Friday, July 2nd – There is a common misconception I see all too often, crossing from format to format and player to player. That misconception is the ignominy of the Red deck: that it is ‘not a real deck,’ ‘not Tier One,’ that nobody with two brain cells to rub together or any realistic budget to acquire cards with would play the Mono-Red deck.
Thursday, February 18th – When the format becomes dominated by combo decks, control decks trend towards the forefront as it’s often better to try and interact with a combo deck by means of control spells than by the “brute force” method of the attack phase. Even Tomoharu Saito benched his Wild Nacatls for Grand Prix: Oakland, following the old adage of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
Friday, December 11th – This past weekend was the “2009s,” or State Championships as we stubborn old farts of the game will insist on calling it no matter what. I had been very bad at attending States for the past few years… But this year was to be different.
Friday, August 28th – As announced last week, this week’s article is to be the last in the Magical Hack series. Sean examines Faeries with a twist… Good luck with the book, Sean, and thanks for all the great articles!
Friday, August 21st – With the PTQ season drawing towards a close, I want to take a look at what Standard looks like in the absence of Lorwyn Block, so that we can begin to prepare for the arrival of Zendikar with whatever wackiness it contains. Some might say this is easy, and just point to Shards Block Constructed and its dominance by the Cascade mechanic…
Friday, August 14th – With the heat of summer upon us, Standard is taking some interesting twists and turns as we explore the format more and get a feel for how the metagame plays through. Boston and now Brighton are behind us, and unfortunately it seems that even if people feel as if they can control their destiny in M10 Sealed Deck, I have yet to really hear of anyone who said they had fun.
Friday, August 7th – I may not be the best mage, but at least I know how to play the game, to the point where when I have my confidence and can assess those higher states of play that allow you to avoid mistakes and let your intuition guide you…
Friday, July 31st – With Grand Prix: Boston starting tomorrow, I have been putting in as much effort as I can to get in Limited practice, be it real-life M10 experience or just MTGO tournament play to at least have a sharp Limited game (if not actually practice with the set we’re working with).
Thursday, July 23rd – With the first week of M10 in Standard, we can already see a pretty radical change. Some pundits felt it would be only a cosmetic change, just a few decks with worse manabases, no more Swans combo and that’s it. I for one had been watching and expecting a more extensive change to Standard, and to see a Standard that looks familiar in some ways and very different in others.
Friday, July 17th – Magic 2010 is here, and with it comes a whole host of changes. Some are small, like losing mana-burn or the change to how Lifelink works. Some are large, like the change to creature combat that comes with the removal of the previous best four words in Magic besides “you win the game,†“Damage on the stack.â€
Friday, July 10th – Magic 2010 is a downright interesting set, dripping with flavor and lighting up the eyes with untapped potential. As a veteran spellcaster of a decade plus, whose first Core Set was the last Core Set to feature Ball Lightning and Lightning Bolt, this feels somehow like a homecoming to me.
Friday, July 3rd – With the release of Magic 2010 right around the corner, we will soon be leaving behind Shards of Alara / Conflux / Alara Reborn Limited for the unknown shores of what is shaping up to be the most interesting Core Sets in recent memory.
Friday, June 26th – While my MTGO usage is surprisingly casual, over the past six months I’ve put quite a more focused bent on my play at the PTQ level, and with the advent of Magic Online as a qualifier series for Worlds, one would have to assume that with one Worlds “PTQ†a month online that I would eventually commit myself to actually playing in them.
Friday, June 19th – We’ve reached about the middle of the season for the Pro Tour: Austin qualifier season, and I thought I would take a look at the trend in recent events to see where things are going and have a gander at figuring out the twists and turns of this particular metagame.
Friday, June 12th – It was announced on Wednesday that there will in fact be some significant rules changes with the coming of Magic 2010, and I felt it would be best to spend this week’s column having a look at some of the changes, both from the point of view of a Magic tournament player and the point of view of a Magic aesthetic.
