Thursday, March 25th – We begin this step of the adventure in Kuala Lumpur, fresh off not making the second day at the Grand Prix there. Brian Kowal and I were both a bit in the dumps about coming so far only to scrub out. We made this up to ourselves seeing monkeys, eating delicious curries, and receiving massages, but those are all stories for another day.
Wednesday, March 17th – Grand Prix: Kuala Lumpur is the kind of event I used to resent: a Constructed tournament with a format different that that of the current PTQ season. What I used to dislike is the extra time required to learn a new format, decide where to position oneself in the metagame, and having to assemble a new deck of cards to play. Life is certainly simpler when you only have to work on one format at a time!
Wednesday, March 10th – In a recent article, Patrick Chapin observed that he is no longer as young as he once was. He asserted that he was losing games because he was already worn out when he sat down to play. The Innovator changed his behavior across the board when it came to preparing for Magic tournaments, and has said that he felt those alterations have contributed to his recent high finish at Pro Tour: San Diego. I am certain he is right.
Wednesday, March 3rd – Extended is probably my favorite format. Enough cards to support a diversity of strategies, and yet a ruthless ecosystem in which only the strongest will thrive. A nice feature is that the consistency in the card base means that the format has a strong continuity from year to year, such that if you knew what was going on the year before, you probably have a good handle on what is going on this season…
