I want to caution y’all not to be too concerned with issues of tempo in Sealed Deck. This extends far beyond the fact that drawing first is better in this format the overwhelming majority of the time. In Draft, mana curve is one of the first things I look at. In Sealed, though, it’s just not all that important…
It occurs to me that I don’t share the emails I get from people as much as I should, so as a tip of the hat to those of you who care enough to send your thoughts back, I wanted to include a few of them here this week, and try harder to at least share one email a week from here on.
I spent last weekend at a Vintage tournament. This week, I read that Masters Edition One will stop being sold online in January, Weatherlight will be released online in December, and that Masters Edition II is coming. All of this raises the question: are these old sets worth anything at all? The simple rule is that the more cards a format has, the fewer cards that are actually playable.
Today’s Sullivan Library looks to quantify that most elusive of commodities – Luck. In fact, Adrian is here to help us understand the true role of luck, and math, in our glorious game. We all know what it means to roll the die and take our chances… but do we understand the true nature of such things? How can we grant ourselves the best chances of success?
The tribal primers are coming thick and fast… we’ve brought you Faeries, Elementals, Elves, Giants, and more. Today is the turn of one of the more underappreciated tribes in triple Lorwyn draft – the White-heavy Kithkin. White Weenie is a popular strategy in Constructed, and has been so for many years. Can the little White menace make a splash in Lorwyn Draft? Nick reveals all…
That’s right, folks: The “Drafting With…” series is back! Taking up where both Rich Hoaen and Kenji Tsumura left off, we have Level 6 Mage Tiago Chan. As before, Tiago takes us through a triple Lorwyn draft from pick 1 to pick 45, before sharing his insight on the draft and the games that followed. For more detailed draft debate, come to the forums!
This week I was planning on working on an aggro compliment to go along with the control side of my Faeries articles. However, I ended up side-tracked due to unforeseen personal matters, and I’ll have to take care of that next week. Instead, today I’ll be covering a small section of Vintage topics inspired by Ben Bleiweiss last week.
The majority of the time you spend playing Magic is occupied by thought. Tom, in his first strategy article for StarCityGames.com, shows us three ways to think faster inside the game, and explains why doing that will make you play better and win more often.
It’s time to prop the eyelids open, as the Rich Hagon Limited Marathon enters its final phase of tortuous manabases, ridiculous synergy, and some eye-watering math information, for those of you who like that sort of thing.
Should someone be admired simply because they’re good at something? To me, the answer’s pretty simple, because I’ve seen “Raging Bull†– a movie widely considered one of the better films ever made. And the question of what Raging Bull is about leads to something that’s a little different than the usual “Joes versus Pros” debate that’s been going about for a while.
Steve Sadin, battling away at Grand Prix: Daytona Beach, has a mixed bag of topics for us today. First, he brings us his personal rules for creating the perfect Limited manabase. Next, he takes us through his Grand Prix Sealed Deck cardpool and final build, before sharing his Day 1 results at the time of writing. Finally, he hands his article over to Andre Coimbra, who brings us his Top 5 Commons lists for each color in triple Lorwyn Draft!
Today’s Innovations comes fresh from the trenches of Grand Prix: Daytona Beach. Patrick shares his Sealed pool, and hands out a few tips on how to make the best use out of a substandard cardpool. He also regales us with tales of his spectacular week, and teaches us that valuable lessons for both Magic and life can spring from the most surprising of places…
Christopher Coppola describes the development process of Threshold during the last few months, both due to format changes and strong new cards. He also reports on his finals split from Day 2 of the Mana Leak Open III, and introduces the new Black Threshold deck.
It’s my birthday! That’s right folks, I’m a year older, and a year crankier. In celebration of another chunk of my finite existence disappearing down the Great Cosmic Toilet, I’ve decided to spend today frolicking in the sunshine. Thus, my article today is a little short. Never fear… normal service will be resumed next week. And this week, there’s a PTQ cardpool to examine and evaluate. My PTQ deck was a disgrace… can you help me rebuild it?
Today’s Flores Friday sees Mike sharing his intimate playtesting procedures. However, instead of focusing on the minutiae the process, he deals in specific ways in which he gains insight into his deck, the metagame, and his own personal growth as a player. By breaking down the Top 8 ways in which he improves through testing, he shows us the ways in which we too can learn from playing our wonderful game…
