Search

I don’t know why, but I’ve been building Extended decks. I guess I just want a new format with which to experiment. I’ve been playing freaking Slivers at my past couple of FNMs, and while fun, I really want to play with some expensive cool-looking cards. As I said last week, I’ve been trying to graft the Counterbalance plus Sensei’s Divining Top combo on to a bunch of decks, so here are two more of my semi-successful attempts.

…can also Cunning Wish for flashbacked copies to essentially Time Walk them for another two turns. I forgot how good…

…Temporal Spring is at worst a Time Walk that costs you a few points of damage and can often be…

Wednesday, February 4th – The Esper cards and strategies, in straight Shards of Alara at least, were never quite strong enough to see dedicated Standard play. However, now Conflux is almost here, do we have enough artifacts to make such a strategy worthwhile? In the forst of what promises to be an intriguing series, Kyle lays the groundwork for a dedicated Standard Esper deck, and examines all the possible artifacts in the format…

…toddler years when learning to walk and read were massive tasks? That particular time for me came during Invasion Block…

…If you cast Early Frost in the first 3 or 4 turns of the game, it’s practically Time Walk…

By the time you're reading this, Pro Tour *Hour of Devastation* will already be underway and you'll have…

Friday, February 20th – Hello everyone, and welcome back to Constructed Criticism! Today I’m going to be talking about Standard with Conflux in preparation for the multiple StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Opens coming to a big city near you! I will go over some archetypes that have been proven in the pre-Conflux metagame, and discuss some recent additions to each deck.

…able to contend with that insane 4/4 flying Time Walk: Mistbind Clique. As most of you know, Faeries has…

…The black helicopters won't arrive in time to stop me from finishing up this article, and the Night Vale…

Tuesday, April 29th – Fresh out of a two day conference on Continuous Effects, Building a Local Community, hyper-linked Comp Rules, Professional Conduct as a Player, and a dozen more seminars and lectures covering the full range of global issues affecting the men and women who keep the game fair, Rich Hagon shares his own lecture with us, showcasing the skills and attitudes that go into making the best judges. If you think you have nothing to learn from how a judge goes about their business, this could change your mind.

…Nice players, kind players, don’t hurts us Masters…’* We all give incorrect rulings from time to time. Even the…

Arguably the oldest mechanic never to get a keyword, bounce is a valuable tool in many formats, Commander included! Sheldon goes “under the hood” to look at the many bounce spells available to 100-card Magic fans!

…Crystal Shard:<br> The double threat of being able to Time Walk someone who has been foolish enough to tap…

…Today, I'm going introduce all the design teams, walk through how we designed the two main mechanics, and show…

…There's No Such Thing as Entitlement<br> Consensus third best Magic player of all time Kenji Tsumura needed a…

…This time around is no different, so let's dive in! And make sure to stick around after Best of…

…Let's examine each of these one at a time. Infect – This examination is a subjective one and not an…

CVM wasn’t in the booth this week, but he saw plenty of #SCGATL on SCGLive! See the takeaways The Bearded One thinks you need to be aware of when you’re studying up for #SCGCOL’s Standard showdown!

…3 body is just so insane combined with the “ Time Walk ” bounce ability. I think this card is begging to…

…It casts Remand on a turn-three Kitchen Finks to Time Walk itself into the next turn, where it can…

Todd Anderson is on his way to Richmond for the SCG Tour’s next stop, but he’s already got eyes on the big showdown overseas! He can already see the metagame shaping up, and accordingly, he’s already thinking of how to counteract it! Todd: Don’t ever change.

…U/R decks in general have a tough time killing creatures with a high toughness. With Winding Constrictor making such…

…In Type I, this card is easily broken- play with 4 in your deck, and every Time Walk you draw…

Monday, April 14th – A lot of people submitted cards that, thanks to careful tweaking, would almost be useful in certain circumstances. I couldn’t quite rule these out as crap rares because, well, it seemed like there might be some way to make a good deck out of them. So I’m now chaining one contest into another, and asking you to break the “terrible” cards that others have sent me!

…Yes, Pale Moon is the greatest crap rare of all time because it does *next* to nothing… But even then…

This week Pip produces the usual numbers, takes a look at the Vintage Watch List, and then riffs about a resurgence of Psychatog decks before analyzing some of the more lamentable decks seen at one of the GenCon Vintage events. If you are looking to stay on top of the Vintage metagame or play in the upcoming StarCityGames.com “Power Nine” tournaments , this article is a must read.

…Mox Jet 51 Mox Pearl 51 Sol Ring 48 Time Walk 46 Mox Emerald 42 Strip Mine 184 Force of…

…If my Commander is equipped with one of these Artifacts, I'll gain three life every time someone takes damage…

…Also, Monday of next week is Memorial Day (an “American holiday” as Mark always patronizingly calls it every time he…

…Leading up to the tournament I had put most of my prep time into Grand Prix Seattle and had not…

…At least I might walk away from that.” — Elvish scout* Artist Melissa A. Benson Tables, graphs, bullet points, and other…

…Sorry! Avarice Amulet Avarice Amulet is a perfect card for Kefnet! Can you see why? Nope? Let me walk you…

…Force of Negation 1 Island 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Time Walk 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Undercity Sewers 4 Psychic Frog…

…Today and next week, I'm going to walk you through the mechanical evolution from the very beginning of the…

…Mishra wouldn't show up as a normal card until years later in *Time Spiral* when he finally got a…

…he'll just die, so you basically get a Time Walk. $5 looks about right as the card is not…

Jeff brings us his choices for the Magic Invitational 2006 Writer’s Ballot. Like Mr Krouner below, he has a few things to say on the legitimacy of certain candidates… I sense the forums will be busy today.

…For a short period of time, Wizards had a player (Osyp, Walamies,) assist Buehler in Top 8 commentary at Pro…

Pale Mage returns from the land of zombies (you’ll just have to read it) to deliver his take on States, the Standard metagame, and the Magic world in general. If you’ve never read a Pale Mage article, he’s one of the more original writers in the game whose unique style is a welcome addition to the StarCityGames.com family.

…Sorta like what happens to Magic this time of year.” “Dude, are you still playing that game?” “Yup. I love…

…How do we play Magic now in this time of need? Many of us can't play paper Magic now…

Thursday, October 2nd – The five distinct tri-color pairings in Shards of Alara promise great things for the Standard metagame. Creative deckbuilders across the globe are looking for the perfect way to harness the power and synergy of Jund, Bant, and the rest. Today’s Deep Analysis sees Richard Feldman bring us a pair of interesting Standard decks using the Red, Green, and Black cards of Jund…

…Since I’m playing Jund Charm and will be expecting to use it for Pyroclasm a lot of the time…

Strong writing and opinions from [serious columnist] and an [irrelevant finish] report from [some grinder’s] recent trip to [tournament name]! Read Dan Barrett’s parody of every Magic article ever.

…High-sugar, high-caffeine drinks may give you a brief high, but you’ll quickly crash again, the perfect time…

Bennie recounts the Commander tournament he participated in last weekend, where he played a meaner version of his Roon deck.

…I mean, I’m days from attending what just might be the largest Magic event of all time if the…

…Bolas quickly became a fan favorite and, over the years, his actions have been woven throughout various storylines. (*Legends*, *Time…

Pro Tour Champion Ari Lax analyzes the results from this weekend’s Season Two Invitational and Modern Open to see how the metagame shifted to get to this point – and crunches data to figure out what to expect this weekend at Grand Prix Charlotte!

…Moon counts here) or use land destruction as a Time Walk that you exploit to actually kill them. The fact…

…Per Nystrom Blightning Beatdown Oscar Almgren Tribal instant (4) So what do you get when you walk away from the…

…me every time I sit down with it. The cards, the players, and the stories I walk away with are…

…That would mean that Black Lotus would be about $100, Ancestral and Time Walk would be about $60-70 each…

…At the same time, we can’t load up the deck full of anti-aggro cards since we run the…

Tiago was prepared for Grand Prix: Dallas. In testing, he ran a gauntlet of six decks before settling on the Feldman / Hill / Tsumura inspired U/W Tron list. He takes us through his preparation in great detail, and walks us through some of the more entertaining games he played in his heartbreaking ninth-place performance.

…And, just like Rasmus in playtesting, he didn’t dredge lands… so he had just cast Time Walk on me…

Take a look at what is probably the best Type I Morph in Onslaught: Dwarven Blastminer. Now compare it to its illustrious predecessor, Dwarven Miner. Let’s play Spot the Differences.

…So I walk into class and the heavens appoint me”Patsy of the Day.” I raise my hand and: Oscar…

…Just as Ancestral Recall was the classic example of Card Advantage, Time Walk was tempo's equivalent. Still today it…

…This was the first time we were repeating a block theme, so I wanted to make something that felt different…

Smothering Tithe - Illustration by Daisuke Tatsuma *Smothering Tithe | *Illustration *by Daisuke Tatsuma* As a long-time anime watcher, I have…

…A 1/1 may seem conceptually less exciting than a spell that can actually kill something from time to time…

When in the course of deckbuilding, sometimes you end up stepping back from your project and asking why you’re even trying to make a new deck. Players get all sorts of satisfaction out of Magic, and much of that can come from tinkering with new ideas. Timmy, Johnny and Spike all get a chance to play. I admit that all three kids come play with me when I want to make something new. Do I want to play with ridiculous cards like Mindslaver, Timmy asks? Spike wants me to beat everyone in the room. But I succumb the opiate whispers of Johnny, telling me that together, we can be clever .

…While I want to Sirlin to victory all the time and trounce people with my superior decks, I want them…

…Blue gets “ Time Walk ” effects where you get to take extra turns. Green is king of doubling things. Combine them…

…This time he puts up a little more of a fight, but my double Composts go on overdrive, and I…

Reid Duke writes about what went down at the Modern Grand Prix in Detroit last weekend and the Jund deck with Chandra, Pyromaster that he played to a second-place finish there.

…In the period since the Modern Pro Tour in Seattle this time last year, Alex has played in six Modern…