My boy Kevin McCormack recently jumped the “casual player†hurdle and is hurling himself headlong into the realm of competitive events. We’ve got a PTQ this very week in St. Louis, in fact, and I’m expecting him to make a decent showing. But one of the questions he asked me when he first decided he wanted to “get good†was: what articles do I need to read?
With a Grand Prix seeming to turn up on our Magical doorsteps every week, someone has to make sense of it all. While the search for that person continues, join Rich Hagon for all the news from Brisbane, Bangkok and Krakow.
Since I still get e-mails off and on asking what happened to the Vintage articles, and since the next major Vintage tournament is this weekend, I figured I may as well share some thoughts about Lorwyn and Goblins. Steve’s been too busy talking about his Invitational experiences to really go into depth about any of this stuff, so I can understand why there’s a particular lack of Eternal material going around.
A deck stuffed to the gills (so to speak) with potent Merfolk and Faeries! What’s not to love! Well, the results aren’t to love if you get greedy and try to throw in too much! Watch what happens when a good deck tumbles! Film at 11!
Newly promoted Level 3 player Steve Sadin takes a break from his Premier routine to bring us a taste of mailbag action. He answers an intriguing question regarding the playability of symmetrical effects before moving onto the intricacies of the Red/Green Aggro deck he knows and loves…
The forums have spoken… and the new name for my column is “Scouse of Cards.†Thanks to everyone who suggested names! Today, I bring you an underpowered PTQ Lorwyn cardpool. How would you go about building a winning deck? I also crank up the emo dial and share the tale of woe that is my non-attendance at Pro Tour: Valencia…
I decided this month I would take a stab at whittling away all the baggage that comes along with being a Legacy player, and try to take an objective view of the format. I’ve gone out to the frightening wilderness known as Friday Night Magic, in order to interview some of the local non-Eternal players, hopefully to get an appreciation of what the outsiders’ perception of the format is.
I held out writing this article as long as I could in the hopes of having access to the States decklists to begin a thorough metagame analysis… but it’s Halloween, and I’ve lost several days of prime article-writing time. I must put analyzing States and Standard off another week and instead have a look at a pair of Grand Prix tournaments that have passed by recently. In the hype for most players to prepare for States, these have gone largely unnoticed, and having a look at the available information for trends might have some benefits.
Hello again everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we delve further into the world of Development, Invitationalists’ favorite formats and their card submissions, and of course more Kenji. Hey hey you you, it’s time for the Invitational Video Part 2!
Welcome back! Today I am going to revisit a deck of mine that I outlined near the beginning of the year called the Nexus. The Nexus was a highlander deck almost 100 cards deep that focused on the intersection of several different tribes — rebel, mercenary, elf, goblin, merfolk, and zombie. It included multiple samples from each races designed to work around the same themes.
You won’t be hearing much about my States deck this year. I went 1-2 and dropped. This year you’ll be hearing about other people’s decks, but let’s get my story out of the way first…
This week, Chris makes good on his promise to build Standard decks around the much-maligned Shivan Wumpus. He brings us not one, not two, but three decks that pack the punishing 6/6. SO how did they fare in the maelstrom of Magic Online testing? Click here to find out!
I had a sense of pride and accomplishment walking into Virginia State Champs this past Saturday with a deck in which I had total confidence. I rarely have that feeling anymore because playtest time is so hard to come by, but this time around I had a great idea, some great playtest partners, and the time to tighten it up. If you regularly check in with You Lika The Juice you know I was working on a Saffi/Blink deck with Galepowder Mage technology…
I’ve really got to try this “talking about Standard” thing more often. It’s a welcome relief, for example, when people actually read my articles. Now, personally I have no idea why anyone would rather look at a deck they can point at, build, and play when they could be discussing the minutiae of polar gradient theory over tea and crumpets, but that’s why there are red bicycles and blue bicycles.
Wisconsin States was last weekend. I have decklists. I was Head Judge, so I have a few anecdotes from the event, plus decklists. I have a few thoughts on the format, plus decklists. I also compiled stats of the Top 16 decks. Most importantly, I have even more decklists!
