Blog Elemental – An Unlikely Tribe
Today Jay chats about golem.dec for Standard and Online Extended.
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Ask Ken, 06/08/2004
How do you handle a Sealed deck splash when you have no Myr, Talismans, or color helpers to simplify the problem?
Magic Puzzles in Play
Editor’s Note: More and more people have been sending”puzzle columns” to my Inbox lately. Since I think logically working through some actual play situations can be an effective teaching tool as well as being fun or entertaining, I decided to run Jeff’s column here. The question is whether you, the reader, are interested in more of these sorts of articles. Please read through the article and then make your opinions known in the forums, and I’ll go about determining if we will be running more of these.
Poker, Pros, Problems? Insight from Type One
Ferrett’s recent article about Poker’s effect on the Pro Tour, and its likely future effects, immediately inspired me to think about what insights might be gleaned from the way the Type One community works. The reason I thought of Type One is that it’s a format which is growing, but without pros, without much in the way of DCI support, and in fact without very many large tournaments in general.
From Right Field: The Official Bad Player’s Fifth Dawn Review
You could get a fast, cheap column out of doing nothing but cataloging the bad predictions from previous set review. I was even going to do that, but Ted said”No way, Josephine.” Because of the time off for my wedding and honeymoon, he wanted me to do some”real writing” not just”copying and pasting” and”quoting other writers” like”you’re doing right now.” So, I promised I’d do something. Without further ado, then, I present… something.
Forward, Down, Diagonal, Fierce Punch – Combos! of MD5 Limited
Combo #2: Voltaic Construct + Viridian Longbow
*pop pop pop pop pop*!
Just get the Construct in play and equip the Longbow to any artifact creature. If you get this up and running, it’s like having a Vanguard card in play with a big middle finger on it.
Ask Ken, 06/07/2004
I will be competing in PT Seattle and I would like you explain to me how we can share the colors in Team Rochester draft.
Blog Elemental — I Did That! ME! MEEEEE!
Here is the list of cards for which I can take credit in Fifth Dawn.
Blood and Iron: Breaking Krark-Clan Ironworks in Type 1
Welcome to the Type 1 portion of combo week! My disclaimer for this article is that not only is building new decks in Type 1 freaking hard, but building combo decks are even harder because the benchmark is ridiculously high. You’ve got Draw-7 and Belcher, which both have a fair number of potential turn 1 kills if you want to go for speed, and if you want to go with more mid-game power, you have Dragon and its ability to draw three extra cards per turn. That said, I’m treating this more like an experiment and I’m giving it my best shot.
Updating the Metagame for Fifth Dawn: Tooth and Nail Matchups
My first installment took a look at Tooth And Nail and Elf And Nail and looked at some cards that could be added to these decks from Fifth Dawn. I also discussed a bit about what benefits Affinity would gain from Fifth Dawn and how they might impact the matchups for the tooth decks. This round, I would like to talk about the three other important matchups for the Tooth decks – Goblins/Bidding, Mono-White Control, and Ponza.
Pick a Peck of Mirrodin White and Blue
Since card valuations change as new sets are released, I am going to offer a pick order for every color in every set of Mirrodin Block. I’ll start by analyzing how Mirrodin cards have changed since the set was initially released, and I will make my way through both Darksteel and Fifth Dawn until I give you a complete set of pick orders for the entire block.
Blog Elemental – Writing Envy
On Monday I’ll list my Fifth Dawn names and flavor text credits. Today, though, I thought I would comment on an unexpected reaction I had to Fifth Dawn’s release… Card names and flavor text I didn’t write, but wish I had.
Words of Wilding’s Only Good Matchup
Difficult though it may be to accept that Mark Gottlieb would ever stoop to preview a Constructed-playable card on MagictheGathering.com, this is precisely what occurred a few weeks ago. Granted, his article on Endless Whispers toiled under the assumption that the high-casting cost Black enchantment would only be played by the kind of people who use Force of Nature to deal direct damage, yet he did mention one creature worth considering, the oft-maligned Leveler. You think I’m kidding, don’t you? Well check inside for some Type Two combo insanity.
Matchup Analysis: Goblin Charbelcher vs. Psychatog
In this article, I throw Psychatog up against Belcher because, as the Type One control deck with the fastest goldfish and the most disruptive anti-combo elements, it will properly stress test Belcher’s weak spots at the same time the fast goldfish diminishes the chances of midgame recovery through topdecking. Another advantage of Tog is that we don’t have to resort to hosers like Null Rod, Damping Matrix, or even Trinisphere to see if Belcher can overcome them – we are testing a standard array of cards that many decks will have, including Force of Will.