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…
Three parts to today’s article. First, some early feedback and ideas on "singing decks." Then, a followup to an earlier conversation on women in casual Magic groups. Then, the winner of Connect the Dots. PART ONE: NOT OVER UNTIL THE FATTIE SINGS I am really pleased with the mail my last column generated. It felt…
There’s some Magic stuff, but mostly I’ve been dreaming unspeakable dreams in my sub-oceanic crypt outside of time. ***** BEGIN ARTICLE ***** If you called me an easygoing guy, I wouldn’t be at pains to disagree. So when my landlord dropped by two weeks ago to give me the news of a week’s worth of…
(Editor’s note: Thanks to the lateness of the season, I got this too late to post ON Thanksgiving, which really would have made a lot more sense. And ya know, this really doesn’t have much to do with Magic and has practically no content outside of an extended Props ‘n’ Slops. (But don’t be a…
Business before pleasure: I’m awarding two prizes in my "Who the Heck is Dominic Symens?" contest. The first to respond was Dom’s friend Pierre Cools – who also identified what I was really looking for, namely that Meneer Symens finished third at the first World Championships. I’m also going to award a prize to Jeff…
For those of you who recognize the reference I made in my title, this article is not about politics OR Saturday Night Live. Actually, it – like all other articles I write – is about Magic. But, this one is a bit different. Usually I write something about the storyline, or new rules, or my…
Do you hear them? Do you hear the cries? The hills are alive with the sound of Extended. Countless articles have been done already about the Extended metagame. I think I’ve read most of them, some of them more than once. I don’t LIKE Extended, because it’s staid. It’s predictable. The same archetypes perpetuate; it’s…
Ten Extended Decks to Beat: Counter-Sliver Counter-Sliver is another relatively new Extended archetype, arising from the synergy found between the Slivers from Tempest block. The deck is a perfect example of the aggro-control deck: Play out a few threats, start beating down your opponent, and protect your assets with countermagic and spot removal. Chris Senhouse…
PTQ-Tokyo, Columbus, November 18 Friday, November 17: Episode one, and stuff. The moment I realized that I couldn’t take it back, I wanted to. That was then, this is not only now, but the future as well. No takebacks here. No bootlicking for amnesty. Where do I go from here? To the losers bracket, slick….
Have you ever been mugged? I’ll tell you, it’s irritating. Not because you’ve lost some money; yeah, the financial hit’s a hassle, and you’re gonna be eating macaroni and cheese for a couple of weeks… but in the end, it’s just a couple of bucks. You’ll survive. What twists in your gut, what burns deep…
