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AuthorChad Ellis

Chad is a Pro Tour veteran and writes primarily on general strategy and Limited. His articles are aimed at PTQ players trying to reach the next level.

Weak Among the Strong: Threats and Execution

The threat is stronger than the execution. I first read this strategic insight during a past life in which I played and studied Chess instead of Magic. Some Chess strategies simply don’t apply to Magic – Chess is a game of perfect information in which identical forces contest with all pieces beginning on the board. Magic involves imperfect information and each draw can radically change the balance of force available to each player. Nevertheless, many strategic truths apply as powerfully to Magic as to Chess… and this may be one of them.

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Weak Among the Strong: Bluffing, Imperfect Information and the Myth of the Single Correct Play

What can you say about Chad Ellis’s fundamentals articles? That Chad Ellis is a respected Magic theorist capable of taking complex concepts and making them simple to understand. That Chad is respected by the best theorists and players in the game. That every time you read a Chad Ellis article, you will learn something and become a better player. If that’s not enough, check out the guest appearance from “The Donald” in this exceptional article.

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Weak Among the Strong: Winning More

Today Chad puts forth yet another seminal piece of Magic theory explaining why winning is obviously good, but “Winning More” is clearly not. If you want to improve your deck construction skills, this is the place to start.

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Weak Among the Strong: Grand Prix Goblins, Part II

One of the things I think is often lacking in Magic articles is honesty. I’m not talking about people giving inferior lists so they can protect their tech, although that certainly happens. I’m talking about people not being honest enough with themselves to be honest with us about what they did and why. Today I will be fully honest about exactly how well my Goblin deck performed at Grand Prix: Boston, the mistakes I made with it, and the modifications I feel are necessary to make it even more competitive in this crazy environment.

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Weak Among the Strong: Who Needs Spells?

We now return to our continuing saga of Chad Ellis, the young…well, the not old…okay fine, he’s really old, former Pro Tour player. Extended season now beckons – the format that took Chad to his first Pro Tour ever. Will he be able to continue his streak by winning GP: Boston? Will he even make Day 2, or will he have to try his luck at the Day 2 PTQ? Read on, and see things from Chad’s own perspective, as he writes both before and after the event.

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Time to Ban Aether Vial

I remember the first time I saw Skullclamp. I had just shown up to the Darksteel prerelease and a friend of mine had the Clamp in play. I had to read the card three times before I could believe what I was reading, and it was clear that this card could do some serious damage in Constructed formats. Now we have another one-mana artifact warping Constructed environments. This time it didn’t even make me blink when I first read it, and I think most people missed its power until it had been played enough to show itself. Aether Vial is no Skullclamp, but it is still fundamentally broken and is probably hurting Magic, especially Extended. It should go.

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10 Extended Decks in 10 Days – Life Would Be a Dream?

Chad continues our Extended event today with what many have termed “the wimpiest combo deck of all time.” Is this a fair assessment of a deck that simply blows most aggro decks out of the water, or is this something you absolutely must prepare for in order to be ready for Grand Prix: Boston this weekend? Leave it to the guy from Your Move Games to help you figure it out!

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Weak Among the Strong: Revisiting the Scarce Resource

The scarce resource is a fundamental strategic concept, whether in business, life or Magic, but it doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. Understanding scarce resource theory will help you draft, sideboard and make tough judgment calls during play, and is just as important a fundamental as card advantage or tempo. If you’ve been looking for a general guide that will lead you to making better plays, this is it!

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Weak Among the Strong: Two Down!

Chad tells the tale of how he hopped off the Magic gold course and right back on the Pro Tour for the second time in a row, though in this tale he gets by with a little help from his friends.

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Weak Among the Strong: What I’ve Learned About Champions Team Sealed

Champions Team Sealed isn’t quite as much fun as draft, but it is certainly skill-testing. Chris Manning, Bruce Cowley and I have played in a couple of PTQs and Day 1 of GP: Chicago (sadly, our lack of byes meant we were one of the 6-2 teams that didn’t make day 2). So far, none of our card pools have been extraordinary (most have frankly been on the poopy side), but sometimes that just means you learn the most about how a format works. Here are some of the key lessons I’ve learned about Champions Team Sealed.

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Owning the Extended PTQs

In what may be the most influential article of the Extended season thus far, Chad teaches you the crucial skills necessary to own your Extended PTQs and provides a heaping helping of sideboard and maindeck tech for anyone hoping to make earn a slot in Philadelphia. This is a must-read article for any serious Magic player.

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Weak Among the Strong: Arcane Control

Limited is about creatures and the spells that interact with them — removal and combat tricks. Right? Every now and then there’s an opportunity to break this rule, at least in Draft. A set contains an engine or interaction of commons and uncommons that lets a drafter turn a bunch of cards into a “constructed” powerhouse. In the past we’ve seen this with heavy R/B removal decks with some sort of graveyard recursion. But nowhere has this been seen more dramatically than in Champions draft, where a totally creatureless archetype has appeared.

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How to Rochester Draft

Quite a few years ago, back when Tempest was hot and new, I did my first Rochester draft. It was the top 8 of a PTQ and I was what could be called “a bit behind the knowledge curve” going in. Things did not go well. Since then I’ve seen a consistent pattern in every competitive Rochester Draft I’ve been in – a lot of players who can play well and even Booster Draft well do not know the basics of Rochester. This PTQ season I want to make sure that instead of being one of those people, you’re the one who takes advantage of them.

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