As a player with years of tournament experience, I can give you some advice on how to get ready for a tourney – and how to avoid game losses for stupid mistakes. As a judge, I have to wonder why I keep giving out game losses for these same things. Jeez, people – this stuff isn’t hard. Winning a tournament is tough enough, don’t shoot yourself in the foot at the start.
Welcome to StarCityGames.com’s 2005 Championship Deck Challenge, where each some of the best writers we have square off against each other in a battle to deliver the best deck for States. Each deck must adhere to the theme for the week, and on Friday Supreme Arbiter Flores will choose a victor. This week’s theme: Build a Mono-Colored Monstrosity.
Our previous set reviewer may have ascended to the ivory towers of Wizards of the Coast, but in his place we have one of the hottest deckbuilders around and best Magic writers in history to give you the lowdown on every card in Ravnica. Today we start with the White cards, and rest assured – with this set it only gets better from there.
It’s mean. It’s Green. But is it a winning machine? Chris puts his latest creation through its paces to see if mid-range Mono-Green beatings is a viable option.
Vintage expert and frequent Power 9 Top 8 competitor Brian DeMars makes his first appearance on StarCityGames.com today to deliver an excellent primer on Control Slaver. If you have any interest in playing or beating this deck, you should read this article.
I have played in a lot of PTQs, Grand Prix, and other big tourneys, and have my fair share of PTQ Top 8 pins. I’m a player. I’m also a judge, and have judged at Nationals, Grand Prix, Worlds and Pro Tours. Since I have a foot in both camps, I want to pass on some advice – judge to player. This is stuff that players should know, and judges wish they would know. This may not win you games and matches – but it may keep you from losing games and matches.
Gifts Ungiven is more dominant than Affinity. There, I’ve said it. Now if you want to know what the hell I’m talking about, you have to actually click on the article.
Saturday, September 24th
* Ravnica Prerelease Day One (Check out the Prerelease Card!)
* Ravnica Team Limited Tournament
* “Power Nine” Vintage Tournament Series
* Judge Certification
* Meet Artist Christopher Moeller
(artist of Umezawa’s Jitte and Twincast!)
Sunday, September 25th
* Ravnica Prerelease Day Two (Check out the Prerelease Card!)
* Ravnica Two-Headed Giant Tournament
* NEW! “Duel for Duals” Legacy Tournament – 100 dual lands up for grabs!
* Judge Certification
* Meet Artist Christopher Moeller!
(artist of Umezawa’s Jitte and Twincast!)
The Ravnica prerelease is tomorrow and you’re looking to get the best trades possible at the tournament. Ben breaks down the hottest cards from the new set using data culled straight from weeks of Ravnica singles presales! See which cards are in the most demand, which cards are being undervalued, and which cards you should be gunning for on Saturday. Make sure you don’t trade away your gold for dandelions – read this edition of Ben’s Corner right now!
A little over two weeks ago, Masashi battled the best players Japan had to offer and ended up on the Japanese National team. This is the story of how he got there, complete with insights on the current Standard format and his favorite archetype in CBS draft.
The last article in this series was what some guy named Randy Buehler deemed one of the greatest articles he had ever read. Can you really afford not to read volume 2?
blisterguy continues his fine tradition of doing everything short of force feeding you the spoiler in order to prepare readers for tomorrow’s prerelease. Recommended for good players and commoners alike.
If you’ve never been to a prerelease, here’s what it’s like: You have this big pile of cards in front of you. In half an hour, you have to make a deck out of them. Today I’m going to take the least experienced among you and try to instruct you how to take your “pile” and turn it into a deck that can win.
Welcome back. Today I’d like to go over what you should expect if you’re planning on playing Vintage in Richmond this weekend. My job today is pretty easy though, since anyone who’s been to Richmond before knows that the metagame is extremely predictable. What’s that? You don’t know what to expect? Well read on, then. Still need a decklist for the big event? I got your back on that one too.
Last week, my newly acquired playtest partner Jeff Cunningham, a.k.a. ffej, wrote what was described by Randy Buehler, Grand Wizard Vizier of Magic: the Gathering as – and I quote specifically here – what “could be the best column [he] ha[s] ever read[,]” (emphasis mine). High praise indeed from the lord and master of hocus-pocus and prestidigitation; too high, in fact, to escape notice. Now I must say that your narrator, too, enjoyed ffej’s Time Walk into the ancient days and it jarred me almost bodily into historic reverie. However, instead of telling untold stories as Jeff is doing, I shall highlight some of the greatest stories ever told for the eggs and chicks in the audience.
