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…
Welcome back, my readers! Last week, I gave a card-by-card analysis of my new favorite deck. It’s a G/W deck that took me to a second place finish in a big tournament. If the Ferrett could provide a handy link here, then we can move right along to my second analysis of the deck: Overall…
CONVERGENCE IDEA #1: A DECK YOU CAN PLAY. Okay, so here’s the deal: I recently designed a deck that has gone 5-1 so far in multiplayer games. Big whoop. You can find a deck like that anywhere, especially if you’re looking at Jon Chabot’s evil multiplayer combo decks. The difference is, I won with ….
Before I head off to Pro Tour Chicago, I want to wing some rules stuff at you. I’ve been away from rules dissection for a few weeks, so it’s time to get back on track. Before we head in that direction, congrats to Jeremy A. Smith of Warwick, Rhode , who was the first to…
It has been a while since my last article. Frankly, between Grand Prix – Dallas, the Magic Invitational in Sydney, Australia, and Grand Prix – Florence this past weekend, I’ve been plenty busy. Not only have I been to three continents in the past three weeks to play Magic, but somewhere along the way I…
Ten Extended Decks to Beat: Trade-Survival A fairly new archetype, Trade-Survival dominated the Gateway Masters tournament, winning it for William "Baby Huey" Jensen. The deck depends upon getting out an early and using one or two copies of , to start the engine and pulling out the creatures it needs from the deck. is the…
TOP TEN CARDS FROM INVASION: A SECOND LOOK Well, Bennie stole my idea. He made a lot of good points in his article earlier this week (link it up, oh Ferretty One), but you know I’m still going to have two cents to throw in. Please note that this is in relevance to Standard only…
[Irrelevant to the rest of the article intro rant: -Trix is everywhere. -Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1999. Because it friggin’ is. -Good thing is gone. , too. -As much as I like and support WoTC, they suck. End intro rant.] [Begin yet another one right here: I might as well hop on the…
Wow. I finally have a regular column. I was very happy to become a Featured Writer with Star City, but to have a regular slot has been my dream for some time. 1800 or Bust will be going out every Friday from now on. (Since this Thanksgiving made things a little late, we put this…
"Wow, I haven’t written in a long time." My articles always seem to start out that way. The fact of the matter is, I was in quasi-retirement for a while. I still played, but I didn’t playtest or practice; I just went to PTQs. Let me tell you this strategy is bad if you are…
