Catching Up On Magic

I've heard a lot of stories over the Internet about this issue, and most of them tend to pan out the same. If I mention Magic: The Gathering, a large number of people will say they used to play, and some will say they'd like to get back in the game, but there's too much to learn.

I say there isn't too much to learn: it just hasn't been written down in one comprehensive primer focused on the exclusive task of getting Magic veterans back on track. That's where I come in. This series isn't short, and it isn't simple, but it should give you all the foundation you need to build a netdeck and show up at FNM and start learning in earnest. I will cover the new Magic rules (don't worry, the core is still the same!) the sets and mechanics in Standard, the types of cards that are powerful now, the state of the metagame, staple cards that you should get a playset of, and how to draft both the current set and the core set. (Why draft the core set? You'll find out later in the series)

So grab a drink, settle in for a nice read over the next week or two, and prepare to get back up to speed on the greatest game on earth.

New rules

Firstly, a lot of old mechanics have been keyworded. Oldies like Flying, First Strike and Trample are now matched with:

Lifelink. Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life.

Reach. This creature can block creatures without flying as though they had flying.

Deathtouch. Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature, destroy it.

Flash. You may play this creature at any time you could play an instant.

These are all existing mechanics: they've just received easy-to-use keywords.

Changes made with M10:

Mana burn is no longer existent. Mana empties after each step (so for the savvy among you, you can no longer float mana during your upkeep to your draw step) and does not cause you any damage when it does so. This almost never actually becomes relevant, but it's worth knowing anyhow.

Blockers are now ordered. If you attack with a 5/5, and your opponent blocked with a 3/3, a 1/1 and a 1/1, you stacked 3 damage on the 3/3, and 1 on each 1/1. If your opponent had a Giant Growth he saved his 3/3 and your 5/5 still died. Now things have changed slightly.

After your opponent declares blockers, you now order these blockers in whichever way you like. Essentially, it's like you're putting them in a line. Once you've done so, your opponent can play combat tricks. How is this relevant? This actually provides more depth to the game. Imagine the following scenario:

Old rules. You attack with a 5/5. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You assign damage, he uses Giant Growth to save his guy.

Old rules. You attack with a 5/5. You know he has a Giant Growth in his hand. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You assign damage, he uses Giant Growth to save his guy. It's exactly the same.

New rules. You attack with a 5/5. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You order them: 3/3, 1/1, 1/1. He uses Giant Growth on his 3/3. You now have a 6/6 blocking you first. You must assign lethal damage (similar to Trample, but the extra damage spills over to the next blocking creature). You assign 5. None of his creatures die, but yours does.

New rules. You attack with a 5/5. You know he has a Giant Growth in his hand. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You order them: 1/1, 1/1, 3/3. He uses Giant Growth, but however he uses it, his 2 1/1's will die.

On the other hand, if he has a card to give a creature +1/+1 or +2/+2, you've made the wrong choice, since his 3/3 is still alive. So it's up to you to determine what tricks he may have, and to order blockers accordingly.

Feel free to read over that section a couple more times until it sinks in. It's fairly complex.

Deathtouch does not follow this rule. A creature with Deathtouch can split it's damage however it wants. This rarely comes into play though, because how many people are stupid enough to double-block a creature with Deathtouch?

Lifelink is now a static ability, not a triggered one. What that means is, under the old rules, if your opponent attacked you with 3 2/2's, and you blocked with a 3/3 with Lifelink when on 3 life, you would take 4 damage, and die. Under the new rules, you gain 3 life and lose 4 at the same time, and you go to 2 life. You don't lose the game.

Some cosmetic changes:

In play zone = Battlefield

Removed-from-game zone = Exile

Spells are CAST, not played.

Activated abilities are ACTIVATED, not played.

Lastly, the biggest one: Damage no longer uses the stack. Once damage is dealt, there's no responding. Thus, all sacrificial effects must be completed BEFORE damage is dealt. All bounce effects: same deal. There's no more automatic 'block your 1/1, damage on the stack, sacrifice Sakura-Tribe Elder to get a land' play. Now you need to decide what's more important: his 1/1, or your land? You can only take care of one.

New sets

The current sets in Standard are: Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn and Magic 2010. Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor and Eventide will all rotate out at the end of September.

Lorwyn is a tribal set, featuring the following tribes:

Faeries. Blue-black controllish creatures with Flash.

Giants. Red-white big creatures that start their costs at 4.

Goblins. Red-black sacrificial creatures. Aggressive and self-sacrificing to gain a benefit.

Kithkin. White with a tiny amount of green. The white weenie tribe. Small, efficient creatures that use tribal synergies to become more powerful.

Treefolk. Green with some white and some black. Mainly defensive, low-power high-toughness creatures.

Elementals. Red, with some cards in all the colors. Many have spell-like effects when they come into play.

Merfolk. White and blue controllish creatures with evasion and some milling capacity.

Elves. Black and green creatures: elves with actual removal! Also some discard.

Lorwyn has the following mechanics:

Tribal. Evoke. Clash. Champion. Hideaway. Changeling.

Tribal: Some non-land cards now have creature types. Confused? I would think so. Here's how it works:

Take Eyeblight's Ending.

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Eyeblight's Ending

2B

Tribal Instant - Elf

Destroy target non-Elf creature.

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Now let's take the card Lys Alana Huntmaster.

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Lys Alana Huntmaster.

2GG

Creature - Elf Warrior

3/3

Whenever you play an Elf spell, you may put a 1/1 Elf creature token into play.

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Lys Alana Huntmaster will trigger off every Elf spell you play: including enchantments, sorceries or instants with the Elf subtype. An Elf enchantment will count towards any card that counts the number of Elves in play, and can be championed.

Champion: Some cards in Lorwyn have the Champion mechanic, where you remove a card of the chosen creature type from the game in order to play a particularly powerful card. When the card leaves play, the creature that was Championed returns. A couple of fiddly rules about Champion:

Champion does not target. By the time you select which card to remove from the game, it's too late for it to be killed or bounced or anything: the ability is already resolving. The only way to stop Champion is to kill every eligible target before the ability resolves. This also means you can Champion a card with shroud.

You can kill the creature in response to the Champion trigger. This will prevent the champion from occurring.

Evoke: Some elementals have a comes-into-play effect, and also have an Evoke cost. An evoked Elemental is sacrificed once it comes into play. So why would you evoke it? The evoke cost is cheaper than the regular creature. Example:

Mulldrifter

4U

Creature - Elemental

When Mulldrifter comes into play, draw two cards.

Evoke 2U.

So if you don't have or don't want to spend 5 mana but still need two cards, you can evoke it. It will come into play, it's ability will resolve, you draw two cards, then it dies. Nothing fancy. Note: Evoking is a cost replacement. Therefore an evoked card can be countered.

Hideaway: This mechanic only appears on five lands, one of each color. When the land comes into play, it comes into play tapped. You look at the top four cards of your library, pick one, and put it beneath the land. When the condition is met, you may pay 1 mana of the appropriate color and tap the hideaway land to play the spell for free. This is used a fair amount in competitive decks, too.

Changeling: A creature with changeling is all creature types at all times. That means it is affected by all Tribal abilities, and is every creature type in Magic. There are many ways to use this ability, but the ability itself is simple.

Morningtide is also a tribal set, but based on class rather than race. The main races are:

White = Soldiers

Blue = Wizards

Black = Rogues

Red = Shamans

Green = Warriors

Morningtide has the following mechanics:

Reinforce, Prowl, Kinship

Reinforce X is an ability that appears on several cards. You pay the cost (which varies) and discard the card from your hand, and can put X +1/+1 counters on a creature at instant speed, with X being the Reinforce number, e.g Reinforce 2.

Prowl only appears on Rogue cards. When you deal damage with a Rogue (which is easy, as they are cheap, aggressive, and evasive) you can pay a lesser cost to play the card, often with an extra effect as well. This makes playing Rogues very cheap if you can keep hitting the opponent.

Kinship appears on several uncommons and rares. During your upkeep, you look at the top card of your library. If it shares a type with the creature with Kinship, you can reveal it, and an effect will occur, the effect varying on the card, anything from milling the opponent to playing the card for free!

Shadowmoor is a hybrid set. Hybrid mana can be paid using one mana of either color: e.g R/G can be paid for with one R, or one G. The tribes also shift colors:

Goblins: Red-Black -> Red-Green

Giants: Red-White-> Red-Green

Kithkin: Green-White-> White-Blue

Merfolk: White-Blue-> Blue-Black

Elves: Green-Black-> Green-White

Treefolk: Green-Black-White-> Green-White

Elementals: Five-Color-> Red-Black

Faeries: Blue-Black-> Blue-Black

Faeries are the only color that don't change. Shadowmoor has no tribal effects, but it does possess the creature types, so your Lorwyn / Morningtide decks can have more Kithkin / Elves / Goblins etc. in them.

The Shadowmoor mechanics are: Wither, Persist, Hybrid, Conspire and Untap.

Wither is a simple ability: it deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters. If the damage is prevented or redirected, so will the -1/-1 counters follow suit. However it does have interactions, such as stopping Persist.

Persist: If a creature with Persist dies without a -1/-1 counter on it, it comes back with a -1/-1 counter on it. So barring things like exiling it, or killing it with Wither, it's going to come back twice. This is a powerful Constructed mechanic, since it's automatic card advantage (usually).

Hybrid: Hybrid's already been explained. About half of all Shadowmoor cards are hybrid.

Conspire: When you tap two creatures that share a color with a spell with Conspire (fairly easy, considering the hybrid spells and creatures out there) you get to copy the spell. Note: this only works once. You can't copy the copy.

Untap: When you activate an Untap ability, you pay a certain amount of mana and untap your creature. The effect then happens. Note: the untap ability is a cost. If your creature is untapped, you cannot pay the cost, and therefore cannot activate the ability. So your creature has to be tapped in order to use the effect. Luckily there are lots of ways to tap things in Magic!

Eventide is the enemy-color hybrid set. It basically continues with many of the cycles in Shadowmoor.

The Eventide mechanics are:

Retrace: After this spell is put in the graveyard, usually by being played, you can essentially turn any land in your hand into that spell. Unlike some mechanics, this one can be done again and again as long as you have lands in hand and mana to pay the spell with.

Chroma: Chroma is a group of cards related only by the fact that they care about mana symbols. Other than that, they have nothing alike. They're a group, rather than a keyword.

Shards of Alara is a multi-color set, focusing on the allied three-color shards. The shards are:

Bant: Green, white and blue.

Esper: White, blue and black.

Grixis: Blue, black and red.

Jund: Black, red and green.

Naya: Red, green and white.

The mechanics in Shards of Alara are: Exalted, colored artifacts, Unearth, Devour, Cycling

Exalted is an ability that gives any lone attacking creature a +1/+1 bonus. Exalted also stacks, so if you have 2 creatures with exalted, an attacking creature will gain +2/+2. This serves to make a giant creature that's difficult to deal with, in very short order.

Colored artifacts are in Shards of Alara. No more are artifacts strictly colorless: now they can be colored or even multi-colored, and are, as every Esper creature is an artifact.

Unearth is like flashback for creatures. You pay the unearth cost and it comes into play for one turn, with haste. If it would leave the battlefield, it's exiled.

Devour X is a sacrificial mechanic. When you play a Devour creature, you can sacrifice a number of creatures, and put X +1/+1 counters on the Devourer for each creature it devoured. Some creatures also have related abilities.

Shards of Alara also features the oldie but goodie cycling. No explanation needed here for Magic veterans.

Conflux is a five-color set. It has several cards that cost all five colors of mana, and features Domain, a mechanic from Invasion now keyworded, to reference effects that get stronger with each basic land type you control.

The mechanics are: Domain, basic landcycling.

Domain is a loose keyword that references any cards with an effect that scales based on the number of basic land types you control. The mechanic originated in Invasion, but without the Domain keyword itself.

Basic landcycling, as you may have guessed, is discarding a card to search for a basic land of your choice. Very useful in limited to smooth your draws and help Domain.

Alara Reborn is entirely, utterly, 100% multicolor. All 145 cards are gold: they need at least two colors of mana to cast. Most are also quite powerful. The Alara Reborn pack is like Christmas at the end of an Alara block draft.

The Alara Reborn mechanics are:

Plainscycling, Islandcycling, Swampcycling, Mountaincycling, Forestcycling. Like landcycling, but you can only search for the appropriate basic. All cards with this ability however, have two of them, so you can choose which ability to activate and thus which land to search for.

Hybrid: Hybrid appears in small numbers in this set. However, they come in an innovative form: an example is R/W G. The card can be played for RG or GW (and still requires two colors).

Cascade: The big one, this mechanic has powerful, powerful implications in Constructed and Limited alike. When you play a spell with Cascade, you reveal cards until you reveal a non-land with converted mana cost lower than the card you played (so a Cascade spell with CMC 4 would only Cascade into CMC 0, 1, 2 or 3).

Rulings: The Cascade spell resolves first, then the first spell.

Cascade can only be stopped with a Stifle or something similar. It activates before you can counter the card.

Many decks use Cascade to cascade into powerful removal or aggressive creatures. It's a great mechanic though: strong, but not broken.

Magic 2010 is unique. Since Alpha, it is the first set to have brand new cards in it! Half the cards in it are reprinted, and the other half are invented for Magic 2010 alone. You'll have to check out the Visual Spoiler: it's only unique mechanic is PURE AWESOMENESS. And you'll notice a little red spell there that should raise some eyebrows. You'll know it when you see it. (A link to the Visual Spoilers, and other resources will be posted at the end of this series. If you can't wait, go ahead and Google up 'Magic 2010 Visual Spoiler'.)

Planeswalkers

Planeswalkers are a new card type, introduced in Lorwyn. They are fairly complex, but add more depth to the game. I'll walk you through the type, step by step.

The name, expansion symbol (Lorwyn), converted mana cost and art do not need explanation, so let's go to the second half of the card.

Type line: A planeswalker's type is it's subtype. If two planeswalkers that share a subtype are on the battlefield, both are put into their owner's graveyards as a state-based effect, just like legends, except Ajani Goldmane and Ajani Vengeant would both be affected by the legend rule (both are Planeswalker - Ajani).

Loyalty: At the bottom-right, the number 5 is the planeswalker's starting loyalty. Loyalty is similar to life: one damage = one loyalty counter removed. Any damage dealt to a player, combat or not, may be redirected to a planeswalker of your choice that they control instead. Targets are declared with the spell or declaration of attackers.

Loyalty is used as a cost: see the +1, -2 and -8. Each turn, at sorcery speed, you may use one of a planeswalker's abilities (activated ability) if you can pay it's cost by adding / removing the loyalty counters. When a planeswalker's loyalty reaches 0, it is put into it's owner's graveyard.

The rise of creatures

We've covered the new rules: you're now up to speed to play casually. However, if you want to play competitively, you should read the rest of this series, which is the meat and potatoes of the column.

In the last several years, creatures have vastly increased in power. Take a look at these powerful beasts:

Both powerful, tournament-quality creatures in their time. Now allow me to introduce you to a new breed of creature:

The bar's been raised a lot higher. Have a guess at how many of these creatures are tournament-calibre?

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The answer is two. Broodmate Dragon and Baneslayer Angel. The other two creatures are not played in Standard. They aren't good enough or don't fit decks well enough. They are played, but not in Tier 1 decks, and that's what we need to focus on to get you back up to the top.

At the same time, a new breed of creature has arrived: the army in a can.

All this combines to ensure that creatures, especially in the 4-6 mana range, now need to be absolutely incredible to compete, and/or not die to a single removal spell. Combined with the ability to play almost anything in Standard in a single, five-color deck and we need to make sure our creatures are as powerful as they can possibly be.

The Rise of Multicolor Decks

Thanks to a current glut in non-basic lands that produce several colors, it's possible to play three, four or even five colors with minimal sacrifice in the current Standard. Observe these two cards:

As long as you have a single counter on a Vivid land, you can use Reflecting Pool to tap for any mana you like, without any drawback. Hence, Five-Color Control is a deck that is quite possible, that uses Vivid lands and Reflecting Pool to tap for any mana it wants to play the best control cards in Standard, whatever colors. The only drawback is that they're slightly slower and play 1-2 more lands than most decks: certainly worth the trade-off of the power of the whole color pie.

Our only crusader in the fight against non-basic dominance is Anathemancer:

The expensive Unearth cost means that at seven mana you can uncounterably play Anathemancer, and will probably hit the opponent for 6 or more. It's a strong card, and any non-Five-Color deck (and indeed some five-color decks) should play 4 of this guy in the maindeck: even mono-color decks run some nonbasic lands.

Staple Cards

I can't claim to know all the staple cards in Standard, but I'll attempt to cover as many as possible that aren't rotating in October. Here are the cards you'll want to have, since you'll be using them for over a year, guaranteed:

Anathemancer. An excellent non-basic hoser, which might become weaker with Zendikar, but will probably have a spot in a sideboard next year.

Baneslayer Angel. Any white deck that has 5-mana spells in it should have this creature, who's likely to get even better when Reveillark and Cloudgoat Ranger leave the format.

Bant Charm. Deals with almost anything your opponent can throw at you, for just three mana.

Bituminous Blast. Good in almost any B/R deck for cascading into an aggressive creature or a second removal spell.

Bloodbraid Elf. The best aggro creature in the format. End of story.

Doom Blade. An excellent piece of removal that kills almost any relevant creature in the format.

Esper Charm. Two three-mana abilities to choose from on a three mana card? Awesome. Wait, it destroys enchantments too?

Gargoyle Castle. No need to pick up 4 of these, but 2 of them would be a useful asset for your collection.

Garruk Wildspeaker. An excellent card that will be a staple in green decks for quite some time.

Great Sable Stag. A 3/3 for 3 that also dodges a good chunk of control cards: perfect for any aggressive deck with green in it, at least in the sideboard.

Harm's Way. An excellent combat trick or a way to force through the last few points of damage.

Jace Beleren. An excellent control card that allows you to draw more cards than your opponent. Absolutely wrecks the control mirror or acts as a useful decoy against aggro.

Jund Charm. A sweeper, combat trick, and occasional Anathemancer-foiler all in one? This one's a keeper.

Lightning Bolt. 3 damage. One mana. No other burn spell comes close to this one, and any deck with red ought to be playing this.

Maelstrom Pulse. A planeswalker-killer that can also take out any number of tokens, or multiples of the same creature or enchantment. A very versatile removal spell.

Path to Exile. Another one-mana piece of removal, getting rid of your opponent's best guy for one mana and a basic land of their choice is too good to pass up.

Qasali Pridemage. A good way to get rid of artifacts / enchantments, and a nice-sized creature too.

Terminate. Similar to Doom Blade, but this kills any creature that can be destroyed and targeted for two mana. Nifty.

Volcanic Fallout. A sweeper that can be played instantly and can't be countered is always a staple, especially when it's this good.

Wall of Denial. A control deck often just needs to survive to get it's good cards, and what helps a deck do that better than a huge, flying, untargetable wall?

The tri-lands (Arcane Sanctum, Crumbling Necropolis, Jungle Shrine, Savage Lands, Seaside Citadel) and the M10 duals (Dragonskull Summit, Drowned Catacomb, Glacial Fortress, Rootbound Crag, Sunpetal Grove) are also worth obtaining.

Drafting

Drafting Alara Block

In the spirit of this series, I will assume that you already know basic Limited theory, and move straight to the specifics of this block. In Alara Block, there are too many good multi-colored cards, including the 100% multi-color Alara Reborn, to go two colors. In Alara Block, you want to pick a shard.

There are two schools of thought on the first few picks: one says you should pick a shard by picking a three-color bomb, and stick with it, the other thinks you should avoid committing to a shard for awhile. In my opinion, feel free to take a three-color bomb first pick, but no card is worth a draft, so if you can't get the cards you need, go ahead and switch shards.

My personal preference is to draft Esper, since most people don't draft Esper. The best shards objectively are Jund and Naya, but a lot of people will try to draft them. Choose what you will.

Manafixing should be picked fairly highly, especially tri-lands. If you can get good manafixing in packs 1 and 2, you can splash a fourth color in Alara Reborn if you have to.

In Shards or Shards / Conflux, two colors was fine, but now multicolor is king. You MUST draft a shard. End of story.

Drafting Magic 2010

Magic 2010, as a core set, is fairly classic draft: W/U fliers, U/B control, B/R removal, R/G aggro, G/W midrange are the main archetypes. Instead of telling you how to draft this format, I'll tell you the subtleties of it:

Magic 2010 is a slow format. Evasion is king, since it's very easy for the ground to get gummed up in a sea of 1/4's and 3/5's.

What do all these four cards have in common? They all end creature stalls, and they're all potential first picks.

If you can break a creature stall and they can't, you have the advantage. Make sure you don't get caught on the wrong end of that equation.

M10 is also a bomb driven format, with Sleep, Overrun, Fireball, Howl of the Night Pack and Mind Control all at uncommon, and plenty more at rare. Playing your bombs and stopping your opponent playing his are generally excellent strategies for any M10 draft.

The most important thing to remember in Draft is to keep your mind open as you play so you can learn. A couple of M10 and Alara drafts will teach you more than I can possibly teach you: much of drafting theory is learnt while drafting, hence the short article. I could go in depth into pick orders and that kind of stuff: but that's not what this series is about.

The Metagame

The main decks in the metagame are:

Major:

Five-Color Control

Jund

Faeries

Minor:

Jund Mannequin

Elf Combo

Time Sieve Combo

Kithkin

Doran Rock

Merfolk

Man that's a lot of decks. Let's do this:

Five-Color Control

Decklist from USA Nationals, 1st place, by Charles Gindy

Creatures
3 Broodmate Dragon
3 Mulldrifter
3 Plumeveil

Instants
3 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Esper Charm
1 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
4 Volcanic Fallout

Planeswalkers
2 Ajani Vengeant

Sorceries
3 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Hallowed Burial

Basic Lands
3 Island

Lands
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Exotic Orchard
2 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Sunken Ruins
2 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Marsh
2 Vivid Meadow

Sideboard:
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Runed Halo
1 Essence Scatter
1 Negate
2 Jace Beleren
2 Firespout
1 Hallowed Burial
2 Identity Crisis

Five-Color Control's strength lies in it's ability to play all the best control cards in Standard in one deck. It starts off slow, then uses overwhelming card advantage and card quality to beat you down until it plays Broodmate Dragon, Baneslayer Angel, or Cruel Ultimatum, and then proceeds to win.

How to beat it: Anathemancer is always an excellent choice. If you're not in the colors or need another weapon, Glen Elendra Archmage is a good choice too. Great Sable Stag helps, but won't really win on his own with Lightning Bolt, Firespout and Hallowed Burial providing an answer.

How to play it: Try not to tap out on your opponent's turn unless what you play is far more devastating than anything they can come up with (Broodmate, Baneslayer, Cruel). Use your counterspells only on things you will find hard to deal with if they hit.

Jund

Decklist from Uruguay Nationals, 3rd place, by Rafael Peralta

Maindeck:

Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Boggart Ram-gang
2 Chameleon Colossus
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher

Instants
2 Bituminous Blast
3 Jund Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Volcanic Fallout

Sorceries
3 Maelstrom Pulse

Tribal Instants
3 Nameless Inversion

Basic Lands
5 Forest
2 Mountain

Lands
3 Auntie's Hovel
2 Fire-lit Thicket
4 Gilt-leaf Palace
1 Graven Cairns
1 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh

Sideboard:
3 Anathemancer
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Chaotic Backlash
2 Volcanic Fallout
4 Deathmark
2 Thought Hemorrhage

While I personally disagree with some of his card choices, he's got the invite to Worlds and I don't, so there ya go. The deck focuses on Cascade and powerful aggro creatures to create a rare deck: an aggressive deck with card advantage.

How to beat it: Anathemancer is effective, as is Burrenton Forge-Tender to stop most of their removal. Ethersworn Canonist or Double Negative is good if you're getting beat up by Cascade, and you can outlast them if you're a deck like Five-Color.

How to play it: Play aggressively, but sandbag a Bloodbraid Elf against a control deck. Against Elf Combo or Kithkin, use your sweepers well. Cascade is your friend, and use Lightning Bolt and Maelstrom Pulse aggressively.

Faeries

Decklist from Brazil Nationals, 1st place, by Paulo Vitor Damo de Rosa

Creatures
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion Of Oona
2 Sower Of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite

Instants
4 Agony Warp
3 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
1 Essence Scatter

Legendary Creatures
2 Vendilion Clique

Sorceries
2 Thoughtseize

Tribal Enchantments
4 Bitterblossom

Basic Lands
6 Island
2 Swamp

Lands
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Gargoyle Castle
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
4 Sunken Ruins

Sideboard:
3 Puppeteer Clique
2 Sower Of Temptation
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Deathmark
3 Infest
2 Thoughtseize
2 Warren Weirding

Faeries is an aggro-control deck that uses it's creatures to control the board, by countering spells with Spellstutter Sprite, stealing your turn with Mistbind Clique, and disrupting you with Vendilion Clique. Bitterblossom provides incremental card advantage.

How to beat it: Great Sable Stag is the KING against Faeries here. It totally stops them cold, and all they can do is race or play a sideboarded Warren Weirding (very clunky). Against U/B/R Faeries, Anathemancer is good, and Great Sable Stag is still almost as powerful.

How to play it: Save your cards til the right moments: Sprites to counter spells, Scions to counter removal or as combat tricks, Mistbind Clique on their upkeep, etc. Bitterblossom is good to play as early as possible. Don't be afraid to turn aggressive and race.

Elf Combo

Decklist from Russian Nationals, 1st place, by Andrey Kochurov.

Creatures
1 Burrenton Forge-tender
1 Cloudthresher
4 Devoted Druid
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Mirror Entity
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Oversoul Of Dusk
4 Ranger Of Eos
3 Regal Force

Sorceries
1 Overrun
4 Primal Command

Basic Lands
8 Forest

Lands
3 Mosswort Bridge
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Wooded Bastion

Sideboard:
3 Burrenton Forge-tender
3 Great Sable Stag
2 Oversoul Of Dusk
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Guttural Response
3 Path To Exile

Elf Combo uses Heritage Druid, Nettle Sentinel and Elvish Archdruid to get lots of mana, Elvish Visionary and Ranger of Eos to assemble a critical number of Elves, and Regal Force / Mirror Entity as finishers to win the game with.

How to beat it: Lots of sweepers and Wrath effects. Tapping all their creatures with Cryptic Command can also buy you time.

How to play it: Don't be afraid to overextend unless you have a combo + Ranger of Eos. If you don't win fast, you won't win at all. Use your big creatures to win the game.

Jund Mannequin

Decklist from USA Nationals, 4th place, by Brad Nelson.

Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Caldera Hellion
2 Cloudthresher
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
4 Putrid Leech
4 Shriekmaw

Instants
4 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Volcanic Fallout

Sorceries
3 Maelstrom Pulse

Basic Lands
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Swamp

Lands
3 Fire-lit Thicket
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Twilight Mire
3 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Grove
2 Vivid Marsh

Sideboard:
4 Anathemancer
1 Cloudthresher
4 Great Sable Stag
3 Deathmark
3 Thought Hemorrhage

Jund Mannequin uses a combination of aggressiveness and comes-into-play creatures (reanimated) to win the game. It's an aggro control deck that hinders the opponent while building it's own attacking force.

How to beat it: Removing their graveyard with Jund Charm helps, and it's also vulnerable to Burrenton Forge-Tender and Anathemancer like conventional Jund decks.

How to play it: Feel free to evoke Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter early to bring them back with Makeshift Mannequin. Caldera Hellion is a good controlling card, and your other cards are used for attacking the opponent. Your deck can switch roles between aggro and control repeatedly during a game: use it.

Time Sieve Combo

Decklist from Finland Nationals, 1st place, by Mikko Airaksinen.

Artifacts
4 Elsewhere Flask
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Font Of Mythos
4 Howling Mine
3 Kaleidostone
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Time Sieve

Instants
4 Cryptic Command
4 Pollen Lullaby

Planeswalkers
2 Jace Beleren
2 Tezzeret The Seeker

Sorceries
4 Open The Vaults
4 Time Warp

Basic Lands
7 Island
3 Plains
3 Swamp

Lands
3 Mystic Gate

Sideboard:
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Angelsong
4 Flashfreeze
4 Path To Exile

This deck focuses on playing artifacts to draw cards and get mana, then use Time Sieve, Time Warp, and Open The Vaults to take infinite turns while drawing lots of cards with Howling Mine. It wins with Tezzeret's ultimate ability.

How to beat it: Counter their Open the Vaults, or be fast enough to kill them first. Maelstrom Pulse on Borderposts is a good idea.

How to play it: Don't be afraid to play Borderposts at full price. Top priority is Howling Mine, then 'draw a card' artifacts, then mana artifacts. Once you hit 5-6 mana, start Time Warping, Sieving, and vault opening until you win.

Kithkin

Decklist from Finland Nationals, 3rd place, by Antti Malin.

Creatures
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Figure Of Destiny
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Knight Of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn

Enchantments
4 Honor Of The Pure

Instants
2 Harm's Way
2 Path To Exile

Planeswalkers
3 Ajani Goldmane

Sorceries
4 Spectral Procession

Basic Lands
18 Plains

Lands
1 Mutavault
2 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights

Sideboard:
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Burrenton Forge-tender
2 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Harm's Way
1 Mirrorweave
1 Path To Exile
1 Elspeth, Knight-errant
1 Hallowed Burial

Kithkin focuses on playing lots of threats, then pumping them up to win quickly. It's surprisingly resilient, as a Cloudgoat Ranger or Spectral Procession can provide an immediate threat, especially with a pump spell on the battlefield.

How to beat it: Sweepers and Wrath effects, as well as anti-white cards like Stillmoon Cavalier and Deathmark work well. Chaotic Backlash can often deal a lot of damage to them if they don't have Burrenton Forge-Tender.

How to play it: It's an aggro deck: simple to play. Play cards, make them big with Ajani and Honor of the Pure, and bash them to death. Keeping back a Cloudgoat Ranger isn't a bad idea though.

Doran Rock

Decklist from Hungary Nationals, 2nd place, by Gabor Kocsis.

Artifacts
1 Behemoth Sledge

Creatures
3 Chameleon Colossus
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Putrid Leech
4 Treefolk Harbinger
4 Wilt-leaf Liege
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher

Instants
2 Path To Exile

Legendary Creatures
4 Doran, The Siege Tower

Sorceries
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Profane Command

Tribal Instants
2 Nameless Inversion

Basic Lands
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp

Lands
4 Gilt-leaf Palace
4 Murmuring Bosk
2 Reflecting Pool
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Twilight Mire

Sideboard:
3 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Great Sable Stag
3 Infest
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Thoughtseize

Doran Rock uses powerful creatures and removal to make a very strong midrange deck. It's card quality is difficult to beat.

How to beat it: Anathemancer (do you see now why I play it maindeck?) is good, as is Deathmark and Hallowed Burial, though 2-3 damage sweepers won't cut it against this deck's main threats.

How to play it: Remember: you're a midrange deck. Control their early game, then play your guys turns 4-6 and win before the late game comes online.

Merfolk

Decklist from Switzerland Nationals, 1st place, by Tommi Lindgren.

Creatures
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Stonybrook Banneret
4 Wake Thrasher

Instants
4 Cryptic Command
4 Path To Exile

Legendary Creatures
2 Sygg, River Guide

Sorceries
3 Sleep

Tribal Instants
3 Sage's Dousing

Basic Lands
10 Island
2 Plains

Lands
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Mutavault
4 Wanderwine Hub

Sideboard:
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Burrenton Forge-tender
2 Sower Of Temptation
2 Harm's Way
2 Negate
1 Sleep

Merfolk is an aggro-control deck which plays some creatures, and then protects them with counterspells to win. It also features removal and the game-ending Sleep to force through damage and kill opposing creatures.

How to beat it: Sweepers do well, especially the uncounterable Volcanic Fallout. Racing them is often an option, as well: generally you won't face Merfolk often.

How to play it. Treat your creatures as both offensive creatures and blockers. You are an aggro-control deck: you can do both. Go aggressive when you draw Sleep, and go for the kill when necessary. Use your lords well. It's not an easy deck to describe briefly.

And there you have it! You have the sets, the mechanics, what's powerful, what's not, how to draft, what's being played and all the new additions to the game. You're now ready to build a deck and head to FNM without making a complete fool of yourself. But the next step is up to you. Your foot is in the door, but now you have to step through, by playing in events and continuing to learn. When Zendikar comes out, everyone else will be as confused as you are, and you'll be ready to play with the regulars once again.