Select

Wednesday, June 18th – Mark Rosewater recently mentioned that, starting with Shards of Alara, each set is going to be comparably smaller than the sets sizes we’ve currently been seeing. Personally, this thrills me. As someone who likes to play competitively, it’s difficult to acquire a playset of so many cards out there that you want to build decks with, especially since we’re living in the era of Tier 2 cards, which widens the pool of “must-have” playables.

Wednesday, June 18th – My experiences over the course of the last several Pro Tours have demonstrated more than anything else the tremendous role of play skill in determining wins and losses. This is not to say that your choice of deck doesn’t matter, or that people don’t get lucksacked out of tournaments. That’s not the point. What I am saying, simply, is that in most cases the degree to which a given deck has an “advantage” in a given matchup is frequently within the gradient that can be determined by playskill.

Tuesday, June 17th – I was born in Japan, and I am still a citizen of Nippon. I live and work in the United States as a Resident Alien. That means I have a Green Card (which is physically pink), not that I am a zombie face-sucker. Technically speaking, English is my second language as I grew up with Japanese in the home, but they are more like 1A and 1B. I took Saturday Japanese school classes all the way through junior high. I am conversationally fluent in the spoken language, I can read a newspaper, but my writing has really atrophied to the point where I probably couldn’t compose a halfway decent e-mail in Japanese.

Tuesday, June 17th – From 200 all the way up to Charles Gindy in first, Rich Hagon runs his eye over the results sheets from Pro Tour: Hollywood, bringing us his usual blend of insight, wit, curiosity, root vegetables, controversy and – on this occasion – an abject, grovelling apology. Spineless, that’s what I say.

Tuesday, June 17th – Today’s Deconstructing Constructed contains talk on Block Constructed, Vintage and the new metagame, and an entertaining Regionals report from guest writer April Yu!

Monday, June 16th – By the time you read this, the first PTQs of the season will be over, and Lorwyn Block Constructed Season will be underway. Over the coming weeks I will try, as so many of you will do the same, to win one a Test of Endurance, a Battle of Wits, in Mortal Combat with my peers in an Epic Struggle to… I can’t figure out how to fit Chance Encounter in here, but you get the point.

Friday, June 13th – It’s fair to say that, down the years, I’ve had a hate/hate relationship with tiebreakers. No matter what I try, then always seem out to get me. I’ve no idea why this is the case. Perhaps I murdered a statistician in a previous life, or maybe I once angered a witch’s accountant and thus am cursed with mathematical bias for all eternity. All I do know is that if someone’s gonna come ninth, there’s a fair chance it’ll be me.

Friday, June 13th – With Regionals now behind us, and not enough results on the books to actually work up a good post-script on the U.S. Regionals by my weekly deadline, I seem to have permission to do what I’ve wanted to do for some time now: discuss Block Constructed.

Friday, June 13th – This week we tackle the monstrous changes that are coming to our game this fall, all filtered through the brilliant mind of Patrick Chapin. You also get a full deck tech on his latest block deck, Burnt Toast featuring the ‘best’ command, Incendiary Command…

Thursday, June 12th – Although I find the name “Mythic Rare” to be a bit ostentatious, the idea of a super rare has become industry standard for a while. Last year, WizKids moved to the more traditional common/uncommon/rare/super rare model, and their sales increased as a result. You simply cannot argue with facts.

Thursday, June 12th – I was going to write about IDs in MTGO last week, but I ran out of time. It’s a bit less topical now, since the Wizards folks have made their announcement, but I can talk a bit about why IDs are allowed in the paper world, why they are problematic, and what changes when they are gone.

Wednesday, June 11th – I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks thinking how decks evolve – how the finished product we see posted online in a Top 8 somewhere looked when it was fresh out of its creator’s brain. Particularly right now, in a new Block PTQ format that has been largely unexplored, it can be extremely useful to see the avenues through which the game’s masterminds chose to perfect their lists…