If absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess I must be your favorite writer by now. I want to apologize to you all for the lack of columns lately, and offer up some lame excuses… er, I mean reasons for my time away. The good news is, it’s not Asheron’s Call. In a word,…
Those who know me could probably guess what’s going to be my favorite card from . Yup, I really like . Hey, they don’t call me Squirrel King for nothing! I can’t wait to rustle up swarms of Cradle-boosting, planeswalker-eating mad squirrels. In honor of the coming fun, I’ll put out the call for any…
I was thinking about calling this column "The Arena Debacle, Pt. II" but I suspect that there’s probably a few more people out there playing Friday Night Magic than Arena; heck, there’s probably a lot of folks out there who haven’t even heard of Arena. But anybody who’s played Magic for a couple of years…
Wow. I have to say I have been very pleased with the response to my last article. While a lot of it consisted of things like "Bennie, you’re an idiot– the foils you suggested are horrible," the main thing was that I struck a cord out there. People *do* care about the prize support for…
Apologies to those of you who’ve wondered where I’ve been; it seems life has gotten in the way of fun as usual. I recently started a new job and while I’m loving it, it has been keeping me insanely busy. Way too busy to play Magic. It’s also been mentally draining, which has interfered with…
Most people who know me would probably describe me as a generally happy-go-lucky, optimistic kind of guy. I tend to expect the best from people, and generally count on things working out for the best in the world around me. I wasn’t always like that; my childhood and teenage years weighed heavily on my psyche,…
Before I get into the meat of my article, there’s one more thing I wanted to add to the whole”Bad Cards” debate that’s been sparked recently about broken rares and unplayable rares. The DCI needs to do the right thing and emergency ban . There’s no question that the card is inherently broken, and spawns…
I have to tell you, it’s been great getting the feedback that I’ve gotten in response to my last post. Sometimes when you’re writing, you get disillusioned because you feel like you’re shouting into a great void, and no one listens. Reminds me of the line from the original Alien movie advertisements (gosh is that…
Bad Rares. It’s part of Magic, right? Sure it is, always has been. But should it be? I can remember a while ago, someone posted an article that talked about”skill-testing cards.” I think they were talking about in a Limited format, and how it takes some skill to see how good certain cards are; for…
About half-way through the Extended season, the Necro- deck emerged and caused quite a shift in the environment, as you may know. This reputed unstoppable combo deck and its ilk led to the banning of and in the extended format, also as you may know. It is my assumption that this banning, while effective, was…
The Pro Tour New York Qualifier season ended rather unceremoniously for me; my last shot at qualifying was waylaid by a family emergency and I couldn’t attend. So, I never got a shot at throwing Dancing Dead Things in front of the /Illusions juggernaut to see if my theories worked. On the plus side, my…
First off I need to ask you if you’ve seen the latest issue of Scrye, the one with the Dark Pokemon energy symbol on it. Have you read Omeed’s article on Type 2? In it, he mentions control green and ways the deck gets around . He talks about the obvious, dull and uncreative choice…
I wanted to give a quick thanks to all of you for the feedback I’ve gotten in response to my”Disney-freaking-World?!?” column the other week. Whether you came down on my side of the argument or in support of National’s home this year, it’s good to let Wizards know we care about the venue for this…
After mixed success with green creature based control last weekend, I briefly thought about switching up and playing a more established deck. But then I thought again. This is my hometown! I couldn’t NOT play green here; people are going to be disappointed if I shuffle up an Oath or Necro deck. Besides, none of…
Alright, faithful readers… I have a question for you. Was my article posted at the top of today’s articles? If it wasn’t, I need a favor from you. Mailbomb our good editor with your outrage that you had to scan down the page to find my article. I mean, do you really want to have…
