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Translating Testing to Results

Success or failure in a Magic tournament is not decided over 1,000 games played in your living room before the tournament. Success or failure will depend on a very small number of games, and on one or two incidents during those games – choosing whether or not to mulligan, choosing which cards to sideboard in or out, deciding which creatures to attack with or which spell to cast on your fourth turn, little things like that. Your testing, therefore, needs to focus on preparing you to make those decisions.

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You Will Pay a Lot for that Muffler!

The slow crawl towards Regionals continues, this week with my current favorite deck, and one that has been dismissed as terrible with the recent metagame shift. The deck of course is one-time powerhouse U/W Control. You know what? The critics are right. I’m here to tell you that while “traditional” U/W control has no real place in the metagame, there is an approach to U/W that will not only be competitive, but might just be the solution that I’ve been searching for to the puzzle that is the Regionals environment.

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Ask Ken, 04/19/2004

…Now, the only way I’m winning this game is if I can get back Pentavus with the Sword, and his only flyer is white. So I say”attack”, he taps a random myr, then I use it for mana and put the Sword on my Arcbound Stinger. He screams”judge” so loud that Mark Zajdner almost has a heart attack, and the judge of course rules in my favor. Was this a baggy thing to do?

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From Right Field: An Issues Issue – MTGO = Magic: The Gathering’s Offline

Here’s what I propose. During the week after Regionals, from Sunday, May 2nd, 2004, through Saturday, May 8th, 2004, spend no money on fake cards. Buy no tickets. Just play with whatcha got. And play. And play and play and play. If no one spends any money for an entire week, I think Wizards might get the idea that we’re serious. Businesses get the hint when you hit ’em where it hurts.

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Ask Ken, 04/16/2004

I noticed your plea for short Constructed questions, and I just wanted to ask you: If you had to update a Three Deuce decklist for Type 1.5, what would it look like?

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Color Archetypes in Team Sealed

What do the Canadian National Champion, the winner of Grand Prix: Columbus, and everyone’s favorite crank Tim Aten have in common? They all lent a helping hand to try and give you a leg up on the competition for Grand Prix: DC and Team Sealed season!

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Richie Goes Random

I’ve begun to feel that all I’m capable of writing about is Lynch Mob, but deep down inside, I know that’s not all true. It’s just that this deck has consumed my every thought, and I spend so much time testing it and working with ways to improve it, that it’s hard for me to get outside of that particular mindset. I know I have so many more things I would like to discuss, so I decided to try and file them all together into one column.

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Testing the Weird Decks

So I was all set to exhaustively test one of the Weird decks on Tuesday. BDM and I were going to meet at Neutral Ground and have at it, but as usual, that didn’t work out. For one thing, whenever we meet at Neutral Ground, no matter the reason, people just end up drafting. To make matters worse, out of nowhere, Jonathan Magic, Brian Kibler, and EFro showed up to test for the GP this weekend. It was awesome, as I haven’t seen Jon in forever and was shocked to see him testing at all again. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t get some Weird deck testing in myself!

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I Wonder How Many Potatoes Twenty Thousand Dollars Could Buy?

When I get ready for a Limited format, I try and make it a point to know every trick that my opponent could possibly have. When your opponent attacks, you have to be able to figure out what cards they can have in their hand to beat your strategy. If you can play around their trick successfully then do so. If you can’t beat their trick, assume they don’t actually have the trick that beats you. You don’t gain anything by playing around a trick you can’t beat.

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Lifestyles of the Exceedingly Clever

This week we’ll be exploring the valuation of Darksteel cards in Limited before the topic becomes an anachronism. I’ll also be spewing forth the usual randomness you’ve all come to know and love and deliver some predictions for Grand Prix: DC.

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Regionals: The Keys to the Kingdom

I’ve got a secret to share with you. It will get you qualified for Nationals at this year’s Regionals; it’ll get you in position to take the slot or the cash at your next PTQ. Yes, competitive Magic success can be yours for the taking, if you just listen to this one insight, this nugget of wisdom I’m willing to impart to you. Yes, it’s the Real Deal, the Magic Carpet ready to scoop you up and deposit you on the Gravy Train. If you want to Win And Win Big! then you better keep reading.

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