Stasis, but he's certainly one of the best players in the Kalamazoo area when he wants to be (and one of the better players I've had much of a chance to play against).
So, in any case, Stasis was the third deck I've brought back with me. I'll need to talk to Chase and see if he prefers Legacy or Vintage B&R, and if he doesn't care (likely he will not) then it's an issue to choose myself, which isn't so obvious. Are 4 Brainstorms and up to 4 Lotus Petals better than 1 Gush, up to 4 Black Vises and some other restricted cards? Not clear to me yet.
I've posted a little on one of the Wizards threads on Legacy Stasis, where you can get a sense of how I play and something like what I'd try out for Legacy B&R (which I've never ever played in my life, by the way).
I guess for Stasis I can say that I almost always go mono-U and do not go for hard lock (and still would not even play jank like Frozen Aether or probably Forsaken City [maybe like 1-2...maybe]).
Of course, another reason I've typically done well with Stasis the last time I was playing it is like not only is no one expecting this, and that fucks them up a lot, but you might be amazed how fucking badly no one knows how to play against Stasis. I can't even see their hands, and I usually don't even know their decks, but something like at least 25% of all choices I've seen are all wrong and lose games.
I'm getting really frustrated with Vintage not restricting Mana Drain and some other stuff, although I've read the reasoning by DCI. But it's like every time I come back to look at Vintage B&R they are adding more cards from Stasis and it's really annoying. Of course first it was Gush, and based on other cards, this is probably too powerful in Type I. So when I had to rebuild, I was like, hey, Brainstorm is probably good for my mana curve even if I don't play even a single shuffle effect (and it was, and it's true, I've played Mystical Tutor and/or Merchant Scroll, and I totally forget if either is any good, and certainly they probably aren't without Ancestral). And now that's restricted. And Ponder. And Thirst for Knowledge. What's next, Opt? If they fucking restrict Impulse, I'm going to fly out to Seattle and kick someone in the balls. Besides Island, Impulse is probably the single most important card to Stasis. One could argue certain counters are better, but besides Thwart there are substitutes. I mean, I choose 4@ FoW, Daze, Thwart, but there are at least 4 other counters that are really good in Stasis. And of course, no one ever remembers to play Tel-jilad Stylus. Far as I know, the best card printed for Stasis since Masques block.
But I'm really not up on newer cards. Anything I should know about? I have Fathom Seer, but I'm pretty sure he sucks ass. Crucible with Zorb could be okay, but it's probably still awful. Don't even say Frozen Aether or whatever that artifact is. Pithing Needle is probably solid, especially if I was convinced Trinket Stasis was good (or could make it good). Ancestral Vision might be pretty solid, particularly for Type I where my mana curve is less favorable with only 1 Brainstorm.
Stasis is also crazy because so many cards are just not good in it. I tried playing Mana Drain. Pretty sure it's terrible in Stasis. I don't mean I'm pretty sure it's no good; I know it's no good. I mean it's actually a bad card that you do not want to draw; the only time you kind of aren't annoyed to draw it is IF you have Morphling in hand (if you're playing that at all) and if you happen to have 2 mana and a way to bounce Stasis; and this isn't even really 'good' as much as 'not a shit draw.' How many mono blue decks ever made could say that? Until the rule changes on mana burn, it wasn't even obvious that Black Lotus was really any good. I mean, now I'd probably play it as a second Lotus Petal I guess. I kind of forget if Mox Sapphire or Ancestral was better, but they were the only particularly good power cards for Stasis.
I do wish Tabernacle didn't become so expensive. I should have gotten some back in undergrad when I really wanted one or two and they were $30 on ebay. Granted, it's not obvious to me that more than maybe 1-2 of these are even good in Stasis, but I do want one for 5color like Whhhhhhuuuuut.