Ted’s”Win $50 For Your Deck contest is almost over, and he wants to remind you that it’s there. Oh, and he wants to give you his statistical analysis of draft colors from Chicago, and to tell you what color skyrocketed in popularity in Onslaught drafts, and to complain about The Sideboard’s reporting. Oh, and hot chicks.
The Bird Deck does get a wonderful enchantment in the form of Soulcatcher’s Aerie. Admit it: 1/1 dorks are going to die. That’s about all they’re really good for, besides occasionally attacking for single points of damage. But no, dying is their skill! It’s their bad stylish ability. And the Aerie rewards you for having your stupid birds die in horrible, painful fashions. And that’s really what military strategy is all about: Stupid, annoying birds dying in droves.
Haven’t read the Legions novelization yet? Curious to know what’s going on with all of those wacky pitfighters – Kamahl, Akroma, Phage, Ixidor, Braids, and the as-yet-uncarded The First and General Stonebrow? Daniel neatly summarizes the latest plot events for you, and provides a capsule review at the same time!
As a quick look at my credentials, I’m qualified for Venice and I’ll be qualified for Yokohama based on my Limited rating, so I should hopefully be seen on the Pro Tour for a long time… And I’m here to tell you that as important as tempo is – after all, how many games are ended by Dirge of Dread or Wave of Indifference? – the Lancer only gives you early-game tempo when he’s blocked.
Sadly, Nick Eisel is no longer with Star City. His presence will be missed, but we have the good fortune to have hired another fantastic player from CMU to pick up where Nick left off: Paul Sottosanti. And while Paul is going to show you a different road, I believe there is only one card to put as the second-best common pick in White: Daru Lancer.
The DCI stopped restricting cards in other formats and just bans them if it absolutely has to, because restrictions add an undue random factor. Many games might feel like topdecking a bomb in Onslaught Sealed, for example. Thing is, this actually makes Type I fun and different, which begs the question: Should we change the banned and restricted list, even if everything seems to be fine?
October 7, 2002. That was the last time I wrote a Magic article.
August, 2002. That was the last time I played a game of Magic with more than two people involved.
After seeing that Rizzo still writes more often than I do – and he’s supposed to be retired – I decided that I better actually write something. And if he can write about absolutely bombing at the Grand Prix, why can’t I?
There are three formats that deal with playing creatures of the same type – Goblin Wars, Tribal Wars, Creature World, and such. Each of them are different, but they’re all tremendous casual fun; let’s start with a basic overview of the different types, and then I’ll give you a couple of decks, including the surprisingly-potent Spirit deck.
This article is not about Nick Eisel. All he did was remind me of all the good reasons there are to cheat.
A couple of months ago, I got an excited e-mail from Neutral Ground regular Elden Lee. He had stumbled upon an exciting new deck on Magic Online that a Japanese player had beaten him with. I have no idea who this player was – but as far as I know, he is the originator of the deck that came to be known as Tight Sight. We tested it, and here’s what we found out.
Not knowing five hundred cards and playing with and against those five hundred cards in a Limited environment is some friggin’ friggin’.
I have met a lot of casual players who are unwilling to play, or afraid of playing, in big tourneys. But the current cycle of Pro Tour Qualifiers is Onslaught/Legions sealed deck, and it is a perfect place to start playing in bigger tourneys. Here’s why.
I’ve done a good deal of Legions drafts and am have a pretty good bead on things. Legions is, of course, a set composed entirely of creatures – and due to that, many of the cards are very similar in power level, and the pick order becomes even more reliant on the holes in your mana curve. Needless to say, in Onslaught, draft non-creature spells higher than you used to, since there are only a few cards that act as spells in this set.
Since switching to Lava Dart, I haven’t felt completely out of a game with The Marksman at my side. I don’t get that this-deck-is-too-good-for-the-casual-room feeling yet, but I’m closer to it than when I started…. And you know what janky card has been working surprisingly well?
It’s that time again – time to see what windows the flavor text commission of R&D opened up into the world of the Magic storyline. As always, this”real story” installation is intended to give those who don’t have the time or interest to read the Magic novels a picture of what occurs in them.
