Thursday, January 28th – When you read this, the prerelease will be – at most – a couple of days away. The spoilers are out. It is time to start thinking about what Worldwake will do to the Limited metagame. We will be playing sealed with half Worldwake, and drafting with less Zendikar, and a pack or two of the new set. That will change things.
Thursday, January 21st – The Extended PTQ season is upon us, and we finally have enough data to do some analysis. I break down the PTQs, online and off, as well as the MTGO tournaments that might help define the upcoming metagame. I’ll finish with some decklists that you may have overlooked.
Thursday, January 14th – I want to look at the top decks from the recent StarCityGames Open Weekends. More specifically, I want to see just how much more diverse the Legacy field is from the Standard field. I also want to see just how dominant Jund can be. Finally, I’ll add something about Extended. It is the current PTQ format, after all.
Thursday, January 7th – It’s a new year – time to make some resolutions. I won’t bother talking about mine – like winning a PE, judging more, and getting articles in on time – because those are pretty boring. Instead, I’ll offer a few ideas for anyone looking for another resolution or two. Here are some suggestions.
Thursday, December 31st – Technically, 2008 was Wizard’s “year of acquisition,” but the push has continued. Wizards has a lot of programs to get people playing Magic, and they seem to be working well. Usually an economic downturn is a disaster for gaming companies, but Magic is growing.
Thursday, December 24th – Last week, I talked a little about the release of Exodus in Magic Online. I want to look at the alternatives that Wizards might have for releasing old sets. The current model isn’t working – and it will only get worse. This isn’t just a problem with Magic Online – it is partly a third set problem. It is just worse online than it is in paper.
Thursday, December 17th – Magic Online has just released the Exodus set – over a decade after the set appeared in paper. The online release events included sealed queues, drafts, and premier events. The premier events in particular failed to fire, and Wizards has now canceled them early. The draft and smaller sealed event queues are still around, but they are not firing very fast, if at all. What went wrong?
Thursday, December 10th – I head judged Wisconsin States – the 2009s – last weekend. It was a blast. A big blast. We had a lot of players – and I have decklists. It’s States from a judge perspective – with decklists.
Thursday, November 26th – At Worlds, Charles Gindy was disqualified for Fraud when his opponent made a mistake. I can’t talk about that specific case – I wasn’t there – but I can explain the infraction and the penalty. With States coming up shortly, you need to know what’s legal, and what is going to send you home.
Thursday, November 19th – Grand Prix: Minneapolis was last weekend. It was the third largest North American GP ever, and it ran very smoothly. I’m not going to talk a lot about the play itself – the coverage can do that. I’ll talk about everything else.
Thursday, November 12th – Last week, I traveled to Renton to meet up with the Online Team and go head to head with the Wizards themselves. I knocked off Mark Rosewater, Mike Turian and Erik Lauer – and the team pulled out the win. Fourteen rounds, President Obama, and the Miracle of the Multi-ball – all in this classic tournament report!
Thursday, November 5th – By the time you read this, I should be in Renton for the Magic Online Community Challenge Cup Tournament. Eight writers / community leaders going up against over a dozen WotC staff, lead by Hall of Famer Mike Turian. We will be playing some Constructed formats that may never be seen again, and I didn’t want to write about those too much. However, our thoughts on building sideboards are generally relevant, so I’ll talk about that.
Friday, October 30th – The Magic Online Community Challenge is now just a week away. We are trying to nail down decks and learn the format. The community has been a big help, so now it comes down to us doing the work to learn the four formats. It would be easier if we all didn’t have lives.
Thursday, October 22nd – I’m back from Pro Tour: Austin. Wow! What a great PT. By now, you probably know about Brian Kibler coming back from 0-2 and racing Progenitus, but that was only part of the awesomeness. Plus, I have an update on the MTGO Community Challenge Cup.
Thursday, October 15th – A week or so ago, I got an email from Wizards PR, asking me if I wanted to participate in a “Community Challenge” event at Wizards HQ. I was invited “as a member of our press community to come out and participate.” No details, so I assumed it was some sort of community outreach / PR meeting. I figured it was a chance to hear some announcements, get some article ideas, and maybe a shirt. I was wrong.
