Wednesday, October 15th – Reuben Bresler brings us the latest installment of The Main Phase Video Show, with talk on Grand Prix: Kansas City, the missing Invitational, and the “suit up†idea for Pro Tour: Berlin…
Wednesday, October 15th – Short on opinion and long on fact, this week Rich brings you something only a nerd could love, a comprehensive breakdown of a Shards PTQ, with analysis of all 53 decklists, and pools, featuring in-depth under the hoodness about battlemages, mythics, removal, manafixing, archetypes and more. A real resource for the aspiring PTQ-er. And STILL no Elvis jokes, with Worlds just two months away…
Tuesday, October 14th – No doubt, Ad Nauseam is sick. This is no mere Panglossian pronouncement – it has the potential to draw a lot of cards, fuel a storm finish, and it sits in the right mana acceleration colors. The most fundamental question regarding Ad Nauseam is not whether it’s good, but how to build the deck correctly. As such, we have to put in some serious thinking about how we want to resolve the draw spell and what we want to do with it. Join Doug and special guests for an exploration of the card.
Tuesday, October 14th – It turns out that Shards Sealed Deck is one of the more complex formats in recent memory, doubly so when, as I mentioned last week, you don’t open an abundance of mana-fixing. What I’m increasingly beginning to realize about this format is that the density of your mana-fixing is far less important than the timing in which you intend to cast your spells.
Monday, October 13th – With the Prerelease nonsense finally running its course, I sat down ready to write an article on shuffling when fate struck me a random blow. I was reading GerryT’s informative and entertaining “A Shards PTQ Story *Top 8*†and came across an odd and worrisome incident in his report…
Monday, October 13th – This article will be all about getting ready for the StarCityGames.com $5,000 Standard Open. To start, I want to clear a few misconceptions people seem to have about the format at large. After that, we’ll be taking a look more closely at the popular decks, followed by a few that may be flying under the radar at the moment. Let’s go!
Friday, October 10th – Today, I want to take a simple idea for the article. With the brand new set on the shelves, I would like to build several decks that revolve around the new cards. Some decks may just have a single card from Shards of Alara, whereas others might be packed with new goodies…
Friday, October 10th – The preoccupation with piecing together a “Shard†is probably the root cause of the misconception that this format is anything but blisteringly fast. People will sit and lollygag around, casting Obelisks and cracking sac-lands, and I have no idea what format they think they are playing.
Friday, October 10th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to clear up some questions about last week’s episode, take a look at the new Standard environment beginning with this weekend’s Cruise Qualifier, feature a very special Shards of Alara sealed segment with Patrick Chapin, and more. Let’s go!
Thursday, October 9th – You know the saying. Last week, after the prerelease fiasco and so forth, I literally could not write anything worth saying. I could spew venom like an encounter-level 30 forums troll, but I had nothing useful to say. I can write coherently, and civilly, now… I hope.
Thursday, October 9th – I meandered down to Richmond Comix Friday for FNM and got my Shards of Alara draft on… I thought the actual drafting went really well. First pack I cracked open, looked at the bottom card and saw it was a foil rare Ultimatum… unfortunately, it was Clarion Ultimatum. I moved on and saw another Ultimatum, this one of the Titanic variety. Win the Game for seven mana? Sure, I’ll bite!
Wednesday, October 8th – Ad Nauseam is the newest spell to impact the development of Legacy storm combo. Its ability to draw an undetermined number cards opens up the potential that storm combo finally has the card it needs to become the best deck in the format. All the other card advantage spells that have seen play in storm decks either have limits on the number of cards they can draw.
Wednesday, October 8th – While Dave may not have repeated his unbeaten streak at the Shards of Alara Launch Party this past weekend, he did find a little rare that inspired him to build a couple of… Titanic decks.
Wednesday, October 8th – With a Pro Tour Qualifier season underway, and following a year off from authentic high-level Sealed play, getting your build right is crucial if you want to reach the Top 8. Drawing on his experiences of watching and playing at Pre-Release and Release events, Rich brings you some strategy for the Improvers out there…
Tuesday, October 7th – The Shard deck construction rule for the Launch Party came and went without incident. I’m sure that a story will trickle in from some corner of the world where a careless player received a game loss for building outside a Shard, but my LP wasn’t going to be that story.
