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AuthorJeff Phillips

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At the Gathering – A GenCon Primer

The StarCityGames.com Open Series heads to Denver!
Tuesday, August 3rd – Let’s start with a little history of GenCon: GenCon began in 1968 as a wargames convention, and was co-founded by Gary Gygax, who would later go on to co-create Dungeons and Dragons with Dave Arneson. Surprisingly, every year I hear someone get shocked by the fact that GenCon is older than Magic. It’s even older than D&D!

At the Gathering – The Conundrum of Formats

Grand Prix GP Columbus July 30-August 1, 2010
Monday, July 12th – Magic is an ever-changing game. Every three months, we get a new set of mostly new cards with which to tinker and play. Each set is meticulously examined by hundreds of thousands of players for potential in every format imaginable, be it Standard, Draft, Vintage, or EDH. Each format is similarly analyzed to try to find new trends, powerful new (or renewed) archetypes and other synergies.

At the Gathering – Extreme Mega M11 Spoiler Happy Time!

The StarCityGames.com Open Series heads to Denver!
Friday, June 25th – M11 is less than a month away, and our friends over at MTG Salvation are busy compiling all of the various cards being spoiled across the web. Today I have (hopefully) 3 new cards to look at and add to the list. Let’s look at some of them, as well as some of the other previously spoiled cards.

At the Gathering – Balance

The StarCityGames.com Open Series comes to St. Louis!
Friday, June 11th – Magic can be a very taxing hobby. We hear stories of players blazing bright, and then burning out just as fast. Money can be a difficult hurdle for players to overcome. Family issues, whether existing or new, also cause players to scale back or quit altogether. How can Magic players combat these issues?

At the Gathering – Bant Land

The StarCityGames.com Open Series comes to Seattle!
Friday, June 4th – Earlier this week, while playing in a mid-week draft, I got into a discussion with one of the players about the particularly poor quality of the rares in our box. No Gideon, Sarkhan, or Vengevine made for a definitely sub-standard value box. I ended up grabbing a Realms Uncharted…

At the Gathering – Tuesdays With Jund

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Wednesday, May 26th – I’m a somewhat recent convert to the Church of Jund. I haven’t been on the bandwagon as long as some players. In fact, after last year’s StarCityGames.com Philadelphia Open, more than one local player shot- gunned onto Jund, one of which was Christian, my testing partner. He acquired a full boat of Maelstrom Pulses, and that was it. He was riding the Jund train until it derailed on him.

At the Gathering – Bukowski

Read Jeff Phillips every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, May 21st – Can I really be that guy, the one who’s playing Jund? I recognize a desire to be different, to want someone to come look at my new Brew and laud me for my creativity, my creation. I want that. But I want to win more.

At the Gathering – The Standard Case For…

Visit the StarCityGames.com booth at Grand Pris: Washington!
Friday, May 14th – Today, we’re going to be looking at a couple of cards, and making a case for why these cards may be a good choice for your main deck and/or sideboard in Standard right now. Now, each of these cards may or may not be right for your deck, but hopefully, we’ll see a strong enough case for each.

At The Gathering – Adversity and Eldrazi

Visit the StarCityGames.com booth at Grand Pris: Washington!
Friday, April 30th – We humans are unique, but challenges are not. Overcoming challenges can be a very lonely road at times. We talk and teach about a lot of things here at StarCityGames.com. Things like expectations, Improvement, Advantage, work ethic, what’s your plan, do this, don’t do that, etc.

At The Gathering – Our New Eldrazi Overlords

The StarCityGames.com Open Series returns to Atlanta!
Friday, April 23rd – Rise of the Eldrazi has had its prerelease, and many players are now preparing for Launch parties this weekend, whether they be 6 packs of RoE for sealed, or Triple Rise of the Eldrazi drafts, Eldrazi Standard, and more.

At The Gathering – Rise of the Eldrazi Exclusive Spoiler

The StarCityGames.com Open Series returns to Atlanta!
Friday, April 9th – I had a rather unforgettable PTQ season with Thopter Depths, managing a winning record, but not much better. I thought that the deck would be exactly what I liked, but it turns out I was wrong. But first, since we all know everyone just came for the preview, let’s do that…

At the Gathering – PTQ Musings and Reservations

Visit the StarCityGames.com booth at Grand Prix Houston!
Thursday, April 1st – Recently, I played in the PTQ for San Juan in Boise. I played decently, but not well enough, obviously. I had high hopes for DDT, but I made a number of bad plays that inevitably led me to a mediocre day. Most importantly, though, I let my own tilt ruin the day for me.

At the Gathering – Communities and You

Visit the StarCityGames.com booth at Grand Prix Houston!
Friday, March 19th – Today, I want to tackle a subject broader than just Magic: the Gathering. I want to discuss Gamer Communities at large. As such, this article, while useful for Magic players, is also aimed at other genres of gamers. As such, it assumes no prior knowledge of any specific game of the reader.

At The Gathering – Events Unfolding

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Friday, March 5th – One thing that all Magic players have in common, from the kitchen table players to the Pro Tour finalists, is that we all play at some sort of event, whether DCI Sanctioned events, or just “Dude, we should totally play some Magic at Jake’s house on Thursday.” But how do we make these events successful?

At the Gathering – San Diego Revelations


SCG Open Richmond!

Wednesday, February 24th – Pro Tour: San Diego occurred this past weekend, and some very interesting information came out of the event. We saw some new deck lists for standard, and a historic run by LSV cut short by eventual champion Simon Görtzen of Germany. We also saw some information on the new Duel Decks coming this spring, Phyrexia vs. the Coalition. That’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started.