In a format as open as Extended, traditional control decks need something special. The Extended cardpool is deep, the threats are varied, and the metagame is undefined. In order to control the match, one must have more than the power to simply say “no.” Today’s Innovations sees Patrick walk us through the matchups for a control deck that can say “no” over and over and over again: No Stick!
Have you ever seen Kenji play a match? Usually he will mount himself atop his left foot, or perch himself in the chair. This helps him not only see the board more clearly (he is a little guy after all), but it also gives him an uncomfortable position to sit in, which will hone his senses and enable him to make the best plays possible. Now take Gadiel’s posture…
Pro Tour: Valencia is just around the corner, and Mike is getting back into the Extended swing. Today’s Flores Friday sees Mike throw out three novel and exciting Extended decks, and run us through some games on Magic Online. While, in their current incarnations, they may not be PT winners, they’re certainly decks to watch. And with Nike’s deckbuilding pedigree, who knows? Maybe one will make a Sunday slot after all…
Time Spiral Draft is dead in the water, pretty much. We’re all keen for Lorwyn, and the excitement of those fresh new-car-smell goodies. Of course, with a little diligence, there are still TPF gems to be mined… one just has to dig a little deeper than usual. Inspired by a Drafting With Kenji aside, and created by Rogier Maaten, Tiago takes us through one of the more peculiar archetypes the field of TPF draft has to offer: the Rogier Special.
It is said that all good things must come to an end. Fortunately, rather than following up on Craig Jones skipping off to finish his doctorate, Matt Cavotta’s conclusion to “Taste The Magic,” or Aaron Forsythe’s conclusion to his run on “Recent Developments,” the only thing ending here on Magical Hack is… my vacation.
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. As of this week we’ve been on the ‘net a full year, and we’re going to take a few moments to see just how far the show has come. But that’s not all, of course. We will then detail a few happenings around the Magic community, including a little two mana Green creature that may end up being one of the best creatures ever printed.
In my last article, I very briefly discussed my match with Alix Hatfield at a 50-player event in Annandale, Virginia. He was the eventual tournament winner — he and three of his compatriots took Top 8 slots with A Cephalid Illusionist deck. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the combo revolves around the Nomads/Shaman En-Kor and Cephalid Illusionist…
Stuart Wright, one of the UK’s premier Deckbuilding minds, brings us an intriguing look into the art, and science, of high-level deckbuilding. He highlights some of the common pitfalls that deckbuilders make when polishing their elite seventy-five, and walks us through his thought processes in the creation of his 6-0 Worlds Extended deck, G/R/B Destructive Flow. If you’re interested in taking your deckbuilding skills to the next level, this is the article for you!
Pro Tour: Valencia looms large in the schedules, and Extended is the format that all the cool kids love to play. Today’s Deep Analysis begins what promises to be an exciting series — in preparation for the PT, Zac Hill and Richard Feldman promise to share their testing process to a degree never before seen. Richard begins this week with a look at the Aggro decks in the format… and, in particular, the impact on the metagame of a certain Little Lhurgoyf That Could.
I finally got out of the house on a Saturday and played actual, honest-to-goodness tournament Magic against real human beings who sat across from, beside, and diagonal to me. I wanted to commemorate this occasion with a tournament report worthy of our own Jamie Wakefield, King of the Fatties, Conqueror of Beautiful Women from Exotic Places and Exotic Women from Beautiful Places, Tournament Report Writer Extraordinaire. I will probably fail, but at least I’ll have tried.
If you’ve heard of The Art of War (the book, not the crappy Wesley Snipes movie), then I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you that many of its lessons apply in all of life. As it went for turn-of-the-millennium Chinese war, so it goes in modern war, business, sports, romance… and, since this is a Magic strategy website, you can bet that it also applies to Magic.
I have written about hundreds of decks over the years. There are some cards I come back to again and again as a deckbuilder. I decided to pull out the best, most unusual cards that are not typically in such lists, and bring them together. This will exclude cards like Swords to Plowshares or Flametongue Kavu in favor of other cards. I also decided to focus solely on non-rares, and instead investigate other commons and uncommons.
No, you’ve not misread the title… today’s So Many Insane Plays is indeed Drafting With Stephen. However, this is no mere TPF or XXX draft. It’s Type Four, one of the most fun and powerful ways to play Magic ever created! Stephen takes us through each pick from a powerful Type Four stack, alongside the creators of the format itself, and brings us an illicit peek into the strategy behind this wild and popular game variant.
The results from the German and Japanese National Championships are in… and it appears that Black/Green Rack is the current deck to beat. It won the whole thing in Japan, placed in the final in Germany, and propelled others to multiple Top 8 berths. Benjamin Peebles-Mundy looks at the development of the deck from Regionals to Nationals success, and gives us a handy strategic guide for toppling other key players in today’s Standard metagame.
A lot of players, many forum trolls, and some judges have a lot of misconceptions about what Magic judges are, and what their job is. I want to talk about that a little — about what a judge should do, and should not do. I’ll also look at issues like burden of proof and judicial certainty – and explain why they don’t apply to judging Magic. I’ll also throw out a couple scenarios, to illustrate how these principles apply.
