Wednesday, July 30th – Isn’t it interesting to think that Oona’s Prowler never got much play? It’s a three-power flier for two mana, with a drawback that is not really much of a drawback. Pitch Evershrike to the graveyard on turn 3 with Oona’s Prowler, then spend 3 mana to put it into play with, say, Edge of Divinity attached, for a 7/7 flier. Is that worth all the trouble?
Wednesday, July 23rd – When last we left our hero, he’d dug into the White and Blue cards of interest in Eventide. Let’s move on and try to finish things up…
Wednesday, July 16th – The Eventide spoiler is out, and ‘tis the season for set reviews. While you’ll be getting the Spike-side view from the Premium gang, and the casual review from some of the free side regulars, I figure I’d go ahead and give my takes on it too.
Wednesday, July 9th – In Part 1 last week, I talked about settling on the deck I wanted to play for Richie Proffitt’s Memorial Tournament on June 29th, and I was incredibly happy with my choice both leading up to the tournament, during the tournament, and afterwards. My choice? Aggro Zur…
Wednesday, July 2nd – You know, the Pro Tour tournaments are a great contribution to Magic’s identity. However, while it dominates much of the Magic dialogue, the Pro Tour is only a narrow sliver of the Magic Community; for the vast majority of Magic players, the game is all about friends and fun, playing Magic when life’s commitments allow you the time. This “silent majority” got to grab the spotlight a little bit this weekend, in a fantastic tribute to Richie Proffitt, PolarBearGod.
Wednesday, June 25th – I was all ready to shift gears and totally dive into preparing for the Block Constructed PTQs, but then Pete pulls together a memorial tournament for Richie Proffitt that’s turning into an event you simply cannot afford to miss. The cause is fantastic, the prize pool is insane, and those two facts are sure to draw a great crowd of Magic players to Roanoke, Virginia this Sunday, June 29th.
Wednesday, June 18th – Mark Rosewater recently mentioned that, starting with Shards of Alara, each set is going to be comparably smaller than the sets sizes we’ve currently been seeing. Personally, this thrills me. As someone who likes to play competitively, it’s difficult to acquire a playset of so many cards out there that you want to build decks with, especially since we’re living in the era of Tier 2 cards, which widens the pool of “must-have” playables.
Wednesday, June 11th – As of Thursday last week, I’d pretty much settled on the deck I was going to play as detailed in last week’s column. Friday, I get an instant message from Adrian Sullivan asking me what I was going to play. I sheepishly tell him B/G elves; I say “sheepishly” because I feel like a sell-out.
Wednesday, June 4th – When I was asking various friends what I should play for the Star City $5K, Adrian Sullivan and Ben Bleiweiss both told me I should play Green/Black Elves. Green/Black Elves?! How boring!! That archetype has been out there kicking around since Lorwyn was released, and I’m always drawn to the shiny and new.
Tuesday, May 27th – The last time I went to battle at an Elder Dragon Highlander game, I got horribly color-screwed nearly the entire game and vowed to play Mono-Green the next time around in the hopes that mana troubles wouldn’t be nearly as bad. Green isn’t exactly known for its powerful multiplayer cards, so I wanted to use that notion as camouflage to lull people into not really regarding me as a threat.
Wednesday, May 21st – In the first age of Magic, Blue was dominant for two perceived reasons: its ability to counter spells, and its ability to draw cards. These elements were considered to be “in-flavor” for Blue, when in reality this was giving one color dominion over two fundamental, basic mechanics of the game – playing cards and drawing cards.
Wednesday, May 14th – I had a good time at this weekend’s Magic extravaganza, the Star City Mega-Magic Weekend. For those of you who did come out and were kind enough to come up and introduce yourselves and let me know you enjoyed my column, I really appreciate it. Nothing feels better than meeting you all face to face and hearing positive feedback. You all rock!
Wednesday, May 7th – In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few weeks, you may not know that Star City Games is holding a blow-out weekend chock full of Magic starting this Friday, right here in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. I’ve lived in Richmond all my life, and I thought it might be helpful to provide some tips for getting around for those of you who are not familiar with River City.
Wednesday, April 30th – Last week I wrote about the Persistence mechanic, touching on some ideas and concepts that I hope inspired some of you to give the Persistence cards a try. In the deckbuilding forums I’ve seen a lot of folks adopting my Juniper Order Ranger idea into Persistence engines.
Wednesday, April 23rd – I hope you were able to attend the Shadowmoor prerelease this past weekend; here in Richmond, quite a crowd mustered out to get their first taste of the new cards, and first impressions seemed to be that Shadowmoor Limited is chock-full of fast beatdown, along with synergies and combos that are often hard to handle.
