AuthorKen Krouner

I have a great idea for a deck for Type Two or Block Constructed. I work on it in my basement laboratory for days. After much churning and bubbling and a few rounds of animal testing I actually test it against a”good” (read internet) decklist and *poof* my deck is trounced horribly. Are there only a finite number of good decks and do the pros think of all of them? Are my good ideas actually terrible because I am a very very bad person? Is netdecking the only way to be competitive in a tournament? Gosh, what’s a guy to do? Help me Obi-Ken Kenobi, you’re my only hope!

In a recent two-on-two money draft (MMD) my first pack contained Luminous Angel, Fangren Hunter, Pyrite Spellbomb, Silver Myr, Vulshok Battlegear, and Creeping Mold. What do you think best card in the pack, and what would you first pick?

Everyone is bad. You have heard that a thousand times before, but it is true. Many of you are reading this saying,”I’m not bad, he must just be bad and bitter.” Well I have some bad news for you. You are bad. I mean really bad. You are so bad that you don’t even know how bad you are.

Why do you think that, given the fact that Americans don’t seem to have any sort of monopoly on Magic skill (recent PT Top 8s haven’t seen more than one or two Americans, as opposed to large success from, for example, Italians at Kobe), Team USA continues to be so dominant?

I’m really digging this daily feature thing. I get my mug on the front page everyday and I get to talk about what you want to hear. I still intend to write articles from time to time, but this way, five days a week, I get to go elbow deep into issues you all care about. But enough of my rambling about loving my job, it’s time for some reader mail!

Second-guessing one of your draft picks? Heard a juicy rumor and want to know if it’s true? Need advice on your Regionals deck? Not sure if you made the right play at last weekend’s tournament?

Kartin’ Ken Krouner is here for you!

Second-guessing one of your draft picks? Heard a juicy rumor and want to know if it’s true? Need advice on your Regionals deck? Not sure if you made the right play at last weekend’s tournament?

Kartin’ Ken Krouner is here for you!

Second-guessing one of your draft picks? Heard a juicy rumor and want to know if it’s true? Need advice on your Regionals deck? Not sure if you made the right play at last weekend’s tournament?

Kartin’ Ken Krouner is here for you!

As expected, I wasn’t able to finish a new article, and as promised, here are the answer to the puzzle at the end of my last article.

Second-guessing one of your draft picks? Heard a juicy rumor and want to know if it’s true? Need advice on your Regionals deck? Not sure if you made the right play at last weekend’s tournament?

Kartin’ Ken Krouner is here for you!

The dilemma this week is something I would not have expected at the beginning of this format, and is certainly not what I would have expected when I was told this was the artifact block…

You know one of the most amazing things about life? Everything is relative. +1/+1 doesn’t seem like much when compared to all 6000+ Magic cards. But you may want to compare it to just the 300+ cards in Mirrodin. Making your 2/3 a 3/4 or making your 4/4 a 5/5 can be absolutely devastating in this format. The one damage from Longbow, while also better in this format, doesn’t always help improve your board, and the extra equip cost tips the balance to the Scimitar.

Plus Patrick Sullivan is your Good Man of the Week.

Writing has become so important to me. I do it recreationally now. I post all the time in my Live Journal (though not often with substance). I am currently writing fiction. Writing is very therapeutic. The other thing writing rekindled for me was my love for StarCityGames.com. When I started writing for Star City. it was actually a joke. I was made fun of for writing for this site. It was the laughing stock of Internet strategy, and I was a laughing stock in the pro community for writing for them.

What a difference four years makes… Now the same type of people who once laughed at me for writing for Star City are asking me how they can become featured writers.

I know a lot of you were waiting for the artifact dilemma. Sadly Mike was so distraught over his recent beatings in the polls, that he has gone into hiding and has been difficult to reach. It may also have to do with Amsterdam preparation and spending time with his lovely fiancé. I don’t remember if I have said this publicly or not, but congratulations Mike and Rachel, you are both great people and I wish you a long, happy life together. In the meantime, I want to go over all the Equipment one by one in my own sassy, against the grain pick order. I don’t feel like I am cutting off my Dilemma series, as I will be discussing all Equipment not just the commons.