ast week, I hinted that I’d either be writing about some new Commander 2013 cards or covering a five-colored Gods tribal deck. Well, at the time, I didn’t know I’d have the privilege of previewing Acidic Slime’s non-Ooze progenitor in the form of Bane of Progress. And at least for this week, I guess that means I’ll be able to hit both of those predictions. Since I covered the new Commander card on Monday, that leaves Five-Color Devotion for today.

Now, devotion currently comes in five types—white, blue, black, red, and green—and a deck featuring the mechanic is typically mono-colored of the appropriate devotion color. That means a five-colored devotion deck is, let’s say, atypical.

The other aspect of today’s experiment deck is God tribal. God is a new creature type introduced in Theros, and the expansion brought only five creatures with the type. Of course, Mistform Ultimus and its changeling compatriots from Lorwyn have now been promoted to godhood, meaning we could build a God deck featuring justWoodland Changelings, Amoeboid Changelings, and the deific Chameleon Colossus. While I did once build a Volver tribal deck (starring one of my favorite cards Necravolver), since we won’t be cheating with changelings, we just have five creatures of our type to work with, thus making our tribal deck, again, atypical.

Of course, I do enjoy building atypically.

A few weeks of testing has given me additional insight into the Standard format and U/W/R. As predicted, U/W/R has performed very well against the aggressive decks and I have been able to outmaneuver Esper control with a few bombs out of the maindeck and sideboard. The Esper plan of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is not only a weak one but applies no real threat of milling or retrieving one of your monsters to battle against you Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver through testing has been nothing more than a nuisance — a singleton Drownyard effect that can be played on turn three and still yield a loss for the Esper mage.

This article is going to attempt to accomplish a few things. I'm going to start off by talking my readers and friends out of playing Ashiok in their control builds, just like I tried to do with Omenspeaker. I'm not the kind of guy who trashes a card in a deck that I'm not even playing, so I'm going to then provide you guys with an Esper list that I have together if you decide to go that route. Finally, I'll put out the latest form of U/W/R and give a brief explanation on the weaknesses and strengths associated with the choice of red over black.

The flight arrived twenty minutes early. So far so good. I was determined to be the first person off the plane. Two old people and a young woman beat me to it. I stiff armed one old man and juked past the other in the ramp leading off the plane. The woman was far more elusive. I knew she was going to be a tough foe the moment she only ordered a salad for the in-flight meal.She made one classic mistake, but it was enough. She flew too close to the sun. Some fit people like to take the stairs instead of the escalator to prove a point. "I'm fit enough to actually take these stairs myself. I don't need any help" is what that action proclaims.

Screw that. I'll take all the help I can get. I ran up the escalator and passed her by thanks to the power of technology. Game.

I was the first to go through customs. I ran out of the airport and jumped in the first taxi I saw.

"To the Royal Dublin Society."

"What's going on at the RDS?"

"I'm playing in a card tournament."

"Poker?"

"No, it's a game called Magic."

"You're not going to hypnotize me, are you?"

"It's not that kind of Magic."

I arrived at around 9:30 AM. I did it. I was sleep deprived. I was stressed out of my mind. But I made it. I was going to play in the Pro Tour.

Pro Tour Theros has come and gone, and left us with exciting new decks and great stories. In this article, I will to tell the story of Kamiel and his Nykthos Red deck.

Kamiel Cornelissen is one of the best Magic players of all time, but he took a step back from the game several years ago. He hadn’t played a Pro Tour in years, but it’s always great when he’s around, so I was happy when I received a message from him that he wanted to attend the tournament in Dublin.

However, he had very little time available for testing: He was busy with his graduate studies and other pursuits in life, so the Saturday and Sunday of the prerelease weekend were the only days he could prepare. Since the prereleases in Eindhoven, my home town, are always attended by a host of experienced players, I invited Kamiel over to stay at my place for the weekend. This allowed him to get some decent experience with Theros Limited, while testing Standard in between rounds.

One of the decks that I brought with me was an initial build of the Nykthos Red deck that Team Channelfireball actually ended up playing at the tournament. It did well in our prerelease test session, and as Kamiel didn’t see a better deck online, he just took it to the Pro Tour. Despite literally doing all of his playtesting at the prerelease, and despite not changing a single card since then, he made it all the way to his sixth Pro Tour Top 8. This truly is a testament to his talent and skill.

he gilded dome of Earl Bartolotti's grand ballroom was famed for its perfect acoustic properties. Beneath it danced and swirled dozens of the High City's lesser nobility. For those on the edges of the aristocracy, the Earl's Spring Gala was the event of the year—a place where alliances were made and broken, business deals sealed, marriages and affairs arranged, and gossip flowed even more freely than the wine.

But amid all the joyous revelers, Lord Zangari fumed, and he drank, and he seethed.

How dare she?!

Zangari's marriage had never been a happy one, but now the sight of his lovely wife flitting among the city's elite, gossiping and smiling, made his fists clench with rage. According to Lady Tirelli, his wife Aribelle was telling anyone who would listen about the latest misfortune to befall Lord Zangari's business. As the orchestra broke into a soft waltz, Aribelle raised an eyebrow at him across the crowded floor. He almost spat. No, he would not be dancing with his wife that night.