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Phyrexian Scriptures: The Last Ritual…

About half-way through the Extended season, the Necro- deck emerged and caused quite a shift in the environment, as you may know. This reputed unstoppable combo deck and its ilk led to the banning of and in the extended format, also as you may know. It is my assumption that this banning, while effective, was…

Mandatory Health Warning

"Danger, Will Robinson!" You don’t realise how much danger you are all in! It’s a minefield out there (well, that’s what you get for wise-cracking the local T.A, I ‘spose)* YOU ARE IN IMMINENT DANGER – ALERT ! ALERT ! Now, the last thing I want to do is alarm you**, but playing M:TG today…

Is Being A Cowardly, Sneaking, Low-Life Rat In Multiplayer Fun?

When I went to college, the game that was on everyone’s mind— much the same way that Magic is today— was a card game called Setback. And we played it continually. Every moment between classes, you could always find three to eight people sitting at the same table, dealing cards and drinking coffee. We used…

Card Spotlight: Complex Automaton

[shamelessly taking a page from Taylor’s last article…] Belbe frowned. The hulking automaton was certainly impressive in size, but its movements were a study in inefficiency. For every step of the metallic beast, it would creak, spin its torso, wind a tangle of gears and eventually let loose a blast of steam. Belbe found the…

Removal

“I’m going to try this, and see what happens,” I said, trying to sound confident.“During your End Step, your .” “Ok.” “ your Ramsian Lieutenant.” “Ok.” “ your , with a Squee.” “Ok.” “My turn, untap, get back Squee, draw. Cast on your and (inactive, of course). your Lin Sivvi.” “Ok.” “Cast . Done.” “Ok….

Here’s An Image For You

Here’s something for you to stab up your smart-hole: when you think about dying, do you think about it as missing out on a whole bunch of stuff that you would have done, but now won’t get to because you’re corpsified? In a weekend rife with missed opportunities, I’m surprised to have come away with…

Dark Ritual Banned: How Will We Cope?

For those of you who don’t know {laughter}, and have been banned in Extended. Normally, this would mean just about as much to me as the going price for chicken feed in Afghanistan, but I know it’ll affect a lot of people out there, so I thought I’d give my two cents. Two cents I…

Laccolicious

I think most of you know that I’ve been pretty pleased with the Masques block when it comes to casual play. From impractical, killer beasts like to fun strategic elements like the Mongers, Wumpi, and , the block so far reeks of success for casual players. Every time I read another missive from the "Magic…

All Together Now (Altogther Now)

You may remember my brief advert last year for the reunion tour? No ? Yes ? Well, suffice it say that I managed to lay my hands on a couple of tickets for their Laccolith Gig at the Milton Keynes Dustbowl, part of the ‘Urza Rock N’ Roll But I Like It’ Telim’Tour. As the…

Inspiring Fear, Reluctance, And Terror In Your Multiplayer Group

General Sherman, the man who burned Atlanta, has been much maligned in recent years — but ya know, he had the right idea. Hold on a sec, though. I’ve noticed that one of the odd things about the Magic websites is that the guys who write the LEAST about actually PLAYING Magic are invariably the…

Meet The Group

I have to commend StarCityCCG.com on its newer, happier web look. See all the snazzy pictures up there now? And those entry-page graphics! WOOOOOOSH! A star! Was there a star there before? Whatever, I didn’t notice it, which might be the point. And I had no idea Manuel Bevand was so dashing. (Though with that…

Wood Is Go(o)d

I organized my first Magic tournament last Wednesday. Well,”organized” might be overstepping a little. I had contacted Ballpark Cards in San Francisco to see whether they still ran weekly Type 2 tournaments as their website said. The manager, Matthew Scott, told me that the website hadn’t been updated in literally years (“how did you find…

I Doubt It Could Have Been Worse

The list of what went right this weekend is too short to warrant space on Star City’s server. I’ve broken this week’s story into Mini-Series form. This will be a long one, but it’s chock full of funny, and more than worth your while. Episode 0: The OMC consults an , Adam Consults for the…

Ritual Sacrifice

and are banned in Extended. And, I think, they needed to be. Because of them, ultra-accelerated decks are dominating one of the most interesting environments ever. rotated out of Type II, as it was too powerful– giving each color access to a virtual , but the bona fide remained, by virtue of its presence in…

Masques Block Constructed: Turns One And Two

The Pro Tour New York Qualifier season ended rather unceremoniously for me; my last shot at qualifying was waylaid by a family emergency and I couldn’t attend. So, I never got a shot at throwing Dancing Dead Things in front of the /Illusions juggernaut to see if my theories worked. On the plus side, my…