Hello everybody and welcome to The Magic Show. I’m your host, Evan Erwin.
Today we’re going to cover the latter half of 2006, along with the first wave of “The Magic Show Best of StarCityGames.com 2006 Awards.” And I promise none of my silly articles will be involved.
The winner of the StarCityGames.com 1K Open tournament is one that I did not expect… and to be honest, I’d dismissed it. Fader seemed to me like it was a one-hit wonder (much like Solar Pox was, in my mind at least), winning a few State championships and falling off the face of Standard.
I was wrong.
Tiago’s run in Worlds was fraught with peril – not from the competition he faced, although that was stiff indeed. An altercation with an insane hotel manager left Portugal’s finest without a bed the night before his Top 8 performance… things were so grim he planned on ditching the tournament at the final hurdle. For that story, and for top-notch match reporting and draft analysis, look no further than this inspired offering from one of the best players in the game!
Last time out, the inestimable Mr Menendian dealt with the ups and downs of the Vintage year from January to June. Today’s article deals with the second half of the year. Stephen breaks down the results from the major tournaments in the latter half of 2006, and shares some of the stronger decklists that appeared along the way. The future for Vintage in 2007 looks very rosy indeed…
Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!
I have a stack of bad… er… low value rares sitting here, and what I’ll do is grab one, then build a deck around it. I keep doing this until I have a normal sized article — typically four to six decks.
I grabbed my stack of rares from the bookshelf and I am ready to randomly select a bad rare. Without further ado, here we go…
The Extended PTQs are fast approaching. Extended has always been a favorite format of mine. I have written a lot (extensively?) about Extended, more than anything else, and enjoyed Extended events more than practically any other format. Extended season has a certain history and rhythm — and that rhythm will remain, despite the impact of the card pool, the combo decks and Magic Online.
Naoki Shimizu, the creator of the popular Solar Flare Standard deck, has recently turned his back on his most prized creation. In the first part of this interesting series, he takes us through the design of his current favorite deck: Scryb & Force. It has posted fine results for him, and he believes it has merit in the post-Worlds metagame. Today’s installment deals with the origins of the deck, and its first outing at the Lord of Magic Championships…
In his last article, Paul shared the U.S. Team’s preparation for Worlds. Today’s follow-up deals with Day 1 of the main event itself. Paul audibled at the last minute to a new deck, and posted a positive result. Of course, that’s not the whole story… as with all tournament reports, there’s a healthy dose of humor and color to be had.
Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!
Blisterguy rounds out his Parisian journal with a look at Day 4 and Day 5 of his trip… including an account of the infamous blistermugging. He also brings us the lowdown on the Premier Events in both Standard and (more importantly) Extended…
Stuart took one of his favorite strategies – Mana Denial – and aimed to break down Kyle’s Combo by removing the precious, precious land. On paper, this matchup was a blowout. In reality? Well, it was a blowout. Still, it;s good to read about one-sided matches… they need winning too!
All in all, Kyle has not had a good Christmas. Battle Royale loss, unwanted gifts, and a car accident on Christmas Eve… not a great way to spend the holidays. Still, the New Year is coming, and things can only get better… or can they?
It’s Christmas, and you’re here. Why? Come on. There are presents to be unwrapped, relatives to be hugged, friends to be visited. The world is alive with cheer and good will, and you probably have the day off from work. Go spend it with someone you love. But I do have something I’ve been thinking about, if you want it. It’s not Magic, entirely, but it’s about Christmas — specifically, the flip side of Christmas.
Everyone’s been reading Drafting With Rich, right? You all know that Blue is the best color, don’t you? Even if the grumpy Canadian loves his Black and Red spells, there’s no doubting the power of the sea. However, while we all know the obvious cards to look for, it’s our 21st-23rd cards in any given deck that separate the good builds from the great ones. Today, Limited expert Quentin Martin takes a look at some of the more marginal cards that can shine in the triple Time Spiral format. Some of the cards he champions, and some of the theories he posits, are definitely worth discussion…
