Friday, April 18th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to be talking about the new nicknames bestowed on a few special cards in Shadowmoor, a few tips and tricks that will hopefully help you in your sealed flights and drafts this weekend, and finally run down my favorite spoiled cards so far. Let’s go!
Friday, April 18th – As with last week’s article, if you are avoiding Shadowmoor spoilers until after the pre-release, my article today is not going to make you happy. I will be more than happy to see you on Monday, however, instead of making you unhappy today, so if you are keeping yourself virginal and pure for the Shadowmoor pre-release tomorrow, please direct yourself to the leftward-pointing arrow above rather than spoiling yourself.
Friday, April 18th – MTGO is dark. Work has gone so late I couldn’t make drafts on Wednesday or Friday. I haven’t brewed up any decks at all this week – and formats are on hold pending the arrival of Shadowmoor in any case. That means it’s time to reopen my current favorite topics: Green sux, casual versus competitive, and the goodies from Shadowmoor…
Friday, April 18th – Want to know which cards will be hot at your prerelease this weekend? Which cards should you pick up now while they are undervalued, and which should you trade away while they are overhyped? Which older card is already skyrocketing in value due to Shadowmoor? If you want to be informed at your prerelease, you must read Ben’s analysis of the Financial Value of Shadowmoor!
Thursday, April 17th – Last week, Richard tuned his innovative Spectral Visions deck in order to gain ground in the awful Red matchup. Today, he throws the deck against the toughest deck in the metagame: U/B Faeries. Will the tempo beats from Bitterblossom and Scion of Oona bring down Spectral Force and friends? Read on to find out!
Thursday, April 17th – Kyle Sanchez, armed with his funky and fresh Wizard deck, rocked up to his City Championship tournament… and walked away the victor! Today, he takes us through the intricacies behind his deck, and shows us how he made it to the top. Arbiter of Knollridge… who knew?
Thursday, April 17th – It’s nearly D-Day. Every time a new set starts to approach, my toes get all tingly with anticipation. Pre-Releases are great chances to get out, interact with new people, get your muddy hands on new cards, and have a good day of fun with a chance of profit. And that applies to everyone, not just the guys who spend fifty-three hours a week playtesting.
Thursday, April 17th – Hello folks, and welcome to the magnum opus of projects here at the Kitchen Table. For the last two weeks I have discussed one of my recent projects – the creation of a (hopefully) balanced Core Set. I think projects like this are a blast. Sure, there is a ton of work involved if you want to do a good job, but it is still a lot of fun.
Wednesday, April 16th – It seems that the current Standard metagame is caught in a rut. Faeries, Elves, Red Green Big Mana… as usual, we’re in the need of some fresh meat. Luis Scott-Vargas is here to help! He looks at some of the more exciting cards available from Shadowmoor, and considers how the major players may adapt come the new release.
Wednesday, April 16th – Shadowmoor is coming, and Standard decks across the globe are waiting for a huge injection of Cool New Toys. Today, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy takes a look at some of the previewed and spoiled cards thus far, and works them into a new take on Red Deck Wins. If you’re a fan of swinging for two, you can’t afford to miss this.
Wednesday, April 16th – Lately, control decks have been subscribing to a tried-and-true Flores theory of “only really control the game until I can tap out for a Dragon and then kill you.†This has proven extremely effective, as per the success of Osyp’s Honolulu Top 8 deck, Wafo-Tapa’s Guile deck, and others. The beauty of Faeries is that you can circumvent even that crucial one-turn window of threat deployment.
Wednesday, April 16th – Last week I talked about how I’m totally bored of current Standard, and I’m wanting to make decks for future Standard, the Standard of the upcoming $5K Mega-Magic Weekend tournament that Star City’s holding on May 10th right here in Richmond. To facilitate that, I began going over the cards officially spoiled as chronicled on the Shadowmoor minisite, and I appreciate all the great comments and feedback from you all in the forums.
Tuesday, April 15th – With Shadowmoor just around the corner, and the prerelease mere days away, Nick Eisel says farewell to the Lorwyn/Lorwyn/Morningtide draft experience. Today’s Limited Lessons takes us through an LLM draft online, using DraftCap and the now-defunct MTGO Version 2.5… Nick brings us each pack and pick, and walks us through the draft process step by step.
Tuesday, April 15th – With the re-emergence of a certain Black sorcery into the Standard arena, a far few players are hoping that hardy perennial Mono-Black Control will return to the metagame as a timely response to the tribal creature builds that plague Constructed. Today, Tom LaPille talks with Grand Prix: Vancouver Top 4 competitor Zack Hall, and together they flesh out the Mono-Black idea…
Tuesday, April 15th – For many of us the next big tournament will be a combination of City Champs and/or Regionals, and while it’s true that Shadowmoor’s imminent release will no doubt shake up Standard as we know it, today we’re going to look at a few of the top decks in Standard as they are right now, where they win, where they lose, and what they might benefit from in Shadowmoor. Buckle in…
