Friday, February 20th – Hello everyone, and welcome back to Constructed Criticism! Today I’m going to be talking about Standard with Conflux in preparation for the multiple StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Opens coming to a big city near you! I will go over some archetypes that have been proven in the pre-Conflux metagame, and discuss some recent additions to each deck.
Friday, February 20th – This weekend is going to be a huge Magical feast. For me, things kick off Friday at Richmond Comix’s FNM, where I’ll be giving my Standard decklist a final whirl and likely make a few last minute tweaks. Then Saturday we’ve got the first of ten (TEN!) StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Opens, kicking off right here in my hometown of Richmond.
Friday, February 20th– In the arduous quest for a Pro Tour invitation, PTQs are the most common trial that upcoming Magic stars have to wade through. They are long tournaments with only the winner taking home an invitation. So, how do you obtain that advantage in a format like Extended, where the number of viable archetypes outnumber the number of simians found in a barrel of monkeys?
Thursday, February 19th – Looking back at the Pro Tour: Berlin coverage, it would be fair to assume the sky was falling. Elves were everywhere, and people clamored for bannings. However, as the format mutated, the Green Machine became nothing more than another strong deck in the metagame ocean. Now, with TEPS being the combo deck of choice, and the Elves hate at an all time low, is the stage set for the glorious return of the pointy-eared tribe? Gerry Thompson investigates…
Thursday, February 19th – In the first edition of his new weekly column, Sam Black takes a look at a few underappreciated Control archetypes in Conflux Standard. He investigates both Grixis and Bant Control, sharing his thoughts during the build process. With the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open mere days away, do these Control builds offer the key to Top 8 success? Read on to find out!
Thursday, February 19th – I’m interested in connecting the player and judge communities. I’m no Rashad Miller, but I do like to both play and judge, and I get the feeling sometimes that players don’t know what’s going on inside a judge’s head, and sometimes judges don’t know what’s going on inside a player’s head. Riki Hayashi has done a great job of expounding a judge’s thoughts on Slow Play; I’d like to tackle the area of Player-Judge communication.
Thursday, February 19th – Online, main Magic expansions sets are released a couple of weeks after the prerelease, and stay on sale in the store until the next plus one main set goes on sale. The old-but-new-to-online sets in MTGO, like Mirage and Tempest, don’t have any such schedule. They should – here’s my recommendation.
Thursday, February 19th – Jeff Phillips is our final writer to make his debut today. In this article, he introduces himself and sets out the goals and direction of the column going forward, before branching out into Extended territory…
Wednesday, February 18th – Grand Prix: Chicago is quietly looming into view, and Legacy fans around the world are honing their decks in anticipation. In today’s Luck Skill Victory, Luis Scott-Vargas shares his powerful Blue/White Dreadstill build, explaining the strategy and card choices in detail before examining some of the key role-players for the sideboard.
Wednesday, February 18th – With the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open mere days away, Josh Silvestri looks at the strong contenders in the post-Conflux metagame, starting with the pundit’s beatdown choice: Blightning Aggro.
Wednesday, February 18th – With Grand Prix: Chicago coming up so soon, we’ve only got a few weeks to cook our decks into tournament winners. Part of the preparation work is understanding what our decks are capable of, but a good deal of it is also understanding what we’re up against. In light of this, today we’ll be discussing three common Legacy cards and how to play with and against them.
Wednesday, February 18th – Yesterday, I was cleaning out one of my boxes from home that I brought back after a trip. I found a blue notebook and opened it up with much interest. The first few pages were notes from my Masters degree classes. Then I turned a page and found the first of many pages of cards I had created while bored in class. I have several pages of cards that I created nine years ago.
Wednesday, February 18th – In today’s edition of MTGCast, there’s talk on Duels of the Planeswalkers, the Wizards Play Network, upcoming premier events, and much more!
Wednesday, February 18th – If you haven’t heard, StarCityGames.com is running ten – that’s right, ten – $5,000 Standard Open tournaments in the coming year! Between this tournament series and the Grand Prix series, players of all shapes and sizes will be able to compete in an abundance of high level tournaments. I have to say I am very excited for the first tournament this weekend, in Richmond Virginia.
Tuesday, February 17th – This weekend sees the next installment of the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard open series! In the first of a new weekly column, Manuel Bucher talks us through the true effect of Conflux on the most powerful archetype in the format: Faeries. He shares his latest list, alongside extensive sideboarding tips for all the metagame contenders…
