In my last article, I went over my mono-Blue build* for Standard and detailed some of the matchups and card choices. I also said that my Constructed rating at the time was 1888, and that I needed at least 12 points by December 15th, 2004 to earn two byes on rating for GP: Boston and GP: Seattle. On that point, I was wrong — I needed 18 points. Time to whip out the Standard decks and grind for a while, I guess…
In addition to giving a restrospective on the previous “official” champions we’ve had in the Magic writing world, Mike takes a look back at the legacy and the legend of the crazy old genius who inhabits the body of one Eric “Dinosaur” Taylor.
Yesterday Michael Clair published an article that sent a portion of the community up in arms about whether he was damaging the game. Today Kanoot takes a look back at some of the best articles ever written on cheating in Magic and makes a clear case why enforcing the rules as Clair advocated is actually important for the game. If you’ve ever cheated, been cheated, saw someone cheat, heard about a cheater, or (God forbid) felt that StarCityGames.com published an article advocating cheating, you must read this article.
You want Champions draft strategy? You got it! Random inside jokes and random anecdotes? Done! Breasts? Oh hell yeah!
I really liked Mr. Krouner’s ideas on dynamic pick orders, but I don’t think he took it far enough. Too often people just ignore the other half of the combination when doing pick orders. So here is my shot into dynamic archetype drafting bullseye. As a lot of people have said before, when drafting you have to look at the whole picture.
My last two articles talked a lot about plan-making: how one should plan in situations where the opponent could have hate cards for your affinity deck, and how one should plan on saving a lost game in the face of the opponent’s tricks. Both of these articles were well-received in the forums, which makes me happy. But, many of the plan-making concepts brought about some thoughtful disagreement from some readers. Since I haven’t yet put in the proper amount of testing to write about Extended, I thought I would take a few pages to write more about what kind of planning I was talking about.
Can we, your loyal readers, hear the tale of your greatest Magic-related drinking session and the antics that ensued?
In the past few days, it’s come to my attention that I am a bit more of a jerk than I intend to be. This week, it’s my loss and your gain, as I talk about how to be a jerk for fun and profit.
The Extended season is rapidly approaching and I thought I would take some time to look at the decks you’ll be seeing. There’s really no better place to begin than with the deck that won the whole show, Affinity. Can this deck be improved and is it really the best deck in the format?
The year is winding down, but Steve hasn’t stopped tallying decklists for the mid-sized Vintage tournaments and analyzing what they mean. Which decks sit at the top of the Type One metagame these days and which ones are in decline? Steve’s got all the answers inside.
If you could pick the ultimate Top 8 – what format would it be and who would be there?
I recently got my hands on some Unhinged cards, so I’ve been looking at integrating them into decks. Some are stupidly broken, some are just bleah, but some are actually pretty interesting. Unhinged is also a reasonable set for Limited purposes – something I did not really expect from a silver-bordered set. At the request of our editor, I decided to take a comprehensive look at the Limited, Constructed, and Multiplayer possibilities inherent in this fun new set and report my findings.
I heard you were big into martial arts. Can you teach me to kick ass like Jet Li?
Today Nick throws down his thoughts about Jabberwocky, Mystic Restraints (overplayed), Reverse the Sands (a potential bomb), and a particularly tough pack he faced recently. He also muses about a potential new draft archetype he stumbled upon recently while drafting a bad Dampen.dec.
What was your first album purchase, and what 5 albums would you take with you to a desert island to keep you company for the rest of your days?
Phil takes a look at the last two months of big Vintage tournament data and also breaks down the various points being made in the Mishra’s Workshop/Trinisphere banning debate. What does the data say about who’s right and who’s wrong here? You’ll have to click on the link to find out.
