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AuthorBennie Smith

Bennie Smith began playing Magic in 1994 and started writing about it shortly after. A Virginia State Champion, he enjoys few things better than winning at tournaments with home brews. Commander is one of those things. He loved the format so much he literally wrote the book on it: The Complete Commander.

SCG Daily – A Call To Action

I just wanted to take a break from my review of Coldsnap to call attention to what could arguably be one of the most important issues of our time. You may think there are other things that rate higher on your radar – global warming, the price of gasoline, the Iraq occupation, why we still haven’t seen pictures of Tom Cruise’s baby – but that’s all just trivial stuff. There’s a problem that strikes to the very foundation of our Magic community and deserves your attention…

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SCG Daily – Coldsnap’s Crme de la Crust, Part 1

Bennie Smith returns with a preliminary look at the more aggresively costed cards from Coldsnap. As the madness of the weekend’s prereleases begins to fade from memory, it’s time to turn our attention to the coming Constructed formats. What cards are gliding sweetly below the mana barriers? Bennie vows to find out!

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Grand Prix Richmond Guide to Dining & Area Nightlife

Grand Prix Richmond - February 3-5, 2006!

For those of you who will be coming to Richmond, Virginia for the first time, I would like to extend a warm welcome on behalf of our fair City on the James. Richmond is one of this nation’s oldest communities, and for those who are interested in U.S. history — be it Colonial, Revolutionary, or Civil-War era — Richmond is steeped in it. I could go on and on about places of historical interest, but I know the vast majority of you are coming in for a weekend of wall-to-wall Magic, before either heading home or heading for a local sports bar to catch the Super Bowl. I’ll leave the history to Googlers and get right down to the important stuff — how to get around Richmond, and where to go for food and nightlife!

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Judging Dredge: Top 8 at Virginia States

It’s not everyday that a sixty-card draft deck makes the Top 8 at a big tournament like States, but that’s what appeared to happen last Saturday in Richmond. Today Bennie explains what this crazy deck is, how it came together, and whether cards like Stinkweed Imp, Moldervine Cloak, and Greater Mossdog belong in future iterations.

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Hypno-Sand Babe: Stumbling Through You Make the Card 3

Hello everyone! If you’re like me, you were happy to see the next stage of You Make The Card 3 pop up on magicthegathering.com Wednesday. If you’re also like me, you’re feeling a bit disappointed this time around. Follow me as I analyze the proposed mechanics and search for the golden needle in this fetid haystack.

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10 Extended Decks in 10 Days – Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex With Squids But Were Afraid To Ask

Cephalid Breakfast very nearly won a Grand Prix last weekend, so you can be absolutely certain it will be played at upcoming PTQs. Bennie Smith takes the deck to the numbers and looks at all of the matchup data for the deck against every deck played in Pro Tour: Columbus to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie. If you plan to play Extended this season, this is information you must have.

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A Beacon of Fun

Who says all the fun decks in Standard can’t win? How about a deck that combines Dragons, Beacons, Rude Awakening, and Meloku plus Fecundity to boot? Bennie returns from his holidays to give you the lowdown on a deck that is powerful, competitive, and downright fun to play!

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The New Legend Rule is GOOD!

I suspect that with Champions of Kamigawa, Wizards will revolutionize the way they design Legends. Being a Legend is an inherent enough drawback to warrant ramping up the power level. Not only do you run the risk of”dead” draws by drawing multiple copies of the Legend, but now the Legend is vulnerable to a unique form of removal: a copy of itself played by your opponent. With Champions, if you’re willing to run the deckbuilding risks, you can be rewarded with great power.

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The Ashes of Mirrodin Block

Now that Mirrodin Block Constructed is in full swing, with the top tiers filled with established decks (though there are still a few new spins cropping up here and there), I thought it would be interesting to think back on what didn’t seem to work in Mirrodin block as far as Constructed goes. As diverse as the metagame is with the banning of Skullclamp, there are still some major disappointments for the insatiable deckbuilders out there in both Block Constructed and Type Two.

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Taking a Walk on the Broken Side: A Novice Type One Player at the SCG P9

Into this gloomy summer, a glimmer of hope appeared: the StarCityGames.com Power 9 Type 1 tournament. When it was first announced, I really didn’t pay it much attention. I mean, the last few Type 1 tournaments I played in I hadn’t been very impressed with neither the format nor my performance. It seemed that the great divide between Powered players and non-Powered players was huge and made the game elitist by necessity. If you didn’t have the resources to get Powered up, why bother playing? But later on I learned a few things that made me reconsider going to the tournament.

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Extreme Magic: A Casual Format Where Broken Things Happen

It seems in just about every single Oscar Tan article – and quite frequently in other Type 1 articles – the phrase”This is Type I, broken things happen” plays like a theme song you cringe to after hearing a gazillion times. About two to three months ago, after reading the latest iteration of this phrase and grinding my teeth in irritation, it occurred to me: why should Type 1 have the monopoly on that phrase?

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The Ultimate Prize: Evaluating the Magic Invitationalists’ Card Submissions

As a long-time player of the game, I have to admit to being particularly intrigued by the prize given away each year to the winner of the Magic Invitational. The opportunity for a player to make his or her mark on the game with a card based on your own design, and sporting your likeness, is quite a gift back to the Magic community by Wizards of the Coast. I mean, what true fan of the game wouldn’t love this opportunity? Since I’m not very likely to get to make my own card, I thought it would be entertaining to look at this year’s proposed cards and separate the wheat from the chaff.

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Flying in the Face of Occam’s Razor – Arguments Against Banning the Clamp

The simplest answer to the Major Problem runs something like this: Wizards R&D goofed up when they printed Skullclamp. It should have never been unleashed upon the Magic public. Just simply ban it and everything goes back to the way it should be, right? Now, while most people are debating the last part of answer, I’ve been looking more closely at the first part. Namely, I’ve been questioning whether Skullclamp was actually a mistake.

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Regionals: The Keys to the Kingdom

I’ve got a secret to share with you. It will get you qualified for Nationals at this year’s Regionals; it’ll get you in position to take the slot or the cash at your next PTQ. Yes, competitive Magic success can be yours for the taking, if you just listen to this one insight, this nugget of wisdom I’m willing to impart to you. Yes, it’s the Real Deal, the Magic Carpet ready to scoop you up and deposit you on the Gravy Train. If you want to Win And Win Big! then you better keep reading.

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Digging into Post-Darksteel Cemetery

The buzz is in the air, the slow building excitement of a new Type 2 ready to be explored and exploited in the months leading up to Regionals. How will Darksteel shake up the metagame? Will any of the anointed Tier 1 decks stumble and fall? Will any Tier 2 or completely new archetype rise up to take their place? Will there be any secret tech that flies under the radar long enough to surprise and conquer like Ralphie Treatment or Turbo-Haups in years past?

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