No, you’ve not misread the title… today’s So Many Insane Plays is indeed Drafting With Stephen. However, this is no mere TPF or XXX draft. It’s Type Four, one of the most fun and powerful ways to play Magic ever created! Stephen takes us through each pick from a powerful Type Four stack, alongside the creators of the format itself, and brings us an illicit peek into the strategy behind this wild and popular game variant.
Nick takes a break from his excellent Draft Situation series in order to bring us the lowdown on the fun and powerful U/B Control archetype in Time Spiral Draft. He takes us through the more powerful commons on offer for this archetype, and brings us a couple of interesting decklists that can be used as templates for success. Lorwyn is coming, and TPF is losing its shine… so if you’re looking at drafting something as little different, this is the article for you!
He’s been supplying excellent Feature Articles week in and week out for quite some time now… and today, he debuts his weekly column (in place of the study-bound Prof). Adrian Sullivan is one of the finest deckbuilders and theorists in the game, and this week he takes a look at the coming Standard rotation. With Lorwyn still a foreign country, what preparation can we make for the sad departure of Ravnica?
Time Spiral Block Constructed season is winding to a close, and it’s time to move to Constructed pastures new. Traditionally, Block Constructed is the least powerful of the sixty-card formats. Patrick Chapin has a decent antidote to this low-level play… Extended! With Pro Tour: Valencia looming large, the Innovator brings us his personal take on the current Extended metagame, with decklists, PLAY tips, and predictions galore!
He placed third in the Storyteller Ballot for this year’s Invitational, but he was the choice of many a pro player. His stories are, if you believe all you read, a work of genius. He’s fun, frivolous, and fiery… and he plays a mean game of Magic to boot. Gerard’s debut article takes us through his personal 5-2 performance at in the Standard portion of this year’s U.S. Nationals. Welcome aboard Gerard!
[Editor’s Note: This article was a little late on Friday, so we’re running it again today in case you missed it.]
Mike’s Flores Friday takes us through his preparations thus far for States… yeah, that’s right: STATES. He shares two Standard decklists pulled deep from his well of creativity, both without a Ravnica card to their name, and walks us through some sample games. How does he fare? Well, the second offering is christened “Unbeatable.dec,” so you figure it out…
After powering out to a 6-0 start at Grand Prix: San Francisco (albeit on the back of three byes and three great matchups), Tiago needed a simple “win and in” result to qualify for Day 2 play. Today’s Levelling Up examines where the wheels fell off the wagon. He also looks at his preparation for the GP, and explains why he spends a great deal of his time traveling to play Magic…
This week’s Deep Analysis sees Richard bring a fresh perspective on metagaming to the table. If you look at your average Constructed PTQ or GP Top 8, you’ll see a number of different decklists doing well at the hands of highly proficient mages. How on earth do these folk come to radically different conclusions concerning the “best deck” to play at any given time? Richard reveals all!
The Time Spiral Block Constructed season is winding down… there are a few PTQs left, and a European Grand Prix, but that’s about it. To round out the Block metagame talk, Adrian Sullivan dissects the winning deck from the recent Grand Prix: San Francisco, a deck that was piloted to the Top 8 by no less than three talented spellslingers…
Now the Tenth Edition Release Events have finished, it’s business as usual with the Standard and Block Constructed Premier Events. Benjamin Peebles-Mundy returns to his beloved Vengeful Dredge deck and walks us through a tricky match against Red/Green Aggro. Just what can you do when they kill all your Dredge enablers?
Unsurprisingly, Stephen Menendian’s Magical thoughts are currently mired in the Invitational. Today’s So Many Insane Plays details the Voice of Vintage’s thoughts on hearing of his Invitation invite, and takes us through some his ideas on the possible upcoming formats. He breaks down the Invitational info from the past, and highlights the mammoth task ahead of him…
Limited expert Nick Eisel continues his excellent Draft Situations series with an in-depth look at a couple of interesting forty-card dilemmas. He brings us another tough pick in a TPF 8-4 draft, some tricky draft build considerations for a strong-looking pool, and a powerful pack from a three-on-three team draft at his local store. If you’re looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!
Craig “The Professor” Jones is signing of his weekly column for a few months in order to complete his PhD… and he goes out with a proverbial bang. Today’s From The Lab sees Prof in a reflective mood, as he takes a trawl through his personal history books and highlights all the lessons he’s learnt thus far from high-level play. There’s definitely something in here for everyone… good luck with your PhD Prof, and come back soon!
Patrick Chapin promises innovations… and this week, he certainly delivers! This is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill Magic article. As the world lies in the pre-Lorwyn doldrums, Patrick gathers some entertaining snippets from great Magic writers and pros, past and present. Cunningham, Sullivan, Aten, Sanchez, Herberholz, Erwin. Each snippet has been written with a twist… can you spot them all?
Throughout the years, Adrian Sullivan has designed his fair share of powerful decks. His latest creation of note qualified him for Pro Tour: Valencia early in the season. Looking back at his creations, Adrian concludes that while all his successful decks achieved their goal, some of them were fragile or underpowered. Today, he offers the theory that fragile decks have a place in the metagame… and he shows us how to position ourselves to take advantage of an evolving metagame.
