Monday, August 3rd – In the first round of the second draft, I see I am paired against Sam Stein. I’ve never actually played against him, but I hear he is a pretty good player. However, I am very happy with my deck and don’t think I should lose unless my opponent has some sick bomb like Martial Coup or Lavalanche.
Friday, July 31st – I almost took a bet to replace the singleton Liliana in the sideboard with a singleton Balefire Liege, just in case I made Top 8. I didn’t cast her a single time in the swiss, and I lost the only game where it was cast in the Top 8, so I missed out on $20 and a story. Luckily, I’m still in the middle of this other story…
Monday, July 20th – Welcome to the first ever Drafting with Balefire Liege! No seriously, I’m doing an article that isn’t about Standard! I’ll be your host today, giving you in-depth reasoning behind each pick (that matters), and hopefully a bit of insight as to what I’m thinking while I take particular cards at each turn of the pack. In the famous words of Super Mario (N64), “Here we gooooo!”
Wednesday, July 15th – Just tell yourself: attack the enemy. I must find a way to beat them. If you do this, then you will. The first step to defeating your enemy is to figure out who or what your enemy is. In this case, Kithkin is the enemy. Think back to a time long forgotten, where Kithkin ran rampant, but were easily defeated via Firespout. Those days have long since past, but now it seems time for a comeback. Viva la Revolucion!
Monday, July 6th – I was planning on writing an article about Limited today, but I feel as if Standard post-M10 needs a little bit more attention. It is the Constructed format for Nationals, and thus the most important to me. There are so many cards are leaving the format, destroying “established” decks but spawning very few new ideas.
Monday, June 29th – There are going to be a lot of changes coming to Standard in the next few weeks. M10 is going to cycle a lot of cards out of Standard from 10th Edition, while bringing a few new weapons to the table. As far as the world is concerned, current Standard is fairly meaningless, so I’ll try to present you with a few deck ideas to start bouncing around your skull.
Monday, June 22nd – Alara Block Constructed is a relevant format for Magic Online, and I’ve been playing a lot of it since Pro Tour: Cascade… erm, Honolulu. After last month’s debacle playing a “solid” looking Jund deck, I really needed a good idea to lift my spirits. Two people made Top 8 bashing with robots, and I really liked the look of the deck.
Friday, June 19th – The Atlanta StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open was a fairly disappointing tournament for me. I decided to battle with my trusty BW Tokens deck into a mediocre finish. I started off strong at 4-1, but lost a crucial game 3 against my friend Chris Greene in Round 6, and he went on to dominate the rest of the tournament with his ridiculous aggressive Jund deck.
Monday, June 8th – The StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open is coming to Atlanta on June 13th (as well as a PTQ on the 14th), and I am here to provide you with some of my thoughts about the current format. I’ve been battling on Magic Online for plenty of hours, bashed a few PTQs, read coverage of the recent Grand Prix tournaments, and feel like the format is shaping up to be awesome
Monday, June 1st – Pre-Seattle, it seemed as if Cascade-Swans was the new “deck to beat,” taking the top slots at a few PTQs, and also GP: Barcelona. After talking with a few friends about the deck at the PTQ in Nashville last week, I had thoroughly decided against playing it myself, and here’s why.
Monday, May 25th – Alara Block Constructed is largely an unexplored country, but it’s very important for a few upcoming events like Pro Tour: Honolulu and the MOL Season II Championships. Today we will look at a few deck ideas, as well as a few of my top cards (around which the best decks should be built).
Tuesday, May 19th – After battling in my local Regional Championships this weekend, I can safely say that the metagame is shaping up to be a very interesting one. There are a lot of good archetypes, but the problem is that most of them rely on the same engine: Spectral Procession and Windbrisk Heights. This combination can lead to devastating effects, and completely turn a game in one person’s favor, one who has no business winning the game.
Monday, May 11th – Luck does not exist. It is an illusion we use to mask our mistakes. We retell stories with epic endings where we fell just short of victory due to the presence of lady luck on our opponent’s side, but the truth remains that we as humans inherently create the errors that cause our opponents to “get lucky.” I try to tell myself this every time I sit down to play a match of Magic, but I struggle with it on a constant basis.
Monday, May 4th – Today’s article is going to be a tournament report for the Magic Online Championship Series: Season 1. There are 354 people signed up so far, so it looks like this is going to be a 9-Round doozy. The format is Standard Pre-Alara Reborn, because Magic Online is about 20+ days behind paper Magic when new sets are released, but I have had a lot of experience with this format and am comfortable with the deck I am playing.
Monday, April 27th – The entire spoiler is out for Alara Reborn, and everyone seems ravenous for new technology for whatever format their heart desires. Pros rummage through articles and articles from various websites looking for Alara Block Constructed ideas, while average Joes pillage material for upcoming Pro Tour Qualifiers for PT: Austin, as well as Regionals. With all of this in mind, I figured I would begin by focusing on Standard, since this is the format most relevant to me.
