Today I’m going to talk about the hardest lesson that I’ve ever learned from Magic. The tournament I’m about to describe was a failure before I even sat down for my first match, and the events that happened therein had a large effect on the American magic landscape…
This weekend, in New York City, the Top8Magic crew will be hosting a book signing at Neutral Ground to give people a chance to buy Mike’s book in person, meet the author, the staff, and some of the famous names that populate the pages of Mike’s massive tome. Once through the doors you will have the opportunity to run your Standard-legal deck through a gauntlet of some of Mike’s past Standard creations, manned by some of the world’s greatest players…
Ben brings us an article free of Ghost Dad today… So what, I hear you ask, does it contain? The answer to that? Everything. There’s a look at some possible Dissension cards, Ben’s thoughts on the current Standard environment, some tournament tidbits from GP Madison, a complete RRG Draft walkthrough, plus much much more! A fine article, delivered with a fair dose of good humor.
Have you ever wished you could play to the best of your ability, week in week out? Have you ever played a match knowing you’re off your game, but unable to peak yourself up to one hundred percent? Do you find yourself lacking that killer instinct, missing out on wins through forces unseen? If this is the case, then Noah can help. A fantastic article examining the psychology of optimal play. Read this, and get in The Zone.
In a previous article, Chris examined the Staple Rares that every budget player should aim to own. However, he neglected to cover the majority of Kamigawa rares, due to their diminishing Standard shelf-life. After many cries for help, he returns today to set the record straight…
The tournament we’re going to cover here today is not necessarily a total failure – I finished in the prizes, I had a winning record, and I was one win away from qualifying. That one potential win and the lack of results thereof, though, is the crux of this article. In that sort of situation, one loss can offset an entire tournament’s worth of wins. The lesson today is one that will hopefully help change some of your tournament near-wins to tournament wins.
When you open up a deck with Gleancrawler, Dark Confidant, and Followed Footsteps, you gotta try it. I mean, come on – Footsteps on a Gleancrawler? It’s every Timmy’s fever dream. But in reality, two of these three crazy-strong rares didn’t work out nearly as well as I thought they would, and what I got was a timely lesson on how what’s in your card pool affects how potent a rare can be.
In classic literature, when Gregor Samsa awoke from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into a verminous bug. But in the hands of eccentric British Magic writer Tony Boydell, Gregor Samsa becomes something else entirely, in a strange and somehow touching tale of Magic struggle.
In the first of a regular column, Limited master Raphael Levy discusses some of the hidden gems of Ravnica/Ravnica/Guildpact draft. After his storming finals appearence at GP Barcelona – hot on the heels of his Top 8 at GP Cardiff – it’s safe to say that when Raphael speaks, we all should listen…
It’s safe to say that Mr Dingler is on a roll. A Limited PTQ win, followed by a Grand Prix win the following weekend… and now another PTQ win a mere seven days later. What’s his secret? Is it all down to the mighty Grozoth? An entertaining and enlightening report from a man who’s definitely in form.
I’ve elected to take SCG Daily this week to further my plans of literary domination, and to continue revealing how much of an awful player I am. As you can see from the title of the article, I’ve gotten some of the best lessons I’ve learned in this game from horrible tournament failures, and I can’t think of any better way to be a helpful writer than to tell you what not to do. So listen up, kids, and don’t be like Ben.
Mike finishes off his series on Team Constructed in fine style… discussing a powerful, new creation that helped qualify two teams at the same PTQ! Confused? Don’t be. One team made it on ranking, and one Q’ed the traditional way (their report appears on Monday)! Wanna know more? All is revealed within…
Teddy Card Game returns with the second article in the excellent Thinking It Through series. With the help of some of the greatest Limited minds in the game today, Ted explores a number of common 40-card dilemmas. Today, they revolve around Bloodthirst. Have you got the courage to block? Read on to find out…
In the past few weeks, I’ve talked about a plethora of decks. This is better than that, this put up such-and-such for numbers, this is what made the Top 4 of the Grand Prix… but we’re two weeks into the season, and as you know, two weeks in is plenty of time to find out that everything you knew was wrong.
For some reason (complete laziness), I never wrote about my experiences at the Honolulu Pro Tour. I’m still not going to, because the time has passed and my notes went through the washing machine a few times, but I do have a tropical lesson to share….
