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AuthorDaniel Crane

Daniel Crane's first Magic deck was about 120 cards, control-heavy, and had the amazing Unstable Shapeshifter/Phyrexian Dreadnought combo. Over the next five years, most of Daniel's decks have changed only in card count. One tournament-worthy deck, a binder, and loads of casual decks keep him in the game and provide the fuel for his writing at Star City that has endured for more than three years.

Are We Waving Goodbye To Dominaria?

Mark Rosewater informed us that the next big expansion, Mirrodin, will not take place on Dominaria. But we’ve got a little problem: So much happened in Legions that has to be dealt with – there’s such great possibility left open to Scourge that I can hardly believe that all the ends will be tied together. I see two main possibilities that might appear in Scourge to try to bring some finality to our long visit on Dominaria… And one of them is that it might be destroyed.

Legions Through The Looking Glass

Haven’t read the Legions novelization yet? Curious to know what’s going on with all of those wacky pitfighters – Kamahl, Akroma, Phage, Ixidor, Braids, and the as-yet-uncarded The First and General Stonebrow? Daniel neatly summarizes the latest plot events for you, and provides a capsule review at the same time!

The Real Story Behind Legions

It’s that time again – time to see what windows the flavor text commission of R&D opened up into the world of the Magic storyline. As always, this”real story” installation is intended to give those who don’t have the time or interest to read the Magic novels a picture of what occurs in them.

Magic: The Representation

If I’m just going to”deal” with the problem, then I’m going to use Urza’s Saga Rewinds, thereby keeping most of my deck”old school.” In this way, Wizards will be losing my Eighth Edition money; however, there’s no real impact here because most players with cards from older sets tend to use those rather than their non-foily white-bordered editions. So the money Wizards”loses” from me wouldn’t actually be theirs anyway.

The Trading Post: Basics Of Trading

The biggest complaint I get from beginning Magic players is that they don’t have the money to invest in all the rares for those decks, thus disqualifying them from tournament play. My response to this is always”trade for what you need.”

Unleash The Power…

When I asked a fellow player recently,”Do you mind if I play you with a totally broken deck that’s illegal in all formats?” he was intrigued and said no. When he saw that it wasn’t High Tide or Replenish, he was even more interested – and I got to show him the joy of complete and utter insanity.

The Unspectacular Rotation

I haven’t yet had time to read the Onslaught spoiler. Usually, I print the new spoiler and take it around with me to read in my spare time in order to have it read as soon as possible. So why am I waiting for enough free time to read the spoiler directly from the computer? Because I don’t see the need to be on the cutting edge of the new environment.

WE Make The Card: The Critical Part

Almost everything is ready – the only missing link is one of the most important. We have yet to determine a flavor text for the creature! Daniel discusses the various flavor texts and states which ones he likes… And which ones he doesn’t.

The Real Story Behind Onslaught

I found so many Judgment flavor texts that stated nearly blatant falsehoods, at least according to the book Judgment (upon which we can only rely for the”truth” about the storyline). Similarly, there are some incongruities in Onslaught.

Rehashing Rehash Central: Saving Magic

Like I said before, I think that the Cycling mechanic is a very interesting one and will definitely interact well with existing mechanics such as threshold. Like Madness, though, it appears that Cycling has a few bombs and a few duds. I’ll be taking a look at what I consider to be the best or most interesting cycling card in each color.

Magic’s Newest Morph

Personally, I think that morphing is going to be a staple in decks of the new Standard environment, and that will only proceed to make morphing better.

What IS Psychatog?

Why is Psychatog so damned strong? Daniel looks at ‘Tog from the classic rock/paper/scissors perspective and tries to place it properly.

The Human Component

So how was it possible for me to I have fun if all my hopes couldn?t come true? The key was the people who I played with.

A Gathering Of Magic

Usually, I have Friday night services at my temple that start at exactly the same time as the Friday Night Magic tournament. Last Friday, however, services ended a whopping hour before they usually begin , so I got to head over to StarCity Games for some much-needed Magic playing.

The Three Steps To The Last Ten Percent, Part II

You have to know your deck and your strategy all the way to the marrow. Once you know yourself well enough not to ask,”What am I going to do now?” you can focus on asking the question,”What is my opponent going to do now?” And that’s what wins games.