I have a dream. Well, I have several, actually, many of which involve some combination of Jeri Ryan, Gillian Anderson and Kathleen Turner (circa 1983). No, I’ve got a different, Magic-related, dream to share. But let’s start with early in my Magic tournament career. When I was just starting out, a typical pre-tournament Friday evening…
Over the past few months that we’ve been together, we’ve covered a good deal of territory on the rules of the game. We also went into a little bit on how to survive your first DCI tournament ordeal. Now we’ll talk about what’s out there besides your local tournament. DCI Premier Events are where you…
I am ten seconds away from beating the game that has consumed the last two months of my life – Planescape: , one of the finest PC games ever created – when my teenaged stepdaughter comes down the stairs, dressed in the splendid regalia she intends to wear for her next dance. My opinion means…
It has been well documented that Invasion is a set that is defined by a heavy multi-color flavor, particularly in the allied colors. I thought I would take a look at the allied colors, using mostly the gold border and split cards, and offering up some of my opinion on what we might look for…
Much to my astonishment, last week’s article about the legends of Invasion was lacking. In order to achieve the data required for my article, I used MtGNews.com’s "sort by (creature type)" function. Unfortunately, that function didn’t cover creature types of "Something Legend." So, instead of entertaining you with a clever introduction to this article, I…
A new expansion has arrived, and once again the cries of "Magic is Dead" echo through tournament halls worldwide – through FULL tournament halls worldwide. Record numbers of players turned up for Invasion Prereleases, eclipsing Stronghold’s standard. Meanwhile, I’m inundated with requests for Judge tests. Let me state for the record that Magic is not…
Not long now. Only one month and it all changes. Love ’em or hate ’em, three whole Magic expansions will leave Type II. There are cards I can’t wait to see leave: , , and even . I don’t hate them, but their loss will redefine the environment in ways that none of us can…
At PTNY, Potato Nation – consisting of , , and Garrulous – were the big winners, splitting sixty grand, while , Andrew Cuneo, and Andrew Johnson of Team Car Acrobatic were the runners up, walking away with a "paltry" ten grand each. And FrigginRizzo ties it all together. How do you tie it all together?…
"This is what’s left of my collection." "You sold the rest? You SOLD a collection that went all the way back to…" (chokes up) "…the Lost Days of Magic?" "Calm down, son – I didn’t lose it, I just didn’t want it back afterwards. No, my collection had to be surgically removed in an emergency…
A few weeks ago, my family and I flew out to Cape Cod for a friend’s wedding. At my parents’ condominium complex, where we stayed, they don’t allow dogs. So Turquoise, our faithful collie-shepherd mix, had to stay at a kennel. Over my wife’s protests, I reserved a "VIP" board for her (the dog, not…
True, I am writing about Invasion. However, if you believe that that simple fact merits returning to Star City’s home page, then your beliefs need to be rearranged just this once. For, this article is most likely unlike any other that you’ll read about Invasion. Anyone who’s been reading my articles knows that I’m very…
OVERTURE (3-4 Time) The respected and the revered Mr. Dariani (Omeed) wrote a fetching twin-set of articles a (good) while ago discussing how to write Magic articles – actually, I think he was a bit more generic than that, but it’s pointless imparting wisdom about transcribing vegetarian recipes to an audience baying for tech, spoilers,…
What a week! It started off with notification that I’ve been invited to Head Judge Grand Prix Dallas (thanks to Jeff Donais for the vote of confidence!) and ended with the Prerelease and Grand Prix Dallas Trial Tournament. I was happy with the number of folks that showed up at our Anchorage event, some from…
You win some, you lose some. This past weekend, I took a rather expensive flight to Porto, Portugal to compete in the first Grand Prix of the new season. Did I expect to win enough money at GP-Porto to cover my travel expenses? Not necessarily. Almost as important as the prize money and, of course,…
I readily confess that I have a tendency to shy away from the concrete in my articles. As a bonus, there is virtually no tangible tech. Nor strategy. Random decklists only accompany the even more random tournament reports. There are many reasons that I chose to write of our game in more abstract terms, but…
