In recent months, playtesting for Magic has become more and more difficult — moving in with a fiancee was one part of it, and moving an extra hour away from my would-be playtest partners was another. Faced with these conditions, there’s only one sane thing to do…
Quit? We seem to have differing views of sanity. Why, I moved online!
There’s been a lot going on lately, both with StarCityGames.com and with my personal life. Have I mentioned lately that I’m getting married in August? No? Well then, let me catch you up with all the latest goings on in both Bleiweissville and the land of StarCityGames.com!
Mike takes on classical Magic theory and expands an area that’s never gotten much press, walking through Extended seasons past and present to explore this new concept. You know Card Advantage. You Tempo. But do you know… Trump?
Evan introduces a friend to The Magic Show… the loquacious Kevin, who proves that two heads are not necessarily better than one. He also waxes lyrical on the Grand Debate spawned by Osyp’s latest offering, that cooked up a bit of a storm in the forums…
Today we are going to take a look at a large highlander, Five-Color deck entitled The Essentials. As a highlander deck, this contraption cannot have more than one of each card except for basic lands. As a Five-Color deck, it abides by all of the rules of that format, including use of the banned list and a requirement to have at least twenty cards of each color.
When it comes to Black mana, you can do anything… whispers the ferryman, If you but pay enough. Green is the color of resources, but Black… Black is the color of exploiting resources. Give me enough Black mana and I will tear this world apart, render it as a silver platter, and upon it, lay the heads of thy enemies.
In today’s Chatter of the Squirrel, Zac ponders the reasons behind our belief that we somehow “deserve” to win certain games, matchups, and tournaments. He denounces the “logic” behind such perverse conclusions, and posits the theory that, to truly excel at this game, one must ignore such idiocy to break through to the next level.
For a long time, Kevin Binswanger has pushed for traditional Blue-based control decks like BBS or Psychatog. Today he is ready to admit that he was wrong and talk about why Nimble Mongoose and Jotun Grunt are the future of the format.
Damnation, Damnation, Damnation… everyone wants four. If you’re a noble Aggro mage, I’ll bet you’re pig-sick of hearing about the New Black Wrath, and how it’s gonna smash your world into smithereens. However, all is not lost! Benjamin Peebles-Mundy updates his MGA list for the Planar Chaos Standard metagame as he sees it. Looking to beat down with Green monsters? Then this is the article for you!
Tiago was prepared for Grand Prix: Dallas. In testing, he ran a gauntlet of six decks before settling on the Feldman / Hill / Tsumura inspired U/W Tron list. He takes us through his preparation in great detail, and walks us through some of the more entertaining games he played in his heartbreaking ninth-place performance.
Today’s Feature Article looks at the bane of any Magic player’s life… avoidable mistakes. Chad shares two clear-cut game states in which he dropped the ball, and talks us through the thought processes behind each correct play. In order to banish such mistakes from our game, we must do more than identify such errors… we must try our best to eliminate them from future play.
You wait nine years for a Grand Prix win, and then two come along at once. Raphael Levy, proving that lightning can indeed strike twice in the period of seven days, took his Gaea’s Might Get There five-color Zoo deck to the balmy climes of Grand Prix: Singapore… and, as in Dallas, he came home with the novelty check. Wanna know how he did it? Look no further!
In preparation for his home Grand Prix, Jeroen answers some reader-posed questions regarding everyone’s favorite four-player format: Two-Headed Giant! For those looking for some Constructed tech, Jeroen also critiques a fun Madness / Reanimator deck, and offers up some helpful tips on how to approach Time Spiral Block.
Josh takes a look at Ichorid in Vintage, and underlines a few principles from the current Extended format that could aid those looking to succeed in Magic’s most broken format. He also takes us through a Vintage Threshold build that substitutes power for options… has it the pedigree to affect the metagame?
I will be phrasing my Burning Issue in the form of a question, even though I am not on Jeopardy, and I will not give a definite answer once again. Last week, because I was looking for opinions, this week because I’m going to discuss the big, scary unknown. Shall we get started?
Very simply, my question is, “Could Armageddon be making a return in Tenth Edition?”
