Monday, December 8th – Since the very beginning of my run here at StarCityGames.com, I have been bombarded with the “spectator question.†It basically boils to some variation of “If I’m watching a match and I witness them make some kind of mistake (rules-wise, not strategic), what can I do?â€
Monday, December 8th – Vintage, by its very nature, is hardly budget-friendly. Excluding possible cards is somehow against the purity of the format. However, Stephen Menendian believes it’s possible to build creative budget options that aren’t necessarily suboptimal…
Monday, December 8th – Last week, Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin took us through the beginning of his career in Magic, and shared with us many lessons he’d learned along the way. Today he continues this journey, presenting some solid thoughts on drafting and the benefits of team testing. He also brings us a spicy little Legacy deck…
Monday, December 8th – Hi! Still sick. Still finding cheap casual cards in the Mirage through Tempest blocks. Still writing. Let’s go.
Friday, December 5th – As we come into the StarCityGames.com $5000 Weekend in Philadelphia, and the World Championships the following week, we are looking at two Constructed formats of relevance and the powerful question of whether these formats are static or dynamic.
Friday, December 5th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to talk about Magic and nothing but Magic. No special guests, no frills, nothing but my silly jokes, antics, and opinions on this cardboard crack we call our hobby. Let’s go!
Friday, December 5th – Tomorrow’s StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open promises to set the bar for the Standard metagame come Worlds. While most of the more powerful archetypes, such as Faeries or Five-Color Control, have been well covered, it seems that a lot of eyes have overlooked the reliable old Green/Black Elves. Adrian Sullivan investigates…
Friday, December 5th – In his first article for StarCityGames.com, UK National Champion Jonathan Randle looks at the use and abuse of deception in Magic. Going beyond the realm of the Jedi Mind Trick, Jonathan shows us that, sometimes, the wrong play might just be the right one…
Thursday, December 4th – Last weekend MTGO offered “free†drafts – meaning you only needed to supply the packs and you could draft. I did a few drafts. I also decided to write about a draft – to look at one in a bit more depth. The question was – which draft, and why? I decided to look for one where I had lost “to mana screw†or something like that, and analyze that in more depth.
Thursday, December 4th – As someone with a casual streak who also enjoys finding bargains, I’ve been enjoying The Ferrett’s recent Casual Player’s Bargain-Hunting Guide series. But a thought suddenly struck me like a lightning bolt as I read about acquiring playsets of certain cards – it’s been somewhere going on two years since I actually built a casual deck where I worried about playsets…
Thursday, December 4th – Nick continues his Drafting With series, bringing us a triple Shards of Alara draft from the 8-4 queue on Magic Online. Along with Rich, he shares his pick process and draft thoughts with each one, and supplies more detailed analysis in the forums.
Thursday, December 4th – “Who’s The Beatdown?” by Mike Flores is perhaps the most influential and important piece of Magic theory ever written. Today’s Deep Analysis attempts to expand on the fine theories presented in Mike’s masterpiece with a few of Feldman’s own ideas and inspirations…
Thursday, December 4th – Ben’s tackled the Reserve list, Judge Promos, and other reprint-related themes during his run on Insider Trading. What happens when our author tackles the largest reprint set of all – the Core set? Find out when Ben turns his eye to 11th Edition; what would Ben include? What would Ben leave out? And in the end, which 249 cards would Ben include in the set?
Wednesday, December 3rd – The December Banned and Restricted list update has arrived, with no changes to paper Magic, and it helps define the Pauper format for MTGO. It also has the sneaky change of allowing for changes later in the month, e.g. after Worlds.
Wednesday, December 3rd – Tarmogoyf. Counterbalance. Intuition. Life from the Loam. Pernicious Deed. Demigod of Revenge. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles. I didn’t intend much with the Demigod of Revenge deck but it became, I think, premier combo-control deck in Legacy because of the multiple avenues of both attack and defense.
