Friday, February 19th – Grand Prix: Oakland was a monumental failure, in almost every aspect of the word. I went to the event with what I felt was a nicely tuned, semi-rogue deck that I felt had the ability and power to breakout. Unfortunately, things went differently. However, I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start where all things start; at the beginning…
Wednesday, February 10th – I’m getting ready for Grand Prix: Oakland, which largely involves packing cards and clothes, and reading as much freaking Extended tech as possible. Of course, if you have any idea of the format, you should know that you will need to have an answer to the following deck…
Wednesday, February 3rd – Last Tuesday was a day of Extended testing, and we discovered a few things. First, All-In-Red is a lot of fun to play, but way too swingy to want to use in a real tournament. If my goal were to make Day 2, it’s a viable contender, as the power and a little luck could allow you to go 4-2, assuming you can scrounge up 3 byes.
Tuesday, January 26th – I want to talk about Extended today, specifically Hypergenesis. In preparation for Grand Prix: Oakland and the PTQ season, we’re getting down to testing and tweaking decks. I decided to take a look at Hypergenesis and see exactly what people were playing…
Wednesday, January 13th – With Extended in full swing, I think it’s a good time to start examining the existing archetypes of the format. Today, I want to look at the different builds of Zoo that exist, how each differs in its game plan, possible keys to look for in both the new set, and possibly old favorites.
Wednesday, January 6th – At the beginning of 2009, I had a lot of goals before me, and I laid them out in an article, so that I and my readers could see what I hoped for in the coming year. This week, I’m going to lay out what my goals were from 2009, whether or not I achieved those goals, and then what goals are coming forth for 2010.
Wednesday, December 16th – On December 4th, I played in my local FNM with Jund to prepare for States 2009. I had been playing with Boros since Worlds, and felt very comfortable with it, but a testing session mid-week scared me off, as I had a string of bad draws in a mock-gauntlet tournament. After shuffling Jund for a while, I felt pretty competent with it, and we felt we had some good tech to bring against the (expected) field…
Wednesday, December 2nd – This coming Saturday, the 2009 State/Provincial Championships will be held in the United States and Canada. Locations throughout the country will play host to Standard tournaments open to anyone who wants the coveted title of [Insert State Here] Champion 2009.
Wednesday, November 25th – This past weekend, the Magic: the Gathering Worlds Championships were held in Rome, Italy. While there are a lot of stories and tech that is sure to come out of the event, I wanted to focus on a few innovative ideas that I saw perusing the top deck lists…
Wednesday, November 18th – This past weekend, I played in my second Pro Tour Qualifier for San Diego. I played more Limited this time than I did for the last PTQ, but still failed to walk away with the Blue Envelope. While I’m pretty sure my rating went up overall, more importantly were a few of the lessons learned over the course of the weekend, which I’m going to share with you.
Wednesday, November 11th – We have a lot of social interaction in Magic, and sometimes we end up playing people we don’t like, or are just bothered by. Sometimes, we have interactions we aren’t comfortable with. Sometimes, though, you’re that guy, and you don’t even know it. Today, I want to go over some things that I’ve witnessed or even done that you probably shouldn’t do.
Wednesday, November 4th – Communication is a funny thing. We can say something exactly the same to two different people, and get two different responses. Both inside and outside of Magic, we get mixed message, strange reads, completely baffling personality traits, and so much internal, inbred catchphrases that it’s sometimes hard to get a clear point across.
Wednesday, October 28th – I’ve had a deck for Standard I’ve wanted to write about for a while now, but other columns have managed to push their way to the forefront instead. However, this week, I really wanted to get it out there for the readers. Why? Because as much as I love the deck, I’m sure it can be improved in some manner.
Wednesday, October 21st – I had an opportunity to play at a PTQ this last weekend. Of course, by opportunity, I mean I switched work schedules, picked up an extra shift, and made an iron man 18 hour day in order to play in a Zendikar sealed PTQ.
Wednesday, October 14th – You are a terrible Magic Player. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Pretty much every player who plays Magic is horrible at it. I’m definitely in that group of horrible players, but then again, it’s a pretty big group. The worst part is, we don’t just suck in one way. We suck in multiple ways.
