Wednesday, November 11th – Once upon a time, I did a set review for Shards of Alara, and in that review I foolishly bashed on Elspeth, Knight-Errant, asserting that she was just a “four-mana Angelic Blessing.†So, as one might guess, I know what crow tastes like. A month or so back, I said that “I was wrong about Elspeth, but I just don’t see it with Nissa.†… Oops.
Wednesday, November 4th – This week I’m going to switch gears back to Standard, a format that has been admittedly a little stale for me the past few weeks. The problem is that Jund has literally been the only deck people seem to want to play since Zendikar was released, with the rest of the crowd battling with fringe decks like Mono-Red and Vampires…
Wednesday, October 28th – Dredge has always been a powerful deck, but it feels like it really might be the best deck in the format, much like it was two years ago. At that time, most players would tell you that Next Level Blue (with Counterbalance) was the best deck and that Dredge was too easy to hate out, but that season easily belonged to Dredge.
Tuesday, October 20th – A short while back, Matt Elias wrote a wonderful and entertaining article called “Your Format Sucks,†which slapped each format in the face one-by-one. Though clearly aiming at humor in the long run, Matt’s analysis of the formats was more or less spot-on: especially his take on Extended.
Wednesday, October 14th – The PTQ season is about to get rolling, and I’ve got my first one this coming weekend. Zendikar Limited has yet to disappoint, and I feel as though the sealed format in particular is incredibly balanced.
Wednesday, October 7th – I’ve known many players in my years spent playing Magic that have told me that they enjoy Limited far more than Constructed, and I’ve personally just never felt that way. Even when Standard degenerated into a joke like Lorwyn Standard, I still would rather sleeve up 60-card decks as opposed to a draft deck. While that hasn’t necessarily changed for me, Zendikar is beginning to show me why so many players worldwide value Limited so highly.
Wednesday, September 30th – I’ll be the first to admit that Wizards has made their fair share of mistakes over the course of the last two decades, and even with Zendikar it’s apparent that they still have a lot to learn (Warren Instigator and Lotus Cobra at Mythic, for example). However, sometimes… they just get it right.
Wednesday, September 23rd – No matter how you look at it, it would seem that the feelings about Zendikar are more or less unanimous amongst the Magic community. Some suggest that it’s the best set since Ravnica, while others say it’s interesting yet also a tad overhyped. Myself, though, I find somewhere in between.
Wednesday, September 16th – It’s been a long time since any of us were truly thrilled about a new “large set†being released, as Shards of Alara wasn’t too hyped when it was released and Lorwyn’s return to tribal put a lot of people off. Time Spiral’s nostalgia theme was critical when it came to the hype for that set, but it seems like this time Zendikar is doing just fine on its own.
Wednesday, September 9th – Here I am again, in the lull between expansions. It’s times like these that I loathe being a Magic writer, as often it is difficult to find relevant topics to write about. As luck would have it, however, this week I’ve got a decent amount of content to cover. Zendikar spoilers are in full swing, and there are quite a few choice bits to sink our teeth into.
Wednesday, September 2nd – After my finish at last weekend’s PTQ playing Reveillark, I obviously felt well-poised to take down the next one. I moved back to Grand Rapids to go to school this week, and so the trip down to Cincinnati was ever further than it would have been from the east side. Nevertheless, I made the six-plus hour trek to Kentucky with immense optimism.
Wednesday, August 26th – Last weekend was the last PTQ for Austin here in Michigan, and I spent two weeks prior to it switching back and forth between different deck choices. After the PTQ in Chicago, I was pretty sure I wanted to cast Makeshift Mannequins on Anathemancers, but eventually I settled on Five Color Control. It was the best deck, and it had all the tools I needed to win a PTQ…
Wednesday, August 19th – With only three weeks left in the Austin qualifying season, choosing a deck is becoming increasingly difficult. Last week I talked about Five-Color Control and its position as the “best deck,” and I still stand by that. You’d need a very good reason not to play Five Color over something else, although I think the leading excuse would be because playing against the mirror all day is not an ideal thing.
Wednesday, August 12th – Last week I mentioned that I would be battling in Ohio this past weekend at a PTQ in Columbus, but I was unfortunately unable to make it to that event. Regardless, I’ll still talk about the deck I would’ve played: Five-Color Control.
Wednesday, August 5th – This past weekend I attended a PTQ in Chicago. . Going into the event, I was convinced that Conley’s deck from U.S. Nationals was the deck to play, as it had few bad match-ups and actually was testing very well against Five-Color, a match-up that I wanted to be sure that I could beat when the time came.
