This week started with the story of the decks that I made for me, my brother Jonathan, and our friend Jason for Christmas 2005. We didn’t get to play them until Memorial Day 2006 because my brother didn’t get to come back home for the holidays in 2005. This year, Jonathan’s home. For good. He’s out of the Navy, going to school, and being supported by his wife. What a life!
I was recently reviewing a card for an article I have yet to write when I realized a powerful combination that it allowed in another area. I began to brainstorm a bunch of ways to win using that combo as the foundation. It was a lot of fun, and I realized that I had the beginnings of a new Silly Card Tricks article…
I have some news for you: I’m in love. It started as a flirtation and has since grown into a full-blown affair. She can do no wrong, my girl. She walks on water, she heals the sick, and brings peace on Earth. And she’s hot as hell.
I’m talking about Saffi Eriksdotter.
Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!
He’s brought us Black. He’s brought us Red. He’s brought us White. Today? The Green cards. Ben takes us through his comprehensive common pick order, highlights some of the more notable uncommons in the set, and presents a workable and successful base-Green draft deck for us to analyze. When TIme Spiral was hot off the presses, the smart money avoided the Green cards. However, today’s Draft Investors aren’t so sure…
With two days of the World Championships behind him, Craig “The Professor” Jones had a possible dash-for-cash situation: with a decent performance in the Extended portion of the event, Prof could finish in the money. After a few false starts in the deck-choice arena, he settled on a deck that posted an immaculate 6-0 record… but not by him. Craig shares his thoughts on the deck, and the metagame, with his usual insight and wit.
This week’s SCG Dailies are about Magic cards for Christmas. Specifically, they are about decks that I’ve created and given as Christmas presents. (Except for yesterday, which was about suggestions on what to give a new player if you have no clue about Magic.) Four or five years ago, my brother was still overseas in the Navy. At the time, he was stationed in Japan on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. That was the first ship into the Persian Gulf after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. We didn’t see him for a couple of Christmases…
Blisterguy brings us the lowdown on the Magic Online Standard scene, plus a detailed breakdown of the hottest card prices found in the electronic game. He also tackles the Online Exended metagame and chronicles the Top 8 standouts in this ever-popular format. All this, plus more tales from the balmy streets of Paris…
Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!
Paul continues his intriguing “JohnnyDraft” article series, which today delivers not one but two complete triple Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs. If that weren’t enough, Mr Jordan also brings us a plethora of statistics and related detail, and chronicles his attempt to rid himself of his personal Time Spiral Draft Demons…
In his first article for StarCityGames.com, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa takes us through every step and stutter on his journey to a Top 8 place in this year’s World Championships. His report shares his pre-Worlds preparation and the decklists he finally chose, a breakdown of each round of both Constructed and Draft, plus the changes he’d make to his 60-card piles in the post-Worlds meta. This is an excellent debut article from one of the game’s hottest talents, and we look forward to many more!
Some people hate the metagame right now. Oddly, I don’t, for the first time since Standard was Invasion and Odyssey. I really can’t believe just how diverse everything has been ever since Time Spiral hooked up with Ravnica Block. I’m left to wonder how much of this diversity has to do with the extra cards in Standard, and how much has to do with their “tier-two design” strategy. Either way, I admit I’m impressed.
But I do hate Dragonstorm.
I love casual Magic formats. If you didn’t know that from my writings before, you will definitely know it after this week’s SCG Dailies are all done. There’s just something about being able to play with cards that you wouldn’t normally be able to play with, cards that get pushed aside either because they aren’t good enough for one-on-one duels or because they aren’t legal in all of the same formats.
Josh brings us part 2 of his series examining the Extended decks that made a spalsh at last month’s Worlds competition. There are three more aggressive options on the slab today: Boros Deck Wins, Aggro Loam, and Flow Aggro. The coming PTQ season will be shaped by decks like these… are you prepared to face the beatdown?
I’ve got a new favorite cheap, cheap, cheap pet deck, one that I don’t mind letting my friend Matt play. It’s dirt cheap, which is perfect because I don’t always know where his hands have been or when he washed them last. I alluded to the deck in my last piece. It’s sometimes called the new Goblins deck, but you’ll start calling it the Empty the Warrens deck soon enough…
