The color pie has shifted over the five or six years of MTGO’s history; back when it started out, Invasion and Odyssey were the new kids on the block, and in that time, Blue was powerful. Blue had Fact or Fiction, twelve high-profile, playable counterspells ranging in multiple color combinations, and of course, all its raw power in the midsection. Green, on the other hand… not so much so.
Sean takes us through not one, not two, but three triple Time Spiral drafts, each pick lovingly recreated for us readers! It’s clear that the newest set on the block has everyone talking… but will this practice be enough to take Sean to the top tables at Grand Prix: New Jersey?
Life is just full of surprises sometimes. For example, when some utter random builds a rogue budget (for Classic) deck with next to no knowledge of the metagame and still manages to finish in the Top 8 of a 112-person event. Just for further grins and giggles, let’s say said utter random has never even played the format casually before.
Well, I’ll be your utter random today. So how did I do it?
Quentin has spent the last four months travelling around the world… he’s back, and this article sees him in a reflective mood. Mr. Martin takes us through the card evaluation process, and warns us against the dangers of ignoring the surrounding ephemera that can cloud rational judgement. Never take a card’s worth at face value… there’s more to this skill than one might expect.
Richard completes his excellent series on building a Constructed manabase with the most intricate installment yet – honing the color and mana requirements of any given deck. He looks at a number of recent examples to emphasize his theories, and shares a mass of insight that can only aid us in our quest to become superior deckbuilders. A fine conclusion to a strong series.
Richie took his honed Angel control deck and threw it squarely in the face of our champion Jeroen Remie. Would the stronger strategy and critical mass of destruction spells ruin Heroin’s day? Read on to find out!
Jeroen Remie, two-time Battle Royale champion, took a leaf from the Holy Book of Wakefield for this current round of play. Cards? 62. Lands? 26. Fat monsters, removal, and fun. Was it enough to bring down the grumpiest player on the Pro Tour? You’ll have to read the article to find out…
States didn’t go so well for me this year; just your standard 2-2 drop filled with your standard play errors and your standard deckbuilding mistakes. Some interesting stuff did happen which caused me to re-assess my mental game, and I may write about that at a later point, but for now I bet you’d like to hear about someone doing well at States. Thank goodness for Sean Vandover.
This series of articles was written in response to a series of comments by various casual players who decried the existence of a casual metagame. Of course, as the creator of the Framework, I obviously disagree with that claim. These articles set out to demonstrate to casual players that there is an underlying taxonomy to Magic decks that can be studied and understood.
In Five-Color Magic, White gives you Balance, Swords to Plowshares, and Armageddon. Distinguished company, distinguished indeed. All of them, powerful in control, combo, aggro, or midgame — who doesn’t love watching a team of Mongoose, Werebear, and Terravore plump up as you blow up the world?
Blisterguy has cashed his sixth place Nationals finish into a trip to Paris for Worlds, and he’s on the lookout for Standard and Extended tech! Unfortunately, Magic Online can’t help him this week… still, there’s always the joy of the pineapple-inducing Price Guides to keep him busy.
This coming weekend sees the Grand Prix circuit stop in New Jersey, and Paul Jordan has been practicing hard for the event. Today’s article is packed with two things – Sealed deck advice, and interesting New Jersey facts. Did you know that using Scryb Ranger’s ability is a fine foil to Assassinate? Fair enough… but did you know that New Jersey is the diner capital of the world? All this, and more, inside!
Evan continues his excellent series of video articles with an examination of the various advantages that can be gained through a dedicated deck strategy. There’s card advantage, creature advantage, resource advantage… and if that’s not all, he shares a tricky Time Spiral Sealed pool for us all to play along at home.
Agnostically speaking, Blue is the most powerful color in Prismatic. Every deck runs a solid base of Blue cards, and more often than not, simply by dint of having effects like Compulsive Research and other card drawing, it represents a lot of the best effects in the format. Black and Red are both good colors, and hard to cut — but only because of how they interact with Blue.
Mr. Remie brings us the latest edition of his Ask Jeroen column, tackling tricky reader-posed questions on all things Magical. Today’s grab-bag of topics includes Jeroen’s thoughts on the post-Champs Standard metagame, an examination of an intriguing Black/Red Extended aggro deck, plus much more!
