Late Sunday night I cruised on over to the Sideboard to see how Chicago shook out, and saw that the evil * crushed the dreams of PT Rookies this year; Kai isn’t exactly an unknown player using Chicago to launch himself into the spotlight, like Bob Maher and in past years. So much for that…
Back from a Sideboard reporting gig in Chicago, I have a lot I want to share with you all. First, you should check out my early "lessons learned" piece on the Sideboard (they’ve been kind enough to feature it on the front, so just go to www.sideboard.com). Then, if you like, you could go read…
The universe has been putting itself to extremes for me. Usually it contents itself with making things awful, which lets me counteract whatever misery I suffer by telling the world at large. One of the benefits of this column has been that it provides exactly the forum I need, letting me dole out on you,…
This weekend was a special weekend for me – no, I didn’t qualify for PT Chicago; it was the weekend of the Bath Annual Invitational event. (Although I have been reading the live coverage on the Sideboard, and articles are definitely my favourites on there. Â Pop by and check them out.) In January 2000, Paul…
The results are in! This weekend saw the culmination of Pro Tour: Chicago, the tournament that I had most hoped to attend. Alas, it was not to be; the closest I came to fame was finishing third in the Qualifier. Okay, the mandatory "my fifteen minutes of fame" moment is over with. The results are…
It came, it went, and conquered. And I watched the whole thing from very close in. The DCI is developing what’s called the Judge/Reporter program. There’s too little space on stage for a Judge and a reporter, so the idea is to combine the roles. There are few people qualified and fewer consistently available. At…
There were some things that I meant to talk about in my last article, which explored black as a possible metagame call in the current standard environment that I didn’t get to. Basically it is this… THERE IS NO DARK RITUAL IN INVASION! This probably means that there will not be any more of this…
Thanks to the plethora of people who have been e-mailing me to add their names to the petition to start a Senior Super Series of some sort. Keep those e-mails coming (although I have a few logistical problems to work out, which I’ll save for another column). But on to the matter at hand. The…
You hear the term all the time: the Magic Community. But what is it, exactly? I’m not going to treat you as children and pretend like you don’t know. However, I am going to give you something to think about. The following article was written by : "Andrew Cuneo is a credit to this great…
I guess my preparation for the Extended season started as soon as the Kentucky State Championships were over. I had the Master’s decklists everywhere I went, and was busy trying to figure out what the best decks could be. I thought Trix would be tough, and Trade Survival would be everywhere. I did, however, want…
[Andrew Cuneo did the right thing. And still won. Read about it here: http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp? x=MASTERSCHI009010fm3gw There has been some discussion on the Star City mailing list that he might have done "the right thing" only because whatever he was using as a bird token was shaped in a manner that could lead to confusion about…
Black is down. So sayeth Chavez Domingo. I don’t disagree and have said so before, but for the most part, black looked down last season as well. Aside from the odd deck there wasn’t much going in black. was mostly black based but it got some real power from white, especially . It was a…
This week’s column isn’t exactly focused, and for that I apologize. But there are a lot of little things that I wanted to talk about, so bear with me while I skip around. STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS SHOULD MEAN SOMETHING This topic pops up each year after States, and each year nothing is done about it. But…
Man, do I have a headache. I’ve spent the last few days continuing my work on the Extended metagame. I’m not sure if my rogue stubbornness is wise, but I simply cannot find it in my heart to play blue. As you can imagine, that results in numerous situations where I exclaim to no one…
If you are hoping for my PTQ: Portland report, sorry – you’re not getting one. I, alas, did not go to Portland to play, due to several reasons, foremost being that my beloved Oregon State Beavers were playing bitter rival Oregon in our annual "Civil War" that Saturday (why "Civil War"? I dunno, maybe because…
