Wednesday, July 1st – The best advice ever given to anyone about Magic is the statement, “Focus on what matters.” Of course, that’s cheating, though, because clearly if you know what matters already then you don’t really need to worry about figuring out what to focus on.
…Whether there’s a need to spend all of this time arguing about whether a 1/1 Squirrel token is…
Usman points out some underrated cards in the Magic Online 2013 Holiday Cube, which becomes available to play tomorrow. Check them out!
…pleasantly surprised (especially if your hits include cards like Time Walk or Ancestral Recall, which they can over the next…
…Way to go Mikey! Its short check time, and after 10 minutes we all fail and ask him to pull…
The people’s control champion is back to talk about the Modern season and the best weapons control has at its disposal! Check out his sage-like advice before #SCGKC!
…I decided to go to the dentist for the first time in five or six years and the doctor informed…
…walk around campus to see vampires, kor, and goblins engaged in the everyday together. But in Asterion's time, a…
Chad continues our Extended event today with what many have termed “the wimpiest combo deck of all time.” Is this a fair assessment of a deck that simply blows most aggro decks out of the water, or is this something you absolutely must prepare for in order to be ready for Grand Prix: Boston this weekend? Leave it to the guy from Your Move Games to help you figure it out!
…Phil Johnson<br> <br> Neutral Ground “Time Walk Tournament” Finalist – Life In order to run the Vials, Johnson gave up…
Monday, December 1st – There was a DQ in the last round of Day 1 involving noted Brazilian Pro Willy Edel and a local player. The issue at hand was that his opponent claimed he had dealt damage to Willy with Exuberant Firestoker, something that Willy denied. Enter a Judge, and in fact, enter Head Judge Seamus Campbell as the dispute got that big and convoluted…
…For the first time, I also had players ask me to sign things. I did have time to sign a…
Last year, for Halloween I wrote about the scariest Magic cards of all time and that article can be found…
…Join me next time when I walk through many jokes from *Unstable*. Until then, may you have fun with all…
…Moxes, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Mana Crypt, etc., the best control / combo cards of all time, including Opposition and Yawgmoth…
…He was locked for Top 8 of the MOCS event, got booted, and by the time he was able to…
…A lot of the time there will be certain deadlines (much like anything you ever do ever) that if you…
Which Rivals of Ixalan cards are going to make the largest impact at your Commander tables? There are plenty to choose from, and Mark Nestico is ready to guide you to 100-card victory!
…These decks are never short on<br> sac outlets, so playing it into an advantageous situation shouldn’t walk it…
Monday, February 7 – Alex Shvartsman has seen many things on the GP Circuit. He’s been on every continent except Antarctica for Magic events and has collected unbelievable stories along the way.
…We had a great time playing a relaxed match since we were both locked in for Day Two, win or…
New sets don’t set the old world on fire very often, but when they do? Man, is it a big deal! Patrick Chapin provides the endless number of insane things you can unleash on #SCGBALT with this sleeping giant from Kaladesh!
…Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian Probe, Thoughtcast, Time Walk, Treasure Cruise, and Dig Through Time all replace themselves (or better). As…
…However this deck has a very hard time dealing with Planeswalkers. This may be your only out. Then again a…
…I park my car and walk to find a whole bunch of people there. Over 150 at least. WotC: give…
…Needless to say we had plenty of time to discuss strategy on the way to our destination. We had tested…
This weekend I attended the first PTQ in Northern California of the season, because it literally wasn’t even scheduled until recently. To get the obvious out of the way, I lost. I went 3-0 then 0-2, drop, because I was so annoyed after round 5 that I most likely would’ve just played like garbage the next two rounds anyway. I played W/G Aggro heavily metagamed against U/G and Pickles. I’d been working on it for the past few weeks, tweaking for the expected metagame…
…The idea is that at some point you’ll modify your existing plan from time to time to cope with…
Count Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin among those in Magic’s top tier that aren’t enthralled with the complacent Bant Company builds we’re seeing all over The SCG Tour ® . Will #SCGRegionals and the Pro Tour be dominated by Bant? Or is The Innovator right in thinking it isn’t the way to go?
Pro Tour *Eldritch Moon* starts tomorrow (time zones…), and the question on a lot of peoples’ minds is… *Is Bant…
…I thought it would be fun to bring back multiple-time Celebrity Guest (and former R&D member) Zac Hill…
The Battle of the Blocks continues! In this week’s edition, Urza’s Block takes on Mirrodin Block in a heads-up fight between two misbehaving culprits full of broken and banned things.
…Mirrodin Block instead unleashed the Time Walk -carrying Panoptic Mirror and infuriating Sundering Titan onto an unsuspecting Commander populace. Panoptic…
Wednesday, October 7th – Zendikar is here, and Kyle has more standard decks for our consumption! Today, he tackles a selection of Red strategies, a funky artifact build, and a Five-Color Green Mana Ramp deck. With this weekend’s StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Philadelphia on the horizon, does Kyle have the key to the current Standard kingdom?
…the moist 98% humidity filling my pores every time I walk outside, I haven’t exactly been in too productive…
…Time after time he is placing cards in the graveyard and replying them. I<br> looked at another observer, and…
The big question for this weekend’s StarCityGames.com Invitational is, “How do I beat Caw-Blade?” Gavin Verhey helps you answer this question by presenting you with four decks that can (spoiler: one of them is Caw-Blade).
…Now, I think Caw-Blade can adapt to beat it in time. Dismember in particular seems like a nice spell…
I didn't finish my essays for GDS 2.0 in time but I care a lot about Magic design…
For three years, Vintage was in a perpetual state of expansion. Every other month a new deck emerged that seemed to shake up the format. The first half of 2005 was no exception. Uba Stax, Gifts, and a plethora of new Mana Drain decks emerged as contenders in a constantly fluctuating field. Vial Fish briefly surfaced as a great metagame deck and Oath has been in a constant state of revision. However, several things have noticably affected Vintage in recent months…
…Gifting for Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Vampiric Tutor, a Tinker is as powerful as it is devastating. Add in additional…
Todd went west for the St. Louis Open Series and has learned a great deal in the process of preparing for the Charlotte Invitational. Read on for lessons in Standard and Legacy!
…There was a time when Fireblast brought me more joy than you could imagine. Watching my opponent’s face as…
At this point, I am sitting at 3-1-1 and feeling pretty good about myself… But of course, we all know that I did not X-0 the rest of the tournament. Locusts would have swarmed the earth, fire would have rained out of the sky, and other bad times would be going on.
…I’ve always had a hard time at subtraction, you know, given my award-winning education at Kentucky public schools…
Tuesday, October 28th – Having now played in a Limited PTQ for the season, the first one I’ve played in at least three years, I can safely say Sealed is not just a luck-based pile of garbage. Rather, it’s a format where, if you want to lose with a good deck, your large advantage is something you have to punt away.
…Last time on Deconstructing Constructed: *Sealed Deck… oh how I hate thee. Yes, I’ve been told there’s actual…
…Reason for this is that I have a hard time playtesting. I live in a real small town where there…
…Soon after, it’s time to check in and pass airport security. Unfortunately the security girl is too motivated and…
Red Deck Wins has been a mainstay on the Extended scene for many a season. With Lorwyn, and now Morningtide, can the little Red (and sometimes Green) guys still kick ass and take names against the likes of Doran, Ravager, and Hierarch? Benjamin Peebles-Mundy thinks they can…
Any time I sit down to play a format seriously, I start with some variation on Red Deck Wins. I…
…If you're playing Magic already, then time is something you probably already have. You already spend time doing other…
…I don’t Time Walk (in fact, I never play blue), I don’t Mindslaver, and I don’t Armageddon…
…Game 2 - This time, I'm holding my removal in hand. It WILL stay there until I see that Dragon…
…From a time perspective, it's sometimes savvier to just hop into the buyout and post your stock to eBay…
Thursday, April 29th – Last week, Craig Wescoe walked us through the hits and misses in the White, Blue, and Colorless cards in Rise of the Eldrazi. Today, he continues his mission to hunt out the gems in the new set, discussing the Red Green, and Black cards. He also gives his top 10 cards in the entire set!
…spell to completely blow you out and basically double Time Walk you in response to the second attempt at leveling…
…Three days felt like a long time ago. “Deadly fawn. Vicious fawn. Murder fawn.” She focused on her breathing and…
…The next time that happens, you tell your friends that they're not very good friends if all they do…
…Instead, they enter purely as enchantments but with some time counters on them. You then remove a time counter during…
Last Friday we had eleven people at my place for Magic night. During the night there came a point in time when seven people were playing a large multiplayer game, and someone cast Standstill. In multiplayer games, how many cards are as complex to deal with as Standstill?
…During the night there came a point in time when seven people were playing a large multiplayer game, and someone…
…Now it's time to examine *Magic 2011*. (Yes, I know Monty did a Magic Arcana about this but did…
Brad Nelson sees the Time Warp ban in Historic as a swing and a miss, but he only wishes he had been surprised. How did Historic get here, and how can it get better?
…The conversation about Historic can just be about whether banning Time Walk was correct. But this isn’t about just…
…Chris, Adam and I all walk up to my car and I get in to unlock the other side when…
Patrick Chapin promises innovations… and this week, he certainly delivers! This is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill Magic article. As the world lies in the pre-Lorwyn doldrums, Patrick gathers some entertaining snippets from great Magic writers and pros, past and present. Cunningham, Sullivan, Aten, Sanchez, Herberholz, Erwin. Each snippet has been written with a twist… can you spot them all?
…Forget not that many an over-powered card was overlooked once upon a time. Insight into what is good and…
Commander players love to speculate and debate what troublesome offenders should or shouldn’t be banned. Sean gives sanity a voice in this look at some dubious Commander staples!
…And yet curiously enough that<br> standard isn’t applied evenly – Time Walk and Ancestral Recall are both banned, but…
Now the prerelease hype has died down, Josh takes an analytical eye to Lorwyn and shares his thoughts regarding its place in Limited and Standard. He highlights some key cards for Sealed and Draft, and brings us a decklist or two. He then moves onto Extended, and offers up four decklists for our attention…
…That was my time at the prerelease for the most part. Okay, back to Halo 3… Details about the set…
Bennie Smith went and made an infinite-combo Commander deck, to see what the fuss was about. Check out his mono-green Melira, Sylvok Outcast deck. What’s it feel like to be the one with the target on your head?
…While it does make a decent sacrifice target, it’s mainly here as a good seven-drop to walk up…
…From the West Coast, here comes Matt Sperling<br> Arrives at the house with information swirling<br> No time to…