What happens when you stick to the wrong colors during a draft and it all goes wrong? Nick deconstructs one of his drafts and shows you why it fell apart and how you can avoid certain Ravnica draft pitfalls. Plus, which cards are key to a successful Selesnya draft? Eisel’s got the answers!
Think Goblins is dead in Extended? Think again. The number one Goblins player at the Pro Tour tells you today that with some sideboard tweaks and correct play, Goblins is still good enough to take home the title.
The Limited Lover’s fan favorite is back, this time covering the many colors of Ravnica in all its sealed deck goodness.
For some reason, people are more excited about the Boros deck than the Golgari deck, and I can’t figure out why. The Golgari have Dredge, potentially huge animated lands, and maybe the second-best, three-mana, multi-colored common of all-time in Shambling Shell. Maybe the G/B decks spawned by Ravnica just seemed so obviously powerful that the folks who normally read my stuff weren’t impressed. “Duh, G/B’s strong. We get it.” Maybe they like the challenge of taking a weaker color combination and making it work. Maybe they just like Quaker Strawberries and Cream Instant Oatmeal and/or the color pink.
As many of you know, I have an aversion to buying more than a few packs of each set. This is because most often, the contents of a pack don’t typically justify the purchase. Ravnica, however, is awesome.
I’ve got to finish this report. I’m writing for posterity, so here we go — time to quit sitting on my big fat… laurels. Time to explain my perspective on a fairly interesting Top 8 Sunday. Time to own up to what’s mine.
As thanks for you reading all week, Jim produces two Boros creature loads for Extended that are a bit off the beaten path. Check it out.
As promised, here are the seven traits which I feel dictate one’s individual style as a spell slinger. No one attribute is solely definitive, as I feel every player displays at least two or three, and in varying degrees.
Teddy Card Game takes a break from strategy today in order to thank unsung heroes from around the game.
Originally I was planning on skipping Grand Prix: Philly and instead spending time working on the Extended format for Grand Prix: Charlotte in December. This all changed when I realized I’d be qualified for Pro Tour: Honolulu on rating. “No Constructed Magic until February?” I thought to myself. Just then I came to the realization that Grand Prix: Philadelphia was technically not a Constructed tournament, but it affected Eternal ratings. Immediately I started making phone calls, checking class syllibi and by the end of the week, my flight was booked. Now then… What the hell is good in Legacy?
Everyone knows the Top 8 decks from PT LA: Ruel’s Two Color Tog, SWK’s Heartbeat deck, Fujita’s Boros build, Moreno’s Madness Tog and so forth. I want to look beyond the Top 8 – and beyond PT LA – to see what other decks are being played. I’ll even throw in some metagame info from the recent GPs.
There’s an old boxing adage that says “Styles make fights,” but what about in Magic?
When you’re trading, you don’t want to get ripped off because you didn’t know that Phage the Untouchable still has a really high market value due to massive casual interest. This article will look at some old cards that have kept their value over time, and list some recent cards that have high values as well. These cards are especially important, because tournament-level players consistently undervalue them while casual players highly covet them.
One week Ervin Tormos was just some PTQ kid Tim Aten introduced me to at a Grand Prix. Then, attending his first Pro Tour ever, he was suddenly a Top 8 contender. This is the unlikely story of how that came about, including the inside skinny on how Ervin sideboarded PT Jank against the field.
I’m going to start this article the only way I can to keep it interesting – most of you have probably heard of me, not for what I’ve accomplished, but rather for what I’ve disrupted. At PTNO of 2003, team Your Move Games had an awesome Goblins deck that comboed off with a little-known enchantment from Mercadian Masques called Food Chain. It could kill on turn 2 and absolutely blindside whoever was expecting a more normal Goblins deck… if it wasn’t for the fact that everyone at the tournament already knew about it. That was because of me.
Hi, I’m Ben. Nice to meet you.
