Friday, March 21st – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. In this week’s episode, we travel to Grand Prix: Philadelphia in the great state of Pennsylvania. Over eleven hours of travel to and from, technical issues galore, a huge glut of Magic stars to talk to, and the result is this week’s Magic Show. BONUS: Watch the edited finals, with pretty pictures of the cards and everything!
Friday, March 21st – It should come as absolutely no surprise at all that when it comes to playing Grand Prix: Philadelphia, I was going to side with the Goblins. With a little twisting and a little tuning, I’d arrived at the list I was happy with, changing one little thing here and another little thing there until I was pointed exactly where I wanted to be.
Thursday, March 20th – In Magic, there exists a gap in results between a strategy that you come up with in theory and the way you implement it in practice. In today’s Deep Analysis, Richard Feldman looks at some of the more off-the-wall strategies in the modern Extended metagame, and explains why they work even if they look rather strange on paper…
Thursday, March 20th – This past weekend, Gerard “GFabs†Fabiano rocked out Grand Prix: Philly, armed with an old-fashioned Barra-style Rock deck. Today’s Down And Dirty sees Kyle Sanchez take us through the rather strange card numbers in Gerard’s build. He also reasons that Rock decks may not be the best choice this coming weekend, and offers an alternative…
Thursday, March 20th – The best way to build decks without relying on twenty-dollar rares is to use commons and uncommons that are key to your strategy. But aside from opening packs, where do you get all those key uncommons? Believe it or not, Wizards has been giving you a way to get them for years – the preconstructed decks.
Thursday, March 20th – I felt it was time for good old fashioned hardcore Magic. I mean decks, strategy, or alternate formats. The type of Magic you can use at your own kitchen table. Forget fancy card evaluations, opinion articles, and lists of resources. It’s time for a serious hardcore article. Nothing is purer than a Magic article about decks.
Wednesday, March 19th – Patrick “The Innovator†Chapin, purveyor of Blue decks with Tarmogoyf since the beginning of time itself, rocked up to Grand Prix: Philadelphia with the latest incarnation of his signature Extended deck. After a perfect 9-0 Day 1, Patrick’s Wild Ride slowly ground to a halt… here’s how.
Wednesday, March 19th – In Magic, as in life, everybody has ideas. As a member of the writing world I always furrow my brow and narrow my eyes whenever anyone talks about an “idea†they have for a story, or a screenplay, or a poem, or a novel, or whatever. “Can I read what you’ve got so far,†I’ll ask, and they’ll eye the ground sheepishly like a late-eighties shoegazer.
Wednesday, March 19th – A few years ago, I asked Chris Richter to critique my judging – what I should change, what I needed to work on and so forth. His review – “suck less.†Since my online play has sucked recently, that review came to mind. I decided to analyze my play, online and off, and look at the different results.
Wednesday, March 19th – While restocking my trade binder the other day, I ran across a foil Jhoira of the Ghitu, a card that I’ve always found intriguing but had not yet fully tested out her potential. The foil Jhoira looks awesome – her eyes flash and it’s like she’s radiating power!
Wednesday, March 19th – Anyone who knows my writing from other websites knows that I need little provocation to write a tournament report. If someone looks at me cross-eyed: I’ll write a tournament report. If I stub a toe on the coffee table in living room while drunk: I’ll write a tournament report. And when I have two first place finishes at local Legacy tournaments fresh in my memory, you can bet your ass I’ll write a tournament report.
Tuesday, March 18th – In Standard Reveillark mirror matches, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy has a fantastic record of success of late: twelve wins, one loss. Today, he takes us through three mirror match games in exquisite detail, play by play and card by card. The deck is a definite contender in the modern metagame, and knowledge of the mirror is of paramount importance if you’re looking to succeed…
Tuesday, March 18th – Tom finished Grand Prix: Philadelphia in twelfth place, and he did it with Domain Zoo – a far cry from the Next Level Blue variants he has been playing all season. He explains why he changed decks and the logic behind the decklist that he and Ben Wienburg played to the Top 16 and Top 8 respectively, then walks you through the matchups that he played in the tournament.
Tuesday, March 18th – Ever since I saw the results of the burn deck that succeeded at Grand Prix: Shizuoka, I’ve decided that it would be one of my main decks to try out for the new Standard format. Of course, I’d love to play my Faeries deck some more, but on Magic Online there’s the slight issue of procuring a set of Mutavault and Bitterblossom without trading in an organ or two. As they say, if you can’t join ‘em, play Red and burn them to a crisp.
Tuesday, March 18th – “Why not?†and “Because†might get you a University interview on a Philosophy course, but when it comes to explaining to a new player why twelve four-drops is too many in a Goblin rush deck at their first ever Standard FNM? Time to relearn some lessons the easy way, in the company of Rich Hagon, the man with more hair than PT Top 8s. Which is probably true of most of us, actually.
