Wednesday, January 27th – This week, I want to look at Lodestone Golem in Vintage, as well as examining a Dredge strategy that utilizes Sharuum of the Hegemon. I’ll end with some extra content about Vintage and Legacy and encourage you to post your thoughts in the forums.
Monday, January 18th – There are a few key creatures in almost all of the popular Vintage archetypes. Dark Confidant’s use has dramatically increased as that card is now the de facto draw engine of Tezzeret post-Thirst for Knowledge, and Tezzeret also typically plays one large robot as a Tinker target (Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Inkwell Leviathan being the most popular).
Monday, January 11th – For the first Blue Bell Vintage tournament of 2010, I fully planned on playing Tezzeret . Although I haven’t tested much with Tezzeret lately, I’ve tested against it and discussed it quite a bit on my team boards. The night before the tournament, I did some testing with Jeff and Steve, and later with Paul Mastriano, and struggled to win a game…
Monday, January 4th – I played my first game of Magic in 1993. I was thirteen years old. I’ve realized, sadly, that many of my memories from that time period have faded away. Too many, if I’m being honest with myself. Despite this fact, many memories regarding Magic remain.
Monday, December 28th – As I mentioned briefly a few weeks back, I wanted to include a list of my favorite decks from 2009 along with my favorite cards from this year, but the list is lengthier than I first realized and quickly grew into the article you’re about to read.
Monday, December 21st – Last week, I took a look at some of my favorite cards from 2009, and ultimately I chose Qasali Pridemage as my favorite new card of the year. One of the reasons I love this card is the huge impact it had on Legacy, as the card is a staple of Legacy Zoo. Today, I want to look at Zoo specifically, catching up with the archetype’s progress and evolution throughout 2009.
Monday, December 14th – As 2009 nears its end, I found myself reviewing the year in terms of Magic releases. This has been an outstanding year for new Magic cards and Magic design, especially for those that play Eternal Magic. Both Shards block and Zendikar have had surprising effect on Legacy and Vintage.
Monday, December 7th – I was able to get all of the available decklists, as well as the final standings, from the Vintage portion of the Philly Open IV. Luckily for you, my OCD tendencies led me to go through every list and compile detailed data that you can’t normally get on Vintage.
Thursday, December 3rd – Before we get to the Vintage half of the Philly Open IV and some thoughts about Time Vault, there’s a news item I wanted to make sure you read – and note that if you’re looking for Standard tech for States, the Top 8 of the Philly Open IV is at the very bottom of this article.
Monday, November 23rd – After a summer of activity, we’ve hit a lull where Vintage is concerned, with a few mid-size events left in 2009 but nothing large-scale in the immediate future. I’ve turned my focus from Vintage recently to prepare for some local Legacy tournaments, but thankfully Stephen Menendian is around to show that there are subtle but interesting shifts occurring in the Vintage metagame.
Tuesday, November 17th – On 11/7, Alternate Universe – Blue Bell ran their first Legacy tournament; to my knowledge, this was the first non-weekly Legacy tournament in the area since the Grand Prix Trial for Columbus in 2007. I’d been pushing the store to run a Legacy tournament since early in the year, when I caught the Legacy bug while testing for GP: Chicago…
Tuesday, November 10th – Have you heard the news? “Legacy defeats Counterbalance!†is the headline of the day. After winning Grand Prix: Chicago and the Boston $5K, Counterbalance seemed poised to dominate the Legacy metagame… until, suddenly, it didn’t.
Monday, November 2nd – I often tell people that Legacy, as a format, is the intersection of fair and unfair. This is partially the result of scarring from my first Legacy tournament, a Grand Prix Trial for GP: Columbus in 2007. I’ve discussed this story before, but it is worth repeating as it relates to the rest of this article…
Monday, October 26th – The impact of Zendikar on Vintage has already been significant. Although the fetchlands have had a minimal impact thus far (for instance, some TPS lists are splashing Red on a Badlands and Scalding Tarn), other cards are rapidly making their presence felt. Chief among these have been Spell Pierce and Iona, Shield of Emeria, both of which are powerful additions to Oath of Druids decks.
Monday, October 19th – For many players, the jump to Legacy is a leap of faith into the unknown of Magic’s past. There are now as many “blocks†of Magic that are barred from Extended (seven: Ice Age, Mirage, Tempest, Masques, Invasion, Odyssey, Onslaught) as are allowed in it, and that doesn’t include the pre-Ice Age sets or Portal. This means that Legacy has over double the card pool allowed in Extended play.
