CategoryMagic The Gathering

So Many Insane Plays – The Leyline Wars

Read Stephen Menendian every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!
Today’s So Many Insane Plays features strategic discussion over an all-important resource in modern Vintage: the graveyard. Stephen pitches Vintage Flash against Vintage Ichorid in an attempt to showcase the power of the format-defining Leyline of the Void. Fighting the battle on this front is one key to success in Magic’s most broken format… can you compete?

Limited Lessons — Road to Regionals: Mono Black Rack

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
The Road to Regionals series continues all this week, and Nick is on the case! Today he tackles the popular fringe strategy Mono Black Rack, and offers some advice for the decks you’re likely to face this weekend. A lot of Magic pundits advocate storming with the Dragons at Regionals: does the heavy discard available to the Black mage offer hope against the Four Hellkites of the Apocalypse?

Feature Article — Road to Regionals: Angry Colon Blues

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Kyle Sanchez is back once more with his signature style of insanity and tech. Today he takes us through six different Standard decks, some old and some new, just in time for the Regionals carve-up this weekend. He also shares some of his favorite Future Sight cards, and reveals why he was less than pleased with the finale of Heroes…

Feature Article — Road to Regionals: A Japanese Take on Future Sight Standard

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
With U.S Regionals a mere week away, Japanese Constructed specialist Naoki Shimizu offers his formidable insight into the Standard metagame. He takes a lingering look at the power cards from Future Sight, and sees what role, if any, the new cards will take in the popular decks in the format. This article is essential for those players looking to march to the Regionals Top 8 table.

Insert Column Name Here – Insane White Legends

Read The Ferrett every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!
I cracked some truly massive White legends in my deck for the Future Sight prerelease, including a combo that – if left untended – completely shut down the attack phase. How nice! And since I’m celebrating this absolutely absurd card pool, I figured I might as well discuss some of the legends of Magic past, including an extended talk about the four Hero Scrubs of Magic.

Sealed Dissected – Future Seeing, Episode II

Ben’s taking a break. When summer rolls around, it’s time to ease off and enjoy deserved respite from toil. I imagine he’s somewhere in the tropics, sipping Root Beer Coladas or something of that sort. Them’s the breaks. But look at the upside. You’ve got me. I’m Eli Kaplan and I write for this here site on occasion.

The Magic Show #46 — Glittering Wish Control

Watch Evan Erwin every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week I’m going to be talking about my Standard deck that made Top 4 in the recent StarCityGames.com $1,000 Open.

Magical Hack – Road To Regionals: Setting The Stage

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Apparently, last week’s Magical Hack, Dredging Up The Past, was quite a popular read… apparently Bridge / Dredge strategies had somehow evaded the public eye. With a little bit of Standard play under our belt, I presented a deck apparently most people hadn’t seen. With a full weekend of sanctioned Standard play under our belts, we’ve got quite a bit more to look at… both StarCityGames.com $1000 Standard tournament, and the German Regional Qualifiers.

From The Lab — Road to Regionals: The Future is Black

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Craig “The Professor” Jones takes time from his busy Mad Scientist schedule to give his own personal view of the upcoming Regionals. He also looks at the Black offering from Future Sight, and throws up a few interesting decklists that may be the sixty-card piles strong enough to pilot you to Regionals success! Plus, for those with no Standard agenda, there’s a little Block tech to whet your whistle.

Flores Friday – Resident Genius Fight

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
For Mike’s first Road to Regionals article this year, the 2006 Resident Genius takes the good fight to the 2007 Resident Genius, Mark Herberholz! Mike and Heezy slug it out in a ten-game set, Gruul versus NarcoDredge. Mike’s disdain for the dredge deck is well documented. After a quick ten versus Mark H, is the Price suddenly Right?

Levelling Up — Road to Regionals: Identifying and Applying a Game Plan

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
While Tiago has little knowledge of the current Standard metagame (those pesky pros needn’t play it as often as us commoners), it’s safe to say that his strategic knowledge is beyond reproach. Today’s Levelling Up is a timely reminder on how to avoid mistakes by identifying a game plan. With Regionals fast approaching, formulating clear objectives for any given scenario is a sure passport to increased success. Everyone needs a game plan… let Tiago help!

Unlocking Legacy – A History of the Flash Fiasco

Christopher Coppola recounts the tumultuous events of the last month, and advises the community on how best to proceed. Included are recommendations for the DCI.

The Kitchen Table #183 — Building Your First Five, TNG: Volume 1, Planning it Out

Read Abe Sargent every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
One of the first things I wrote for StarCityGames.com when I became a featured writer was a series entitled “Building Your First Five.” I went step by step over the processes to building your first Five Color deck. However, four and a half years is a long time in the Magic world. As such, I feel that it is time to revisit and redo the old series

Tact or Friction — Fragment: Three Colors

Read Talen Lee every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Imperiosaur doesn’t mandate single-color play, any more than Terramorphic Expanse demands five-color. People need to wean themselves off the Ravnica duals, because they not only won’t be around forever, but, god willing, we will never have cards this good again. God, I am sick of seeing three- and four-color control lists that reduce the color pie into this homogenous, $5,000 slush.

Chatter of the Squirrel — Chatterstorm

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
In all honesty, you could read all the strategy in the world, scour the corners of the earth for decklists, pore through statistic after tedious statistic in an effort to dissect the metagame, and none of it would help you qualify for Nationals more than this simple four-word sentence: Play Dragonstorm and stuff. (The “and stuff” is essential, for those not in the know.)