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Let’s say that a cheater makes the top 8 by winning a match that s/he shouldn’t have won. What if it was top four? What if it was the finals? In each case, depending on the prize structure at your place, that person has stolen from someone. Plain and simple. Stealing. That person cheated to get something s/he wouldn’t have gotten if s/he had played fair and square. It got taken away from someone who (hopefully) didn’t cheat. Heck, even if the cheater didn’t make the prize level, but knocked out someone who should have made it, they stole from that person.

The problem is that cheating is more rampant than even the most cynical of us would like to believe.

So Ben Bleiweiss thinks White is in the crapper, that it has been maligned by Wizards and given the shaft in its mechanics. According to him, White is the worst color of every format, the victim of ruthless undermining from within and generally anemic in every way. He goes about examining the claims that Randy Buehler made in a February 2003 article concerning what White would and would not be doing in the future, and concludes, based on examination of the current Standard format, that the promised”goods” have not been delivered. As I understand it, there are a number of people who agree with Mr. Bleiweiss, but I’m not one of them. Want to know why? Good, you’re in the right place.

I’m tired of people giving diluted, hackneyed set reviews every time there’s a new release. A lot of players try rating cards in both Limited and Constructed, but it ends up diluting their valuations. Others attempt to rate each and every card in the set. My approach is more holistic: I have no ratings at all. Instead, I’m going to talk about the cards that will see Constructed play (sorry guys, no Limited strategy here), or that have potential to see Constructed play in the not-too-distant future. I’m gonna throw out some thoughts and ideas, and I’d like to hear what you have to say about these cards!

The Buzz: If you thought Chalice of the Void changed Type I, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Chalice of the Void for zero stops your opponent from playing Moxen. Chalice for one stops most budget decks. Trinisphere literally shuts down the entire format, if you get it into play on the first turn. It’s a Nether Void for one, two or three, depending how much spells would have cost to begin with. It’s easily dropable on the first turn, thanks to Mishra’s Workshop. This is the single most important Type I card to see print in years, and it will single-handedly change the way decks must be built – plus it could finally get Mishra’s Workshop and Dark Ritual restricted (or re-restricted, as the case may be).

Now, the important things to look out for are the horrible, nasty, tricksey tricks that your opponents may spring upon thee in an attempt to send you into the X-1 bracket. First, I’ll list the combat tricks. Remember, I refuse to acknowledge the existence of rares, because you won’t see them nearly as often as you will the following commons and uncommons.

As you’ve probably read on Sideboard.com, seventeen land in Mirrodin Limited is a thing of the past. I’ve wanted to write this article for weeks, but was asked to hold off by my friends on team CMU since they wanted to keep the information secret until after PT Amsterdam. With that in mind, even though Sideboard let the information out of the bag, there are a lot of things to talk about regarding this”Spellbomb” archetype.

Back at the start of the year, I wrote an article outlining the mistakes and overhyped cards in Mirrodin. That was only twenty days ago from when I write this, and it’s time to make due on my promise and write a trading preview for Darksteel, as at long last we have the completed spoiler.
Or the almost completed spoiler. The mostly completed spoiler. The”I think there might be two or three cards missing” spoiler. Regardless, this is where I put my neck out on the line and offer up the cards I think you should be looking to trade for.

On Tournament Reports, Set Reviews, and Good Man of the Week.

“Card quality” is a mishmash of the possible interactions between all the resources in Magic – beyond just the cards and draw steps – and it’s used in so many different senses you can’t always be sure what the speaker means.”Card quality” has become a piece of Magic space-filling jargon, the way some people say”mise”,”barn”, and”f***” every other word and assume you understand whatever the hell they’re talking about.