Friday, April 10th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week is a bit of a quiet one, so I wanted to reflect a little bit on some recent articles seen here at StarCityGames.com. This week we’ll delve into how you play better magic, the skill levels argument, and what I think are the five pillars of Magic success. Let’s go!
Thursday, April 9th – it’s the third entrant in the Shandalar Deck Series. If you have missed them so far, allow me to get you caught up to speed. I have been taking the decks played by the foes in the 1997 Microprose game Magic: The Gathering, with a campaign called Shandalar, and then modifying and updating the lists.
Thursday, April 9th – Singleton 100 is a Magic Online-only format. It is singleton, meaning that, with the exception of basic land cards, a player’s deck may not contain more than one of any individual card. The 100 means that decks must contain a minimum of one hundred cards. The format used to forbid sideboards, but that has changed…
Thursday, April 9th – A few weeks ago, we held a pair of PTQs at the Star City Game Center in Roanoke. Happily enough, I was able to judge both of them – head judge on Day 1, and then floor judge on Day 2 – and I would like to make particular note of the zero disqualifications issued over the weekend. Of course, there were warnings, and game losses, but no disqualifications.
Thursday, April 9th – You’ve been locked in a tight game three, but the match is edging towards an unfavorable closure. The last few turns have been an attrition war, and the life totals are close, but you look across the table and the sinking feeling that your opponent firmly has the upper hand sets in. As is, you’re dead on his next attack step… Or are you?
Wednesday, April 8th – I really enjoy playing Zoo. I played a similar concept last year, and knowing that it would be viable still this year, I spent the past year refining and tweaking it. When Wild Nacatl was first revealed, I remember actually letting a girlish squeal escape my lips. “This could be the final piece,” I thought. In doing, so I cemented my deck of choice for this Extended season….
Wednesday, April 8th – Kudos to WoTC for some pretty decent April Fool’s jokes, including the most amazing draft viewer ever seen. Today, we discuss a few more cards spoiled via various magazines in the unofficial MTGS spoiler.
Wednesday, April 8th – Rap Sheet, Chatter’s last seven PTQs: 9th on tiebreaks, Finals, Finals, Top-8, Top-8, Top-4, 9th on tiebreaks. Oh, and a GP top-32 somewhere in there. But guess who isn’t qualified, guess who isn’t as of yet going to even start thinking about leis, tropical fruits, and slack-key guitars?
Tuesday, April 7th – With the first pause in the hectic Player of the Year schedule now with us, it’s time to draw breath and start shifting through the data, looking for the trends that can help us towards better Magic. This week, Rich looks at some of the biggest issues heading into the season, and reflects on the ongoing storyline and success machine that is Luis Scott-Vargas.
Tuesday, April 7th – In the past seven days, The Starkington Post (Bill Stark’s daily Magic blog) has brought us a Top 8 PTQ report from Ben Rasmussen, a look at the Magical skills of judges, an editorial on spoilers, and much more!
Tuesday, April 7th – Doug takes a look back at his GP: Chicago Gifts Rock deck and made major adjustments. Did his improvements help his matchups in a small tournament he played last weekend? Does the deck attack an opponent from all angles or suffer from inconsistency and terminal cuteness? How has Extended influenced the build? Find out more about the “other” deck running Sensei’s Divining Top and see how it accesses some of the format’s most powerful threats and answers in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!
Monday, April 6th – With previews starting to sneak in, it looks an old aggro deck is set to pick up a few interesting weapons. Will Alara Reborn bring Blightning up to Tier 1 status? And can a budget version produce results?
Monday, April 6th – Sorry, Extended, but it turns out that I’m just not that into you. No, it’s not you – it’s me. I know we started off on the right path back in January, but things cooled off from there. I just never got felt… comfortable around you. I felt like I couldn’t be myself…
Monday, April 6th – Recently, a friend of mine emailed me saying “I won my local PTQ with Ranger Zoo.†I was intrigued. I had seen Bill Stark’s Naya Zoo list with Ranger of Eos, and just brushed it off as a mediocre and slower version of Naya Burn. However, this friend of mine, whose opinion I greatly respect, basically just wrecked an entire PTQ without losing a single match.
Friday, April 3rd – Soon the collective attention of Magic columnists will turn to Standard, and likely stay there for quite a while since there is going to be a crush of Standard events in the next several months. Regionals is fast approaching, about a month and a half away, and we’ve also got the Qualifier season for Pro Tour: Austin starting in May, and that’s Standard too.
