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AuthorBen Snyder

Ben has been playing Magic since Alpha, enjoying his greatest success as a deckbuilder and innovator from 2003-2007. While it sometimes seems that his best playing days are behind him, he still enjoys being an active member of the community and maintains a Magic and writing blog at wherethemeatcomesfrom.blogspot.com.

Brian Kibler, Ascendant Dragonmaster

Don’t miss Ben Snyder’s interview with SCG’s own Brian Kibler, who has won Pro Tours, designed award-winning games, and helped hundreds of amateurs reach their dream of playing competitive Magic through his writing and videos.

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Interview With Misty Mountain Legionnaire

This week Ben Snyder interviews Steve Port, one of the biggest tournament organizers in the game and the head of Legion Events and Legion Supplies as well as the owner of Misty Mountain Games and Legion Games.

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Legacy End Boss Level: Tom Martell

This week Ben Snyder interviews pro Magic player Tom Martell, who recently won GP Indianapolis and placed 3rd at GP Salt Lake City. Read to gain insight into how to improve your own tournament play for SCG Open Series: Phoenix.

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Examining Team Constructed

Still wondering what to play at Grand Prix Madison? This article examines the bare bones of the Team Constructed format, and includes a whopping twenty – yes, twenty – viable decklists for the Team Constructed metagame. With sideboarding hints and deck-pairing strategies, a fascinating overview of the coming season’s PTQ format is only a click away…

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Food For Thought: Izzet Combo

Ben takes us through a number of Izzet combo builds, each praying for the third turn, infinite damage Combo Kill. He also brings us a few more Guilpact-inspired decks, and waxes lyrical on his technique for leveling our collective playing field.

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Go Rogue or Go Home – Lickity Split in Standard

Due to a tremendous influx of mail to my mailbox regarding the combo deck called Lickity Split, I decided to write up what I’ve discovered about the deck, how it plays, and what its matchups are like for the second part of my exploration of the Standard Rogue scene.

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Frozen Fish – Searching for Rogue Aggro-Control in Standard

Ben Snyder is rapidly becoming known for two different things: detailed articles about whatever combo deck catches his attention and articles about crazy rogue creations that just might work in Standard. Today’s article is one of the latter, and it should provide some interesting fodder for the Friday Night Magic crowd to play around with.

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Setting the Stage for Standard – The Juicy Fruit Primer

Last time we saw Ben Snyder, he was blowing up Twiddle Desire as part of a 40-page manifesto on the deck and how fast it goldfishes. Well he’s back, folks, and this time he’s tackling Standard combo instead. Part in-depth deck primer on an Intruder Alarm combo deck and part format overview for what Standard will look like for months to come, this article is all quality and will be referenced many many times in the months leading up to Regionals.

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The Twiddle Desire Godbook: Ten Thousand Goldfish Can’t Be Wrong

Before we get started, let’s talk about the deck itself. Relatively few articles have been written about Twiddle Desire, and most people are dismissing it as a viable deck for PTQs. There is good reason for this, since it is one of the hardest decks to play, and is not as rewarding as I would like it to be in terms of supporting good play. Simply put, the average player should not just pick up this deck and go to town expecting to get a turn 2 kill consistently. It isn’t going to happen.

Even for experienced players Twiddle Desire does not win on turn 2 25% of the time. Not even close. It’s far better.

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Playtesting For Champs: The Aggro And Combo Decks

So States is this weekend. What the hell am I playing? I have Affinity.dec, MRC, Mind’s Desire, Goblins, WW, and I have the cards for Rising Tog. I sit and stare at the decks piled on by desk and I thank the Magic gods that I have tested all of them. The best deck (if massive amounts of hate aren’t aimed straight at its dome) is Affinity. Because it is so easy to hate out, I can’t play it. This bothers me, because it is just so damn good. In the end, I needed a deck. So I came up with a solution.

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