Monday, March 29th – Sideboarding. Many theorists and players who have risen to prominence in the past several years have called attention to the importance of that fifteen card first aid kit. Where ten years ago sideboards were often overlooked, times have changed. Articles have been written, paths have been blazed, and theories have been created.
Monday, March 22nd – Elves receives no respect. Despite winning a GP, despite Top Eighting and winning several PTQ’s each weekend, despite its robust strength and versatility, Llanowar’s finest Elves continue to be an undervalued PTQ choice.
Monday, March 15th – What does it mean for a card to be powerful? Is Bloodbraid Elf powerful? Is Vampire Hexmage powerful? Is Thopter Foundry powerful? Is Nettle Sentinel powerful? Each of those cards has been and will continue to be staples of decks that have dominated formats.
Monday, March 8th – At last weekend’s PTQ, I ultimated Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker seven times. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to have ever uttered or written those words, and it feels good to be able to say them. I ended up for eleventh, and feel like my deck – Nicol Bolas and all – could have easily won the PTQ.
Monday, March 1st – I had just picked up my second loss in round five of the San Diego LCQ, and it was bordering on midnight. I hadn’t had time to revise my Dark Depths deck from the week prior. And that’s when, like a gigantic cheeseburger to a man stuck in the sand dunes of the Sahara, Alex West swooped in with his Zoo deck.
Monday, February 22nd – As I shuffled the deck, I felt a powerful craving, like Saruman must have felt when Sauron tempted him. This was nothing like other decks. My mind twisted and the knees of my thoughts buckled. The card sleeves gave me a paper-cut, and poison flowed into my veins…
Monday, February 15th – Ever since you qualified for your first Pro Tour a few months ago, you’ve been trembling with anticipation. This is it. Finally. Your first foray into the Pro Tour. You’ve been trying to make it to the big show for years, losing heartbreaking matches in Top 8 after Top 8. But that’s all behind you now.
Monday, February 8th – There are essentially three phases to decks in Extended. They move to the point where they’re unknown and good, to where they’re on the uprise and still good because people aren’t prepared for them yet, and when they’ve hit their peak and bad to play because people are now overly prepared for them.
Monday, February 1st – I feel watching at a pre-release is often a better way to construct card evaluations than playing in it. After watching people play all day, playing in a flight myself, and talking with people about how the cards they played with performed, I have formulated my take on the common and uncommon rankings for each color.
Thursday, January 28th – While I try and avoid doing a card by card review when possible for that particular reason, I think looking at the impact of how a set will change the dynamic of a Limited format before the pre-release and subsequent night of drafting can be an interesting and informative exercise…
Wednesday, January 20th – With the rotation of Wirewood Symbiote, Wirewood Hivemaster, and Birchlore Rangers, many set the Elves deck aside. Like a good story retold slightly worse, an elf deck appeared on the Standard scene after M10’s release which had pieces of the Berlin deck. But, with the rotation of Lorwyn block, it vanished…
Thursday, January 14th – Magic is a game of high level decision-making and resource managements, but it is also, at its core, a game defined by making the best decision in the time possible. Whether choosing which creatures to send into combat by pushing them into the red zone of a feature match table or sliding creatures across the uneven concrete in the schoolyard, there is only so much time you can take to make a play.
Thursday, January 7th – Scapeshift is a deck surrounded by an unusual level of mystique. As a mythical “one card-combo†in the vein of Tooth and Nail and Enduring Ideal, people immediately began to work on the deck as soon as Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle was previewed. Many were uncertain if Scapeshift was any more than just another tadpole in a lake of gimmicky Extended decks…
Thursday, December 31st – We stand on the precipice of a fresh season. As brown leaves covered with snow turn to the January sun of a new decade, we shed our sealed deck skins and move toward our sixty card future. Breathe in. Breathe out. Can you smell it? Can you taste it? The feeling of change is on the horizon. It’s the scent of Extended. And it’s about time.
Wednesday, December 23rd – I want to play on the Pro Tour again. Badly. After a narrow miss in the Standard season I maximized the number of sealed qualifiers I could attend, even finagling my way to the PTQ in Phoenix. I also tested the format a lot – the actual sealed format as well as booster draft – to try and stay ahead of the curve.
