Thursday, April 23rd – Some of you may have seen the BBC shows Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, where modern cops were shifted back in time to the seventies and eighties. My week has felt a bit like that. Last weekend, I was playing in Stronghold release events. This weekend, I’ll be attending Alara Reborn Prereleases. It’s like jumping backward and forward a decade at a time.
Thursday, April 23rd – What exactly is a regular rules enforcement level event? In essence, it’s kitchen table Magic gone pro. Such events attract players from all walks of life, but they’re targeted at people that will probably never play in an event with a higher enforcement level.
Thursday, April 23rd – One of my all time favorite Magic articles – and one of the most influential on my play – is Chad Ellis’s “The Danger of Cool Things.” The article covers a simple, yet fundamental angle of Magic strategy. Ellis talks about how flashy plays, even ones which put a second copy of Verdant Force into play, are easy traps to fall into…
Wednesday, April 22nd – On this week’s edition of MTGCast, there’s talk on Alara Reborn, the prerelease weekend, Grand Prix: Kobe, and much more!
Wednesday, April 22nd – Why do we rarely run four of a Legendary card or a Planeswalker card? Most of you probably gave the obvious answer of “Well, the second one is worthless until the first one is destroyed.†Economists have a term for this. It’s called Diminishing Marginal Utility.
Wednesday, April 22nd – My original intention was not to discuss Vintage this week, but Stephen Menendian’s recent article Reviving Vintage, and its accompanying discussion both here and on the Mana Drain forums, threw my intentions aside…
Tuesday, April 21st – With the Alara Reborn Prerelease less than a week away, it seems like so much has been said about the Mythic and Rare previews. Dave takes a look at the commons and uncommons that are flying under the radar.
Tuesday, April 21st – With Grand Prix: Kobe now in the books, Rich brings us up to date with all the goings on in the Pro world, including some thoroughly untimely Game Losses and DQs that could affect the Player of the Year Race. Plus, why he believes Gabriel Nassif won’t be Player of the Year, and why Tomaharu Saitou could well be – again.
Tuesday, April 21st – Though often ignored by Legacy players, BG Suicide decks are quite powerful and pack some of Legacy’s strongest threats and disruption. This week, Doug breaks down nearly two dozen tournament-proven lists and distills out a composite BG Suicide deck that’s suitable for any Legacy event. Check out the common sideboard options of the deck, along with commentary on whether common boarded cards should be played at all. Channel your inner Spike with a Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter as Doug lays out this recent riff on an ancient archetype!
Monday, April 20th – Standard is a format that seems to be growing stale. Alara Reborn is on the horizon, and there are plenty of cards that (hopefully) will shake up the metagame. Today I’m going to take a look at a few of those cards and their potential applications for the Standard format, as well as the a few topics related to Magic Online.
Monday, April 20th – I had a great conversation earlier this week about why certain types of people play certain decks. I myself will play anything that wins, of course, but I feel tremendously uncomfortable playing the style of midrange Green deck that a lot of people seem to enjoy immensely. I can theorize all day about why it is I don’t usually find those decks suitable, but much of the preference certainly comes down to ‘feel.’
Monday, April 20th – The longest-running Casual Multiplayer writer gives his thoughts on the new Alara Reborn cards that have been spoiled on Wizards! What are the problems with Cascade? What’s up with the landcyclers? Find out!
Friday, April 17th – Attention, readers: the following article contains spoiler information, including a new, exclusive card preview. If you do not want to be privy to this information, you will probably want to stop reading. If you do want to see this information, then by all means, read on!
Friday, April 17th – StarCityGames.com’s $1K Top 8 decks are posted. I am surprised to see the archetypes listed. Just one Faeries, just one Five-Color Control, and just one Reveillark deck? Blightning wins the whole thing and two Green/White decks round out the top 3? Have all my worries been an overreaction?
Friday, April 17th – With just over one week left until the Alara Reborn prerelease, we’ve started to see a good chunk of the new cards from MagicTheGathering.com and other official spoiler sources, and what we see so far is cause for excitement. If you are spoiler-averse and have been keeping away from seeing the cards before their release, this is not the article for you. Feel free to check back here at Magical Hack in two weeks’ time, as we’ll be taking advanced looks at Alara Reborn until the prerelease!
