Thursday, May 21st – It was two days before Regionals, and I still wasn’t sure what to play. I had been testing Chapin’s 5CB deck and liked how it felt, although I was thinking about removing the Cryptic Commands (sacrilege!), and I was also talking with Adam Prosak about his merfolk deck. Then I got this text from Max McCall: “Check your Facebook. Bill Stark has a Fog deck he claims is insane.â€
Thursday, May 14th – It’s the week of Regionals and everyone is scouring about for the latest in technology. Alara Reborn is being added into the mix, and it’s making quite an impact. What’s easy to forget is how much information is out there about the format.
Thursday, May 7th – Since the prerelease, I have been fervently drafting the full block as much as possible in preparation for the Pro Tour. Spare time on the weekdays has turned into frantic phone calls looking to cobble together eight people for a draft; weekends have become a blur of shredded booster wrappings and stacks of tips and Tricks cards. While I’m not a weak drafter by any means, I’ve got a lot of drafting to do if I want to stand up to Magic’s finest in Honolulu.
Thursday, April 30th – Cascade will change everything. It is the next broken mechanic, the kind of keyword that only ever comes around once in a while and people later look back on and remark, “I wonder if printing that was really such a good idea…?†I have only played a handful of Block Constructed games with cascade, and even fewer in Standard, yet I already know this is a format-defining addition and one of the most powerful abilities to fall into our card arsenal in quite a while.
Thursday, April 23rd – One of my all time favorite Magic articles – and one of the most influential on my play – is Chad Ellis’s “The Danger of Cool Things.” The article covers a simple, yet fundamental angle of Magic strategy. Ellis talks about how flashy plays, even ones which put a second copy of Verdant Force into play, are easy traps to fall into…
Thursday, April 16th – The date: April 11th, 2009. The location: First Pick Games in Seattle. The scene: Forty-six of Seattle’s finest, each fighting for three byes to a Grand Prix under an hour away…
Thursday, April 9th – You’ve been locked in a tight game three, but the match is edging towards an unfavorable closure. The last few turns have been an attrition war, and the life totals are close, but you look across the table and the sinking feeling that your opponent firmly has the upper hand sets in. As is, you’re dead on his next attack step… Or are you?
Thursday, April 2nd – I believe having a good spell is often worth the tradeoff of having a worse creature. Spells are hidden information that strong players can use to obtain card advantage and outplay opponents. I’m okay with casting a Dreg Reaver instead of a Mosstodon on turn 5 if it means I get a Resounding Roar in my deck.
Thursday, March 26th – There is an undeniable aspect of Magic which never gets much press. Beneath the sea of matchup percentages, decklists, and card interactions, there is a less binary element of the game. Not just merely getting lucky, but something else entirely. Something a little harder to describe. Something that must be shown, not told, to be understood….
Thursday, March 19th – Emphasis is always put on winning. People who win are revered, their strategies are studied, and the intricacies of their very being are examined. With the bustle circulating around the study of winning, it is easy to miss that there is just as much value in the study of losing. There are reasons why people lose, and seldom do the reasons have extreme variation at their core
Thursday, March 12th – “Did you catch the definition of scription-fiction?†whispered Heather as she shifted from her seat next to me in the lecture hall and glanced in my direction. Scription-fiction, scription-fiction… where are you? The elusive term finally catches my eye when I notice I had written down “3x scription fiction†instead of “3x Natural Order†in my Threshold decklist.
Thursday, March 5th – Each action made in a game of Magic has one simple principle behind it: in some way or another it serves to further its controller’s course of victory. Whenever your opponent does something during a game, he or she is taking that action because they believe it will ultimately help them achieve victory. Your opponent has a plan in their mind, and “all†you have to do is figure out what it is.
Thursday, February 26th – I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly close reading has to do with tournament level Magic. Close reading is an excellent way to analyze cards in a new archetype and why they are important, along with their strengths and weaknesses. This method is easiest to understand when you see it applied, so I’m going to jump in with an example…
Friday, February 20th– In the arduous quest for a Pro Tour invitation, PTQs are the most common trial that upcoming Magic stars have to wade through. They are long tournaments with only the winner taking home an invitation. So, how do you obtain that advantage in a format like Extended, where the number of viable archetypes outnumber the number of simians found in a barrel of monkeys?
The fact of the matter is that there is no way to completely beat luck. Sometimes you’ll play a Dark Confidant on turn 2 and not have a third land when the game ends on turn 7. That’s just how Magic is. However, what you can do is something I have to teach people all too often: you have to decrease your chances at losing to luck.
