A Darker Valkyrie: The Impact of Coldsnap on B/W and U/W
It’s cold in here! Either my thermostat’s broken or Coldsnap just became Standard legal. In other news, terrible jokes have been put on a moratorium for the rest of the article.
CategoryMagic The Gathering
Battle Royale Round 5 – Losing the Hard Way
Craig turned up half an hour late. I mulliganed in games 1, 2, 3, and 4… and because that wasn’t enough, game 2 again. I drew lots of land. Craig mulliganed to three in game 3, and still got a turn 2, 3, 4, and 5 Watchwolf. Across four games I saw two Rakdos Guildmages, no Ribbons of Night, one Last Gasp and one Pyroclasm, and something in the district of forty-six lands.
Battle Royale Round 5 – A Small Victory
So I beat Talen… big deal. To be honest, there was no winner here. Mana issues can cripple the mightiest fighter. Still, the deck performed well enough… wanna see how?
Drafting With Rich #34
Rich continues his excellent series of RGD 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!
A Grand Prix: St. Louis Report
With the PTQs for Pro Tour: Kobe continuing apace, Nick Eisel presents his Ravnica Cardpool and Coldsnap Drafts from GP: St. Louis. He chronicles his performance in the event with detailed match data, and shares some handy tips for those hoping to do well in their upcoming Limited tournaments. Looking for an edge in your PTQ field? Nick can help…
Prepping for the Vintage World Championship
Stephen supplied this article with the following request: “Do not publish this article until after the Vintage World Championship.” In this revealing piece, he discusses his preparation for the biggest tournament on the Vintage calendar. He explains the tweaks and tech he considered for his weapon of choice, and he gives a lowdown of the tournament metagame going in. His actual thoughts on the tournament proper are coming next week!
SCG Daily – Wanna Draft Coldsnap? – Part 1
I’m going to take two Dailies to do this. The first – today’s, for those of you that need it spelled out real clear – is going to cover several of the archetypes in trips CS that you may or may not know about, since the format is an awful lot like Constructed and there is an actual metagame you’ll need to learn how to deal with.
Tribal Bible #2 – Something Fishy about Horsing Around with Shamen
And we’re back with the second instalment of Tribal Bible, the most cleverly named series in the history of Magic, as written by the world’s most devastatingly bald… er… handsome writer. Or perhaps a child left to be raised by monkeys in a meth lab. You never can tell.
Learning How To Draft
Today I want to tell you what I think about Limited formats and how to size them up and be a better drafter. This is for the person picking up their first draft set to those who are proficient but want to improve.
Magic Online Musings: This Week on MTGO #27
Blisterguy shares the ups and downs of the Magic Online metagame, and his personal price guide for all things MTGO. Plus, he spins more tales from his Nationals tournament. Ever drafted a deck so bad that you can’t even burn the cards? Blisterguy sympathises…
Drafting With Rich #33
Rich shares his Drafting technique in today’s installment of “Drafting With Rich!” As usual, he runs through a complete RGD draft from pick one to pick forty-five, and adds a brief commentary on his performance and final build. If you’d like some more detailed deconstruction, come visit the forums!
Drafting Coldsnap at U.S. Nationals
Ben, the writer behind the Definitive Coldsnap Draft Primer, takes a long look at the decks that posted a 3-0 record in the Coldsnap Draft portion of U.S. Nationals 2006. He shows us why they were strong, and what could be done to improve them further. This excellent article also sees him share his views on some of the more intricate Coldsnap Draft strategies. Looking for an edge in triple Coldsnap? Look no further…
2006 U.S. Nationals Report – *1st Place* – Part 2
Paul concludes his exciting report on U.S. Nationals 2006! With fourteen rounds of swiss play behind him, seven men stood between him and an oversized comedy check. Yesterday’s opener had thrills and spills galore… today’s installment is packed with high drama! The best writers, the best players… only at StarCityGames.com!
SCG Daily – Thoughts From St. Louis
We’re all going to make play mistakes, we’re all going to get out-topdecked, we’re all going to want to beleaguer our friends with some horribly tedious bad-beat story that makes them fantasize about how nice it would be to bore a corkscrew into our brains and shut us up. Despite all that, though, research has shown that retroactively winning the game in our heads by drawing one of our 43650345621 outs instead of that pesky basic land does not actually count as a win to the DCI.
The Other Side: A Coldsnap Draft with a Donkey
Joshua, determined to improve his Limited game, presents an admittedly-disastrous triple-Coldsnap draft experience… and begs for your help. Where did it all go wrong? Where could Mr. Claytor have salvaged things? And what could be done with the resultant forty-five cards of shame? Come to the forums and share your views!