Blisterguy brings us the lowdown on the Magic Online Standard scene, plus a detailed breakdown of the hottest card prices found in the electronic game. He also tackles the Online Exended metagame and chronicles the Top 8 standouts in this ever-popular format. All this, plus more tales from the balmy streets of Paris…
This week’s SCG Dailies are about Magic cards for Christmas. Specifically, they are about decks that I’ve created and given as Christmas presents. (Except for yesterday, which was about suggestions on what to give a new player if you have no clue about Magic.) Four or five years ago, my brother was still overseas in the Navy. At the time, he was stationed in Japan on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. That was the first ship into the Persian Gulf after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. We didn’t see him for a couple of Christmases…
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’ve got a new favorite cheap, cheap, cheap pet deck, one that I don’t mind letting my friend Matt play. It’s dirt cheap, which is perfect because I don’t always know where his hands have been or when he washed them last. I alluded to the deck in my last piece. It’s sometimes called the new Goblins deck, but you’ll start calling it the Empty the Warrens deck soon enough…
Josh brings us part 2 of his series examining the Extended decks that made a spalsh at last month’s Worlds competition. There are three more aggressive options on the slab today: Boros Deck Wins, Aggro Loam, and Flow Aggro. The coming PTQ season will be shaped by decks like these… are you prepared to face the beatdown?
I love casual Magic formats. If you didn’t know that from my writings before, you will definitely know it after this week’s SCG Dailies are all done. There’s just something about being able to play with cards that you wouldn’t normally be able to play with, cards that get pushed aside either because they aren’t good enough for one-on-one duels or because they aren’t legal in all of the same formats.
Some people hate the metagame right now. Oddly, I don’t, for the first time since Standard was Invasion and Odyssey. I really can’t believe just how diverse everything has been ever since Time Spiral hooked up with Ravnica Block. I’m left to wonder how much of this diversity has to do with the extra cards in Standard, and how much has to do with their “tier-two design” strategy. Either way, I admit I’m impressed.
But I do hate Dragonstorm.
My computer is crashing on a regular basis. I can go up to about twenty minutes before it conks out and gives me the Blue Screen of Death, but until that dizzying moment of pure crashitude I’m living on borrowed time. Normally, I’d write it on my laptop, but my laptop’s hard drive just went kablooey and so I am working in short spurts.
Really short spurts. Because I
Vintage has undergone a lot of upheaval this year. New decks, new cards, new rulings on old favorites… the Vintage Mage has never had it so good. Today we have part 1 of the Vintage Year in Review, an overview of the first six months of 2006 from the most vocal writer in the format today. The cards may change, but Vintage remains constant. Love Vintage? Then you’ll love this…
Mark does something out-of-character in this article… he admits that Flores was right. Sure, it takes a lot out of him, but the words come out eventually. This excellent article tackles the concept of discipline in Magic, and covers a number of helpful tips that can improve our games, whatever the level of our current play. If you’re serious about improvement, then this article is unmissable.
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’m back from Paris. I ate well, lived well and had a blast. Every part of the trip — and of Worlds — was great, except maybe getting stuck at O’Hare airport for hours on the return trip. I won’t talk about that. I will talk about the metagame, judging and assorted memorable moments. Think tournament report, but from the other side of the table.
When Craig asked me if I could do the dailies for the week before Christmas I jumped at the chance. For the past few years, Christmas and Magic have gone together like chestnuts and open fires, Santa Claus and Rudolph, and real trees and headlines about “a tragic holiday fire.” I like to create casual, kitchen-table decks to give to certain Magic-playing people as presents. I like to get Magic cards, too. Remember, when you don’t know what to get that Magic player on your list, there’s always a new set of cards.
The masses have asked… and Mike has delivered! Today’s Flores Friday takes a look at the new Extended format post-Worlds, and offers up a few interesting deck tidbits. The first is inspired by unlucky 9th-place finisher at Worlds, Shaheen Soorani… while the second is inspired by our own Ben Bleiweiss! Extended – Fun for All the Family!
After a self-confessed average day at the office during the Standard portion of Worlds, Josh had high hopes going into the Time Spiral drafts. He has been extremely vocal on his tactics and thoughts on the format, and was feeling confident of at least posting a 3-0 in the first pod. So, how did he do? Read on to find out!
