There is one of those stories that a certain type of person loves to hear, about Kai Budde, when he once got a game loss at a Pro Tour because he played a Whipgrass Entangler as a morph thinking it was a Daru Sanctifier (owing to the similar artwork). This sort of thing, surprisingly, didn’t happen too often in those days, even if it did happen to the best of them. But nowadays, oh boy… have things become more confusing!
On the day of the Invasion prerelease, a friend of mine showed me a split card for the first time and I exclaimed: “What the hell is that? Really? No way!!!” I haven’t had that kind of reaction to anything since as far as I can recall, but it was the beginning of my love affair with Invasion block that lasted until GenCon the following year where I played far too many triple Apocalypse drafts to truly enjoy it any more. How could Wizards possibly follow-up such awesomeness?
In my first ever draft, triple Urza’s Saga, I opened a Morphling in my first booster and passed it because it had too many abilities and I couldn’t figure out whether it was any good or not, taking the “safe” Pacifism instead. I regretted that later when I saw a guy with infinite mana out and that very Morphling in play enchanted with Hermetic Study. He proceeded to throw away that game by blocking a Hollow Dogs with the Morphling and just shooting some stuff instead of pumping the Morphling’s toughness to save it. Nice play.
Tempest always fills me with fond memories. That’s probably because it was the time when I first started playing in tournaments, and it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Oh, how I long for the days where winning one match was such a great feeling that it didn’t matter that my overall record was 1-4…
Like every time a new set is released, it unleashes with it a new Limited format that people need to get to grips with. Old, experienced Limited players, though, are always at the forefront and generally know what they’re doing straight away, because there are always similarities between all Limited formats. So the best place to start the exploration of a new format is the past…
Martin Dingler, winner of Grand Prix: Cardiff, turns his attentions to the icy wastelands of Coldsnap… and injects a little fire into game! The notorious “draft the Big Green Monsters” guy has turned his back on the high-cost goliaths, favoring instead a mono-Red draft strategy that is both powerful and fun. Full pick orders, strategies, and sample builds, all available with a single click…
At Grand Prix Cardiff, Martin took the crown by gobbling up all the unloved Green spells. Today, he shares with us the finer points of this strategy, with pick orders and strengths applicable to everyone attempting a DingleDraft. Do you love your 5/5 Wurms? If so, then this is the article for you…
It’s safe to say that Mr Dingler is on a roll. A Limited PTQ win, followed by a Grand Prix win the following weekend… and now another PTQ win a mere seven days later. What’s his secret? Is it all down to the mighty Grozoth? An entertaining and enlightening report from a man who’s definitely in form.
Martin “Ding” Dingler returns with Day 2 tales from his recent triumph at Grand Prix Cardiff. Did his “Draft the Big Monsters” strategy continue unabated? Did he experience more of his phenominal luck? And did someone really pass him TWO Rumbling Slums? Read on to find out…
StarCityGames.com’s very own Martin Dingler entered Grand Prix Cardiff with little more than Day 2 ambitions. Three byes, courtesy of a GP Trial, meant he stood a great chance… but his Draft practice beforehand wasn’t promising. Just how did “Ding!” Dingler beat the strongest Limited players Europe has to offer on the way to a Grand Prix title? Read on to find out…
When we left our hero, his latest heroics included falling in a valiant fight to a horde of evil, angry and unpleasant Thundersong Trumpeters, and coming tenth in the most forgettable Pro Tour Qualifier of all time, or something. The continuing saga of one man’s quest to make the Big Show…
Since I started writing for this here site here, about my attempts to make it to the big show, I have to face a lot of self-doubt and soul-searching. I started writing about how I was doing in Pro Tour Qualifiers, and I went into these PTQs with an expectation of making Top 8 almost every time, and then eventually winning one. This current season? Let me tell you how I’m doing…
My last article generated a lot of forum talk, and none of it was about Magic. I won’t have any of that here. I won’t talk about anything but Magic today. No more insights into the excitement of my life and my indisputably correct and wise opinions on non-Magical things. No siree.
Today we will jump straight in and drown.
We live in exciting times. Everything is shiny and new. A brand new year, drowning everyone in anticipation, until we realise that every year is the same old nonsense. MagictheGathering.com has a new editor and, in unrelated news, so does some other Magic here site here somewhere…
Martin goes off on a variety of topics that always seem to spiral around to the same thing, including the current decks to beat in Extended, thoughts on beating Dimir in Ravnica Limited, the sad narrow structure of Two-Headed Giant, and the illusion – or is it reality? – of “feast or famine” nature of Guild-specific booster packs.
