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!
Thursday, January 1st – Green needs some help in terms of engaging in Magic outside of just summoning great creatures and hoping that they’re enough to get there. This is not to say that I think Green is the worst color in terms of power, because I don’t – there are plenty of great, tournament-caliber Green cards being made in every Magic set.
Thursday, December 25th – I know some of my readers get amused at how often I get up on my soapbox about various issues I have with the current state of Magic. A lot of it seems to boil down to 1) Blue is too powerful and 2) Green gets the shaft. Yeah, yeah, we’ve certainly heard that before, ho-hum, next please…
Thursday, December 18th – So what did you think of Worlds? I know Wizards goes out of its way to promote the personalities on the Pro Tour, but honestly I was much more interested to see what the Pros did to further define the new Standard and Extended formats. Standard to see what netdeckers might be bringing to Friday Night Magic, and Extended to figure out what deck to play at the local PTQ in January.
Thursday, December 11th – The end of the year is often a time for retrospect… and one thing I realized was that I have been pretty negligent in attending to my starcitygeezer email inbox. So, allow me to remedy that!
Thursday, December 4th – As someone with a casual streak who also enjoys finding bargains, I’ve been enjoying The Ferrett’s recent Casual Player’s Bargain-Hunting Guide series. But a thought suddenly struck me like a lightning bolt as I read about acquiring playsets of certain cards – it’s been somewhere going on two years since I actually built a casual deck where I worried about playsets…
Thursday, November 27th – Holidays are great – you get a break from work, you get to hang with family, relax, eat good food, and watch a ball game on the tube. Yet some holidays are also good occasions to reflect on certain things that may get missed in the general rush and scurry of life in the 21st century. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays, where it’s nice to stop and think about what you have to be thankful for.
Thursday, November 20th – Now is the time to try something off the beaten path in Standard. Except for those of you within striking distance of the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Philadelphia, the rest of us who might want to shuffle up a Standard deck to play will be going down to the local store for Friday Night Magic.
