Wednesday, February 27th – Going into the tournament, I suspected that the metagame was changing in a way that was bad for actual Counterbalance decks. The card Counterbalance itself is best against the mirror and against midrange decks that actually give you time to set up a lock, and quite bad against decks that are very fast, play spells that cost tons of mana that you can’t use Counterbalance to stop, or both.
Wednesday, February 27th – Magic skill, like the term “intelligence,†is fairly difficult to explain. It’s not hard to define; “ability at manipulating specific sets of operations†works for most cases. But that definition doesn’t really cast light on the number one question that follows from it: namely, “Why can some people manipulate more of those operations than others?â€
Wednesday, February 27th – I spent the weekend in Charlotte, at the StarCityGames.com $5K on Saturday and the PTQ on Sunday. My plan was to work the $5K, then qualify for Hollywood the day after. If you know how I play, you may guess how that worked out… but you’d be wrong.
Tuesday, February 26th – A few weeks ago, Paul Jordan brought us a statistical explosion. Working with an entire PTQ’s worth of pairings and archetype data, he thrashed out the runners and riders in the developing metagame. Today, he brings us Stat Attack 2, with data compiled from two recent tournaments. As before, Paul wrings every ounce of pertinent data from the information. Warning: This is not for the faint of heart…
Tuesday, February 26th – The popularity of Tournament Reports tends to ebb and flow with the tides. Today, Adrian Sullivan brings us a report on his latest Extended PTQ, in the style of the classic reports from the days of USENET. He also brings us his latest version of Miser’s Rock, a deck he backs for success in future tournaments…
Tuesday, February 26th – With Kuala Lumpur now, as they say, in the books, Rich Hagon belatedly returns his attention to the Extended season. With Grand Prix: Vienna looming large, he casts his eye over a PTQ field in the mighty UK, and brings you detailed play-by-play on a full octet of matches.
Tuesday, February 26th – Today I was supposed to tell you all how I did at the big $5K Star City Standard Open down in Charlotte, North Carolina. With any luck, I would have kicked ass and been featured in the Magic Show making my way to the Top 8. At least, that was the plan…
Monday, February 25th – Gaining a mental edge while dueling is one of the forgotten arts of Magic. With so much emphasis placed on technical perfection, it is easy to overlook the power and potential of well-executed mind manipulation. In this fantastic article, Patrick shows us a few of the techniques he employs in order to beguile his unsuspecting opponents…
Monday, February 25th – The Limited Pro Tour is over, and Morningtide is due for its online release. People across the world are diving head-first into Lorwyn/Lorwyn/Morningtide Draft. In the first of a series of updated tribal articles, Nick brings us the lowdown on the Elementals, and how they’ve improved with a change in the third pack…
Monday, February 25th – Since I’m writing this article before all the information from Grand Prix: Vancouver hits, I’ll be going with my plan B for the week and covering Team Reflection’s Tidespout Tyrant Oath deck that won Stratfordbury a few weeks ago…
Monday, February 25th – This week, Adam tackles a range of topics including ruminations on Eternal Magic, a Legacy perspective on Organized Play, the Banned and Restricted List, and a long forgotten card from Alpha…
Friday, February 22nd – In case you’re unaware, Mike Flores is a fan of the mid-range strategy. However, at his last PTQ he found himself falling prey to the sin of merely playing cards. Determined to kick up a stink at this weekend’s Grand Prix, he turned away from his mid-range roots to pursue an altogether more flamboyant strategy…
Friday, February 22nd – Tiago Chan visited Malaysia on the way to his new home in mainland China. While there, he decided to sling a few spells at Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, the tournament didn’t go too well… and neither did his night on the town. Tiago takes us through the stories, and draft 1, from Pro Tour: Finkel…
Friday, February 22nd – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to discuss the incredible return of Jon Finkel, the fallout from Wizards’ players meeting and what it means for the future of Organized Play, the allure of Shadowmoor, a few words on tomorrow’s live updates, and more! Let’s go!
Friday, February 22nd – This past weekend we saw the first Pro Tour of the 2008 season come a-knocking, and the events of the weekend seemed quite impressive. After a few near-misses at the Pro Tour camp, where even Day 2 wasn’t in the offering, it seems that the fire has come back to one Jonny Magic as he went from 2-1 to 16-1-1 between the end of Round 3 and the final play of the event.
