Thursday, October 23rd – I just got back from Grand Prix: Kansas City, and am packing for Pro Tour: Berlin. Since I’m judging, and not playing, my prep work has a zero tech factor. I can’t tell you about the new Extended, or whether using Obelisks to power out fatties beats speed rush decks in Shards Sealed. The best I can do is pull back the curtain a touch on how the big shows operate.
Thursday, October 23rd – This past Saturday I got to play in another Elder Dragon Highlander game. This time we only had seven people muster out. Last time I didn’t get to play, and they tried something different – letting everyone choose an old Vanguard card from Arena seasons past to go with their general, and from what I hear things got a little degenerate due to the combo engines you could set up. This time around they decided to cull the “broken” Vanguard cards and hand out the rest to people at random…
Wednesday, October 22nd – We had two major tournaments this weekend, Grand Prix: Paris and Grand Prix: Kansas City. We give you a rundown of the winners and some general strategy for Shards of Alara sealed deck. Gavin talks a bit more about the rapidly approaching Pro Tour: Berlin and his preparation. We are exceptionally excited for the upcoming Jace vs Chandra Duel Decks with alternate art Counterspell, Fact or Fiction, Incinerate, Seal of Fire and of course, the two planeswalkers…
Wednesday, October 22nd – In a follow-up to last week’s number-crunching festival of stats, Rich ups the ante with another 53 Sealed Pools to analyse. But these don’t come from a PTQ. Oh no. Ruel, Ruel, Levy, Fortier, Mueller, Thaler, Joens, Lybaert, Gregoir, Meulders and 43 others make up the largest detailed Pro analysis of this Limited format.
Wednesday, October 22nd – Bucking tradition, I have actually been writing about Magical strategy the last few weeks, and because of that there are a few things I wanted to talk about that have been kicked, at least momentarily, to the curb. I’m about to embark on what amounts to 4 weeks of travel over six weeks, so this is one of the last times to like collect my thoughts and cover a broad variety of topics. I’ll end with a brief discussion of Extended, and as a minor bonus, some Standard “technology†that will hopefully improve your matchups across the board.
Tuesday, October 21st – The addition of a fourth rarity was always going to impact the secondary market… or was it? Dave explores the financial side of the new mythic rares in Shards of Alara.
Tuesday, October 21st – In the current Standard, the supposed top-dog is Five-Color Control. The optimal build is hardly unanimous, if such a thing even exists right now, and it causes at least four articles a week to be written about its awesome visage. From the limited reports coming in, it seems as if Reflecting Pool Control decks of all shapes and sizes have become the majority of the metagame.
Monday, October 20th – Every multiplayer group you play with has certain, shall we say, tendencies – a group gestalt that encourages some behaviors at the cost of others. And if you know your group, you can start building decks that play to take advantage of your group’s habits….
Monday, October 20th – Last week made for a rather interesting article. Most people seemed to stay on message about the Outside Assistant (OA) issues and wanted to discuss said issues in the forums. A couple of people brought up some legitimate concerns about OA, specifically about what Gerry Thompson wrote, which I hope to clear up today.
Friday, October 17th – The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but the road to States is littered with decklists. Some are good, some are bad, and I’m sure that things will begin to change as more strategies are tried out and things begin to hone in towards the razor-sharp edge of good technology.
Friday, October 17th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re getting you prepared for two big tournaments at the same time: For those preparing for next week’s huge $5K Tournament in Richmond, Virginia we’ll have interviews with the top two Cruise Qualifier finishers and complete deck techs from both. For those headed to Kansas City like me this weekend, we’ve got another even more in-depth sealed breakdown from Patrick Chapin & Friends. Let’s go!
Thursday, October 16th – Today I want to focus on an online format from the casual rooms, and then bring it offline for all to enjoy. There is an online variant of Five Color called Prismatic. Highlander is referred to as Singleton. Pauper is a variant of Peasant Magic that simply allows only commons instead of a few uncommons. What some casual players have been doing online is combining these three formats into one, called PPS…
Thursday, October 16th – I have been looking at the prices for Classic set rares on MTGO. The Classic rares are from sets that are only legal in the online Classic format. These sets include Masters Edition I & II, Mirage / Visions / Weatherlight, and the two blocks that just rotated out of Extended. The rotating blocks are out of print, but MED I & II and Mirage block packs are still for sale. Sales stink. I’m wondering if this could justify “throwback†pricing on these packs, as a way to stimulate drafting.
Thursday, October 16th – Star City’s deck database has a great jump on the fall Standard metagame, recently uploading the Top 16 decks from their “Mana Overboard†Magic boat cruise qualifier Sunday. Not only is this great information for building your gauntlet for States, but it also gives particularly relevant insight into what you might expect to show up at the Star City $5K Standard Open two weeks prior.
Wednesday, October 15th – Today, we’re pleased to announce that the popular MTGCast podcast, looking at the state of Magic week by week, has made its way to the pages of StarCityGames.com! We’ll be showcasing their podcast each Wednesday… enjoy!
