The past two weeks I touched on “issues” and dipped into the mailbag… this week I thought I’d get back to what I find the most fun – tinkering with Magic decks! I’m going to be going to a Friday Night Magic this week up at Richmond Comix, and one thing I want to do for the tournament is further explore what I consider a sleeper power card from Lorwyn – Galepowder Mage!
Aggressive mirror-matches are much maligned in Magic. While folk look on control versus control fights as the true Magical path, aggro versus aggro is often labeled as hugely luck based or draw dependant. Today’s Deep Analysis sees Richard throw monsters at other monsters in an attempt to ascertain the truth behind such myths…
After coming so close to a Top 8 spot at Day 1 of the StarCityGames Vintage Mega Weekend, Stephen dipped low into the think tank in order to improve his chances for Day 2. Today’s So Many Insane Plays is a comprehensive report on the highs and lows of the tournament from Stephen’s perspective. Did his changes to his beloved GroAtog deck cut the proverbial mustard? Read on to find out!
Improvement in Magic: The Gathering is a tricky beast to tame. Sure, we read the articles, we sling the spells, and we draft along with Tiago and pals… but we still need something more. Today’s Peebles Primer, held back from Black Wednesday, sees Benjamin Peebles-Mundy share his Fearless Magical Inventory, an aid to improvement coined by Sam Stoddard. Will YOUR Fearless Magical Inventory open the door to success?
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!
I have failed you. Remember a few weeks ago how we had a vote on which card I should use in my next deck? No Rest for the Wicked won. However, Shivan Wumpus and Lord of the Pit tied for second, missing the top slot by only one vote. I promised to do decks on the two runners-up too. I’ve done a Shivan Wumpus deck. I was going to do Lord of the Pit this week. I even had a great name for the deck: Pit Boss. But I chickened out and went for an Elf deck instead.
MTGO didn’t have “Nix Tix” drafting over Thanksgiving weekend as they have in the past; probably as a result of server stability concerns. However, I still had some product and tickets saved up, and some downtime when the family was off doing their own things. During that time it seemed like the fish-men were flowing freely, and bringing victories with them. On Sunday alone I won two drafts and split in the finals of a third, all with decks that had at least 75% Merfolk among their creature counts.
I was curious about how the lag time and various MTGO problems have affected league play. I decided to join some leagues and check out the quality of the competition, how long I have to wait for games, how often new leagues spawn, the number of players, the payout, etc. I might even open some useful cards.
Hello folks and welcome back to series that explores the caverns of the casual. Today, we are going to be doing some serious spelunking. I have spent a lot of time and research preparing today’s article, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. The spark for today’s subject came from an old format I discovered at another site. I found this old, old format trying to turn Magic into an RPG.
Deckbuilding is difficult. Sure, it’s relatively easy to come up with a semi-competitive deck, one that could do some rocking in an 8-man queue of an FNM… but deckbuilding for a tournament like Worlds? From scratch? That’s a different kettle of fish. Adrian takes us through some of the pitfalls one can face when shuffling up a rogue sixty. He also presents a fresh Standard deck that jumps through the correct deckbuilding hoops…
Lorwyn drafting, both online and in real life, are now in full swing. We’ve had many a primer article here on StarCityGames.com, including a number of informative tribal articles. Today, Nick Eisel brings us a look at some of the overvalued and underappreciated cards on offer in triple Lorwyn… which of these cards do you rate too highly, and which should you be slamming into your pile?
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!
Welcome back to the series on Faeries. This should be the last or next to last article I need to write on the subject, since I’ll basically have covered the majority of matches in Standard after this. I blame this recreation of My Fires (My Faeries! Roofles) on my obsession with aggro decks once I tweak them enough. If anyone playing Vintage remembers my 20 page Food Chain Goblins primer you can understand the detail I’ll go into if I think the deck is worthwhile.
This week, Rich Hagon invites you to put your brain into high gear, let the scales drop from your eyes, and discover how you can beat the online Pros at their own Drafting game. If you can’t work out why they pick what they pick, why your good cards don’t seem good enough, and why the same players win time after time, Rich’s visualisation techniques can help. In a reversal of his normal articles, this week features a little humor and a lot of thought. So thinking caps (and Draft caps) at the ready. Good luck.
Can’t make this stuff up, folks. Get a message from Dan Ackroyd – okay, Danny Ackroyd-Isales, but story value, people, story value – asking about Rock and Nail. Never really got a chance to write about that deck, but accusations of self-flattery and the reality of an irrelevant format made me think it’d stay that way. Come to find out Extended season’s almost here. Cute.
