The Long & Winding Road – Riders on the Storm
Monday, August 23rd – As stated at the end of last week’s article, I chose to play Bob Tendrils at the Blue Bell Gameday on 8/14. Here’s what I sleeved up…
The Long and Winding Road – Jace, the Format Sculptor
Monday, August 16th – Three months ago, some of the most heated conversation among Vintage players was about Jace, and was generally split between two camps. Let’s discuss then and now.
The Long and Winding Road – My GenCon 2010
Tuesday, August 10th – GenCon is always a hard weekend to evaluate. It isn’t just a tournament, like a Grand Prix or a PTQ. Admittedly, most tournaments are about the experience and the tournament both, for all but the most hardcore of pros. In that regard, GenCon offers an experience that’s rather difficult to match.
The Long & Winding Road – Champs: Throwing Down the Gauntlet(s)
Monday, August 2nd – Last week, we took a look at doing research, with an emphasis on why it is important to your development as a competitive Magic player. Today, let’s put that into practice by digging up some decks that are relevant to the various Champs tournaments occurring this weekend at GenCon.
The Long & Winding Road – Start With A Fishing Rod
Monday, July 26th – Results, results, results. Follow them. Try to understand them – when certain decks disappear, ask yourself if you know why. If you’re not sure, ask other people and see if you can determine a common theme. A lot of what happens in Magic metagames is cyclical. The exact cards change, but the shifts and the underlying metagame adjustments are often quite predictable, should you care enough to look for them.
The Long & Winding Road – Rantings on Chapin and the Hive Mind
Monday, July 19th – I’ve had one crazy week, and I need to let off some steam. I doubt any of you want to hear about my trials and tribulations as a mid-level manager at a national facilities maintenance company, so instead, let’s talk Magical cards. More specifically, let’s talk about Patrick Chapin.
The Long & Winding Road – Zombie Apocalypse: A Victim’s Diary
Tuesday, July 13th – Last November, when I was discussing the merits and weaknesses of Iona Oath compared to Dragon Oath, I was excited to find a Vintage top 8 in Manila, where Dragon Oath won a 46-player Vintage tournament; just as eye-catching, however, were three very similar Dredge decks that made the Top 8…
The Long & Winding Road – M11, and a Day in Philly
Monday, July 5th – My last PTQ was March 14, 2009, and was an Extended PTQ in Philadelphia. Last Saturday, I went to Philly to play in the PTQ. Actually, I more or less went to hang out, grab lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, and test Legacy; the playing of the PTQ part was kind of an afterthought.
The Long & Winding Road – Split Article: What If? / Zoo versus Reanimator
Monday, June 28th – Hello, and welcome to this week’s article! On today’s menu is a two-course meal consisting of a spine-chilling tale of alternate reality, followed by the furious sounds of battle from Zoo versus Reanimator in a 30-game Legacy testing session.
The Long and Winding Road – Reanimator, Thopters, and a Requiem for Mystical
Monday, June 21st – As much fun as it is to play with Reanimator, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to Legacy, especially if the DCI is going to annihilate archetypes willy-nilly. If you watched the GGS Live coverage from Philly through to the end, you heard me say that my back-up deck for Philly was an Enlightened Tutor / Counterbalance deck similar to the one AJ Sacher used to make Top 8 earlier this year…
The Long & Winding Road – Attacking in Legacy, Part 2: Winning an SCG Open is Awesome!
Monday, June 14th – At the SCG Standard Open on Saturday, I engaged all of my opponents in honest, pleasant, human interaction, to the extent they allowed me to do so. I’m happy to report that they all seemed willing to banter back and forth, and that made my rounds enjoyable, even though the actual games were grueling and my results were poor. In fact, I considered skipping Sunday…
The Long & Winding Road – Rethinking DCI Restriction Policy
Monday, June 7th – I want to clarify some points from my article last week, and at the same time, I expect some of what I say here will serve to set off a larger and more heated debate. In discussion on part of my last article (the part that wasn’t deck lists), it became clear that I may not have communicated some of my opinions on Vintage accurately or clearly, so I will try to do so this week in greater detail. [Editor’s Note – Congratulations, Matt!]
The Long & Winding Road – Vintage: Mid-Year Check-Up
Monday, May 31st – Vintage Champs 2010 is two months away, so this seems like a reasonable time to catch up with the current state of the format. I get a lot of emails about various decks; most of my time playing and testing Vintage lately has had to do with Noble Fish, MUD, Oath of Druids, and Dredge, so I’m going to give you some updated versions of all of those decks today.
The Long & Winding Road – As Legacy Turns
Wednesday, May 26th – If you’re preparing for this summer’s StarCityGames.com Legacy Open series (including the upcoming Philadelphia stop), Grand Prix: Columbus, and Legacy Champs 2010, it is absolutely essential that you frame your understanding of the format within the new order, as the format exists today. Let’s take a look at some of these decks, frame the new players in our understanding of the unfair decks in the format, and review some options the fair decks have available in their struggle to fight back.
The Long & Winding Road – A Tournament Report?
Tuesday, May 18th – Saturday, May 8th I played in a the Vintage portion of the Philly Open VI. Coming off a tournament where I did well is always awkward for me. For some reason, I’ve really struggled to string together successful back-to-back Vintage tournaments in which I repeated my deck choice from the previous tournament.