CASUAL FRIDAYS #70: Challenge In The City Of Angels
Anthony challenges The Ferrett to a multiplayer duel at PT:LA! Can a city so small contain the Twin Titans of Multiplayer? Well, probably.
CASUAL FRIDAYS #69: Songs And Victory
Break this Contest has banned AND (Shyft is an Ice Age creature that can go multichromatic at instant speed.) Any submission using should be resubmitted. Anthony apologizes for the oversight, and would like to state for the record that he thinks Ice Age is a lovely expansion, and that people who think about Ice Age…
CASUAL FRIDAYS #68: Fifteen Funky Formats To Fool Your Friends
With the holidays upon us, it is time to shake ourselves out of our typical ruts and do some fresh, new things. I therefore present to you fifteen new (well, some more new than others) group play formats for you to try over the next few weeks. I came up with the number "fifteen" easily,…
CASUAL FRIDAYS #67: So, Can Casual Players Still Play With Rith? Catching Up With My In Box
Back from a Sideboard reporting gig in Chicago, I have a lot I want to share with you all. First, you should check out my early "lessons learned" piece on the Sideboard (they’ve been kind enough to feature it on the front, so just go to www.sideboard.com). Then, if you like, you could go read…
CASUAL FRIDAYS #66: Catching Up With My In Box
Three parts to today’s article. First, some early feedback and ideas on "singing decks." Then, a followup to an earlier conversation on women in casual Magic groups. Then, the winner of Connect the Dots. PART ONE: NOT OVER UNTIL THE FATTIE SINGS I am really pleased with the mail my last column generated. It felt…
CASUAL FRIDAYS #65: Making Your Deck Sing
In the spirit of holiday procrastination – yes, we are close enough to the holidays to start procrastinating, why put it off? – I am delaying the Connect the Dots contest winner for another week. Honestly, when I start one of these things, I look over the stuff I’ve promised in the recent past for…
CASUAL FRIDAYS #64: Multiplayer Hall of Fame, The Final Stop: Artifacts
QUICK CORRECTION TO LAST WEEK: In changing (from a previous edition) to , I managed to keep the description for . is a 6/6 creature costing 4RR with echo, which does four points of damage to every other creature as it comes in. I am likely to get in the artwork for this article late….
Casual Fridays #63: Hall Of Fame, Resumption: Red, Gold, And Lands
GENERAL COMMENTS: A bit like green, red has to give up a bit of its mindless rush instincts in multiplayer and concentrate on its control aspects. Of red’s two primary themes – DIRECT DAMAGE and LAND DESTRUCTION – neither can maintain its usual stock of staples (Lightning Bolt, Stone Rain) and expect to do as…
Casual Fridays #62: Interlude
With the Hall of Fame taking up time and energy on both the Ferrett’s part and mine, I figured this week I would give both of us just a small break and do something more simple. There are some things I would like to cover anyway, without waiting three weeks. I apologize to those who…
The Multiplayer MTG Hall Of Fame Part I: Blue And Black
WHITE GENERAL COMMENTS: White is probably more able than any other color to recover from massive board-clearing spells. That?s a good characteristic in multiplayer. White?s basic strengths — LIFEGAIN, PROTECTION, UTILITY, and MASS REMOVAL — all translate just fine into multiplayer. All of these characteristics are represented here. Note that white and green are the…
The Multiplayer MTG Hall Of Fame Part I: Blue And Black
Back in August 1999 on the Dojo, I put forward a list of cards that "made multiplayer games great." The list generated terrific feedback, virtually all positive, with occasional constructive suggestions and additions. I promised, both before and after this feedback, that I would revisit the list after a couple more expansions had passed. I…
Casual Fridays #59: The Invasion Of…Er, Invasion
A few weeks ago, my family and I flew out to Cape Cod for a friend’s wedding. At my parents’ condominium complex, where we stayed, they don’t allow dogs. So Turquoise, our faithful collie-shepherd mix, had to stay at a kennel. Over my wife’s protests, I reserved a "VIP" board for her (the dog, not…
Casual Fridays #58: Muggles, Olive Trees, And Estrogen. Oh, And Braintree
Readers from early this year will recall one of my later columns on the Dojo, a piece on New Year’s Resolutions. One of those resolutions was to do more recreational reading. I am happy to report that, while many of my other resolutions have crashed and burned over the past eight months, my determination to…
Casual Fridays #57: A Good Time For Random Thoughts
I think I will give my readers a theory break this week! I’m sensitive to the fact that my previous three articles have all been rather technical, with humorous asides few and far between. Really, I didn’t intend for all three to stack like that. There were three reasons why this happened. (Actually there were…
Casual Fridays #56: SORRY, YOU HAVE THE WRONG EXTENSION
How far should you extend your forces in a multiplayer game of Magic’ The secret formula lies within. First, a housekeeping item. Some of you noticed a wee little fly buzzing around our collective Internet heads last week. Todd Petit, formerly ‘Theo,’ has cast off the shroud of secrecy surrounding his identity and offered you…