Friday, October 10th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to clear up some questions about last week’s episode, take a look at the new Standard environment beginning with this weekend’s Cruise Qualifier, feature a very special Shards of Alara sealed segment with Patrick Chapin, and more. Let’s go!
Friday, October 10th – The preoccupation with piecing together a “Shard†is probably the root cause of the misconception that this format is anything but blisteringly fast. People will sit and lollygag around, casting Obelisks and cracking sac-lands, and I have no idea what format they think they are playing.
Friday, October 10th – Today, I want to take a simple idea for the article. With the brand new set on the shelves, I would like to build several decks that revolve around the new cards. Some decks may just have a single card from Shards of Alara, whereas others might be packed with new goodies…
Thursday, October 9th – Billy Moreno is a fine example of an outside-the-box deckbuilder. Today, alongside some excellent Shards Draft analysis, he brings us two exciting deck ideas. The first focuses on the Jund Shard, while the second looks at the power of Battlegrace Angel…
Thursday, October 9th – Richard continues his series of articles concentrating on new deck experimentation with a look at a midrange strategy that utilizes the promising weenie Knight of the White Orchid. Will a heavily disruptive element make a stand in the new metagame? Read on to find out…
Thursday, October 9th – I meandered down to Richmond Comix Friday for FNM and got my Shards of Alara draft on… I thought the actual drafting went really well. First pack I cracked open, looked at the bottom card and saw it was a foil rare Ultimatum… unfortunately, it was Clarion Ultimatum. I moved on and saw another Ultimatum, this one of the Titanic variety. Win the Game for seven mana? Sure, I’ll bite!
Thursday, October 9th – You know the saying. Last week, after the prerelease fiasco and so forth, I literally could not write anything worth saying. I could spew venom like an encounter-level 30 forums troll, but I had nothing useful to say. I can write coherently, and civilly, now… I hope.
Wednesday, October 8th – Kyle brings us a two-pronged article today… first, he takes us through some of the more powerful cards in the adolescent Standard metagame, both from sets past and sets present. Next, he takes a look at the latest iteration of the Stokin’ Tokens deck, and examines a number of interesting builds…
Wednesday, October 8th – With a Pro Tour Qualifier season underway, and following a year off from authentic high-level Sealed play, getting your build right is crucial if you want to reach the Top 8. Drawing on his experiences of watching and playing at Pre-Release and Release events, Rich brings you some strategy for the Improvers out there…
Wednesday, October 8th – While Dave may not have repeated his unbeaten streak at the Shards of Alara Launch Party this past weekend, he did find a little rare that inspired him to build a couple of… Titanic decks.
Wednesday, October 8th – Ad Nauseam is the newest spell to impact the development of Legacy storm combo. Its ability to draw an undetermined number cards opens up the potential that storm combo finally has the card it needs to become the best deck in the format. All the other card advantage spells that have seen play in storm decks either have limits on the number of cards they can draw.
Wednesday, October 8th – Following up last week’s article, Ben takes a look at eight different Foreign Magic Misprints, Rarities and Oddities throughout Magic’s history. From rules cards to magazine inserts, and from Forest Plains to Serra Elementals, find out some of the weirdest foreign cards out there!
Tuesday, October 7th – The Limited PTQ season is upon us, and Shards of Alara is proving a tricky nut to crack. Gerry Thompson, qualified for the Pro Tour but hunting down a plane ticket, attended a local PTQ and rocked himself into the Top 8 on the back of a great cardpool and some tasty play. He shares his story today, with some interesting tips and tricks on the new Shards of Alara Sealed format…
Tuesday, October 7th – When a new base set rotates into Standard, crafty deckbuilders retreat to their workshops to find fun and forceful strategies able to hobble the emerging metagame. Benjamin Peebles-Mundy has taken quite a shine to a certain 5/5 multicolor artifact, and today’s Peebles Primers investigates the fruits of his experimentation. Do we have a new contender on our hands?
Tuesday, October 7th – Today we look into the futures of some non-Zoo and non-Affinity aggro decks that could still potentially thrive in today’s quick Extended. Much has already been written about both of these decks in their previous iterations, and the metagame hasn’t formed enough to spend page upon page over some tiny changes and the no-brainer Shards additions.
