Thursday, November 27th – This should go up on Thanksgiving, when (at least in my part of the world) we give thanks for our blessings. Since this is a Magic site, let’s look at the state of Magic right now. Anything to be thankful for there? I think so.
Thursday, November 20th – I just finished reading Patrick Chapin’s 100th article – his retrospective. I’m also at a numeric milestone, and I wanted to look back at notable articles I’ve written. I’ll do it a bit differently – I’ll recap all the things I really wish I hadn’t written. I’ll follow that up with a recap of the Cruise qualifier I ran last weekend, and rave about the cruise itself.
Thursday, November 13th – How significant is learning a format – and learning what to expect – in Limited? Specifically, if I have years of drafting experience, can I simply walk into any draft format cold and do well? I tried just that. I’ll show my first, fourth, and eight draft – and we can look for improvement.
Thursday, November 6th – Out in my workshop, I have a wall of bookshelves. About half the bookshelves are full of old role-playing games, and most of those are defunct. I also have cards from a lot of dead TCGs – and I have Magic cards. Magic is anything but dead. That got me wondering – is Magic’s longevity something special?
Thursday, October 30th – Recently, I have had some discussions about getting cards, cost of packs and so forth. One debate has come up again and again – the debate between people who buy packs and just open them and the people who feel that not drafting with any unopened pack is foolish. Both online and off, a very large percentage of all packs produced are simply opened. For most of the people who bust the packs, that is a perfectly rational option.
Thursday, October 23rd – I just got back from Grand Prix: Kansas City, and am packing for Pro Tour: Berlin. Since I’m judging, and not playing, my prep work has a zero tech factor. I can’t tell you about the new Extended, or whether using Obelisks to power out fatties beats speed rush decks in Shards Sealed. The best I can do is pull back the curtain a touch on how the big shows operate.
Thursday, October 16th – I have been looking at the prices for Classic set rares on MTGO. The Classic rares are from sets that are only legal in the online Classic format. These sets include Masters Edition I & II, Mirage / Visions / Weatherlight, and the two blocks that just rotated out of Extended. The rotating blocks are out of print, but MED I & II and Mirage block packs are still for sale. Sales stink. I’m wondering if this could justify “throwback†pricing on these packs, as a way to stimulate drafting.
Thursday, October 9th – You know the saying. Last week, after the prerelease fiasco and so forth, I literally could not write anything worth saying. I could spew venom like an encounter-level 30 forums troll, but I had nothing useful to say. I can write coherently, and civilly, now… I hope.
Thursday, September 25th – This week I’ll look at Masters Edition II, the new set for online Classic and casual players. It has 80 rares, 80 uncommons, and 80 commons. That means that, to collect playsets of all the commons, you will need to bust about 29 boosters (on average and ignoring foils)…
Thursday, September 19th – In recent weeks I have had a lot of time to think about Magic, and too little time to actually play it. That means I have no real tech, but lots of gripes. Rather than just gripe, though, I want to look at some really dumb ideas that I have recently heard.
Thursday, September 11th – For some time, I have been trying to play in an online Constructed tournament so I can write about the experience. The forums, and other writers, have complained about the state of Constructed online, so I wanted to see for myself. I set aside the time, found a deck and… well, the good news is that I am undefeated. The bad news is that I still haven’t played in a Constructed PE. Therein lies the story.
Thursday, August 28th – I have seen one recurring theme in forum posts – people keep describing Magic Online as “a license to print money,†and persist in saying that online packs are free. Now I know that virtual products have value: I get paid for these articles, even though they exist solely as bits. Digital items have value – but the deeper question is whether Magic Online is a profit center for Wizards. Let’s crank some numbers and see.
Thursday, August 21st – The Wizards forums have an interesting thread, titled “What Would it Take to Get You to Play Constructed Tournaments.” The topic is a good one, because Constructed play is hurting online. The Sealed PEs fire, as do most of the Standard and Block Constructed events. Other events – Extended, Classic, Momir Vig, etc. – don’t reach 24 players, so they do not happen. This is bad, and something has to be done.
Friday, August 15th – I spent last weekend judging feature matches at Grand Prix: Denver. That actually involves a lot less game watching than you might think, but I did see a lot of Magic played. What really impressed me was the potency of the manabases. Sure, Owen Turtenwald’s Mono-Red deck, and the Mono-White aggro decks were consistent and solid, but so was the five color deck that won the whole thing.
Thursday, August 7th – Zvi got about a hundred articles out of his My Fires series. I wonder how many I can get off an EDH deck. Well, let’s start – it’s not like anyone would want to hear about my experiences at U.S. Nationals…
