Wednesday, February 27th – At present, the Vintage metagame is evolving at an alarming rate. With successful deckbuilds in a state of constant flux, it pays to be flexible when planning for events. For a recent Vintage tournament, Stephen decided to shelve a deck on which he’d lavished months of attention in order to run with the New Guy in Town: Rich Shay’s innovative Tyrant Oath. This is his story…
Wednesday, February 27th – Each week, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy takes us through some of the more intricate and popular Standard decks, examining builds and showing us the way to success. At the StarCityGames.con $5000 Standard open, it was time to put his money where his mouth is. If you followed Evan’s video coverage this past weekend, you’ll know he did well. Click here for the story straight from BPM himself!
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…
