CategoryMagic The Gathering

You CAN Play Type I #129: Revisiting Counter Magic

A while ago I said that countermagic is a key component of Type I. Since that time, Wizards has seen fit to add more and more spells that counters things. As always, the Type I environment is changing, and it is obvious that the need for counters changes with it. One of Stephen Menendian’s recent StarCity forum discussion pieces has been on the utility of Stifle. That’s a valid recognition of one facet of the Counterspell problem that I want to examine today.

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King of the Fatties: Return of the King

I tried to stay away.

How could I?

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Phage Two: Applying an Old Archetype to Type II

It has been a year now since I unleashed the secret of the”perfect deck” upon you, and my, how the time has crawled. In any case, I have returned to inform the masses that, with the release of Mirrodin block, the “perfect deck” can now be translated effectively from Type I to Type II! Rejoice, all – for another major archetype has entered the arena and will undoubtedly establish a Tier all unto itself!

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The Tarantino Dilemma: Dogs!

Ken is very good at being wrong. The only statement he might ever be right about is calling himself the wrongest man ever, but he may be so wrong that he is wrong on that too.

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The Tarantino Dilemma: Pulp!

In a way I hate to see the end of this dilemma series. I mean, sure, I’ve been getting the butt-end of most of them, but who doesn’t love an underdog?

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Not Guilty, Ya’ll Gots to Feel Me

Jim hates to write. I hate to playtest. So basically, what I intend to do from this day forward to satisfy my contract (and I really, really mean it this time) is to use Jimmy and myself as a kind of half-man, half-monster machine; I’ll write about Jimmy’s playtesting data whenever he’s too lazy to do it, and he’ll write whenever the hell he feels inspired to throw one of his crazy metagame-smashin’ decks into the shark pool that is the StarCityGames community. We’ve got a new one for you, so hang on to your knickers and dive in!

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Ask Ken, 04/01/2004

You are clearly the most handsome, intelligent, charming, witty, selfless, kind, mentally-stable, engaging writer the internet, and indeed the world, has to offer. How do you deal with the jealousy of those like Nick Eisel, Mike Turian, Paul Sottosanti, and Woodward and Bernstein?

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Ask Ken, 03/31/2004

First off, you have the congrats of all of #mtgplaty for your
engagement/marriage to JB Smith, documented and revealed in
this weekend’s Sideboard coverage, but i must ask: is this true?

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How Having Your Eyebrow Explode Affects Tournament Play

So I’m actually playing Type 1 again. Along with this comes reading and posting on TheManaDrain.com about all sorts of things. One of these things was an announcement for a Type 1 tournament in Connecticut. This gave me a warm, happy feeling, because I thought it was a posting for one of Ray Robillard’s awesome sauce Waterbury tournaments. Alas, it was not, but there was still the allure of first and second place getting a Lotus. I decided to play Tog a bit more against people, and it was still doing well, but I had seen how broken Slavery was and I really wanted to play it…

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Whispers of My Muse: Dissecting Standard

My aim is to give a broad overview of the current Standard format with an eye towards some of the general concepts that I believe to define the environment. I also want to talk about what decks are likely to be successful for Regionals in light of these same concepts. Why should you listen to me? I mean, who am I to say what’s what? Well, I’ve designed a successful metagame deck for almost every iteration of Standard that I’ve ever played in. If there’s anything that I know how to do, it’s how to come up with a plan of attack for the Standard environment.

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Predator/Prey Relationships: A Modern Example of Flores’ Theory of Rogue Decks

The reason Flores’s article compelled this response is not just because Flores was outlining how rogue decks refuse to play bad cards, and how the goal of a rogue deck should be to carefully craft a predator/prey relationship with the targeted metagame, but because I felt I had an object lesson or two I could share, given my long experience with”going rogue.” And, more importantly for all you Regionals-watchers, I felt I could provide a modern example of the rogue playtester, complete with a new decklist for Regionals.

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Ask Ken, 03/30/2004

In a recent online draft I took Fireball over Barbed Lightning (which is obviously correct,) but I think the main reason it’s better is because it can hit two creatures at once instead of a creature and a player. It always seems correct to split a Fireball in the early game. Six mana kills two creatures with two toughness each, which is very powerful. So splitting seems right to me usually, especially since it can kill two decent creatures for 6 mana. What do you think?

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Whatever Happened to Saturday Night?

It has been said that Magic’s color pie rotates. If so, then why does Green always end up at the bottom? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is not that Green always gets the pie’s smallest slice. In fact, even if it’s not immediately evident, Green has recently received a larger slice of the pie than any other color. In terms of versatility, today’s Green can’t be beat. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t have much of a place in the current Standard environment…

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Splish Splash

Splash Damage is shorthand that I and some of my friends use when designing decks. After reading this article, you will be empowered to use it as well. When the Rabbit shows me a Black deck with Diabolic Tutor for card selection, and I ask him why he didn’t use Undead Gladiator and Twisted Abomination instead (like I have largely adopted), Rabbit can say”Splash Damage on Stabilizer.” I immediately know what he means and the matter is settled.

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Ask Ken, 03/29/2004

What ever happened to Team AlphaBetaUnlimited?

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