Code of the Cardboard Samurai

Whenever a new set comes out Wizards of the Coast releases starter decks which target the newer players of the game, as well people who like to play casually. If a new format such as Frontier or Historic really took off, the community would be best served by an ample amount of supply. Wizards has done great with recent starter decks and other supplemental materials in the recent past, so Kevin and I took it upon ourselves to discuss which cards we'd supply in a Frontier starter deck, and which deck archetypes would be the best experience for players getting into the format. A good idea for Historic in the future as well!

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. There was an episode 38 but there were technical issues which made it un-listenable and so we had to scrap it. Instead I'm sharing episode 39 today, where we talked about which reprints we'd like to see show up in Frontier. We discussed which cards would absolutely wreck the format if printed, and we also talked about which could really super charge the Frontier and "toe the line" so to speak. Lots of cool ideas for new decks if the cards were reprinted!

If you love drafting and playing Frontier, or if you wanted to get your friends to play the format with you, there's really only one way to make it happen: Cubing. There are a number of reasons to build a Frontier cube. It mixes some of the best draft formats in recent memory (KTK block), puts some powerful cards in your hand such as Ulamog and Emrakul, and also lets you field a variety of archetypes from past standards that really became fleshed out with the Frontier card pool. 

In this episode Kevin and I had on a Cubing aficionado to help us build a Frontier cube. We covered the basics of building a cube, talked about what cards we'd include if we were building a cube for Frontier, and also talked about various ways you could build the cube to keep it fresh and fun for you and your friends. Great topic for casual players everywhere!

After 3 new sets had been added to the Frontier format, it was time to take a look once more at tribal strategies. Quite a few new cards were added in Rivals of Ixalan, M19, and Dominaria so Kevin and I sat down to discuss which of those new cards either added to previous tribal decks or finally made some of them viable. Considering all of these mentioned sets are playable in Historic, this is a great topic to see how each deck would fare without the cards that were only in Frontier.

Not everybody can afford a playset of fetches or Ulamogs for Frontier. Even though the format itself is comparatively much cheaper than other eternal formats (and standard for the most part), there are quite a few decks that will break the bank. Because of this, the we discussed how you could play Frontier competitively without going broke to do so. We focused on decks that you could easily get for around $100, and discussed how to make other competitive decks cheaper as well. Might be worth listening to so that you can get an idea on cheap Historic decks as well.

The hosts talk about how the M19 Frontier metagame is shaping up and which cards seem to be showing up most often in decks both online and in paper. As Ryan gears up for a weekend God of Frontier trial in Tokyo, he and Kevin discuss how best to attack the metagame and what deck Ryan should play.

Part 2 of our M19 set review covers the rest of the colors, artifacts, and multicolor cards from the Core set. We also talk about the top 5 cards we think will make the biggest impact in Frontier, which was actually kind of hard considering how much power came in the form of reprints and other chase rares. In my opinion, this set had a lot of potential for Frontier, but was overshadowed by the stronger sets that came before it. In Historic, M19 should shine even brighter.

It seems like only a few weeks ago the hosts discussed how Dominaria would change the Frontier metagame, yet here they are again talking about how the M19 core set would impact the format. Lots of great points from the "Spikes" Kevin and Matt, and some crazy dreaming by the resident "Timmy", myself. If you're planning on building a Historic deck in the near future, this is another must listen so you can learn how the newer cards interact with the older ones, as well as get some deck ideas from the us.

It's hard to think that Mardu vehicles from Kaladesh block standard could get any better, but that's exactly what it did in Frontier. In this show Kevin and I interviewed another player from the online Frontier community to talk about not only his top 8 Mardu Vehicles deck, but also the various Black/Red/White Mardu archetypes. We discussed what was viable in the format as well as which cards in those colors stood out the most. A great in-depth talk for people that want to explore what the Frontier format was like, as well as the possibilities of Historic if it goes back to Kaladesh block or earlier.

The online Frontier community had been around almost as long as the format itself. One of the regulars who played on platforms like Xmage and Cockatrice was Csquared. He had amazing success with mono black Eldrazi over a few seasons, making many top 8s and winning a few as well. We had him on to talk about strengths of the deck and why it was so good against the other Frontier decks season after season. If you're interested in decks that are unique to Frontier, this is a great episode.