Tuesday, November 25th – When looking through a format for edges, or outlier decks that have an absurd match against an existing metagame, sometimes it pays to go through each significant strategy and how it’s currently being used. Even if all this does is tell you something you already know, it serves as a reminder of what’s important and what isn’t.
Tuesday, November 25th – At Thermopylae, 300 Spartans stood their ground against 200,000 invading Persians. At California States, 4 Judges stood their ground against nearly 300 invading players. It was 273 to be exact, and it blew most estimates by a hundred…
Tuesday, November 25th – The Intro Packs are great introductions to the themes and cards of Shards of Alara, but… you can’t do anything with the contents of one, short of figure out how to improve it before you can play it. It’s not even sixty cards front to back! Dave explores the Grixis and Jund Intro Packs, and suggests improvements to bring them up to the full sixty.
Monday, November 24th – I just looked through Magic’s first six expansions, hunting for old bargains – every card in Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark, Fallen Empires, and Homelands – and all I could wonder is, “HOW THE HECK DID MAGIC SURVIVE?†Still, just as I looked through Alpha last week hunting for cheap cards that will be useful in a variety of multiplayer decks, this week I trawled through a wealth of absolutely terrible cards to pull out the gems. And here they are.
Monday, November 24th – The StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open approaches, and today’s Innovations sees Patrick Chapin share a couple of fringe strategy ideas for your consideration. He also rounds up his Top 10 articles from this past year…
Monday, November 24th – In a break from his usual Vintage exploration, Stephen Menendian explores a Mental Magic format that showcases analytical thought in its purest form. Fans of Stephen’s exhaustive play-by-play articles will find this fascinating…
Monday, November 24th – Nick continues his Drafting With series, bringing us a triple Shards of Alara draft from the 8-4 queue on Magic Online. Along with Rich, he shares his pick process and draft thoughts with each one, and supplies more detailed analysis in the forums.
Monday, November 24th – I have a rogue streak. I’m not surprising any of you with this statement (I hope). Truth is, I should probably netdeck more. A lot more. But the fact of the matter is that I enjoy deck building and trying to figure out what cards I should play just as much as I enjoy actually playing the game of Magic itself.
Monday, November 24th – On This week’s Magic Sock podcast, there’s a discussion of some of the top cards that have been banned over the years, a look back at the goodies from Torment, and much more!
Monday, November 24th – Canadian Draft maestro Rich Hoaen returns to the pages of StarCityGames.com. Each day, he brings us a triple Shards of Alara draft from Magic Online, from pick 1 to pick 45, sharing his insight on the more difficult picks along the way. For more in-depth analysis, visit the forums!
Friday, November 21st – Zac Hill makes a temporary move to Premium for this intensely detailed examination of his preparation for Pro Tour: Berlin. Using every email sent between himself, Marijn Lybaert, Frank Karsten, and the rest of his testing team, he recreates the exact conditions they found when preparing for the tournament. Incredible stuff, and not for the faint of heart…
Friday, November 21st – In today’s thought-provoking installment of Deep Analysis, Richard focuses on What Matters. He discusses the true role of logic, chaos theory, and the effect of miniscule changes on any given game, match, or tournament. This excellent article is sure to elicit healthy debate in the forums.
Friday, November 21st – Nick continues his Drafting With series, bringing us a triple Shards of Alara draft from the 8-4 queue on Magic Online. Along with Rich, he shares his pick process and draft thoughts with each one, and supplies more detailed analysis in the forums.
Friday, November 21st – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re live in Atlanta, discussing Magic with the biggest and brightest in the game. Hear about the Magic Pro lifestyle, their thoughts on Extended Elves, the importance of luck, sizing up unknown opponents, a judge chat with Riki Hayashi, and more. Let’s go!
Friday, November 21st – With results beginning to trickle in, a solid idea of what happened at States is beginning to form our impressions of what we can expect at Worlds in a few weeks. While there is little enough on the PTQ-level front for Standard, there are events like the upcoming StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Philadelphia at the start of December, and there’s always Friday Night Magic.
