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AuthorMike Flores

Mike has written for The Duelist, The Sideboard, and MagicTheGathering.com and has returned to StarCityGames.com to continue his legacy. He is a championship deck designer and Magic theory pioneer.

Two Bits

This is me pretending to be Star City’s sometimes resident curmudgeon, Jonathan Becker (hint, hint). There have been some features, both interesting and just controversial, that have been thought-provoking for me; this article includes my reactions to a bunch of the stuff that has been posted either on the front page or the forums of this site over the past couple of weeks. If it wanders around or seems a little different from the work that you’ve come to know and love (or ignore) from yours truly, blame Jon Becker.

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Angry F***ing Trolls

The big question I had about this deck was its ability to deal with Pernicious Deed. Like a lot of people probably assumed about my Threshold deck, I thought this deck would roll over to Deed. The thing is, the main deck that has Pernicious Deed – The Rock – has no plan against the central focus of this deck. I mean, what are they really going to do about a Troll Ascetic with Rancor? The Rock’s plan is to win with card advantage over a long game (which is why it is generally weak against combination decks, even with its compliment of six to eight hand destruction spells); it cannot execute this plan against Troll Ascetic as long as the Troll is big enough to knock over Ravenous Baloths and 0/4 walls.

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Realizing How Bad You Are

Now even though Tom was the genius of this testing session, as Napster’s mommy, I constantly voiced my opinion as to what I thought would be right. Jon kept telling me that he was trying to concentrate on testing with Tom, and at one point, even said”Mike, you make, on average, one mistake per turn! Please let me test with Tom!”

At that point, I did not understand what a mistake was, so I necessarily disagreed. The next game, Jon opened up with a strong anti-Angry Hermit draw of Dark Ritual, Skittering Horror, and was presented with any number of options for turn 2. I said”Why don’t you play Skittering Skirge to make this a three-turn clock [instead of a five-turn clock]?”

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Sullivan, Nimble Mongoose, and Sullivan

He’s a former editor of The Dojo. He’s written for The Duelist, The Sideboard, and MagictheGathering.com. He’s widely considered one of the top 5 Magic writers ever, and now he’s here. StarCityGames.com proudly presents our newest Featured Writer, the one and only, Michael J. Flores.

How can I say this? Madness is… unkind. I haven’t played a Madness deck since Regionals 2001 when Brian Kibler handed me one, and even though Rabbit made Top 8 with it, I can’t conscience ever playing the Madness again. Every time I have this sort of deck, my opening hand is two lands, a Wonder, an Arrogant Wurm, two Circular Logics, and a Deep Analysis or some such. In the rare games that I get to draw a Wild Mongrel, it is invariably Smothered on turn 2, if not the victim of a Force Spike.

U/G Threshold, especially if no one is expecting it, is a much more forgiving version of the same concept (undercosted guys who fly).

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You’re Doing Magic A Disservice, Ferrett

I cannot see how you would want to publish, let alone feature on your front page, any”writer” who is such a kiss-ass, and so blatantly ignorant, as to say that three of the five best articles on Magic are Rizzo articles.

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And Then There Was Napster: A Call To Action

There are some things about which we have no control. These are the things that Magic players have always, and will always, resent about the world: the inability to draw the critical land, the bad or unexpected matchup, being hated out of a Rochester draft by the clueless recipients of broken sealed decks, the closing…

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Building Broken Decks Volume I: The Wakefield Error and “The Decks to Ignore”

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Threat Theory, Answer Theory

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Invasion and Investment and the Introduction of “New Section”

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Investment

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Building Broken Decks Volume V: More Mail, “More than Just Me”

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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The Wakefield School

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Building Broken Decks Volume IV: Lessons from Texas

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Building Broken Decks Volume III: The Mail Bag and More On Deck Selection

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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Building Broken Decks volume II: Templating, etc.

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo – a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of…

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