Friday, December 18th – Those who have read my intermittent ramblings in the past might remember that winning States has been my grail, my dream, my nigh-unattainable goal over the many, many years I’ve been slinging cards. I have come close, oh so close, in years past, making many Top 8s or missing them by whisker-thin tiebreakers. My precious, it taunts me so, but I shall have it…
Friday, December 18th – In this week’s edition of The Chump Block, Zach discusses Jund, his Open the Vaults deck, and Sarkhan Vol. He also interviews Justin Souza, who placed second on the Standard Saturday of the SCG $10K Open St. Louis weekend!
Friday, December 18th – Triple Zendikar draft is a speedy format, and its sheer power means that cute combos or intricate tricks are largely kerb-stomped to oblivion. However, there are a few funky interactions that may have passed you by thus far… Olivier Ruel reveals all!
Thursday, December 17th – The Standard metagame seems to be swinging away from the Jund-dominated format it was mere weeks ago. While Jund is still extremely strong, speedy Red strategies (and others) appear to have the upper hand in those matchups. Adrian dissects the States results to form a clearer picture of the metagame going forward…
Thursday, December 17th – While the state of Standard gave Cedric little hope of success in St. Louis this past weekend, his love for Legacy led him to believe he’d be Belching his way to the top tables. Sadly, the Magic Gods proved just as fickle on Sunday. Nevertheless, today sees Ced in reflective mood, as he replays his weekend of disappointment…
Thursday, December 17th – There are three elements to the play of any game of Magic: Strategic, Tactical, and Social. They exist in different proportions based on the event that you’re attending, and the format you’re playing. I’d like to talk about the differences between them in competitive events versus EDH events.
Thursday, December 17th – Burnout… the affliction of PTQ road warriors, playtesting junkies, and even professional players. Burnout is a mental condition many Magic players go through without even realizing it that threatens your success as a player, the longevity of your competitive Magic run, and, most of all, your level of fun. Fortunately, there are ways you can identify and combat burnout.
Thursday, December 17th – Magic Online has just released the Exodus set – over a decade after the set appeared in paper. The online release events included sealed queues, drafts, and premier events. The premier events in particular failed to fire, and Wizards has now canceled them early. The draft and smaller sealed event queues are still around, but they are not firing very fast, if at all. What went wrong?
Thursday, December 17th – I have a long box of low value rares that you can get for uber-cheap. These bad rares just sit here, waiting for the next Bad Rare article. The goal of the article is simple. I will pull out, randomly, one of these crap rares, and then build a deck around it. I never know what is coming out, so it’s a chance to have fun, build some decks, and use some older and unusual cards.
Wednesday, December 16th – In the quest for the perfect play in any given game of Magic, we often gloss over the basic play in search of something cooler, or more “professional.†This curse of overthinking the easy and complex interaction can lead to mistakes and game losses in the best of us. Paulo investigates the process of overthinking, and offers sage advice on its avoidance.
Wednesday, December 16th – Kyle Sanchez is in an uncommonly reflective mood. Spurred on by his recent game loss for mis-registering his States deck, Kyle discusses the detrimental effect of bad habits, and how to remove them from our game. If you’re looking to improve the quality of your out-of-game habits, let Kyle lead the way!
Wednesday, December 16th – A few weeks ago, the RG Valakut deck had been tearing up the MTGO scene and had shown up with at least one list in most of the Standard top decks. Why? I personally feel like that deck might be one of the format’s best-kept secrets…
Wednesday, December 16th – From 0 points to 31, we wade through the finishing order at Rome, looking for clues to future performance, an understanding of what happened, and a whole host of great stories, all in the company of RH.
Wednesday, December 16th – On December 4th, I played in my local FNM with Jund to prepare for States 2009. I had been playing with Boros since Worlds, and felt very comfortable with it, but a testing session mid-week scared me off, as I had a string of bad draws in a mock-gauntlet tournament. After shuffling Jund for a while, I felt pretty competent with it, and we felt we had some good tech to bring against the (expected) field…
Wednesday, December 16th – On this week’s edition of MTGCast, the guys talk about Worldwake, the SCG 10K Open St. Louis, EDH, and much more!
