fbpx

AuthorDave Meddish

A former computer game designer, Dave is best known for his deck ideas for Standard and Extended and metagame and deck analyses. And, of course, his fabulous good looks.

Build Your Own Expansion, Operators Are Standing By: Part I

At long last, I can finally sleep now: I have discovered the true meaning of the word "rhystic." Does anyone remember a very seldom-played card from Ice Age called ? For those who don’t remember the card text, it read: U Enchantment Cumulative Upkeep: 1 Whenever target opponent successfully casts a non-creature spell, you may…

I Don’t Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like

First off: I never claimed I was all that sexy, although Cathy Nicoloff has taken to posting my stuff on Meridian Magic as "2 Sexy Meddish" on occasion. While I seriously doubt that I can truly be put in the same class as George Clooney, in the greater scheme of things, it’s far better to…

Some Days The Bear Gets You: Misadventures At The Eugene, Or PTQ

For the last PTQ I entered – Extended format – I put together a Three-Deuce deck on Thursday, played a mini-tournament on Friday (playing six matches total, going 5-1), and played on Saturday, having "tested" the deck for all of three hours. And I ended up going 5-0-2, finishing in the Top 8. For this…

What’s Right With WotC And The DCI

The DCI generally is heaped with scorn, not praise, but when you think about it, they do a darn fine job under less than optimal circumstances. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far in the bulk of my MBC testing so far, it’s that there is no one deck that stands above the rest….

Yes, I’m Afraid It’s Another Rising Waters Deck Analysis

I know what your thinking,“Not another analysis of the deck from MBC! We’ve had enough of those already!” And you may be right. I may be crazy. But it just might be a lunatic you’re looking for. But it was either this or another random thoughts column, and two in one month would make me…

Gone Fishin’

Congrats to our esteemed former editor-in-chief for moving up to, as Keith Olbermann would put it, “The Big Show.” Pack an umbrella and several cans of -O-Leum, Omeed, you’re gonna need it. Props must also be given to a local player I know, Chris Benafel, for finishing second at Nationals and advancing to Worlds (great,…

Random Thoughts

A-yup. That’s what I thought. · and Lin Sivvi banned in Mercadian block Lin Sivvi doesn’t surprise me, but when I think about it, banning the Port makes sense too. If Pro Tour-NY 2000 taught us anything (aside from the fact that everything you see about New York on Letterman is pretty much spot on)…

Prophecy Prerelease Report

I love Prereleases. The atmosphere is casual, but it’s enough to satisfy my competitive urges, and you get to play with cards for the first time (and I do like collecting those Prerelase foils—although the picture for this one, —will someone explain to me what exactly this creature is supposed to be? I looks like…

Why Combo Is Good

I had hoped to have an article on what I thought was a really good deck I was working on. Really, really good. In what free time I’d managed to hoard lately, I’d thought I’d tuned it to a fair degree of nastiness, in between bouts of fighting off The Asian Death Flu That Ate…

Commissioners, A Richard Garfield Story And All Things Swanky

Too sexy for the DMV, indeed! You’re all jealous, I tell ya, jealous of my swanky good looks. But I get the feeling you’d rather not hear me discuss the secrets to my inner swankiness (to order, call the number on your screen or send $29.95 to….) I know, let’s talk about Regionals like everyone…

The Future Of Extended

It goes without saying that the most recent changes in the Extended environment—the banning of and —will shake up the environment considerably. How’s that for the understatement of the year? Despite the public hue and cry over these latest DCI decisions—including the rather less-than-literate list of complainers over on the Dojo way back when—these decisions…

Call It “Hom-o-nock-a-lus” Again And I’m Going To Smack You

So there I am, playing a little Nemesis mini-masters, safe from the allergens floating around outside just waiting to plague me, when my opponent slaps down a 1/1 blue creature and announces that he has cast a“Sneaky Hom-uh-NOCK-ah-lus.” And this virtually drives me to an apoplectic fit of rage. I want to reach across the…

Sailing The Standard Seas With Dancing Pirates

There are two things I like to have in a good tournament deck: 1) multiple paths to victory, b) flexibility, c) and being really fun to play. Okay, that’s three things. This is why I will almost never play combo decks in tournament. Combo is (almost) never fun to play. It’s more like a mathematical…

Get A Life!

A few weeks ago, I was quite happy to actually have a date lined up for Saturday evening. Without going into the sordid details, let me just say that I usually average around one date every six months or so and anything that gets me out of the house on a Saturday night is generally…