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Good Beats: Mind Sports

As an American citizen, I had to endure quite a media circus over the past few weeks. The outcome of a very important event was in doubt. I would read the newspaper each morning with bated breath, looking for more information, always wondering how and when this huge spectacle would play out. After much waiting,…

FINAL JUDGEMENT: The Multiplayer Bandwagon

Thanks to everyone who sent Lisa birthday greetings – again, too numerous to mention by name. I turned on her computer before she got up on Tuesday and opened her mailbox so that they’d be waiting for her. She was most pleased. I also want to thank all the folks who have yet to mail…

Dead Words

Kack-handed Introduction: "We began before words, and we will end beyond them. It sometimes seems to me that our days are poisoned with too many words. Words said and not meant. Words said AND meant. Words divorced from feeling. Wounding words. Words that conceal. Words that reduce. Dead words."+ Things have been really busy at…

CASUAL FRIDAYS #69: Songs And Victory

Break this Contest has banned AND (Shyft is an Ice Age creature that can go multichromatic at instant speed.) Any submission using should be resubmitted. Anthony apologizes for the oversight, and would like to state for the record that he thinks Ice Age is a lovely expansion, and that people who think about Ice Age…

The Metagame, And How To Play It: A Deck Analysis

A paper cut on my eyeball would have been preferable. Licking clean the bottom of an week-old ferret cage? Woulda done it in a second. I would have even welcomed the thought of twitchy junkie giving me a full-body shave with a dull razor and ice-cold water rather than go… …but alas, I couldn’t avoid…

Lords of Atlantis: Wizards of the Coast, The DCI, And The Player

The articles on the Internet read like a close family member had died: Hasbro was firing 750 members of its work staff, and Peter Atkinson had resigned his post of CEO in disgust. Are the numbers true? Reports say so. Did Atkinson leave in disgust? I hardly think so. Thirty years old is quite young,…

Any Given Sunday – Part I

I’m thinking Magic, and I’m thinking football, and I can’t seem to divorce the two of them from my mind. I’ve been working on my rogue Standard deck, which has performed quite well in playtesting and, if not for foolish idiocy on my part, would have been 5-1 at a tournament Saturday. Wouldacouldashoulda means nothing,…

FINAL JUDGEMENT: What I Want for Christmas

As I mentioned previously, today (Tuesday the 19th) is Lisa’s birthday (that’s Lisa my wife, although I suspect there are other people named Lisa who have birthdays today). If you have the opportunity, please drop her an email at [email protected] wishing her a happy birthday. Trust me, she’ll appreciate it. Ask her how she likes…

Me And My Ants: PTQ Tokyo

Tuesday through Friday: "You have spent 456 minutes online." -AoL, upon signing off. Okay, quit yer whining. One of the quotes was wrong, a little. It’s not like you were close, anyway. Here: "I’ve got this fella working for me – do you know what a hacker is?" Should now read: "I HAVE this fella…

PTQ/GPQ St Louis: A Tale of Two Tourneys

Half tourney report, half discussion, Will discusses Force of Will. Not the column, the card.

PTQ/GPQ St Louis: A Tale of Two Tourneys

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." "Oh you’re ‘that’ guy." I was still at the Fantasy Shop hanging around trying to make some late trades and was talking about my day. My 0-5 day in extended with . Do you really want to hear a full match report on…

CASUAL FRIDAYS #68: Fifteen Funky Formats To Fool Your Friends

With the holidays upon us, it is time to shake ourselves out of our typical ruts and do some fresh, new things. I therefore present to you fifteen new (well, some more new than others) group play formats for you to try over the next few weeks. I came up with the number "fifteen" easily,…

1800 Or Bust!: Thanks, Omeed!

What a difference a Type II Pro Tour makes. How many articles are out there right now written by the Pros? How many different versions of decks can we look at when building our own versions and test gauntlets? Just how clearly are the Tier One decks defined? And all this thanks to a Pro…

(Force of) Will To Power: To Ban Or Not to Ban

Quick question: what do Trade-Survival, Trix, Pande-Burst, Counter-Sliver, Forbidian, and most of the Fruity Pebbles-spawned cereal variants have in common? . The aforementioned decks are considered among the best Extended decks currently in the format. The only non-rogue Extended decks that don’t run are the -fueled variants, Three-Deuce, Stompy, Secret Force and Sligh – and…

FINAL JUDGEMENT: With All Humility…

Franklin*, , soared high above Dominaria, swirling, looping, diving and doing the occasional barrel roll. Franklin didn’t care much about doing anything but soaring and swooping and so forth, mostly because he was good at it. In fact, Franklin was the best swooper among all the Cloudchasers he knew (his barrel-rolling could use some work,…