AuthorZac Hill

Wednesday, July 30th – Remember, this week we’re concentrating on the multicolored cards from Eventide, so for all the monocolored Eventide goodness, click that link right above my parasail-like cheeks. And this is all about the less-obvious stuff… you know Figure of Destiny and the B/W God are ridiculous, so I won’t waste your time saying so. Onward!

Wednesday, July 23rd – While I rarely do “set reviews” in the strictest sense, taking each card line-by-line and spouting such wisdom as “It’s cool that Mogg Fanatic and Incinerate were reprinted; those cards might find a home in aggressive Red decks,” every once in awhile a set is released that contains a higher than average density of cards with atypical applications. It seems to me like Eventide has many of this type of card.

Wednesday, July 16th – A key element of the “acquisition process” that, it appears, has been one of WoTC’s many buzzwords for 2008, is making the process of playing in a tournament as fun as possible for the people that choose to do so. A well-run event provides an air of professionalism to Magic that suggests the people behind the game really do know what they are doing.

Wednesday, July 9th – As long as Faeries is reacting to you, you’re winning. If they don’t get an opportunity to use their Blossom as more than Forcefield, or deploy a Scion, or stick a Mistbind, they are going to be backpedaling. Cryptic Command is insane, but it’s only going to stabilize them if they’ve already got a relevant board presence.

Wednesday, July 2nd – Given that all I’ve been doing since GP: Indy is helping Sam Black break formats and slaving away at language school, I’ve had no choice but to ruminate on the parallels between the two. Well, between learning a language and Magic generally, at least. I want to present, then, some of the similarities I’ve discovered, in the hopes of spelling out some global parallels for anyone trying to acclimate themselves to a way of thinking. Along the way, you just might become a wee little bit better at Magic.

Wednesday, June 25th – Lately, my event recaps have been (cutely?) sentimental, capturing some sort of feeling that washes over me after either a) scrubbing out or b) bashing face. Now, though, I’m sitting in Adrian Sullivan’s car after a Top 16 at America’s largest GP ever, brainstorming whether or not you should lower the curve on the Kithkin deck to fit in, yes, Niveous Wisps. So you could safely say my brain’s fully fried. As such, emotively I’m a wet dishrag, and therefore I might just have to talk strategy. Man.

Wednesday, June 18th – My experiences over the course of the last several Pro Tours have demonstrated more than anything else the tremendous role of play skill in determining wins and losses. This is not to say that your choice of deck doesn’t matter, or that people don’t get lucksacked out of tournaments. That’s not the point. What I am saying, simply, is that in most cases the degree to which a given deck has an “advantage” in a given matchup is frequently within the gradient that can be determined by playskill.

Wednesday, June 11th – I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks thinking how decks evolve – how the finished product we see posted online in a Top 8 somewhere looked when it was fresh out of its creator’s brain. Particularly right now, in a new Block PTQ format that has been largely unexplored, it can be extremely useful to see the avenues through which the game’s masterminds chose to perfect their lists…

Wednesday, May 21st – My suitcase sits here next to me, packed for the LA plane. Still no real idea what I’m running in Hollywood, but since when has that gotten in anyone’s way? Blasted Fae, stupid Swans. Standard has always been my worst format, and I feel about as clueless now as I did a month ago when I started testing in earnest.

Wednesday, May 7th – I’m going to talk about how I went about generating a decklist for one of my Hollywood prototypes. The difference is that I’m making no claims as to the value of this particular deck. Instead, what I want to emphasize is the means through which I’ve attempted to solve an existing archetype‘s problems, and how I’ve created space for the necessary slots that try to do so. The execution isn’t what’s important; rather, it’s recognizing the holes that presently exist and taking steps to plug them.

Wednesday, April 30th – I’ve always hated “pick orders,” because they’re often very arbitrary and many cards relate to one another in a tier-system, anyway. How do you qualify how much better (or worse) Oblivion Ring is to Eyeblight’s Ending in a manner that outweighs the simple factor of color preference?

Wednesday, April 23rd – Around Grand Prix: Daytona last year I mentioned that I wanted to write a theory article on Sealed Deck play, since I think the format as a whole is underrepresented in the body of Magic literature. Too many people think of it as “open your cards, look at your bombs, and play your removal.”