Thursday, June 19th – Hello readers! I am your Charon, charting a course across the River Styx of Magic. Today I am going to concentrate on some happy decks with the main card determined by casting lots. (Otherwise known as rolling dice.) However, this time I am going to do something different. Each time I roll a new card, I have to use all of the old cards in the new deck…
Wednesday, June 18th – In his debut article for StarCityGames.com, Belgian pro Marijn Lybaert takes us through his Lorwyn / Shadowmoor Block Constructed that nearly made Top 8 at Grand Prix: Birmingham… Faeries with a twist! He also updates the list for the coming PTQ season, walks us through sideboarding for the relevant matchups, and shares his latest version of the Red/Green Mana Ramp Standard deck that took him to the Pro Tour: Hollywood Top 8.
Wednesday, June 18th – When Manuel Bucher rocked the Top 8 of Grand Prix: Birmingham, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy knew he’d found his deck for the coming PTQ season. Today’s Peebles Primers sees BPM share the details of his latest PTQ attempt, which saw him storm the Swiss before falling from the final table in the semifinals. If you’re looking for a primer on this incredibly taxing deck, look no further!
Wednesday, June 18th – My experiences over the course of the last several Pro Tours have demonstrated more than anything else the tremendous role of play skill in determining wins and losses. This is not to say that your choice of deck doesn’t matter, or that people don’t get lucksacked out of tournaments. That’s not the point. What I am saying, simply, is that in most cases the degree to which a given deck has an “advantage†in a given matchup is frequently within the gradient that can be determined by playskill.
Wednesday, June 18th – Mark Rosewater recently mentioned that, starting with Shards of Alara, each set is going to be comparably smaller than the sets sizes we’ve currently been seeing. Personally, this thrills me. As someone who likes to play competitively, it’s difficult to acquire a playset of so many cards out there that you want to build decks with, especially since we’re living in the era of Tier 2 cards, which widens the pool of “must-have” playables.
Tuesday, June 17th – While Regionals is in the books, the Standard format is never dead… and today, Luis Scott-Vargas brings us a funky looking deck based on two popular strategies: Quick n’ Toast and Reveillark. By smashing the concepts together, LSV produces something with game across the board and a possible powerhouse in the current metagame. And if that’s not enough, he shares a speedy Red deck too!
Tuesday, June 17th – For his final article before he is swallowed by the Wizards Machine, Tom LaPille takes a look at the Kithkin mirror match in Lorwyn / Shadowmoor Block Constructed. While it appears to be little more than luck at first glance, there are tried and tested strategies that can tip the balance in the battle of the Little White Men. Good luck at Wizards, Tom!
Tuesday, June 17th – Today’s Deconstructing Constructed contains talk on Block Constructed, Vintage and the new metagame, and an entertaining Regionals report from guest writer April Yu!
Tuesday, June 17th – From 200 all the way up to Charles Gindy in first, Rich Hagon runs his eye over the results sheets from Pro Tour: Hollywood, bringing us his usual blend of insight, wit, curiosity, root vegetables, controversy and – on this occasion – an abject, grovelling apology. Spineless, that’s what I say.
Tuesday, June 17th – I was born in Japan, and I am still a citizen of Nippon. I live and work in the United States as a Resident Alien. That means I have a Green Card (which is physically pink), not that I am a zombie face-sucker. Technically speaking, English is my second language as I grew up with Japanese in the home, but they are more like 1A and 1B. I took Saturday Japanese school classes all the way through junior high. I am conversationally fluent in the spoken language, I can read a newspaper, but my writing has really atrophied to the point where I probably couldn’t compose a halfway decent e-mail in Japanese.
Monday, June 16th – It seems that while Lorwyn / Shadowmoor Block Constructed has a proven trio of strong decks at the top, there is a huge amount of room for innovation. Today, Patrick Chapin brings us a fantastic-looking deck fresh from his frenzied Amp-addled brainpan, designed in collaboration with… Mike Long.
Monday, June 16th – With the latest upheaval to the Vintage metagame, a whole host of tried and tested strategies must adapt to survive. Today’s So Many Insane Plays sees Stephen reporting on the Vintage metagame in the months leading up to the so-called Vintage Apocalypse. What can these tournaments tell us of the state of the metagame today?
Monday, June 16th – By the time you read this, the first PTQs of the season will be over, and Lorwyn Block Constructed Season will be underway. Over the coming weeks I will try, as so many of you will do the same, to win one a Test of Endurance, a Battle of Wits, in Mortal Combat with my peers in an Epic Struggle to… I can’t figure out how to fit Chance Encounter in here, but you get the point.
Monday, June 16th – The graveyard is a very powerful resource in Legacy. Many different decks make use of it, for very different purposes. Threshold uses it to fuel Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf. Eva Green cheats Tombstalker into play by delving its graveyard. There are many other examples, but there is one deck in Legacy that relies almost entirely on its graveyard to win the match…
Friday, June 13th – Going into Regionals, Mike was at a loss for what to play. So, faced with a surfeit of appealing options, he did the one thing guaranteed to serve up the goods: he looked towards Japan for innovation. While he won’t be gracing the stage of U.S. Nationals this year, his Regionals report is full of strategy, focus, and fun… and he does indeed learn a valuable lesson about the game we all love.
