Wednesday, March 18th – A few months ago, I wrote and published an article in which I created some decks built around cards I randomly selected. That, in and of itself, is nothing new. I’ve been building decks around random elements for years, going all the way back to a lot of my daily articles. The catch with this article was that each deck had to be built using the previously selected card…
Wednesday, March 11th – Today I want to revisit a topic near and dear to my heart. My first two articles for this website, ever, were about Abedraft. My 175th and 176th articles were about Abedraft. Now, almost two years later, I want to talk about it again.
Wednesday, March 4th – Hello all, and welcome back to the article that whets your appetite for the casual. I am your chef, and today I want to build some decks. Twice during this past week, I brainstormed ideas that involved changelings, so I thought, why not write an article where every deck is built around changelings?
Wednesday, February 25th – Today I will be talking about one of the core issues that affect casual deckbuilders, especially those on a budget: Mana. One of the things I intend to do, is walk you through mana over time, and thereby show you what lands are out there for your deckbuilding needs. Not every casual player was playing Magic way back when, so cards like Terminal Moraine or Rainbow Vale might have fallen through the cracks.
Wednesday, February 18th – Yesterday, I was cleaning out one of my boxes from home that I brought back after a trip. I found a blue notebook and opened it up with much interest. The first few pages were notes from my Masters degree classes. Then I turned a page and found the first of many pages of cards I had created while bored in class. I have several pages of cards that I created nine years ago.
Tuesday, February 10th – I love Conflux. I think it is a very casual-tastic set. It is quite multiplayer friendly. You have a ton of good beaters, some clever cards, some fun cards, and more. It seems like a set custom made for Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. I don’t know if I have ever seen a set put a higher percentage of its cards in my deck. Perhaps Ravnica, but it was so big, I doubt it.
Tuesday, February 3rd – Hello friends, and welcome back to the column dedicated to the casual. Today I am continuing a series of articles that begun years ago and has continued through this one. Once the official spoiler for a set has been released, I can take a look through the cards, and tell you which ones I believe will have an impact for Five Color.
Wednesday, January 28th – Over the years, I have written on all sorts of topics, from the grand to the tiny. I’ve written on decks and strategies; cards and opinions. I’ve created my own base sets. I’ve spent article after article on Five Color, Peasant, and other formats. From rare drafting to MagicShop and Shandalar to the Magic RPG, I’ve tried to come up with new ways of looking at the game. However, I have never, not once, written an article like today’s offering.
Wednesday, January 21st – Recently, some friends of mine got together at one of my friend’s place for a small bash in honor of my birthday. As part of the festivities, several of us shuffled up our Magic decks and began playing. Prior to this event, I discussed what kind of Magic I wanted to play, so I combined some formats to create what I call Abe’s Birthday Bash. It was a ton of fun for all. Let me go over the format of craziness and awesomeness, and you can take anything from it that you desire.
Wednesday, January 14th – I try to win every multiplayer game in which I play, but even if I lose, I have fun. I have fun being with friends, slinging cards, and trying my best. If I come back from a night without winning a single game, so what? I have fun, because it is a game.
Wednesday, January 7th – As long time readers may know, I have this ever growing Highlander monstrosity that is probably over 1300 or 1400 cards by now. I call it Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. I play it a lot, because I love it. I have three long boxes of purple metallic sleeved cards, all foil basic lands, and foils of some of my favorite cards.
Thursday, January 1st – Recently I regained my Abedraft box from one of my friends, who had it in his possession for over a year while my life status was in limbo. After regaining it, I began the task of checking all of the cards to see if they were still there. While doing these checklists, I came across a variety of things and uncovered some interesting cards, questions, and more. In today’s article, I want to talk about them, perhaps build a deck or two, and otherwise have some fun.
Thursday, December 25th – I like theory as much as the next person. I think there’s a lot of important theory, especially in casual land. Where most players and writers investigate the theory of duels and metagames and sideboarding and tournaments, very few explore the theory of multiplayer. That’s a shame, because casual and multiplayer is more complex than duels so, frankly, it needs even more theorists.
Friday, December 19th – Throughout the history of Magic, there have been a lot of special collections of cards that have been packaged and sold, not in random boosters or starters, but in set amounts. We’ve seen preconstructed decks and gift sets, From the Vault: Dragons and Portal Starters. From learning the game to getting your hands wet with mechanics old and new, WoTC has regularly printed materials that are non-random ways of purchasing cads.
Tuesday, December 9th – When I moved to London for eleven days, I divested myself of many of my boxes of cards. Among those was my bad rare stack (er… um… I mean “low value rares”). I wrote seven articles in which I selected, at random, one of these bad rares, and then forced myself to build a deck around these cards.
