Blake is the content manager for DailyMTG.com, making him the one you should email if you have thoughts on the website, good or less good (or not good). He's a longtime coverage reporter and hasn't turned down a game of Magic in any format ever.

The Daily Magic Update is a roundup of everything Magic you should know on December 14, 2016. Today's Update is brought to you by a Paradoxical Colossus.

Today's Must

Channel LSV—Holiday Cube Draft | ChannelFireball | Luis Scott-Vargas

Oh happy day, Vintage Cube is back! (It used to be called the Holiday Cube.) If there's anyone you want to watch draft the most powerful of Magic Online cubes, it's LSV. Enjoy each and every pun, self-depreciating comment, and broken interaction.

After That, Read, Watch, or Listen to These

Art with Tom | Gathering Magic | Mike Linnemann and Ant Tessitore

Tom Wanerstrand, one of Magic's art greats, stops by Snack Time with Mike and Ant to talk, what else, art. The man painted City of Shadows. City of Shadows!

A Frozen Standard Metagame? | ChannelFireball | Josh Silvestri

This is one of the most complete breakdowns of how the Standard metagame did something odd this time around—shifted slowly yet somehow suddenly at the same time, with the Grand Prix events in Madrid and Denver.

Captain's Log: Take Notes | TCGPlayer | Conley Woods

It's the little things that count, and Woods recounts how you can count on the little things being difficult to track and improve on in Magic. But those little things add up in a big way, and it's no small feat to see a large improvement in your game over a short amount of time just by taking a big interest in the most minute details.

Eternal Week | Constructed Criticism | Spencer Howland, Casey Bloodworth, and Michael Hinderaker

"He couldn't make the podcast, but he qualified for the Pro Tour," is one of the best Magic-related excuses possible for not being on your own podcast. Second only to "I'm going to work for Wizards of the Coast." Or at least I like to think so every time I watch another Pro Tour qualifier season pass me by.

Top 25

A little off the top, a lot off the back

Not much movement at the top of the rankings this week, but there's a ton once you get below No. 15. Matthew Nass and Ryoichi Tamada both screamed up into the Top 20 this week, up six spots each. Plus, we have the re-re-return of our World Champion, Brian Braun-Duin, at No. 24. That means Oliver Tiu, our Rookie of the Year from last year, gets pushed to just outside the Top 25. Not that he'll stay there for long.

Check out the rest of the Top 25 below.

Rank Name Points Change Previous 1 Shota Yasooka 85.78 1 2 Seth Manfield 83.94 2 3 Owen Turtenwald 82.07 3 4 Steven Rubin 73.07 4 5 Reid Duke 71.30 +1 6 6 Lukas Blohon 70.65 -1 5 7 Márcio Carvalho 62.75 7 8 Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa 58.55 8 9 Ondřej Stráský 58.00 9 10 Yuuya Watanabe 57.94 10 11 Samuel Pardee 57.62 +2 13 12 Mike Sigrist 57.55 12 13 Luis Scott-Vargas 57.43 -2 11 14 Joel Larsson 56.62 -1 13 15 Kentaro Yamamoto 55.42 15 16 Matthew Nass 54.58 +6 22 17 Ryoichi Tamada 54.33 +6 23 18 Andrea Mengucci 53.55 -2 16 19 Martin Müller 52.68 -2 17 20 Lee Shi Tian 52.65 -2 18 21 Samuel Black 51.94 -2 19 22 Petr Sochůrek 51.65 -1 21 23 Alexander Hayne 51.55 -3 20 24 Brian Braun-Duin 48.75 — NR 25 Paul Rietzl 48.71 -1 24

Dropped from rankings: Oliver Tiu

What People Are Talking About

Seeing the answers to this has got me thinking... what's your favorite Standard format ever? What's the 10? And what's the 1? https://t.co/Kxj9zLjfdF — Paulo Vitor (@PVDDR) December 13, 2016

Thanks to a tweet from Sam Stoddard, there was a lot of conversation yesterday about how people felt about the current Standard. But then that turned into a conversation about the best Standard formats of all time. I tend to like this Standard more than most (it always helps when there's a Mulldrifter in the format), but answers varied wildly and interestingly. I, for example, will always have a soft spot in my heart for Kamigawa–Ravnica-era Standard.

A lengthy Reddit thread concerning Stoddard's original tweet also ensued, but the top comment pretty wonderfully sums up a lot of the opinions of people who just want to play and have fun how they want to have fun. That said, this comment pretty well sums up the opinions of (reasonable) people on the other side.

It's Wednesday, which means it's crazy Magic Story theory day! Grab your nicest tinfoil hat, read the latest episode of Magic Story, and go ahead and share that theory about how you're pretty sure the Myojin of Night's Reach is secretly controlling Nicol Bolas in order to release Marit Lage so that the Phyrexians can compleat Dominaria, just like their leader Teferi told Koth to make them do while they were hiding out on Ravnica with the Dimir, all of which was orchestrated by Baron Sengir in order to get another Homelands expansion. (Note: Dear lord, none of that is actually true.)

Deck of the Day

Paradoxical Colossus

Combine one part Metalwork Colossus deck, one part Paradoxical Outcome, and a whole heaping of cost reductions, and you have this beauty of a deck that went 4-0 at a recent Standard Showdown. I know I'm in love.

Aetherflux Reservoir has been a card I've tried to make work a number of different ways, but have, so far, fallen short. But one talented player might just have cracked it with this deck. The key is the octet of cost reducers in Herald of Kozilek and Foundry Inspector. Once you have two of those on the board, the various Prophetic Prisms and Metalspinner's Puzzleknots become free, cycling through your deck (anyone remember the old Fluctuator deck?). Once you have three or four cost reducers in play, well, all bets are off.

The genius is that, yes, you can try to set up the Paradoxical Outcome, Aetherflux Reservoir, cost reducers combo to draw a ton of cards—or you can play just like a normal Metalwork Colossus deck, powering out giant robot monsters to run all over your opponent. But if that won't work? How about doming your opponent for 50 when you do go off?

Just a small play hint: play your Heralds before your Foundry Inspectors. Inspectors might be played later for free. Heralds will always cost you two mana.