The Magic Show #28 — Planar Chaos Prerelease
Hello everybody, this week is our Special Edition Prerelease show where I go unscripted and roam amongst the mouth-breathers to bring you what happened at my Planar Chaos prerelease.
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Magical Hack – Chaos Theory
With the change to a weekly column with a few floating columns, it seems the five-part set review on StarCityGames.com has finally gone the way of “My Fires.” Instead of one series in five parts, naming each and every single card, I’m going to supply one article breaking down the potential I see across a variety of formats, some of which I may arguably be unqualified to speak upon. That said, let’s get this done in reverse-order fashion, starting with the format in which I have the least experience (Vintage) and crawling back up to Standard, where things make sense to me again.
Tact or Friction – Examining Planar Chaos
When I started playing Magic, Set Reviews were a dime a dozen. Writers, sensing easy material, would happily copy their word-count’s worth of extant material into a file and then run through it commenting in a flippant fashion on the cards that they didn’t care about, then have sparks of energy around the cards they really did want to talk about. As I started writing, I just assumed that Set Reviews were the Done Thing.
Chatter of the Squirrel – A Glance At Planar Chaos
I know. I said I wouldn’t be writing this week. But hide those party hats in a hurry, boys, because that’s my (very ugly and outdated and The Monkees’d) mug sketchily leering at you in that Thursday column slot once again.
Like everyone else, I want to talk about Planar Chaos.
The Kitchen Table #165: Planar Chaos and Five
Bonjour mes amis! Welcome back to another installment of that series that explores all things casual. Today I am going to be looking at the new Planar Chaos set with an eye towards Five Color. During the next few weeks, you can expect to see tons of articles and discussion on the new set, including numerous set reviews. As such, I try to distinguish my set reviews from theirs.
Magic Grab Bag #2 – Perusing Planar Chaos
Planar Chaos looms upon the horizon, soon to be legal and leading the masses into Damnation. Alright, I could have resisted, but it was so much more fun not to. As the saying goes, “Lead me not into temptation… I can find it just fine on my own.” I figured I’d start today off by mentioning a few interesting cards beyond the blatantly obvious ones (Groundbreaker is Some Good? O RLY?).
Deconstructing Constructed – Innocent Wails: Death of a Metagame Breaker
Today I want to talk about the trails and tribulations of breaking a splintered metagame. First you may ask yourself what the heck I’m talking about and mutter something about all metagames being equal. Here’s the thing… usually semi-coherent metagames are shaped pretty early in a format’s life-cycle. You know X and Y are going to be the “best” decks and somewhat popular, while Z is good and even a bit more popular for some reason (Easier to play, easier to make, etc.). Then you have the rest of the letters filling out the rest of the metagame. Arrogant and / or confident players may be labeling all of these as byes…
Magic Online Musings – This Week on MTGO #45
Blisterguy brings us the usual update on the Magic Online metagames, both Extended and Standard, plus a reasoned look at how the new Timeshifted cards in Planar Chaos may be a move of pure madness and evil. He also breaks down the goodies that each color has to offer, and laughs in the face of the Blue mages who will undoubtedly claim that they are being stiffed…
Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #162 – Sideboarding Extended
Pop quiz time – The article begins with a massive list of Magic cards. Over 150 in total. What do they have in common?
“They all have capitalized letters?”
Oh, you are so clever. Here’s a clever little thing you can do with your deckbox. Sideways. For everyone else… well, the title of this article is a clue…
The Beautiful Struggle – The Extended Perfect TEPS Primer
You don’t play TEPS because it beats every deck. You play it because it puts pressure on every deck. Most keepable hands win very early in the game, so by playing TEPS you force every opponent to win or find an answer in five turns or less. Also, you have a Burning Wish package such that even if the opponent should come up with something, you can find a bullet to deal with it. Many PTQ decks, and a great many more PTQ players, operate much worse under that kind of pressure.
From Right Field – I Heart the Beavers!
Chris Romeo brings us his take on Budget Boros, finding cheap and playable substitutions for some of the high-dollar rares. Will the deck stand up to the heat of tournament scrutiny? He also explains his personal methods for battling the Magic doldrums, and brings us a smattering of much-missed cheesecake…
Magic Puzzles – First Turn Kills
Welcome to the second article in the Magic Puzzles series. This week we’ll be exploring every Vintage player’s dream: the first turn kill…
You Lika The Juice? – Dredging through Planar Chaos
I spent last week in a bit of a funk over the impact of Damnation and having two virtually identical copies of the incredible Wrath of God in Standard and Extended. While I reached some conclusions on how creature decks can fight the expected increase in control decks, I wasn’t completely satisfied with going the smash-mouth haste route, and the flash creatures by and large aren’t exactly powerhouse cards. However, there is a silver lining for me in this new format – one of my “pet” strategies happens to thrive in Wrath of God dominated formats. Yep, I’m talking about Dredge, baby!
Planar Chaos: First Impressions!
I could say something clever here. Or I could tell you what I learned about the cards I played with, and against, this weekend. So let’s talk about Crovax, Mirri, the new Akroma, and the effectiveness of Cradle to Grave!
Magical Hack — Crisis on Infinite Dominarias!
With the prerelease of Planar Chaos tomorrow, figuring out what is going to be what with Time Spiral — Planar Chaos Limited is something everyone is already chomping at the bit to do. Time Spiral was an enormous puzzle, an enigma of unknown quantities prior to its release… and following hot on its heels is an enigma wrapped around a riddle stuffed inside a booster pack, because Time Spiral showed that there were no sacred cows and anything could happen… and what happens when you crank that up a notch? Chaos!