For those of us who aren’t heading to Regionals this weekend, there’s still a plethora of play to be had waiting in Magic Online’s Future Sight release tournaments. Eli gives us a quick study of a solid pool and how to approach it.
Ben’s taking a break. When summer rolls around, it’s time to ease off and enjoy deserved respite from toil. I imagine he’s somewhere in the tropics, sipping Root Beer Coladas or something of that sort. Them’s the breaks. But look at the upside. You’ve got me. I’m Eli Kaplan and I write for this here site on occasion.
The Ferrett is laboring under intense dental pain today, so in his place we have Eli Kaplan! He brings us a feisty TSP Sealed cardpool, and invites us all to play along at home. Do you agree with his card evaluations?
Eli greets us from a blustery Japan, and brings us an interesting Time Spiral Sealed cardpool for us to dissect and discuss. White, Blue, Black, Red, Green… a rainbow of options for us to investigate. Grab a pen and paper, or fire up Magic Online, and play along at home!
In a month of tumult, rants over Two-Headed Giant, and Standard in chaos, Eli suits up and pays tribute to the ten people who put his rear end and others’ rear ends in seats at the tournament. Who excels in catapulting Magic to further prominence? Read here to find out.
Back from the kitchen, seasoned wanderer Eli (standing in for The Ferrett) offers up a fresh, complex blend of convoluted tastes in Time Spiral/Planar Chaos Sealed. See how your cardboard cookery stands up in this stadium showdown!
Planar Chaos has just hit the shelves, and many of you are going to be getting ready for Friday Night Magic or upcoming Two-Headed Giant tournaments. Sealed is going to be a critical skill to brush up on, and I’ll be contributing a few pieces to this esteemed site to help you get up to speed.
What’s this? A Pro Tour regular submitting a super tight aggro deck with a curve that uses a sexist metaphor? I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting something a little more controllish. A mirror, perhaps.
Before the matchup, I did some testing, and it went all the way for Sanchez. The games reminded me of Hobbes’s definition of human existence in his seminal work of political philosophy, Leviathan. That is, brief, nasty, and short.
Two weeks ago, in the recorded casts heading into Grand Prix: New Jersey, Brian David-Marshall couldn’t keep himself from showing his love for his newfound creation, Pickles. He didn’t give a decklist in the podcasts, but with the key parts of the combo revealed, it was a giddy challenge trying to reconstruct his vision without actually looking. The day those podcasts were released, I went out and started building and testing. Many iterations later, this is what I devised for the Battle Royale.
Eli Came. Eli Saw. Eli Conquered. His Budget White Weenie took home all the marbles against Bennie’s patented NiceDraft Dredge deck. Indeed, the battering was so severe that Bennie still walks with a limp. Want the gory details? Read on!
Our second challenger for the Battle Royale crown is our man in Japan, Eli Kaplan. As a teacher, it is safe to say that Eli is probably ready to impart some “old school” wisdom into the Battle framework… What will he do with his twenty-five bucks?
With Wizards of the Coast’s wonderful travel policy for PTQ winners, this will be the first chance for many to check out the Land of the Rising Sun. In order to make your trip to Kobe that much more pleasant, I’ll tell you the do’s, don’ts, and doables, as I give you the lay of the land.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll do some Sealed deck builds. If they’ve been battle tested in tournaments or practice, I’ll trace over the pertinent stuff. I divvy up each card into four tiers, and review two cards from each tier. After four or so articles, you’ll have my thoughts on most of the set.
I’m starting up a week off, capped off by Grand Prix: Hiroshima. Lord knows, I’ve got enough writing on my plate at the moment. The fact that my builds haven’t had actual battle testing irks me, so I’ll note that my next installment will cover a Top 8 Sealed deck helmed by myself. A little taste of victory enlivens the writer’s wit. (It has nothing to do with bragging. No, not in the slightest.)
With the Ferrett on vacation in sunny England, Eli fills his considerable clown shoes with another Ravnica Sealed excercise! The cards this week are juicy… can Eli extract the fruiy goodness and make a deck fit for a king? As always, the forums will be packed with alternate builds and strategies… come join the discussion.
