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Playtesting Like A Pro: Can We Design A New Archetype The Way That Your Move Games Does?

Right now, YMG is focussed on Standard for the Masters and Draft for the Pro Tour – but I had an idea for an Extended deck, and considering my team is working on other formats, I thought I’d try out something new. I’d like to work with StarCityGames.com readers in the same way that I work with my team: I give you guys my concept and decklist, you all test it and show me where it’s weak. Are you up to the challenge?

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You CAN Play Type I #70: The Control Player’s Bible, Part VII.1 – Vampiric Tutor Or No?

The Deck is changing thanks to the new Onslaught fetchlands… And now that an entire color has gone the way of the dodo, can Vampiric Tutor be far behind? Oscar looks at Vampiric Tutor’s effectiveness against twenty decks in the Vintage metagame to see whether it makes the cut in the new Type One….

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The Geezer’s View: This Is The Game That Never Ends…

Part Extended strategy, part multiplayer, all fun – where’s an editor to put this? Well, since he goes into some detail on his current Extended Miracle Gro build and the matchups, it might as well go here – but hey, you wanna also hear about a multiplayer deck that wins by endlessly recursing Shahrazad? Now THAT’S funny.

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From Right Field: How To Build A Wall Around Your Heart

If you read this column frequently – and everyone involved hopes that you do – you know that I like to build and play my own decks. Sometimes the deck is a serious venture that I truly believe can win a tournament here and there… Other decks are purely fun, like the one this piece is about. It’s annoying to play against. If you accidentally win with it, expect your opponent to be very mad. Oh, and I have pictures of hot babes.

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Walk With Me: The Blowout That Might Not Have Been

Watch as Nick goes through a draft, showing you the cards and his draft picks. Once again, Nick opened some ridiculous bombs – but the choices between bombs presented him with some truly astounding strategical decisions. All that, and Nick asks for your feedback!

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You CAN Play Type I #69: When Second-Best Stinks

Over the last two months, a number of people e-mailed to ask about”budgetizing” Type I decks, especially”The Deck.” Since Christmas is just around the corner and people may make some major purchases, this might be a good time to talk about it… And let me tell you, substituting the Power Nine, like Inquest suggested, is a terrible idea.

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Building Your First Five, Volume Six: Thoughts and Musings

When I first sat down to write this series, I had no idea that over 55 pages later, I would finish the first five articles. That’s a novella. I cannot begin to name all of the things I cut or left out, either…. But I’m gonna try here, discussing the Banned and Restricted list, why people are afraid of Ante, the importance of Jeweled Bird – and the Top Ten Creatures In 5!

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Onslaught Limited Synergy Review: Five Million Husk And Pathmage Tricks

I’ve got lots of tricks for Limited players – but considering that 90% of them revolve around unblocked black creatures that do horrible things to you when unmorphed, there are staples. Oh, and Dirge of Dread.

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Justify My Love – Or At Least My Color: Rearranging The Pie So That White Can Act Like Soldiers

White doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Here’s this group of people (and currently birds), right? Knights, paladins, monks, clerics, and soldiers – all of these pretty much military positions – but none of them make any attempt to plan ahead or foil the opposition. It has no proactive cards; all it can do is react. Is that right?

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Ready, Set, Extended!

Last weekend, the Extended season started with a very loud bang in the form of an 833 player Grand Prix in Europe. Clearly, this was a tough tournament to play in – but a lot can be learned from this bloodbath, which left 819 casualties on day one. The Day One survivors provide a snapshot of what decks are good in the post Houston metagame, because no bad decks are going 7-1-1, that’s for sure. What deck does Rob think that YOU should add to your playtest gauntlet right now?

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FINAL JUDGEMENT: Grand Prix Los Angeles

My formal report about Head Judging Grand Prix Los Angeles is on the DCI Judge page; this report contains some of the other stuff that went on over the weekend. At the end, I’ll tell you how I got a well-known Pro Tour bad boy to be on his best behavior all weekend.

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Building Your First Five, Volume Five: Creating the Mana Base

This is it: The final part. The cards have been chosen for the three decks we’ve been creating… Now it’s time to add the mana. And Abe rolls up his sleeves and gets more down and dirty than he’s ever gotten before, discussing percentages, ratios, and basically discussing 5-Color mana bases like no one has before. Go Abe!

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As God Is My Witness, I Will Never Suck Again

“For awhile, my game was getting progressively better. I was playing at a higher and higher level. Anyway, I’ve been noticing I’ve hit this plateau lately, so I was trying to figure out why I can’t get off of it. I want to know why I’m stuck.”
“Okay. I’m starting to feel like your therapist now.”
“Jungian?”
“Freudian – and I’m a little creeped out by it. What have you come up with?”

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Double Or Nothing: 5-Color Revisited

Each colour has at least five cards that cycle for colorless mana. Pick any four and two of the fifth and you satisfy the eight cards of one colour minimum but don’t need to play any land of that colour. This means you can, effectively, play mono-color decks in 5-color Magic. So why not?

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Magic Art Matters – Onslaught’s Walking Desecration

As far as Magic art goes, there is no museum dedicated to it – at least not yet. But wouldn’t that be a nice idea? Imagine a finely crafted building, situated right there on the Wizards campus in Renton, perhaps designed in the style of the Tolarian Academy, or any one of a number of Magically-significant structures. Its sole purpose would be to house the finest art of Magic. And Daren Bader would have his own wing.

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