Last week Ben Rubin proved that a Dump Truck can be a surprisingly powerful tool in the hands of the right person, as he took his U/W/B junk deck to a victory at Grand Prix: Anaheim. Chris Romeo also made his triumphant return from, uh, wherever he’d been hiding, and Type I week over at MagictheGathering.com kicked off the usual firestorm. Here’s the best of the rest that Star City had to offer.
Fundamentals
Geordie Tait turned in an excellent article on Thursday with his Card Advantage Without All The Hullabaloo. Little did we know though, that while the hullabaloo may not have been included in the article, it was certainly present in the forums. Various Magic luminaries sounded off about GT’s quiz, the nature of card advantage, and how tokens and counters should be accounted for. Me? I recommended patience until Geordie has a chance to push his ideas forward before setting loose the hounds of criticism… which will hopefully be soon.
Magic is a hard game to learn, which is why Ralph Haefner’s How To Teach The Game was so well received. Ralph breaks down his patented teaching method even better than Tom Imansky and his five-time AAU Baseball National Champion video (though he sadly does not include Fred McGriff as a spokesperson). If you’ve ever wanted to get someone involved in the game, but were a little intimidated about teaching something this complex, Ralph is here to help.
Constructed Strategy
Chris Romeo came back to the land of the living Monday with details of his latest scrub-worthy (but cheap) deck concoction: Taking Care of Your V.D. Welcome back, Chris… we promise not to make fun of any sexually transmitted diseases you may have contracted while you were gone. Much. (Though this week’s article may suggest where he picked them up…)
Limited Strategy
Joe Gagliardi again delivered excellent material, this time examining the ins and outs of R/G in Mirrodin Draft, or as he calls it,”The Road Most Traveled.” His articles have been so consistently good that we have decided to promote him to Featured Writer from here on out, thus giving a face to the name, and providing recognition to one of our best new writers. Congrats Joe!
On Wednesday, in an article that was both informative and entertaining, Mr. Anderson weighed in with over twenty pages of material on a Mirrodin draft. This article was in the running for the $50 prize right to the very end, but came up just short.
Tournament Report
After being a bridesmaid in numerous recent weeks, Pale Mage finally wins the $50 prize for this week with his amusing Kidney-Spleeny Pot Pie – a tale of squirrels, karma, loose women, and slow combos. Okay, I may have added the part about loose women, but karmic squirrels should be enough of a hook to get you to read anyway.
Vintage
Type I week brought you not one, not two, but three Oscar Tan columns to peruse, argue with, and learn from. The most controversial piece of the week was the second one, where Oscar responded to Mark Rosewater Type I column with displeasure and much gnashing of teeth. Okay, maybe there weren’t any teeth gnashing (at least not from Oscar), but he wasn’t too happy. Check out the forum response to see how the readers felt.
Casual and Multiplayer
On Monday, G.H.Bartz delivered Multiplayer Memoirs #2: A Poisoned Pill to a great deal of praise. If the forum response is any indicator, readers a) love poison counter decks, and b) like what G.H. has to say. We hope to see more from him in the future.