Bans And Unbans In Modern
With the next Banned and Restricted announcement just a week away, Magic Pro Tour veteran Alexander West returns to give his thoughts on the format’s immediate past and future!
Grand Prix Seattle Report
Alex West got tenth at Grand Prix Seattle. Read his report about his Sealed and Draft decks in order to prepare for Grand Prix Nashville and Draft Opens at StarCityGames.com Open: Sacramento.
Faithless In Hawaii
Alex West talks about the evolution of his Pro Tour deck, from UWR Burning Vengeance to a more Reanimator style with Elesh Norn, Unburial Rites, and of course…Faithless Looting. Try it out at the Charlotte Open this weekend!
Azorius Fae For Overextended
Alex West has built a winning Overextended decklist, so if you want to try your hand at Gavin Verhey’s Tuesday Magic Online tournaments, check this out, and expect it to become a real part of the metagame!
Thoughts After Finishing 12th In Kansas City
Alex considered himself a Constructed specialist, but realized he needed to learn Limited to be the best. He discusses some of the biggest lessons he’s learned: drafting an archetype, experimenting, staying open, and more.
PT Nagoya: Developing Izzet Control?
Alex West and his team full of Pro Tour mainstays went into overdrive preparing for Pro Tour Nagoya. For some deep insight into testing for Pro Tours, check out their process and the evolution of Alex’s Izzet (U/R) Control deck.
Best of the West – Greatness at Any Cost
Thursday, August 19th – Inspired by the Columbus DQ controversy, the discussion over whether Saito should make the Hall of Fame, and some of my own experiences, I’d like to talk about all sorts of out of the box play, the will to win, and the ethics of competition.
Best of the West – Preparing for San Juan, Part 2
Thursday, June 10th – At the end of last week’s article, I was in Madison, WI at the home of Brian Kowal and we had just begun to crack the draft format, and had Mono-Red and Summoning Trap as archetypes we thought were viable in the Block Constructed format.
Best of the West – Preparing for San Juan, Part 1
Thursday, June 3rd – I desperately want to get to Level 4 this year. You could call me a man on a mission. With 8 points so far for the season from two GP top 12s, I decided the best plan of attack was to go on a swing of Grand Prix: Washington D.C., Pro Tour: San Juan, Grand Prix: Sendai, and Grand Prix: Manila.
Best of the West – Manabases in Action
Thursday, May 13th – In the last week hanging out with Zvi Mowshowitz, he said something that struck me: approximately, ‘I don’t build decks the way most people build them. First I look at the mana and what I can do with it, and then build everything else on top of that.’ This didn’t come as too much of a surprise to me since land selection is the first step of every deck design in my process, but I had been overlooking the fact that most people do not do this.