Friday, December 18th – Are you a pack-cracker? I sometimes feel weird when, after getting my booster box comp for working at prereleases, I go home and rip open all the booster packs for singles to add to my collection or trade binder (to trade for more of what I need).
Friday, December 11th – Man, it feels fantastic to type that title! While I’ve gotten more than a few condolences on my finish (since 2nd place also means you were this close to 1st place), personally I’m just thrilled to have returned to the Top 8 tables of States after way too long…
Friday, December 4th – When I finished last week’s column, I was feeling really good about States. For the first time in a long time, I had a deck concept I was really happy with time to spare. The last task left was to polish the list, and the grinder of choice was Jund. If you can’t at least have a reasonable shot at beating Jund, you shouldn’t play the deck, right?
Friday, November 27th – When I submitted my column last week, I was bouncing between playing my Pyromancer Ascension/Summoning Trap deck, my Eldrazi Goblin deck, and Takagi Yui’s Rite of Replication deck for FNM… Then I watched the video deck tech with Conley Woods from Worlds, and I fell in love with Magical Christmasland.
Friday, November 20th – I realize, in the grand scheme of things, that there are a lot worse things that can happen to you than a run of extraordinary bad luck playing Magic. Ultimately, this is just a game. That said, this is a column about Magic, and bad-beat stories are a time-honored tradition.
Friday, November 13th – Last weekend was one that this Green mage was very happy about. While I enjoyed personal success with a deck built around one of the coolest Green cards to be printed in some time, that FNM moment paled in comparison to the gigantic splash Kali and Todd Anderson made at the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Nashville on Saturday…
Friday, November 6th – Today I thought I’d shake things up a bit. While I do have a recounting of my EDH game with a Halloween themed Baron Sengir deck at the end of the column, I wanted to start things off by examining two Zendikar sealed deck pools. We’ve got a double PTQ weekend in Richmond in a week, and while I’m not a big fan of Sealed, I’ve got to at least try. Help?
Friday, October 30th – A couple weeks back I decided to try something new – open up my email to those of you who’d like me to “deck doctor” your EDH deck. I got a pretty good response, enough for several deck doctors, so if you like how this goes let me know and I’ll do some more here and there on the slow weeks.
Friday, October 23rd – My first foray into the new Standard was disappointing. I built a fairly stock Vampires deck for Josh, and for myself took an experimental monowhite deck for a test drive, and both of us ended up at 2-2. The EDH league provides a nice consolation prize for those whose FNM comes to an abrupt end, so I pulled out my Rofellos deck and went to work casting gigantic spells.
Friday, October 16th – October has been an exciting time. We’ve finally shrugged off the oppressively powerful cards from Lorwyn/Shadowmoor that have been dominating Standard for so long. Add to that the rush of an exciting new set chock full of enticing new cards, and it all makes for a wild ride for Magic players as we try to figure out what to play now.
Friday, October 9th – I’m not sure whether it’s just part of the euphoria I’m feeling from finally getting to play with Zendikar (and all the various implications to Standard & Extended), but this set also brings some monumental shifts in my approach to Elder Dragon Highlander, in addition to the usual bumper crop of fun new cards I’m dying to try.
Friday, October 2nd – Count me amongst the barbarian hordes who’re deeply disappointed at Lotus Cobra’s mythic rarity. I just traded two of the new fetchlands for one Cobra, and based on initial pricing it’s close to an even trade. That’s just ludicrous. Lotus Cobra is a good card, but it’s on par with one fetchland at the most.
Friday, September 25th – While Wizards has been knocking out some home runs of late, in terms of card design and business decisions, and understandably wants to highlight their successes, I also think it’s important to the long-term health of the game to take a critical look at this most recent Standard so that the people who make the game will hear and take it into consideration for future designs.
Friday, September 18th – Are we having State Champs this year? According to the Twitter buzz from some folks at Wizards the answer is… maybe. For players like me, what I loosely call the “casually competitive†crowd, States was the highlight of the year. With Standard in massive flux from the rotation, it often felt like anything was possible… with the right mix of luck and new card technology, you could be champ.
Friday, September 11th – Zendikar seems an environment tailor-made to play towards Green’s strengths. Is that going to be the case, or is Wizards going to rob that piece of the pie and distribute it across multiple colors in the name of making the themes work no matter what colors you play?
