For those of you unlucky enough to have experienced the wonderment of Magic’s best format, it’s basically the most enjoyable vehicle for card-slinging ever conceived. The rules are simple. Infinite mana of each color. One spell per turn. One additional spell a turn with an alternate cost. One land. You start with an opening hand of four cards, and a carefully-crafted deck of the most powerful cards in Magic. Awesomeness ensues.
Two and a half years ago, I first downloaded MTGO, started playing and wrote my Diary of an OnLine nOOb series. I’ve been playing ever since — a lot. I want to step back and see what the online game is like, how it has affected my paper play, and where it is going.
This week, BPM takes a break from Constructed strategy in order to bring us a dose of Limited goodness. One of his Pro Tour: Charleston team-mates, Steve Nagy, recently took part in an interesting three-on-three team draft, and BPM was there to take notes. He takes us through each pick of the draft, highlighting the juicier decisions, and opens the doors on the intricacies of the Pros’ favorite Limited format…
Last week, Stephen took us through an entire Type Four draft, and highlighted the difficult decisions made in this most frenetic of formats. This week’s follow up article takes us through the entire game, play by play and chat by chat, with some of the most powerful cards in the history of the game being thrown about left, right, and center. If you’re looking for something a little different, then this is the format for you!
Constructed calculations aplenty this week, as Rich Hagon brings you lots of quality ways to stretch those dollars even further in pursuit of the perfect 75 cards. Also includes the closest thing in Magic to Car-Crash TV – ripping open boosters for No Good Reason! Look away now!
The recent discussion of cutting Library of Alexandria or Mana Drain from GAT reminded me of the constant pressure on newer Vintage players not to cut sacred cows from decks. Although this is a good general rule, people tend to stick stubbornly with certain builds/choices until the end of time. For example, there’s the removal of Smokestack in certain builds of Stax for cards that actually do things.
We’re all pretty clear on some of our Magic archetype definitions. Aggro? Easy. Control? Slightly woollier, but simple enough. Combo? Obvious. But… Midrange? Aggro-Control? Are the two archetypes the same, or do they have important differences. And while we’re at it, the differences between “archetype” and “role” can also spawn confusion. Today, Adrian takes a machete to this particular linguistic jungle…
Nick Eisel is taking a well-earned vacation, so in his place we have an article by the King of the Blue Mages, Planeshifted Dan Paskins. He brings us his Time Spiral Block Constructed deck of choice — Blue Deck Wins — that he played in the recent Grand Prix: Florence. He also looks at some of the reasons that Tomoharu Saitou is almost certainly a better player than you.
Have you ever seen Kenji play a match? Usually he will mount himself atop his left foot, or perch himself in the chair. This helps him not only see the board more clearly (he is a little guy after all), but it also gives him an uncomfortable position to sit in, which will hone his senses and enable him to make the best plays possible. Now take Gadiel’s posture…
In a format as open as Extended, traditional control decks need something special. The Extended cardpool is deep, the threats are varied, and the metagame is undefined. In order to control the match, one must have more than the power to simply say “no.” Today’s Innovations sees Patrick walk us through the matchups for a control deck that can say “no” over and over and over again: No Stick!
Rizzo does it again! Today’s Feature Article sees J to the F to the R in fine hyperbolic form, kicking ass and taking names through three tournaments with his usual panache and style. As always, his article is full of decklists, frolics, and life… and should not be attempted by anyone with a weak heart. 13000 words of pure love, from the guy who came fifth in the Storyteller ballot!
The Ferrett is bored with Magic, so instead of going with correct strategy, he instead opts to run a horrifically creature-light deck to see what happens when you run removal over guys. The results? Well, there’s a secret here for ya.
In my last article, I very briefly discussed my match with Alix Hatfield at a 50-player event in Annandale, Virginia. He was the eventual tournament winner — he and three of his compatriots took Top 8 slots with A Cephalid Illusionist deck. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the combo revolves around the Nomads/Shaman En-Kor and Cephalid Illusionist…
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. As of this week we’ve been on the ‘net a full year, and we’re going to take a few moments to see just how far the show has come. But that’s not all, of course. We will then detail a few happenings around the Magic community, including a little two mana Green creature that may end up being one of the best creatures ever printed.
It is said that all good things must come to an end. Fortunately, rather than following up on Craig Jones skipping off to finish his doctorate, Matt Cavotta’s conclusion to “Taste The Magic,” or Aaron Forsythe’s conclusion to his run on “Recent Developments,” the only thing ending here on Magical Hack is… my vacation.
