Wednesday, July 7th – With Mono Red decks taking top spots all over the world, including the last StarCityGames.com Open Series event, as well as winning Japanese Nationals, it is poised to take over Standard if people don’t do something about it. New cards from M11 might help stem the bleeding, but Obstinate Baloths out of the sideboard might not even save you, and especially so once the new Red Leyline is legal…
Wednesday, June 30th – After last week’s article, I was on a rampage to find the optimal list for GR Tokens. I would play match after match of Magic Online, looking for slight edges in each matchup, figuring out how to sideboard in each, as well as trying out different sideboard options in order to best utilize the 15 spots in such a diverse metagame.
Wednesday, June 23rd – A few days ago, I was playing in an Online PTQ, watching replays between rounds, when a weird deck caught my eye. I was intrigued from the start from a few interesting card choices, as well as his undefeated record going into the last round of swiss play. Overrun? Siege-Gang Commander? Beastmaster Ascension? It seemed like a real beating and I was definitely looking for a fresh start in Standard.
Wednesday, June 16th – This week on Constructed Criticism, I wanted to revisit an older article all about playing Magic Online PTQs. Today is no different, and I plan on giving a play by play as it happens, giving you some insight to the deck I’m playing, as well as the matchups and opponents I play against.
Tuesday, June 8th – For weeks, I’ve done nothing but try to solve the equation that is Standard. Each week, a different deck rises to the top, only to be crushed the next week by that deck’s bad matchup, and the cycle repeats over and over again. In the last few weeks, Blue-White Control took down GP: Washington in the hands of Brad Nelson, but many other decks continue to perform on different stages.
Wednesday, June 2nd – When we last left our hero, I was 7-1-1 after Day 1 of Grand Prix: D.C., the largest North American tournament in quite some time. With over 200 people making the cut for Day 2, there was sure to be plenty of competition, and I was ready for it.
Wednesday, May 26th – This week we’ll be diving right back into Standard with a Grand Prix: Washington D.C. tournament report, where I was ever-so-close to making Top 16 and qualifying for Amsterdam. The weeks leading up to the tournament were full of me testing both Standard and Block, cementing myself in Blue-White as long as I could get the cards for it.
Tuesday, May 18th – Hello everyone, and welcome back to “Drafting with Todd.” Today we’re going to do something a little different than usual, which I haven’t done in quite a while: a draft walkthrough. With so much Constructed upheaval over the last few days, I didn’t want to write more about The Super Friends or Jund, and figured this would be a nice change of pace.
Tuesday, May 11th – Grand Prix: DC is just around the corner, and there are a lot of things to discuss. First of all, Jund is still a big contender in the metagame, despite what some people might say/think. It did get second at the StarCityGames.com Atlanta Standard Open, and if built differently it could have a much better chance against the new Super Friends (Planeswalker) deck.
Wednesday, May 5th – I wanted to do something a little different this week. I attended the StarCityGames.com Open Weekend in Atlanta, but I didn’t do amazingly well in either event so I’m not really going to do a tournament report. Instead, I’ll tell you what I played, what I would play if the tournaments were this weekend, and why.
Tuesday, April 27th – UW Control has been the deck over the last week, sweeping all of the online PTQ. Last week, I wrote an article on my take for UW Control without Baneslayer Angel. Apparently, all three versions that won PTQ’s played Baneslayer Angel, and made me eat my words. But what can we discern from the fact that all three winners were playing Baneslayer Angel?
Tuesday, April 20th – I hate Standard. I’ll be honest, I am no master when it comes to Standard at the moment, but I do know one thing: Jund is the best deck. It has been written about, blogged about, complained about, and even cried about enough times that I just don’t care to write another article on why you should play Jund and what you should do to beat the mirror.
Monday, April 12th – Last week, we left off with Starship Troopers after an 8-1 record on the first day of Grand Prix: Houston. Now, Grand Prix tournaments are incredibly large compared to most Magic tournaments, which makes making Top 8 that much more difficult. With that said, I knew that doing well on Day 2 would be very hard, since those remaining in the tournament were probably solid players.
Thursday, April 8th – With the Extended PTQ season on the horizon for San Juan, I decided I would make it my top priority to find out what deck was the best, and just play that. I feel like I’m a decent enough player to pick up the best deck and do consistently well with it, and especially so if I play with it enough…
Monday, March 29th – This week, I’ve learned a lot about Extended. While DDT continues to dominate, and win pretty much every tournament, I think a lot of that has to do with the abundance of people playing the deck in such a small tournament. Sure, the deck is really good, but if enough people play a really good deck, it is certain to put up good results.
