Friday, July 24th – With French Nationals occurring this weekend, Antoine and Olivier Ruel have beavered away in an attempt to break the Standard format. Today’s Reflecting Ruel sees Oli share the decks and ideas they designed and discarded along the way. This insightful article is a great window into the minds of some of the best players in the world.
Friday, July 24th – I love the Treefolk tribal stuff. Sadly, unlike Elementals, Treefolk doesn’t seem to have the juice to really kick ass outside of Doran, and he typically surrounds himself with a more able supporting cast.
Friday, July 24th – Cedric Phillips did his level best to avoid playing Kithkin at the recent Kentucky Open. He tried Five-Color Control, Combo Elves, and even Mono-Green Awakener Druid. In the end, he picked up the Little White Men and went to town. While he didn’t make the final table, today’s article sees him explain his choice and run through his own metagame predictions.
Friday, July 24th – With U.S. Nationals in full swing, Brian Kibler takes a look back at the strong Standard decks from last weekend’s tournament overload. He suggests probable directions for the burgeoning metagame, before rounding out with his personal choices for this year’s Hall of Fame.
Thursday, July 23rd – At the recent Swiss Nationals, Manuel Bucher ran his five-color Elemental build against all comers. Sadly, he didn’t quite light up the tournament floor, but he shares the highs and lows nonetheless. He also brings us a cool Five-Color Control deck that comes highly recommended, backed with a few good finishes…
Thursday, July 23rd – There are two universal truths about combo decks: people love playing combo decks, and people absolutely hate losing to combo decks. There are few things more wretched than being removed from the realm of interactivity while you sit and watch the opponent go off. With so little time to react from last weekend people are going to overcorrect rather than undercorrect, especially at the level of Nationals grinders.
Thursday, July 23rd – With the first week of M10 in Standard, we can already see a pretty radical change. Some pundits felt it would be only a cosmetic change, just a few decks with worse manabases, no more Swans combo and that’s it. I for one had been watching and expecting a more extensive change to Standard, and to see a Standard that looks familiar in some ways and very different in others.
Wednesday, July 22nd – U.S. Nationals is this coming weekend, and Kyle Sanchez is ready! In today’s edition of Down and Dirty, he looks at some of the more interesting lists to appear last weekend in the host of high-level Magic tournaments that took place, including Japanese Nationals and the Kentucky Open!
Wednesday, July 22nd – Adrian Sullivan, like other players looking toward U.S. Nationals this weekend, has trawled the successful lists from Japan, Australia, Singapore, and more. He talks turkey about the decks that caught his eye, and suggest avenues of attack with which to attack the current metagame.
Tuesday, July 21st – As we wait to see M10’s impact on the Standard format, Dave rolls around through the last weekend’s Prerelease and some more thoughts about our new core set.
Tuesday, July 21st – With Nationals competitions from Spain, Japan, Australia and more now in the books, the metagame is shaping nicely for this weekend’s American Big Show. Today, Sam examines the Big Four archetypes that are currently in everyone’s sights, and suggests how to approach U.S Nationals with an eye on the final table…
[Editor’s Note – Adrian Sullivan is experiencing technical difficulties with his article. It’ll be here on Wednesday, folks!]
Friday, July 17th – The past couple of columns I took a look at Magic 2010 in broad strokes; now that the set is released and I’ve had a chance to hold some of the cards in my hand and play with them, I figured I’d do an overview of the specific cards that have my attention, and touch on the Magic2010 prerelease in Richmond. Let’s jump right in!
Friday, July 17th – Magic 2010 is here, and with it comes a whole host of changes. Some are small, like losing mana-burn or the change to how Lifelink works. Some are large, like the change to creature combat that comes with the removal of the previous best four words in Magic besides “you win the game,†“Damage on the stack.â€
Friday, July 17th – With M10 hitting the shelves today, the Standard metagame is undergoing a seismic shift. New cards always get the creative juices flowing, but often it’s the cards which disappear that cause the most damage. Brian Kibler looks at some of the cards we’ve lost to The Great Adjustment, and bids them farewell with a wistful wave.
Thursday, July 16th – With U.S. Nationals approaching fast, the Standard metagame is beginning to loom into focus. While Lorwyn and tribal synergies seem to be strong, today’s Down And Dirty sees Kyle stepping off the beaten track, wandering into the realm of the rogue. Will his deck ideas form the basis of a Nationals-winning deck? Read on to find out!
