Friday, May 22nd – For the U.S., the Regionals Championships are in the books. For me personally, it’s been an exhausting couple of weeks between the Star City double-PTQ weekend and then Regionals the following week. I characterize myself as a “casually competitive†player, who mostly just likes to have fun with Magic, but who likes to step up and compete when PTQs, Regionals, and States comes around.
Friday, May 22nd – The following are passages from “Next Level Magic,” Patrick Chapin’s Strategy Guide that is being released as an e-book, here on StarCityGames.com, at the end of the month. Each week this month, there will be an excerpt from the book for your enjoyment. This week: How to Use Bottom-Up Thinking to Improve Deck Building and Qualify.
Thursday, May 21st – Magic Elder Statesman Brian Kibler, back on the tour for PT Honolulu, is no stranger to high-level play. At the deep end of competitive Magic, the premier players all share a number of qualities and habits that set them aside from the rest of us. In this enlightening Feature Article, Brian takes us through the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Gamers…
Thursday, May 21st – In Richard’s final edition of Deep Analysis, Richard Feldman imparts the best advice he has to offer any Magic player looking to improve their game. Drawing from excellent articles in the communal archives, his philosophy is sure to ring true with anyone serious about reaching the pinnacle of our game. Thanks for all the great articles, Richard!
Thursday, May 21st – I was talking with Anna a few days ago about a big part of my Magic game that bothers me: I get really sloppy when I’m winning. She was interested to note, she said, that almost never was a guy fully on top of his game when he played against a girl…
Thursday, May 21st – It was two days before Regionals, and I still wasn’t sure what to play. I had been testing Chapin’s 5CB deck and liked how it felt, although I was thinking about removing the Cryptic Commands (sacrilege!), and I was also talking with Adam Prosak about his merfolk deck. Then I got this text from Max McCall: “Check your Facebook. Bill Stark has a Fog deck he claims is insane.â€
Thursday, May 21st – For most of the Magic-playing world, last weekend was all about Regionals. For a few of us unlucky ones who could not attend, we had the Alara Reborn prerelease on MTGO. The player response was surprising. I expected a few events to fire – but my best guess was somewhere between 75 and 150. We blew that out of the water.
Thursday, May 21st – At the end of the first day of Grand Prix: Vancouver, head judge Seamus Campbell told the staff that a total of two Slow Play penalties had been handed out. He then asked us “how many do you think there should have been?†to which someone responded “a lot more.â€
Wednesday, May 20th – With Regionals now behind us, and the Standard Metagame evolving as the results roll in, Manuel Bucher takes a look at the second-most popular Tier 1 token deck in the format: Green/White. He shares his personal build, which sports some unusual choices, and walks us through the sideboarding plans for a selection of important matchups.
Wednesday, May 20th – At Regionals this past weekend, Kyle Sanchez and friends sleeved up his intriguing Cascade deck in their attempt to crack an invite to Nationals. While they never made it, they came pretty close. Today, Kyle shares his thoughts on the deck, and talks us through its good and bad matchups.
Wednesday, May 20th – 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!
Wednesday, May 20th – It seems like every writer this week is writing about Regionals, and I’m no different. We’ll see tournament reports, deck lists, bad beats, and lucksack wins. We’ll hear of bad matchups that were won, easy games that were punted, and everything in between. But not here. This is my Regionals story. Buckle in; I tend to drive a little fast.
Wednesday, May 20th – In the past seven days, The Starkington Post (Bill Stark’s daily Magic blog) has brought us talk on Turbo Fog, a visitor’s guide to Barcelona, the new trailer from Duels of the Planeswalkers, and much more!
Wednesday, May 20th – Today I want to bring you one of those cuisinart articles where I have a bunch of topics to discuss. Most of these won’t take up too much time, but I wanted to get a chance to talk about a variety of things. Not every topic can be something massive or grand or article-length. Therefore, let’s take a quick tour through casual land, and see what we can find.
Wednesday, May 20th – Tom and Conley are here this week to bring you a whole bunch of news along with discussion of Standard, Regionals (including Turbo Fog, with a surprising showing of Five-Color Control in face of the BW / GW Token surge) and more.
