The Big Secret Of SCG is that its Editor-in-Chief stopped playing Magic almost eighteen months ago. I have retained enough knowledge from reading articles to know what the must-picks are in Draft, and I have some general idea of the trends in every Constructed format… But it’s time I got back on the horse. So let’s see what happens when I step back into the new, exciting world of Ravnica Sealed!
Due to travel to/from Grand Prix: Charlotte, Ben’s Corner will be appearing Tuesday this week. Tune in tomorrow to find out what was hot in North Carolina, and which rare cards StarCityGames.com picked up at the tournament!
Chris wraps up his quest for a winning Mono-Black Control deck in Standard.
Today, I’ll talk about an unorthodox method of turning a game around in your favor. Often referred to as Jedi Mind Tricks or bluffs, this is the kind of thing that separates the good plays from the masterful ones, and will always produce a good story. First, I’ll show you a situation from an old Standard format in which a bluff could be justified…
StarCityGames.com is delighted to welcome freshly-crowned Player of the Year Kenji Tsumura to the writing staff. Today Kenji gives you the Japanese perspective on the deck that stormed Worlds and walked away with a World Championship title for his teammate Katsuhiro Mori.
StarCityGames.com. The best writers. The best players. The best Magic.
Mike Flores has never been more on top of his game as a deck designer. For the last two years he has produced deck after deck that has turned in great results for Pros and PTQ players alike. In the tradition of Mike’s legendary “Building Broken Decks” series, today Master Flores delivers the first installment in a new series where he reveals to you the secrets of his success.
Yesterday, I told tale of my Second Grand Prix. I placed fourth, winning the allotted prize for my finish plus the cash bonanza that accompanies the title of Highest Placed Amateur. My Constructed ranking gained almost 300 points overnight and I was able to treat my friends in Team Leeds to a slap-up Chinese meal. But most importantly… I was qualified for the Pro Tour!
It’s rare that a submissionist comes along who writes well enough to make us promote them after only a couple of articles, but that’s exactly what happened last week with Kelly Digges. Check out the funniest new writer on the site as he tackles the truth and the lies behind Coldsnap.
From July through October, Stax did pretty well in Vintage. Not only was it the most predominant deck in Top 8s, it was by far the most successful. Although Stax was only a fifth of Top 8s, it comprised 40% of all tournament winning decks. Therefore, I decided it was time to dissect this archetype and see just what makes them tick.
When I left off two articles ago, I had thrown together an Extended deck predicated on disruption. Despite the fact it had little or no testing, I wanted to create a starting point. Sure enough, it was – but it’s far from an end point. Today I’ll take what we started with, test it, tweak it, and see if we can end up with something good and quite rogue.
My first Grand Prix, GP: London 2001, was fun. At least, I think it was. I can’t remember a single thing about it. According to the DCI, I went 2-4, or something. Nothing special happened, or I’m sure I’d remember. My second Grand Prix, however, saw fireworks.
Mike went 5-0-2 in the swiss of his most recent PTQ with… well, isn’t it obvious? A full PTQ report with matchups plus a Flores-approved decklist for what is suddenly the hottest deck on the planet. Confused? Click the friggin’ link.
Yesterday, I spoke of my first Magic match. While it wasn’t at a tournament, and thus it never counted as a true competitive contest, it was my first series of games against a tournament-savvy opponent.
I was determined to break the streak. I hadn’t made money in a Magic tournament since Grand Prix: Chicago aside from appearance fees (I even had to look it up because I couldn’t remember the last time I made money). Worlds was a chance to make a difference, because if I didn’t, I was done.
