Select

Let’s play the assumption game. Let’s assume this cool new job opportunity / promotion comes up, giving you a chance at a company position with people you genuinely like and respect. That’s cool, but let’s assume that you’re kind of involved with the company already, at least peripherally. Can you even compete? Can we assume your presence won’t smack of favoritism? Who cares what people think, do a good job and they’ll know you deserve to be there? Okay, that make sense, but what if after all that you get eliminated? What then?

While my flight down was comped by the fine people at Sony, bringing the significant other down was not, and last-minute flights from the middle of nowhere are not cheap. However, I was coming into some money soon (one hoped), and when was she ever going to get to see me on a game show again?

This week, I could try to be one of the “cool kids” and tell you how 1337 my Extended deck is, and that Scepter-Chant is one of highest-quality decks to play in the current Extended field. After all, PJ talked about how Boros is great (again), and Flores will tell you that his Green/White deck must be great because it won someone some PTQ somewhere… but not him. Instead of following the trend, we’re going to look at progress in motion and the herd mentality.

I’m praying I got those early jitters out of the way, and will always, always remember to give nothing but last names from here on out, and that hopefully won’t be just for this round. During the break, Jeopardy! staffers come out to offer encouragement and exhort us to keep the round going — clear the board, that’s their mantra.

Today I want to explore a few multiplayer dynamics, and maybe share a deck from our “new” group. I hope that you’ll enjoy this tale of a multiplayer group and how as it changed over time – the strategies that were successful also changed…

We’re up to the fourth taping and we’re running out of contestants. There are always a few extra would-be players, mostly locals who are generally the last chosen since they can always come back, whereas those of us who fly are kind of restricted to the day(s) we arrived. There’s five people left for four slots, so I like my chances.

At 6:30, my alarm clock went off… a loud, abrasive, annoying buzz. There was a light haze over the City of Angels as the fog that had rolled in was slowly vanishing under the early morning sun. I brewed a cup of coffee, turned on the TV to catch the early news, looked out at the early morning traffic and thought…

I am so boned.

In various prior articles, I examined the economics of rare drafting online. Back then, it did not pay. I wondered whether Time Spiral — with two rares per pack — changed that. The trick was getting hard data, without wasting the money actually rare drafting. Fortunately, Richie Hoaen helped me out.

Okay, so this isn’t strictly a tournament report… actually, there’s hardly any Magic content at all. Even so, it’s a story that bears repeating. Do you think that Mark Herberholz is the only Magic player to appear on a major television game show? If so, think again…