Thursday, September 11th – States has always been my favorite tournament. It was a “big” tournament that didn’t feed anything else, so it drew many more casual players than the PTQs and Regionals tournaments, and it had a nice, laid-back flavor even as people tried hard to win the bragging rights of State Champion.
Wednesday, September 10th – In Part 1, we left off with the basics of how to play Eva Green. In this part, we begin by applying those basics against the more successful decks in Legacy. We end the article with some changes that we’ve been testing, and discuss if any of these represent the next evolution of the deck. This article was a joint effort by Dan Signorini and Anwar Ahmad.
Wednesday, September 10th – Weighing in at a feed-a-family-of-four-all-you-can-eat 7000 words or so, Rich leaves very few rocks unturned as he examines the legacy of Time Spiral, and marks your card for all the bits you want to stick in the cupboard, and everything that wants a good bonfire. Mmm, the smell of rotting Detainment Spell…
Wednesday, September 10th – I notice that, in general, not much strategy-article attention is given to local tournaments. We all want the hottest lists for PTQs, sure, but it’s unreal how high your EV is at a local level, even with the smallest edge. If you want to win your local drafts, this is the article for you.
Tuesday, September 9th – There’s no doubt that Sensei’s Divining Top is a very powerful card. In conjunction with fetch lands, it provides repeated top of the library manipulation, resulting in free “virtual card drawing.†The ability to keep good spells floating near the top of the library until needed has also led to a slight depowering of discard spells, with former standouts like Duress and Cabal Therapy seeing a decreasing amount of play.
Tuesday, September 9th – One of the big questions I always hear at tournaments is “how much did you test?†This is followed with the inevitable “was it was worth it?†Typically the answer is yes, but other times you’ll hear some long-winded admission of general failure, or just general disinterest that resulted from the process
Monday, September 8th – You kids today have it so easy… You and your fancy ‘stack.’ Back in the day, we didn’t even have a stack. We had batches, and we liked it! If only we had these fancy shmancy post-Sixth Edition rules at our disposal, we could show you what for. Then we’d really see who’s boss.
Monday, September 8th – It’s never nice being a bully, but occasionally you have to kick someone when they’re down. If you don’t beat one of the other players up with this temporary advantage you possess, they’re all going to gang up and take your army away from you. So who do you beat the crap out of?
Friday, September 5th – Having finally put Lorwyn Block Constructed to rest, I thought I would start decompressing for the upcoming format shift by having a look at Tenth Edition as if it were a newly-released expansion we were adding to Lorwyn Block Constructed, to best prepare us for the addition of Shards of Alara to Standard in a month or so.
Friday, September 5th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another Magic Show. This week we’re going to take a long look at the new magicthegathering.com, check out Benjamin Peebles-Mundy’s draft tools for Magic Online 3.0, discuss the latest Shards of Alara spoilers, and detail a brand new way you can support the show. Let’s go!
Thursday, September 4th – Hello folks, and welcome back to the final article before my 250th article next week. Instead of the normal full length article today, I want to write up several topics of recent concern, praise, and import to myself. From the Casual Banned and Restricted list, to a request to all gaming sites on behalf of casual players, I have several things here. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Thursday, September 4th – When we left off last week, I was trying to make some last minute adjustments to my Black Doran deck. Intellectually, I liked the deckbuild… it was certainly chock full of strong cards with a couple of surprises. Yet there was something missing there; I didn’t have that giddy, crush-like feeling I’ve had playing my Saffi or Dredge decks.
Wednesday, September 3rd – Moving to this new Wednesday time slot was very exciting because it meant I got to check out the new Banned list update on Monday. I expected no changes in Legacy, and I was not disappointed…
Wednesday, September 3rd – While our attention builds towards the arrival of Alara, savvy deckbuilders know the importance of learning the lessons of Yesterday before looking to build the future of Tomorrow. Combining historical perspective, anecdote, and trading advice, Rich Hagon brings us a long hard look at the 907 cards that are going to leave Standard in just a few short weeks. What should you hold onto and why? Coldsnap launches the series.
Wednesday, September 3rd – Your typical gaggle of random American Magic players is… well, how can we put this? I’m not even talking terms of the usual gamer-awkwardness, gamer-hygiene, what-have-you. That’s standard, and you move past it, and then they’re awesome. But in your average Pro Tour six-man team-draft, there are maybe two guys with jobs, and that’s ambitious in the extreme.
