Tiago Chan, under the expert guidance of Antonino De Rosa, decided to lay down the Blue/Black Block Constructed cards and take up the U/G Tarmogoyf mantle. After a hideous MTGO streak playing control, maybe a little tempo/aggro was a fine remedy for success. For anyone still wanting to rumble with the best two-drop in an age, Tiago has the tips and tricks for you!
Tiago turns his back on Constructed for this week’s Levelling Up… instead, taking advantage of the Nix Tix events on Magic Online, the Portuguese maestro powers through sixteen 8-4 TPF Drafts, and shares his thoughs on the color combinations and the format as a whole. This is an excellent overview article for those of us who find themselves floudering in the forty-card format… Enjoy!
No, you’re not misreading the title… Tiago Chan, Level 6 Mage, spent last weekend at the front line of competitive Magic, supporting friends in their quest to qualify for Pro Tour: Valencia. Today’s Levelling Up sees Portugal’s finest walk us through the PTQ from his two friends’ perspectives, as they battle valiantly with U/B Teachings. He reminisces over the sights, sounds, and smells of the Portuguese PTQ scene…
After last week’s barnstorming matchup article pitching Blue/Black
Teachings versus Green/White Goyf, Tiago returns to the testing table and
throws the best deck in the format against the newest, and most poisonous
offering out there — Poison Slivers! This quick, brutal tribal deck was
created in response to the power of U/B Teachings… does it have the stones
to take down the big guns? Read on to find out!
Having played Blue/Black Teachings at a couple of high-profile tournaments, Tiago Chan walks us through six full matches between the control deck of choice and the beatdown flavor of the month: Green/White Tarmogoyf. Each game is exhaustively examined and notated, and there are scores of interesting points and pertinent tips that are sure to improve your overall game.
Tiago traveled to San Diego hoping to banish some poor Two-Headed Giant performances from his troubled Magical mind. Sadly, it was not to be, and his personal two-headed bugbear tailed him at every turn. Today, he looks back at the tournament and the format as a whole, and sets out his personal Magic goals for the coming months…
Tiago Chan, Portugal’s Level 6 Pro Player, went into Day 1 of Grand Prix: Montreal packing an updated version of the Blue/Black Teachings deck that served him well in Strasbourg. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go according to plan this time, but today’s article includes his thoughts on the deck, a match-by-match rundown, and an intriguing moral conundrum in the final match of the day…
In perfect time for the PTQ season, and Grand Prix: Montreal, Tiago Chan uses his first Friday slot to showcase a spicy little Reanimator deck that pushes all the right buttons. Swinging with turn 4 Akromas seems quite the value, as does burning the aggro armies into bite-sized little chunks. If you’re after something slightly off the beaten path, then Tiago has the sventy-five cards for you!
It must be nice to be Tiago Chan. He’s a Level 6 Mage, and one of the most fearsome spellslingers on the planet. And he’s writing excellent articles, week in and week out. But the real sickener is that, when he writes an in-depth article about his important match losses, he can count them on the fingers of one hand. Today, he looks over the matches he lost at four recent high-profile events. By examining those plays he believes may be suspect, he asks… Could Things Have Been Different?
As a break from the Constructed and Standard madness, Tiago Chan offers up this excellent companion piece to last week’s Identifying and Applying a Game Plan article. Last week he talked about Constructed. This week, it’s the turn of the forty-card game. Limited has a metagame, and archetypes, and in many ways mirrors its sixty-card stablemate. So why not be prepared each time you draft, and identify your game plan?
While Tiago has little knowledge of the current Standard metagame (those pesky pros needn’t play it as often as us commoners), it’s safe to say that his strategic knowledge is beyond reproach. Today’s Levelling Up is a timely reminder on how to avoid mistakes by identifying a game plan. With Regionals fast approaching, formulating clear objectives for any given scenario is a sure passport to increased success. Everyone needs a game plan… let Tiago help!
So far this year, Tiago Chan hasn’t quite lived up to his Level 6 billing. Going into the tournament, he was looking to put a few uninspired results behind him, and power himself back into the running for Player of the Year. While he didn’t quite crack the final table, he finished high on Day 2 and picked up some cash and an extra point or two. With Block Constructed the format of the approaching PTQ season, now’s the time to get aquainted with the top tech…
Grand Prix: Stokholm… Time Spiral Sealed Deck. And the one missing thing from Tiago’s resumé? A Grand Prix Top 8. After a successful Day 1, Tiago was sitting pretty for Day 2 competition. However, as we all know, the wheels fell of his wagon somewhere. So where exactly did it go wrong? Tiago reveals all…
Tiago Chan, Level 6 mage and many pundit’s choice for Player of the Year at the start of the season, is having a rough time. He hasn’t quite recaptured his form of 2006 just yet, but it’d take a brave man to write him off completely. In today’s Levelling Up, he talks candidly about his performance and choices at Pro Tour: Yokohama. Grand Prix: Strasbourg is fast approaching, and there’s a Block Constructed PTQ season on the horizon. Can Tiago help you stay one step ahead of the competition?
For our fourth instalment in the Spotlight on Future Sight series, Tiago Chan takes Future Sight through its Pro paces! He breaks down the new cards in relation to upcoming tournament play, and investigates their strengths and weaknesses for individual Limited (both Sealed Deck and Draft), Block Constructed, and Two-Headed Giant. Anyone with serious tournament aspirations cannot miss this!
