The Magic Sock Episode 158 – Midwinter Blues
Monday, February 16th – In this week’s edition of The Magic Sock Podcast, there’s talk on Sealed with Conflux, some crazy combos, and much more!
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Insider Trading – Fifteen Fun Facts About Foils!
Friday, February 13th – Why are some foils worth double the value of their non-foil counterparts, and why are some worth ten times as much? What’s the hardest foil set to put together in Near Mint? What are your chances of pulling that foil Path to Exile from a pack? Find out Fifteen Fun Facts about Foils in this week’s Insider Trading!
Feature Article – Conflux Limited Tips, and Blightning Deck Wins
Friday, February 13th – Marijn Lybaert, one of Belgium’s top pro players, brings us his thoughts on Blue/White and Esper in Alara-Conflux draft. He also touches on a few cards that he believes are under-appreciated in the forty-card format, before bringing us his personal Standard configuration of Blightning Deck Wins…
Magical Hack – Watching The Fallout
Friday, February 13th – With the recent release of Conflux into the fray, we’re beginning to see changes coming along because of the recent additions. While I’ve been pretty focused on Extended as a format of interest of late, Standard has caught my eye once again…
You Lika The Juice? – The Fugees: Scepter/Elves
Friday, February 13th – Of all the post-Conflux deck ideas I’d been kicking around, the tweaked B/G Elves deck seemed like the strongest right out of the box. While the other deck ideas were certainly more interesting and different from what’s currently doing well in the metagame, they also obviously needed lots of playtest time to see what truly worked and what just seemed good on paper.
One Step Ahead – Post-Conflux Standard Brainstorm
Thursday, February 12th – Conflux, as with all new sets, throws a selection of interesting strategies and ideas into the metagame mix. Today’s One Step Ahead sees Constructed master Gerry Thompson brainstorming on how the fresh cardboard impacts the prominent archetypes in modern Standard. He also deflates the hype surrounding a number of the more popular cards to spring from the new set, starting with the much-vaunted Path to Exile…
Deep Analysis – Introducing Gifts-Loam
Thursday, February 12th – With the Extended PTQ season in full flow, Richard finalizes his deck for battle this weekend. After a few weeks of Loam testing and tweaking, he shares his final multi-colored build, alongside extensive play tips and sideboarding strategies. If you’re looking for a deck with inevitability over the field, this is the article for you!
The Justice League – Three Simple Things Judges Wish Players Knew
Thursday, February 12th – Each tournament is a collaboration between the judges and the players. The players are responsible for competing fairly but competitively, and also responsible for picking up their trash. The judges are responsible for helping out when mistakes – whatever they may be – occur, and for telling players where the bathroom, ATM, and nearest cheap food are located. Seems pretty simple, right?
Unlocking Legacy – Putting the Grand into Grand Prix
Thursday, February 12th – Chicago will be much more than just a really big Legacy tournament. If you are not prepared, it is very easy to lose your mental or physical focus and end up with an underwhelming performance. Being prepared for a Grand Prix is its own task. I’ve put together some information on how to prepare for a GP, and I’m also passing along some tips I’ve gotten from players who have performed well at high-level Magic.
Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #262 – Flogging a Dead Horse: Casual Play on MTGO
Thursday, February 12th – What’s wrong with this picture? Player A – tap, tap, tap, play white bordered Venerable Monk. Opponent – sacrifice foil Polluted Delta for foil Underground Sea, play foil Cryptic Command. It’s not just that someone had brought boxing gloves to a gunfight – it is that both combatants thought they were in the right battle with the right weapon. They were battling in the casual play / casual decks room in MTGO.
MTGCast #141 – Crazy for Conflux!
Thursday, February 12th – Wizards announces six-card booster packs; Remove Soul and Nameless Inversion are rumored as the next Magic Player Rewards mailings; and the new judge foil, Bloodstained Mire, has been revealed!
Luck Skill Victory – Esper Aggro in Alara-Conflux Draft
Wednesday, February 11th – Even though the Drafting With series is on hiatus until Conflux hits MTGO, Alara-Conflux drafting continues in gaming venues across the world. Today, LSV investigates one of the more popular fledgling strategies to emerge in the early days of AAC. He supplies strategic draft advice and common pick orders, and reevaluates some of the misbegotten gems in Shards of Alara…
Down And Dirty – Analyzing All The Artificial Angles, Part 2
Wednesday, February 11th – Last week, Kyle planted the seeds of some interesting artifact-based strategies now that Conflux is in the Standard mix. Today, he continues this work and brings us a slew of intriguing artifact-centered decks with varying levels of success. Do the stronger offerings here have what it takes to crack the Tier 1 metagame? And will such strategies make an impact at the approaching StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open?
Deconstructing Constructed – Zoo, TEPS, and Reliquary Loam
Wednesday, February 11th – This week we’re back on the Extended trail, and instead of the usual trickiness or midrange decks I tend to cover, we’ll be going with the beatdown. I’ll be talking about RGW Zoo and some of the advantages it has in the current metagame, as well as some brief thoughts on TEPS updates and a quick shot on Knight of the Reliquary decks.
Removed From Game – Mana Options in Limited Play
Wednesday, February 11th – With Sealed now running to six boosters, and Domain back in our decks, the temptation to play all five colors can be overwhelming. In this comprehensive article, Rich looks at the mana options that are available in the current Limited environment, weighing up the costs involved and finding the good, the bad, and the ugly in a quest to end up with a deck that’s (at least mostly) somewhere over the rainbow.