CategoryMagic The Gathering

The Magic Jerk – Interactivity and the Common Man

Mike Flores and I spent the weekend losing at Magic, but I’ll spare you the boring details of that sad tale and instead focus on a discussion we had after the tournament was over. What came up on the car ride home wasn’t how to beat the combo decks that ran rampant in Boston, but why our Red decks were suddenly incapable of winning. There were two decks in the Top 16 that tried to win with Red men and burn – the rest of the Top 16 is filled with combo, combo and more combo, until you reach the Top 2 where you find a deck that combines two combo decks in one! So why can’t Red decks keep up? It’s a thing we termed Interaction.

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Betrayers of Kamigawa Limited Review – Red and Green

Well, I was gonna start off with a nice review of Betrayers White for Limited but “someone” beat me to the punch. Someone always seems to beat me to the punch, although sometimes someone is someone else. Or something. That notwithstanding, I feel that it’s my civic duty to write a Limited set review. It’s my “area of expertise.” I guess I’ll start with Green and work backwards, tragically overlapping with Eisel in one of the weeks. And since you’re paying for this advice now, as a signup bonus, I’ll toss in Red this week at absolutely no extra charge. You’re actually saving money by purchasing a StarCity premium account. If you have any questions about the math on that, allow me to refer you to my business associate Rodman. He’ll explain everything.

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10 Extended Decks in 1 Day: The Thirteenth Step

Wrapping up our Extended Mega-Event is none other than Brian David-Marshall. Instead of covering Solitary Confinement as he originally planned, today BDM brings you a staggering array of potential rogue decks that are already making their impact on this Extended season. If you are looking for something off the beaten path (and in some cases way off) to play this weekend, or maybe just trying to survey some of the randomness you might see at your local PTQ, then you must read this article.

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The Limit of Interactivity

During 1999’s Extended PTQ season, a mistake by his teammate forced Michael Flores to ask the question “Who’s the Beatdown?” Six years later, another Extended format prompts him to re-examine the strategies he advocated in what may be the greatest single Magic article of all time. The Limit of Interactivity challenges Michael’s own conclusions, and, while it categorizes Extended decks into two distinct groups, this time they aren’t “beatdown” and “control.”

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SCG Daily – Ninjas vs. Pirates!

Extended decks or goofy theme decks? Who the hell cares man, it’s Ninjas vs. Pirates in the latest installment of SCG Daily from Doctor Mox!

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From Right Field: Lickety Split’s A Series of Unfortunate Decks: The Sickly Sweet Sequel

Can you make a good version of all-common White Weenie for the Standard environment? How about mono-Red Land Destruction? Chris finishes his “all commons all the time” stint with a couple of new decks that earn mixed results.

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Making the Leap From Magic Online to Pro Tour Star

Until last year, Terry Soh was just a kid from Malaysia who couldn’t get a draft in his home country. Now he’s a bonafide Pro Tour star, with two Grand Prix Top 8s, a National Team slot, and two Pro Tour Top 8s to his name. How did this leap occur? Terry thinks you can do the exact same thing he did, and he’s willing to give you the steps necessary to accomplish just that.

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10 Extended Decks in 10 Days – Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex With Squids But Were Afraid To Ask

Cephalid Breakfast very nearly won a Grand Prix last weekend, so you can be absolutely certain it will be played at upcoming PTQs. Bennie Smith takes the deck to the numbers and looks at all of the matchup data for the deck against every deck played in Pro Tour: Columbus to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie. If you plan to play Extended this season, this is information you must have.

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The Betrayers of Kamigawa Set Review: Green, Artifacts and Lands

In Zvi’s wrap-up, he details whether or not Green got the shaft in Betrayers (as usual), checks under the hood for playable artifacts and lands, and lists his Top 9 cards of the set. If you’ve been following along, or even if you haven’t, this is not to be missed!

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Meandeck Tendrils Primer Part 2: The Card Choices

In the first part of this series, I introduced a new Type One deck. It was an attempt to break the format – A deck that will take a great deal of time to completely master, will test your limits, hone your skills, and demand elevated focus. In this article, I’m going to explain and justify the various card choices and show how to play them correctly.

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Mining the Crystal Quarry: Betrayers of Combo-Gawa

Looking for cool new card interactions in the new set? Well, John’s read Bennie Smith’s article and come up with a heaping helping of fresh new Betrayer-ready combos! How about a combo that provides an infinitely-large creature, or infinite life, or infinite life loss, or infinite mana, all by swapping a single kill card….

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Death and Despair Plus the Other Stuff: Black, Artifacts, and Colorless Cards in Betrayers

Rick completes his excellent Constructed set review today with what many people feel is the strongest color in Betrayers: Black. What cards will be keepers in Standard and Block Constructed? Have a look.

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SCG Daily – Doctor Mox’s Guide to Extended, Pt 2

If you listen to the forums, it appears that Doctor Mox is everyone’s new favorite writer, but who is this masked man, and why does he keep talking about his Volkswagon? Bah, none of that matters, since today the Doc is back to bring you another amusing-yet-useful look at the current Extended format.

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Papal Bull: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

There’s a lot of contention regarding what should and shouldn’t be on the Vintage restricted list. Wizards took five cards off the restricted list in Vintage during 2004: Fork, Braingeyser, Stroke of Genius, Doomsday, and Earthcraft. To pretty much everyone, these cards were considered undegenerate and could be unrestricted with a reasonable amount of safety. While there are occasional tweaks when a new B&R list comes out, usually nothing is changed. Still, every quarter there is usually a firestorm of debate regarding changes to the list. Since it’s going to be March soon, it seemed like a good time stoke the fires of Vintage debate once more with an article…

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The Betrayers of Kamigawa Set Review: Red

“That’s an impressive list of interesting cards in a color not known for producing a lot of midlevel playable cards. Red gets some creatures for block, a few for Standard, and with XXXXX, quite possibly one for the ages.” Which cards is Zvi talking about? You’ll have to read it to find out!

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