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The Magic Jerk: Growing Pains

Getting better is not easy, and it’s not fun, at least not after a while. Sometimes when I’m feeling optimistic I like to look at how far I’ve come in the past year. U.S. Nationals was last summer. This spring I’m going to the Pro Tour, and even though it’s “only” a team event, I couldn’t be more proud of where I am as a Magic player. Still, getting better sucks, and if you are anything like me, you probably have some good stories about the growing pains you have gone through as part of improving your game.

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Knocked Out in Nagoya

Yeah, I scrubbed out in Nagoya after starting 3-1 and needing one more win to make Day 2. Here come the details…

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Another Look At the Vintage Restricted List

It’s that time of year again and the pressure to restrict something in Vintage has never been greater. However, there should be no restrictions unless tournament data tells us that something needs to be done. I will briefly list out the winning decks from major tournaments over the last six months and then summarize the relevant data for the six tournaments that will point us toward what we are looking for.

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SCG Daily – Doctor Mox’s Future Sight

If you’re so clever, do something REALLY cool. Look into the friggin’ future, or something. Tell us what Magic will be like a few years down the line. I bet you a dollar to a duck’s ass that you can’t do it.

Prove me wrong, Mox. I dare ya.

Marty
California

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Yet Another Change To The Weekly Contest: The Casual Challenge!

In StarCityGames.com’s never-ending quest to improve the Casual and Multiplayer section, we will now be offering the $20 prize every week to the person who writes the best Casual and Multiplayer article. The twist? The article has to be on the topic we’ve chosen for that week.

That’s right: Each week, we’ll choose a different Casual and/or Multiplayer topic for you to write about, and the person who provides the best in-depth analysis wins an easy $20! This week’s topic?

The Best Multiplayer Combo.

Remember, we’re not just looking for a deck; we want the strategy of how to play it, what sorts of other decks and/or people disrupt it, and ideas on possible alternate builds. So send your submission into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2! Your money awaits!

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StarCityGames.com Is Looking For Casual Writers!

As a part of the revamped Casual and Multiplayer section, StarCityGames.com is looking for new writers to produce weekly columns on alternative formats! The two formats we’re looking for experts on are Peasant Magic and Tribal Wars.

Potential writers must be able to:

  • Write a consistently entertaining column, week in and week out;
  • Have a basic knowledge of that format’s general metagame;
  • Be able to come up with creative, interesting decks (or reports on other interesting decks found elsewhere);
  • Be able to explain why a particular deck is good (and, more importantly, why it’s not good) to a casual general audience.

Note that for Tribal, we’re not strictly concerned with the smashing the format, but are looking more for someone who can design a deck around a specific creature race every week. (Hint: Don’t start with Goblins.) Still, it should be able to stand up to the competition in Tribal Wars or Creature World.

If you think you can handle this, please email a sample column and links to any previously-published articles to The Ferrett, Casual and Multiplayer Editor, at Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2.

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In Search of the Triple Delicious: Betrayers Black for Limited

I never got to assemble Kaldra, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up my other dreams, including all five Hondens in play, using the Green Myojin to toss out the other four, and to a lesser extent, attacking with an 8/12 trampling land. In addition to the Black review, this article contains a large section focusing on my attempts to pummel people with Genju of the Realms in draft.

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Weak Among the Strong: Grand Prix Goblins, Part II

One of the things I think is often lacking in Magic articles is honesty. I’m not talking about people giving inferior lists so they can protect their tech, although that certainly happens. I’m talking about people not being honest enough with themselves to be honest with us about what they did and why. Today I will be fully honest about exactly how well my Goblin deck performed at Grand Prix: Boston, the mistakes I made with it, and the modifications I feel are necessary to make it even more competitive in this crazy environment.

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Beneath the Vast Indifference of Heaven – An Aluren Tale

Anyone who has read Pale Mage over the years knows one thing: the man is obsessed with Aluren in Extended. Oiso’s Aluren win wrested the pale one from his Magic writing coma and set him straight on a curvy path of deck analysis, complete with a look at the successful Aluren decks over the past few years and Pale’s own PTQ vartiation he will be playing for the rest of the season.

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SCG Daily – Doctor Mox Tackles Type Two, Part Deux

After whipping through the frenetic world of Affinity and Tooth and Nail yesterday, today Dr. Moxenstein turns his keen analytical eye on Green/Black and Mono-Blue in your favorite Friday Night format.

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Training Wheels – A Reflection on the Use of the Intuition/AK Draw Engine in Control Slaver

One cannot doubt that Control Slaver has been growing both in popularity and success in Vintage. Many prominent players were critical of the deck at first, but it has since put up enough results to convince the skeptics. While the deck’s ability is beyond dispute, what has not been settled is the question regarding the optimal build. In this article, I focus on an important issue that many players face when constructing their Control Slaver lists: should the Intuition/Accumulated Knowledge engine be in the deck?

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Papal Bull: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – The Restriction Candidates

In the first half, I went over the restricted list and covered the mechanics which appeared in the restricted cards. To recap, they were undercosted cards (Ancestral Recall), overpowered cards which cannot properly be costed (Balance), mana producers (Black Lotus), cards which are overpowered in multiples (Black Vise), tutors (Demonic Tutor), and combo engines (Dream Halls). In this half, I’ll go over some of the other cards that are unrestricted in Vintage that might fit into one or more of these categories along with some of the commonly requested restrictions.

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Metagaming

The term Metagame, like the terms postmodern and existentialism, gets thrown around a lot by pseudo-intellectuals who don’t actually know its meaning. The word metagame means, most simply, the types of decks that are being played in a geographic area. The metagame includes both deck archetypes and individually tuned decks. For example, the metagame for an area might consist of control decks. There might be one prevalent control deck, or a couple of different types, but control decks are being played the most overall. The metagame is what will determine whether your deck succeeds or fails.

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Building Decks With Bad Rares

Abe has a deck with three hundred and fifty of the worst cards in Magic in it. He reaches in, pulls out a card… and no matter how bad the card is, he has to build a deck around it. What five dreadful cards does he draw this time, and what sorts of decks can he assemble when the core is a sucktacular card?

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Fighting the Best Decks… With the Best Decks

Now that would be telling.

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