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SCG Daily — Time Spiral Through the Lens of its Forebears #3

In my first ever draft, triple Urza’s Saga, I opened a Morphling in my first booster and passed it because it had too many abilities and I couldn’t figure out whether it was any good or not, taking the “safe” Pacifism instead. I regretted that later when I saw a guy with infinite mana out and that very Morphling in play enchanted with Hermetic Study. He proceeded to throw away that game by blocking a Hollow Dogs with the Morphling and just shooting some stuff instead of pumping the Morphling’s toughness to save it. Nice play.

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The Constructed Manabase, Part 2: Mana Ratios, Continued

Richard continues his informative series on the philosophy behind the perfect Constructed manabase. Last time, he took a long look at Aggro decks and builds, concentrating on decks with a low mana requirement. Today he looks at decks with a more mana-intensive outlook, and investigates the relationship between cantirps, acceleration, and land-count.

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Drafting With Rich – 999 #4

Rich continues his excellent Draft series. The Canadian maestro turns his back on the cooling Coldsnap, and heads for the balmy waters of sweeter formats. From now until the online release of Time Spiral, Rich will draft a number of formats, from RGD to 999 to CBS to CCC… whatever takes his fancy at the time. He’ll supply each pick, from pick one to pick forty-five, and pen a brief commentary on hs deck and performace. For more detailed comments, visit the forums!

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U/R Tron in Extended

In the gaping chasm between Nationals and Time Spiral, many players and writers found themselves taking a break from high-level play. Tiago, however, found solace in Extended Premier Events on Magic Online. Today he presents his U/R Tron build, pimped for Extended success. He’s been raking in the wins with the full compliment of Urza’s lands… can the deck work for you?

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From Right Field: StarCityGames Exclusive! An Unofficial, Non-Time Spiral Special Dissension Post-Preview: Stalking Vengeance!

Read Chris Romeo... every Tuesday at StarCityGames.com!

Relax, we’ve not gone mad… Chris is “previewing” an old favorite in a new light. Looking back at cards that failed to achieve is a fine place to search for new tech and tricks… and today, Chris doesn’t disappoint.

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The Beautiful Struggle: Return to the Rakdos Studio

In a ten-game set against a Simic Sky Swallower-based Urzatron deck, the deck lost only one game, in which the Tron deck drew a large number of Urza lands to power up a giant Demonfire. In the other games, it was almost impossible for the control deck to deal with both one-drops, instant-speed burn spells, and the overwhelming Genju of the Spires…

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SCG Daily — Time Spiral Through the Lens of its Forebears #2

Tempest always fills me with fond memories. That’s probably because it was the time when I first started playing in tournaments, and it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Oh, how I long for the days where winning one match was such a great feeling that it didn’t matter that my overall record was 1-4…

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Time Spiral: The First Impressions!

Read The Ferrett... every Monday at StarCityGames.com!Time Spiral’s out – and as usual, it’s a race to see which cards are as good as they look on paper, and which cards don’t quite measure up! Are Thallids any good? Should you build a Sliver deck? And how does all of this Flash stuff affect your game? Read on and find out The Ferrett’s first take on one of the most exciting new sets to arrive in years!

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U/G Beats at Dutch Nationals *3rd*

Julien Nuijten makes up a vital part of the Dutch National team this year, a team that many are heralding as the pre-tournament favorites. Today’s article looks at the process behind the creation of his Constructed deck, and takes us through the changes he’d make and the sideboarding plan for anyone planning on running the U/G powerhouse in an upcoming Standard tournament. All this, plus Nationals tournament game reports!

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My Magical Life: A Constructed and Limited Look at Time Spiral

Time Spiral has finally been unveiled… and Magic’s greatest minds are on the lookout for top tips and hot tech. Billy, bunged with a head cold but fresh from the prerelease, takes us through his preliminary thoughts on Time Spiral, looking at the set from both a Constructed and Limited standpoint. He throws up card interactions left, right, and center. Who knows, maybe the next Standard-defining deck is born in this intellectual melee…

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The Great Champs Experiment: Part 4

Joshua Claytor continues his comprehensive series, examining the current Standard workhorses and producing updated (and Kamigawa-free) “skeleton” version for preliminary Champs testing. This particular article delivers some of the decks operating on the fringe of the current metagame…

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Drafting With Rich – 999 #3

Rich continues his excellent Draft series. The Canadian maestro turns his back on the cooling Coldsnap, and heads for the balmy waters of sweeter formats. From now until the online release of Time Spiral, Rich will draft a number of formats, from RGD to 999 to CBS to CCC… whatever takes his fancy at the time. He’ll supply each pick, from pick one to pick forty-five, and pen a brief commentary on hs deck and performace. For more detailed comments, visit the forums!

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SCG Daily — Time Spiral Through the Lens of its Forebears #1

Like every time a new set is released, it unleashes with it a new Limited format that people need to get to grips with. Old, experienced Limited players, though, are always at the forefront and generally know what they’re doing straight away, because there are always similarities between all Limited formats. So the best place to start the exploration of a new format is the past…

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How to View A List of Timeshifted Cards Along With Their Original Versions

Several customers have asked us how to view a list of the “timeshifted” Time Spiral cards, along with pricing/conditions/availability of their original counterparts (including foils) at the same time. Not only is it possible to do so, but thanks to the StarCityGames.com deckbuilder, it’s a snap! Here’s how…

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Spiral-Shifting Strategies in Standard

Last week, a couple of StarCityGames.com columnists decided to speculate as to how existing Standard decks would survive the rotation of Kamigawa Block, assessing to varying degrees their respective viabilities in, presumably, Time Spiral Standard. Instead of approaching the problem of the format from this direction, Mike decided to look at the upcoming Standard from the other direction: Rather than asking how the loss of cards might affect existing archetypes, how might the new cards shape our outlook and strategies as a whole?

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