TagStandard

Sullivan Library – Fires for Standard

The Star City $5,000 Standard Open comes to Charlotte, NC!
Morningtide is here, and the new cards are kicking up a stink in Constructed formats across the world. While everyone tries to shoehorn the latest chase rares into their Standard decks, there’s a little uncommon Artifact that can perhaps resurrect a long forgotten archetype. The card? Obsidian Battle-Axe. The archetype? Fires…

Innovations – Two-Headed Morningtide Standard Set Review, Part 2

The Star City $5,000 Standard Open comes to Charlotte, NC!
On Friday, Mike brought us his take on Morningtide for Standard play. Today it’s the turn of Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin. Patrick runs through some of the more interesting cards in the set, and tells us where he agrees – and, more importantly, disagrees – with Mike’s assessment.

Flores Friday – Two-Headed Morningtide Standard Set Review, Part I

The Star City $5,000 Standard Open comes to Charlotte, NC!
Today’s Flores Friday is the first installment of our “Two-Headed” Morningtide Standard review. Mike, in collaboration with the Innovator, shares his thoughts on the new cards for Standard play. Sure, everyone wants four Mutavaults, and Countryside Crusher is making a splash… but what other cards should we be picking up while they’re cheap? Tune in on Monday for Patrick Chapin’s conclusion!

You Lika The Juice? – Growing a Treefolk Deck from the Roots Up

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
I’ve loved Treefolk since I first read about Treebeard as a teenager entranced with Lord of the Rings. I’m thrilled to see them given lots of attention in Magic finally. There seems to be a critical mass of really good Treefolk cards to warrant investigating whether a competitive tribal deck can be made with them.

MichaelJ Monday – Top Down Morningtide: Foolkiller, Folk Rock

The Star City $5,000 Standard Open comes to Charlotte, NC!
Morningtide is released at the end of the week, and all eyes turn to Constructed. Today’s MichaelJ Monday, held over from last week, sees Mike choose two of his favorite cards from the new set, building Standard decks that revolve around each. This is a great insight into the new card deckbuilding process… and later this week, Mike kicks off the Morningtide Standard Set Review (a “Two-Headed” pair of collaborative articles with Patrick Chapin). Watch this space!

Magic Show On Location – Top 8 and Top 4 Charlotte $5K Matches

Watch Evan Erwin every Friday... on StarCityGames.com!
Hello everybody, and welcome a special edition of the Magic Show. In these videos you’ll watch StarCityGames.com’s own Chris Woltereck take home the title through two thrilling matches (the last match was so thrilling they split before it happened). Ready to see a man start round 1 of Top 8 without playing a permanent? Let’s go!

You Lika The Juice? – High on Morningtide!

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
It’s amusing the expressions of horror I get from the surprising number of Magic players who view cellophane-wrapped booster box of product as several evenings of draft fodder instead of the wondrous trove of singles treasure that I see. I love cracking those packs, accumulating a small mountain of foil booster wrapping to the side as I stack rares, uncommons, and commons.

Innovations – Mono-Black Rogues in Standard and Block

Read Patrick Chapin every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!
Morningtide is finally here (functionally), so it’s time to break out the hot new Constructed tech! Today’s Innovations does just that: Patrick Chapin brings us a Mono-Black Standard Rogue deck that has great game against the format’s front-runners. And, as it’s mainly comprised of Lorwyn Block goodies, it can port over into Block Constructed too!

Tribal Thriftiness #6 – These Giants Have No Steroid Scandal

It’s January, and as has happened every January for forty years, a young man’s thoughts turn to… football. Ah, the playoffs. To celebrate, Dave builds some team-based decks for the NFL’s equivalent of the Littlest Team That Could.

Tribal Thriftiness – Turning a New Leaf

Sure, the Faeries are great, and the Elves certainly are powerful in their own right. But no one seems to be talking about the Treefolk, outside of that three-colored fella. Is there a decent deck out there, in the tribe that seems destined to be the budget builder’s favorite?

How I Won $20,000 and a Trip to Kuala Lumpur

Read Feature Articles every Monday and Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Sam Black rocked up to Worlds with the side events set firmly in his sights… and he never wavered from his task all weekend. When the dust settled, he walked out with a PTQ win, an iPhone, and a $20,000 car… a nice day at the office by anyone’s standards. Today he takes us through the ups and, well, more ups of his tournament experience. Enjoy!

Tribal Thriftiness – We Are Santa’s Elves

Santa was right to hire Elves – those guys are vicious on the battlefield! Dave explores the budget options in building a competitive Elf tribal deck, and takes a short look at Elf decks (and holidays) past.

You Lika The Juice? – Hideaway Adventures!

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com! “[Expletive]! I got another crappy Hideaway land!”

How many times have you either heard or uttered this phrase whenever a pack was opened in the time leading up to Worlds? I’m

willing to bet it was at least a fair amount; those Hideaway lands seemed to be the very opposite of hidden when you were

desperately hoping to crack open a big money Garruk Wildspeaker or Thoughtseize.

Levelling Up – World Championships: Standard

Read Tiago Chan every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!Level 6 Mage Tiago Chan needed a superlative performance at Worlds to reach the dizzy heights of last year’s showing. Unfortunately he fell short this time… but his passion for the game is not in question. Today’s Levelling Up brings us Tiago’s take on his preparation and Day 1 performance at Worlds. For part 2, be sure to return next week!

My Worlds, Part 1 – Standard Preparation

My Worlds by Zvi Mowshowitz

That’s right, folks… Zvi’s back! Today we start a multi-part series that chronicles Hall of Famer and Magic Legend Zvi Mowshowitz’s preparation and play at the 2007 World Championships. The first part deals with his thoughts going into the event, and his extensive preparation for the five rounds of Standard. He also updates his deck for the post-Worlds metagame! Check back in on Monday for part 2…