CategoryMagic The Gathering

Get Your Rat On

The short version of the story is this: I read Chris Romeo’s article. I was intrigued. I thought of a few cards I might have tried out myself. I kept thinking of cards. I thought of more cards. I thought to myself, “Self, there are a lot of cards that could get played in a mono-Black deck.” So many, in fact, that one could probably build three separate, respectable mono-Black decks from the available Standard card pool without topping four of any given non-Swamp card. Now, I’m not feeling quite that ambitious, but you get the idea: there’s a lot out there. Today I’m going to focus on the evolution of one such deck that proved to be surprisingly good in testing.

By

My Syracuse (City of Dinosaurs and Giant Malls) Power 9 Metagame Predictions

Crazy Carl takes a look at what all the Type One players can expect this weekend at the Syracuse Power 9 event. Aside from profiling the decks to beat, Carl also includes an extended interview with Control Slaver master Rich Shay and some suggestions of how to metagame the field, all in his own irreverent style.

By

Blog Fanatic: Vinny the Pimp

Vinny Falcone. Vinny “The Pimp” Falcone. Vinny “I got your number Mr. Ben Bleiweiss” Falcone. My nemesis. My scourge. My some other name of a Magic set. Vinny, Vidi, Vici. He came, he saw, he conquered. There’s one person in all of Magic who has my number all of the time, and that person is — say it all at once, and say it loud — Vincent Falcone.

By

The Best Idea Wizards Ever Had: Bitching About Vanguard!

We’ve gone through a lot of fads in our multiplayer group, but we have played with Vanguard cards for over two years since they were introduced to our playgroup. There’s nothing like Bitching into Lyna to give all of my creatures shadow, then Bitching into Mishra to kill several players with one shot. So what are the Vanguard cards, and what are these strange Bitch rules that have made the Vanguard cards so much fun for us?

By

SCG Daily – Blog Fanatic: Owning Neutral Ground

You demanded it and we made it happen. Blog Fanatic returns for a two-week stint on SCG Daily today, and Ben kicks things off right, reminiscing about the early day of Neutral Ground and one player who simply could not beat him, no matter how good the odds.

By

The SCG Guide to Vintage 5 Proxy Decks

In my last article I talked about simplistic decks to play, but some of you may have noticed something in common with the decks – they were all fully powered, save Spoils Dragon, which doesn’t really help the people lacking any power at all. So I’m here to help out with your problems. This will be mostly an educational article, but I’ve tried to keep it somewhat interesting for those of you with short attention spans. Even if you are fully powered, you should probably read this to know what you’ll be up against.

By

Sealed Revealed II: Betrayers of Kamigawa Card Pool One

“Craig,” said Ted. “Betrayers has just been released. How about doing a new series of Sealed Revealed?”
“Do I have to?” I replied. “I’m still a bit rubbish at Limited.”
“Well, we’re not forcing you to write more Sealed Revealed,” said Ted. “But if you don’t, we’ll have your legs broken.”

By

Type One Oath Dissected

Oath is perhaps the only archetype in the format that has been revolutionized by Champions of Kamigawa, thanks to one card: Forbidden Orchard. Despite the short time since its introduction, many individuals on both sides of the Atlantic have tried to use a variety of different cards in the deck. I thought it would be useful to dissect the various levels of success found by different builds in the last couple of months. In comparing the twenty Oath builds that have made Top 8s in major Type One events since October, only twelve cards were in all twenty decks.

By

Chewing Gum in Singapore

For months now, Arcane has been a deck whose time had not yet come. It was always interesting, but few could doubt that such decks were outclassed in Standard while Block has yet to become important. Betrayers offered a number of new cards to add to the mix, but it was not until the announcement of The End of Affinity that it became time to look at a possible Standard build of an Arcane deck. The point of playing Arcane is to play two categories of cards – arcane spells and cards that reward you for Arcane spells. Before deciding on a theme, it would be best to meet the components.

By

Twenty-Point Speedbump Or Strongarm?

You asked for it? You got it! StarCityGames.com readers asked to see more writing on the multiplayer Emperor format… And Laura Mills (who is now playing games weekly with Anthony Alongi) has stepped up to the plate! Read on as she dissects the two main strategies you can take in Emperor – mainly, how you view your generals.

By

Yet Another Change To The Weekly Contest: The Casual Challenge!

In StarCityGames.com’s never-ending quest to improve the Casual and Multiplayer section, we will now be offering the $20 prize every week to the person who writes the best Casual and Multiplayer article. The twist? The article has to be on the topic we’ve chosen for that week.

That’s right: Each week, we’ll choose a different Casual and/or Multiplayer topic for you to write about, and the person who provides the best in-depth analysis wins an easy $20! This week’s topic?

The Best Multiplayer Combo.

Remember, we’re not just looking for a deck; we want the strategy of how to play it, what sorts of other decks and/or people disrupt it, and ideas on possible alternate builds. So send your submission into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2! Your money awaits!

By

SCG Daily – Doctor Mox’s Future Sight

If you’re so clever, do something REALLY cool. Look into the friggin’ future, or something. Tell us what Magic will be like a few years down the line. I bet you a dollar to a duck’s ass that you can’t do it.

Prove me wrong, Mox. I dare ya.

Marty
California

By

Another Look At the Vintage Restricted List

It’s that time of year again and the pressure to restrict something in Vintage has never been greater. However, there should be no restrictions unless tournament data tells us that something needs to be done. I will briefly list out the winning decks from major tournaments over the last six months and then summarize the relevant data for the six tournaments that will point us toward what we are looking for.

By

Knocked Out in Nagoya

Yeah, I scrubbed out in Nagoya after starting 3-1 and needing one more win to make Day 2. Here come the details…

By

The Magic Jerk: Growing Pains

Getting better is not easy, and it’s not fun, at least not after a while. Sometimes when I’m feeling optimistic I like to look at how far I’ve come in the past year. U.S. Nationals was last summer. This spring I’m going to the Pro Tour, and even though it’s “only” a team event, I couldn’t be more proud of where I am as a Magic player. Still, getting better sucks, and if you are anything like me, you probably have some good stories about the growing pains you have gone through as part of improving your game.

By