My ride was due to arrive in less than an hour. I didn’t know exactly where the tournament was. I hadn’t slept, and I’d gone out partying the night before. Definitely not the wisest way to prepare for a PTQ. The night before had started well enough. A collection of people were heading to a…
: A tired old joke will shortly be arriving in Paragraph Three. Felicitous greetings to you my desirous readership on this th’occasion of my [wait a sec … one .. two … three … (long pause)] something-th article for StarCityCCG; and to celebrate this auspicious moment, sit yourself down and have a cup of tea…
For those of you who joined me for my last article (Rising Waters in MBC), you can plainly see how dominant that deck has been in the first week of qualifiers for Pro Tour: Chicago. It has qualified a good amount of people the first two weeks of this season, and the number of people…
Thanks to all who entered Break this Card: for your submissions, and your patience. I’ve tried to give much more detail on this one, to reward everyone’s understanding. Before jumping into the official submissions, I do want to highlight a wonderful idea, based on Masques Block format, that was suggested by Rui Oliveira and his…
One of the skills I’m certain I will never acquire is the minor prescience needed to foresee what decks people will be playing at a given tournament. I had thought, pie-eyed fool that I may be, that the Masques Block Constructed field would be wide open, what with the addition of a new set and…
This week my thoughts on strategy have been pushed back into the depths of my mind. Decklists of MBC Counter-Rebel and Counter-Burn will remain there, because right now there are more important things to think about: I’m alive. Some things in life make you think. Sometimes something happens to you that makes you sit down…
Ah, Nationals have come and gone for most Magic Players. Congratulations to all of the winners – and I hope that all of you represent your countries well at Worlds! The time of Type Two has also passed us by, and now it is time for Pro Tour Chicago qualifiers! With a renewed interest in…
"It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than any I have ever known." These are perhaps my favorite lines in literature, uttered by Sydney Carton at the end of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles…
Before we get into blowing up Type 1 decks real good, let’s look back over the past week to see the Things I Have Learned In Editing StarCity: 1) THE SPELLCHECKER IS NO HELP. Go ahead. Hit "F7" and watch Microsoft Word choke on "", "", "", "untap" and "topdeck". I know I do, every…
Before I start, just let me say this: JAMIE MOLES, 6 and 0!!! Respect is due! Start HERE, for [EXPLETIVE DELETED] Sake! —————————————————– (take a deep breath; pull those shoulders back; lift your chin) I had a letter the other day from my good friend and contract intellectual Prof. Gabriel Sneeep*. As far as I…
For the last PTQ I entered – Extended format – I put together a Three-Deuce deck on Thursday, played a mini-tournament on Friday (playing six matches total, going 5-1), and played on Saturday, having "tested" the deck for all of three hours. And I ended up going 5-0-2, finishing in the Top 8. For this…
Here’s what prompted this week’s column: A friend of my wife was heading down to Dragon*Con this past week, and they got around to discussing my Magic habits and the stereotype of the Magic player. He said: "Magic players deserve whatever stereotype they get." This coming from a comic book fan who was going to…
Housekeeping items get us started this week: 1) ALL HAIL THE FERRETT. I have been told that all submissions to StarCityCCG.com must begin with this line. I don’t know why I haven’t seen other authors doing it yet; either they are in for a world of rabid-rodent trouble or our new editor is playing a…
Something about my having neither the temporality to be a riverboat gambler, nor the disposition required of an underworld kingpin, is getting in the way of my finding a long-term cash flow. Never mind that I also keep forgetting that the internet cannot yet fully serve me. While I’ve been busy bumbling about the real…
After last week’s article, we decided that we really should put our money where our mouth was and take another Fish deck to Bath’s monthly tournament. I took the Ponza deck that came top-8 in the US, and Andy took Fish deck. I took Ponza mainly because my Counter-Burn deck isn’t ready yet, and Andy…
