Friday, February 6th – Conflux is officially here, and it is legal in all Constructed formats as of today! Stuart Wright, England’s premier deckbuilding mind, brings us a host of cool ideas that utilize some of the more powerful cards in the new set. With both new ideas and updates to established strategies, this article is invaluable to anyone serious about Standard…
Friday, February 6th – Extended is a world of high power and maximizing the bang for your buck; card synergy is important and we are reminded of the good old bad old days of Magic, where anything that cost you four or more mana had better win you the game right there if you want to even consider including it.
Friday, February 6th – Last week I focused on the Green cards from Conflux that I found interesting. This week I thought I’d conclude by going over the cards in the other colors that caught my attention, and toss a few more deck ideas out there. The StarCityGames.com $5K Standard Open is coming up quick, so I’m angling for something powerful and new to run.
Friday, February 6th – Hello everybody… I would love to welcome you to another edition of the Magic Show this week, but as many who slung guns against me this past weekend could attest, it was me versus Progenitus, where Progenitus was fever, vomiting, and a chest infection. Due to illness, there’s no show today. Thanks for your patience, and I’ll see you next week!
Thursday, February 5th – Taking home the blue envelope is tricky at the best of times, but the current Extended format makes the task almost impossible. With so many Tier 1 strategies in the mix, how can we properly evaluate the metagame? Gerry Thompson takes a look at the PTQ results thus far, and draws a bevy of conclusions as to where we should place our faith come the day of the tournament…
Thursday, February 5th – Of the new Conflux cards, it seems that Knight of the Reliquary has the most obvious applications in the current Extended format. Today’s Deep Analysis sees Richard Feldman experiment with a Green/Black/White Reliquary Loam list, pitching it against the format’s forerunner: Faeries.
Thursday, February 5th – Welcome to Constructed Criticism! I’m Todd Anderson, and I’ll be your guide through these shark-filled waters as you prepare for upcoming PTQs, Grand Prix tournaments, Regionals, and hopefully Pro Tours. My goal is to inform, prepare, and excite people about whatever metagame is most popular at any given time. Currently, we are looking at Extended, since it is the format of choice for PTQs over the next two months or so.
Thursday, February 5th – I have the honor of kick starting a regular series of judge articles on StarCityGames.com, bringing to you, the reader, opinions and thoughts from the dark recesses of a judge’s brain. I hope I can bring something of worth, but also something that can give people a glimpse of how rewarding and fun judging is for me.
Wednesday, February 4th – At Grand Prix: Los Angeles, Faeries was one of the front-runners from the very start. By the knockout stage, three of the eight were Fae pilots battling it out for the top spot. Today, semi-finalist Mat Marr takes us through the highs and lows of his tournament, and brings us some pertinent lessons on how to play the flying menace as the PTQ season rolls on…
Wednesday, February 4th – The Esper cards and strategies, in straight Shards of Alara at least, were never quite strong enough to see dedicated Standard play. However, now Conflux is almost here, do we have enough artifacts to make such a strategy worthwhile? In the forst of what promises to be an intriguing series, Kyle lays the groundwork for a dedicated Standard Esper deck, and examines all the possible artifacts in the format…
Wednesday, February 4th – This past weekend, I attended our local big Conflux Prerelease, although I didn’t actually play in it since the flight was going to end long after I had to be at work. This week, I’ll again be discussing Standard and the additions Conflux brings to the table, in more detail now that we’ve had some time to go over what makes the set tick.
Wednesday, February 4th – On Thornling: Patrick Chapin mentioned that indestructibility in a format with this many remove-from-the-game effects is not what it once was. In this environment, indestructibility is only slightly better than regeneration. Obviously, this card would have been a lot better with Shroud or even protection form color X on command – but those are “not in flavor for Green.â€
Tuesday, February 3rd – Hear that sound of whirling rubber squeaking against road? That’s the prerelease, baby. All those cards that looked so awesome sitting pretty on the spoiler? Now they have to interact with other cards, all their sins revealed. The question, as always, is this: Which cards were better than we thought, and which cards were worse?
Tuesday, February 3rd – Since taking the helm of the Drafting With series, Luis Scott-Vargas has undergone a fundamental shift in his approach to the format. Today, he looks back on the series as a whole, drawing conclusions that help form our perspectives going forward with Conflux. LSV also brings us some initial thoughts on the Limited applications of the new set!
Tuesday, February 3rd – With Conflux hitting both the shelves and the tournament floor at the end of the week, Adrian Sullivan examines the PTQ metagame as it stands, and suggests a few pertinent directions the format may take when the new spells become legal. He also updates the Red Burn strategy with some fresh spices from the upcoming set…
