I love casual Magic formats. If you didn’t know that from my writings before, you will definitely know it after this week’s SCG Dailies are all done. There’s just something about being able to play with cards that you wouldn’t normally be able to play with, cards that get pushed aside either because they aren’t good enough for one-on-one duels or because they aren’t legal in all of the same formats.
I’ve got a new favorite cheap, cheap, cheap pet deck, one that I don’t mind letting my friend Matt play. It’s dirt cheap, which is perfect because I don’t always know where his hands have been or when he washed them last. I alluded to the deck in my last piece. It’s sometimes called the new Goblins deck, but you’ll start calling it the Empty the Warrens deck soon enough…
When Craig asked me if I could do the dailies for the week before Christmas I jumped at the chance. For the past few years, Christmas and Magic have gone together like chestnuts and open fires, Santa Claus and Rudolph, and real trees and headlines about “a tragic holiday fire.” I like to create casual, kitchen-table decks to give to certain Magic-playing people as presents. I like to get Magic cards, too. Remember, when you don’t know what to get that Magic player on your list, there’s always a new set of cards.
I’m back from Paris. I ate well, lived well and had a blast. Every part of the trip — and of Worlds — was great, except maybe getting stuck at O’Hare airport for hours on the return trip. I won’t talk about that. I will talk about the metagame, judging and assorted memorable moments. Think tournament report, but from the other side of the table.
My computer is crashing on a regular basis. I can go up to about twenty minutes before it conks out and gives me the Blue Screen of Death, but until that dizzying moment of pure crashitude I’m living on borrowed time. Normally, I’d write it on my laptop, but my laptop’s hard drive just went kablooey and so I am working in short spurts.
Really short spurts. Because I
There is one word that has been ill-defined through Magic’s history, and thoroughly abused in the process. What makes this remarkable is that the word is exceptionally common and in our daily parlance.
The word of which I speak is “better.”
We last left our hero torn and broken in the wilderness. Read on now as we regale you with his triumphant return to fame, glory, riches and women (actually I might be lying on that last point, but we can still hope).
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Magic Show. I’m your host, Evan Erwin. Today we’re going to talk about metagames. Just what the hell is a metagame, why should you care, and how is it “formed?”
Coming out of Worlds, we have a reasonably defined Extended metagame, identifying a few “best” decks and about a dozen different deck strategies that are actually worth playing. What is interesting, however, is how this format will change between the World Championships and the subsequent PTQ season, as the matchups are tested out extensively and ideas are brought forward for improving upon the small stable of decks that are worth honest consideration.
Things go very badly… but don’t worry, we’ll be laughing and singing all the way. Well, you will. I’ll be butchering small puppies and teddy bears because somebody needs to.
Beware as we now enter the wilderness years…
People often marvel at my ability to talk deeply and significantly about many topics. What I don’t tell them is that I’m an obsessor. I like to obsess about things. Something new will pop into my life, and for the next however long I’ll obsess about said thing, and research it and learn it inside and out… and then I drop it and move on.
I’m an obsessor.
This week’s Battle Royale sees the deckbuilding pride of England, Stuart Wright, step up to the crease to bat Kyle for six. Can he bowl Mr Sanchez a googly and send him back to the pavillion? This Englishman certainly hopes so. Tally Ho!
Last week, Kyle put paid to Eli with a fast and furious Sliver deck. This week, it’s time for something completely different. Aggro has been done. Control is old hat. But Combo? That’s the ticket!
Paris is a city I have a little familiarity with already, but the prospect of the World Championships in the Louvre was still enough to make everything seem fresh and new. You couldn’t see any artwork from where you were playing, beyond that which was on the cards, but the venue itself was pretty impressive, and I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the stellar selection of artists at the event were actually there so that they could mention that they’d had some of their artwork on display there.
In which our hero continues his faltering journey around the Pro Circuit. Battles are won and lost, but mainly lost. Watch as the bright light of a Sunday berth is shone on our hero, then cruelly blinked off as he leaps.
