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…
Tuesday, February 3rd – With the Prerelease weekend now under our belts, it’s time to study all those juicy new cards very carefully. Rich won’t tell you which cards are good – he’ll leave that to the experts – but he will tell you how to go about separating the wheat from the chaff, using a wide variety of techniques that will help all of you aspiring to get to the Pro Tour.
Tuesday, February 3rd – Hello friends, and welcome back to the column dedicated to the casual. Today I am continuing a series of articles that begun years ago and has continued through this one. Once the official spoiler for a set has been released, I can take a look through the cards, and tell you which ones I believe will have an impact for Five Color.
Monday, February 2nd – Today’s Innovations is a mixed bag of fun and interesting topics. Patrick details his prerelease weekend gunslinging efforts with Manuel Bucher, shares some funky Elder Dragon Highlander lists, and brings us an exciting post-Conflux Standard list which he believes is close to Tier 1 play…
Monday, February 2nd – Vintage maestro Stephen Menendian is determined to make a splash at the upcoming Legacy Grand Prix in Chicago. He believes it is essential to have a good grounding in the format fundamentals in order to achieve success, and his comprehensive Legacy tournament report today is the second step on his journey to Legacy understanding…
