Friday, December 12th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re in Memphis catching the sights and sounds of the World Championships, and in the meantime we’ll catch up on the StarCityGames $5K, see the final match complete with interviews, and a special song inspired by the Banned & Restricted List. Let’s go!
Friday, December 12th – Since Solidarity and Spring Tide are not really viable in their current form, is their some way to have the best of both decks? To have powerful untap effects and still have access to powerful sorceries such as Merchant Scroll? It seems too difficult to reconcile playing Reset with sorceries, and Solidarity does not look like the place to start, but perhaps there are other ways to untap lands in Spring Tide…
Thursday, December 11th – With the pros and cons of “results-oriented†the current hot topic in both articles and forums alike, Richard Feldman takes a closer look at such thinking in an attempt to settle the argument once and for all. With fine reasoning for both sides of the debate, he examines why results-oriented thinking can be both a help and a hindrance…
Thursday, December 11th – The end of the year is often a time for retrospect… and one thing I realized was that I have been pretty negligent in attending to my starcitygeezer email inbox. So, allow me to remedy that!
Thursday, December 11th – Two semi-related events happened this last week. First, a European behavioral scientist performed a very clever experiment to show that dogs feel jealousy at unfair treatment. The second was some more information on the Magic Online rewards cards, and the fact that Wizards will be giving some away at Worlds. That made the MTGO forum folks bay like a pack of hounds in full cry.
Thursday, December 11th – In his last article, Ben outlined some mechanics he would include in 11th Edition. In the follow-up article, Ben tackles the meat of the issue – which cycles should be in 11th Edition? Which Mythics should be included to maximize sales of the set without hurting the Standard environment? Is there such as thing as too many good cards in the base set? And what mechanic, never included in the base set, is the absolute no-brainer slam-dunk to include? Find out in today’s edition of Insider Trading!
Wednesday, December 10th – Gerry Thompson has long been a supporter of the “grind ‘em out†style of control deck. As the dust settles on the “Cruel Ultimatum of No†battlefield, Thompson brings us an insight into the grinding strategy he finds so appealing. With Tap-Out Control strategies being the control weapon of choice in recent times, has the tide turned toward the traditional attrition plan? Gerry reveals all!
Wednesday, December 10th – For the first time in nearly two years, I’m in danger of “falling off the train.†I’ve forgotten what it was like to stand in line for PTQ after PTQ and fail again and again and again. I’ve forgotten how difficult it was to get to the point at which I arrived, more or less, in May of 2006: that of being basically positive you were going to play at the next PT. Forgotten that it’s so much easier to stay on than it is to get there in the first place.
Wednesday, December 10th – Two weeks ago, we looked at the Grixis and Jund Intro Packs and attempted to bring them up to scale to be playable in today’s Standard – or, at the very least, got them up to 60 cards (using only commons) while still maintaining the goal and plan of the deck and the associated Shard. Today, let’s go through the other three.
Wednesday, December 10th – Big news of the week is the announcement of a large number of layoffs from the digital games division at WoTC, and includes some well known names like Randy Buehler. Other MTGO news is the release of Tempest on December 8th and the return of card redemption! The “coolest” news is the preview of this year’s holiday promo, Evil Presents! Check out the preview of the Conflux booster package, product displays, intro packs (including a partial card image!).
Wednesday, December 10th – With The StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open now in the books, Kyle Sanchez looks at some of the more interesting decks in the Top 16. In his usual acerbic style, he looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the successful builds with an eye on the upcoming Worlds tournament this weekend!
Tuesday, December 9th – In today’s excellent feature article from Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, he outlines a selection of interesting scenarios in order to make us better players. With Worlds around the corner, and our eyes and hopes pinned to the next big tournament, these lessons could propel us to the next level. Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 9th – For his final edition of Peebles Primers, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy brings us the development of his weapon of choice for the recent StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open. While he didn’t quite set the venue alight, he still believes it’s a fine choice in the current metagame. Thanks for all the great articles, BPM!
Tuesday, December 9th – You know that Worlds 2008 is happening this week in Memphis. You know that you’re reading this before it happens. And you know that Rich is going to tell you what might happen, why it might happen, and then ridiculously predict what actually will happen. That’s why they call it a Preview.
Tuesday, December 9th – When I moved to London for eleven days, I divested myself of many of my boxes of cards. Among those was my bad rare stack (er… um… I mean “low value rares”). I wrote seven articles in which I selected, at random, one of these bad rares, and then forced myself to build a deck around these cards.
