Monday, November 30th – Think back to the time when you first started playing Magic… Go ahead, wander down memory lane. You’d seen your friends play the game before, whether it was at school or at someone’s house. You thought to yourself that it might be interesting to try. You borrow a friend’s deck and get to battling. Obviously, never having played the game before, you get beaten pretty handily, but you learn…
Thursday, November 26th – Four months ago, I made the U.S. National Team. This has been my biggest Magic accomplishment to date, and I’m very proud of it. However, making the National Team is nothing compared to making Top 8 at a Pro Tour or Worlds, so preparation for these tournaments has been my priority over the last few months.
Monday, November 16th – Last weekend, my wife won the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open. I didn’t do so bad myself, and feel I owe you guys an explanation about why I chose the deck we played, and why I didn’t play Jund or Team America. Here is the story.
Monday, November 9th – For weeks, there has been one deck stuck in my head. At every turn, I try to beat it, but fall just short of my goal. Wall of Denial and Sphinx of Jwar Isle combined with the power of Baneslayer Angel and Ajani Vengeant aren’t enough to combat the powerful combinations that Jund brings to the table. Even with maindeck Celestial Purge, I find myself losing about 50% of the time to my own worst enemy. What can I do?
Monday, November 2nd – For the last two weeks, I’ve been trying to find a way to make UW Control into a real deck, as I believe that the combination of Baneslayer Angel, Wall of Denial, and Sphinx of Jwar Isle are just too much for an aggro player to handle, as long as these cards are backed up with a fair amount of support. I think the deck has potential, and could be just the thing for this weekend’s StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open.
Monday, October 26th – The StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Nashville is a little under two weeks away, and should provide a great testing opportunity for Worlds, not to mention a way to make some dough. After blowing through about $400 on my trip to Austin, I figured this could be a good way to recoup my losses.
Wednesday, October 21st – I played the wrong deck. I made a huge mistake. We had convinced ourselves of something that was just not true, and moved all-in only to get instant-called by the nuts. We were unprepared, and we paid for it with our losses. There is not much else to say. But we must move forward and learn from our mistakes.
Tuesday, October 13th – I have this sinking feeling that Hypergenesis is going to be “the deck” at the Pro Tour, since it is a combo that takes little effort to assemble, and all of the hate cards can be easily foiled. Luckily for Hypergenesis, most of the Blue-Goyf decks are a tad too slow to compete with some of the other combo decks, which may leave them with a ridiculously unprepared metagame come the PT.
Monday, October 5th – Zoo is a deck that people will play even when it is clear that it is probably the wrong choice for the format. It is so fast and resilient that control players have a lot of trouble keeping you on the backfoot, even with cards like Engineered Explosives.
Monday, September 14th – I have no idea what to play for Pro Tour: Austin. Even though I’ve had plenty of time thus far to prepare and have been brainstorming in hopes of finding the “answer” to the format, everything I’ve been working on has been thrown out the window. Its’ time to start fresh.
Monday, September 7th – This will probably be the last Limited article I write for a while, since Zendikar spoilers are starting to fall through the cracks. Hopefully next week I’ll have some sick idea for a deck based on Warren Instigator and Fire Whip, but that is a bit premature… On to the draft!
Monday, August 31st – Before returning to Constructed with Zendikar, Todd Anderson has a handful of M10 drafts to play. Today, he takes us through another 8-4 draft from Magic Online, in which he leaves one of his most powerful bombs in the sideboard. Do you agree with his choices?
Tuesday, August 25th – Welcome to the third installment of Drafting With Balefire Liege! This week I wanted to do a little more than just draft, so keep reading after the coverage for a tidbit about Standard, and a “new” deck for your viewing pleasure!
Monday, August 17th – Since I received so many positive responses to last week’s article about my first online M10 draft, and also because I’m pretty bored with the current Standard environment (the only relevant environment at the moment), I thought I might do a few more drafts for your viewing pleasure.
Tuesday, August 11th – As many a writer before me has already stated, M10 is not a good sealed deck format. Often your pools will lack the synergy required to produce a winning deck, leaving you in a place where you either have to get lucky, or your opponents have to get really unlucky in order for you to do well. However, drafting M10 is a different animal completely.
