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?
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.
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.
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!
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…
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?
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 11th – Due to a technical oversight, Monday’s polls for the Article for the Year 2008 have been pulled, and replaced with new ones! That’s right folks, it’s time once again to cast your votes. Check out some of the fantastic articles in the polls, both Premium and Non-Premium, and make your voices heard!
Tuesday, February 10th – Conflux is here, and our Standard options seem to have exploded overnight! Today, David Irvine brings us an overview of the intriguing Esper-Lark deck, plus some ideas for both Red and White decks as the format moves towards Pro Tour: Kyoto…
Tuesday, February 10th – Magic Online has undoubtedly influenced how our game is played across the world. The ability to play a match at any time, day or night, is invaluable. However, Adrian Sullivan believes that there are some aspects of our game that cannot be fully appreciated in the electronic medium, and to really improve, you need more than a laptop and MODO account…
Tuesday, February 10th – When I wrote Interaction Advantage, I knew I’d want to take some time after my initial excitement had dissipated to sit down and test the theory, to make sure it really works, to explore some of its intricacies and examine some of its quirks. To see if it actually accomplishes something.
Tuesday, February 10th – I love Conflux. I think it is a very casual-tastic set. It is quite multiplayer friendly. You have a ton of good beaters, some clever cards, some fun cards, and more. It seems like a set custom made for Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. I don’t know if I have ever seen a set put a higher percentage of its cards in my deck. Perhaps Ravnica, but it was so big, I doubt it.
Tuesday, February 10th – With the Release Events out of the way and Conflux on sale everywhere, Dave is amazed by Conflux’s continuation of the power curve of the uncommons that started in Shards of Alara. Here are thirteen uncommons that Dave thinks are important to snap up sooner rather than later.
Monday, February 9th – I dislike tournaments. But I like new cards! I like playing Magic! And so I set out reluctantly to the Conflux prerelease to see what Wizards had to offer, entertained by the fact that hey, their audience really isn’t affected by Superbowl Sunday.
