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!
Wednesday, December 16th – Hall of Famer Olivier Ruel takes us through an 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online. He shares some comprehensive thoughts about both the picks and the games, and talks us through each step of the way! If you’re looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!
Tuesday, December 15th – The Extended PTQ season is fast approaching, and the wise mage will be well prepared. Manuel Bucher discusses his Bant deck from this year’s World Championships, and provides a selection of sideboarding strategies for the top decks in the field.
Tuesday, December 15th – Sam Black had high hopes for the Standard portion of last weekend’s SCG $10K Open St. Louis. Unfortunately, his Turbo Fog deck never made it out of the starting blocks. On Sunday, however, his Legacy Fish deck came out fighting…
Tuesday, December 15th – The SCG $5K Legacy Open St. Louis this Sunday resulted in an amazing Top 8, bringing the revival of Aggro Loam and illustrating the consistently strong performances of Zoo and Merfolk. Check out Doug’s analysis of the four (!) decks packing Life from the Loam, and what it means for the format. With three pairs of decks in the final showdown, get a rundown on their similarities and differences to give you an edge on tuning the decks when you choose to play them at your next tournament!
Tuesday, December 15th – Dave reviews results from States, looking for inexpensive decks that performed above expectations in the tournaments.
