Friday, April 10th – Last Friday night I was hanging outside Richmond Comix with Jay Delazier between rounds, and he mentioned he didn’t like last week’s column very much. When I asked him why, he said he thought I was contradicting myself…
Friday, April 3rd – Soon the collective attention of Magic columnists will turn to Standard, and likely stay there for quite a while since there is going to be a crush of Standard events in the next several months. Regionals is fast approaching, about a month and a half away, and we’ve also got the Qualifier season for Pro Tour: Austin starting in May, and that’s Standard too.
Friday, March 27th – This past Sunday I had the pleasure of playing in a 9-man Elder Dragon Highlander game at Richmond Comix, and as tradition has it I’m going to present the deck I played and a recap of the how the game played out.
Thursday, March 19th – It occurred to me there are some parallels you can draw between Girl Scout Cookies and the Standard Metagame. For the most part it seems the top deck and cookie archetypes never change. Like Faerie decks, you always have Samoas, which people can’t quit because they’re so damn good.
Friday, March 13th – In light of the snorefest metagame coming out of Kyoto I thought it would be a great time to talk about a deck utterly and completely off the radar. Then along comes Jacob Van Lunen’s Building on a Budget last Thursday featuring… an Esper Elixir deck! Of course, why not?
Friday, March 6th – In the forum thread to my column last week, a poster asked if I’d go into more details on the decisions I made when assembling my Ancient Ziggurat deck for the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open. Given that another Ziggurat deck just made a huge splash in Kyoto, being pretty much the only new and innovative deck to come out of the tournament, I figured it would be worthwhile going over the choices I made.
Friday, February 27th – When last we left off, I had some big plans for the $5K weekend. Friday Night Magic to try and test some tweaks to my Fugees Elves deck. Then Saturday playing in the $5K Standard event, Sunday play in the Extended PTQ, and sometime in between try and fit in some Elder Dragon Highlander…
Friday, February 20th – This weekend is going to be a huge Magical feast. For me, things kick off Friday at Richmond Comix’s FNM, where I’ll be giving my Standard decklist a final whirl and likely make a few last minute tweaks. Then Saturday we’ve got the first of ten (TEN!) StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Opens, kicking off right here in my hometown of Richmond.
Friday, February 13th – Of all the post-Conflux deck ideas I’d been kicking around, the tweaked B/G Elves deck seemed like the strongest right out of the box. While the other deck ideas were certainly more interesting and different from what’s currently doing well in the metagame, they also obviously needed lots of playtest time to see what truly worked and what just seemed good on paper.
Friday, February 6th – Last week I focused on the Green cards from Conflux that I found interesting. This week I thought I’d conclude by going over the cards in the other colors that caught my attention, and toss a few more deck ideas out there. The StarCityGames.com $5K Standard Open is coming up quick, so I’m angling for something powerful and new to run.
Friday, January 30th – While many of the premium crew sift through new sets with the flinty cool eye of a gold prospector, I tend to bubble over and gush about all the brand new creative space being opened up for us, whether it be a Friday Night Magic special, something fun to throw into your EDH deck, or maybe (just maybe) something hot to take to an upcoming Star City $5K Standard Open.
Friday, January 23rd – Conflux is coming! Today’s official Conflux preview is big, beefy, and ready to fight… and he’ll bring his friends to battle too! Say hello to… the Mirror-Sigil Sergeant!
Thursday, January 22nd – This week has been a rollercoaster ride. First, we swore in a new president. The next day, the company I work for let go a small but significant number of employees; friends and colleagues who are now out looking for work in these terrible economic times. It makes me thankful for all the blessings life’s given me… including the escapism and joy that Magic brings. So let’s get on with it, eh?
Friday, January 16th – Last Friday was the first FNM I’ve been able to attend since around Thanksgiving; the chaos of holidays when you’ve got small children is not to be underestimated. I’ve also had very little time to practice Limited, probably somewhere around five drafts in total, so I decided: if I got crushed at FNM, I’d drop out and go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and ogle Cate Blanchett.
Friday, January 9th – This week I’m pleased to present a very special interview with Wizards of the Coast’s Magic Director, Aaron Forsythe. When I heard he was gunslinging some Elder Dragon Highlander decks at Worlds, I had hopes he’d be willing to share some of his thoughts on the format with my readers here – and sure enough, he brought the noise!
