http://www.mtgfanatic.com/articlesCopyright 2001 - 2013 MtgFanatic.com. All rights reserved.Hey again and welcome back to Wednesday Warfare. This time I am going to speak about something dear to my heart… beer! Okay, I will sneak some MTG discussion into the article as well, but only because Jeff Zandi says we have to. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=209365Wed, 22 May 2013 21:44:08 GMTMost of the guys managed to get their first taste of Dragon’s Maze at prerelease events a few days ago. Tonight, everyone is excited to be drafting all three sets together for the first time. We draft with a table of ten randomly seated players and play four rounds of Swiss before cutting to the top four. Nowadays, when you draft two or more sets together, you draft the newest pack first and the oldest pack last. That’s just fine with this group, we are all eager to see what we can do with Dragon’s Maze.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=209363Wed, 22 May 2013 21:02:30 GMTI attended a local Legacy tournament recently on May 4th with a fantastic experience under my belt. I didn’t come in first place, the matches weren’t interesting, and there were only seven players in the queue. Doesn’t sound that exciting, does it? Well, it wasn’t terrible, but not nearly as good as previous experiences. It is still a nice, but rather short, story to tell. As you’ll see, the best part was the side event that three of us at the shop pulled together to make a lackluster day into something worth remembering.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=209253Mon, 20 May 2013 20:02:37 GMTFor our last week playing only with Gatecrash, attendance was quite good. We drafted and played three rounds of Swiss with nine players. The results were a little strange and so were the top two decks. A perfect way to say goodbye to Gatecrash booster drafts.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208927Wed, 15 May 2013 00:04:28 GMTIs there anything better than playing with Magic cards for the first time? I had a great time playing in Dragon’s Maze prerelease events on Saturday in my hometown of Coppell, Texas, and on Sunday in nearby Grapevine. There were pros and cons associated with the way Wizards of the Coast designed the events, and some of these issues affected some people’s fun, but in the end, all must be forgiven. Magic’s newest expansion is super fun to play with!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208776Mon, 13 May 2013 04:53:24 GMTThe best thing that you can do, when a new Magic set comes out, is play with it. While our minds see the new cards and immediately think about which cards can help our constructed decks, the quickest way to get experience with the new cards is by playing in limited formats like sealed deck. Hopefully you got a chance to play sealed deck at a prerelease event in your corner of the world. If you have a few booster packs that you’re about to crack open anyway, why not get a little play out of them at the same time. DC-10 has become a time-honored way to experiment with the functionality of all the cards in a new set in the fastest possible way. It’s possible you’ve read one of my other DC-10 articles, I do one just about every time a new set comes out because I happen to be the world’s leading proponent on the format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208775Mon, 13 May 2013 04:26:35 GMTThe third set in the Return to Ravnica block is upon us and I am pleasantly surprised with quite a few of the cards. I think it has far fewer playable cards than Gatecrash but what it lacks in numbers it gains in quality. I am really excited about a few of these cards, some of them for competitive constructed play and one or two for their casual deck possibilities. At this very moment in my head, regardless of when you read this article, there are ideas swirling in my head on how to use some of these cards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208281Sun, 05 May 2013 01:12:29 GMTThe idea for this article started when Mr. Safety and I started talking and sharing thoughts about Red, White and Blue Aggro after my article written several months ago about facing off against Caleb Surette with Jund. We decided it’d be fun to test a new version of that American deck against a Quick n’ Toast list that Mr. Safety has been working on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208202Fri, 03 May 2013 18:04:55 GMTSettlers of Catan, produced by Mayfair Games, is one of the most widely recognized and popular board games in the world, selling millions of copies both in Europe and in North America. The core set, game expansions, and multiplayer options can be found in game stores, comic shops and mainstream retailers like Target and Barnes and Noble Booksellers. This euro-style game has become a 'gateway drug' into gaming, capturing the interests of many fair weather gamers, and acting as a bridge between hobby gaming and casual play with titles such as Risk, Monopoly and Clue.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208168Thu, 02 May 2013 21:22:51 GMTJust when I thought my teammates had run out of interest in Gatecrash draft, we get another healthy table of seven drafters tonight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=208167Thu, 02 May 2013 21:16:31 GMTIt’s finally time to get our hands on Dragon’s Maze! Prerelease events begin Friday night at midnight. More of us will see Dragon’s Maze for the first time on Saturday. For me, it’ll be Saturday afternoon at Roll2Play in Coppell, Texas. Me and up to fifty-nine of my closest friends.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207790Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:25:13 GMTHey again and welcome back. I know that I have been a little scarce on the site lately and have slowed down with my contributions article wise; but real life has it’s ways of keeping one busy and honestly as a father of five children I sometimes can’t even remember what day of the week it is let alone find time to sit down in a quite area to write about this great hobby. I did find a few spare moments though and I was thinking about how I had done some coverage on a lot of the guilds but had not really written about Simic much. One thing that I noticed right away was that Simic doesn’t always translate its deck style into the different formats of constructed play. The decks devoted to blue/green are really very diverse even within a format. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207786Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:56:17 GMTI gave my ‘Rock’ deck a break this month and shelved it in favor of a rogue combo brew featuring Hypergenesis. I only played in two tournaments before this month, but I’m already feeling the urge to diversify. My good friend Russ spanned out with a couple of other decks rather than just always going for the same tried-and-true technology, and it inspired me to do the same. I was going into this event looking to bring a quirky, fun deck and see what I could do with it. Much to my surprise I did quite well with the deck and saw some of the craziest interactions you can imagine.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207785Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:37:57 GMTThe third set of Return to Ravnica Block will soon be upon us, and in the last few days, spoilers have been coming in abundance. So far, there’s been a mix of useful and not-so-useful cards spoiled, including many of the champions of each guild and a new planeswalker. As of this writing, the champions for eight of the possible ten guilds have been spoiled; we are only missing the Boros and Selesnya champions. In addition, several powerful creatures that are not the uniquely named champions of each guild have been revealed, and the new Fuse mechanic has also been shown; we are getting new split cards, some of which are enormously useful.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207663Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:02:28 GMTWelcome back to Iron Chef: MtGFanatic Edition ladies and gentlemen. This edition of Iron Chef is a special one. It depicts the first two, in hopefully, a series of brews utilizing a card suggested to me by a member of our great community here at MtGFanatic. Our own Jeff Zandi (Zanman) has kindly offered my first challenge. I had asked Jeff if there was a rare card from Gatecrash that he found particularly bad. His answer was provided without hesitation, and it was Illusionist’s Bracers. He and one of his associates had been attempting to build around this card to no avail. I’ll try my best to not disappoint.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207658Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:36:25 GMTAfter two bad weeks with four men and five men, respectively, the weekly draft gets back on its feet with a decent seven player table. We even manage to get a 3v3 team draft afterwards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207656Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:19:13 GMTTimes are hard. America is slowly climbing out of her worst financial mess since the Great Depression. In challenging times like these, I’m only too happy to announce that our friends at Wizards of the Coast have chosen to give us extra Magic cards in Dragon’s Maze for no additional cost. Buy a booster pack of Dragon’s Maze at regular price and get one free Magic card. Sort of.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207450Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:47:40 GMTI write this while still in, I must confess, rather a shock of disbelief, since I had no idea when I walked through the door at Boxborough that I’d be sitting pretty at 6-1 in 9th place seven rounds later with what turned out to be a finely honed killing machine. Then I lost in round eight to a guy who I know from the area named Pedro that I see semi-regularly. I dropped ten places in the standings with that loss, and that was pretty much it for me. I intentionally drew with my last opponent because at that point I didn’t really care much about my finish and wanted to just wind down for a bit. We played a casual couple of games just to pass the time but I was just dead tired after eight rounds of serious play and ready to go home as soon as possible if I wasn’t playing for the top spot. It was a good day though, and I am proud of my finish. MTGFanatic represent!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207293Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:30:45 GMTWe only had four players last week and we don’t do much better this week with five. This time, however, we get a little creative. Joe Klopchic told me that in Florida they were publicizing a booster draft competition using both Gatecrash and Return to Ravnica. If this were a regular block, current booster drafts would already contain both sets. It would be, in order of packs opened, Gatecrash then Return to Ravnica then another Return to Ravnica. This block is different. RTR and GTC are each big sets. In order to make these two sets play together fairly in booster draft, the guys in Florida have envisioned drafting four booster packs instead of three. We’re short this week, so why not try Return/Gatecrash draft?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207292Wed, 17 Apr 2013 01:58:52 GMTThis triple-threat dandy has really grabbed my attention. The flavor is cool, his ability is sweet, and he’s one of those special cards that can allow for you to build a deck in several different directions. He can be great in Vampire tribal, for sure. Any time you can load up on more soldiers in your army is a good time. Flipped he’s almost worth two copies of Captivating Vampire, just without the option of a repeatable Mind Control. Pair them together and you can play theft on a grand scale, nabbing a Mercedes or two.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207238Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:52:33 GMTStandard constructed isn’t just the name of Magic’s most popular format, it’s an apt description of what my decks have looked like lately. Very standard. Red, white and blue, or else Reanimator or Turbo Aura or, since Gatecrash arrived, aggro Boros featuring Boros Reckoner. I wanted to play something new. I spent some time paging through new decklists on this website and that, the same way a girl might page through hair styles at the beauty parlor, when I saw something different. I knew I wanted to play it right away. Something a little less standard for Standard, and all the cards were black.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=207234Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:36:37 GMTI battled bravely in the Modern PTQ in Austin a week ago, and bravely went down in flames 2-2. I had no intentions of playing the following weekend. I was invited to judge at a PTQ in Wichita, Kansas, on March 16th, but declined. I might want to play in Wichita because I did so well in Austin (without winning the whole thing) that I needed the Wichita PTQ to give me one more chance. At the other end of the scale, I thought that if I washed out big time in Austin, like an 0-2 washout, that I would want the Wichita PTQ a week later to get me back on my feet. Neither happened, I finished 2-2 in Austin with a Modern deck that I believe was just a handful of cards from being exactly the right deck for the day. Then I heard there was an online PTQ that started at one in the afternoon (local time) on Sunday. A SEALED DECK PTQ. For me, that’s just too good to pass up. One last chance to qualify for the San Diego PT that I can participate in without endless hours in a car.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206948Wed, 10 Apr 2013 02:45:42 GMTThe Gatecrash booster draft bandwagon hit a bump this week. Only four people show up for tonight’s meeting. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Four people isn’t like a no-show or anything? Yes, it kind of is. Four people COUNTING Jeff Zandi and Lawson Zandi, people who reside at the Guildhall and who receive their mail there. Even with only four players, we managed to have some fun drafting Gatecrash and playing a small round-robin tournament with all the rares and foils from the draft going to the single round-robin winner. We have more than a month to go before Dragon’s Maze arrives. It’s too soon for dudes to be bailing out on Gatecrash.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206866Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:57:36 GMTMunchkin by Steve Jackson Games has become iconic as an ongoing franchise, as well as a non-collectable card game in and of itself. This game’s simple rules, easy set up, and low price point have given it broad appeal to gamers of all ages, interests and abilities. The game itself can be learned in less than ten minutes. Munchkin certainly falls under the category of 'minutes to learn, a lifetime to master.' Its popularity has made it a 'go-to' game for many retailers, in hobby stores as well as game stores, in addition to general retail settings including but not limited to book stores, video-game retailers, comic shops and big box stores, thus making it one of the most available games on the market.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206669Fri, 05 Apr 2013 22:20:16 GMTYou know when you’ve got a good deck when you lose to your own misplays and not because the deck failed you. I was [i]this close[/i]… again. And in more dominating fashion than last time.[/p][p] Originally this column was going to be about my night on Wednesday when I took my Boros deck to that area, but Friday night was actually a better story. I finished 3-2 on Friday, losing my first and last matches to misplays, a miscalculation in the first match, desperation in the second. In between were three straight 2-0 victories. Altogether, I was two misplays away from being undefeated. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206659Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:55:22 GMTOriginally released in 1983 by Games Workshop, Talisman continues to be one of the best-selling, most popular board games on the market. Its innovative in-game mechanics as well as its well-rounded fantasy setting give it broad appeal to general gaming enthusiasts and fans of the adventure genre.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206569Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:07:55 GMTToday’s article is about sideboarding. I wanted to offer my thoughts on the topic since I believe there’s a good deal to be said about “ordinary” sideboarding, where you put in a few cards to answer various matchup problems, and fill out a fifteen card sideboard using that philosophy versus transformational sideboarding, where you put a package of 7-10 cards together in order to entirely transition your deck to a different type of deck from what you started with in game one of a match.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206568Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:00:29 GMTAfter several weeks of eight-man drafts, we come up one player short this week and draft with seven. Interest in drafting Gatecrash remains high, although the drafts have begun to get a little predictable. Even with just seven tonight, we manage to keep six players together for a 3v3 team draft after the main event is finished. Even with two drafts tonight, we finish fairly early.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206424Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:53:12 GMTMost duel decks are built based on a pair of tribes, or, more recently, a pair of warring planeswalkers. I got the idea recently to try and build a pair of duel decks based on something simple, a single word. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206313Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:16:39 GMTAggressive red and green decks ruled the day at the Modern PTQ in Austin, filling up the top eight with cards like Experiment One, Flinthoof Boar and Burning-Tree Emissary. Although I was far from reaching the playoffs this week, I was somewhere in the neighborhood of the right deck with my five color Zoo variant. In the end, it was, indeed, an aggro deck that prevailed and took home the little blue envelope, but it wasn’t what you would expect. The winning deck was a back-to-basics Jund design running more basic lands than usual as well as one, two, three, FOUR main deck copies of Blood Moon. Man and boy, that’s some serious mayhem!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206225Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:54:21 GMTThere is a group of cards enshrouded by an aura of power that many of us older players recognize. Maybe you’re like me and you have a few of them, but you have a long way to go before you can just build any deck you want with the best cards in print. In Legacy it would be Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Tarmogoyf, Force of Will, dual lands like Volcanic Island, and Show and Tell. If you aren’t into Legacy, maybe it’s a Modern cluster something like this: Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize, Cryptic Command, and Mutavault. Standard has these fabulous cardboard weapons of Thragtusk, Bonfire of the Damned, Restoration Angel, Sphinx’s Revelation, and Huntmaster of the Fells. Why are these cards so powerful, and furthermore, why do they have to cost so much darn cash? Sometimes it’s obvious why cards are good, but the intricacies of a card’s potential aren’t always well known, especially to the folks that don’t have experience using them.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206218Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:20:55 GMTThe team is enjoying nice turnouts on Tuesday nights lately. Tonight we have another perfect draft table with eight players. Kind of. A ninth player shows up about three picks into the eight man draft. We think about starting over with nine players, but opt to simply continue with the hope that we will get a six man team draft afterward that the late player can participate in. It all worked out, we had a great eight man draft and a very good team draft afterward. For the second week in a row, the fourteen-year-old is pressed into service for late night drafting on a school night. That’s just how this gamer-dad rolls.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206059Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:23:22 GMTWhen somebody is slinging cards in the Legacy format and they give an offhand comment like, “ I’m using Knights,” they aren’t talking about White Knight, Knight Exemplar, or even Northern Paladin. I can say with absolute accuracy that ninety-eight percent of the time they are talking about Knight of the Reliquary. I can also say with precision unmeasured that eighty percent of statistics are made up on the spot.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=206057Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:45:16 GMTI was this close… this close to my first trip to the playoffs in any tournament. The Grand Prix Trial I attended had a turnout of eleven, so we played some Swiss rounds and cut to the top four for the playoffs. I finished fifth. I feel like I sideboarded correctly and made the correct plays when possible, played as well as I’m capable of playing the deck as currently constructed, but came up just short. That’s the breaks I suppose.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=205727Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:28:10 GMTNine players this week. You know what that means… the guys never want to play the extra round of Swiss that you really need in order to have every one-loss record advance to the final four. So, as usual, someone with a 2-1 record will get eliminated by tiebreaks. I hope it’s not me! The good news is that for a change, we have enough players left over from the Swiss draft to play a six man team draft. All I have to do is let the thirteen year old stay up late on a school night…http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=205423Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:17:03 GMTGood morning Mages! I have returned more triumphant than last time, thank goodness… On Friday, March 1, I went to an FNM where I finished sixth with a record of 2-1-1, earning $10 in store credit for my efforts. Vindication feels good, my deck performed more or less the exact way it’s supposed to throughout the course of the night and I am happier with how it works now. After my miserable night on Wednesday, I took out Chandra, the Firebrand and replaced her in the main deck with Rakdos’s Returns and put into the sideboard a Devour Flesh and a Tribute to Hunger. A second Tribute will go into the sideboard as soon as I can pick one up.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=205272Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:46:08 GMTIn the latest of my quarterly DC-10 articles, about a month ago, I told you guys that I felt like I had barely scratched the surface of Gatecrash with respect to the crazy little format called DC-10. At the end of the article I hinted that I was rushing off to play a little more DC-10 with Gatecrash using, ahem, a few MORE packs than in my original study. I used eight packs for that brief examination of Gatecrash DC-10. Since then, I have dived in a little deeper. One hundred and twenty-eight packs deeper. A booster box of Gatecrash contains thirty-six packs. I battled with 128 packs. That’s slightly over three boxes, half a case of Gatecrash! What will I learn, if anything, from this highly speculative venture? Let’s find out together.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=205213Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:56:47 GMTHave you found yourself practicing for tournaments too often all by yourself? Do you know people you like to play with but getting together is always a big hassle? Maybe you only manage to get together with other players whenever you are all at the game store. Have you seen dudes at tournaments with t-shirts declaring their allegiance to some private Magic team or club? Maybe you’ve thought about starting a team of your own. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204889Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:56:59 GMTI have been officially bitten by the competitive bug. While I have no ambitions of becoming a professional Magic player, the desire to win the local Legacy event is strong. I have to thank my good buddy Russ for getting me involved in competitive Magic, something he dove into after only a few weeks of getting back into the game. I have always been short on time and really too timid to ever get out to a local event and compete. I also didn’t think there was a genuine Legacy scene to become involved in.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204824Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:43:14 GMTWe don’t often have EXACTLY eight players for a booster draft. Eight is the “most pure” number for booster draft and, as luck would have it, that’s precisely the number we have this week. The two decks that reach the finals could not possibly be more different. I think you’ll find both decks interesting for completely different reasons.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204823Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:08:45 GMTSo there I was, sitting back thinking of the good old days of Heavy Metal with bands like Judas Priest, Ozzy Ozborne, Kiss, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, etc. Man I just love throwing one of those albums onto my record player and zoning out while I listen to some classic Heavy Metal from my younger days. I know, you guys all have CD’s and digital downloads, but vinyl holds me with a certain passion and I love it. It reminds me of my youth, of those carefree days when I first left home to go into the world and explore for myself, and it gets my blood flowing to help me think about weird and fun stuff like Magic the Gathering.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204756Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:59:54 GMTOn Wednesday, I went to Wednesday Night Standard at Pandemonium Games in Cambridge. I took my recently completed Grixis Standard Control deck, and didn’t really do all that well. I went 1-3 in match play, winning only against RDW.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204753Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:19:23 GMTNine players tonight for our Gatecrash booster draft. Both decks that survived the three rounds of Swiss and won their semifinals playoff rounds are interesting in different ways. One features all-out aggressiveness, the other is a cleverly built midrange deck that can change gears and do a lot of different things.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204618Tue, 05 Mar 2013 02:10:04 GMTIt’s been a while since I dove into the Standard format, long enough to make me feel embarrassingly unfamiliar with that format. I wanted to change that by digging into it online with Magic Workstation and build a deck that suits my style, and maybe win a game or two. I also picked the brains of a few Standard junkies that I know to get an idea for what the top decks are.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204376Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:31:18 GMT Many players, myself included, were surprised to see Seething Song and Bloodbraid Elf banned last month. I’m a big fan of Jund in Modern (and in Extended a few years ago) and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like playing Jund without Bloodbraid Elf. My thirteen-year-old has been playing Storm for a couple of years and is equally bummed about Seething Song. How do these bans affect the Modern format? That’s an interesting question, and one that I’m interested in digging deeper into. The current Pro Tour Qualifier season began the last week in December and continues until the middle of March. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204369Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:43:04 GMTThe second week of Gatecrash drafts in the Guildhall is almost as good as the first. We have ten players ready to go around seven o’clock, so we go with a single big Gatecrash booster draft with four Swiss rounds cutting to our usual final four. The extra round of Swiss stifles enthusiasm for a late-night team draft even when an eleventh player shows up midway through the first draft’s rounds. Still, everyone is excited to be drafting Gatecrash. I would say most people’s opinions of the set, as far as limited is concerned, are higher than they were a week ago.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204366Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:15:24 GMTReturn to Ravnica arrived in September and rocked the Magic world. Return to Ravnica was particularly well-received by players that were underwhelmed or even disappointed with Avacyn Restored and/or Magic 2013. Gatecrash has been well-received in general, but I hear lots of players who say they are disappointed with Gatecrash in comparison to Return to Ravnica. But which one is BETTER?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204206Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:03:05 GMTGood morning, mages! The final results are in, and Tom Martell has won Pro Tour: Gatecrash on the back of The Aristocrats, a R/W/B deck. Today I want to go over what each of the top decks does and the impressions that I got from watching these top players play them. Hopefully it will give all of us some insights into the metagame for both Modern and Standard play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204107Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:50:55 GMTI suppose I’m a little late to the party as far as a review is concerned, at least compared to others like our resident fundamentals master George Colby (Mr. Safety) and our Modern Mage Tomas Quinones, who have already kindly offered up their reviews and top picks for Gatecrash. But hey, I’m a very casual player, so better late than never. Thankfully they were nice enough to only cover competitive Magic so that meant there was still some meat left on the bone for my own review of the new set. One thing I have noticed is that there are an awful lot of cards that could be useful in quite a few of my decks, even amongst the commons. I will therefore be condensing my considerations to the top picks. I do get to cheat though, as many of them are cycles of five.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=204106Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:44:28 GMTToday I’m diverging from the Commander-y goodness that I’d normally present here on MTGFanatic with a series of Gatecrash sealed pools, their construction, and some insights into Magic’s most recent limited environment.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=203377Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:59:38 GMTThink for a moment about the first time someone ‘cheated’ a creature onto the battlefield against you. How did you feel about it? Did you lose the game? Were you angry about how it seemed so unfair? Getting big creatures on the cheap has been one of the most explosive and unfair strategies in the history of competitive Magic in various formats.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=203249Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:59:19 GMTLast week on my birthday, January 28th, Wizards of the Coast announced two bans in Modern, of Bloodbraid Elf and of Seething Song. Bloodbraid Elf’s ban was because Jund, as of late, has been winning or placing highly in every major tournament, and, as it stood, it was the best deck in the format by a long shot. Seething Song was banned because it was the prime enabler of Storm decks. They were using it to get turn three kills on a consistent basis. I disagree with the choice of that particular card as being ban-worthy, but it is consistent with WOTC’s policy of “ban the enabler.”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=203152Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:14:06 GMTIn 1957, when renowned French film director Albert Lamorisse developed the board game [i]La Conquête du Monde[/i], few people, if any at all, realized the decades spanning board game brand that would soon take shape across the world. His game of world conquest is known by a more common, albeit, less poetic title: Risk.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=203037Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:52:23 GMTIt’s official, the Texas Guildmages are psyched about Gatecrash! Tonight we have sixteen players, a very rare occurance that hasn’t happened in more than a year. When we come close to this number, like with twelve or fourteen players, we send six players downstairs to play a team draft at the dining room table while the rest of us play a Swiss draft upstairs. It almost looked like something similar would happen tonight, we were about to start with six players downstairs and nine players upstairs when a sixteenth player showed up. Now we had a perfectly sized eight man booster draft upstairs and another eight man draft downstairs. After these two drafts, there was enough interested players to run a THIRD eight man draft.\http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202971Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:47:31 GMTI can hardly recall a time when there wasn’t at least one member of my playgroup playing a discard deck of some form or another. Sometimes discarding an early land or a useful removal spell could result in a very detrimental loss of tempo. An old combo and still one of my favorite plays is a Dark Ritual into a Hypnotic Specter on the first turn, which can be very brutal. The discarding mechanic has obviously been given many tools over the years to try and keep those blue mages at bay. Not that this tactic worked for the competitive scene or anything, but it has produced some great casual goodies for the kitchen table that I simply love to exploit. One of these said goodies is a little devilish enchantment known as Megrim.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202961Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:37:08 GMTThis edition of Roots brings the very first tournament report from yours truly. I was pleasantly surprised to get an authentic ‘Top Eight’ MTGFanatic die from Jeff Zandi and Chris Tremblay, part of a Christmas gift to the staff. It was great to have such a rare piece of Magic memorabilia, but I hadn’t earned it. I didn’t place in the top eight of any tournament in 2012, and in fact participated in no tournaments at all. That was simple enough to fix: I needed to get out of my comfort zone and go battle it out so I could earn my dice. I didn’t go to Friday Night Magic and I didn’t try and get involved in Modern. I went straight to one of the most competitive formats in the history of the game: Legacy.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202822Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:06:53 GMTFor the past six years the Bazaar of Moxen, a high stakes series of tournaments, has offered Europeans the pleasure of battling for stacks of Power Nine and dual lands. I could just end the article here by proclaiming how awesome it is, and there would be no more facts to check. I could post a picture because it's worth a thousand words (my editor's minimum) and be done with it. This tournament is to Europeans what the GenCon Legacy and Vintage championships are to those Stateside.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202819Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:52:14 GMTRecently, a friend told me that she wanted to jump back into Magic. She has all kinds of street cred in board gaming and roleplaying, but only dabbled in the Magic-al arts many years ago.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202708Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:57:35 GMTIn the Middle Ages, Carcassonne existed as a fortified city in France, whose strategic location made it invaluable for the purposes of trade, commercial traffic, and local defense. Many factions competed for control over this city for over two centuries. Guildsmen, merchants, nobility, and even foreign rulers attempted to exert their influences on Carcassonne in order to grasp at a small portion of what it had to offer. While this is an oversimplification of the history of the location that gives this Rio Grande Games title its name, it does serve as a useful backdrop to the action and strategies players will find within its box. And while the game itself is very easy to learn, like the history of the city, it has complexities that extend far beyond its simple layout design that will take many hours to master.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202690Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:13:24 GMT]Today, as the sun rose across this great land, and even earlier, at midnight in many locations, sales began for Gatecrash. Return to Ravnica rocked our world four months ago and Gatecrash holds at least some of the same promise, the same hope for greatness. The first way that most players are able to experience a new set is through limited formats, like last weekend’s prerelease tournaments. At my local store, just down the street from my home, a nice little shop called Roll2Play, we are playing MORE sealed deck tonight. We run sealed deck (for just $20) on the first Friday night of each month for Friday Night Magic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202621Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:02:03 GMTArkham Horror, published by Fantasy Flight Games, is the core product in a series of board games based on the works of acclaimed horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. The board layout itself is a map of Arkham, Massachusetts, the central city of the Cthulhu Mythos where the specter of Ancient Gods and their followers are played out in the early twentieth century in tales of dark mystery and intrigue.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202619Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:43:15 GMTWelcome back to Iron Chef: MtGFanatic Edition ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to once again dust off those seldom used cards and put a hurting on the opponents with them. The theme for this week would make Charlie Sheen very proud, because winning is the name of the game for this installmenthttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202531Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:26:59 GMTNow that Gatecrash has finally dropped and the Prereleases have been done, I’ve started working on what I believe will become a major force in the Standard metagame: Boros, both straight and “American Flag” versions with blue added. Today we’ll be looking at the R/W aggressive Boros version, which has been very powerful so far in testing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202377Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:23:16 GMTThis week brings a long overdue interview with one of our new writers. He’s been writing for bit now, putting out a column called ‘The Modern Mage.’ I wanted to pick his brain get to know him a little better. Everyone has a story to tell about their history with Magic, and I asked Tomas if he’d be willing to share a little bit of his with the crew here at MTGFanatic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202372Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:34:21 GMTFor the last Tuesday night before the Gatecrash prerelease weekend we have eight players interested in drafting Return to Ravnica one last time.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202268Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:49:10 GMTWe once again look to a new, exciting set in which to invest a little more expendable income. Well, at least it’s new. I’m not saying some folks aren’t really excited, but for the most part Gatecrash isn’t nearly as hot as Return to Ravnica. It will have some good cards, no doubt, but it seems a rather bit more mundane. I suppose the novelty of getting back to Ravnica has worn off and my expectations were a little too high. Some of the cards really caught my attention, and typically over the history of Magic it has always been the uncommons that grab my attention first and foremost. I suppose that’s because I’m still a budget builder at heart, even though I’ve “graduated” into the Legacy format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202221Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:03:54 GMTWhat are your goals when you attend Friday Night Magic? You want to hang out with friends, do some trading, hopefully win some booster packs or an FNM foil. Basically, you want to have fun.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=202130Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:23:32 GMTThe new year got off to a good start at my house. Despite whatever hangovers they may have been enduring, a bunch of the guys came over on Tuesday the first of January for the regular team meeting. We talked about the upcoming Modern PTQ season, we drafted Return to Ravnica, we talked about girls. The usual. Then we did something out of the ordinary. We team drafted Magic’s first-ever set, Limited Edition Beta.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=201970Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:58:50 GMTPrereleases are great opportunities for exploring a new set with your friends, but winning prizes is also nice. Why not do both? I’m here to help you make the most of your Gatecrash prerelease experience.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=201605Fri, 25 Jan 2013 03:06:16 GMTHello Mages! Welcome back to the Gatecrash preview! Today we’re going to see a lot more about the multicolored cards, especially the Orzhov and Gruul-related spells. I’m most excited about Orzhov Charm, Clan Defiance, and Rubblehulk out of today’s card discussions. All three are going to be very interesting in the forthcoming metagame.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=201604Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:46:43 GMTWe have exactly eight players tonight. You can’t do better than that for a booster draft. I’m also thankful to see this many guys still interested in Return to Ravnica draft with Gatecrash looming just two weeks ahead.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=201602Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:35:50 GMTTomas shares his thoughts on some of the spoiled cards from Gatecrash and their impact on constructed formats.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=201323Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:10:28 GMTAt the moment, GP Denver is in the books and its results have solidified what is already a growing movement in this format of ours. Once again, the fall set release gave Legacy a few goodies, and with these goodies people are playing decks that haven't seen much success as of late. Today we're going over what's good in Legacy looking out over the year 2013 ahead of us. This year there will be a slew of StarCity Legacy Open events, two Invitationals, two Legacy Grand Prix, and the Bazaar of Moxen, the European equivalent to a Star City Invitational. That's a lot of prize money for the competitive-minded Legacy grinder, not to mention the weeklies and locals around the world. One can't exactly go pro playing Eternal Formats, but a lot of good tournament opportunities exist. The point is, people are going to always play what's good. And if you know what's good, you know what's out there.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=201097Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:31:15 GMTWhen was the last time you saw a quirky combo deck? There have been many crafty decks with the ability to “instantly win” over the history of Magic. Today I bring you not one, but two quirky combo decks based on our favorite undead friends: Zombies!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200959Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:54:05 GMTIn the words of Steven Tyler, I’m ‘back in the saddle again’, returning as promised with the second installment revisiting the fundamental basics of deck building. My wife asked me: ‘why do you get so excited about Magic? I mean, what’s so great about it compared to any other card game like canasta?’ I responded: ‘I get to pick which cards I want to play with, and so does my opponent.’ This simple fact, more than any other aspect of Magic, is why we all love the game. We get to express our personality and preferences with card choices and deck design. It isn’t as simple as playing ‘War’ with a traditional deck of cards where winning is a matter of simply drawing more aces or kings. Magic is full of potential variance, but we all get to pick how many aces we get to play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200958Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:50:43 GMTHey again and welcome back to Wednesday Warfare. The phrase “Unleash the Hounds!” was once a popular call during fox hunts, but it actually gets me thinking about the Guild known as Selesnya. I have always thought this guild as being the group that simply lets more and more creatures go at its prey until the job is done. Now that might not sound like it takes any finesse, but as most of you know by now, not just any old bear of a creature will work if you want to win consistently.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200880Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:06:32 GMTDo you have the same problem as I do? Do you find yourself building most of your decks with a single focus? I am at my core a pure Timmy, always wanting to play with big nasty creatures. More often than not, the result is another deck that one would classify as beatdown. The easiest way to accomplish an aggressive FFA beatdown deck is to go tribal. A question still plagues me though: Is it possible to build a decent tribal multiplayer deck using a tribe without lords?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200829Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:44:03 GMTHere we are in 2013 with the world still turning. No zombie apocalypse, no cataclysmic shutdown of the world that the Mayans got stuck with predicting, and I’m still excited to play and write about Magic: the Gathering. Sometimes I trim back my Magic activity to only a few hours a week, enough to tinker with a few decks, post on the forums, and write something for all of you dedicated fanatics. Then there are weeks that I just can’t get the game out of my head, thinking about it constantly while I go about all of the mundane tasks of real life. Few events can trigger a near-obsessive fascination like meeting a new friend that just happens to be as fanatical as you are.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200434Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:47:23 GMTIt was hard to know how many people would show up on New Year’s Day to play Magic, but I hoped there would be enough to draft. All afternoon long, players texted me asking if we were having the practice tonight. Mais oui! Nine players showed up, enough for a nice Return to Ravnica booster draft. After the nine player Swiss draft, we did something a little out of the ordinary. Six players remained for a team rotisserie draft of Limited Edition Beta. I built a Beta set last month for a Full Set Highlander deck and the guys decided they wanted to draft it. There will be another entire article this week with all the details from the Beta draft, but I have included the six Beta rotisserie draft decks that the two teams ended up with.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200428Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:47:49 GMTWe draft almost every week at our Texas Guildmage team meetings. In 2012 we met forty-seven times and drafted with seven or more players twenty-nine times producing fifty-eight finalists. A few years ago, I decided it would be fun to know which of the two finalists’ decks from the weekly Swiss draft was actually better. Along with playing a match with the finalists’ decks from each weekly meeting, I go one step further and save all the finalists’ decks for an entire month. Now I play a little tournament with all four, six, eight or even ten decks to determine a monthly winner. This year, I have kicked it up one incredibly bizarre notch. I have pitted the twelve monthly winners from 2012 against each other in combat.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200422Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:08:43 GMTDuring the holidays, Magic Online and our friends at Wizards of the Coast have given us the amazing opportunity to draft and play with some of the most iconic cards of all time. For some, it has been literally the chance of a lifetime, maybe the only chance some players would ever play a Black Lotus or a Mox. When you get a chance to play cards like Ancestral Recall and Time Walk and Mind Twist, it’s easy to get a little misty-eyed and think about the days when every competitive Magic deck was brimming with Power Nine cards. It sort of makes you wish you could go back to those days. A lot of people would be willing to waste their one shot in the time machine to go back to 1993 and rip open packs of Limited Edition Beta. Power nine in booster packs? Beta must have been the best core set ever. Or was it the worst?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200195Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:00:34 GMTThe holidays are history. The Christmas trees are out of the house and on the curb waiting for pick up. The ball has dropped in Times Square and the confetti has been swept away. Before we get any further into the new year, I’d like to share a few best-of-2012 lists.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200188Sun, 06 Jan 2013 19:10:19 GMTIf the year 2012 wasn't just a measurement of time, I’d say it was one of the best things to happen to Legacy in a long time. Support of the format worldwide is on the rise, the card pool got some pretty sweet new toys, and the WOTC-sponsored Grand Prix tournaments were front stage affirmations of the format's health and stability. As the US government gears up to save money and look ahead, I took the opportunity and a little inspiration to go over this format of ours with money on my mind.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200089Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:36:25 GMTA request was made from editor Julian Marin in my last article to see a game of Modern pitting Jund against the RUW Aggro deck that I unveiled recently. I decided that this was indeed a fantastic idea. That very night, I got in touch with my friend Caleb Surette, who won a GPT recently in Maine with a Jund deck and attended Grand Prix: Toronto. Below you will find lists for each deck, as well as full play-by-play from the two of us with reasons for the way we played things. I feel that this three-game match shows off a good deal of what each deck is capable of.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=200002Fri, 04 Jan 2013 05:12:37 GMTWelcome back to Wednesday Warfare. I know that I have not had an article printed in a while, but recent family items have had me a little more busy than usual. Without further ado, let’s jump right into this installation of Wednesday Warfare. I will be going through four Golgari decks (Legacy, Pauper, Set Restricted, and Home-Brew) so hopefully this will help some of you guys out with your deck building ideas and/or concepts.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199908Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:04:59 GMTHappy Holidays and many well wishes to you and yours, MTG players. Today I’m examining some of the newly-released cards from Gatecrash. Patrick Chapin at Star City Games has done a wonderful write-up of what Domri Rade and Aurelia, the Warleader offer to people, a large part of which I agree with, so I will defer to him on those cards. There are still eight other cards to look at, however, aside from the well-known reprinted shock lands.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199903Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:09:36 GMTWelcome back to Iron Chef: MtGFanatic Edition, ladies and gentlemen. As always, I will be your guide to putting those otherwise useless rares to use in casual multiplayer environments like Free For All (FFA), a metagame where late-game decisions make more difference than early game heroics.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199467Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:45:16 GMTBeing a Boros fan going back to the original Ravnica sets, I have of late been investigating what is currently possible with Boros-themed decks in both Standard and Modern. Both of the decks below are things that I’ve come up with. The WUR one is not exactly Boros in that it doesn’t generate lots of fast, efficient creatures, but the damage capability is definitely there. It is also fairly powerful. I’ve found that most of the time if you get a Geist of Saint Traft down successfully and make it stick, you will win the game almost no matter what your opponent does.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199442Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:51:55 GMTYou’ve picked a good week to check out the weekly proceedings for the Texas Guildmages. Tonight’s meeting has a real party atmosphere. Several members from many years ago stopped by tonight to have some fun. We are also celebrating both the first-ever Tuesday night appearance of Terrence Jackson and the 300th appearance of Guildmage Mark Hendrickson. We also completed the voting for our annual Guildmage of the Year awards. There was punch and pie. Rather, there was a giant sheet cake commemorating Mark’s achievement in longevity and a crockpot full of amazing hot chocolate concocted by my bride of nineteen years, Willa Zandi. Oh, and we also booster drafted with thirteen players. You wouldn’t believe how good about half the decks were!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199155Sat, 22 Dec 2012 23:39:07 GMTWell, it’s that most wonderful time of year again (for those who believe in that sort of thing of course) and Christmas is upon us. Children worldwide are making out their lists, which of course Santa will check twice to determine who is naughty and who is nice. All the while, his crews of Elves are making toys day after day until Christmas Eve when he will get in his sleigh and deliver them to all the good girls and boys.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199095Fri, 21 Dec 2012 22:24:28 GMTIt’s a Christmas miracle, my Magic dreams have finally come true, I’m drafting with Magic’s most famous cards of all time. I’m drafting Limited Edition Beta with my Fanatic pal George Colby. A normal booster draft requires each player to have three booster packs. With Limited Edition Beta, the cost for two players to booster draft is a little over four thousand dollars. So… plan B it is!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199075Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:25:51 GMTNow some of you might be scratching your head at the title, and many of you may have faced this dreaded monster and understand its ferocity. I am referring, of course, to the ever popular combo of Restoration Angel and Thragtusk. These two cards have been teaming up a lot in Standard competitive decks around the world recently, and I believe will continue to do so until Wizards put a stop to it, either by printing a hoser card or by having to ban one of them similar to the way they banned Stoneforge Mystic. I hope it’s the former, but you never know what Gatecrash will bring to the table for Restoration Angel to manipulate.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=199040Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:51:03 GMTDespite being an aggro player at heart, I’ve always been fascinated by both the Control and Aggro sides of Grixis. Patrick Chapin has been one of the strongest proponents of Grixis Control, ever since he first saw the card Cruel Ultimatum, and although it wasn’t terribly viable at the time, it didn’t stop him from churning out some articles on the subject.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198965Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:25:09 GMTNo sleep ‘till Brooklyn. Or, in this case, Houston. Friday night went unusually late at Roll2Play in Coppell, Texas. We’re a small store and we don’t attract a big crowd, usually less than sixteen players. Everything took longer tonight, and me and Lawson didn’t leave the store until after midnight. I know that’s not very late for all the hardened gamers out there, but it’s late for me because we’re leaving for the Houston PTQ tournament around 4:30 am. We were home by 12:30 am, I showered and looked for clothes and sleeves and was in bed around 2:00 am. Alarm went off two hours later and I felt like a truck had hit me. That’s a tough way to start the day. I had to remind myself that playing in a sealed deck PTQ was FUN… even when you have to drive five hours each way.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198764Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:03:25 GMTNine players tonight and a nice card pool for our draft including an Angel and Jace and a FOIL Epic Experiment. Too bad we elect to only play three rounds of Swiss. Three rounds is the correct number for eight players before cutting to a top four, but with nine players, someone with a 2-1 record is going to get screwed. We also have some team business to do tonight and the next two Tuesdays as well. We’re voting for Guildmage of the Year for three different years including the current one, 1999 and 2006. You can read all about it closer to the bottom of this week’s journal entry.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198763Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:23:37 GMTWintertime, December especially, has always been a season that brings back warm feelings of Magic cheer for me. It was in December 2003, right after the release of Mirrodin, that I first got the urge to get back into game. And yet nine years after throwing my lot back into this game I am still embarrassingly ignorant of limited formats.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198639Sun, 16 Dec 2012 13:53:09 GMTIn the last article I was discussing the method I use when designing my decks which, as a reminder, are all built for a casual multiplayer Free-for-All (FFA) environment. When building a new deck, I like to follow a simple set of rules of thumb I have dubbed Dre’s four [b]R[/b]s of multiplayer Deckbuilding.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198596Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:11:21 GMTPlaying Magic at the highest possible level is generally a goal all of us strive for, regardless of the format we play. Not all of us are trying to win a tournament, but I think all of us want to have the best deck possible. It can become easy to get ensnared into competitive deck building, even if you aren’t actually competing. There is a special thrill that is gained by doing something just a little bit better than anyone else, even at the kitchen table.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198476Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:02:42 GMTI still remember that very long thirteen years ago when I first looked at a Magic: the Gathering card. It confused me so much that I insisted on learning how to play. My brother, his roommate and I learned as we went with little to go on except old rules inserts. We relied heavily on one of the main members of our playgroup who insisted he knew the rules, but also thought that the “empties your mana pool” stipulation on Power Sink meant destroy all lands that were tapped. Who were we to argue, we were oblivious to the actual rules?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198326Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:31:09 GMTWhat do you want when you go to a Pro Tour Qualifier? You want professionalism and quality. A PTQ is an event you plan ahead for, one that you might travel many, many miles to play in. If you have to put more planning and attention to detail into your preparation to play in an event, it makes sense that the tournament organizer would want to put more work into such an event as well. It can be hard, sometimes, for a tournament organizer not to fall into the grind of running events week after week, gradually forgetting how important the big tournament experience of a Pro Tour Qualifier is for many, if not most customers. If this sounds like the start of a typical rant about some terrible tournament, let me assure you, it is quite the opposite.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198162Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:29:53 GMTSeven players tonight, a perfectly good number for a booster draft. Around here, six players means we split up randomly into two teams of three, but seven players always calls for a regular booster draft with three Swiss rounds cutting to a top four. Contrary to what my old preacher used to think, Magic: the Gathering does not involve actual sorcery. Still… there’s something about randomly seating players around a table. The sound of everyone cracking their first booster at the same time has been known to cause a last-minute drafter to magically appear at the front door. No such luck tonight, though.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=198081Sat, 08 Dec 2012 20:21:29 GMTAs some of you may know from the comments in my article “Story of a Homebrew,” I mentioned that I would be taking my Grixis deck to the Grand Prix Trial in Boston. Well, I did, and had a fairly successful and competitive run there.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197860Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:50:46 GMTWelcome to Iron Chef: MtGFanatic Edition, your guide to mediocre card exploitation. I am your host, BigDaddyDre. I’m here to show you fellow Fanatics different recipes that utilize historically bad ingredients that could end up surprising your taste buds. Even the worst card can make for an interesting or even good deck for casual play at your kitchen table or neighborhood card shop, as long as you add the proper dashes of flavor and/or utility cards to spice things up.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197783Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:46:25 GMTI’m back after a week of hell because of Hurricane Sandy. I hope all of you are doing well after the storm and didn’t have too much damage. Well, we all know that no matter what is going on we always go back to Magic and that’s what I did. Checking the results of GP Bochum I discovered that the winning deck was…..Hoof, there it is!? What is this? This deck is unheard of! Why are there FOUR Craterhoof Behemoths in the main deck?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197617Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:20:16 GMTIt’s been a while since I have taken a look at anything magic related, but Pauper keeps me thinking, even if I am not actively playing I still try to stay up on all of the new cards for my favorite format. As an added bonus, I don’t have to worry about most of the cards from a new set. I don’t care about chase rares or ten dollar lands. I care about the cards that will be undervalued and underappreciated.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197614Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:12:08 GMTLorwyn and Morningtide provided the necessary cards to make one of the most hated decks in the history of the Standard format: blue and black Faeries. The core cards of that deck were unbelievably powerful, enabling a deck that could play control, aggro, and mid-range all in one package. It was a little while before Faeries finally took root in Legacy, but it eventually happened. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197561Sun, 02 Dec 2012 18:28:13 GMTFury of Dracula, originally published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005, has remained one of the most under-appreciated, yet highly recommended games for both horror and mystery gamers alike. Its unique setup and highly detailed components make it a quality selection for any gaming library. While it takes a back seat among the marketing giant of FFG's titles and is lost amongst more popular titles such as Dust, Arkham Horror, Twilight Imperium and Battlestar Galactica, it is well worth mentioning that FoD set the stage for many of their more current games rules adaptations as they relate to overall playstyle, resource management rules, and active (and inactive) roles during gameplay.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197552Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:21:38 GMTThere are a lot of good stories from last week’s big event in San Antonio, just like there would be from any Grand Prix. Legion Events did a fantastic job all weekend. There’s no bigger story than that of Tyler Lytle from Oklahoma. Even with great local and regional success, there can be no doubt that Tyler Lytle took it to a whole other level winning Grand Prix San Antonio with seemingly little resistance. In this article I’ll tell you more about Magic’s newest GP champion as well as share more coverage of my experiences at the event and in the fabulous city of San Antonio.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197425Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:39:40 GMTWilliam Faulkner is known to have advised writers to kill their "darlings," those little pieces of flare that tend to enamor them. To the reader lacking that maternal attitude, Faulkner has said, they are at best distracting, at worst a reason to stop reading. When we left off, we were focusing on the sideboard of our deck and not the main itself. I took time to jam this list through a gauntlet of popular Legacy decks in order to find leaks and hopefully plug them. In the end, this ship had too many holes in it. So what do you do? Heeding the advice of Faulkner, there's only one thing left to do; murder our little darlings.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197388Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:55:27 GMTA nice size group of players show up tonight, all in their chairs by just a little after seven o’clock. Eleven is the highest number of players that we will run in a single booster draft, these days, and eleven is how many we have. If a twelfth person had shown up, we would have broken out into two six man team drafts. With eleven, we put all the chairs around the upstairs eight-foot-long table in the Guildhall and get to work. We played four rounds of Swiss before cutting to a four man playoff. There were A LOT of rares, mythics and foils in the prize pool. That’s the best thing about an eleven man draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197333Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:39:40 GMTToday’s article is less aimed solely at Modern than it is at constructed Magic on the whole. Constructed formats seem to have gotten entirely away from combat tricks that would otherwise offer ways to improve your board situation. As a quick glance around the Standard, Modern, and Legacy metagames will show you, the vast majority of decks operate on either spells that directly affect the board or creatures that do good things within the deck, (such as the recently created Detain mechanic in Return to Ravnica, Undying in the Innistrad set, and Infect in the Scars of Mirrodin block) but there is very little attention paid to the Combat phase.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197252Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:27:28 GMTFor the first time since we all returned to Ravnica a month ago, we are short of players on Tuesday night. There are only six of us tonight, still good enough for a three-versus-three team draft. We randomly assembled ourselves around the draft table and battled. Two hours later, we were looking for something else to do when I suggested that we look at some sealed deck pools in advance of the Austin PTQ on November 17th.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197251Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:16:31 GMTThis week George gives us a peek in his personal Magic diary.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=197168Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:02:47 GMTNo doubt you have your own history with the Thanksgiving Day holiday. This year, I’d like to take one moment in time, and one article, to thank the creator and Wizards of the Coast (the OTHER creators) for some things that have happened in the world of Magic. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=196672Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:28:25 GMTReturn to Ravnica has been around for a month and the reviews are good. The set has been universally hailed for cards like Abrupt Decay, Detention Sphere and Supreme Judgment that jump right into multiple constructed formats. Everyone likes shock lands being reprinted. Everyone likes the way the set plays in limited formats. That’s what I’m here to talk about today.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=196636Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:50:21 GMTI remember a time in my Magic-playing past when getting Birds of Paradise in my opening hand made me feel like I couldn’t lose. While the power level of Birds never came from combat, it was still considered the best one-mana creature in the game for most of Magic’s history. Fixing your mana was always its strongest attribute, closely followed by providing mana acceleration for turn two that so many aggro and midrange decks love. Several cards, though, have shown up that outclass Birds of Paradise in green.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=196463Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:57:12 GMTOn Saturday morning, I directed my half-snoozing teenager into the backseat of the Scion xB and drove north in the predawn dark to Oklahoma City for a sealed deck Pro Tour Qualifier. Three hours later, we arrived at the Elks Lodge where the tournament was being held. A year ago, it would have been me running the event. I sort of miss doing that, it’s fun putting on the tournament and handing out the prizes and putting the money in your pocket at the end of the day. This year, I’m back in player mode and happy to sleep an hour later and to have a chance to compete at a high level again. I miss the pay from running events, but not the headaches.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=196209Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:55:00 GMTToday, I’d like to tell you a story. This story is about a homebrew that suddenly turned into an absolute hell-on-wheels, fun-loving, mega-competitive machine, and how it got that way.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=196202Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:10:49 GMTA perfect table of eight for tonight’s booster draft. Is there anything more beautiful than having exactly eight? The draft seemed to go fine, but I would have to say the two best decks to emerge from the fun were a little on the ridiculous side. Not necessarily ridiculously good. Just ridiculous.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=195832Mon, 12 Nov 2012 01:18:49 GMTOne of the things that’s been most on my mind lately is the feeling that Modern seems to be rather a one-trick-pony of sorts at the moment. To start with, there is no dedicated control deck at all present in the current metagame. Everything is aggro, tempo-oriented, combo, or aggro-control that switches easily back and forth between the two roles… but no dedicated control deck exists in any popular form. There are also some cards on the banned list that I believe make no sense to be banned in the current power level of the format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=195414Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:54:10 GMTEven with teammates harping on me to play only sealed deck release events on Magic Online this week, I managed to get in a few booster drafts as well. Here is one of the drafts that I thought you might find interesting. One or two Tuesdays ago, Taylor Webb impressed me with a blue/white draft deck featuring multiple copies of Stealer of Secrets and multiple copies of Ethereal Armor. I decided to “steal” that idea in this online booster draft, detailed below.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=195218Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:25:23 GMTNow that Return to Ravnica has been released and is in full swing, Standard and Modern have been considerably changed. New cards bring new strategies, of course, and that means new ways to evolve Modern decks.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=195212Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:47:13 GMTWhich is better, Return to Ravnica or the original Ravnica set from seven years ago? Maybe you think you know, but I really do know. I took my hands and built a deck containing EVERY card from Ravnica: City of Guilds and another deck containing EVERY card from Return to Ravnica. Then I smashed the decks against each other over and over again until they gave up their secrets. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=195119Sun, 04 Nov 2012 16:33:10 GMTWhen a new set comes out, I do all the same stuff you do: I read the spoiler as soon as it comes out, I try to dominate a prerelease event, I open all my booster packs onto my bed and roll around in the cards. Then I do something almost nobody else does. I play a bunch of games of DC-10 with the new set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=195066Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:37:18 GMTReturn to Ravnica has just come out, which is essentially Wizards giving us a Christmas gift. Ever since RTR has come out there have been a bunch of archetypes developing in Standard. With the rotation of the Scars block and M12, we lose the fast lands, Ponder, Mana Leak, all of the phyrexian mana spells, and the infect mechanic. This is a lot to lose but I don’t know anyone who wasn’t excited to return back to Ravnica. With it has come a range of new archetypes for Standard.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=194990Sat, 03 Nov 2012 02:59:05 GMTIt’s a very nice crowd tonight in the Guildhall. We have a dozen players soon after seven o’clock. This means we split up into two six-man team drafts. After the team drafts are done, there are nine players interested in drafting again. This late draft is the one that is the focus of this week’s article.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=194959Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:23:50 GMTI keep my toes dipped in the Pauper format, one of the most enjoyable formats for a Magic player trying to pinch their pennies. Ironically, I only play Pauper online with Magic Workstation, which is completely free. A couple of really good benefits come out of being involved in an online format: a worldwide network of players and the availability of a game whenever you can squeeze it in. If you are a big fan of Magic Online, Pauper is a fantastic format that doesn’t eat up too many tickets to play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=194869Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:02:00 GMTReturn to Ravnica is obviously the most exciting expansion in a few years. I’ve been flying under radar for a little while, but I’ve still been playing Magic. Mostly limited. I have some ideas about the new set that I’d like to share with all the Fanatic fanatics.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=194868Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:44:32 GMTNormally I don’t talk about why stuff gets created in the MTG world. Like you, I tend to focus on cards, or decks, or gaming concepts. But this week I’m taking a detour form all that to share with you guys another part of the hobby that I enjoy. A little bit of the Altered Art world and, in particular, the world of Stylized Abacus Life Counters.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=194748Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:30:26 GMTNot much interest in Magic tonight, for some reason. This is insane, of course, since Return to Ravnica is barely two weeks old. Maybe everyone blew their limited wad on the sealed deck PTQ this past Saturday in Plano. There were a lot of people there, somewhere upwards of 130. There are a lot of regulars missing tonight, and there are a few people here that we don’t see very often. [/p] http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=194162Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:04:02 GMTLast time we looked at the mono colored cards within Magic’s newest set, [i]Return to Ravnica[/i]. Today we’re back with an analysis of the multicolored cards, lands, and artifacts contained within this latest set. Instead of examining all multicolored cards at once, I am going to break them down guild by guild. Let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=193625Sat, 20 Oct 2012 17:54:09 GMTI recently found this advertisement in the personal section of the newspaper. I know what you’re thinking: who reads the newspaper anymore and beyond that, who [i]actually reads[/i] the personal ads and admits it? Before you get the wrong impression, I’m not some creepy old dude, I was just skimming the pages on my way to ‘Dear Abby’ and this ad really jumped out at me.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=193553Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:38:14 GMTThe presidential election is still a few weeks away, but for Return to Ravnica, the results are already in. Everyone loves the new set. Weekly attendance worries have disappeared, at least for a while. We have eight players around the table just minutes after seven o’clock. This week, in advance of a local sealed Pro Tour Qualifier, a few members of the team have suggested that we make tonight’s tournament sealed deck instead of the usual booster draft. It seems like everyone agrees. It’s only after we are busy building our decks that Joe Klopchic notices that one person isn’t building a deck. More about that later. As it turns out, we play our little sealed deck tournament with just seven players.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=193515Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:43:51 GMTOn Saturday I will be competing in a Return to Ravnica sealed deck Pro Tour Qualifier in Plano, Texas at an excellent store called Madness Games. It’s the first time this year that we have sealed deck PTQs, and the first really large sealed deck tournament in Texas since Grand Prix Austin the first weekend in January. Me and my friends that love limited are chomping at the bit for this event for two main reasons. Return to Ravnica is a great set and it provides for a very challenging limited environment. It’s actually pretty difficult to assess a sealed pool of cards for this format (six booster packs) and correctly produce the best possible deck. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=193368Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:51:06 GMTThe new set couldn’t have gotten here at a better time. Recently, there has been a real weariness among the few teammates that have been coming over on Tuesdays. A weariness borne of drafting Magic 2013 too many times, and a weariness of playing in a mostly-empty Guildhall week after week. Team interest in Magic in general had been falling precipitously. Then Return to Ravnica arrives, and it’s like 2007 all over again.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192637Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:45:20 GMTI wonder what it’s like to be that guy that everybody is talking about, to create a buzz before you even enter the room. In Magic, that guy is Jace, the only planeswalker with four different versions of his card. The closest competitors for ‘most personalities’ are: Liliana, Ajani, Chandra, and Garruk, all with three versions. It may surprise you, maybe not, that these are the original five that were printed in Lorwyn block, before mythic rarity was introduced. Other planeswalkers have been given a second version such as Sorin, Tezzeret, Elspeth, and Sarkhan while Nicol Bolas, Tibalt, Tamiyo, Karn, Gideon, and others have stayed true to themselves without changing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192611Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:05:26 GMTThis past week marked the release of Return to Ravnica, and with it Wizards has given us another 200 or so cards (plus reprints!) to play around with. While we have to wait a week to start using these cards in our other constructed formats, cards are legal for Commander as of the set’s prerelease, and I’ve already thrown a handful into my decks. This set isn’t quite as Commander-centric as some of the more recent sets (here’s looking at you, Magic 2013), but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a whole host of powerful new toys to play with. Today I’ll be looking at all the mono-colored cards in Return to Ravnica, and in part two we’ll explore the wonders of the gold, artifact, and land cards in the set. Let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192524Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:40:26 GMTWhat’s your favorite Magic card? Not the card you think is [i]the best[/i] Magic card, the one that you personally like the most? Maybe this is the card that was the key to the first deck you were successful with. Maybe it’s simply the card that first grabbed your attention, the first Magic card that caused you to stop doing whatever useful things you were doing so that you could devote thousands and thousands of hours to the best game ever made.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192393Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:53:25 GMTThe new set has been unleashed, pun intended, and it’s time to pore over all the new goodies that Return to Ravnica has given us. All of us that remember the first foray into the plane of Ravnica have been waiting for this with bated breath. Will it live up to our expectations? My inclination is to say a resounding ‘yes’. Zanman gave us a blast from the past with his experience with the original Ravnica, one that I really appreciated. Dark Confidant is indeed the best card from Ravnica: City of Guilds, hands down. This time around it’s not as clear-cut. I’ll be keeping an eye on the trends that spring out of the various eternal formats I follow: Legacy, Modern, and Pauper. Today I’m going to try and pinpoint the best card of each rarity, the same as I did for Magic 2013.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192392Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:26:10 GMTA couple of weeks ago I shared the first half of one of my strange projects. I built Full Set Highlander decks for each of the eight sets in Standard. The goal is to play these eight sets against each other in order to learn which set is truly the most powerful. I invented Full Set Highlander for exactly this kind of fool’s errand. A Full Set Highlander deck, simply put, consists of one-each of every non-basic land card in a set to which enough basic land has been added so that the deck consists of forty percent basic land. The beauty of the thing is that you get decks that literally represent everything that a given set has to offer, warts and all.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192285Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:50:08 GMTThere is a two lane road connecting our experiences playing [i]Magic[/i] and our experiences in real life. The traffic heading in the right direction in one lane can just as easily go the other way. As we live, we learn. As we learn, we find out what's best for us as individuals. It's instinctive to flee from distress and seek pleasure, so it only follows we should be looking for a better place to die.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192155Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:29:22 GMTOn Saturday, I played in a pair of Return to Ravnica prerelease tournaments. The first one was Saturday morning at Comic Book Craze in Garland, Texas. The second was Saturday night at Area 51 in Grapevine. The two events were separated by twenty-something miles, but the differences don’t stop there.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=192129Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:17:50 GMTWhat exactly does it take to make a good combo deck? Players that use combo decks almost exclusively, sometimes known as ‘Johnnies’, know that combo decks are one of the most difficult archetypes to pull off successfully. If you make a minor mistake with aggro or control decks it may not affect the outcome. If you make a minor mistake with a combo deck it might just be the difference in winning or losing. If you line up ten magic players you’ll have ten different viewpoints on combo decks, I’m willing to bet money on it. Recently, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle was unbanned from the Modern format so I know Modern Johnnies everywhere are tinkering with the best way to turn it into a blind-siding monsterhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191846Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:53:14 GMTThis is Part Two of John-Marc Ormechea's Return to Ravnica set review.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191720Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:29:21 GMTMy favorite converted mana cost of all time happens to be one. Imagine how many more spells you could cast on your second and third turns if everything only cost one mana! Today we are going to take a look at my favorite creatures in the one spot. Some of them may surprise you and yet others will not. Maybe some of you will send me more creatures that should be on this list. I will try to keep this as organized as possible so how about we go by color...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191437Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:01:15 GMTRecycling has apparently caught on in a big way. Hollywood has certainly gotten into the act, recycling stories, characters, and sometimes entire movies. When you go to the movies these days, you can expect to encounter a lot of sequels, remakes and reissues. Two years ago, Wizards of the Coast got into the sequel business with Scars of Mirrodin, a second visit to the world introduced in the Mirrodin block from 2003-04. This year, Wizards takes us back to Ravnica. While we take in the full spoiler of the new set this week, I’d like to take a look back at the place that Wizards wants us to return to Ravnica: City of Guilds.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191296Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:03:19 GMTWant some tips for your Return to Ravnica prerelease deck? I’ve got some ideas that might help you. I’m not talking about the rares… figuring out whether you have a bomb rare in your sealed deck pool is not very difficult. The hard part is deciding which commons to play, they are the cards that will fill out your deck and they are the cards that will ultimately decide whether or not you win packs. Of course, judging the usefulness of cards before actually playing with them is a tricky proposition at best. Still, I’m taking a shot, evaluating all the commons in Return to Ravnica from the perspective of the prerelease sealed deck. Yesterday I broke down the white, blue and black. Today I will get at the rest of the set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191193Sat, 29 Sep 2012 04:30:13 GMTRavnica is back! Seven years ago, Ravnica became one of my favorite blocks of all time for sealed deck and booster draft. Ravnica Sealed even sent me to Pro Tour Prague in 2006. I’m just itching to jump into one or two prerelease events on Saturday, but before that happens, here’s my take on the cards that will matter most from the new set on Saturday, the commons.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191093Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:41:21 GMTReturn to Ravnica is upon us, and like you, I am very excited to try out all of the new toys that R&D has given us to play with. Because of the beauty of this set I have decided to cover it a little more in depth and do a two part mini-series on it. Enjoy!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191084Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:07:31 GMTWelcome back to Wednesday Warfare. This week I will once again stick to friendly colors and discuss a little bit about using Rakdos, and the cards from the first Ravnica block, to give your opponents a migraine. I was inspired by a recent article from none other than MTGFanatic’s own George Colby (AKA – Mr. Safety). Now George made quite a good deck inside of that article, but I don’t think that the deck would translate that well into multi-player, so I will look at his deck and use some of the key cards as I create a multi-player version of a Migraine Megrim deck. I hope that your opponents’ need some Tylenol when you’re done with them!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=191033Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:59:27 GMTThis week, Commanding Magic is taking a back seat to look at something very near and dear to my heart: collecting cards. Everyone has their favorite Magic cards. Be it a wacky card with few real uses, or a tournament-defining staple, or even just a card with particularly amusing flavor text, it’s rare to find someone that can’t quickly come up with a card that simply “speaks to them”. As a result, we might try collecting some extra copies of this card, buy a playmat with the card’s art, or get some foil or altered versions to use in our decks. Even if we just refuse to trade away our lone copy of a card “because we like it”, there is something special about these cards that transcends the rest of Magic, creating something special out of an otherwise unassuming card.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190861Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:17:35 GMTHere’s how I roll… I like to know things. When we’re watching T.V. and my wife says “when did that movie come out?” I click the info button on the remote control. Bam, instant knowledge. I’m the annoying guy that instantly goes to Google on his iPhone when some matter of trivia comes up in conversation. I’m THAT guy. So when some cats are musing around the Magic table about which of the eight sets currently in Standard is the best, I jump right in there looking for the answer.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190801Sun, 23 Sep 2012 12:27:11 GMTI know all of you are excited for Return to Ravnica, I know I am. From what has been spoiled so far I can see some big impact on the different formats. One of my self-directed objectives with Roots is not only to gear up for new cards but also to encourage you to look backwards in Magic’s history. I have a unique viewpoint I’d like to share with you about why I think some of the most powerful new cards show up at the converted mana cost of five. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190621Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:43:59 GMTMagic gives you lots of opportunity to show your personality. Some players show fierce loyalty to a specific color, others a specific strategy. Some exclusively play Commander while others keep pace with the ever-changing Standard format. Regardless of where you pitch your tent in the Magic world, there are others like you that share the same passion and excitement for this nineteen year old game. It has been a little while since I scribbled out an interview and today’s interviewee is none other than yours truly. While I am not narcissistic, I would be lying if I didn’t admit to having a small nugget of vanity. One of the best parts about writing for MTGFanatic is the opportunity to share my own viewpoints about, well, everything.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190394Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:56:53 GMTModern is an interesting beast and I am still trying to wrap my brain around it. After bouncing some things off of George (my Modern coach), I have decided that a white weenie deck with some hate bears is the way to go for now, until I can splurge for Boros. I have decided that as good as Spectral Procession is, I don’t think it belongs in a deck with AEther Vial. I’m also thinking about going Honor-free as that allows more creatures.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190392Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:45:15 GMTMagic 2013’s fifteen minutes of fame are passed, according to the men of the Texas Guildmages. Last week’s meeting was cancelled due to a lack of interest. This week, things are a little better, but not much. We draft M13 with five players and play Round Robin style.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190303Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:37:17 GMTHey again and welcome back! By now some of you out there might have figured out that I am a huge fan of Fish, and when it comes to MTG I am loving me some Fishheads, AKA [b]Merfolk[/b]. Today I will discuss a particular School of Fish of the Azorius nature. But, just as in nature, schools of fish in Magic actually come in a variety of shapes and colors. Please don’t feel limited by what I write today, as I have seen many great Merfolk decks and with the recently released Master of the Pearl Trident, I suspect that Fish might once again be a tribal to be reckoned with.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=190148Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:01:57 GMTToday, Commanding Magic is going to look at a card that “All the Singleton Magic Decks” should care about. For those of you who have a decent number of Commander games under your belt, you’ve probably come across this card staring across from you after one of your opponents finished their first turn of the game, or perhaps you’ve cast it on the first turn yourself: Sol Ring.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=189981Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:12:39 GMTJ.R.R. Tolkien was onto something great when he created Treebeard and the Ents. How cool is it to see a tree kick some serious butt? Magic has had its own Treefolk lore for a long time, but as a tribe they didn’t really come into their own until Lorwyn block was printed. Sure we had Ebony Treefolk, Wormwood Treefolk, and Verdeloth the Ancient but we didn’t have anything like Dauntless Dourbark, Leaf-Crowned Elder, or Wickerbough Elder. Treefolk have never really been successful in the competitive arena, but the granddaddy of all Tree-dom has been in and out of competitive play since his printing: Doran, the Siege Tower.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=189801Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:59:57 GMTHere’s the scenario. A new set arrives on Magic Online. Naturally, I want a playset so that I can play whatever decks I want in the future. The problem is, I only have one booster box, just thirty-six online packs of Magic 2013. I could rip them open, hope for the best, and then start trading like crazy. Or, I could go into the booster draft room, roll up my sleeves and draft a playset of Magic 2013.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=189692Sat, 08 Sep 2012 22:58:13 GMTWelcome back again to exclusive coverage of the 2012 Magic Olympics. Yes, NBC may have turned off their cameras in London, but in Dominaria, the games go on for a little bit longer. The first four events are complete. A mono green deck featuring Dungrove Elder won gold in Standard. Black won the Magic 2013 Single Color Full Set Highlander gold medal with Nefarox and a superior suite of creature removal options. Goblins won gold in Pauper constructed and the black deck was dominant in a sealed deck competition using packs from the past twelve Magic sets. Only one competition remains, the Cadillac of constructed formats, Legacy.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=189586Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:00:35 GMTWhat would I do if I had a game store of my own? Every Magic player has asked himself this question at one time or another. No matter how well things are run at your favorite Magic hangout, we all think we could do things better. What would you do differently than the OTHER guys? If you could sell your own Magic cards at retail prices, how much money could you really make? I recently had the opportunity to find out the answers to some of these questions, and I’m sharing the experience with you in a new article series called Initial Public Offering.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=189211Mon, 03 Sep 2012 20:57:05 GMTIf you’ve been tuned in to recent developments in the Magic community lately you should know how popular Commander has become. Multi-player games are almost as common as duels with this grass-roots movement that originated among players looking for a less competitive atmosphere. One format has really taken a back seat because of this: multi-player free-for-all. Still, many players continue to enjoy building sixty-card decks designed to combat a kitchen table’s worth of opponents. Today we’re going on a little trip to Casual Carnage town for some classic free-for-all deck tech.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=188953Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:59:59 GMTNo hope for an eight man draft this week, but we do have six players ready to go a little after seven o’clock. A seventh man shows up too late for the first team draft but is able to play in a second team draft. This week, I’ll show you how the decks turned out in the first three-versus-three team draft of the night.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=188949Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:46:51 GMTIt was the best of decks, it was the worst of decks. It played an exceptionally fun game, its games often felt disjointed. It wanted to attack opponents with lots of creatures, it wanted few creatures in the deck. It wanted to draw cards, it had nothing to do once it drew them. Such is the story of my Sun Quan, Lord of Wu Commander deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=188872Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:20:41 GMTast week I presented a few mono colored decks and I hope that they helped some of you. I know that many people love to play more than one color at a time tough, so with that in mind I figured that I would delve into the world of two color decks. Izzet is my favourite two color combinations so I will start with that. Don’t let this steer you from your choice of colors though, as all the colors of Magic have their various strengths and weaknesses. I will also address the two color style of decks from many angles and formats this week, as I once again try to span the realm from Pauper to Legacy, and maybe some things in between. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=188644Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:55:08 GMTOver the past month or so [i]Commanding Magic[/i] has covered the design, in-depth, of two different Commander decks. The first was a nearly all-creature Animar deck, and the second a Pauper Uril deck. A week ago I attended the StarCityGames Open in Kansas City. I was scheduled to judge for Saturday only, but I drove down with some other judges who were working both events. Since my car didn’t leave until Sunday evening, I decided to put the lists I’ve presented to you to the test in Commander side events at the Open.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=188046Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:18:42 GMTI am a little sidetracked today by bringing one of my own personal deck projects to you rather than the in-depth theory crafting I normally subject you to. I certainly appreciate the chance to tackle a lighter subject and bring a fun decklist to boot. I recently became fascinated with playing a big black demon in Legacy. He’s ornery, he creates a minor setback by not allowing you to win the game, and he doesn’t even like cookies (which is a crying shame.) On the other hand he gives opponents a false sense of security and can reduce a life total to zero in about three turns. Details, details, they’ll mess you up every time.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=188042Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:55:53 GMTWelcome back once again to Fanatic’s exclusive coverage of the 2012 Magic Olympics. Our Olympics may not have gotten the top television coverage of the OTHER Olympics, but if you get ESPN 8, you can catch the remaining competition in the middle of the night… on the Ocho!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187906Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:34:38 GMTSo let’s pretend for a moment that you’re restricted to only using one of the five colors of Magic at a time. Would you choose the Technology of blue, the Order of white, the Interdependence of green, the Impulse of red, or the Parasitism of black? I personally am most comfortable in the blue zone of the game, but I certainly enjoy all five colors and I see some very viable deck styles attributed to each. Thus for today’s article I will show you five Legacy decks that are mono colored and tuned to work for that style of play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187902Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:33:27 GMTI am not normally a Commander (the artist formerly known as EDH) type of person. Most of the time I would rather play sealed or some sixty-card format. You see, it's not that I think Commaner is a bad format by any means. It is actually quite fun to play, and for some, the most fun to play. When you are an aggro player Commander is a puzzle that takes more brain work than it should. Commander weenie decks don’t really exist, or do they?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187649Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:18:31 GMTCommander, as a format, exists in a special space within Magic: the Gathering. Unlike every other recognized variant of Magic, Commander was created entirely by players before being taken in and supported by Wizards of the Coast. While they have renamed the format (it was originally called Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH) so that they can market products for it, they have left the rules of Commander up to the players. This has created an interesting dynamic: you can easily sit down at a table and play Commander against someone you’ve never met, but the type of game and level of competition you’re about to face is completely unknown.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187432Sat, 18 Aug 2012 11:19:12 GMTIn the waning days before Richard Garfield and Co. were to release [i]Magic: the Gathering[/i] onto the market, as many things were as clear as they were a little hazy. The DeckMaster series of cards that would go on to change all of our lives had its now-familiar format, basic mechanics and more importantly, basic strategies in place for future sets to expand upon. We had our creatures and our spells, and our lands to produce the mana to cast them all. However, not even the crystal clear view hindsight provides could have shed light on what was to come not only to the game's creators but to the players as well.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187401Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:56:58 GMTWelcome back again to exclusive coverage of the 2012 Magic Olympics. Yes, NBC may have turned off their cameras in London, but in Dominaria, the games go on for a little bit longer.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187227Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:08:52 GMTEight players tonight, the perfect number! I am always happy to have more than eight people show up on Tuesday night, but eight is the perfect number for draft. A month into Magic 2013 booster draft, we are still enjoying the new core set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=187063Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:59:30 GMTTo become an advanced Magic player it is necessary to take full advantage of every turn available to you. Regardless of the format you favor, be it casual Commander or competitive Standard, each turn brings a unique level of importance to the game as each format has a different pace at which games are developed, and eventually decided. The card pool and dominant archetypes together establish what is known as the Fundamental Turn.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=186737Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:20:16 GMTThis week, Commanding Magic is back with a look at building an Uril, the Miststalker deck. Uril may not a particularly exciting general, and I’m sure a lot of you have seen some variant of this aura-wielding commander staring across from you. With his pair of powerful and synergistic abilities, rarely will Uril decks not go straight for the “suit up Uril and win” strategy. Normally I wouldn’t bother discussing a commander this straightforward in style, but today’s deck is enough of an oddball where I’m going to make an exception. Today we’re going to look at a Commander deck that is also Pauper-legal, apart from the aforementioned general, of course.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=186305Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:48:31 GMTMagic 2013 booster drafts started on Magic Online a few days ago in the release events room. I have started another assault on the dream of drafting an entire playset of a set using only thirty-six boosters, one box’s worth. This is the eighth draft of the series.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=186235Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:49:27 GMTWelcome back to coverage of the 2012 Magic Olympics. One medal has already been awarded, the bronze medal went to Green in Magic 2013 Single Color Full Set Highlander. Other competition is underway, and three preliminary matches in the Standard Constructed event are already complete. Today we will be looking at the rest of the Standard round-robin competition. We will show you the complete play-by-play of the gold medal final for the Standard Constructed event as well as for the Single Color Full Set Highlander.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=186004Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:24:58 GMTI'm not going to lie, lately I have felt the urge to shuffle up sixty cards in a highly competitive format. So I have been doing some soul searching and decided that I don’t want to play Standard. It changes a little too often both for my liking and for my wallet. With that being said I have decided to get into either Modern or Legacy. The main problem with this is that I know I want to play an aggressive deck, I just don't know which one.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185979Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:39:09 GMTWelcome to the 2012 Magic Olympics. MTG Fanatic is your home for all the action this year, no need to click around the cable dial looking for Men’s Table Tennis or Women’s Beach Volleyball. Okay, maybe we’ll check out a little bit of Women’s Beach Volleyball. It would be rude not to. Your 2012 Magic Olympics is held this year in beautiful Dominaria. The athletes have entered the building. There’s Liliana carrying the flag for the black team. There’s the new, smaller Ajani, Caller of the Pride bringing up the rear with the flag for the white team. Karn is working the crowd, trying not to injure the paying spectators with his gigantic mechanical high-fives. Daniel Craig and Queen Elizabeth are here, I’m not sure why.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185888Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:02:42 GMTMagic is a game about resource management and strategic timing. Whenever you can play a card or get an effect for free, pay close attention. The old phrase ‘nothing in life is free’ doesn’t always apply when playing Magic. I’ve been playing this game for quite some time but I still get surprised occasionally by how good some cards can be simply because they are free. If it costs nothing you should be quite happy because you are getting the best return possible: something for nothing. When you see an opportunity for getting a significant something for nothing, buy yourself a lottery ticket. More often than not free cards are about on the same power level as a basic land: it provides something you can use but isn’t as good as something that would actually cost you mana. This is appropriate because if it costs mana it should reward you with a resource. Occasionally a card costs nothing in resources (beyond playing it from your hand) and it wins you the game.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185658Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:47:38 GMTFormats are defined by every action you take, and the first turn of the game is no exception. In some ways, the actions taken on the first turn can be the most crucial factors in the outcome of a game. In a game where the beginning turns often wind up “Draw, Go”, how important is it to focus on cards to play on that first turn?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185483Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:59:49 GMTWe quickly put together seven players around the table in the Guildhall tonight. We waited and hoped an eighth person would show up but it didn’t happen. Contentedly, we drafted with seven players and played a three-round Swiss tournament. We managed a six man team draft after the Swiss draft was over, and we even managed to practice a little Standard in advance of this weekend’s PTQ in Fort Worth.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185428Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:49:41 GMTThere has been plenty of talk about Magic 2013. The new core set has been dissected from every possible angle. One card at a time. Now it’s time to think big. Big ideas, big plays, big decks. I’m talking about Full Set Highlander, a fun format that allows you to quite literally pit one set against another. In this article, I’m confronting this year’s core set with last year’s. In battle.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185410Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:12:00 GMTToday I am taking a break from Pauper and talking about one of the tribes that have been swept under the rug.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185282Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:46:08 GMTThe die roll decided that I was going first for round six at GP: Ghent. My English opponent Daniel kept his seven as did I. The contorted countenance. So deep in the tank. Daniel then poses the question: Does that include fetch lands? That's what a first turn Blood Moon will do. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=185203Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:58:32 GMTMagic 2013 is the fourth in the series of “revamped” core sets starting with Magic 2010 from the summer of 2009. Core sets allow cards from all of Magic’s history to gather together and play nice with each other, which makes them exceptionally great at reprinting cards that might not otherwise find a home in modern Magic sets. This is especially evident in Magic 2013, where a number of Commander-specific reprints were added to the set to facilitate Wizards’ new initiative in pushing Commander as much as possible. Fortunately, this gives us a lot of food for thought when designing new Commander decks or modifying old ones. I won’t go over all of the cards in the set, just the ones that should be best suited for our favorite 100-card format, with an emphasis on new cards over reprints.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184815Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:03:36 GMTThe Stack is a concept in the game that solves many important problems that Magic faced in its early days. The order in which cards resolve matters a great deal even on a basic level. The stack makes sure that it all happens in a way that ensures continuity of the game. The simplest way to figure out game situations involving the stack is to remember the mnemonic ‘LIFO’, which stands for ‘last in, first out.’ This means that the last spell or ability played resolves first on the stack and takes effect before anything else on the stack.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184777Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:24:21 GMTAfter a weekend of prerelease events, some friends and I had a chance to draft with the set for the first time. Core sets are not known for being good for booster draft. They have, however, improved in that regard ever since Wizards of the Coast made so many changes three years ago with Magic 2010. Now that Magic’s base set includes completely new cards, it is a much more interesting sandbox to explore. Still, potential draft decks don’t exactly jump out at you when you look at the list of cards in Magic 2013. In the world we just finished drafting, the world of Innistrad and Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored, there were lots of ready-made directions in which to move. You could be Zombies, you could be Werewolves. In Avacyn Restored you could be white or white/blue flyers or you could try to be the guy that gets all of the black cards. Diving into my first M13 draft I had no idea what to go for.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184632Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:47:27 GMTThis is it, the time we have all been waiting for. M13 is now available for us to play with. Whenever a new set comes out a lot of decks gain new pieces for their respective format. While everyone is excited about the new rares and mythic rares, I am more excited about the guys who don’t cost nearly as much. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184535Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:36:21 GMTAt the request of a good friend I’m putting some attention towards the Modern format this week. Modern has fascinated me since its inception due to its deep potential alongside its inherent identity crisis. Is it Legacy Junior, Extended Plus, or its own brave new world, yet to be defined? Early on it was apparent that folks wanted Legacy Junior: a powerful, eternal format with a lower entry cost than Legacy. All of the same decks are in the mix, just slightly modified for the lack of Wasteland, Force of Will, Brainstorm, and other notable cards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184308Sat, 21 Jul 2012 17:04:53 GMTLast summer, Wizards did something. Something crazy. For the first time in over 15 years, [i]new[/i] cards were printed with their summer release of Commander decks. Amongst these were powerful cards for multiplayer, a slew of new generals to be used as Commanders, and a certain Scavenging Ooze which has been making quite a buzz in Legacy. But the Ooze isn’t what we’re talking about today. Instead, we’re going to look at one of those fantastic generals provided to us through the Commander decks, Animar, Soul of Elements, and what he can do when he’s at the helm.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184090Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:45:35 GMTTuesdays following a prerelease weekend are usually well-attended. We had eight players sitting around the Guildhall table ready to draft Magic 2013 shortly after seven o’clock. Unfortunately, we had to wait about half an hour for a ninth drafter. We might not have waited so long, but the guy we were waiting for is a long-lost Texas Guildmage that we very rarely see. He finally arrived and we drafted M13 with nine players. We had a nice three-versus-three team draft afterwards with three old-timey Guildmages against three current ones. All that and more in this installment of the Journal of the Texas Guildmages.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184046Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:10:58 GMT When the metagame becomes predictable, it's time to pull out the stops. It doesn't matter if you're playing to pay the rent, or getting together with some old friends for a day or weekend of fun. When playing some Magic for fun and profit, a little risk is worth a greater reward. This coming week will see host to the European Legacy Grand Prix of the year in Ghent, Belgium. Already a big Eternal scene, Ghent playing host to the Grand Prix should be a showcase of European Eternal strategies. A welcome contrast to the well-covered stateside tournaments.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184010Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:24:46 GMTI was watching some old spaghetti westerns with my son and it got me thinking about how some people like to go into games of Magic with “both guns blazing.” They are the type that likes to turn ‘em sideways or simply fire direct damage straight into their opponent’s face. I am not really that kind of player, and I got to thinking of what are some of the ways to best beat these “gun fighter” style players. Combo came straight to mind. Not just any combo though, I wanted something different.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=184005Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:51:21 GMTFor players that prefer limited to constructed, like yours truly, the arrival of every new set is like New Year’s Eve. Out with the old and in with the new. Avacyn Restored booster draft was so abhorrent to one of my friends that he ended a 122 week attendance streak to avoid drafting it. Will Magic 2013 be the breath of fresh air that drafters are hoping for, or will my man Eric Jones see his shadow and scamper back into his hole for another six weeks? We won’t know the answer until the next meeting of the Texas Guildmages. In the meantime, I want to pit the new versus the old in a little thing I like to call DC-10 Challenge.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=183672Mon, 16 Jul 2012 01:52:37 GMTI am sure that many of you, if not all of you, are aware of a pesky one-drop that transforms into a 3/2 flyer. I am, of course, talking about Delver of Secrets. This card seems to be all the rage no matter what sixty-card format people are playing. Pauper is not an exception to this, and a formidable deck has been built around this little fella. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=183564Sat, 14 Jul 2012 21:09:03 GMTMy mind and household are abuzz with activity lately. I have a slew of writing to get punched onto a screen and two kids running in circles. I have this week off work to enjoy Independence Day, something my company has done for the past five years. That means my normal childcare arrangements are replaced by me, good old dad. Spending time with my offspring is always rewarding, but also challenging. Lily is five and Isaac is two, both of them exuding an aura of energy that I am incredibly jealous of. While I play tag, grill cheese sandwiches, and watch Finding Nemo for the eighty-ninth time my mind is still fluttering with the recent core set that was fully spoiled: Magic 2013. I may want to take a nap like the kids do, but I’m going to take advantage of that time to get some thoughts down about a well-executed core set. Each rarity level has a card with the potential for high quality contribution to the game. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=183481Fri, 13 Jul 2012 22:17:53 GMTI hope you all waded into battle Saturday in Magic 2013 prerelease events all across the land. I battled during the weekend and I feel I have barely gotten my feet wet with this set. Before I strap on my helmet, I want to take a look at what’s new, as well as what’s not so new, in Magic’s latest core set. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=183314Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:32:51 GMTA few days ago I shared my crazy plan to draft an entire playset of Avacyn Restored on Magic Online using thirty-six online booster packs, a virtual booster box. I would play only in 4322 booster drafts. No, not four-thousand and twenty-two booster drafts, I mean the online draft queue that pays out four boosters to the winner, three to second place and two boosters each to third and fourth. That means all you have to do is win your first match to win two boosters. Winning two booster packs greatly decreases the risk of drafting every rare you see. Oh, yeah, I need to remind you about that crucial detail. You have to draft EVERY rare and mythic rare until you have a playset of four.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=182690Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:36:38 GMTLast Saturday afternoon, still stinging from a bad 0-2 outing with Frites at the Standard PTQ in Little Rock, I found myself back in the 8-4 draft room on Magic Online. This draft took place on the couch of none other than Neil Reeves, the draft king of Magic back in the day. Neil shared some insights during the draft and helped me quite a bit. Here’s what happened.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=182431Thu, 05 Jul 2012 03:21:10 GMTI have this “box” of Avacyn Restored booster packs on Magic Online. I could rip them open and see what I get. I would have 540 Magic cards, including 36 rares/mythic rares with the possibility of one or two foil rares or mythics. What if we could do better? Maybe A LOT better. What if we could draft an entire playset of Avacyn Restored on Magic Online for the cost of thirty-six online boosters and two tickets per draft? I know, it sounds crazy. But how do you know until you try?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=182249Tue, 03 Jul 2012 03:25:37 GMTWe very quickly assembled seven players tonight by shortly after the seven o’clock hour. We dutifully waited another fifteen minutes in case an eighth player decided to show. Then we waded directly into a Swiss rounds draft with seven players. While we were playing our first round, Fort Worth’s own Ben Quasnitschka texted me. He has been threatening to make a Tuesday night appearance for a few weeks. I text him back telling him that we are in the middle of our Swiss draft already but that we will make sure he can draft in a three-versus-three player team draft when he gets here. Ben responds in the affirmative. Ben arrives during the third and last Swiss round of our seven man draft. He patiently looks on as we play the semi final matches to decide which two players will be splitting up the treasure tonight. I don’t remember what was in the prizes tonight but I remember it being pretty decent.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=182095Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:43:28 GMTMill decks are a rarity in the game of Magic: most of them use very few creatures, if any, and eschew the combat phase completely. Fifty-three cards milled instead of twenty life lost can be daunting. What you may not realize is that Mill provides a unique opportunity for gaining the high ground against your opponent with a concept known as virtual card advantage. If you don’t have any creatures that can be targeted by your opponents removal spells, they are useless. If your opponent’s removal spells are worthless due to a lack of creatures, this allows you to play lopsided Pox-factor cards to extend virtual card advantage even further. Look no further than the reprint of Barter in Blood in Avacyn Restored to see how good playing zero creatures can be.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181768Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:31:27 GMTMy hopes weren’t necessarily all that high for filling our table for an eight man draft tonight. Last week’s poor turnout made me think that Summer was scattering the Tuesday night crowd. Then eight people suddenly showed up. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, you don’t question miracles. Just make sure to reveal them to your opponent before you put them in your hand.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181591Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:09:12 GMTSlivers is an aggro deck that happens to fade in and out of fashion all of the time. A lot of that has to do with the fact that it happens to be two colors. Two colors is something of a weakness in Pauper where you could end up with all of one color of mana and the opposite colored cards or end up having to spend some time fixing your mana base with the likes of slow fetch lands. Both of these make color-fixing inconsistent, to say the least. Slivers is a deck where you are willing to risk that, however, because it turns out once you get these synergistic creatures going, they are very hard to stop. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181360Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:27:20 GMTZanman brings us pick-by-pick analysis of a recent MTG:Online Booster Draft he played in.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181269Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:27:41 GMT“The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers.” – Earl Weaver This quote is significant when dealing with a mana-ramp Magic deck, even if the guy never had Magic in mind when he said it.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181185Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:52:48 GMTRecently I was considering what tap I should have the young lady pour from while at my local tavern and it hit me: I like draft when it comes to beer, but not so much when it comes to Magic. Well, the reason is simple, I have tasted many flavors of beer over my lifetime and have thus become familiar with what types of draft beer I like, yet since I have not played many Magic drafts I simply don’t have enough experience in the format to actually judge it or appreciate it for what it is within the hobby. Taste-testing beer is a form a research, and so I figured I should probably do some research into booster draft so that I could better appreciate, and hopefully enjoy, the format more in the future. Maybe I’d even win a match eventually.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181147Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:24:36 GMTSummer has officially begun, taking some of our regular players elsewhere this week. I called some people earlier today checking to see if they were coming. My everyday teammate, Lawson, is out of the picture, staying for a week in Austin with his grandmother. I called people to try and make sure we would have at least eight for tonight’s draft. No such luck. Jib Zaidi and Jon Toone, two dudes that can often be counted on to bring an extra player with them, were both no-gos. Each had a previous engagement and would not be drafting tonight. Robbie Dojo texted me that he would not be attending. I nearly called off the meeting. I’m glad I didn’t. We had five players sitting around the Guildhall table shortly after seven. Joe Klopchic worked the phones until he found a player that could join us so that we could AT LEAST have a six man draft. He rushed out the door to go pick up this player and bring him here. That’s commitment. Joe was rewarded with a draft set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=181126Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:43:15 GMTI’ve been doing quite a few simulated drafts lately on MTGFanatic’s draft simulator. It’s a blast poring over older sets to discover, and sometimes rediscover, fantastic cards from Magic’s past. If you’ve spent any amount of time involved in this game you know that it is constantly evolving, bringing new challenges and new cards with every new set. Those new cards can sometimes resurrect an old favorite, making it more fun to play than ever. I’m grabbing a couple new cards from Avacyn Restored and dusting off some old strategies: a Megrim-based discard deck and a Fires of Yavimaya-based mana-ramp/tokens deck. Part one brings you Megrim and the headaches it provides.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=180193Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:41:22 GMTThere were six people around the table at just a few minutes after seven, ready to smash some three-versus-three team drafts. I encouraged the small gathering to wait until at least 7:15 in case someone else wanted to show up. At 7:17 we are three picks into our first packs when Jib and his brother show up. We did the best we could to put the toothpaste from our first packs back into the tube. We randomly inserted the two players into the draft and, just like that, we had a real eight man draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=180070Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:47:33 GMTFrom what I’ve seen in all my Avacyn Restored booster drafts, online and off, casual and serious, black is the least popular color. There’s a reason for this. The black cards are harder to play and more situational than their white counterparts. With Avacyn Restored, I compare black and white more than any other two colors because I feel the flavor of the set, the very theme of the set, seems to pit these two enemy colors directly against each other. Black is also considered thinner in good cards than other colors, particularly in commons and especially in creatures. This means that by staying open-minded towards ebony you can make a good deck even when you don’t get as many of your favorites from some other color.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179788Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:41:51 GMTThe color wheel of Magic has somewhat ingrained in us that each color has a distinct set of characteristics. When we want to counter spells we look to blue to take care of the problem. When we want to make our opponents discard, black is our choice. Whatever effects we need for a given strategy tend to push us to certain colors. What if you’re a stubborn bonehead like me and say to yourself ‘pffh, I don’t need white. White is for weenies.’? That’s when you get creative and start uncovering cards to do your dirty work without getting your hands dirty from an unwanted color. Today I’d like to throw some cards at you that will challenge you to re-think a color splash. Wizards of the Coast has recently given each color a way to fill in the gap without forcing you to play different colors, or at the very least give you alternative options.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179680Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:03:19 GMTDon’t you hate being slotted? People start to think they know all about you because of some minor character flaw they have detected in you. Hey, there goes a fat kid in a Green Lantern t-shirt, bet he’s going into that game store to buy Magic cards. Hey, I bet Zanman’s gonna beat us down with some wacky article about DC-10. Okay, sometimes stereotypes are true…http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179441Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:43:36 GMTAnyone who has stood at the front of a classroom can attest to one thing for certain; you can't really know something unless you can really teach it. Anyone who has had someone under their wing can relate. In the military, one is taught to follow before they can lead. Real life is bleeding into the realm of Magic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179363Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:33:02 GMTLast week I showed you a series of games played pitting an entire set of Innistrad against an entire set of Avacyn Restored. The name I have coined for this fun format is Full Set Highlander. Avacyn Restored had a hard time drawing the right colors for its spells. This is a constant challenge in Full Set Highlander, but it seemed to be MORE of a problem for Avacyn Restored. This week I have a whole new fun way to play these two large sets against each other.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179339Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:51:16 GMTTamiyo, the Moon Sage is one of Avacyn’s two new planeswalkers, and arguably the better. At five mana tall, she’s a steep investment for a non-creature permanent. Will she have as illustrious a career as the last high-impact five mana planeswalker, Gideon Jura? So much remains yet to be seen. What we do know for now is that Tamiyo, the Moon Sage has an ultimate ability that just begs to combo with dozens of other cards within Magic: the Gathering. Today’s article will be devoted to developing ideas and strategies to exploit the abilities of our new favorite Moonfolk. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179330Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:27:02 GMTTry as we might to get eight players each week, we fell short this week and felt lucky to have seven players ready to go sometime between seven and seven-thirty on Tuesday night. This draft has everything, some interesting decks, some good matches and unprecedented controversy. But you’ll have to read further to learn about that. We also managed a three-versus-three team draft after the Swiss draft, thanks to the late night arrival of Jon Toone.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179233Thu, 31 May 2012 17:21:51 GMTRemember when you were a young kid and some of the kids at school picked on you? Or how about when two or three or even more of those kids would gang up together to be really mean to you or even give you a thrashing? Well, I am here to tell you that those gangs don’t necessarily go away when you grow up, and that they certainly exist in the Magic world as well. Welcome, my friend to the world of free-for-all multiplayer Magic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=179115Wed, 30 May 2012 17:12:45 GMTNow that Roots has covered the basics of building the different deck archetypes, it’s time to dig deep into mid-game play. With a decently built deck in your holster you’ll be able to gun-sling with anybody at the kitchen table. A favorite strategy for casual shenanigans is Turbo Fog. Most casual decks are creature based in one form or another, especially multi-player decks. Turbo Fog takes advantage of creature-based decks in a way that can frustrate even the heartiest of veteran players. Today we are exploring a Turbo-Fog deck in order to bring some interactions in the middle of a game that can provide for a way to flex your decision-making brain cells.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178880Mon, 28 May 2012 21:45:30 GMTThe world of Magic: the Gathering is a fluid, ever-changing one. Players have a ravenous appetite for new cards and new ways to play. Wizards of the Coast has bills to pay and investors they need to satisfy by serving up products that will fly off game store shelves. An important consequence of this continual evolution is that what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178853Mon, 28 May 2012 16:02:33 GMTGoblins has been one of the top performers in the current Pauper meta for quite some time. I think that a lot of it has to do with the speed of the deck. We have a host of 2/2s for only one mana, an average of about twelve finishers and a ton of burn. Utility and evasion are missing from the deck, but the speed and strength of its creatures more than makes up for this. We are going to do something a little different this time around. I am going to give you my base sixty and then discuss side board options.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178848Mon, 28 May 2012 14:36:19 GMTAfter making an effort to get more people to show up this week, I was proud to see nine players sitting around the draft table this evening. We had a very nice Avacyn Restored booster draft and, because of nine players, played a fourth round of Swiss before cutting to the top four. The extra hour of Swiss took enough wind out of everyone’s sails that we didn’t manage a team draft afterward. That’s okay, it was still a big improvement from last week, a meeting that didn’t even rate an official journal entry.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178839Mon, 28 May 2012 13:00:25 GMTWelcome back! Today is my final installment in the saga of analysis articles I do for every set launch. For those of you just tuning in the first two articles are a card-to-card analysis called First Glance and the third article is a fun little project I do known as Combo Corner. This week is the results of all my close inspection of Avacyn Restored brought to fruition for the casual multiplayer format. Today it’s decks built around Avacyn Restored’s themes using exclusively cards from Innistrad Block. So that casual multiplayer aficionados such as myself get the most out of this, I’ll be doing all of these decks on a budget of thirty dollars, give or take. Let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178592Fri, 25 May 2012 19:41:27 GMTDo you guys ever play MTG on a day other than Friday? Sure you do. So what do you call your Magic gatherings? I’m not really too sure what I call my own ones, but I can tell you that I learn more cool stuff and see more great plays when I sit down to play some Pauper with my buddies on a Wednesday afternoon than you might expect. Of course, the fun is not always from the actual games we play, sometimes our random chitchat provides more value than anything else we do. Sometimes, the after-lunch-sneak-away games of Legacy are even more educational. Anyway, I am going to call this Wednesday Warfare. Now let’s put some ideas into perspective.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178415Wed, 23 May 2012 23:01:56 GMTI haven’t written in some time, issues have been interfering lately, and I didn’t want to produce an article about things we’ve already covered. The metagame was stale and the decklists were pretty obvious. I guess I should’ve updated you all on what I found were the two best lists to run with, but every time I wanted to, I was already brewing and re-inventing to beat those decks.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178375Wed, 23 May 2012 16:26:00 GMTThe madness has returned. I’m hot on the trail of an answer to the unanswerable question. Which is better, Innistrad or Avacyn Restored? Wait, don’t answer. It’s not that I don’t care about your opinion, I do, it’s just that I’m looking for a certain kind of answer. The correct one. We could enlist a team of scientists to examine each card in one set and compare them with its opposite number in the other set, but that could take years and cause who-knows-what kind of collateral damage.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=178149Mon, 21 May 2012 21:03:57 GMTAvacyn Restored has been on the street for two weeks and you know what time it is… it’s time for Combo Corner! For those of you just tuning in, I’ll be brief. Combo Corner is where I grind my way through the new set. During this not-so-gentle romp through the entirety of a set, I will jot down every single synergy and two or three card combo I can think of, all for your benefit. The end goal of this column is that you get the equivalent of my caffeine intake back in deck ideas. Coffee’s on, let’s brew. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=177562Wed, 16 May 2012 03:31:58 GMTHere is part two of the Archetypes Updates where we will be covering a full six archetypes. Last week we focused heavily on the aggro portion of the metagame clock with stompy, sligh, and mid-range. This week we are covering the rest. Cards that affect aggro-oriented decks are usually rampant in a new set. As Mike Flores says ‘there are no wrong threats.’ It just depends on what you’re trying to accomplish when you choose them over others.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=177428Mon, 14 May 2012 23:52:21 GMTDrafting with the new set at last! A couple of regulars are missing this week and we have to make do with just seven players. This is fine, of course, and we had a good first draft with the new set. We didn’t have enough players after the Swiss draft to get a team draft up and running. Luckily, Perfect Gamer brought his draft cube with him, so look out for some cube draft talk later in this week’s journal entry.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=177301Sun, 13 May 2012 22:46:14 GMTTaking a look back at Innistrad Block we will find that Pauper players have been given quite a bit. Today I want to look at my three favorite commons of each color of each expansion. I think you will find some something for everyone as a lot of decks have been given a boost in the Pauper Legacy circuit! None of these choices are ranked in any particular order. I just wanted you to take a look at what this beautifully directed block has brought us.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=177292Sun, 13 May 2012 19:53:50 GMTFolks can sometimes get caught up in the hype of the most powerful cards of the set at the expense of not noticing the quality cards that are hidden behind them. Today I’ll hopefully get your interest piqued for more than just miracle cards from Avacyn Restored. In my humble opinion, Avacyn Restored is one of the most exciting sets in quite some time. It will have ramifications across all formats, of that I am sure. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=176869Wed, 09 May 2012 18:06:21 GMTWelcome back to my first glance of Avacyn Restored. This set definitely contains some of the most flavorful cards we’ve seen in quite some time. Avacyn Restored hearkens back to one of the first Duel Deck releases, Divine versus Demonic. The rares of Avacyn Restored bring the Angels and Demons back into the game with thundering nostalgia. Angels are appearing in all the different colors these days. Demons are still just black. Choosing the top rare and mythic of each set is often very difficult because I am essentially throwing my weight behind what the best two cards of the set are. I hope you agree with my suggestions. Remember that this is from the perspective of an application in constructed multiplayer. Off we go!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=176244Thu, 03 May 2012 20:13:50 GMTThe first episode of ‘Battle for the Working Class’ has finished, and I am here to summarize and wrap up the event. I’d like to thank John-Marc for inviting me to participate and Jeff Zandi for playing the match. Congratulations to John-Marc for edging me out three games to two. His deck was really well built and did a fine job of putting up those three wins. It’s okay, losing a close match is fine with me, especially to a player as capable as John-Marc. It reinforces my roots with comradely fun and competition, turning a challenge into a community-oriented event. Great stuff!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=176238Thu, 03 May 2012 19:29:40 GMTI’ve just gotten around to seeing all the cards in Avacyn Restored, and that means it’s time for an aggressive review of my favorite cards in each color of the new set. I will also be taking a look at some of my favorite artifacts and lands. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what has me and other aggressive players excited!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=176194Thu, 03 May 2012 10:32:19 GMTThis just in, not that many people are honestly interested in drafting Dark Ascension the week before the Avacyn Restored prerelease. Our guys are always ready to make lemonade out of lemons, so we make the most of the six players assembled tonight. First, we played a three-versus-three team draft. Then, when our youngest player was forced by the clock to turn in for the night, the remaining five of us played another draft. We played round-robin and hoped we wouldn’t have a three way tie for first place, as can often happen. No problem, one player stood apart and crushed all of his opponents in this five man draft. The decks for this adventure were better than you would expect, and I’m sharing all the details on this last week of Dark Ascension draft being a thing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=176157Wed, 02 May 2012 22:54:42 GMTIt’s been a while since I have written about Standard, so I think it is high time we look at some of the most aggressive options and future improvements. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175935Tue, 01 May 2012 03:05:15 GMTOur first official look at Avacyn Restored comes this weekend in prerelease events all around the world. However, players and collectors have already been speculating about Magic’s newest set for months. A lot of the intrigue has centered on a unique mechanic being introduced in Avacyn Restored called Miracle. Cards with the keyword ability called Miracle can be cast for a much lower mana cost when they are the first card you draw in a turn. Some consider these cards a dream come true for players who live and die by “top decking”. But once the hype is over will these cards truly be miracles or will they whip us to death?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175651Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:22:25 GMTJohn-Marc Ormechea has been focusing on Pauper lately, and he recently put George “Mr. Safety” Colby to the test in a Duel Decks challenge. Each player independently designed a Pauper deck and each wrote an article explaining their designs. They did the work and now I have the pleasure of doing the fun part: playing the two decks against each other.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175650Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:04:44 GMTIt is hard for me to believe that I’ve got twenty-five articles under my belt already. You are enjoying issue twenty-six, volume one of [b]Roots: The Fundamentals of Magic[/b]. Since the beginning I have had a clear vision for what Roots should be. I hope it has provided newer players with knowledge and tools to be better at Magic. My goal for today is to review the principles I’ve been trying to convey with my off-beat humor and writing style. In most of the articles there are practical ways of improving your deck-building skills. A few pieces of advice on how to play and a few tidbits on how to pilot decks have been scattered in there, but the majority has been how to build decks in order to accomplish your goal of having a deck that does what you want it to. I succinctly remember the story that Jeff Zandi provided for us (paraphrased) involving George Baxter, one of the first great Magic players: ‘Do you ever play Magic for FUN?’ He didn’t miss a beat: “I think WINNING is fun!”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175649Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:07:51 GMTAvacyn Restored is going to go down as the set that defined the Innistrad block. There is more to see and experiment with here than in both Innistrad and Dark Ascension combined. Innistrad set the stage and Dark Ascension made things a little weirder, but Avacyn Restored is pushing Magic boldly in some good directions. Most notable among them is the two-mana planeswalker, which I will be discussing later next week. In addition we have some carefully controlled color bleed and a few commons that have surprised me with their bravado and political nature. Let’s get started digging through this set, shall we? I hope you’re as excited as I am. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175574Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:09:33 GMTEight drafters tonight, the perfect number. Michael Taggart has moved to Euless from Fort Worth recently, and he says he’s prepared to make the Guildhall his regular Tuesday night thing. Where has that kid’s head been at for, I don’t know… the past 750 Tuesdays? Yes, tonight is our team’s statistically notable seven hundred and fiftieth meeting. I did a few things to make the evening a little special. Nothing as over the top as we do every other year for our 100th meeting anniversaries, but still special. I got a cake. I ordered pizza. Most importantly, I didn’t tell anyone about it ahead of time. For this particular night, I didn’t want anyone coming over just because I was serving punch and pie.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175343Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:28:52 GMTNot everyone can afford to play our hobby. Some people leave the competitive scene and come back years later only to leave again due to the financial commitment. I ought to know, I’m one of these people.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175339Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:19:23 GMTThe purpose of today’s article is to help you get excited about the future of aggression and the future of the game. I have a lot of speculation and excitement for Boros and a little bit of everything else for everyone else.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175271Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:54:01 GMTThe evening started awkwardly enough. It was around six-thirty, it’s possible that people would start showing up at any moment. The boy that lives in my house was in the back driveway shooting hoops. I was taking my chances that I could spend a little quality time in the, ahem, reading room before any guests arrived. Sure enough, there was a knock on the front door, and then the sound of someone letting themselves in and calling out to me. I called back but who knows if whoever it was could hear me through the walls from upstairs. I heard grownup-size feet plodding up the stairs. This person was talking but I couldn’t recognize the voice. I completed my task and washed my hands and face. Then I opened the door of the bathroom and my jaw dropped. You would have thought I was seeing a ghost. Hunter S. Burton, alive and in the flesh!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=175069Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:31:27 GMTWe’re at T-minus two weeks to the release of Avacyn Restored (May 4th is the set launch date). To me, it seems like Avacyn Restored is showing up right as we were all about to get bored with Dark Ascension (kudos, Wizards). As I did with Dark Ascension I’ll be delivering, two weeks in advance, some views on the mechanical aspects of the set to give us all some perspective on what we’re supposed to be looking at before we go mulching through the set. Avacyn Restored doesn’t break any new ground as far as set structure goes. It has two new mechanics, a returning mechanic, and two subthemes. Let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174991Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:53:34 GMTAt the heart of Magic: the Gathering is a test of resource allocation. Every time you build a deck, no matter what the format, the central issues of design are based on what functionality can you put into the deck given some constraints or limitations. One of the very first problems for the deck builder involves the requirement for mana, the basic resource required for all your other plans. How many land are you going to play? But what would you do if you couldn’t play ANY lands in your deck? What if your deck could ONLY contain land? Either way, you would be forced to make some very different kinds of decisions. This is the challenge that Thomas Wrigley and myself have taken up in Fanatic’s latest edition of Duel Decks. All land versus no land.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174628Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:22:03 GMTMuch to my pleasant surprise, John-Marc Ormechea invited me to go head-to-head in a Duel Decks Challenge, Pauper-style. This will be a chance to see if I truly understand the Pauper format. John made one simple request of me: build a control deck, as he was building a rogue aggro deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174406Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:14:28 GMTLadies and Gentlemen, we just started Avacyn Restored previews over at the Mothership. If you’re not caught up, you should go there right now (and then come back)! The first cards were revealed at PAX East. Now we know that the star of the set has finally gotten her act together and is prepared to pull off some major clutch victories across the plane. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174405Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:55:04 GMTIt’s time to put away the Modern decks for a few months but before I do, I have one little project I want to complete. I’ve been playing my best eight Modern decks against each other in a Modern clash of titans. This week, I’m wrapping up the action with two semi finals matches as well as a tight final match.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174363Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:09:19 GMTIs life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174343Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:36:58 GMTNot too long ago I messaged our very own Mr. Safety and threw down the gauntlet, albeit a dull leather one, as we Pauper players don’t have the gold for mythic metal gauntlets, you know. So he and I are playing two classic strategies, even if they are little different than the norm. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174177Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:54:21 GMTTen players this week. Our first draft this size since November. We had a few guys show up we haven’t seen in the Guildhall in years, and even an old-time Magic player making his first-ever appearance. The ten man draft went fine, there were only a few complaints about the need to play a fourth round of Swiss in order to cut to our traditional top four. Is Magic a sport best left to the young? The youngest kid in the room made the final four for the second week in a row…http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=174168Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:58:27 GMTDo you remember how your parents would ask you what Santa could bring you for Christmas? And do you remember that feeling that since they asked a while in advance, you were pretty sure to get what you really wanted on Christmas morning?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=173757Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:25:52 GMTIn Austin, Texas, Pat’s Games is the king (or queen) of the Magic heap. When the Texas Magic community learned that Pat was putting on her first Pro Tour Qualifier, no one knew exactly what to expect.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=173618Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:40:58 GMTI took the best eight of the eleven Modern decks that I’ve built this season and put them into a seeded single elimination bracket. The seeding for each deck was based on how many times that archetype had cracked the top eight of North American PTQs this season. Last week, Affinity (1) defeated Kher Bears BWR Toolbox (8) two games to zero. In the other match on that side of the bracket, RWU Delver (4) defeated GR Tron (5) in a tight three game match. This week tests the quarterfinal matchups between Jund (2) versus Storm (7) and Splinter Twin (3) versus Seismic Assault Loam (6).http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=173585Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:49:34 GMTI don’t usually get into arguments about the banning of cards and such, but someone has to say something. Wild Nacatl was banned recently from modern. What I find puzzling is the fact that Wizards thought that it needed to be taken care of, that it was too big of a threat. So today, we are going to take a look at some of the other cards in comparison to Wild Nacatl. In the end you can tell me if you really think it deserves to be banned. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=173348Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:06:58 GMTI’m No Land’s Man, and now it’s time for an epic showdown between yours truly and Jeff Zandi, who has decided to challenge me to a duel deck. For those of you just tuning in, the record stands at two wins for Dallas Meidinger, one win for myself, and a big goose egg for Jeff. Will he register a win and put himself on the board with his first ever Duel Deck? Well, he’ll have to go through me. It shouldn’t be that hard, I’m a pretty skinny, squishy guy.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172966Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:01:10 GMTOkay, let’s make it three in a row. Three weeks with exactly seven for the booster draft. I’m the optimistic type, so I’d like to offer than seven is just barely less than the best number of drafters… eight. It’s interesting that it hasn’t been the exact same seven players each week. That means that, sooner or later, two of the less consistent attendees are going to show up on the SAME NIGHT.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172962Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:36:15 GMTI’m hip-deep in Modern decks this season. I’ve examined the top eight finishers from each Pro Tour Qualifier listed on magicthegathering.com and I’ve built no less than eleven separate Modern decks. There might be a few proxies in a few of the decks… how many Steam Vents can one person possibly own?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172877Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:12:49 GMTI’m going to forego the meat-and-potatoes approach that I usually employ in exchange for lighter fare this week, something more akin to a Caesar salad, hold the anchovies. Magic has a rich history when it comes to mechanics, some that soar and some that flop. Some mechanics have gone on to the Other Side as Eternal strategies, like dredge and storm. It seems that whenever a mechanic delves into the area of making things ‘free’ that a new monster is spawned. I am referencing Legacy primarily, but some of today’s ingredients also dip into the Modern and Standard card pool. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172803Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:28:26 GMTToday I am going to talk about my favorite deck type throughout the history of magic. If you have read any article before this, you will more than likely know that today we are talking about White Weenie. White Weenie quite possibly had the best track record in Magic the Gathering tournament history. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172669Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:56:28 GMTDo you like recognition when you achieve great success? Do you like blingy gaming accessories? How do you feel about free stuff?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172666Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:39:43 GMTDark Ascension is working hard to bring some light to the Curse subtype. For those of you just tuning in, Curses are a special subtype of Enchantments. They are Aura cards that enchant a player and have negative implications. That is unless you have some nefarious plans for enchanting yourself with Curse of the Bloody Tome. Curses are not only full of flavor, but Dark Ascension is working hard to make them functional and possibly even relevant for Standard constructed. As we’ve seen before, it’s a challenge to use an enchantment-oriented deck in any environment. Thankfully for us the environment they tend to thrive in is casual.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172462Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:29:30 GMTI hope you all enjoyed last week’s interview with Zanman as much as I did writing it. We’ve covered all of the nine archetypes in one form or another in Roots, so we’re somewhat back to the beginning as far as deck building goes. Unknowingly, Jeff mentioned a term that ended up in the vocabulary insert that I feel could use more attention. We’re revisiting an archetype that has a specific agenda that can use that term in a great way. The term I refer to is ‘mana dump’, and we’re digging back into the roots of MBC (mono-black control.)http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=172169Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:28:47 GMTFor the second week in a row, the Magic number is seven. And this week’s seven player lineup is a little different from last week’s. Oh, well, you still get a pretty good Swiss draft with seven. In a lot of ways, seven is better than nine. With nine or ten, you either have an awkward fourth Swiss round or else you risk cutting someone’s head off, leaving a 2-1 finisher out of the final four. Eight is the best, obviously, but seven is okay, too.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=171960Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:35:07 GMTFor the past ten years, until a few months ago in December, I ran three PTQs each season as tournament manager and head judge, for an Australian tournament organizer from Kansas called Edward Fox. Wizards of the Coast, in their infinite wisdom, moved Pro Tour Qualifiers away from standalone tournament organizers like Ed Fox and into the hands of store owners. Game stores are, after all, the backbone of our game. The point is, I’ve been judging less and playing more. Which is a good thing. After battling at the Grand Prix in Austin, I turned my attention to Modern Constructed. In fact, I just finished playing in three Modern PTQs in three straight weeks in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. I played the same deck in all three tournaments. While I was filling out my deck list in Houston, I overheard someone at another table talking. “Jund’s okay, I guess, it’s probably a pretty good tier two deck…”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=171741Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:06:28 GMTIt has been a while since Every Card Counts has graced the front page of MtgFanatic's article section. Aside from this article, that won't be changing any time soon. Things change, and unfortunately, this column is coming to an end. So, here's Every Card Counts, one last time.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=171605Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:43:24 GMTSeven people assembled around the draft table in the Guildhall around seven o’clock. We dragged our feet for half an hour hoping an eighth player would show up. While we waited, and in between rounds of the draft, a significant amount of Modern practice occurred, I’m happy to say. But the primary story on Tuesday nights is booster draft, and we had a good one tonight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=171427Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:13:28 GMT‘Roots’ has a simple vision: examining how and why we all play this great game. One of the treats of being the author of Roots has been the semi-regular interview opportunities that I dig up. Today brings Jeff Zandi, our resident limited format guru, Jedi master at remembering detailed information, and writing connoisseur. Jeff is the editor-in-chief for MTGFanatic.com, bringing us all the fantastic material we get to read every week. Having been addicted to Magic almost from its inception, Jeff has a unique perspective on the game that can help us all dig our roots a little deeper.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=171322Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:28:38 GMTThis third installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide encompasses the theory behind the three archetypal pillars of deck building strategies. Like in any constructed tournament, we need a deck to play. That's why in part one and two we attempted to find out what kind of player we were, what it takes to build a Legacy collection. The next bend in the road leads us to the three pillars; Aggro (or Beatdown, semantics), Combo and Control.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=171014Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:48:02 GMTCan you take the challenge, the Pauper Deck Challenge that is? In name, PDC has been trimmed down to simply ‘Pauper’, but the format isn’t just a ‘trimmed down’ constructed format for broke Magic addicts. Pauper can sometimes make other constructed formats seem positively [i]boring[/i] in comparison. The all-common card pool gives Pauper a uniqueness that comes from sheer necessity: without uncommon, rare, or mythic rare cards to use, it must look to the underplayed gems of Magic’s common history to compensate. This provides a deck builder’s paradise of brewing opportunities. Other writers on Fanatic have written articles on Pauper, all of them worthy of the time it takes to read them. Not wanting to be left behind, my aim is to give you an introduction by steering you to a few of the better strategies.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=170768Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:24:32 GMTIt didn’t look like much at straight up seven o’clock, just four of us sitting around wondering why no one loves Magic as much as we do. Suddenly, four more dudes pushed their way through the front door and, just like that, instant eight man Dark Ascension draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=170648Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:52:57 GMTDear readers, it is at this time I must inform you of a temporary departure of your regularly scheduled author. I will be your stand in, Lord Zathkrazxt, Archdemon of the Pit of Calamity! Muahaha! You see, the squishy little human entertainer-writer, Thomas, thought it would be best that you hear about today’s topic from a real evil entity. At first, the idea was relegated to flights of fancy. My viziers thought it uncouth to, shall I say, expose the masses to my particular brand of brutishness. Bah! Philistines! I will gorge upon their hopes and dreams! Where was I now? Ah yes, today’s topic will be the consumption of humans for benefit using the delightful Vampires and Demons and other uncivilized folk presented in Dark Ascension. Look away before it’s too late!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=170238Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:55:54 GMTDon't miss this exciting first issue of Abandoned Outpost, Zanman's Magic newspaper parody.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=170236Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:31:00 GMTIt’s the age old question: Who would win in a fight? Who’s dad is tougher, yours or mine? If you grew up on the mean streets like I did (not really) you know the only way to solve a problem like this is with FISTS. You can’t talk it out, you can’t figure it out on paper. This isn’t something you can solve with a binding United Nations resolution. You have to fight it out.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=170140Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:26:33 GMTI risk losing you in the first paragraph by doing this, but I’m going to do it anyways because I can be immovably stubborn occasionally. Do you know the actual origin of the phrase ‘the whole nine yards’? I didn’t realize it was such a disputed factoid, but performing a brief search revealed explanations that were quite varied...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=170137Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:26:47 GMTFor the first time since Dark Ascension arrived, we have a proper draft in the Guildhall. Not perfect, but proper nevertheless. Nine players sit around the table for tonight’s draft, including one Tuesday night first-timer. There were four good decks in the playoff after three rounds of Swiss, and both finalists’ decks are deserving of a look.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169965Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:09:13 GMT”Fusing intelligence with the power of undeath requires inspiration of the darkest kind.” Or so says the flavor text of the card at the heart of today’s article, Havengul Lich.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169754Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:33:51 GMTMagic is a game of chance and strategy that is sometimes described as the mashing together of poker and chess. Generally this is true, but I’ve never heard of a chess player moving a queen into the center of the chessboard regardless of other pieces being in the way. It’s simply against the rules; it can’t be done. Hypothetically speaking, Magic does that all the time. The ever-growing card pool provides a cornucopia of ways to ‘cheat’ at the game. One particular archetype takes tutoring to a whole new level by building the entire deck around a central engine that provides a way to approach any matchup whatsoever. If you’ve ever sat on the losing end of Survival of the Fittest or Trinket Mage you know that I’m talking about the toolbox archetype.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169553Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:00:21 GMTEveryone by now realizes that I love to play a lot of creatures in a short period of time, oftentimes flooding the battlefield before my opponent can set up whatever plan they might have. I have a little secret, though. One of my favorite decks is a combo deck, albeit a white weenie combo deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169381Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:40:06 GMTSo far in my pauper series I have been sticking to more traditional aggro ideas. A lot of fast creatures combined with a lot of efficient removal and burn. These strategies are very good in every format. Another deck that seems good in eternal formats right now is infect. As someone suggested to me, I have also decided to explain how I build my decks. I don’t mind coming out with a list for you guys every week, as a matter a fact I love it. I think it will be helpful, though, to show you what I do that makes me effective in any format I play in.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169272Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:01:36 GMTHistorically, Valentine’s Day has been just another day at the office for America’s hard-working Magic players. Still, we only manage to get five players around the Guildhall table for tonight’s meeting. My wife is obviously super cool with Magic. She’s allowed grimy gamers to invade her home every Tuesday for the past, well, 742 weeks, give or take. I didn’t want to take any chances, though… Just to make sure the house was a safe, cootie-free zone for my Magic pals that are currently “without woman,” I put my wife on an airplane for Costa Rica in the middle of the afternoon.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169270Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:46:20 GMTBrian Kibler emerged as champion of Pro Tour Dark Ascension this past weekend in Honolulu, Hawaii. Kibler’s second Pro Tour championship (his first was Austin 2009) was achieved through a memorable and grueling top eight playoff that included mammoth five-game matches in the semi finals with fellow Hall of Famer Jon Finkel and with Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa in the finals. The top eight was one of the best ever, all the more reason to take the results of the tournament seriously. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=169023Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:07:57 GMTAs of recently, I've been putting some time into Storm combo as the deck of choice for this season. There are lots of Islands around these days, which usually means rough waters for a Storm player. However, at least in my metagame, there is a distinct lack of strategies that play cards like Chalice of the Void and Counterbalance. All those islands are helping cast things like Stoneforge Mystic and Green Sun's Zenith.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168819Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:15:02 GMTWelcome back to the Dark Ascension extravaganza here at Casual Carnage! Today is the last of my four scheduled analysis articles. Today is the culmination of the three weeks of work preceding this column when I finally give you decks! What’s more, I’ll be building them to the tune of approximately thirty dollars. No budget like a tight budget, as my father would say. Furthermore, to better suit the situations of players who just began their journey with Magic with the release of Dark Ascension, I’ll be building these decks exclusively with material from the Innistrad block. Let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168815Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:31:45 GMTIt is quite a surprise to discover that there are only nine good decks you can build in Magic. You read that right, just nine. A deck may be built deck that is seemingly original, but it still falls into a predetermined category that has already been established. If it doesn’t, it is likely that however it was altered, knowingly or unknowingly, actually makes the deck worse.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168632Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:11:44 GMTCan’t explain it, but we only scrounged up six players tonight. We played a three versus three team draft, but it wasn’t much to talk about. My team got ca-rushed 5-1. Then, with my twelve-year-old out of the picture for a second draft, we drafted with five players and played a round robin tournament. I’ve listed all five of the decks from the round robin tournament. I’m sure attendance will be better next week.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168628Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:44:37 GMTSomething about the format recently gave me a Eureka moment. The coverage of Legacy tournaments, the internet forums, it seemed everything was pointing towards a shift in the format. It took me a little time to figure it out, because Eureka moments don’t come often enough. Hopefully we can take an exercise in choosing the right deck for the right tournament. This won't require anyone to run out and drop a few bills on staple cards for a new deck. We'll work with lists, the idea is to construct a shortcut in your head for choosing the right deck for competition.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168618Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:18:10 GMTToday we are going to look at a new Pauper build I have been working on, and then an update of our Zoo deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168536Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:13:20 GMTI’m the same as you. When I got my first Dark Ascension packs, not the ones for my prerelease sealed deck, I’m talking about the packs that I WON with my prerelease sealed deck, I didn’t need to save these packs for future booster drafts. These prize packs were mine to do with as I pleased, so I did the same thing that you would do… I opened the packs! Since no one was watching, I took a whiff; I like the smell of new cards just the same as you. The next thing I did, however, was probably different than what you would do. I played DC-10 with eight of my first Dark Ascension packs.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168298Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:26:30 GMTThe two Eternal formats, Legacy and Vintage, are unique among constructed formats. The former has the deepest card pool of any other format, and the latter has long been the arena for Mages to do battle with their iconic Power Nine cards. Along with the new and improved Modern, these three formats provide deck builders with something they can't get anywhere else; a non-rotating pool of cards. When the card pool is only getting deeper, what is one to do?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168118Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:40:13 GMTWelcome back to Combo Corner! Combo Corner is a very whimsical and non-serious branch of Casual Carnage during which I put on a big pot of coffee to get my brain firing on all cylinders (and then some) and go through the Gatherer page for a set during which I rattle off as many of a set’s two and three card combos I can find. The purpose? Mostly to help you get ideas for your deck brewing. Personally I just love doing it, and with each passing article my knowledge of cards in existence expands like a hot air balloon (slowly and awkwardly). http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=168094Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:48:29 GMTToday I would like to take a look at some mono white cards that have been given the title “Hate Bears”. They are creatures that cost two mana and have power and toughness of either 2/2 or 2/1. That’s not the cool part, though. The abilities attached to them are what make them such amazing creatures. They have all the utility you could ever need. These have applications in all types of play, from Legacy and Modern to Standard, Casual and EDH. This is what made me excited about white on my return to Magic. So many cards are so versatile and attractive not only to the aggressively minded individual, but also the budget-minded player.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167824Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:08:53 GMTWhen one is forced to abide by rules for building a deck to play in tournaments, we rarely see how much we have helping us get the most bang for the buck. For whatever reason, we all chose to play Legacy, and getting down to asking why is going to help us move forward. What follows is the attempt to cover all bases necessary for anyone interested in playing Legacy, or competitive Magic in any format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167420Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:49:26 GMTLast week I began sharing an exploration of eight Innistrad sealed decks I have kept together over the past four months. Some of these decks were played in Pro Tour Qualifiers, some were simply decks we built from boosters at home for testing. These eight decks were culled from dozens of Innistrad sealed decks that my friends and I have been playing with.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167419Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:46:53 GMTDark Ascension is finally upon us. This means my long-promised Budget Cube Project (BCP) for Dark Ascension AND Innistrad is finally here too. I've had a few opportunities to play around with DKA in Limited already, and I think I've got a pretty good handle on what The BCP needs. Maybe you'll get some ideas for your own Cube as well.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167414Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:05:51 GMTOccupy Wall Street. Occupy Oakland. There has been a lot of tension and energy spent on occupying things lately. It’s enough to make you want to occupy a therapist’s couch. It’s hard to know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are these days. The real world is a scary, complicated place. When I was a kid, it was easy to tell the good guys and bad guys apart. The bad guys were the soldiers of the galactic empire, stormtroopers in shiny white armor. The good guys were the brave fighters of the rebellion, heroes like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and, depending on which way the wind was blowing, the roguish Han Solo. It is exactly this kind of spirit of good versus evil that brings us the latest in Fanatic’s Duel Deck series, Soldiers Versus Rebels.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167393Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:28:44 GMTHello everybody and welcome back to the First Glance series. Today we’ll be examining the rares and mythics from Dark Ascension best suited to exploring the multiplayer environment.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167282Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:09:48 GMTLast week set the stage for a good understanding of how to approach non-basic lands from a collecting as well as playing standpoint. I promised a practical approach to investing and upgrading your lands this week based on a personal journey of mine with a particular deck. Today’s deck is one of my favorite brews and I can honestly say that it is original to my knowledge. It uses many themes and strategies that were pulled from other established decks, but I’m fairly certain there isn’t another deck out there that is quite the same as mine. Only the all-seeing Internet knows the answer to that.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167279Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:53:13 GMTSeven players show up tonight for the last all-Innistrad booster draft in the Guildhall. Everyone is excited about this weekend’s prerelease events for Dark Ascension. Having seen the whole spoiler, some of the guys don’t think the new set has much to offer constructed and they complain that they might not want to acquire many of the cards. I, on the other hand, care more about sealed deck and booster draft. From what I’ve seen from the new set, it’s going to make Innistrad limited events even more interested. In the meantime, it’s seven players for triple Innistrad booster draft tonight with no significant interest for a 3v3 team draft afterward.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=167274Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:31:31 GMTThis week I would like to talk about a format which a few people in my local area are hoping takes a more prominent presence. That format is Pauper. For those of you who are not aware, Pauper is a constructed format in which decks are built from commons only. This may not be everyone’s thing, but it is certainly a lot of fun. What’s even more interesting is that most of the popular decks in a lot of different formats can be made into Pauper variations. That’s what this article is all about.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166972Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:36:45 GMTAfter four months of booster drafts and sealed decks with only Innistrad, the Magic world looks forward to this weekend’s prerelease events for Dark Ascension. In these last days before the arrival of the new set, let’s you and I take one or two last looks at Innistrad sealed. I have Innistrad sealed decks that I have been holding onto and testing with for months. As the PTQ season for Honolulu came and went, I held onto the decks I played in three such PTQs as well as one of Perfect Gamer Eric Jones.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166689Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:31:57 GMTIt's no secret that I love aggressive red builds. Seeing as affinity was the first “good” deck I ever built, I have a soft spot for aggressive artifact decks as well. So, when Kuldotha Rebirth was spoiled way back in Scars of Mirrodin, I was pretty happy. The deck has dropped off the radar as of late, but I think that Innistrad has actually given us a few new tools to help revitalize this fallen warrior.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166688Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:18:10 GMTWelcome to the beginnings of Dark Ascension month here at Casual Carnage! Just a quick reminder of the format, this week and next week will consist of the First Glance series where we’ll be going over the cards from the set best suited for multiplayer action and classified by rarity. Following that will be the Combo Corner installment and finally budget decks featuring cards specifically from the two sets currently available in the Innistrad block. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166685Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:01:50 GMTIf you haven’t guessed yet, I’m talking about lands today. Not just any lands: lands that can fundamentally alter the outcome of a game of Magic. The most basic function of a land is to tap for mana, utilizing time-restricted resources that allow the game of magic to be different than any other card game. There exists a myriad of lands that do more than just tap for mana. Some of them don’t even tap for mana but rather perform a different purpose altogether. Regardless of what they do, or how well they do it, lands are the foundation upon which a deck is built. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166507Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:42:11 GMTAnother perfect table of eight drafters tonight, and right on time. It says a lot about the quality of Innistrad, at least for limited play, that our team has remained as enthusiastic about drafting Innistrad as we were when the set first arrived. Not that we aren’t excited about next week’s release of Dark Ascension. We are. Still, in the meantime, we battle tonight with just Innistrad with exactly eight players. After three rounds of Swiss and the final four matches over, seven of us remained wanting to play a team draft. No one was willing to drop out and let the other six draft. After some debate, we simply took turns rolling a twenty-sided, the lowest roller would sit out. I rolled first and got an eight. My roll remained the lowest until Eric, the last roller, got a five and bid us goodnight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166410Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:10:13 GMTThe new year in Magic started with a bang. Over a thousand players participated in the first Grand Prix of the year on the first Saturday of the year. It’s no accident that Grand Prix Austin was held the first weekend of the new year, there are twenty-eight Grand Prix events scheduled for 2012 so far, and that schedule only runs through August. There are yet more GPs this year to be scheduled. Welcome to the new competitive world of Magic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166407Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:57:12 GMTI've brewed up a few budget Commander lists in the past, but none quite this affordable. This week's deck is packed with big creatures, which makes it a perfect fit for everyone's favorite three-color elf: Mayael the Anima.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166240Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:31:57 GMTVariance is part of the game of magic, sometimes an incredibly frustrating part. I defined variance in a past article as such: a concept that captures how consistently a deck plays out from one game to another. Early on in my magic experience I would be constantly telling myself, after a pathetic loss, ‘If I had just drawn the right cards, I’d have won that game!’ Finding the right way to reduce variance can be a challenge, and in many cases is [i]the definitive challenge[/i] to making a deck better. It may be as simple as adding a land to your deck to prevent mana screw or as complex as finding the right tutor that fits into your goals of mana curve and opportunity cost. I am referring to that elusive vixen called ‘card quality.’http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166200Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:38:43 GMTIt seems that the success of the Star City circuit has had an impact on the rest of the world in more ways than one. Never mind the advances in live coverage, the Sports Center-like statistics and scoreboards. What's happening on a larger scale is that more people are playing more Magic, and that's a good thing. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=166046Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:21:57 GMTAlright men, listen up! Out there beyond these walls there lies a great threat to the established order and we who uphold it. These ruffians seek to disrupt and destroy the order upon which our people rely! We will not allow this to happen. You are the Imperial Army’s finest and you will deny these mongrels their victory at all costs. Am I clear!? Good. Now let’s go deal with these rebel scum. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165964Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:14:22 GMTDark Ascension is finally being spoiled, and not a moment too soon. We have some amazing cards coming our way, and the best thing I can advise is to pick up these choice cards before they are realized for their potential. That’s why this is the edge, and you get it here on MtgFanatic.com.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165963Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:02:54 GMTWhen you’re putting a booster draft together, you can’t do better than eight players in their seats and ready to go at straight up seven o’clock. We actually waited a little while to start, just in case there were stragglers, but we really wanted to draft with exactly eight and we were all happy that it ended up that way. A few hours into the draft, a ninth player did appear. He hoped that there would be some kind of a second draft. It turns out nobody wanted to go home. Only Lawson, the seventh grader, was forced out of the second draft since his dad reminded him that he had school the next morning. Our late arrival stepped into the twelve-year-old’s spot and whattaya know… eight players for a second draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165805Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:34:45 GMTSlap on your Anarchy patches, grab your pitchforks, and hop in your X-Wings. You heard me. No matter what you're into, it's time to rise up and tear down the establishment. It's Duel Decks: Rebels versus Soldiers, and Every Card Counts is leading the revolution.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165435Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:36:18 GMTHello 2012! The air up in my head is quite clear after a wonderful holiday. Even more wonderful was to return from that holiday with fresh material to write about. Dark Ascension Spoiler Week One has kicked off on Wizards of the Coast’s website. As usual, the initial feature article for each set is a rundown of the new and returning mechanics. This week will be my reviews, impressions, and some tips on how to abuse these fun new features. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165299Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:41:47 GMTNine players show up tonight, and all before seven p.m. We get started right away and draft Innistrad with nine players playing three rounds of Swiss cutting to a top four. Yup, a 2-1 finisher fails to make the cut, that’s the price of playing three rounds of Swiss with nine players instead of four rounds. After the draft, no one wants to go home, but no one wants to play another full-sized draft, so two guys sit out and we play a randomly-teamed 3v3 draft. A very good night, and most of us are headed to Grand Prix Austin this weekend. A Grand Prix just three and a half hours down the road!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165191Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:07:28 GMTThere has never been a single year so full of big changes to the game of Magic than 2011. We moved from DCI ratings to Planeswalker Points. The Modern constructed format was created to functionally replace Extended. Cards were introduced with two faces and no Magic back. We witnessed the last Pro Tour-sized World Championship event. Wizards ended their fifteen year relationship with Tournament Organizers not linked with their own Magic shops. These big moves included changes to improve the game along with business moves intended to protect the bottom line of the company that prints and sells us our cards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=165188Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:46:59 GMTWhat's scarier than a full graveyard? A graveyard that spits out spiders, of course. Spider Spawning has caught my eye, as has another powerful spider from Magic 2012. How can we build with such in cards in Standard? Read on and find out.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164891Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:40:57 GMTI’m admittedly obsessed with limited. I have played a dozen different limited formats invented by others over the years, Sealed Deck and Booster Draft are the two most famous, obviously. I also have invented at least a dozen others. Today, as the holidays wind down, I want to suggest another one.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164830Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:47:39 GMTI am taking a slightly different tack this week by bringing you a personal deck list that I’m working on. Most of the decks that appear in Roots are built specifically for the article. Today it’s the other way around, the egg has come before the chicken with the deck initiating the article. It is a deck designed to begin my New Year’s resolution as far as magic is concerned: mastering combo decks. This year is ‘The Year of the Combo’ for Mr. Safety.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164497Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:21:42 GMTModern season is upon us in Magic land. This can be bad news for budget deckbuilders, but it's not always bad news. There's a way to hang tough in Modern without breaking the bank, and it involves a pretty established strategy (with a few tweaks).http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164430Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:58:27 GMTThe Year of Our Lord 2011 is rapidly disappearing into the rearview window. Here are a few best-of lists that I have compiled.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164356Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:31:53 GMTThe first installment of Casual Carnage was penned on March 21st, 2009. I completed it some time around noon, according to my computer. If I recall correctly the document was finalized on a road trip while somewhere around the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. My column went live on September 6th, 2009. In just a few short months I’ll have reached the three year mark. Three years is a long time for me to be doing anything. Other things I’ve been doing for three years or more include breathing, worrying about girls, and teaching piano (because turning just one hobby into a paying career wasn’t good enough for me).http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164276Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:15:54 GMTWe have ten players for the last team meeting in December and a very good Innistrad booster draft. Guildmage of the Year voting comes to a close and our team salutes the troops with the official end of the Iraq war.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=164128Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:54:41 GMTIt’s a holiday miracle! Tonight, we have the perfect number of players, eight, for an Innistrad booster draft. The table is chock-full of talent as well. Taylor Webb, Texas Guildmage number thirty-four, makes a rare appearance. After the draft I’ll tell you more about our team’s December tradition of voting for Guildmage of the Year and I’ll even run down the entire team roster.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163792Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:29:02 GMTEight articles, 16277 words, and 360 cards later, The Budget Cube Project has reached its epic conclusion. I'm sending this phase of the project off in style with an article full of final prices, analysis, deck lists, and information on how to draft this Cube online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163788Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:47:00 GMTToday’s article will be a little different, possibly setting up a recurring theme in future Roots articles. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the minds of members here on Fanatic and try to understand how and why they play this fantastic game. As you may have read in past articles, that’s what Roots is all about, and is the mission of yours truly. I wanted to start out with a long-time friend and fellow casual junkie Andre Lacoursiere. Hockey team rivalry aside (GO BRUINS!), we’ve been trading ideas and cards for the past 4 years. Magic is more than just a game; it’s an opportunity for comradely fun.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163615Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:16:56 GMTThe hardest part of casual multiplayer Magic is an issue that lies far beyond the mechanical. It’s an issue that must be addressed before shuffles and cuts are even made, before decks are selected. The big question of every multiplayer game is ”Of all the available options, which format should we play?”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163591Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:59:33 GMTI've covered all the colors and multicolor cards, now let's see how artifacts look once they're ran through the budget machine. This week proved to be more difficult than expected and forced me to change some of my initial plans. Read why inside.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163386Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:41:33 GMTAfter a long day that included eight sealed deck Swiss rounds, a booster draft, and three more rounds with his draft deck, local player Jimmy Spears won a plane ticket to Pro Tour Honolulu. For Jimmy, it was the perfect end to a long day, top-decking the only card in his library that would win game three over Fanatic’s own Eric “Perfect Gamer” Jones in the finals. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163205Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:51:30 GMTThe Budget Cube Project is back in business after a brief Innistrad-related hiatus. This week, we dive into the wild and wacky world of multicolor cards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163201Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:17:15 GMTWe draft with seven this week, but it’s a table full of hot shots and old friends as we start December with a bang. Hunter Burton is in the house with his undivided attention on the cards for a change! The winning decks look pretty good this week as well. After you read about this week’s draft, if you’re still awake, I will regale you with what happened when I played the six winning decks from November against each other. All that and we started our annual Guildmage of the Year voting as well.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=163116Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:44:33 GMTBefore you begin practicing for the next upcoming tournament, you should ask yourself a stupid question: “Am I here to have fun, or am I here to win?” Magic is not fun to me, not at all. I do not have fun playing Magic in a tournament. I have fun on the ride home with money in my pocket and a trophy on the dashboard. When it comes to testing with your teammate, you need to understand some fundamentals to practicing. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162989Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:51:20 GMTHow many of you out there really enjoy putting a combo together but also likes to play the cool control game? There is a deck archetype tailor-made for you and it’s called ‘prison’. It functions the same as it sounds: you’re building a prison of control elements that prevents your opponent from winning the game. You may not win on the spot like a true combo deck, but the win isn’t really in question, only the timing of the win. It isn’t really like a true control deck either because you aren’t trying to have an answer for everything. Effective prison decks target one fundamental aspect of the game and dominate it.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162988Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:50:25 GMTTezzeret, Agent of Bolas is in danger. What from, you ask? Tezzeret is in danger of being typecast as a card that combos with Inkmoth Nexus. It’s unusual that a card as diverse as a planeswalker could have such narrow scope. Even with the original Tezzeret the Seeker we had several options. His untapping first ability said “use me for aggro and ramp.” His second ability said “use me in combo or control.” As for his third ability, it just won the game simply and cleanly. So far we’ve seen plenty of action from Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as an aggro fixture as well as an implement of control decks. But that third option, combo, is still lurking in the breeding pool of deck brews. Today we’ll shed some light on a WUB possibility.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162987Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:48:15 GMTIn the history of Magic: the Gathering, which block of expansion sets is the best? Not your favorite, not my favorite, but the actual best? I’ve been interested in this question for many years. In one way, the question seems less than useful, mainly because it’s easy to think that such a question could never have an objective answer. It starts with knowing EXACTLY what question you are asking. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162580Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:45:22 GMTAll-black decks tend to suit a very particular personality. Players that are dedicated to tapping only Swamps for mana are a dangerous breed indeed. No fussing around with synergy or a layered strategy. If you listen closely you can almost hear Metallica playing in their head as they fan out their cards, imagining Kirk Hammet shredding his guitar as they shred your very soul, picking the most destructive spell possible to completely immerse you in darkness. The goal isn’t to be flashy or even technical. “Likes puppies and enjoys long walks on the beach” will never appear on a personal ad for mono-black players. It has a simple mantra: make big mana, play big bombs. Each card played discourages you and makes you wonder: why on earth did I ask this seemingly nice person to play a quiet game of magic? http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162470Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:57:04 GMTWell, the cat is out of the bag: Delver of Secrets is good. Really good. However, there are a few ways you can use this card. Recent tournament results have confirmed my suspicion that a blue-red Delver deck is probably the right way to go in Standard, but the question remains: Can this deck still be good on a budget?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162299Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:57:20 GMTWe started out at, well, the start of things last week. We ripped open six booster packs of Innistrad and went through all the steps to arrive at a forty (ahem) card deck. Building a deck, of course, is only half the trick. Now you actually have to play matches with the cards you have selected from your sealed pool. This is why Magic is such a fun toy to play with, it’s like being a kid with LEGOs. First you build your car, then you crash it into your friend’s car and see who wins. In this week’s article, we’re going to explore the things that happen when we actually play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=162271Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:29:02 GMTThis is the fourth Innistrad draft for which Eric has recorded the details while playing on Magic Online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=161934Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:43:23 GMTNow that I’ve gone over how exactly to kill an opponent without ever dropping a critter, I’ll be taking to the exact opposite side this week. This time, we’re looking at a tribal deck. First introduced with general tribe support in Kamigawa Block, Spirits are a well known but underutilized tribe.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=161732Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:38:42 GMTThe highlights begin with Eric Jones’ 100th Tuesday night appearance IN A ROW. This is completely unprecedented. The previous record for consecutive appearances was in the sixties. They say that half of life is SHOWING UP. Eric’s commitment to, and love of, the game is amazing. One of our very favorite players, Andy Van Zandt, made an appearance tonight. This true Fort Worth kid currently lives in New York with his girlfriend, a school teacher.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=161545Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:15:47 GMTOne of the very best things about Magic: the Gathering is all the different ways you can play with it. I started out, a long time ago, the way most players begin, playing only constructed Magic. A while later, sealed deck was invented, and Magic was never the same for me again. After the invention of sealed deck, booster draft soon followed. Sealed deck, booster draft, and other related formats became known as limited formats. This is because each player’s card pool for deck construction is limited in some way. Today, I want to talk about sealed deck in a very basic way, from the ground up.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=161544Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:58:59 GMTAh, the creature. The critter card is the number one most-used card in Magic: the Gathering. No other non-land card type can even come close to claiming that bragging right. If I had to pick another I’d go with the instant, but although seen potentially equally in decks it is never in a similar quantity as the creature. The package of elements required to win a game of Magic (board presence, a source of damage, expendable resources) is best delivered by the creature and no other. Now that all of that praise is written down, let’s turn my words on their head...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=161258Sat, 26 Nov 2011 21:54:14 GMTThis is actually my fourth Innistrad draft on Magic Online, but the third was pretty terrible, as I tried to force a black/red Vampire deck and it got blown out in the first round, partially to poor draws, but also because I wasn’t able to draft a lot of removal or cheap vampires. The deck basically missed on all fronts. The good news is, I think I got it out of my system.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=161225Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:46:14 GMTAttendance was good this week, we had eight players by seven o’clock with Hunter Burton still on the way. It should have been our best draft in November, but the results show that it may have been our worst. The decks were very strange. Some of it was my fault. I was red and white throughout the first pack, then violently moved to black when I opened Bloodgift Demon. My three-colored deck never worked out and I never got Bloodgift Demon into play. That’s my fault, but wait until you see what bubbled to the top of this strange draft. After the nine man draft we played a team draft with six players. Between the two drafts we opened a ridiculous THREE Snapcaster Mages of which none ended up with the Zanman!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160928Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:41:06 GMTThere was an Innistrad sealed deck Pro Tour Qualifier in my neighborhood last Saturday. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play in the tournament because it was my job to run the event and serve as head judge. Service, they say, is its own reward, and I do enjoy running tournaments and helping other people have a good time with Magic. In order to get a little extra enjoyment out of this particular tournament, I decided to study the sealed deck registration sheets. The PTQ I used for this study was one held on November 5th in Fort Worth, Texas. There were 199 players in the tournament requiring eight rounds of Swiss play. The statistics below are taken from the sixty-one decks that finished with a winning record. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160829Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:30:33 GMTPerfect Gamer is a nickname that I put on Eric Jones some time ago. Because he really is the perfect gamer. He excels at all kinds of complex game theory, but what interests me most is his skill in Magic limited formats. He catches on to new limited formats faster and better than anyone else I know. I’m very happy that my teammate and friend chooses to share his booster draft insights exclusively on MTG Fanatic. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160822Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:24:38 GMTNow that I've had some time to fully take in Innistrad, it's time to run down the best budget cards in the set in each color. Innistrad has proven to be a great set for players of all budgets. Want proof? Keep reading.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160593Sat, 19 Nov 2011 02:55:50 GMTIt’s important to keep your body healthy. In other words, everyone should live a nutritious lifestyle. In similar fashion to all other writers I, of course, maintain a steady diet of scotch, steak, and women. It seems to be working out quite well. However, I’m young and my system can handle the net loss of valuable vitamins and the total lack of a sleep schedule that could be defined as either comprehensive or, God forbid, natural. When we get a little older and it starts becoming apparent that fast food, willpower, and intake of massive amounts of caffeine are not cutting it (surprise!), we must turn to that which can turn even the most flexible of people into a stodgy mule - a change of routine. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160512Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:35:03 GMTContinuing in my apparent quest to make all the terrible blue cards in Innistrad do something awesome, today we’ll be messing around with Rooftop Storm. It’s a costly, restricted, wobbly enchantment with virtually no practical application whatsoever. Seems like the kind of business right up my alley, doesn’t it? Rooftop Storm provides an unusual set of unique construction challenges when it comes to building a deck focused around it, all of which we will try to solve today.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160415Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:50:31 GMTPerfect Gamer is a nickname that I put on Eric Jones some time ago. Because he really is the perfect gamer. He excels at all kinds of complex game theory, but what interests me most is his skill in Magic limited formats. He catches on to new limited formats faster and better than anyone else I know. I’m very happy that my teammate and friend chooses to share his booster draft insights exclusively on MTG Fanatic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160269Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:47:51 GMTThe mayor stood in the middle of the town square and with a concerned face, began to address his citizens. “PEOPLE OF AVABRUCK! LEND ME YOUR EARS BUT FOR A SHORT WHILE!" In case you all were wondering, Humans are my new favorite tribe. They have amazing synergy and abilities that are just amazing for a deck like we are going to look at today. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=160268Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:28:30 GMTI've always been a fan of experimenting with Magic's many “build around me” enchantments and artifacts, and Wizards has been giving red decks a steady stream of them as of late. However, there's one that caught my eye, but I never got a chance to do anything with it until now. That card is Rage Extractor.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159982Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:22:34 GMTI thought more people would show up tonight with a local Innistrad sealed deck PTQ only a few days away. Instead, we draft again with just seven players. I’m happy enough with the results of our seven man drafts. Playing with one less than eight hasn’t seemed to skew our drafts in any direction, although eight players is always better than seven for draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159910Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:00:34 GMTA crisp wintry good morning from Maine! We had record snowfall ‘up heyah’ for the month of October on Saturday. There is no way I would miss an opportunity to get outside with my kids when there was a five-inch blanket of instant-fun on the front lawn. I’m actually quite proud of our creation. It is a quirky coincidence that the traditional snowman has three sections and this week’s principles should help you tackle your first three color deck. Today’s deck brings ferocious cats and fearsome beasts under the name of Zoo. It will allow you to learn the principles of fixing your mana-base in a three (or more) color deck along with introducing you to a powerful strategy that takes full advantage of all three colors.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159907Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:39:49 GMTI went a little crazy this time. As is my habit on Magic Online, I approach the 4322 draft queue with the following plan: draft as many rares as possible while still drafting a good enough deck to win the first round. When this plan works out, I feel like I am able to draft a bunch of rares (the goal is at least more than three) and still recover two of the three online booster packs used for the draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159707Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:31:08 GMTLast week we left off with a bit still on our plate. This week, we're changing gears and focusing on user-submitted decks. This doesn't mean Mana Junkies won't be bringing you the hardcore Legacy fix you Junkies need. Let's just think of this as the “Fix Clinic”. First up, we're back with more results from testing our latest brew. After some diligent gaming, I'm pretty proud to say that the list I have for you guys is one capable of winning. Not much of a bold claim, but it's still one that can be backed up. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159626Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:48:35 GMTHere is a recent Magic Online draft in which I had success. When Innistrad first arrived, I felt my friends, and unfortunately too many of my opponents, had a much better handle on Innistrad limited formats that I did. Luckily for me, Innistrad has finally arrived on Magic Online, a place where I have the opportunity to catch up with other players. I’m feeling better about Innistrad limited in general and Innistrad booster draft in particular. I hope my observations can help you make your own drafts better.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159526Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:59:44 GMTHalloween has come and gone, but the spirit of the season remains. In so keeping, let’s take a closer look at Innistrad’s feral brutes: Werewolves. Oh, there’s a bonus Zombie deck in here too.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159349Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:23:01 GMTIt’s a wonderful thing when fall comes to the Southwest. The one hundred degree days end, your neighbor’s lawn quits catching on fire, and Standard rotates out an old block and rotates in a new one. In comes Innistrad, marking the end of Zendikar for good old Standard. As usual, the annual State Championship tournaments provide the first real tests of the all-new Standard format. This year certainly did not disappoint me with the variety of decks battling for the top position. A favorite clearly emerged. On behalf of my Premier Tournament Organizer, the legendary Edward Fox of AussieFox Events, me and fellow level two judge Eric Jones ran the State Champs events in Wichita, Kansas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Each event’s finals featured the same matchup. For me, the State Championships came down to a story of two decks and a tale of two cities.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159272Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:28:26 GMTIf you’re like me, you’ve looked at some cards and said to yourself: ‘why in the world would I want to play that card?’ Some cards are subtle, and deceptively powerful, in their uses. The ones I’m talking about are cards that not only affect your opponent negatively, but hurt you too. They force you to dig deeper into your card knowledge, look farther into the card pool available to you, and you need to be a little bit of a risk-taker to even try using them. “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space”. At least that's how the saying goes. As our illustrious Casual Carnage author The Artificer (AKA Tom Wrigley) has written in the past: your life total is a resource that can be used the same as mana or cards. So in the spirit of risk-taking, and the lack of even a name for this concept, I’m going to create my own new magic vocabulary: the Pox Factor.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159260Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:35:54 GMTAttendance was a little scary this week. It was 6:44 pm before anyone showed up. We had only six until a seventh player showed up around 7:20 pm. We drafted with seven and played three rounds of Swiss cutting to a top four. We were not able to assemble enough interest for a second draft. Here’s what happened in our seven man draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159145Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:45:10 GMTSo there’s a card in Innistrad that has been keeping me perpetually perplexed. It’s a mythic rare and I’m wondering if anybody knows...uh...why?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159144Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:35:52 GMTI have decided as of late to start play-testing Legacy online. I hear there are a whole host of decks that do well and that the format is continually changing. I didn’t really know where to start. I knew that eventually I would like to start playing the deck I was testing online which meant that I had to have a reasonable budget deck. This means no original dual lands or shock lands. I would rather spend that kind of money on the creatures and other spells that will help me to win the game. This also means no Jace, the Mind Sculptor. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=159034Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:08:05 GMTAnother Bant deck takes down a Legacy Grand Prix tournament in 2011. This one had Force of Will, and the first one didn't, by the way. If you're looking for a Top X article, besides the flood of first time tournament report writers with their States writeup, here's the beginning of something fresh and new. If you Junkies are tuning in from last week before the GP, here also is the beginning of something fresh and new.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=158939Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:39:22 GMTA big apology to anemone/Mercadian Masques crossover enthusiasts, but this article is not about Glowing Anemone. That’s too much of a niche audience to preach to. This week’s discharge of hot air is all about enemies. To be more precise, the enemy colors of Magic’s delicious color pie.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=158836Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:20:23 GMTHeartless Summoning is one of the most intriguing cards in Innistrad. While it isn’t typical budget material, making a reasonably priced deck with it is completely doable. Why? Because it makes many fringe constructed cards infinitely better.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=158647Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:07:02 GMTRaise your hand if you know what a mana curve is. No, don’t really raise your hand, you look foolish sitting there at your computer with your hand in the air! I’m guessing most folks that play magic know what it is, or can at least deduce what I mean by it. I’m going to be a little more focused this week and try to avoid a long list of magic vocabulary. Rather, I want to zero in on the one specific principle of the mana curve which empowers all players, new and experienced, casual and competitive alike. I will also discuss its ‘sister’ principle of opportunity cost. At the end will be a fun exercise included today that should help you build your mana curve ‘muscles’ so to speak, and it will be attached to a contest!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=158445Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:21:22 GMTThis week we had nine players ready to go just minutes after seven o’clock. After playing three Swiss rounds and a round of playoffs there were still six players interested in drafting a second time. We randomly split ourselves into teams and drafted 3v3. My team got crushed 1-5. It was a good night all around and I sense we’re getting a better bead on drafting Innistrad.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=158286Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:50:45 GMTThere has been plenty of electronic ink spilled here on MTG Fanatic regarding Magic’s newest expansion set Innistrad. Messrs Wrigley and Meidinger have broken down the set and reviewed some cards individually and tried some of the cards in some new decks. David Croom has weighed in on Innistrad’s effect on Legacy. We’ve seen how the Texas Guildmages have approached the set for booster draft and I’ve shared my sealed deck experiences so far with Innistrad. That must be just about everything you can do with this new set. But not so fast! There are yet mysteries to be revealed in Innistrad, mysteries that can only be teased out of the new set one way… Innistrad DC-10 showdown.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=158201Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:50:59 GMTThis weekend I hope all you Junkies are going to be following the last big Legacy event of the year, Grand Prix: Amsterdam. Time has been moving at a steady crawl since last year when the GP schedule was announced. A year ago, the first Mana Junkies column was published, and to celebrate that, we get to gear up for a Legacy Grand Prix!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157924Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:06:21 GMTThere are plenty of stellar token generators in Standard right now in addition to some killer Glorious Anthem-style enchantments, and most of them are in white. However, white token strategies are linked closely to artifacts right now. Let’s see if ghosts and robots can play nice together.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157901Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:17:41 GMTInnistrad is beginning to settle into the competitive and casual environments, and for now one thing is for sure. Liliana of the Veil is staged to become a very prolific deck component, able to get an opponent under her fingernails with ease. However, Innistrad’s leading lady isn’t the only feminine presence on the Mythic Rare team. There’s another who is creating just as many ripples in discussions as Miss Vess... Olivia Voldaren. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157804Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:49:23 GMTOne of the most challenging aspects of magic has absolutely nothing to do with actually playing the game (zero, nil, nada): how much money do I spend on this game? Well, Roots is here with a special edition to help you not only figure that one out, but hopefully get you on the right track to getting what you need in a more economical fashion. If you can follow a few basic guidelines, you’ll be shuffling up your newest concoction and playing with success, maybe even saving a buck or two along the way.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157542Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:44:56 GMTThe barracks were filled with chatter as everyone was getting ready for the upcoming battle against the Elves. The Elves had killed too many things they considered ugly. One too many Eyeblights were ended. The time for action was now, so humans and Kithkin alike decided to band together for the greater good of the world.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157541Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:25:04 GMTMe and some of my Guildmage teammates traveled to San Antonio last Saturday for an Innistrad sealed deck PTQ. We had high hopes for success. All four of us in the car had previously won such an event multiple times in the past. There were 155 players from all over the state of Texas including a lot of great players.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157455Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:21:22 GMTUnburial Rites is one of those cards that makes your bombs better, and makes your opponent’s removal quite a bit worse. It has already seen play in the new version of the control-reanimator Solar Flare deck, so surely we can put this card to work on a budget as well.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157127Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:35:19 GMTWelcome back to Roots! I hope you didn’t mind the side-trail I took a few weeks back with the article on pet cards. I feel rather strongly that we shouldn’t forget why we play magic. ‘Talking shop’ is another rewarding part of the game that shouldn’t be left out. I hope I didn’t lose you with the older card references, and I [i]really[/i] hope it resonated with you, even if only a little bit. This week, we’re back on track to defining the three basic deck archetypes found in magic with combo.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157121Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:41:42 GMTInnistrad entering and Mental Misstep leaving the format has given us a lot to consider about how to move forward with Legacy. Last time we started up a discussion, and today we're going to follow that up as well as go over some new lists that have been popping up. A lot of you have posted your lists and some thoughts as to what changes need to be made. You Junkies gave me a lot of food for thought, and after a bout of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and some mad proxying, I've pieced together a couple lists to share.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157120Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:33:17 GMTHaibing Hu is on a roll. The Binger, as he’s known by his friends, is good in all Magic formats, but likes limited best of all. Hu finished in the top eight of U.S. Nationals this year behind a 6-0 draft performance and some good play with a tweaked version of Gerry Thompson’s Caw Blade deck. In the top eight at Nationals, Haibing defeated Owen Turtenwald before falling to eventual champion Ali Aintrazi in the semi finals. Still, Haibing went home with a sweet trophy and a spot on the national team for this year’s World Championship.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=157018Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:59:24 GMTSo let’s say you’ve just gotten into Magic: the Gathering, and Innistrad is the first set you’ve ever played with. Sometimes this is the case and you, the young gun, have only the latest set at your disposal to build with. Among players down with the lingo, this is called ‘block’ format. For now, block format for Innistrad consists only of the eponymous set itself. By spring, the block will be complete with all three of its sets. The decks you’ll see here today can be built using exclusively cards for Innistrad and for somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty dollars. Let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156971Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:24:03 GMTAround here, there is lots of interest in drafting Innistrad. We were starting an eight man draft and had just opened our first packs when a ninth player showed up. We stopped and fit him in. Just as we picked up our packs again, a tenth player showed up. There was grumbling, but in the end we drafted with ten players and played four rounds of Swiss cutting to a top four.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156736Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:08:14 GMTWhile I am waiting for my Elf-loving friend to finish up his deck, I am taking the time to cater to one of my readers. I am always eager to know what you would like me to explore and what you would like to read about. Today, I am going to look into an idea I have had for quite some time. A rogue idea. This means I am going to put together a deck that most people wouldn’t. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156735Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:05:46 GMTInnistrad season is in full swing, and I can’t wait to dive in. I may be fashionably late to the party, but I’ve brought the goods, so hopefully nobody will mind. This week: a werewolf control deck? Strange things happen when the full moon rises…http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156262Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:56:01 GMTWelcome back one more times to one of the most popular series of MTG Fanatic Articles, Combo Corner! For those of you unfamiliar with the series, this is a sub-column of my regular ramblings at Casual Carnage. Every time a new edition of Magic: the Gathering is released I put on a big pot of tea, go through its Gatherer pages card by card, and set you up with every two, three, and occasionally four card combo I can think of using material from the new set. Now that you know the format, let’s get started!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156261Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:52:55 GMTThree other Texas Guildmages and I are hitting the road for an Innistrad sealed deck Pro Tour Qualifier this weekend in San Antonio. I love limited, and I’m excited to play sealed deck for a chance to go to Pro Tour Honolulu next year. I’ve won four limited PTQs in my playing career (along with three constructed ones) and subsequently attended four limited Pro Tours. All four were before the current PT format that includes both draft and constructed. I know how to win a sealed deck PTQ, and I know how dependent you are on the quality of your randomly assigned card pools. My biggest problem is a lack of experience with Innistrad. I was out of commission during the weekend of the prerelease and have only drafted the new set a couple of times. More importantly, I just haven’t played a single match of sealed deck with Innistrad. What I do have are booster packs, so let’s open up six, just like at the PTQ on Saturday, and see what the card pool looks like.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156260Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:50:39 GMTWelcome back to Roots! Whether you’re brand new to the game or just trying to build on your basic skills, Roots can hopefully help you out. More than anything, Roots is designed to focus on the fundamentals of how and why we play this incredible game. If I ever lose focus on that, Editor-in-Chief Jeff Zandi has my permission to use my head as a cue ball in his next game of billiards. This week we are delving a little deeper into the known deck types of the game with aggro-control.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=156190Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:32:30 GMTAs you would expect, there was plenty of excitement tonight. Fourteen players showed up ready to draft Innistrad. Here’s what we learned from our first eight man booster draft with the new set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155923Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:51:28 GMTWelcome back to the First Glance series! This week we’ll be taking our second look at the cards in Innistrad that are pinging on the casual multiplayer radar. If you missed part one, please go ahead and read it first. The article in the link took a peek at the two bottom rarities, common and uncommon. Today we’ll be featuring the rares and mythic rares of Innistrad. Buckle up!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155787Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:05:33 GMTThis time I am not looking at any given deck list. I am actually looking towards the future and in the future we will see lots of Demons, Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies and Humans. Yes, you heard me correctly, humans. This article isn’t about humans, though, it’s about people thinking that other decks are always better than the lesser played guys. Today I was play testing for Modern. I won most of my games, and I was not playing a fancy combo deck, or any tier one deck for that matter. I wasn’t playing Twin or Zoo or Jund. I was playing White Weenie. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155780Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:33:07 GMTIn any facet of life, one needs to take time away from devoted activities and let the brain unwind. Vacations, spring and summer breaks, and especially weekends give us the necessary breaks from our real lives. But before jumping back in, to capitalize on the reset means to not pick up where one left off but to figure out a new and better way to move forward. Recently I took a little trip to unwind, and coincidentally while on leave Legacy got upended with the banning of Mental Misstep.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155378Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:05:57 GMTThe Budget Cube Project may be feelin’ blue this week, but that’s no reason to be sad! Blue is as fun and as powerful as ever, even on a budget.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155375Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:31:56 GMTAll of the other tribes try not to talk about them. They sneak around at night and take advantage of other humanoids at social gatherings. Some are accomplished musicians, while others are amazing fighters. Others still are good at just getting people to do what they want them to do! This deck is all about that.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155261Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:55:41 GMTIt looked like we might be stuck with just seven players tonight when, happily, an eighth guy that doesn’t show up that often… showed up. We were happy to have an eight man draft. Everyone is excited about drafting Innistrad week after next. In the meantime, we have found M12 draft remarkably entertaining and competitive.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=155050Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:07:43 GMTIt’s a month before Halloween, but we can all get an early look at a season of classic monsters in Magic’s newest expansion set, Innistrad. Prerelease events take place this weekend all over the world in many of your favorite game shops. Innistrad is a shadowy land full of vampires and werewolves. It’s like Twilight… for boys.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=154509Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:13:28 GMTOn the eve of Innistrad’s prerelease, it only seems fitting to explore the color that Magic most often associates with horror, demons, and things that go bump in the night: Black.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=154508Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:02:12 GMTIt’s time, everybody! The Innistrad prereleases are here and the set has been fully spoiled. This means it’s time to let the analysis begin! For those of you just tuning in, Innistrad is the newest expansion to Magic and it goes on sale in one week. It is a very dark set in terms of its themes with vampires, werewolves, and zombies aplenty. Up against them are the humans (puny Earthlings!) and caught in the middle are the white/blue supported spirit tribe. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=154506Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:41:55 GMTSealed deck is not just for prereleases. In just a few weeks, Pro Tour Qualifiers for next year’s Pro Tour Honolulu will feature Innistrad sealed deck. In the meantime, there are a few Grand Prix Trials using Magic 2012 sealed deck in order to qualify for byes at Grand Prix San Diego. That being said, it can be hard to find a competitive sealed deck environment in which to hone your skills. The format is expensive to play and attracts fewer players. Luckily for me, I have a very good store in my area that features TWO Friday Night Magic events each week.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=154453Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:17:01 GMTI’m not new to the world of Magic, but the world of writing still has the morning dew on it. The newfound excitement of it has resulted in about fifteen different article ideas already logged in the notepad of my cell phone. Some will make it, some won’t. I will carefully go over each topic and make sure it does exactly what I want Roots to accomplish: teach the fundamentals of how and why we all play this exciting game. The first two articles were on the ‘how’; this one digs into the ‘why’, at least for me. The picture above is my one-year-old son Isaac by the way, trying to get a closer peek at what I’m holding onto (I’m pretty sure it was my trade binder at the time.) He was incredibly persistent, so I snapped a picture of him at super-close-up range. I hope he’s just as excited to get into magic 10 years from now. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=154198Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:30:45 GMTWelcome back to week three of the Budget Cube Project. This week, red turns up the Budget’ Cube’s thermostat with its signature mix of aggressive creatures and burn spells.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153799Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:41:27 GMTWe have twelve Guildmages and guests this week. We decided to split into two groups of six for a pair of team drafts. Six volunteers headed downstairs to run their draft. The six of us playing upstairs, including the boy, randomly divided ourselves into two teams and played a team draft. When the two team drafts were complete, there were eight players interested in drafting again. Today’s journal entry involves the details of that eight man draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153798Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:27:43 GMTWelcome back to the farewell to Zendikar. For those of you who missed last week (you’re totally missing out, by the way), the Goodbye articles’ goal is to simply shed light on the great cards from a block that were lost to the hustle and bustle of competitive formats. These are going to be cards that you may want to consider for your casual decks that you might not have formerly been aware of. To help clarify my points on these cards, since rares tend to be much more subjective, I’m including a “playability index,” which will be a simple scale of one to ten with ten being the best. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153674Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:51:39 GMTHi everyone! My name is Brandon Downs, and I am a PTQ grinder from Minnesota.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153559Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:28:24 GMTWelcome back to Roots, a nice stop-over point in your journey with Magic. If you’re new to this cardboard addiction, welcome! You’ll find the journey to be exciting and fun. If you’re not new, welcome to a little piece of nostalgia that might help you remember some basic deck-building skills and what they can do for you.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153549Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:27:42 GMTAnother week, another color. This time, the Budget Cube Project will cover everyone’s favorite color for mana acceleration and excellent fatties: green.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153368Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:38:54 GMTThe Grand Prix Trials for Amsterdam have begun here in Holland, the first one taking place last Sunday. Beforehand, there was just no time to play any games. Everyone at work was on vacation, except me, therefore there was not enough time to split between my better half and Legacy. Since then, there has been a new format announcement, a Pro Tour of said surprise format, and a ratings system overhaul. Glad I have a copious internet habit so there was no missing out on those items.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153130Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:08:55 GMTExactly eight tonight in the Guildhall. It’s a good group and the draft shows it producing at least three or four pretty interesting decks. I’m going to tell you all about the best two.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=153027Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:27:43 GMTIt’s that time of year again, folks. Time for a block to take its leave from Standard and fall out of the public eye. Zendikar has taken on the air of an ailing action movie star at the end of his career. While the set is still strong and well-designed, the encroachment of a beer belly over its six-pack abs is inevitable. Standard has made excellent use of Zendikar and individually labeled each card within the entire block as either competitively viable or… simply not. What I’m interested in today is the “simply not” category, which houses the many underrated cards in the set that were cast aside not because they are bad cards but because they were simply overtaken by the nature of the competitive environment. These cards have become buried treasures of Magic and the goal of this article is to shed light on them. Let’s start with the commons.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=152911Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:12:59 GMTThey say you can learn a lot about a person by seeing where they live or work. Recognizing the risk of a massive over-share, I’d like to let you in on my own unique work environment, as well as a bit of my life story. I have a large window next to my desk that looks north and provides gentle light and a view of some trees and sky. On this window’s ledge a large collection of things have accumulated over time. I took at look at the collection of kitsch and decided to reveal the secrets therein.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=152585Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:05:51 GMTWelcome to week two of the Budget Cube Project, and the first week of actual card choices. White is my favorite color in my cube (aka Dexter’s Cube), and early indications show that this budget cube may be no different.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=152259Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:14:49 GMTA friend of mine recently put together a Scars Block rotisserie draft. He got together a set of all the commons and uncommons from all three sets; Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia. He then made proxies of all the rares and mythics. In the end we had virtually every card in the set to draft out. We drafted in order first through eighth and then eighth through first. This process was repeated, so players one and eight always got two picks at once. I ended up picking fourth.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151987Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:35:52 GMTI regret to inform you, dear readers, that Casual Carnage has officially resolved the stack. Its effects have been meted out across the board and we now find ourselves topside of the graveyard with meager prospects for seeing action. That is unless we happened to have Flashback...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151969Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:48:50 GMTWelcome to ‘Roots’, the starting point for your journey in this new world of Magic: the Gathering! Roots sprouted up (or down…) from the idea that many articles you may be reading don’t cover the fundamentals of Magic. Most are focused on building decks and working with strategies based on an already established foundation of knowledge. So, you ask, what about a person that just bought a pre-constructed deck at your local Wal-Mart©? How does this game even WORK? Where do I begin? What makes a creature good? How do enchantments work? How does a turn play out? What in the WORLD is ‘the stack’? I’m assuming that you have at least a little bit of knowledge of Magic; otherwise you wouldn’t be here at mtgfanatic.com doing research or buying more cards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151877Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:24:33 GMTWelcome to the 718th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151633Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:34:58 GMTThere have been a lot of Magic 2012 drafts at the house this summer, and we’ve opened just under two cases in a little more than a month. I decided I wanted to open a box just for myself. Of course, I would never simply rip packs open when I have a twelve year old who is always good to go for some sort of limited game.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151631Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:24:18 GMTWhile I was writing the previous article about my personal gauntlet, I was keeping an eye on the Japanese Nationals. Ryuuichirou Ishida ran a hyper aggressive version of hawkward. Using a total of four Mox Opal, as well as four Ornithopter and four Memnite, his idea was to play a turn two Tempered Steel and destroy his opponent. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151477Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:59:18 GMTCube is undoubtedly one of the most fun Magic: the Gathering formats in existence. This modified draft format is characterized by some of the best cards in the game, which are often some of the most expensive... but not always. Is it possible to build a fun, powerful cube on a budget without diving into Pauper? Let's find out.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=151216Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:42:10 GMTEver since seeing it in previews, I have had a question itching, burning, bothering me day and night about a card. It’s a very peculiar card with a very simple question. What are you supposed to do with this piece of crap?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150950Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:58:17 GMTWelcome to the 717th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150643Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:54:19 GMTIt’s a tale as old as time itself. The clever rat sneaks into your home and heads right for the kitchen. Rats raid kitchens for the same reason that criminals rob banks… that’s where the cheese is. The rat climbs up onto the counter and spots it, a giant pie-shaped wedge of Swiss cheese five times bigger than the rodent. He grabs the cheese, jumps down to the floor and starts running towards the familiar gothic arch of the typical mouse hole in the wall ahead. Suddenly, a cat darts out of nowhere and smashes the rat in the face with a frying pan. Or at least, that’s what always happened in Tom and Jerry cartoons…http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150455Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:33:58 GMTMagic 2012 has brought us some great cards for Standard and beyond. Time to count down the best of the bunch for wallet-friendly deckbuilding. Like last summer with M11, I'll stay away from reprints and bring you the best of the new stuff.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150246Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:01:38 GMTFor the Legacy Junkie in all of us, our fix comes often enough from what we have at hand. However, knowing what the good stuff is helps the experience even more. The topic for today is what people are playing around the world and what you need to know about it. Regardless of what deck or decks you have built now, keeping close knowledge of your own deck isn't as important as knowing what your opponents can or will do against you. Hopefully, there's something to take away for Junkies on all levels of the format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150243Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:51:49 GMTWelcome to the 716th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150137Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:25:17 GMTNow that Primeval Titan has suffered the reprint and its market value has been diluted by increased availability, something I like to call the “Baneslayer Angel” effect has happened. Thus, since more and more of you will be owners of the card before long, I feel it’s time to run down some Primeval Titan shenanigans. What we’ll be discussing today is the “land matters” side of play. Mostly lumped in as a dimension of tempo, a land matters style of play can lead to a lot of angry friends because it focuses on mana base interference. The game can become stale when you’re the only one casting spells. On the other hand, this can be a very versatile way to rack up a win. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=150098Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:27:14 GMTWelcome to the 715th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=149987Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:33:07 GMTFor the next few weeks I am going to explore the land of tribal decks. It’s no secret that tribal decks are some of the most aggressive out there in casual as well as constructed. This happens because there is a lot of synergy between a lot of the cards in a certain tribe. I am starting with Goblins.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=149796Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:42:04 GMTDuel Decks returns, and this time, it's personal. After crushing The Artificer's demons with my awe-inspiring wizard deck a few months ago, we return to the battlefield. This time, it's cats vs. mice (well, rats), but the result will be no different. After all, I have the predators, and he's stuck with the prey. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=149576Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:53:18 GMTWelcome to another installment of the friendly rivalry between myself and Dallas Meidinger. This time we are pitting a pair of factions old as nature herself against each other: Cats and Mice. The deck of cats will be described later on this week by Dallas. Today I’ll be going over the ground rules we established for the building of the decks as well as introducing you to the mice, represented here by the rat creature type. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=149127Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:20:26 GMTI had some success at an FNM recently playing sealed deck using Magic 2012. I’m interested in all kinds of limited play. Although I booster draft a lot more than I play sealed deck, I think sealed deck experiences are quite valuable in helping me to understand the interaction of cards from the all-new Magic 2012. M12 has just arrived on Magic Online and I hope to use my cardboard experiences with the set to give me an edge online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148880Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:12:17 GMTWhat follows is the longest article in the history of MTG Fanatic and possibly any other Magic website. In this case, bigger does NOT necessarily mean better. Readers are cautioned that the following article is insane and inane in both its subject matter and length. Attempting to digest this largely-pointless tome of an article in its entirety could result in you either deciding that there is no god, or possibly that there IS one, depending on whichever you would find more chilling. Did I mention the article is very long? To some people, this article might even seem a little TOO long. Some complain this article is as long as a book. I submit that this fanciful bit of writing is merely half the length of the first Harry Potter novel. This article is long enough that you shouldn’t try to pull it up on a smart phone. Maybe a Kindle…http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148740Sun, 07 Aug 2011 20:03:25 GMTI noticed it was bloodthirst week over on the official Magic site. Not to be outdone, I began compiling a badass red-black bloodthirst-based deck of my own. As I began dreaming up ideas, I noticed a recurring trend in my card choices: none of them were rares.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148517Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:47:15 GMTLast week we looked at a one sided view on how to approach a single tournament. The intent was to give an example of coming to terms with where you are in your Legacy metagame, and also where you want to stand. Never mind what I bring to the table, what's more important is what you Junkies have sleeved up. And also what you want to do to move on or move up.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148488Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:14:22 GMTEric Jones is a Pro Tour veteran and a level two DCI judge. He is also a good friend of mine. I gave him the nickname “Perfect Gamer” both to honor his great skill and as a slight jab for his trademark smarmy attitude. Eric is very talented at booster draft and other limited formats. He has a keen understanding of what makes a good draft deck. He shares his draft experiences exclusively here on MTG Fanatichttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148377Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:45:16 GMTPicture your Saturday afternoon. It’s relaxed, work is done for the week, and you just woke up at the groan-inducing early hour of 1:00pm. Later on, there’s a large gathering to play some cards as well as other nerdy girl-repelling activities. Then, suddenly, your eyes widen and your pulse hastens as you remember that which you had planned to do for days now, and subsequently forgotten. You were going to make a new deck. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148260Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:23:40 GMTWelcome to the 714th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148165Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:17:47 GMTTempered Steel is my deck of choice these days. I have believed in it for a long time and was wise enough to trade for a play set of the amazing enchantment when it came out. I looked at the power of the card and said to myself, “If I’m playing Honor of the Pure right now, why not pick up Tempered Steel and see what they come out with?” This was one of the best decisions in Magic that I have made in a while.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=148162Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:59:27 GMTEric Jones is a Pro Tour veteran and a level two DCI judge. He is also a good friend of mine. I gave him the nickname “Perfect Gamer” both to honor his great skill and as a slight jab for his trademark smarmy attitude. Eric is very talented at booster draft and other limited formats. He has a keen understanding of what makes a good draft deck. He shares his draft experiences exclusively here on MTG Fanatichttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=147985Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:14:15 GMTBroiling temperatures prevailed at the qualifying tournament for Pro Tour Philadelphia in Oklahoma City on Saturday, July 23rd. The Elks Lodge in suburban Midwest City was the site. One hundred and thirty-five players arrived to battle for a Pro Tour seat in the post-Jace, post-Mystic Standard environment with Magic 2012 newly added.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=147886Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:02:34 GMTI was browsing the MtgFanatic forums the other day, and I came across a user posing a very common question: “I'm going to Friday Night Magic, what's the best deck I can make for the least amount of money possible?” Eschewing my usual cynicism, I decided to do some research. I soon found that Pyromancer Ascension decks are ridiculously cheap and as powerful as they've ever been.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=147672Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:09:52 GMTBack in middle school, we had an in-school suspension program called CHOICES. If a student acted up and required punishment, they were sent there, a room in the library supervised by some staff member. Every other school in the district had an in-school suspension program, which they just called ISSP. But ours was different, we had the reminder that our choices got us stuck in a room with nothing to do.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=147670Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:52:17 GMTWelcome back to the four-part examination of Magic 2012 presented by me, The Artificer! This week we’re going to be substantially less serious about things and discuss the parts of 2012 that simply amuse and inspire. What you’ll be seeing here are all the crazy, fun, or ridiculous combos I can find within Magic 2012. I’ll try to keep it to two or three cards per combo. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=147370Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:53:43 GMTWelcome to the 713th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=147021Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:50:40 GMTJust call me Wal-Mart, 'cause I'm really rolling back the prices this time. Our weekly special is a Standard-legal blue/white control deck built with everyone's favorite Sword of Mass Destruction, Worldslayer. The price? Less than 30 bucks. Sound like fun? Read on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=146783Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:58:16 GMTWhile I missed writing my fix for last week, I didn't necessarily miss home for a short holiday with the ol' lady. Last week, I took a break from real life, but you Junkies know no one takes more than a break from Magic. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=146774Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:13:03 GMTThe collection of cards in Standard have been through a lot together. There have been highs and lows. There have been thousands (consequently millions) of points of damage dealt by Valakut. There have been a million pieces of equipment acquired and deployed by Stoneforge Mystic. We have welcomed the largest colorless creatures of all time from Rise of the Eldrazi, we’ve watched the rising power of Planeswalkers. After all that this group of cards has been through together, they are joined this week by a bunch of newbies. Magic 2012 arrives in stores this week.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=146636Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:51:12 GMT Welcome back, everybody, to the First Glance articles, Magic 2012 Edition! If you missed my reviews of the set’s commons and uncommons in part one you can head back and see that right here. Otherwise, we’ll continue on with the rares and mythic rares. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=146515Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:36:45 GMTBirthing Pod has been the talk of sleeper deck design, the card being very powerful. But only the bravest and most intuitive should attempt this deck when the entry fee is $25.00 at the 5K that comes your way once a year. Here’s the comprehensive decklist I’ve designed.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=146280Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:39:13 GMTI've written about Elves before, but hey, they are a perfect tribe for budget deckbuilding. Every now and then, a card comes along that makes Elf decks worth talking about again. Magic 2012 has given us one of those cards in Doubling Chant.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=145738Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:26:04 GMTSo now that Magic 2012 has been fully spoiled in Gatherer, I’m free to discuss it! I love set launches, they give me great new content to talk about for weeks. Magic 2012 definitely delivers. This set is keeping me interested enough to talk for the full month it takes before all of my analysis hits the website. This week is the first of four articles to be written. For those of you just tuning in, the First Glance series is my interpretation of the set’s commons, uncommons, rares, and mythics. Each rarity will be broken down and the best five cards from each will receive a ranking here. Placing is determined by each card’s ease of application and effectiveness in a multiplayer game. Enjoy!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=145428Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:58:56 GMTWelcome to the 711th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=145286Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:21:10 GMTI've been talking Commander for the last few weeks, so this column is dedicated to a more traditional, sixty card deck. However, one of the cards in this deck is none other than Commander stand-out Soul Snare. This card has really caught my eye, which gives me a reason to tweak a classic archetype: The Enchantress deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144710Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:45:31 GMTThis week we're going to be gearing up with the top decks in Legacy. We're halfway through the calendar year, and there are yet lots of top eights to make. Whether you are an SCG Open grinder, or just getting into the Eternal side of Magic, knowing what's running the top tables is but one brick in a long and winding road.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144702Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:55:55 GMTBack here in the Land of the Far North we’re kicking off our lake season with a heat wave. If it were ever possible for inanimate objects to stick it to the man, my thermometer is trying its damnedest. It’s been pushing the 30ºC mark for a few days in a row now (somewhere around 90ºF for American readers) and as a creature of winter, I’ve constantly been beseeching the gods of snow for a whopping dose of the icy fluffy stuff. In an effort to at least lower the temperature in my head a few points below fever dreams, we’re going to do a theme article about winter! http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144524Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:50:17 GMTI was making the long drive home from Grand Prix Kansas City two weeks ago when my iPhone started blowing up with Facebook messages. All my Magic friends, and let’s face it, the only friends a guy like me has got are Magic friends, were talking about one thing: the announcement of the banning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic from Standard.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144277Sun, 03 Jul 2011 21:33:52 GMTToolbox decks use specific tutor cards to find a variety of useful utility creatures and spells. Toolboxes let you play less copies of a potentially niche card because you have a reliable way to find single copies. In short, they give your deck flexibility. Lo and behold, New Phyrexia has given us one of the most versatile toolbox enablers in recent memory: Birthing Pod.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144273Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:49:26 GMTHaibing Hu is a draft expert. Hu has been playing Magic since 1996, more seriously since 2000. He has played in five Pro Tour events, made day two in three of them, and finished in the money twice. DrWho, as Haibing is known on Magic Online, details his draft experiences exclusively here on MTG Fanatic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144212Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:58:34 GMTNow I can very safely say I have done over 1000 drafts. Does that sound like a lot? Nearly 300 sanctioned with a 76% win percentage, well over 300 online, at least 400 nonsanctioned I can easily account for. I have some experience. Recently I’ve been talking a little more about drafting strategy, and I was asked an interesting question; “How do you know when to splash?”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144124Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:26:01 GMTWelcome to the 710th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144122Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:04:18 GMTIt has been almost two weeks since the announcement of Standard's loss of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. The singles aftermarket has seen a few waves of players dumping their copies. Personally, I couldn't resist an eBay auction to pick up two more at $45 a piece. However, this isn't a financial article. We're looking to stay ahead of the curve and bring the right deck to the next show. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=144118Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:36:53 GMTWelcome one and all to the 100th official numbered installment of Casual Carnage with me, your host, The Artificer! I have to say the process of authoring this column has been quite the adventure both personally and publicly. Today I’m going to take a break from it all and just discuss the journey that Casual Carnage has become and the places it has taken me within Magic: the Gathering. My hope is that you take something from my experience and make it your own. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=143996Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:05:59 GMTEric Jones is a Pro Tour veteran and a level two DCI judge. He is also a good friend of mine. I gave him the nickname “Perfect Gamer” both to honor his great skill and as a slight jab for his trademark smarmy attitude. Eric is very talented at booster draft and other limited formats. He has a keen understanding of what makes a good draft deck. He shares his draft experiences exclusively here on MTG Fanatichttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=143994Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:00:06 GMTWelcome to the 709th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=143411Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:07:48 GMTI haven't been able to shuffle cards in a few weeks. That hasn't stopped me from keeping a Legacy Grinder's best tool sharp: the Gauntlet. New Phyrexia has provided some influential cards to the pool, and dozens of sizable events around the world, including a Legacy Grand Prix, have given those cards some real life testing. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=143400Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:01:16 GMTCommander can be a daunting (and expensive) format to break into. When you have nearly the entire history of Magic as your potential card choices in a 100-card singleton format, the potential for success is overshadowed by the lingering specter of failure. That's not to say your first Commander deck will be bad, but there are plenty of ways to mess up. That's why I'm glad Wizards produced some solid preconstructed Commander decks. For some of us, though, these decks are just a starting point. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=143305Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:38:02 GMTSo this week we had some groundbreaking news and I’m afraid we’ll be continuing the deviation into Standard territory. Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic have been...well...you know what happened. What we’re in for now is a metagame shift. First of all is going to come a seemingly endless tide of B/R Vampire victories followed up by a big kick in the crotch by the next big game in town. That’s where I come in. That’s where the pros do their thing. More importantly it’s where you come in. Together we all get to begin the great work again.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=143028Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:44:45 GMTIn my first article I wrote about how to play in the tournament, how to think outside the box, and how not to fall for simple tricks that the opponents are hoping will give them an advantage. We also talked about how to take a loss and climb up the ladder, and how to keep your cool when the winning hands are on your side of the table. So in this article, we’ll talk about maximizing resources to achieve a win when the situation seems helpless and bleak. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142802Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:09:01 GMTIn preparation for this Saturday’s sealed deck Grand Prix in Kansas City, I put seven sealed deck card pools in front of seven of my friends. I picked guys that are good at limited. There are several goals for this exercise. I wanted to see a group of players building different sealed deck pools to see their individual approaches to the format. For my eighth pool, I used a sealed deck that won a Grand Prix Trial for Kansas City, built and played by Kevin Wilkins. Some of the sealed pools are exceptional, some are fairly stinky. Part one featured the details of the four quarterfinal matches as well as the complete card pool lists of the fifth through eighth place decks. In today’s installment I cover the semi final matches, the final match and the breakdown of the top four card pools.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142795Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:39:37 GMTI have to confess that I've found a simple and painfully obvious flaw in my deck choice at a six round Legacy side event this past weekend. Sure, along the way I made some play errors that cost me, but live tournaments are the best practice. Getting to that point, it really helps the most to register the right seventy-five instead of a worse version of the deck. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142415Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:03:53 GMTIn preparation for this Saturday’s sealed deck Grand Prix in Kansas City, I put seven sealed deck card pools in front of seven of my friends. I picked guys that are good at limited. There are several goals for this exercise. I wanted to see a group of players building different sealed deck pools to see their individual approaches to the format. For my eighth pool, I used a sealed deck that won a Grand Prix Trial for Kansas City, built and played by Kevin Wilkins. Some of the sealed pools are exceptional, some are fairly stinky. Then, of course, I wanted to pit the decks against each other.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142360Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:26:08 GMTWe’ll be taking a short break from the casual environment today to talk at length about some deck options I encountered at New Phyrexia Game Day as well as the odds and ends I tried out myself. Caw Blade was of course represented but in the small, contained environment of the frigid North here in Canada, it struggled against the ingenuity of several other players who rode their rogue decks to the top on a gas tank full of nothing but moxie. So that you know the context I’m writing from, I played blue/black control. What I’d like to do here is provide a small compendium of what a mostly-casual but occasionally competitive player like me may want to consider for a once-in-a-while competitive event. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142264Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:05:07 GMTGenerals determine how you build your Commander deck. They determine colors and hopefully some kind of strategy as well. Commander is a tricky format to play on a budget, so starting with a cheap general never hurts. This week, I'll count down the best budget generals and some, ahem, general strategies that you can build around. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142262Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:42:17 GMTA mere forty-nine players convened in the Sedgwick County Extension center to play Standard for a chance to represent Wichita, Kansas at Pro Tour Philadelphia. For the pasty contingent assembled in the 4-H hall today, the story was all about how to beat the big deck in the field, blue/white Caw Blade.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=142087Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:25:13 GMTFor those of you who’ve been playing Magic for some time, you may remember when the only real control decks were either blue/white or mono black. Every so often, the color pie switches and colors like red and green pick up on subtle cards that can offer a control concept, potentially strong enough to be competitive. A recent example would be Urabrask the Hidden.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141955Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:31:29 GMTWelcome to the 707th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141715Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:11:59 GMT“When in doubt, play red” is generally my pre-tournament plan. If I don't know what to play, a burn deck is usually a solid backup choice. That's not to say playing a burn deck well is easy, but you can count on having a chance in nearly every matchup. As they say, speed kills.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141710Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:49:58 GMTWhat do GP Providence and a Legacy PTQ side event have in common? Both were almost taken down by rogue decks. While I'm sure you've followed the coverage of the GP and know what happened, the side event was a less renowned tournament here in town. What happened at both gigs was a reaffirmation that clever people can play to their opponents' weaknesses to good effect.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141611Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:39:34 GMTOkay, I know I said last week I was thinking of discussing Karn Liberated today. I’m sorry to admit that just isn’t happening because I’ve found a project that looks like way more fun to talk to you about - Birthing Pod. Yeah I know the card’s name sounds gross. Bear with me for the next thousand words and we’ll see if we can choke that back long enough to make a deck. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141499Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:38:58 GMTA smaller than expected crowd of eighty-four players showed up at the Fort Worth Convention Center on May 28th to qualify for Pro Tour Philadelphia. The cold man-made air inside was much appreciated as temperatures outside reached the mid-nineties. Of course, many of us were inside the building the entire day and never experienced the day-time weather. Interest was high in seeing exactly what effect New Phyrexia would have on the most competitive Standard decks. As suspected, there were a lot of new cards in the old decks. Have you heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard. The bird is the word.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141148Sun, 05 Jun 2011 21:38:17 GMTWelcome to the 706th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=141140Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:03:20 GMTI didn’t want to write anything until I was sure I had something motivating and powerful to present to you. I give you one of the most obvious talking points of the Standard FNM round-table, Beast Within. So simple, so defining to the “New Phyrexia” set, among one of the most powerful uncommons ever printed. After playing around with this card in a number of builds, some including Birthing Pod and some including Journey to Nowhere, I found a nice place for this card as a solid strategic advantage to previous builds that just couldn’t stand up to the top decks. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140958Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:36:35 GMTSo, this “new” Phyrexia has spread into every color. Lovely. Call me a purist, but to me, Phyrexia will always be about artifacts, black mana, and victory at any cost. This week's deck is a throwback to the Phyrexia of old, as it embraces these attributes wholeheartedly. To top it off, this deck uses Standard's current card pool instead of Phyrexian classics. Oh, and it's one of this column's most budget friendly decks to date. Interested? Read on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140956Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:12:27 GMTAnother block has come and gone, folks. It seems like just yesterday we were collectively getting wicked stoked for the passing of Shards of Alara block and the death of Jund. Now we’re going to be getting ready to say farewell to Zendikar in four short months. During the lifetime of the newest block, Scars of Mirrodin, we’ve been graced with the presence of five additional planeswalkers. This article intends to be a humorous guide to the person who asks “If I’m making a deck, should I be shelling out for [insert planeswalker here]?”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140742Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:14:54 GMTWelcome to the 705th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140318Sun, 29 May 2011 13:23:59 GMTThis may be a quick turnaround from the Mirrodin Besieged Top 30, but what can I say, I've had the pleasure of playing with New Phyrexia quite a bit lately. Here's the deal: I'm going to run down the five best cards in each color (plus artifacts) under $1 on MTGFanatic, reprints included. Once again, the cards must be good for Constructed play, not just Limited. New Phyrexia has graced us with a ton of good uncommons and commons, which is refreshing. The last few sets have been pretty top-heavy in their value (mythic rares being the only money cards makes buying a box a tougher decision), so it's nice to see a set with some valuable, and more importantly playable, commons and uncommons. Without further ado, let's jump in.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140316Sun, 29 May 2011 13:09:45 GMTThe spotlight has been on BUG Tempo for a long time now, and after all the testing it feels like some conclusions can be made. When working with this archetype, one has to have a broad knowledge of the format to best utilize resources at hand. Your worst matchup is a competent opponent.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140313Sun, 29 May 2011 12:53:07 GMTSo just as usual whenever a new set comes out I get to spend my Sunday/Monday throwing some budget decks your way. I love the challenge of building on that sparse $30 and giving you a product that’s realistically usable. New Phyrexia brings plenty to the table for the Phyrexians. However, the Mirrans, having recently lost out pretty hard and bringing tears to the eyes of their faction (string section swells), have virtually nothing to work with. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=140146Fri, 27 May 2011 22:39:26 GMTI miss triple drafts. I’m the weird guy that likes drafting with three packs of a small expansion. I figure out a way to do it every time a new set comes out. There are several goals, and they’re the same whether I’m drafting with real, live pieces of cardboard or on Magic Online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=139490Sun, 22 May 2011 23:38:47 GMTWelcome to the 704th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=139383Sun, 22 May 2011 01:19:00 GMTKeeping up with Tempo is a full time job. We've been at it for a little while now, covering a lot of bases. This past weekend I got to put that practice in play at a side event for a Nationals Qualifier tournament. While the Qualifier was Standard, the Legacy side event actually drew more entrants than the “main” event did. Around forty people showed up to game, and New Phyrexia was already Legacy legal for a few hours. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=139362Sat, 21 May 2011 23:08:33 GMTWe left off with BUG Brew squaring up against an Aether Tribe, Goblins. Now we're taking the time to go through Aether Vial matchups because that single card blanks counter magic like no other. Goblins is an explosive beatdown deck, but it has a hard time protecting its Vials. In order for Goblins to operate more in the “not fair” spectrum, it needs to land an Aether Vial, Goblin Lackey, or Warren Instigator in order to be able to pump out the little green men. Its strategy is to swarm the opponent with overwhelming force in the early game, but this strategy isn't without its own flaws. Up next is a different kind of threat compared to a gaggle of goblins, another Aether Vial deck that can actually protect its Vial. Merfolk has been a top deck for a while, and isn't going anywhere.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=139266Sat, 21 May 2011 01:44:34 GMTNew Phyrexia is now officially upon us, and the word on the street in the budget part of town is that golems are all the rage. This week, I'll explore why the Splicers have some serious potential, but also some potentially serious pitfalls.... and what to do about them.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=139265Sat, 21 May 2011 00:51:16 GMTWelcome everybody to the least serious of my various sub-columns, Combo Corner! It’s during this article where I’ll cater to the Johnnies among us (and occasionally Spike and Timmy) with all of the card combos I can think of within the latest set. The purpose? Get those deckbuilding juices flowing. Get ready to get hungry (for a new deck). http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=139090Thu, 19 May 2011 18:20:58 GMTJeremy Scott looks at two archetypes for the new Standard, Mono-Black Control and Splinter Twin Combo.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=138941Wed, 18 May 2011 22:09:08 GMTLast week, Dallas Meidinger threw down a Vintage Budget challenge for Fanatic’s other King of Casual, Sir Thomas Wrigley. Meidinger created a Wizard-themed deck for just under fifty bucks. Mister Wrigley responded, in his own article last week, with a Demon deck with sixty-one cards for just barely over the fifty dollar mark.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=138574Mon, 16 May 2011 16:11:10 GMTNew Phyrexia is upon us, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than by building with new cards. This week, we dive into the awesomeness that is Myr Superion, as well as the scariness that is Etched Monstrosity. Oh, in the same deck, too. Yeah, I'm that crazy.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=138349Sun, 15 May 2011 01:45:53 GMTOver the past several weeks we've been running the Gauntlet on BUG Tempo, and today it goes up against Tribal Beatdown. Merfolk and Goblins are ever popular and staple decks of the format. It's good to know how to fight Aether Vial decks in general, and these employ some of the same strategies. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=138344Sun, 15 May 2011 00:22:56 GMTWelcome to the 703rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137961Thu, 12 May 2011 01:40:45 GMTWelcome back, fanatics, to the Duel Deck collaboration brought to you by me, Dallas Meidinger, and copious amounts of heavy metal music: Demons vs. Wizards!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137946Wed, 11 May 2011 22:46:18 GMTThis week we're in for some discussion of one of the most hyped cards from New Phyrexia, Mental Misstep. On just about any article site, one can find some collection of words ranging from a doomsday rant to an imperialistic data gathering approach. Is any one camp wrong or right? That's for you to decide, so let's get down to it!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137267Sat, 07 May 2011 00:12:26 GMTNow I love a rare or a mythic rare as much as the next guy, but when it comes to the sealed decks we will be playing at the prerelease events and the booster drafts that will soon follow, commons are where the rubber really meets the road. Commons define limited formats because they are the cards that we encounter the most. When a set first arrives, knowing what commons to take advantage of is just about the most important piece of intelligence you can have.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137255Fri, 06 May 2011 21:43:37 GMTWelcome to the first long-awaited (hopefully) collaboration between myself and fellow MtgFanatic author The Artificer. We're taking the duel decks concept to new heights with some custom designs of our own. This week, we take inspiration from one of our favorite heavy metal bands and bring you... Demons vs. Wizards!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137252Fri, 06 May 2011 20:59:54 GMTLet’s cover some key cards to look forward to in New Phyrexia. “The Artificer” has reviewed certain cards for their use in constructed play, but I want to focus on what to build with at the prerelease tournaments. At the MBS prerelease I pointed out strong cards, and what side is best to take. I went undefeated twice, so I hope I can do it again for those of you who want to take home those epic prizes at the prerelease. Most of my MBS collection came from those prizes and from what I ripped at the prereleases for my sealed decks, so read carefully.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137159Fri, 06 May 2011 00:36:46 GMTWelcome to the 702nd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137017Wed, 04 May 2011 20:38:04 GMTSo I hope everybody enjoyed reading part one as much as I enjoyed writing it (which shouldn’t be too difficult, commons and uncommons are fairly by-the-numbers). Today, the content becomes much more subjective because we’re proceeding to the hot topic of the month: New Phyrexia’s rares and mythic rares. Let’s rock ‘n roll.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=137015Wed, 04 May 2011 20:25:16 GMTLast week I was checking out tournament results and looking at deck lists when I suddenly realized that I had failed to build an extremely relevant deck. I have Caw-Blade, obviously, and I have Valakut and Boros and blue/black control. I have Tezzeret built but have yet to take it seriously. I have mono white control built because my highly skilled teammate Hunter Burton really opened my eyes about that deck right before Grand Prix Dallas. But I was missing a very important deck, a very obvious choice considering the decks that have done well in the past few weeks. If you are the dude on your squad that takes on the challenge of building and maintaining the test decks, maybe this has happened to you. I was missing the one deck that can really pull a room together. I was missing the RUG deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136847Tue, 03 May 2011 15:23:49 GMTWhile everyone is making plans for a weekend of magic heading to GPTs and PTQs, I'm taking it easy planning on a nice weekend playing all the pinball I want at the Texas Pinball Festival in Grapevine. And since I have no deck to build or test, on to the draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136845Tue, 03 May 2011 15:22:32 GMTThe previous episode introduced the newcomer to the ring, Cephalid Breakfast, or CB for short. This deck uses the targeting abilities of Nomads en-Kor and Shaman en-Kor to target Cephalid Illusionist. This combo is used to start milling its library until a reanimation package with Dread Return brings back Karmic Guide and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to create a loop in order to make infinite Sky Hussar copies with haste. Turn them sideways and ask for combat damage.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136543Sun, 01 May 2011 14:01:59 GMTWelcome to the 701st weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136382Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:13:51 GMTThought I forgot about the Top 30, did you? Well, I didn’t, I just hadn’t played with Mirrodin Besieged as much as I would have liked. Now that I've got a better command of the set, here's your Top 30 budget cards. I've done this before, so you likely know the drill: the five best cards in each color (plus artifacts) under $1 on MTGfanatic, reprints included. Once again, the cards must also be good for Constructed play, not just in Limited. Ready?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136380Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:52:42 GMTWe're back with the next round of Match by Match, the micro view of our Legacy metagame. Returning to the table is BUG Tempo, a strategy revolving about “free” permission spells to keep the opponent guessing in the early stage of a game. In the opposite corner, Cephalid Breakfast is an increasingly popular combo deck that catch many opponents off guard. Tempo is statistically good against combo, so will this new flavor be enough to take it down?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136375Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:17:19 GMT Well, folks, it’s happened. The war is over and the Phyrexians have dealt a blow into the hearts of Mirrans worldwide. As for the cards themselves, there have been some interesting developments. Due to some very unfortunate circumstances involving the apparent leak of the New Phyrexia R&D manual, the entirety of the new set has been spoiled two weeks ahead of time. In interest of keeping with the times and not subjecting you to two weeks of anticipatory filler, here’s part one of New Phyrexia’s First Glance articles. Today we’ll be examining the finest commons and uncommons of the set when it comes to performing in a casual multiplayer environment.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=136199Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:03:49 GMTI often hear players complaining about how unfair a decision made by a judge against them was. When they tell their stories, there’s always something I would have done differently. It takes some time and experience to know exactly what to do (and not to do) when a judge is at your table. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135941Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:12:34 GMTIt was a rainy day in Concord, North Carolna. 176 players arrived to contest for the top eight prize of an invitation to Nationals. Star City Games hosted the event, with a side event after round three offering their own Invitational Qualifier.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135938Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:50:00 GMTThe following trivia questions were created by yours truly for the Guildmage 700 party last week. There are seven categories consisting of ten questions each. The answers are arranged at the bottom of this article so that you can challenge yourself and your friends. Understand that the seventh category, Guildmage Confidential, is rawthur self-referential. It was a good category, however, for a party full of Guildmages. I included here just for the sake of completeness. One of the answers in this category, however, has been deleted. I couldn’t decide if it was needlessly gross. I left the question in, I’m sure people will be able to figure it out. Now, somebody drag Alex Trebek in here and let’s get this thing underway!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135816Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:27:03 GMTWelcome to the 700th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues. Every time we reach another 100th meeting milestone, which happens roughly every two years, we make a big Magic party out of it, and this time was no exception.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135722Sun, 24 Apr 2011 00:48:46 GMTI've been avoiding Standard mill decks for quite a while. While the card quality for a mill deck is quite good, there are a few annoying cards available that make milling a very difficult thing to accomplish. But, despite these boogey men still haunting the halls of Standard, I've finally decided to man up and give a mill deck a shot. So, for those not afraid of intergalactic monsters, strange potions, and vengeful foliage, read on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135604Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:01:21 GMTOver the past couple of weeks we've delved into the mindset of Legacy, not merely the card pool. We've covered the basics of getting into the format, now let's get back into the grind. This episode will be the first in a few Match by Match pieces going into an archetype that is often overlooked; Tempo. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135602Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:48:41 GMTIn that limited pool of cards called Standard you need to find the perfect combination of fifteen cards, your arsenal of silver bullets against the top decks you don’t want to face. When it comes to sideboarding, you must first decide “what’s my worst matchup,” and from there begin your card search for the cards that best assist that match up.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135487Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:59:59 GMTLast week’s article dealt exclusively in the theory of magic, particularly discussing protocol for error management. This week I’m carrying on the discussion regarding the theory of Magic. I’ll be going over how I break down the concept of tempo. What is tempo, you say? Allow me to elaborate. The Tempo is an 80’s economy car developed by the Ford Motor Company. Its defining characteristics are its sneaky profile and the frequency with which it is found abandoned on the roadside. In Magic, your tempo can be simply described as the rate at which your deck progresses in the game environment. Its defining characteristics are card advantage generation, mana curve, and mana acceleration. Whilst defining your deck’s tempo, you should be taking into account these three factors and how they relate to the type of deck you want to build.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135372Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:53:02 GMTWe all start from zero. Keeping things in perspective ultimately helps one to better realize their goals, no matter how small or large. Playing in a competitive scene is a wonderful experience, and for the diligent a sustainable hobby. Making new friends and traveling to battle is part of it all, and networking in this format can be one of the best things to happen outside of the game. It all leads to greater opportunities, so don't miss out on yours.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135245Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:22:24 GMTWelcome to the 699th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=135108Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:28:29 GMTFor some, Valakut is an evil force you refuse to align yourself with. Some may think it’s mundane and simple-minded. The same could be said for RDW, however even there it’s not the case. I’m going to show you different builds of Valakut, each one has placed very well in top tournaments, but all of them have flaws. You may have a favorite, and hopefully I’ll cover it for you. Then I’ll show you my favorite deck list for Valakut.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=134897Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:15:17 GMTMono green decks generally come in three varieties: Elves, ramp, and stompy. While elves and ramp are well-represented in Standard right now, there aren’t too many decks taking the good ol’ beatdown route. Let’s change that.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=134792Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:08:29 GMTMy phone felt funny. Right, that's just it blowing up in my cargo pocket. It's died down at work so I step out to see what's been going on. Four text messages, all from a testing partner. Four messages and a missed call? This has to be some kind of Magic related emergency, because I doubt I'm the first person he'd call if his house were on fire. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=134789Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:58:09 GMTThere’s something I just realized I have yet to talk about for any extended period of time. I’ve spent most of my word count to date on discussion of how to make the good play and fight the good fight. What I haven’t done is discussed what to do when you crank the ‘fail’ dial up to eleven. Everybody makes mistakes. For some of us it happens more often than we care to admit. For others, it happens hardly at all. The point is that if you play Magic, at some point, you will have a brain fart, memory burp, or other combination of gastric and cognitive malfunction. So what in the world do you do when this happens in public? Oh dear...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=134564Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:59:51 GMTIf there's one Magic format that I can't get enough of, it's Commander (formerly Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH). No matter what kind of Magic I'm playing with friends, be it Cube draft, testing for a tournament, or even just Standard, I eventually find myself asking, “bring any Commander decks?”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133818Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:54:40 GMTIt was Christmas 1996. Portal was introduced as the basic set for players to start with. “Sword and Shield” illustrations on the cards, preset decks that corresponded with the beginners’ handbook. I still remember the first time I looked at the colors, artwork, and story behind it all. I was hooked from the beginning. I was only eleven, so my scope of interest was limited to Game Boy and candy. But there I was at the coffee table, tearing apart the pre-made decks and making my own. An eighty card deck that I thought was amazing. It was green/blue with Craw Wurms, Boomerangs, and Counterspells. I had no idea how far all of this would go.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133685Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:12:12 GMTWhen the user Manadrain on MTGthesource.com introduced the community to a deck he and some other users built, Ugwr Intuition CounterTop, I immediately fell in love with it. Just like the name suggests, the deck features Intuition, Counterbalance and everyones' favorite scrying gyroscope: Sensei's Divining Top. Testing revealed that Intuition was a large improvement compared to regular Ugwr CounterTop builds. However, it still had problems with fast Aggro and Vial Aggro, a deck type that is quite prevalent in today’s metagame and is an archetype you should be able to beat.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133644Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:14:10 GMTToday I’d like to talk to all of the Magic cards in the world about the virtue of working together. There’re so many of you and you could do great things with one another. All I need is to figure out how to get you all to co-operate. Magic is currently experiencing (some of you might say enduring) an age of change. No, it’s not that age of change, Magic is already eighteen years old. Magic is currently undergoing a lot of revolutions in card roles. Years ago a broken card mostly consisted of something that performed a single task extremely admirably such as the generation of massive card advantage via Necropotence or the prodigious amounts of mana called forth by Tolarian Academy. Today, the best of the best young cards are those that serve multiple roles, performing each of them to average or greater than average effectiveness.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133557Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:19:39 GMTEverybody who knows me knows I love to kill people with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. It’s one of my two favorite things to do in the game of Magic. The other is tapping UU to counter target spell. It’s been far too long since I’ve done the latter, and for about two years, a nearly daily occurrence that I’ve done the former. I’ve been working since Mirrodin Besieged became available on Magic Online to create an optimal list for Valakut, and just as I was narrowing in on it, something awful happened. People discovered how good Sword of Feast and Famine was. Suddenly every other match on Magic Online was against the U/W Caw-Blade deck, and traditional Valakut just wasn’t cutting it.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133128Sat, 02 Apr 2011 14:11:46 GMTThis article is part of my continuing celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the Pro Tour. We will examine the kinds of constructed decks that were played in the first eight constructed Pro Tour events with a particular focus on the first eight constructed Pro Tour champions.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133124Sat, 02 Apr 2011 13:59:16 GMTDecks with win conditions outside of the combat zone are the usual suspects running the top tables. To dedicate oneself into a specific strategy is to limit oneself in a good or bad way. We want to take the next option: Being limited only through our options.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=133066Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:38:01 GMTEric Jones is a Pro Tour veteran and a level two DCI judge. I gave him the nickname “Perfect Gamer” both to honor his great skill and as a slight jab for his occasionally smarmy attitude. Eric is very talented at booster draft and other limited formats. He has a keen understanding of what makes a good draft deck. He shares his draft experiences exclusively here on MTGFanatichttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=132958Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:48:44 GMT“Captain, we’re detecting an incoming transmission. They have included notifications in their hailing message that The Artificer has acquired results from several of the Magic: the Gathering decks we have ordered him to test.”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=132830Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:34:17 GMTThree of the top eight decks from the SCG Indianapolis Legacy event were decks that can be labeled as Vial Aggro. Vial Aggro is the term used to describe a whole lot of decks. Some of these decks are veterans of the format, some are relatively new, but they have some glaring similarities – in this article I'll give you a short overview over the decks we call Vial Aggro – and how to beat them.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=132797Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:53:29 GMTAlong with native Kansans, players traveled in from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. Sometimes Wichita draws from as far away as Nebraska and Iowa. There are usually a few players from Texas, sometimes because they sneak into my car before I leave Dallas. Not this weekend, there was a Star City Games Open in Fort Worth.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=132094Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:54:07 GMTIt is the first round. You and your team have practiced. Many hours of match after match, round after round play testing have lead to your appearance at this tournament. Everyone is focused, and before the start you're going over last-minute changes in your head. It all culminates into the first decision of a long day of quick and often costly decisions. Deagle-Rush them or save for Body Armor and Ammo for the next round?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=132089Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:16:53 GMTI've always been a big fan of equipment. Anything that puts a permanent pump effect on the board is fine with me. Although equipment has been toned down a bit since the days of the original Mirrodin block (Bonesplitter at common and Loxodon Warhammer at uncommon being prime examples), Scars block has still brought some solid toys for us to play with. Alongside equipment, there are a handful of creatures that get better from using it. One of those creatures is Training Drone.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=132053Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:30:02 GMTWelcome to the 698th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=131923Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:34:31 GMTI’m going to try to kill two stones with one bird in this article. The first stone to be bludgeoned to death by this bad joke is the stigma attached to blue/black decks as only being good at counterspell control and milling. The second lowly mineral to be slain is my problem with Black Sun’s Zenith. Damn, this card is mighty fine, but I just spent a couple hours puzzling over a deck to squeeze it into that doesn’t involve Necroskitter and came up dry. Thus, I’m going to try to write (and edit) myself to a conclusion and give you a working product at the same time. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=131780Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:01:22 GMTThis article is part of my continuing celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the Pro Tour. We will examine the kinds of constructed decks that were played in the first eight constructed Pro Tour events with a particular focus on the first eight constructed Pro Tour champions.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=131167Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:53:29 GMT"It's not a matter of deserving. It's a matter of strength. The power to hold versus the power to take." That's the flavor text of Sygg, River Cutthroat, one of my all-time favorite cards. He has a permanent place in one of my favorite decks, a tribal rogue deck. This is a very quick deck that mixes things up with some vicious disruption as well, making it a fun, powerful, and reasonably priced choice. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=131132Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:39:02 GMTVenser, the Sojourner created a lot of imaginative ripples during the time period between being spoiled and falling out of favor with the current metagame. During that whole time, I mostly focused on building to take advantage of his primary ability. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=130897Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:36:39 GMTWelcome to the 696th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=130653Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:03:45 GMTThe Extended PTQ season for Pro Tour Nagoya continues for another month. In the quest for a winning deck, some wizards are choosing designs that allow them to go ALL IN for speed. This strategy can be achieved with quite a variety of decks that look absolutely nothing like each other. These decks, however, do have something very important in common with each other. They all have the same plan, win on turn four or five. By pursuing such an aggressive angle on their matches, these decks have the ability to ignore a lot of the things their opponents are doing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=130651Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:53:47 GMTWarning: Today's deck is not fun. You might enjoy playing it, but nobody else will want to play against you more than once. Playing it in multiplayer games is also a death sentence, as you'll have people ganging up on you in a hurry. You guessed it. Today, we're building a land destruction deck. Oh, and we're doing it in Standard. Want a rogue deck to take to your next Friday Night Magic? Put this one on your list, because this deck makes bad things happen.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=130248Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:47:25 GMTIt's back. That void after the banned/restricted announcements has been slowly filled. Combo is taking over a ripe meta game. Again.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=130246Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:30:29 GMTThere’s a color of dragon that usually falls by the wayside. This is most likely because there are only three of them that are playable, one of which is marginally so. The color of dragon being explored today is white.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=129932Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:31:55 GMTAn unusual thing happened in New York City on February 16, 1996. A successful, but still very young, game company called Wizards of the Coast assembled over two hundred players to play Magic: the Gathering. For serious money. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=129639Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:26:45 GMTWelcome to the 694th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=129635Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:09:43 GMTIsn't it sad when it is rare that a single card might shape or heavily impact a format? Backed by hope for a balanced card pool, people often find themselves disappointed with what is really at hand. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=129292Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:51:40 GMTBesides the long gap between the October and February sets, the year is jam-packed with new Magic releases. Sometimes these sets come and go so quickly that we don't always get time to fully explore them. For me, I find that this was the case with Rise of the Eldrazi. It was a large, stand-alone set with a short time in the spotlight. It also contains one of my favorite cards: Aura Gnarlid. I wrote a bit about Aura Gnarlid a while ago, but I'm starting to notice that the card is a bit more versatile than I once thought. I like the deck, but I want to revisit it. Why? Well, for one, I'm loving the variance in Extended right now, and I see a chance to do something a bit unorthodox. Secondly, there's a card in Mirrodin Beseiged that presents some interesting possibilities with this deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=129283Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:35:08 GMTSo recently I’ve been dipping my toes into some Elder Dragon Highlander (Commander) adventures. My first deck was a strange build using Crosis, the Purger as my general. It focused less on inflicting damage and more on disrupting the board and [i]generally[/i] doing everything it could to not be the nice guy. The deck worked well because it took advantage of cards like Mindmoil, Treasure Hunt, Preordain, Insidious Dreams and Compulsion to access a massive portion of its available spells. I’ve found that this is the key to a successful EDH deck - being able to access as many of its cards as possible in a short amount of time. Crosis’ deck did a good job when it came to that principle. However, I think I might have found one better. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=129035Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:51:15 GMTThanks for sticking with me through the first two parts of my review of every single card in Mirrodin Besieged. In this third and final installment, I examine the red cards, the artifacts, and the rest of the set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=128608Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:17:00 GMTDespite being a potentially cheap tribe in both price and mana cost, Elf decks haven't appeared in this column too often (just once, and it certainly wasn't a traditional Elf build). Is the market saturated with Elf builds? I used to think so, but the current state of elves in Standard interests me. There are definitely options available to fans of the little green men, but what about if budget is a concern? Many Elf decks feature planeswalkers like Nissa Revane and Garruk Wildspeaker, which aren't always viable for budget-minded players. Maybe, if we want to hit a decent budget, we'll need to go back to basics and do what elves do best: make lots of mana. For finishers, I've got a long-forgotten card that is a cheaper than more popular options, but potentially just as deadly.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=128379Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:57:24 GMTWalking against the wind, heading down the street towards the tournament site. It was a restaurant, sparse on décor with a kitchen that fried and sliced the things on its menu. It'd be the perfect place for around ninety gamers to come do their thing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=128364Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:35:08 GMTWelcome back to the Mirrodin Besieged quadrilogy for the fourth and final week (probably). Today the discussion turns to the topic I try to put the most effort into because it’s the topic that you, the reader, are probably going to use yourself at the kitchen table. Every once in a while you find that you need a deck and you need it really fast or you have an entry level player who isn’t sure enough of themselves to shell out for the heavy hitters. That’s where budget decks come in. Since Mirrodin Besieged is all about picking sides, here are two decks to pit against each other.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=128073Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:55:31 GMTThis continues my three part comprehensive review of Mirrodin Besieged. I will review the green and black cards in this installment. There are quite a few very interesting cards for constructed among these colors as well as for limited.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127329Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:20:49 GMTI just got home from a Denver GPT. There were only eight players and I won. I took my level two judge test in Denver, and have family and friends in the area, so I’m interested in going up there for the GP. I normally work as a judge at GPs, so this will be only my second one to play in. I judged at the last GP Denver in 2008. My only other GP to play in was in Atlanta a few months ago. I had three byes off my rating and I managed to finish in the top sixty-four.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127328Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:00:03 GMTWelcome to the 693rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127326Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:39:17 GMTLast week's episode covered a match between a Zombie and Kitty army, and for once the Kitties won. Continuing with the micro approach to testing, Dredge sits down across from an Eternal Tribal Elder, Merfolk.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127285Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:52:01 GMTThis column hasn't dived into control in a while. I think we need to give it a shot this week. Personally, I'm more of an aggro player. I like ending games quickly, and control decks usually do the exact opposite. That's not to say I don't enjoy playing a control deck now and then, though. So, why the coverage slant towards aggro, midrange and combo? I think there's a bit of a stigma surrounding control decks, which is that the only good ones are the top tournament decks. I don't think this is true, but I'm sure the thought creeps into my subconscious at times. The truth is, there are plenty of changes we can make to top level decks to drop price while still having a strong, consistent sixty.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127284Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:50:23 GMTWelcome to the 692nd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127092Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:41:37 GMTEric Jones is a Pro Tour veteran and a level two DCI judge. I gave him the nickname “Perfect Gamer” both to honor his great skill and as a slight jab for his occasionally smarmy attitude. Eric is very talented at booster draft and other limited formats. He has a keen understanding of what makes a good draft deck. He shares his draft experiences exclusively here on MTG Fanatichttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127090Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:25:31 GMTEvery time a new set comes out I write a quadruplet of articles over the span of four weeks that allows me to dig as far as I possibly can into the set as quickly as possible. The first two of the set is the First Glance series. The third article is Combo Corner, which is by no means to be taken seriously but indeed still has a purpose. Combo Corner is a brainstorming tool to get your creative juices and put forth some ideas for some very neat Johnny decks. Most of the combos will involve no more than two or three cards, one or more of which will be from the new expansion. Let’s get started. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=127077Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:50:44 GMTWe're going to be switching gears this week and trying something new. Match-by-Match is the idea of a micro approach to testing rather than a macro one. The learning process comes from specific angles instead of an overview. What we're going to do is look at a specific deck in a specific match up, taking one round at a time, and covering every turn of the match. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=126414Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:46:56 GMTEvery Card Counts: The only Magic column that starts with Hair Metal references. Anyway, if you couldn't tell by the title, we're talking poison today. Mirrodin Besieged is pushing poison past its typical roots, and now the archetype has the potential to take several directions. In my first poison column, I discussed the value of Scars of Mirrodin's poison cards without actually giving a decklist. Poison decks were all the rage at the time, and decklists were more common than, well, commons. Since some of the hype has died down and poison appears to be more than a one-trick pony, I think it's time we gave an actual list some consideration. The twist? We're going mono green.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=126401Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:19:15 GMTHere’s part two of my First Glance miniseries, in which I’ll be taking a look at the highest ranking rares and mythic rares for casual Magic in the brand new expansion, Mirrodin Besieged.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=126134Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:56:01 GMTThis is the first of a series reviewing each and every card in the new set. Furthermore, I will rank the cards in each color. The prerelease events were only a week ago, so there hasn’t been much time to play with the cards, but here’s what I think based on my own experiences. If these reviews tend to skew towards limited play, the reason is that most of these cards will never be used in constructed but all of them will have to be considered for their potential in limited formats this year.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=125611Sun, 06 Feb 2011 12:28:32 GMTSuper Bowl Sunday is a day for celebrating America’s favorite violent sport. But as a football fan with an intellectual side, I proudly present Super Bowl Sealed Deck. This amusing little format may not help any of us develop new brain cells, but it’s a lot healthier than a concussion. I always believe that you can always learn something from any Magic format, no matter how arcane or silly. The main thing I’ve learned from this exercise is what a goofball I am when it comes to Magic and NFL football.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=125435Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:56:29 GMTWith last weekend's epic battle between Phyrexia and Mirrodin, why not scavenge through the battlefield for some valuables?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=125397Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:05:33 GMTMyr are great little guys to have around in Limited, and now that Mirrodin Besieged is out, I think I will love having some in constructed as well. Why do I like them so much? Well, first off, I can relate Myr to something in the real world: ants. They're hard-working, versatile little guys, and they can't do much damage on their own. But put them together (say, in a Battlesphere), and they can cause a world of hurt. Secondly, being an artifact tribe means there are tons of possible decks we can make featuring a Myr theme. Scars of Mirrodin brought us some awesome Myr, but Besieged has the potential to put Myr on the map. Let's explore one potential route for a Myr deck to take.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=125394Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:38:34 GMTGood gravy, it’s launch time again. The new set launch regime is definitely starting to become much more apparent to me now that we’ve been on the new cycle for just a touch over a year. I can’t believe Scars of Mirrodin was already three months and countless curse words ago. So how ‘bout we bring ‘er around for part two of three of John Dies to Infect? Fellow Mirrans, let’s just get through this.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=125252Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:02:49 GMTWelcome to the 691st weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=125244Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:04:43 GMTEric Jones presents us with a recent Magic Online draft of Scars of Mirrodinhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=124875Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:17:59 GMTOnce in a while, it's healthy to have a reality check to help one remain centered. The Mental Game of Magic is one so deep that it can never be played perfectly. Throw in a Human element, and the game that is played simply becomes a projection of the player.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=124656Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:54:02 GMTMagic’s newest expansion set is on its way to a store near you, and for lovers of sealed deck and booster draft, Mirrodin Besieged changes everything. The first expansion for Scars of Mirrodin, or the fourth expansion of 2003’s Mirrodin if you like, has limited players scrambling in three significantly different directions. I want to explore the changes in three different limited formats and also share some of my first impressions of the new cards.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=124536Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:40:20 GMTMirrodin Besieged arrives this weekend in prerelease events all across the land. The new set will continue the theme begun in Scars of Mirrodin: choosing sides. Before we move on to the new world of Mirrodin Besieged, here is a fun new way to play sealed deck for two players. Let’s call this new sealed game Faction Sealed. I know this is the week of looking at the coming set and speculating about the new cards, but try to keep an open mind. This is a fun sealed game that will play even better next week when we can mix Mirrodin Besieged with Scars.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=124376Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:02:35 GMTSo here I was one pleasant summer afternoon... I mean, so here I am one frigid Canadian winter night putting my binder back in order after building an EDH deck (more on that later) and I came across Genesis Wave. This is one of those really neat cards that jumped out at me initially but because its mana cost made it so ungainly it somewhat fell by the wayside, waiting for me to think of something to do with it. Let’s get started on motivating me.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=124267Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:02:41 GMTThis is the first of a series of articles celebrating 2011 as the fifteenth year of Magic’s professional tour. The Pro Tour has been a very big part of our favorite card game’s success. Today, I will be focusing on one of the legendary top eight decks from the very first Pro Tour event, New York 1996 and the modern-age deck it resembles.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=124070Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:47:18 GMTWhen one doesn't have to worry about Force of Will, things tend to fall into perspective. You might not believe the mental burden one has when dealing with “free” spells. Playing your opening hand with Daze in mind, or fetching a basic land in fear of a potential Wasteland is just another fork in the road. When playing in a Standard FNM, or drafting Scars of Mirrodin, it's less of a mental game when one isn't playing blue or playing to beat blue. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=123771Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:48:26 GMTPeople celebrate the arrival of the new year in different ways. Sometimes we celebrate the events of the past twelve months. Sometimes we celebrate the opportunity to do something better in the new year. Over the Christmas and New Years holidays, me and my eleven year old son decided to celebrate seventeen years of Magic with a marathon game of DC-10.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=123732Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:56:27 GMTAh, Goblins. Arguably Magic’s most successful tribe, despite their initially flimsy appearance. My comment comes on the heels of another first place finish for goblins in Legacy at Star City Games’ most recent event. However, goblins can win in Standard as well, thanks to a little card called Kuldotha Rebirth. Hell, this week’s deck is Friday Night Magic worthy… and will cost you less than thirty bucks. Interested? Read on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=123675Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:35:20 GMTThere are too many cards out there to ever use them all as central points of a deck. Some cards are simply destined to be one-of or two-of in a deck. It doesn’t make them less usable, the game has simply cordoned them into a special selection of awesomely named cards we like to call “silver bullets”, “tools”, or in some cases “what’s this jank you’re trying to sell me?” Determining whether you want your deck to have just a few of these for special occasions or to go all-out utility belt is up to you. I’ll discuss how to make both work.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=123431Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:15:23 GMTWelcome to the 688th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues. We actually had eight players in the room for awhile, but one guy couldn’t stay long enough for a whole draft, so we ended up going with seven players. We also managed to have a six man team draft after the regular draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=122742Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:39:22 GMTI see Necrotic Ooze decks popping up in every Magic format. I can see why, the card has nearly endless possibilities. Budget decks shouldn't be left in the cold when Necrotic Ooze still falls well within our price range, so let's build it. Narrowing down card choices becomes quite involved in a Necrotic Ooze deck, but it’s definitely a good exercise in improving your deckbuilding skills. Necrotic Ooze gives you many choices as to what you play and how you make it work. We may not have the funds for the typical support, but there's some atypical support out there that's pretty good as well.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=122736Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:21:08 GMTGiven the availability of a wide open field, there's technically no wrong deck choices. It's a perfect time to dust off a shelved deck that went nowhere in tournaments thanks to Deck X. Now that Mirrodin Besieged is right around the corner, and spoiler season is in swing, a couple constituents of mine have been rewiring a pet deck, Berserk Stompy.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=122733Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:04:17 GMTPart of my job, as the writer of this column, is to shed light on cards that are good at carrying their weight but are also for the most part unrecognized in the Magic community. Saviors of Kamigawa is pretty much a whole set of these orphaned cards. This set gave us Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Pithing Needle, and Twincast. Those are seriously the only cards from the set that have any endurance in memory whatsoever. What frequently gets forgotten is that this set is a gold mine of Johnny fodder. There are two cards I’d like to point your attention to, once again in my favorite color combination: Adamaro, First to Desire and Kiyomaro, First to Stand. Each of these cards slide handily into a mana curve with costs three and five and they leave a lot of options open for a deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=122552Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:11:00 GMTWelcome to the 687th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues. Tuesday night attendance is often sketchy during the holidays. People are traveling or partying or who knows what. We were very happy to have nine people for our booster draft tonight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=122029Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:03:30 GMTSometimes I make offhand comments in articles that go for a while without me noticing that, subconsciously, I said something inspiring. This happened to me this week, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. Truth is, I was having a hell of a time coming up with a topic this week. The October-to-February gap between sets is always the hardest as a writer. No new cards to play with translates into no new cards to write about as well. I thought I had mined Scars of Mirrodin for all it was worth, but then I noticed something when re-reading my own column from last week: Sunblast Angel. I hadn't written about Sunblast Angel yet! My little offhand comment about it being a budget alternative for my last deck had suddenly inspired a whole new creation. I did a quick price check to make sure it was still in budget territory, and bam, I had my inspiration for a new control deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=121819Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:32:02 GMTForty-six people showed up to battle the day after Survival of the Fittest was officially banned from Legacy. For a €500 ($1000) tournament, it could have been bigger but a fair-sized field would be easier to navigate. Here's a quick aside to Jelmer; thanks for getting my butt out of bed on a nice Sunday morning and driving us an hour and a half to the event… and the lashing on the ride back.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=121815Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:11:46 GMTIn this article, we’ll explore the two magic play styles: Aggro and Control. Before we have a look at classic decklists, I’d like to start an interesting case to study.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=121618Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:52:13 GMTSometimes you’re having one of those days when the world just isn’t spinning your direction. God help us all if you can literally change that. Sometimes it’s one of those days you just have to ride out the hours until bed. Sometimes all you have to look forward to in the next twenty-four hours is Magic... and goddamn it you are going to make that battlefield regret everything.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=121526Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:19:47 GMTLast Saturday in San Antonio was the last chance in my neck of the woods to qualify for Pro Tour Paris. At least live and in person. There is an online PTQ the day before Christmas. I might play in it or I might decide to have a personal life instead, I just don’t know. I did not manage to GET THERE in San Antonio, I fell a little short of the top eight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=121309Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:56:04 GMTIt’s a Christmas miracle! We managed to gather enough players to play a proper draft. In this week’s installment I cover the details from that draft as well as the results of our Guildmage of the Year voting.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=121212Mon, 03 Jan 2011 03:42:33 GMTPart of slinging spells is who is slinging them back. This actually began a while back, early in the spring. The hype of the Worldwake spoiler season turned into some real decks in Standard. I was playing a fair amount of poker at that time, and the practice of playing two card games with such strong strategic interaction between the players paid off. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=120873Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:17:05 GMTSo, I have this deck. I really like it. I've been playing different versions of it for a few months now, and it is running exactly how I want it to run. It's awesome, and the best part is, I can talk about it in this column... almost. Thing is, there's this one card. You may have heard of it. It's called Baneslayer Angel. I have four in this deck. However, when I cut Baneslayer, this deck falls right into budget territory. So, can we make it work without it? I think so. Why? Well, the deck has undergone several evolutions in the past, and one more won't kill it. This one definitely has some history behind it, so pull up a chair and get ready for the story of Big White. Popcorn is optional, but recommended.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=120872Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:00:16 GMTSometimes building a functioning deck on a tight budget can be a real challenge, and now that I look back and check things out, I haven’t done that for you guys since Zendikar. This week’s article will have some decks in it for you that are all about being light on the wallet and have a lower learning curve. Just good old-fashioned fun with Magic. I’ll try to keep a few of them block legal like I did with Zendikar for you folks who are just starting out in Magic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=120659Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:52:48 GMTWelcome to the 685th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=120056Fri, 24 Dec 2010 20:36:33 GMTThis episode is dedicated to the pointy eared tribe who get the job done en masse, whether it's for Santa Claus or a few Legacy Junkies. Elves, as a deck archetype, has been around for a while. It spans formats in some incarnation or another, but they all revolve around the inherent card advantage Elves provide for themselves. We're going to look at how the archetype stands against the new non-Survival of the Fittest format. Elf also happens to be eleven in Dutch (I live in Holland) and this is the eleventh episode of The Mana Junkies. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119983Fri, 24 Dec 2010 03:19:34 GMTAs I'm sure many of you have as well, I've spent some time browsing the deck lists from this year's World Championships. The Extended format has really caught my eye, as it is wide open for innovation. Some strategies will fade, some will thrive, but for the moment, there are plenty of fresh ideas competing at high levels. I sometimes get inspiration from competition-level decks for my column, despite tier one tournament decks not being anywhere near budget. The most important question I ask myself in these situations is, “Can this deck still be good if I make it cheaper, or will lower card quality wreck the strategy?” Often, the answer is simple; most competitive decks require cards that can't be replaced. However, sometimes I find strategies or combinations that work perfectly well in a budget setting. This week, we have one of those combinations.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119869Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:37:37 GMTThe metalcraft mechanic has been around for somewhere in the neighborhood of two months now and as far as deck building goes I haven’t put much thought into it until now. What I’ve found to be the best metalcraft cards coincidentally also fall within my favorite colors to build with - red and white. Let’s see what crazy synergy we can get going. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119868Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:27:29 GMTAnother Worlds has come and gone, and with the Extended PTQ season on the horizon, we now have the beginnings of an Extended metagame. Today I wanted to cover a new aggro deck that did extremely well at the tournament, despite having a low amount of players running the deck (finishing 6-0 and 5-1): Esper Steel. I will concede that any given deck going x-0 at Worlds doesn’t necessarily mean the deck is the best in the format. Extended is only played in the last six rounds of Worlds, many people can have a low amount of match wins and then proceed to go x-0 the Extended portion. However, after having played the deck on Magic Online several times, I can say that it is definitely the fastest aggro deck yet in the format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119760Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:21:37 GMTChiba hosted the World Championships and the last big Legacy event before the Banned/Restricted list is amended. Contrasting results from both tournaments only lead us to wonder what will happen on Monday. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119561Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:31:44 GMTMost people will tell you that you have to get “the goods” in order to finish in the top eight of a sealed deck tournament. I’m not going to disagree. What I want to think about is what exactly kind of “goods” do I realistically need to get? In order to figure that out, I’m looking at all the sealed decks that managed to take their players to the top eight in the three Pro Tour Qualifiers that I ran this past season.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119458Sun, 19 Dec 2010 10:50:03 GMTIt seems that Infect decks are all the rage nowadays, and strangely enough, I haven't covered one yet. Why? Well, I'll put it this way: There are hundreds of Infect lists floating around in every format from Standard to Legacy to casual to even EDH (erm, I mean Commander). If you want a deck list, you can find one anywhere, and everyone has an opinion on the best colors to play. That being said, I'm not using this column to rattle off deck lists, but rather to break down the initial batch of Infect cards and strategies so you can form your own opinion. By the end, you should be well-equipped to build the Infect deck of your dreams (or nightmares, muahahaha!)http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119417Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:27:41 GMTSorry for the long title on this one, but hopefully if you took the time to read it then maybe I can manage to hook you for the next thousand words or so. Besides, how could you not read this article when your friends might be plotting to kill you this very moment? There’re three ways they’re planning to do it, each more terrible and time consuming than the last.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=119354Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:27:53 GMTDecember will be the month where our beloved format sees a lot of change. We have the last significant Legacy tournament of the year, the portion of the Team Worlds event in Chiba, as well as the amendments to the Banned/Restricted lists. There is, it seems, a ton of hype around Survival of the Fittest and its place within the format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=118498Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:21:48 GMTWaaaaay back when Magic 2011 came out, doesn't July seem so long ago, I wrote about a series of planeswalker-themed decks. These decks featured M11's new cards that were aligned with each of the planeswalkers, and ways to use them. I covered Ajani, Garruk, Liliana, Chandra and... Yeah, I never got around to making a deck for Jace. But, I promised I would. Jace Beleren is one of, if not my favorite, planeswalker cards anyway. That being said, I think that now would be a good time to make good on that promise.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=118390Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:28:50 GMTIn a past life I may or may not have been a magpie. If so, it explains many things. If not, well, perhaps I just have an affinity for small shiny objects. So does today’s topic card, Trinket Mage. First printed in Fifth Dawn, Trinket Mage has been enjoying a very healthy reputation as a cheap and efficient combo enabler both in game and on your wallet. The scope of all the small things that Trinket Mage can tutor make building a toolbox around him very easy to do. The question is what will you do with your tools? I opt to cast Eldrazi, but we’ll get to that later. For now, what’s lying around on the garage floor?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=118117Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:41:50 GMTI’m waiting with baited breath for the Extended PTQ season to start so that I can play (and write about) more powerful decks than the dregs currently available in Standard, but until then, we still have to deal with the end of the Sealed PTQ season. I have been playing tons and tons of 8-4 drafts on Magic Online lately, as well as the occasional sealed PTQ online and in real life. I have come to realize two things about this limited format: draft is the nut high, and sealed is the nut low.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=118012Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:52:22 GMTWelcome to the 683rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=117975Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:49:22 GMTEric Jones takes us through a Magic Online draft of Scars of Mirrodin.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=117602Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:18:49 GMTWhen play testing to provide quantifiable data for this column, I usually go at it in a macro analytical way. Overall strategy is usually more helpful than specific tactical plays, therefore grinding away test games is better for one’s broadening horizons. However, that doesn’t mean that taking a micro approach would be a bad thing. Taking a match up under a microscope for one game or one match could provide some insight onto undiscovered lines of play, or it’d reinforce proper tactical assessment of a given game state.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=117599Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:48:30 GMTA few weeks ago, we looked at some Extended decks that expanded upon themes in Scars of Mirrodin. This week, we'll take things into Standard, with a heavy focus on this latest set. I think we are working with a strong deck this week. Hell, this deck can probably hold it's own at Friday Night Magic. At the core of this artifact-heavy build is a non-artifact card; Tempered Steel. However, Tempered Steel is one of the best Glorious Anthem-style enchantments around, especially if we have a deck that can take full advantage of it. This deck is a mash-up of Affinity and White Weenie styles, and can have some pretty explosive starts.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=117423Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:55:54 GMTThis week, Top Thirty is back for the third time, which officially makes it a feature of this illustrious column. By now, I'm sure you know the preamble; every set has great budget cards, not all awesome cards are mythic... Yeah we've done this before. But hey, new cards equal new material. Plus, Scars of Mirrodin makes picking just thirty a bit tougher, thanks to the presence of so many good artifacts. They almost act as a sixth color, albeit one that can be played anywhere. But, of course, you already knew that. Hell, let's just dive into the list.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=117421Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:44:44 GMTSo a little while ago I discussed casual combos for Scars of Mirrodin. One of those combos stood out to me quite a bit more than the rest. That combo is the synergy between Carnifex Demon and Blowfly Infestation. There’s no question regarding just how devastating the effects of this particular plague propagation can be so we can skip the formalities and head straight to the chief problem.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=117249Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:59:51 GMTYet another PTQ has come and gone, and I’ve again failed to qualify. Last time, I made it to the semi finals, and this time I made it to the finals. If things keep progressing at this rate, I should win the next one. At least I hope that I do. I promised you guys that this week would be a look into my Magic Online drafts, but due to some computer trouble, I’m going to have to postpone that until my next article. So instead, you’re getting another PTQ report!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=116676Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:30:27 GMTJon Toone badly wanted to make the trip to Grand Prix Nashville but didn’t think he could afford it. How can a hard working Magic player scrape together a few extra bucks for a Grand Prix trip? Duh, just take down a $5000 cash tournament the week before. That’s what Texas Guildmage Jon Toone did.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=116674Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:27:12 GMTWe’re looking at just a few more weeks until Wizards of the Coast amends the Banned/Restricted list. The market is going to shift to a degree, all because certain decks are going to get affected. I almost typed infected there. Thanks, Scars of Mirrodin Limited. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=116673Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:17:41 GMTMost of you who know me personally know me as that idiot prairie dog from The-Middle-of-Frigid-Nowhere with a taste for combo. Those of you on the forum know me as the wolf’s-head penguin with a taste for rock. Neither of these things would indicate that I’m a huge fan of mono red. No, I’m not referring to the classic burn nor the modern RDW strategies of the Standard Environment. Pass the Torch is what I’ve found to be a fairly unique blend of combo and aggro. It has the aggression to put your lights out in no time at all but also the stability to handle itself respectably in multiplayer encounters.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=116449Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:26:27 GMTEric is a Pro Tour veteran and level II DCI judge that I have been playing with for years. He has gained the nickname Perfect Gamer around the Guildhall and beyond because of his systematically complete approach to every game he plays.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115817Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:10:15 GMTLast weekend saw the annual Dutch Legacy Open, where over two hundred players came from all over the Netherlands and surrounding Belgium and Germany to battle for the title. In our previous episode, predictions were made that Vengevival and its various versions would be the most represented deck. This set the tone for my own testing for the tournament, and while I did not place, my take on the tournament was accurate.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115813Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:41:17 GMTWelcome to the 681th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115809Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:10:54 GMTWe've spent most of the last few weeks checking out cards and deck ideas from Scars of Mirrodin in Standard. However, we have a whole ton of other cards that could benefit from a taste of Scars. Let's take one step backwards and see what we can do with an Extended card pool. While this isn't Extended season, it's still fun to play around with some casual ideas and see how they develop in the future. Not to mention, there's some cross-block synergy lurking somewhere...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115806Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:47:32 GMT guys, Sorry I didn’t have anything last week. I just closed on my first house, and was busy with packing/moving/etc. Even though I had a lot on my plate, I still managed to dedicate a fair amount of time to playing Standard on Magic Online. This week I want to talk about my current two favorite Standard decks, and why you should be playing one of them.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115796Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:54:49 GMT]In this article, we’ll be exploring the basics of the damage race. In my previous articles in this series, we have been through a lot of theory. Now is the time to use some specific examples. We’re going to see here a very basic game situation in several different circumstances. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115646Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:19:48 GMTThe combat step is hands down the most pointlessly confusing portion of your turn in a game of Magic. More choice four letter words have been launched across a play mat during this phase than any other, except possibly that darn dirty Upkeep step when you forget to discard a card to your Masticore. Seriously, somebody could make a lot of money by hiring out their time to sit in front of games of Magic and walk people through the combat phase. They could even have flags to hold up for indicating who has priority. I should talk this over with the DCI...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115633Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:22:04 GMTBeauty through text has taken its form in many different media. There is both text and beauty on every Magic card. Everyone has their own favorite artwork, or flavor text, or card in general. Everyone should. This hasn’t stopped many a Mage from playing a card *cough* Precious… *cough* even though they probably shouldn’t.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=115032Sat, 13 Nov 2010 20:58:11 GMTWelcome to the 679th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114903Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:12:09 GMTWith each new set, Wizards releases some build-around enchantments designed to get the minds of creative deckbuilders working. Many of these cards are super-fun, and become common sights around casual tables. However, some of these cards have managed to land themselves in high profile decks (Sanguine Bond appearing in Open the Vaults decks next to Filigree Angel comes to mind). Has Scars of Mirrodin brought us anything worthwhile? Well, Furnace Celebration looks interesting. The question is, does it have what it takes to gain a foothold in competitive circles, or is it more of a casual card after all?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114900Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:58:39 GMTThere is a card I’ve been thinking about as simply a great combo piece for quite some time now. Ever since Scars of Mirrodin previews unveiled it, actually. The card is Kuldotha Forgemaster. Up until now, there have been plenty of ways to cheat artifacts into play but only one that does an efficient job of grabbing it straight out of your deck; Tinker. Kuldotha Forgemaster is a sort of a Tinker-on-demand although instead of paying mana to activate it you have to make slightly more extreme sacrificial payments. This presents both unique challenges and opportunities for us to build a deck around. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114670Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:09:54 GMTIn this article, the feature match coverage continues from the Fanatic 5K from Saturday, October 30th in Austin, Texas. In the eight rounds that I covered at the event I was fortunate to see all of the top eight players and their decks. Four of those decks are included in this half of the coverage. Please check out the first part of this article, posted last week, for the other four decks.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114554Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:05:51 GMT A question I often get is, “What qualifies a deck as a budget deck, anyway?” While price is the most obvious answer, a good budget deck will also leave itself open to upgrades as players acquire more expensive cards. Decks usually evolve over time, so writing about strategies that can't be expanded on seems counterproductive. This brings me to one of the most open-ended formats in Magic: Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH).http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114149Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:58:38 GMTThe last week we set our base line. Taking things for granted is a catalyst for making bad habits, so it is important to focus on what matters. Our Birds and the Bees story took us through the basics of Legacy, the three pillars of strategy. With established decks defined, it is time to build a Gauntlet.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114146Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:41:00 GMTHaibing Hu is a skilled booster drafter and a Pro Tour veteran. Haibing shares his drafting expertise here on MTG Fanatic. Haibing is called DrWho on Magic Online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114125Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:42:28 GMTThis week, I’ll be covering the cards and decks from the State Champs that I think have major potential in the evolving Standard metagame. I’ll start with a deck that a lot of people wanted to make work in the previous Standard format, and it seems to slowly be gaining the tools to be viable: Mono-Black Control.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=114123Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:19:31 GMTI find Infect to be fairly lackluster in large games. Its focus is typically to empower weenies by giving them an ability that requires you to only have to juice ten damage from them as opposed to a full twenty (or more if your opponent has been gaining). Infect has a couple upsides like ignoring Lifelink and being Proliferate-able but without Hand of the Praetors on the board, Scars of Mirrodin has a fairly limp selection of Infectors to work with. To make matters worse, Hand of the Praetors is a removal magnet, there’re only two Infect critters with evasion, and only one of them is budget. Let the challenges begin.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=113714Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:51:28 GMTOne hundred and ten players showed up in Austin, Texas, on the day before Halloween to play for FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. The event teamed JDS Events with the proprietors of this very website, MTGFanatic.com. JDS has run countless tournaments over the years in Texas. JDS Events is led by Jim Shuman and DeQuan Watson. Jim owns a Magic shop in Denton and is a level II DCI judge with fifteen years of experience. DeQuan Watson is a judge, Pro Tour veteran player and store owner. DeQuan’s store, the Game Closet in Waco, is one of the finest game stores that Texas has ever had.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=113595Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:37:00 GMTThere has been no hotter player in the past eighteen months than Brian Kibler. After several years away from the game he returned to the Pro Tour with quite a flourish, finishing in the top eight in Honolulu and then winning at Pro Tour Austin, both in 2009. Add another top eight at this year’s Pro Tour Amsterdam and a win at Grand Prix Sendai. Brian gets around. He has been at nearly every Grand Prix this year stacking up one great result after another; a top four at GP Minneapolis, eleventh at GP Sydney, fifty-fourth at GP Portland, sixteenth at GP Manila, seventeenth at GP Washington and twenty-eighth in GP Kuala Lumpur.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=113426Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:25:29 GMTLast time we began the task of defining this format via its most popular and best performing decks. I likened the format to the Rock-Paper-Scissors metaphor, where one beats the other that beats the other that looses to the first one. Rock is our control pillar, not to be confused with the archetype. Paper represents the agro or beatdown pillar. In this episode, we are going to be exploring the Scissors pillar, or Combo archetypes that see play at the top tables.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=113208Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:59:19 GMTWe have a metric ton of Legacy to talk about! First on our agenda is defining the format in which we play. In its purest form, Legacy as a format is a triangle, a rock-paper-scissors format that embodies the best of what Magic can offer a player. The rock-paper-scissors metaphor boils down to the three basic archetypes of Magic decks: Control, Beatdown, and Combo. Beatdown keeps Control in check, otherwise it is busy watching Combo play with themselves. Combo does a mental or visible fist pump when paired against Beatdown. Welcome to Frowntown when a Force of Will deck is sitting across the table.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=113205Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:43:44 GMTEach new Magic set brings new keyword abilities and mechanics to the game. Some of these are incredibly fun and powerful, while others... fall flat. Scars of Mirrodin has given us three: Infect, Metalcraft, and the returning Imprint. While Imprint is relatively flexible and doesn't revolve around a particular archetype, Infect and Metalcraft are a bit more linear. Metalcraft is certainly more flexible than Infect, but that being said, it has more things to worry about too. The question remains: are Metalcraft cards worth playing, or are they destined to end up in dusty storage boxes across the globe?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=113062Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:09:53 GMTI’m back! Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written anything, but I’ve had a lot going on for the past couple of months and not a whole lot of time for Magic. It didn’t help that the previous format was M11 limited, which didn’t inspire me to write at all. Scars of Mirrodin is a very different beast, and I’m completely in love with it. Part of the reason is that Scars limited heavily favors the better players. It’s an incredibly complex set, with its best part being that mana problems are considerably less common. This is due to having decks that are primarily “brown,” and the added effect of having mana Myrs. Having fewer mana issues overall means less games will be decided by mulligans and more games won by player skill.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112858Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:42:40 GMTWelcome to the 676th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112857Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:41:16 GMTHalloween is the best annual occasion of all time. It’s the only time of the year when people of all ages have free purchase to stay out late, consume gratuitous amounts of sugar and take candy from strangers. It’s an entire host of activities that our parents assured us would lead to an untimely grave just there for the plundering. The only thing that could make Halloween any better is a heaping dose of bacon. As for myself, I’ll be spending my Halloween the adult way - playing Magic and handing out candy to people young enough to wear a children's’ costume and not get arrested. This leads me to this week’s big topic - cards scarier than your worst sugar high hallucinations.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112756Wed, 27 Oct 2010 19:37:59 GMTSo State Champs have come and gone, bringing with it a slew of new (and old) strategies for players to try out. While I was unable to attend States this year, I did find the top eight results to be very interesting. Today, my focus will be covering my favorite archetypes that have emerged thus far. I am foregoing decklists for the most part this time around, as there are simply too many to go over, but you should be able to find them fairly easily. Let’s get at it!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112639Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:25:05 GMTThe state championships for 2010 have come and gone. Attendance was very good everywhere. For a third exciting year, Glenn Goddard and his Sunmesa Events provided the organizational leadership for all fifty states. Wizards of the Coast had planned on ending the state championships after ten years when New Mexico’s Goddard stepped forward and took on the task of keeping this great tournament tradition alive. Goddard’s state championships award a very special prize to the winner. Each state’s champion wins free entry to premier constructed events for the next year. This is exactly the kind of prize that attracts the best and the brightest of constructed Magic’s tournament players. Every player would like to be recognized for their Magic skills. Free tournament entries are interesting to every serious player.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112570Mon, 25 Oct 2010 23:49:49 GMTWhen the first set in a new block comes out, you can do one of three things with your cards. You can look for deck ideas within the new set. You can look forward and collect cards to build decks that might have some future potential. You can also look back, and see how these new cards fit with previous sets. The first set in a block is likely where you'll see the most cross-block synergy. A lot of Scars of Mirrodin looks like it is building towards something bigger. Until we get there, you'd be wise to explore the set's synergy with Zendikar block and Magic 2011. There are some pretty exciting things going on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112253Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:02:11 GMTWelcome to the 675th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues. Everyone is thrilled with Scars of Mirrodin. We get off two eight man drafts tonight, a rare and entirely welcome occasion. The first eight man booster draft is detailed in this article. The details of the second eight man draft will be detailed in next week’s Journal entry.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112251Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:47:03 GMTThe Mana Junkies is a column dedicated to the exploration and discussion of the Legacy constructed format of our beloved game, Magic: the Gathering. This column will indeed be a discussion, as I implore you, the audience, to provide input on content, as well as provide ideas and critique for further episodes. I intend on taking us through a case study of Legacy, using systematic and empirical data gathering methods to distill this wide open format into useful information for players on all levels.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112063Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:51:27 GMTI do love it when October comes around. Not only does it mark the impending onset of winter up here in the Frigid North, a season I eagerly anticipate each year, it also means that it’s time for Standard format rotation. Oh boy! As usual, the rotation did its job and toppled the king of Standard, Jund. Despite this, the rotation did an unusually bad job of killing one of Jund’s top competitors, the Fauna Shaman/Vengevine toolbox. Moving on, the new set that bumps the rotation, Scars of Mirrodin, has added bucket loads of new chum to the shark-infested waters of Standard and I’m eager to sink my teeth in.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=112061Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:29:58 GMTVacations are nice, but what can I say, it feels good to be back. I trust everyone is pretty deep into Scars of Mirrodin by now, and I have some catching up to do. However, there are a few things that have caught my eye right away. First and foremost, Scars of Mirrodin contains an infinite mana combo that uses uncommons. You don't often find that contained within a set. Budget players, myself included, should be frothing at the mouth over the possibilities that this combo entails.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=111903Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:08:59 GMTMid-terms are finished, my first part of the Great Designer Search has been submitted, and Majoring in Magic is back! Last time, I began discussing drafts and some of the basic theories behind them. This week, I’m going to depart from the drafting aspect of drafts to discuss some of the perceptions and ideas behind drafting.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=111427Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:36:58 GMTOh my god, you guys, it’s time for Combo Corner again! For those of you who don’t know what Combo Corner is, it’s mostly just a quick break from what I hope is its information intensive and strategically in-depth sister column, Casual Carnage. Today I’m going to put down all the intuitive, powerful or just plain whacky combos I can find in Scars of Mirrodin. There may be two cards in the combo, there may be five. The purpose here is to seed some ideas in your cognitive soil. Let’s get going!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=111388Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:29:09 GMTScars of Mirrodin is finally here! Sort of. The set won’t be on sale in stores until Friday, October 1st, but Eric and I each scored two boxes of boosters by working at the regional prerelease event in Houston with the lovely Sheila Weissman. We have plenty of boosters to get the party started tonight. Everyone is excited about drafting the new set and we fill up the Guildhall with fifteen players tonight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110990Sat, 09 Oct 2010 22:32:20 GMTDC-10 is a quirky sort of limited way to play Magic that is very fun and occasionally intellectually stimulating. Just kidding, it’s just for fun. The story goes that this game was invented by two dudes flying on a DC-10 aircraft on their way to some big Magic tournament or other. Each player opens a booster pack and shuffles the contents without looking at them. Players begin with no cards in their hand. The player who plays first IS allowed to draw a card on the first turn of the game. There are different rules controlling how much mana is available to you, but you can generally count on playing whatever card you happen to draw. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110805Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:12:13 GMTHey there, fellow cardboard addicts and welcome back to Causal Carnage’s take on Scars of Mirrodin. If you missed part one, you may want to give it a quick speed-read before moving on with part two. Last week we discussed our best common and uncommon multiplayer options from Scars of Mirrodin. Today we’ll be taking a look at the rares and mythic rares.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110726Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:06:21 GMTAfter having played in my local prerelease for Scars of Mirrodin, I’ve noticed just how low the power level of the individual cards are in the set compared to previous sets. While I certainly have heard a lot of complaining from some people regarding how craptacular the commons and uncommons are for constructed play, I feel it is different when it comes to Limited play. The set seems to focus quite highly on synergy between cards to create a power level that would be higher than if the cards were not being used together (for example, Proliferate effects help aid an Infect strategy, Liquimetal Coating helps your Shatter effects, etc).http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110723Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:56:53 GMTIn the first part of this article, Haibing Hu reviewed the white, blue, black and red cards from Scars of Mirrodin. In this installment, the Binger completes his review of this exciting new set.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110715Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:31:18 GMTHot on the heels of this past weekend’s prerelease action, Haibing Hu presents a complete and comprehensive review of Scars of Mirrodin. Hu, a very skilled limited and Pro Tour veteran, assesses each and every card in the new set against a ten point scale described here. Enjoy!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110377Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:17:09 GMTWelcome back everybody to the First Glance series! Since there’s a new set due to be launched Friday, we can now see it in Gatherer and pick it apart as we like. Scars of Mirrodin is the set, and for those of you just tuning in, the First Glance miniseries is all about determining which cards from a new set are going to have the most splash for us in casual multiplayer Magic. This week is the commons and uncommon. Let’s get going. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110141Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:24:17 GMTIn players’ minds, Sealed Deck is the least skill intensive format because they believe it mostly comes down to the pool of cards you open. You have seen bad players opening bombs and doing well, and you’ve had your fair share of bad pools that didn’t allow you to win a single match. However, Sealed Deck is far more than just opening good cards. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110055Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:09:25 GMTAs of the time of the writing of this article, the entire set for Scars of Mirrodin has just been spoiled. After going through the spoiler, I figured I’d go over the colors and their themes that stand out to me for draft/sealed with the new set. As I have yet to play with the set until the prerelease gets here this weekend, I will of course attach the caveat that my ruminations are purely from a theoretical standpoint at this time, and my views will of course probably change as more archetypes emerge that I can’t see just quite yet. Let’s go!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=110016Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:40:04 GMTHey folks, we’re back to my favorite time with my favorite hobby: prereleases with Magic: the Gathering. Prereleases to me have always stood for excitement. As usual, I’m going to be judging my local prerelease and picking up some Wurmcoil Engines in the process. If you’ve never done it, judging a prerelease is about as fun as it gets. Players are all excited, and people crack bombs and money cards alike. Game states are convoluted and the environment is so undefined that you literally watch it develop in front of you. You can learn most of what you need to know about a new set at a prerelease, and I’d wager you get more of that picture as a judge.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109944Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:28:22 GMTWelcome to the 673rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109809Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:37:21 GMTHello, and welcome back to Majoring in Magic! If you’re reading this, it hopefully means I didn’t scare you off with my last article. As I had hinted at last week, our discussion will focus on all things draft-related this week. Some of the basics for drafting, and discussion on how to prepare for a draft, will be discussed this week.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109721Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:10:30 GMTWelcome back for another week, folks. Casual Carnage is taking a bit of a nostalgia trip this week on a journey back to my strategical (a word only T-Rig is allowed to use –ZAN) infancy and one deck in particular that inspired me into becoming the window-licking-crazy magician I am today. The deck in particular was a black-red Dragon Reanimator and this week’s article will be discussing some of the card choices and strategy decisions you’ll have to make when playing a deck such as this. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109551Wed, 22 Sep 2010 22:31:14 GMTWelcome to the 672nd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. For almost fifteen years we’ve been meeting at my house just northwest of Dallas. Over time, the faces change but the desire to have fun and keep improving at the game we love continues. Tonight we only get seven players in the house. Everyone is ready for Scars of Mirrodin to get here, but we plod on tonight with an M11 booster draft with some surprising results.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109451Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:01:23 GMTDunno what you did with your Labor Day weekend, but I drove 1200 miles to play EDH.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109398Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:20:09 GMTSo what are you bringing to the party? The release of Scars of Mirrodin draws ever closer and I thought this would be a fine opportunity to talk about the new card type that the first Mirrodin gave us… equipment. Equipment has accumulated a long and highly polarized roster of cards. It stretches all the way from ”oh my God, it doesn’t even have a drawback” to ”why are you wasting my time with this garbage?”. In the interest of shedding some light on the not-so-well-known corners of the armory, Armament Master Artificer is going to take you on a quick tour and get you prepared for battle!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109104Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:59:26 GMTI’ve finally taken to writing another article. For those that have been reading the articles on MTGFanatic since day one, you might remember an article that I wrote nearly a year ago. In it, I claimed I would be making it a regular column on creating fairly competitive, rogue strategies for Friday Night Magic. We can all see how well that turned out. One year later, and that article still stands as the only edition of Mastering Friday Nights to ever go onto the site. Its quick downfall came from a combination of time commitments, writer’s block, and my disillusion of Standard shortly after the debut of the article. So, is Mastering Friday Nights coming back? Have I suddenly found that inspiration to start writing about rogue decks at competitive tournaments?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109031Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:33:37 GMTSo this past weekend, I went to the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX for the layman) in Seattle, and managed to play in the Magic Online Live Series. For those who are unfamiliar with this tournament, it is held at a number of big events throughout the year, and is a combined $5,000 purse tournament. $2000 and a premium foil Magic Online set for 1st place, $1000 and a regular Magic Online set for 2nd place, $500 and 36 online M11 packs for 3rd and 4th, and $250 and sixteen packs for fifth through eighth place.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=109029Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:50:45 GMTAs a very dedicated Standard enthusiast, my world is about to turn upside down. I’m not so sure that this is a bad thing. After all, we are only recently detached from that time every year where one deck is rightfully labeled the “deck-name-here menace”. I am speaking of course of the Jund menace, whose dominance has finally subsided after a very long, and sometimes very frustrating, reign. The Fae menace, sometimes referred to as “the enemy”, was even more aggravating. By the time it left Standard it had a world of individuals bidding good riddance. Fortunately, and yet somewhat unfortunately, Standard is wide open right now. Ironically, however, it is a fairly new format that’s not only somewhat irrelevant but also about to change completely. Let’s take a look at what’s leaving, and if we should care.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108968Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:11:21 GMTI have to say, I love the new Extended format. By shrinking the number of available sets, Wizards has actually made the format MORE appealing to budget players. Why? Because the format becomes a bit less about the top-tier cards in each set. The current Extended card pool forces players to dig a little deeper to find what works. Therefore, there's room to discover previously unheard of interactions. Who knows, maybe YOU can come up with that new game-changing strategy. I think I've come up with a decent one myself, for budget standards, of course.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108732Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:56:56 GMTWelcome to the 671st weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. The official attendance tonight is nine but we actually only had eight for our weekly booster draft. There was plenty of chit-chat about Scars of Mirrodin. Everyone is obviously ready for a new large expansion set and the effect it will have on constructed. In the meantime, with two weeks between us and the prerelease weekend, we still seem to find Magic 2011 draft interesting enough to pursue.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108731Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:55:36 GMTElspeth and Tezzeret may be of allied colors (blue and white) but they couldn’t be farther apart when it comes to their personalities and goals. Not to mention one of them is half robot. To commemorate the peculiar rivalry of set-mates Elspeth and Tezzeret, Wizards has tossed us another nugget from the Duel Decks series. So what’s the deal here? Is this pack worth buying for the whole of its contents or is this just a package deal for two relevant planeswalkers? http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108673Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:42:04 GMTPotential Sleepers for the New Standard[/b] [p]So US Nationals took place a few weeks ago, and with its conclusion came the end of the current Standard season as we know it. As for my own performance in the tournament, let’s just say it was abysmal and leave it at that. I still had a good time with friends though, and that was all I was really expecting. Now we enter the dreaded lull of seasonal Magic where there are no PTQs and no new format to explore, unless you were lucky enough to have attended PT Amsterdam, of course. With Shards block about to rotate out, and Scars of Mirrodin about to come in, I thought it would be a good time to discuss some current undervalued Standard cards that might play a role in the upcoming new format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108543Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:51:23 GMTWelcome to the 670th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. It’s not a giant crowd tonight, but ten players is more than ample. Because we like to booster draft, the perfect number is eight. Anything more is gravy. This week feels better than last week because after a big ten man draft, six of us stuck around and team drafted. It felt very weird to finish the meeting by around 10:30 pm last Tuesday. Tonight’s party lasts until half past one in the morning. That’s more like it.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108354Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:01:31 GMTWith Scars of Mirrodin upon us, we can only expect an influx of new artifacts to work with next month. What has this meant in the past? Well, there have been some amazingly powerful artifact strategies, and others that haven't quite lived up to expectations. What will Scars bring? I'm not too sure. Is anybody? Regardless, we can still look back and see what has worked in the past and what hasn't. In the meantime, we can make some pretty decent budget decks along the way.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108283Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:36:42 GMTSometimes I forget that we’ve had two years of Shards of Alara block already. Its time in standard was filled with the success that is indicative of a well-designed block. That being said, I can’t wait for Jund to be gone. Now that we’re about to lay another set to rest, it’s time to take a look back and give mention to all the fantastic cards that didn’t make the cut in Standard but are still more than effective in casual.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108219Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:05:27 GMTWelcome to the 669th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. This week, we have nine players. While this is just a nudge more than last week’s six, it’s enough to have a ‘real’ booster draft so everyone is happy. Pretty much, anyway, there were some grumbles when it was decided to draft with all nine players. Even though Hunter is headed to Amsterdam next week to draft for realsies in the Pro Tour, it didn’t make sense to kick anyone out of the draft and everyone wanted to play. When that happens, you just run it!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108203Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:59:18 GMTWelcome back to my continued examination of some of the hit cards that made Shards of Alara block great. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108106Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:27:19 GMTI had a good night last night in our team’s live M11 booster draft, so I screwed my courage to the sticking place or whatever and jumped into an M11 draft in Magic Online’s “deep end,” the 8-4 draft queue.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108096Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:08:12 GMTAlmost every week I make the decision to play FNM instead of some other Friday Night Activity. I've found it to be cheaper than going to the bar, though not much less stinky, and easier on my ears. However, the light is better in games shops too, so I'm not nearly as pretty, but I've already got the girl, so that factor is not important.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=108051Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:18:49 GMTWelcome to the 668th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We suffer our smallest turnout since June 22, when we had just five players. Including tonight, there have been six or fewer at only three meetings this year so far. Our small group managed to have a little fun with a 3v3 team draft, but the house was empty by 10:30pm, something that just never happens. I’m blaming this one on the ‘Hunter effect.’ Hunter made his one hundredth meeting last week, joking that he might never be back. When Hunter doesn’t show up, it often means that other people won’t show up either. That comet has quite a tail.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107980Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:52:20 GMTEveryone loves lists, and the Rise of the Eldrazi version of this article was so popular that I'm making it a regular feature. For Magic 2011, I face the dilemma of whether to discuss reprints or only new cards. I did include some reprints in my RotE list, but core sets have far more reprints. I think we should stick to new material in this case, as I could end up writing a pretty similar list when Magic 2012 comes out. However, I'll have to change some of my pricing criteria, as we're working with fewer possible cards. For Magic 2011, we're looking at cards $3.99 or less. Keeping that in mind, here's my top five new cards of each color, along with artifacts and lands.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107872Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:00:04 GMTHey, kids, do you like violence? Well check out this draft I did on Magic Online Monday night. I drafted my favorite color combination, black and blue. I’m very happy with the cards I drafted and with the deck I constructed. Some of my play decisions were… suboptimal.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107778Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:18:56 GMTThe term ‘broken’ gets thrown around with ease and frequency in the Magic community. Usually as soon as a new set is announced, people will start ranting and raving about how ‘broken’ and ‘zomgwtf’ said set is going to be. Bad grammar will ensue and about three months later all will be disproved when the set hits shelves and everybody realizes that it actually curves in quite nicely with the rest of the game. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107718Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:19:55 GMTDrafting is one of the most entertaining ways to play Magic. It is both fun and challenging. Fun because you get to explore new combinations every time, challenging because there are so many combinations that being able to predict what’s going to happen is the result of serious training. In order to master draft formats, you have to understand and integrate the basic concepts of drafting.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107574Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:39:12 GMTThe Standard season is at its end by the time this article goes to press, with only US Nationals remaining at the time of this writing. While I wasn’t as big a fan of this season as I was of the Standard season last year, (seriously, who doesn’t love themselves some Cryptic Command?) I am still disappointed that I wasn’t able to play in as many PTQs as I would have liked due to other life commitments. With that being said, I thought I would say farewell to some of my favorite Shards of Alara block cards, since I didn’t really get to play with them much this season.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107572Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:35:29 GMTWelcome to the 667th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. It is my claim that our team has the longest running weekly Magic game in the world. Eight of us started playing together in 1996 and we never looked back. From the very beginning, the meeting place has been the same, my house near Dallas. The upstairs loft, called the Guildhall, is where we play. It has been permanently outfitted for Magic for over ten years.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107554Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:09:14 GMTHowdy, I play Magic. I have a Riviera Draft deck. I have the Archenemy sets, all of the Planechase cards and most of a Vanguard set. Because pre-cons are pretty balanced against each other, even across sets, I keep and add to my library of about seventy-five of them so that any one of my mates can jump into a game at any time, regardless of skill or experience. And of course, I've even played all three at once (with EDH) - though not recommended, actually, unless you enjoy drinking Vegas Bombs while waterskiing behind my Y-Wing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107494Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:19:39 GMTAh, Destructive Force. Wildfire's big brother certainly packs a punch and is quickly making a name for itself as a card to watch in Standard. However, it comes at a hefty price; you take just as much damage as your opponent does. The only way to make this a worthwhile play is to minimize the effect it has on us, and maximize the pain it has on opponents. Thankfully, we have the tools to do just that.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107301Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:54:00 GMTAs US Nationals draw closer, I find myself struggling to find a deck that I enjoy playing in this format. I’ve tried almost every established archetype there is, and I just can’t seem to find one that I absolutely love like I have in past formats.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107255Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:04:32 GMTThe release of From the Vault: Relics is upon us. If you haven’t seen the complete spoiler, it’s now available in Gatherer following the set’s market preview at GenCon. Since the cat was let out of its bag at the convention, we can start getting excited about having one of our own. Sadly, there will be cards, but not kitties. Let’s take a look at what this fifteen card super-booster has to offer.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107196Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:59:10 GMTToday I’m writing to convince you to join the fun, if you haven’t already. Pretty much every Magic player has their favored formats and one or more formats that they shy away from. They usually have a pretty defendable reason for their choice. Using myself as a reference, I generally steer clear of Legacy and Sealed.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=107158Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:07:09 GMTGood and evil have been explored time and time again in Magic's lore. Black is traditionally thought of as an evil color, while white is traditionally thought of as good. Given, there have been times where this hasn't been the case. Aysen Bureaucrats? Nobody likes Bureaucrats. Boo! But what about when black and white get together? Dark Tutelage seems like a great opportunity to get these seemingly opposite colors together. One thing that they do have in common is life. Whether they're losing it or gaining it, white and black have a clear relationship with our twenty life points. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106865Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:49:28 GMTIt’s Combo Corner time! We revisit this topic each time a set comes out. I go through the new set and pick out all the useful and powerful combos I can spot while at the same time trying to deliver some useful information about the set’s content. This is a core set, so more experienced players will have to bear with me while I take a quick pit stop to point out something you might find obvious but a newbie might not. Let’s proceed alphabetically.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106701Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:10:56 GMTWelcome to the 666th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Six hundred and sixty-six! I’m superstitious enough to be slightly concerned about stamping the “number of the beast” on our team meeting, yet not superstitious enough to do something stupid like skipping the number the way old buildings skipped from the twelfth to the fourteenth floor. It’s just a number. When I was a kid, with the original Omen movies in theaters, my mom was afraid that she had given birth to an evil spawn. She checked deep beneath my hairline for the tell-tale mark. Whew! Luckily, the mark she found was ‘999’!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106700Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:06:51 GMTHey folks. It’s been a while since I had time to sit and write some words, but I’ve been real busy. I recently started a Magic team, Team Power Ten, so named because we regularly play at a spiffy new library in my hometown of Alexandria and not because there are ten members. In fact, there are only four. I have also been getting addicted to Archenemy and trying to break the new Standard (bye-bye Jund). I’ve had plenty on my mind.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106629Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:59:45 GMTWe all know that blue has gotten a pretty significant facelift over the past few sets. Wizards has given us deck manipulation tools and some of the best counters in years. I'm of course talking about cards like Ponder, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Crystal Ball, Jace's Ingenuity, Deprive, Mana Leak... you know the ones. Perhaps it’s time mono blue control made a comeback. Let's look at where the archetype came from, and what it could be today.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106396Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:32:29 GMTSo, I'm feeling lucky. I think my Baby Boros deck is pretty good, especially after adding Blightning. I'm confident enough in it to run it in this week's XPDC Extended tournament, despite it being nearly Standard-legal. I've updated the sideboard accordingly, but this is pretty much the same deck from a few weeks ago.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106363Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:07:13 GMTThe Fort Worth Convention Center in downtown Cowtown was the scene last Saturday for MTGFanatic.com’s second five thousand dollar cash tournament. The space and the air conditioning were ample for the 176 players that turned out for this big cash event.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106322Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:08:45 GMTHello, once again, to my faithful followers. Welcome to the site, first time readers. As for you kids, get off my lawn! Come one come all to the one-year anniversary edition of Casual Carnage. That’s right, I’ve tricked you all into reading my inane ramblings for fifty-two weeks now! Here’s more!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106255Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:49:22 GMTThis past week, I had the pleasure of entertaining my stepfather and brother while they stayed in Houston at my apartment for a few days. I took it upon myself to teach my younger brother the game that we know and love so well, and he helped to raise a few points I wanted to discuss here today regarding building a Standard-playable collection from scratch when you are just entering (or returning to) the game.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106156Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:57:20 GMTWelcome to the 665th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. A nice big group of twelve in the Guildhall tonight. We decide to have two six man team drafts. After that, we have enough players for an eight man draft. Everyone is still interested in drafting Magic 2011. Well, ALMOST everyone… http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=106154Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:47:24 GMTSaturday in San Antonio gave Texas Magic players one more chance to qualify for Pro Tour Amsterdam. And it was a hot one. Two hundred and fifty two sweaty players packed inside a store better suited for around one hundred. Crowded, sweaty conditions are par for the course in the middle of a hot Texas summer. A more comfortable tournament venue would have been nice. On the other hand, Gamelot is quite a remarkable game store, all the more so for finding a way to fit two hundred and fifty-two players inside.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105988Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:59:55 GMTEvery few sets, you get cards that are real head-scratchers. Why are they here? What potential uses do they have? The next set can often hold the answers. Such is the case with Magic 2011. While some of the cards seem destined to have a future when Scars of Mirrodin come around, others become missing pieces to puzzles left by Rise of the Eldrazi.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105959Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:13:02 GMTRight now is a special time for the Valakut deck. We currently have access to both Rampant Growth and Cultivate, which allows the deck to do some very powerful things very consistently. In fact, right now I would easily consider Valakut to be a tier one deck. This may or may not last once M10 and Shards have rotated out of Standard. I’m going to take a look at a couple of successful builds of Valakut and discuss why they are successful. I’ll discuss some of the possible options for how to build the deck and give my opinion on what works and what is bad. I’ll even give my idea of what the deck might look like post-rotation. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105931Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:51:06 GMTLast week, I covered the possible impact of M11 on Jund, Mythic Conscription, and Red Deck Wins. This week, I will cover Turboland, UW(x) Control, Next Level Bant, and Nayahttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105875Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:28:52 GMTThe last edition of Planeswalkers - Money & Multiplayer was done way back when Zendikar was in its infancy. Sorin Markov had just been fully spoiled following Wizard’s agonizing process of revealing one of his features at a time and Jace, the Mind Sculptor was still buried in an R&D folder somewhere. I feel it’s time for an update with the six new planeswalkers who have not heard the Casual Carnage gavel pound out their sentence. Brace yourselves, we proceed in an organized, alphabetical fashion. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105860Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:06:36 GMTI almost got there again. I fought through the second largest PTQ in Texas history to make it to the top eight, only to lose in the quarterfinals. Even worse, I lost to a fairly good matchup, but at least one of my forum members did manage to win the whole thing. Congrats to Christian Flodrom-Sconce! So anyways, this PTQ had 252 players and was nine rounds long. Of course I was playing my Valakut list, and I felt like I was pretty far ahead of my opponents the entire day. Primeval Titan has truly turned this into a tier one deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105790Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:05:59 GMTWelcome to the 664th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Everyone is still excited about drafting Magic 2011. At least, the seven people who joined me and the boy are excited about it. We played a nine man draft as well as a 3v3 team draft. We also talked about 2011 and what might happen at this weekend’s PTQ in San Antonio. Some details of this discussion appears below.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105538Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:10:17 GMTM11 has surprised me; I definitely enjoyed sealed deck more than I thought I would. After doing some digging, I've become a fan of a lot of the new cards. The planeswalker-specific cards are some of my favorite, and there's plenty of good stuff around to support them. This week, I'll take a look at two more of the colors: green and red.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105478Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:53:28 GMTHello once again everybody. How did your launch parties go? I personally didn’t do as well as I would have liked, but it all worked out in the end. During this article, I’ll be taking a look at the rares and mythic rares of Magic 2011. Let’s get started.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105356Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:48:36 GMTWelcome to the 663rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We have a good turn out for the third straight week. The big news this week is the arrival of Magic 2011. Even though the new set is not on sale until Friday, enough of us collected some prize packs from the prerelease events to booster draft tonight.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105315Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:43:55 GMTSo M11 is finally here, and with its release the Standard card pool has been finalized for the rest of the season. Now it’s time to take a look at just how the major decks could be affected in this revised environment.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105243Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:51:18 GMTThis past weekend I managed to take a short break from Magic Online, just long enough to play at my local shop’s M11 Prerelease. I had a blast! I really enjoyed the couple of events that I got to play with this set. It feels a lot like M10 did, but more skill intensive and with less clunky cards. I can’t wait for the set to go live on MODO. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105116Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:00:19 GMTMagic 2011 is upon us! While I didn't get a chance to hit a prerelease, I'm sure many of you did. If so, you might have had a chance to play with some of the planeswalker-themed cards. Every 'walker now has two “companion cards” that tend to work pretty well together. This looks like an opportunity for some themed deckbuilding.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105078Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:52:07 GMTA long time ago, two Pro Tour players were fighting boredom on a long airplane flight. They figured out a fun way to play Magic that doesn’t need a lot of time or table space. Each player opened a booster pack and shuffled the contents. This interesting quicky format was dubbed “DC-10” and some weirdos still play it. People like me!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=105043Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:20:05 GMTHey folks! How was your Magic 2011 Prerelease? Congratulations for those of you who met with success. For those of you who struggled with it, don’t worry, there’s still a launch party to show everybody who’s boss! I’ve played this set on one occasion and I’m already sick of Fling, but moving on… Now that we have the entire set spoiled, we can start looking into what’s good for us here in the casual department.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104924Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:37:09 GMTLately, I’ve found myself brainstorming ideas regarding the new Extended format we find ourselves in. I’m not qualified for Amsterdam, but the thought of playing with my Lorwyn block cards once more has me chomping at the bit to dive in to this new format, PT qualification or no. While this is a new format, I find it hard to believe that some old Standard archetypes won’t become tier one contenders. Faeries, obviously, will be among them, but that isn’t news to anyone.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104900Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:26:57 GMTIt’s set review time again and I’m as excited as ever. This is probably the most powerful core set in history, which was something that was easily true about M10 one year ago. Today I want to go over the way this set will impact the Standard competitive metagame. If I may sound a little annoyed at this set occasionally, it is simply my out-there honest nature trying to be objective. I think Magic 2011 is awesome and I’m also aware that not every card has to be awesome on its own.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104845Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:28:17 GMTWelcome to the 662nd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We have a good turn out for the second straight week. Coincidentally, my wife makes brownies for everyone for the second straight week. Last week we were celebrating Taylor Webb’s addition to the team as well as his birthday. Today is MY birthday. How old am I? Too old to be spending this much time on Magic: the Gathering!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104728Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:30:58 GMTI have a love-hate relationship with one-shot combo decks. For one, they're a lot of fun to build. Finding that perfect mix of cards to make your combo run smoothly involves a lot of planning, and when it works it feels pretty damn good. Once you pull it off, be it infinite or non-infinite, the initial sense of satisfaction is often replaced by a feeling of “what now?”http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104691Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:15:33 GMTI thought that after my last M11 preview I would be done until the rest of the set had been spoiled, but after seeing some of the new bombastic cards spoiled in the last few days, all I have to say is holy tiny infant baby Jesus was I wrong! This go-round, I’ll focus just on specific new cards that interest me, rather than do a shakedown of each color again. Let’s get on with some more cards!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104666Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:17:06 GMTIt’s game night. The snacks have been purchased. The group has been called to action. The stadium lights lower on the playing field and the audience prepares to watch you and your friends slog out twenty games of Magic spanning seven hours of play. Then, suddenly, as you’re standing in the middle of an empty room basking in anticipation, the camera zooms in on you for a close-up accompanied with a dramatic whooshing sound. You have seven hours of Magic to look forward to and you have nothing new and fun to bring to the table. The group is due to arrive in ten to fifteen minutes. What do you do!?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104624Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:56:51 GMTWith every set, there's always the standout, must-have rares. There are occasionally commons and uncommons that end up costing more than most rares. This column isn't about these cards. This column is about the cards in Rise of the Eldrazi that are worth more than their monetary value may suggest. Now that I've had some time with the set, I think I've found the strongest budget cards in each color.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104304Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:10:33 GMTLimited expert Haibing Hu is back with more Rise of the Eldrazi booster draft analysis as he battles in the 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104303Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:08:00 GMTWelcome to the 661st weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. After a very cozy five man hen party last week, it was really good to have a full draft table this week. A little too full for some people, we ran it with ten players.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104252Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:11:32 GMT109 players endured the hot early temperatures in Oklahoma City and seven rounds of Swiss play battling for a seat and a plane ticket for Pro Tour - Amsterdam. The event was held in the bucolic setting of the Del City Community Center, deep in the Oklahoma City suburban landscape. Folksy to the maximum. Country, even by Oklahoma standards. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104251Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:58:11 GMTIn casual play, we’re allowed to use any card we want. Conveniently, websites such as the one you are currently surfing sell darn near any card we can find if you’re willing to shell out for it. Effectively, we have every card ever printed as a potential resource. The question is, which card is the one you’re going to go buy after reading my expertly crafted and painfully self-advocating article? The answer will be undoubtedly located using the Gatherer tool.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104169Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:01:03 GMTI’ve been in a slump. It happens from time to time, most players go through cycles of bad and good runs, and I’ve been on a bad run since well before Pro Tour San Juan. I’ve been trying really hard not to let it get to me, but inevitably I’ve noticed that it’s been affecting my game.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104115Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:58:35 GMTI have often heard people explaining Magic to non-players as a blend of Chess and Poker, which it really is. I’ve used this example myself, as it alludes to the complexity and depth of the game and the minds of its players. There are many articles on this concept, but I want to define some skills and highlight areas for “Cross-Training”. In the same way some athletes do supplemental activities because it aids their performance in the sport they play professionally, it is something Magic players can adopt.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=104042Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:10:08 GMTIf you're playing Magic often, chances are you're aware of the current tournament scene. If we're not playing these decks that dominate tournaments, there's a good chance we're trying to dream up ways to build them without taking out a second mortgage. Using competitive decks as inspiration can be a good thing, but sometimes it narrows our approach too much. Instead of copying archetypes, perhaps we should be looking at strong cards in our budget and finding new ways to use them.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103889Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:57:25 GMTWe have been through the mental preparation and most of the basic theory about how to enter a tournament in the best possible state of mind. With that state of mind and the new take on the game, you should already see your stats improve. But of course, knowing that you can win and having the mentality of a winner will not be enough. You will have to know how to play and improve your game. We will try to go through basic situations and see where your game can be improved in later issues. To close the theoretical part of this strategy guide, I will guide you step by step into the way in how you should enter the tournament.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103846Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:02:19 GMTArchenemy launches this week and, in light of this, I’m naming this week’s article somewhat like a scheme card. Today is going to be about something I’ve been rolling around in my cranial cavity for quite a few days now. It seems like it would go good with a deck of scheme cards to back it up.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103797Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:18:03 GMTI’m sure that by the time this article goes to press, most everyone that cares has read about the new structural changes to the Extended format. Talk about a bombshell. So far, for the most part, all I’ve heard is complaining about how “shocklands are basically worthless”, “sell your Tarmogoyfs now”, “it’s a format of Jund vs Faeries”, etc etc. I’ll admit, I wasn’t very pleased about it either at first, but the more I think about it, whenever Wizards releases big changes to the game, they usually end up working out for the best, despite all of the hooting and hollering that immediately follows a change announcement.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103721Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:15:44 GMTRecently, while reviewing an article I was working on, a friend pointed out to me that I shouldn’t hold back when writing because I don’t view myself as enough of an expert, which I half-viewed as a challenge. Although he is correct that generally I write with a sort of modest and unassuming attitude, I do have the mindset of being sort of an expert. I feel that you should view yourself similarly. I believe that all Magic players need to hold themselves in a certain high regard, and they should expect their opponent to do the same.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103643Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:24:59 GMTLike most of you, I was initially pretty sour on the Level Up ability. Thankfully, through a few Rise of the Eldrazi limited games, I've begun to see the potential of these unique creatures. In a competitive constructed environment, I still believe they should be used sparingly (you only have so much extra mana to pump into creatures that may or may not reap the benefits of said mana). In a casual environment, however, levelers can be a ton of fun, and we can build a solid deck on a modest budget.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103487Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:35:10 GMTEvery time I sit down to write my article for MTGFanatic, the first thing that pops into my head is: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Every time. I wonder if I am a Timmy-in-denial. Well, no. I believe Emrakul is equally usable by Timmy, Spike and Johnny. That’s part of his allure. It’s certainly a Timmy card; a look at its power/toughness alone can pretty much confirm that. Johnny uses it as the punctuation of his combo in many formats, and Spike has been trying to break him (with some success) since his printing.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103462Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:57:16 GMTHey guys, welcome to part two of my Forgotten Tribes venture. Typically, articles are two-parters at most, but I figure if the demand calls for it I’ll continue the series. This will be the last one for a while, but if your comments show enough interest, Casual Carnage will return to obscure tribes in a few weeks. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103404Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:13:10 GMTUpon returning from San Juan, I immediately began to delve into Standard. I looked at the most recently successful decks and was seeing a lot of the usual suspects, plus Naya with Vengevines. Of course, I don’t want to play any of the big decks, so I looked for something a bit off the beaten path. I decided on Open the Vaults as my PTQ deck of choice. Gerry Thompson once called it the best deck in Standard, and it certainly looks like it’s well positioned in the current metagame. Well, it was… up until the Saturday night before the Magic Online PTQ.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103393Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:37:04 GMTLimited expert Haibing Hu is back with more Rise of the Eldrazi booster draft analysis as he battles in the 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103330Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:30:09 GMTWelcome to the 658th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We had a big crowd last week, so I was expecting more of the same tonight. Instead, we had exactly eight players. Truth is, eight is the number we are always targeting. More is better, obviously, but eight is how many we want to see. Fun fact, eight is the average attendance across all 658 meetings. We have a table full of really good drafters tonight. After the eight man draft we played a 3v3 team draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103307Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:38:46 GMTThis week, I thought I would discuss some of the recently spoiled cards for Magic 2011, and their possible implications on limited and Standard play. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103255Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:17:41 GMTA new pick-by-pick Rise of the Eldrazi draft from limited expert Haibing Hu!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103190Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:35:34 GMTI like to write about pauper every few months, since this commons-only format is the pinnacle of budget deckbuilding. Pauper forces you to use cards you may not have considered, and if you're new to the format, you'll be surprised at the power level some of these decks have. I've always been interested in Pauper Standard, so I decided to take a new deck for a spin.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103068Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:15:40 GMTPro Tour San Juan was a huge letdown for me. I’ve spent the last few weeks grinding games on Magic Online, trying to find the right deck. While the deck we decided to play was a strong choice, by the time the PT started, it was a known quantity and people were prepared for it. We may have been better off sticking with my original deck plan.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=103048Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:12:56 GMTSome of Magic’s recent expansions have been showcasing cards that make Tribal decks of any dimension perfectly usable. The old fallback of Coat of Arms has been overshadowed by power plays like Eldrazi Monument that provide both the p/t boost we’re looking for but something extra as well. It makes one wonder what could be done in casual play when it comes to tribal. We could resurrect any of the old classics, but I’d prefer to do something a little more unconventional.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102998Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:10:27 GMTThis past weekend I attended Pro Tour: San Juan, thanks to my 2nd place finish and qualification at Grand Prix: Houston. Unfortunately, my tournament results did not come anywhere close to allowing me to make day two. First, the deck I played in the constructed rounds...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102916Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:13:07 GMTWelcome to the 657th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We have a big crowd tonight and we play two booster drafts, the first with ten players and the second with nine. I didn’t publish a report for last week’s meeting because we didn’t get enough players to do anything more than team draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102788Sat, 05 Jun 2010 23:54:41 GMTRogue decks always have the potential to surprise a tournament field and take home a win. However, once people latch on to your game plan, you need to adapt. Often, this can be accomplished through a decent sideboard. However, if your once-rogue deck becomes popular, you're going to have to run some adaptive strategies in your main sixty.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102727Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:36:49 GMTA new pick-by-pick Rise of the Eldrazi draft from limited expert Haibing Hu!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102725Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:13:21 GMTSo my hard work has paid off and I’ve been able to acquire a set of Vengevine. It cost me some serious cards, a lot of time, and I did a few things on the West side of town I’m not particularly proud of. Just kidding on that last part.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102616Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:56:39 GMTLast week I discussed the changes Jund needed to make in order to stay competitive against all of the control decks running rampant in the current Standard metagame. This week, with Gerry Thompson once again breaking the format, I thought it time to discuss his latest creation, which earned Nationals invites for several players a couple weeks ago.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102548Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:15:00 GMTA new pick-by-pick Rise of the Eldrazi draft from limited expert Haibing Hu!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102503Mon, 31 May 2010 22:28:45 GMTIt’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n roll. I’m sitting here in my pajama pants and heavy metal band t-shirt, like numerous other Monday nights, pondering these words sung so many times by AC/DC. The lyrics bounce in and out of my head, truncating themselves with each pass. As I sip an adult beverage and cast a cursory glance towards a Mythbusters rerun, I notice a singular word seems to be sticking in my mind. Rock ‘n roll. Rock. Roll.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102485Mon, 31 May 2010 17:02:26 GMTIn every set, there are inevitably a few cards that generate tons of buzz, but then nothing ]really happens with them. These cards often start out quite high in price, but come down over time. By revisiting a set a few months after it comes out, we can usually find some of these hyped cards at a fraction of their initial cost. This is a prime opportunity to build decks that may have seemed out of reach on the set's launch day.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102264Thu, 27 May 2010 23:40:01 GMTTesting, testing, 1..2..3… Okay, sorry for the bad joke, but this article really is about how I test, and everything that pertains to it. I’m going to go over all the different methods I use while preparing for a tournament, and how you can benefit from them.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102159Wed, 26 May 2010 14:22:34 GMTWelcome to the 655th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We have a good crowd tonight and get off a very hot ten player Rise of the Eldrazi booster draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=102056Mon, 24 May 2010 23:15:07 GMTAt present, it seems that what was once considered to be the undisputed king of the format, Jund, has finally been toppled from its resident perch atop the hill by the various U/W/x control and Mythic decks. However, don’t start counting Jund out as a competitor. All it will take is some tweaks in its card choices for the deck to get its match percentages back up. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101984Sun, 23 May 2010 21:04:03 GMTA new pick-by-pick Rise of the Eldrazi draft from limited expert Haibing Hu!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101982Sun, 23 May 2010 20:54:34 GMTThe first chapter of this column was focusing on preparation. I covered what I think are the essential elements to take into consideration when you intend to do well in tournaments. I have not spoken of specific game situations much. These examples will come later and they are really just exercises after the lessons. Preparation is not only about having cards in your hand. It is about understanding the rules of what you signed up for. I told you about what you should think about the theory of the game, luck, odds, strategy, board situations, best plays… Now is the time to put all this into practice.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101913Sat, 22 May 2010 11:08:25 GMTFor only the second time in fifteen years, I sat on the sidelines for the Nationals Qualifiers, doing my thing as judge and event coordinator here in Texas. Turnouts were low everywhere, and attendance was low enough at my own event in Fort Worth, Texas, that I could have played if I had planned ahead just a little better. With Standard PTQs all over the place for the next month, I want to delve into the most popular deck lists and maybe just one of the less popular ones.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101887Fri, 21 May 2010 23:53:51 GMTI've touched on attempting to play competitively on a budget in the past, but it has been a while since I last discussed this topic. However, the pitfalls remain the same. You still need good cards, you still need versatility, and you still need to respect what's been built. Competitive decks don't appear overnight without any testing. They're battle-hardened, well-designed decks, so we must take care when building something to compete with them on a lesser budget.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101855Fri, 21 May 2010 13:45:01 GMTA new pick-by-pick Rise of the Eldrazi draft from limited expert Haibing Hu!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101819Thu, 20 May 2010 22:49:09 GMTThe allure of Lorwyn and Morningtide has always held some sort of sway over me no matter the state of the game or its formats despite my intense hatred of Faerie builds. I’ve successfully worked with almost every other tribe this block has to offer. Merfolk, Kithkin, Goblins, and Elementals great and small have brought me hours of entertainment and hopefully you as well. The only tribe I have yet to have the privilege of working with is Treefolk.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101737Wed, 19 May 2010 19:31:11 GMTThis past weekend I attended the MTGFanatic 2K trial event at Gamelot in San Antonio. I’ve been trying to make it to the trial events for a while now, but real life keeps interfering. This time it didn’t interfere directly, but it did keep me from getting enough sleep, and playing the whole day with only 45 minutes of sleep caused me to make several mistakes.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101618Mon, 17 May 2010 23:01:03 GMTA misunderstood resource and its value in your game: Often demonized, frowned upon, and in some circles outright disallowed is the process most often referred to as “netdecking”. In competitive Magic, the reality is that players use this resource more often than not.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101595Mon, 17 May 2010 16:23:47 GMTRise of the Eldrazi has given us a ton of new cards to work with and plenty of good ones at that. While I've looked at mono colored decks over the past few weeks, I'd like to go a bit deeper into the set's mechanics and see what else comes up. The first thing that struck me was the Eldrazi Spawn generators. They seem to have plenty of applications, so the question remains: How do we use them effectively?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101361Fri, 14 May 2010 15:48:35 GMTUS Nationals Qualifiers are this weekend, and if you’re planning on attending, you need to know what to expect. I’m going to briefly go over six of the most successful strategies in standard and why you should or shouldn’t choose one of them. Let’s get started.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101266Thu, 13 May 2010 18:16:40 GMTAs with every new set release, there are two articles I always do. The first is the two part First Glance series and the second is the new installment of Combo Corner. Today I’ll be taking a break from Casual Carnage to cater to the Johnnies in the crowd.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101189Wed, 12 May 2010 18:24:53 GMTWelcome to the 653rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We only get eight guys this week, six official Guildmage, one junior Guildmage and one Nagi Hassan. We do have a good Rise of the Eldrazi booster draft followed by a four man team draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101168Wed, 12 May 2010 11:04:10 GMTHey folks, It’s me again and I’m just as slow to get my article in as ever due to a major injury (I’m fine now, thanks for asking :) ) and, as usual, I’ve been finding time to work some Magic into my life. It is the limited portion of this new environment that we’re going to explore today and I’m more pumped about this set in draft than I have ever been about a set. Here’s why:http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101125Tue, 11 May 2010 20:47:31 GMTPro Tour San Juan is less than a month away. I thought it would be a good idea to go over one of the deck options I am considering for the tournament. While I am exploring other deck options, I still believe that this deck is very powerful for the Zendikar block format.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=101098Tue, 11 May 2010 16:11:20 GMTAfter three weeks and about twelve drafts, I have a better feel for the format now. The common lists are in pick order for the most part. I’ll list the top five commons in each color and some of the interesting cards. For the uncommons and rares I’ll list the cards in roughly the correct pick order, not that it really matters for rares.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100994Mon, 10 May 2010 13:14:11 GMTLongtime friend, teammate and draft king Neil Reeves came down to the Guildhall for a mini-vaca. We ripped a lot of Eldrazi packs playing sealed deck against each other. We drafted with the rest of the Guildmages on Tuesday night a couple of times. After immersing himself in the new set for a few days, J.T. Money shared his observations about ten commons from Eldrazi that he is down with.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100770Thu, 06 May 2010 18:55:49 GMTWelcome to the 652nd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Eleven players is a nice attendance, but considering that we just started drafting Rise of the Eldrazi, I expected an even bigger number. We ran one nine man draft followed by a 3v3 team draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100760Thu, 06 May 2010 16:36:57 GMTMy ability to name articles is obviously going downhill a bit but hopefully my deckbuilding skills are remaining good enough to deliver some useable information to you today. As you might have guessed, the topic today is green. However, I’m not here to preach about global warming. I don’t even have the fancy suit and a powerpoint presentation full of compelling facts. I have my PJ’s and a monogreen Eldrazi Ramp deck. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100705Wed, 05 May 2010 17:59:05 GMTDeck selection for any tournament can be a tricky process, and can vary greatly from player to player. It can be a result of hours and hours of playtesting, wheedling down choices until one emerges that just seems to consistently beat the rest of your gauntlet; or it can be a last-minute decision, handing in one out of two (or three, or four…) printed decklists right as the judges are collecting them. Certain methods of selection are better than others, and while I certainly wouldn’t advocate the latter method, I know in the past that I never had enough time for the former, either.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100618Tue, 04 May 2010 17:21:49 GMTSorry, it’s been over a week now since I got down to some writing. I've got a ton going on in my not-Magic branch of life: A promotion at work, a death in the family, and lots of judging (okay, well, some Magic). All is well though and I’m back with more words. Today I’m going to talk about a fun deck and a little about the deck I’ve been using competitively in Standard.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100492Mon, 03 May 2010 07:00:19 GMTDrWho, as Haibing is known on Magic Online, details his draft experiences each week exclusively on MTGFanatic. While the cardboard world is now drafting Rise of the Eldrazi, digital drafters must continue to draft Zendikar and Worldwake.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100373Sat, 01 May 2010 16:18:15 GMTWhite and green monocolored decks usually follow relatively linear strategies: White plays weenies, green plays fatties. At first, I was going to turn these ideas on their head and do something REALLY crazy, but the green fatties in Rise of the Eldrazi are too good to pass up. Originality be damned. I want to build a deck with these suckers. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100324Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:54:44 GMTWhen I wrote my first article for MTGFanatic, I just jumped headfirst into the strategy and didn’t really give you guys a good look at how my Magic career began. I’d like to do that now. I started playing Magic in seventh grade, at the age of twelve. I was in the scouts, and some of my friends had been playing D&D for a couple of years already. My parents wouldn’t let me play D&D because of the bad rep that the media had given it. Luckily for me, it took the media a long time to begin campaigning against MTG, and they never attacked it as hard as some other games.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100274Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:00:20 GMTThanks very much to all the people who read Part One of my adventures with Rise of the Eldrazi. Today I’ll be diving into part two of this endeavor and taking a look at what the rares and mythic rares of Rise of the Eldrazi have to offer the casual field. I’ve been through all the ado and circumstance already in the first article so I’ll spare you my rambling and dive right in.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100216Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:37:09 GMTWelcome to the 651st weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We have a big crowd tonight, as anticipated. Everyone is excited about Rise of the Eldrazi. Most everyone played in a prerelease event of one type or another over the weekend. Only a few people have managed to play in an Eldrazi booster draft already.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100196Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:42:28 GMTHi, I’m Will Lowry and you may unfortunately know who I am thanks to Pro Tour Yokohama. In the happy circumstance that you don’t, welcome – we’re going to Q for Amsterdam. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100117Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:26:15 GMTI’m reviewing the cards in the new set on a scale from one to ten. More specifically, I am covering the black, red and green cards. Last week, I covered the colorless Eldrazi cards, the lands and artifacts, the one multicolored card as well as the white and the blue cards. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=100044Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:45:05 GMTAfter having played with some of the new cards at the prerelease and seeing the full spoiler, I thought I would spend this time to take a look at a draft archetype that many old school drafters will recognize as U/W Skies. This archetype seems especially strong in this new format, as evasion is pretty hard for those walls to deal with. I’ll go over each card in white and blue that I feel fit into this aggro archetype, and explain how I would draft them if I were going this route in a draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99987Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:10:10 GMTPlaying one color creates definite limitations, but also a unique set of strengths. My mind has been slowly digesting the new cards that Rise of the Eldrazi has given us, and my first instinct with new cards is to try them out in a mono-colored build. How well do they work with their similarly-colored friends? Do we have to splash something to make the deck effective? Building a mono-colored deck is simply a good place to start when looking for new ideas. Who knows, maybe you won't have to add another color after all.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99835Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:13:11 GMTIt is always exciting to find out how a new set, like Rise of the Eldrazi, plays in sealed deck and booster draft. These formats are the first ways most of us experience a new set. The prerelease weekend (and subsequent release weekend) are witness to one very important and irrevocable fact: Rise of Eldrazi plays completely differently than Zendikar and Worldwake. Like a hundred and eighty degrees different. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99818Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:11:10 GMTPrerelease weekend is always a lot of fun, and this time was no exception. I played in a total of three sealed events and one draft, and I managed to do it all with just under nine hours of sleep for the entire weekend. Let’s just say that staying awake at work on Monday was pretty difficult. The weekend began with the midnight event at Heroes Collectibles...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99813Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:12:59 GMTHere at Fanatic, we are going to bring you, the players, the best independent event system out there. In order to do this we feel we can not do all the organization alone. At this point we are seeking representatives for our cause. The introduction of a Fanatic Event Organizer for each district will greatly improve the effectiveness and overall quality of our events. As it stands now, we will have a greater amount of cash events than anyone in the world. Setting up Fanatic Event Organizers in each district will be a one time operation. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99807Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:21:56 GMTI’m reviewing the cards in the new set on a scale from one to ten. Here’s the basic breakdown. In this part one of two, I will cover the colorless Eldrazi cards, the lands and artifacts, the one multicolored card as well as the white and the blue cards. Part Two will cover the remaining three colors.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99772Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:40:28 GMTI am impressed with Rise of the Eldrazi. Very much impressed, indeed. The set came out with just the right balance I was hoping for. There are the usual chase rares and the odd mold-defying cards like Vengevine, but otherwise the set is very well rounded and should be a blast to play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99754Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:53:08 GMTRemember the previous chapter, when I was referring to reflex vs automatism. I mentioned that you tend to repeat in tournament games what you have been getting used to in practice games. Unfortunately, nothing tells you that what you have been doing so far was the correct play every time. Sure, you can figure out that some plays have worked out better for you over your training period than others. But in order to optimize your plays, you need to find the best play.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99694Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:13:16 GMTHaibing Hu gives us a detailed look into a recent Zendikar/Zendikar/Worldwake draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99656Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:14:58 GMTMy name is Jody Dubrawsky and I'm a DCI judge and competitive player from central Louisiana. I was approached by the guys here at MTGFanatic, while head judging a 1k for them, about maybe writing some words for their ever-growing site. I figured “Sure, I have words." Once I decided that I would be writing something, the topic that couldn't escape my attention was Rise of the Eldrazi. This set is unique and the possibilities seem endless. Here are the cards that have really grabbed my attention, in one way or another, and I'm going to explain why:http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99646Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:28:48 GMTMTGFanatic.com is on a nationwide tour to promote and set up its esteemed War Card System with any and all stores that feature Skrimish events. The system will be set up based on geographical districts. For example, larger states will be their own districts while smaller states will be set up in multi-state districts. The point of this is to hold more events so that more people have a chance to attend. Players will not be able to jump districts in order to grind Fanatic points. This is due to the huge payout in which the level system allows.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99634Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:20:42 GMTFor those of you who may not know me, I’m Shaun Rodriguez, a Houston native who has been playing Magic since junior high in 1994. I’ll be writing weekly here at MTGFanatic, and I thought I would begin my “Reign of Terror” by introducing myself, and by telling the tale of how I came to be the Magic player that I am today. Everyone has to start somewhere!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99570Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:19:26 GMTThe first rule of building decks on a budget is simple: Use what's available. Many of us have binders of rares. Quite often, we may only have one or two copies of a particular rare. These cards are ones we can put to use. Frankly, there's no better format for this than Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH). EDH looks expensive at first glance, as the decks play 100 cards each. In reality, you're likely using cards you already have instead of shelling out for new ones. That, my friends, is what being reasonable about your card budget is all about. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99491Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:21:48 GMTThe Tiger is back in the game. No, not THAT one. I’m talking about David Williams, the kid who made it big in Magic and then made it even bigger in the grown up world of World Series poker. Actually, David’s been playing Magic the whole time, of course. David gets to the big events, Pro Tours and Grand Prixs, as often as his work schedule allows it. But as I watched David close up throughout last weekend’s Grand Prix in Houston, I saw a familiar face from a long time ago. I saw a happy-go-lucky David Williams that I haven’t exactly seen since way back when he was living in Dallas ten years ago.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99469Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:04:01 GMTThis past weekend was the MTGFanatic 1k trial event in Louisiana. I had planned to attend, but due to my wife breaking her ankle and complications at work, I was unable. If I had made it, I would’ve played the same standard deck I have been playing for months now. Which deck is that? Valakut Ramp.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99467Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:12:35 GMTSince it came out, Dallas and I have been having somewhat of a mini affair with Electropotence. We’re actually not entirely sure if it’s even worth thinking about yet but Dallas has been fairly stoic in this card’s potential. If you read his “Cards to Watch” article (which I’m assuming you did unless our followers are completely mutually exclusive groups) then you’ll know about his predictions regarding it. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99466Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:40:51 GMTWelcome to the 649th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. People are very tired of the world of Zendikar drafting. Maybe there’s a little Magic fatigue around here in general. At any rate, we had a very small meeting with just five players. We ended up playing a pair of 2v2 drafts. In this article, however, I am also playing catch up after not reporting the past three meetings. In two of those previous meetings we had quality drafts of eight and ten players each. The top decks from one of those drafts is detailed later as well as the play-by-play of a match between those decks.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99370Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:11:22 GMTHaibing Hu gives us a pick-by-pick analysis of a recent Magic Online Draft. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99321Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:19:43 GMTThis is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute just sit right down, I’ll tell you how I started writing articles in this town. My name is Haibing Hu. I started playing Magic as a freshman in high school in 1996. I was introduced to the game by someone who remains a good friend to this day. We first started playing in one of the rarely used stairwells before school began. I remember playing against one guy in our group who kept on drawing three to four [card]Giant Growth[/card]s in every single game. Finally, after about ten games and roughly thirty-five Giant Growths, I asked to see his deck. He refused. Good times. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99312Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:34:33 GMTMost of you don’t know me yet, and since this is my first article, I’d like to take a few minutes to introduce myself. My name is Justin Corbett. I’m from Houston Texas, and I love playing Magic. I’ve been playing off and on for the past 15 years, and recently made my foray into the highest level of competitive play. I’m going to cover a mixture of constructed ideas, limited strategies, and pretty much anything else that I find interesting and would like to share in this column. I really do hope you enjoy it.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99282Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:55:22 GMTEver have an idea so great that you're compelled to write about it as soon as you have it? As a writer, I encounter this feeling quite a bit. That was the case with this article. We all know that something isn't original if someone else has thought of it, but what if that someone was you? After I began writing this, I realized that I had come up with this idea a few months ago and had forgotten about it! Maybe one's idea really IS good if you've come to the same conclusion on two separate occasions. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99213Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:17:22 GMTHalf of playing Magic on a decent budget is one's ability to assess cards. Most cards, especially rares, fluctuate in price as they see more or less tournament play, or more or less hype after a set is released. This week, I want to deviate a bit from budget deck construction, and focus on identifying cards that could significantly change in value as time goes on.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99156Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:24:51 GMTA handful of times per week I have people from my group, or on this site, contacting me with messages that usually read something like “Hey Tom, what’s so great about [cardname]? I just don’t get it.” or “Why do people like this so much? It hurts you.” and other such gems including “Your rent is two months overdue, we’re evicting you.” Excusing that final example, the card in question is typically something that requires life as a payment or involves you losing a bit as part of the resolution. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=99103Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:57:10 GMT]It’s one of those questions that someone in your play group will inevitably pose from time to time. What if Wizards of the Coast ended the Pro Tour, or what if Wizards went out of business altogether? Occasionally, someone directs this question to me in reference to the huge amount of my time spent in and around the game. My answers usually surprise them. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=98689Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:51:08 GMTRemoval. You love it, I hate it, but that’s assuming you’re casting it against my creatures. Of course, if I’m the one using it I’ll be enjoying it myself. Removal is a conundrum that new and old players ponder alike. What do you use? How do you use it? When do you use it? On whom?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=98590Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:06:09 GMTAngels are one of the most iconic creature types in Magic. They have been around since the very beginning and have appeared in nearly every expansion that has been printed. The only one I can currently think of that lacks any angel is the Lorwyn/Morningtide mini-block. oday’s article honors some of the angels that make casual play just so darn much fun.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=98306Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:15:28 GMTLast week, I was just throwing some ideas around in my head, trying to come up with a fun deck to build. Lately, I've been running into decks that pack in tons of powerful creatures that happen to cost a lot of money. How can budget players level the playing field? Well, how about we copy or steal everything they play?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=98186Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:40:10 GMTWelcome to the 645th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We drafted just one time with eight players tonight. Attendance has been very good, overall, for the past year. I have to remind myself of this fact when I catch myself complaining about ONLY having eight players on a night like tonight. Not to go all stats-geek on you, but we had 591 players at 49 meetings in 2009, a big increase from 405 players at 52 meetings in 2008 and 409 players at 48 meetings in 2007. High five!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=98093Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:01:28 GMTMagic players have short memories. Once a set rotates out of Standard, many players pack up their cards and never touch them again. I've been guilty of this, to a degree. While I don't stop playing with my cards entirely, I certainly am less inclined to build and play with older sets. This is often a shortsighted move, as most of us play in casual circles more often than in a tournament setting.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=97513Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:10:35 GMTJust as has been stated many times before, Casual Magic is a format of numerous outlets. One of its finer points that I do not discuss too terribly in depth is one-versus-one in casual and where its emphases lie. If your talents of deduction are a tad out of tune, then please allow me to introduce to you today’s article.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=97311Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:23:06 GMT]Worldwake has gotten a bit of a bad rap when compared to Zendikar. I've heard people saying it is the worst set since Kamigawa block. I wouldn't quite go that far (I think Dissension takes that honor). Worldwake has given us a few tournament staples, as well as plenty of material for casual decks as well. There's fun to be had in any set, and Worldwake is no exception.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=97130Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:47:06 GMTIf I had to pick one thing out of the troubles that playing Magic has, I would have to say that the prime culprit is the lack of a fun and relaxed environment. This is pretty much the entire reason my friends and I walk out of FNM with numb minds and short tempers. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=97027Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:11:21 GMTIn order to play better, you have to understand how to avoid basic mistakes first. In part one, we covered that making mistakes allows your opponent to take an advantage he was not supposed to have in the first place. We will stick to that definition for now, as making a mistake also means not taking full advantage of your opponent’s mistakes...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96967Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:01:42 GMTWelcome to the 644th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We drafted just one time with eleven players, admittedly an unusual and awkward number. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96881Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:34:42 GMTWelcome to the 643rd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. We had nine players tonight, a little on the small side but still enough for a proper eight man booster draft.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96852Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:49:10 GMTMost of you know me as the budget deck building guy. However, you'll also notice that many of my articles are focused on Standard decks, or, more specifically, playing Standard on a budget. I want to veer away from the budget side of things for a bit, and focus on the Standard metagame as a whole. As it stands, we've got ourselves a pretty interesting field at the moment.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96738Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:22:44 GMT]If you’re anything like me, odds are you have about thirty ideas for decks scoot through your head on any given day. If you’re not like me, you probably have a lot more room in your head for other things. I have a few ideas I’d like to commit to the Fanatic hive mind. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96432Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:33:57 GMTSo who here is old enough to remember when Fulminator Mage was a must-own card and the rave of black and red sideboard tech? Odds are a fair few of you are. I chased my set of Fulminator Mages for almost a year and ended up finishing my set just a few short months before they rotated out of standard and, little did I know, headed for the bargain bin.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96084Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:27:45 GMTWelcome to the 642nd weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Tonight’s role call includes fifteen players. We drafted Zendikar/Zendikar/Worldwake twice, first with ten players and then later with nine players. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=96014Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:57:42 GMTAs I sit here late at night contemplating new deck ideas, I often turn to others for inspiration. Thomas Wrigley (The Artificer) and I started talking about Magic, which is often where our conversations take us. I mentioned a 10-cent card bin at the shop next to my workplace, and how I was able to find a few rares in there. One of those rares was Mesa Enchantress. “Go ahead, take it. It's not like it's a great card anyway,” said the owner. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=95876Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:53:36 GMTWelcome to the 641st weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Tonight’s role call included a cozy eight players. We drafted Zendikar/Zendikar/Worldwake one time and everyone went their separate ways before ten o’clock.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=95397Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:05:03 GMTSo, you love the new two-color man lands. So do I! However, for budget players, building with them may seem like a pipe dream. Fear not, my friends, I think I've found a way to incorporate one of these lands into a pretty potent deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=95313Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:59:29 GMTOf all the cards released in Worldwake there are a select few that have my distinct attention. You’ve already heard my ranting about Chain Reaction (if you haven’t that’s okay too) and those of you that are privy to my upcoming deck designs are also aware of my high anticipation for Kalastria Highborn. As fun and interesting as these cards are destined to be, today is all about somebody different. Today’s topic is Worldwake’s Little Red Mythic Rare, Dragonmaster Outcast.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=95273Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:47:47 GMTWelcome to the 640th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Tonight’s role call totaled sixteen players all chomping at the bit to draft Worldwake. We drafted twice. Our first draft included eight players and we had ten players for our second.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=95236Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:15:07 GMTHello ladies and gentlewurms! Welcome to the Worldwake edition of Combo Corner (a sub-column of my regular Casual Carnage). I’m releasing this article this week to complement the completion of my early analysis of Worldwake for casual play which you can read at your leisure in the articles section of this website.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94871Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:47:59 GMTIf you were like me and checked out the Worldwake release party, you know just how fun it is to draft this new set. You may also have noticed how Worldwake has some very subtle cards that are actually quite powerful. And finally, you've probably noticed how much better allies are with Worldwake in the mix. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94840Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:06:48 GMTI hope everybody enjoyed part one of this venture into Worldwake. I am examining what it is giving us to work with at the casual table. Today I’ll be finishing this pair of articles by looking into the remainder of the set and giving you some details on which rares and mythic rares are going to have the maximum impact in your casual game. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94581Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:52:30 GMTPlayers wake up today to a world of new possibilities with Worldwake. Magic: the Gathering’s latest expansion premiered in prerelease events this past weekend, and just like you, I’m interested in finding out what’s good and what’s bad.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94311Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:08:12 GMTHey everybody, I hope everyone's prerelease went well. Mine sure did. I managed to finish 3-1, good enough for fifth place. Unfortunately, that's one slot out of the finals. So, moving on! We had looked at three colors last week, so let's wrap up the other two and a few other things.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94188Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:49:17 GMTWelcome to what is undoubtedly going to be Worldwake extravaganza week here at MtgFanatic. With a new set comes new ideas to write about and Dallas and I have determined, after burning through thousands in government research grant money, that we’re excited. Whenever a new set is brought in to augment the resources available at the kitchen countertop battlefield everyone wants to get the best of the set into their deck before their friends do. Everyone wants some inside information. Today I’ll be bringing you part one of what are looking to be the most promising Worldwake cards in casual Magic.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94187Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:34:04 GMTWelcome to the 639th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Tonight’s role call totaled nine players including our hottest current commodity Mister Hunter Burton. We managed to play our first EIGHT man booster draft in a few weeks. We had some laughs speculating about Worldwake and its effect on the rest of the extended season and we watched Eric Jones build things with Magic cubes.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=94155Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:45:38 GMTRecently I’ve been dipping my toes in the comparatively shallow waters of the Type 2 (Standard) environment to see how you tourney types manage yourselves and see if competitive play in any way helps to sharpen your casual skills. In short, it depends on the person. Just like in every aspect of the game, competitive play requires attention to detail and a good eye for opportunity. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93613Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:53:16 GMTIn the beginning, there was darkness. At least, as far as learning about Magic cards before they went on sale in stores. In the first years of Magic: the Gathering, there were no pre-release events.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93580Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:11:44 GMTIn Zendikar draft the most consistent way strong decks are drafted involves picking the strongest card out of your first pack. Then, if it wasn’t a Trusty Machete or Eldrazi Monument, you should pick the strongest card out of the same color for the next several packs. After that, if your first color dries up you want to choose whichever color is most open for your other color.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93578Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:50:25 GMTThe whole concept of getting better at Magic does not mean much on its own. Do you want to build better decks? Do you want to play better? Do you want to win tournaments? Of course, all these questions are connected. You will not win tournaments on a regular basis if you can not play the game well. You will not win tournaments if you play bad decks. But how exactly do you improve your chances? What do you have to practice in order to reach another level? What are the priorities?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93545Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:05:04 GMTHi everyone. Getting excited for Worldwake yet? I know I am. The second and third sets in a block make the Standard environment a bit more varied, and Worldwake shouldn't be an exception to this rule. Currently, the standard metagame is in a state of near-constant flux, with Jund being the only archetype that hasn't seen much change over the past few months. Worldwake should add to this chaos. In this article, I want to take a look at each color and evaluate its current role in standard. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93542Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:32:14 GMTWelcome to the 638th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Attendance is good again this week with eleven players. We get another ten man Zendikar draft off followed by a 3v3 team draft. There’s no extended tech or Worldwake information in this article, but both topics remain of great interest to the team.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93411Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:27:34 GMTI'm getting geared up for Worldwake, but in the meantime, I thought I'd do a bit more Pauper stuff. Pauper is a great casual format, as it lets you build decks for next to nothing on Magic: Online. In addition, there're always lots of people to play with, and plenty of tournaments. Speaking of tournaments, I decided to enter my first Pauper tournament the other day.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93152Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:25:08 GMTSometimes, everything comes together. Sometimes, despite bad draws and strong opponents, you pull through. Sometimes you're just on top of your game. And sometimes, your friend lends you a playset of Goblin Guides and a few fetch lands to round out your deck.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93144Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:00:18 GMTLet’s take a poll, shall we? Who likes it when your lands do more for you than just provide and/or fix mana? Who likes it when they turn into creatures and do battle? I sure do. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93130Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:32:56 GMTMy name is Zach Karthauser. I first started playing Magic in the summer of 1997 and started playing in local tournaments before Christmas that year. After about a year I got serious about improving my game and after having played for close to three years I won my first PTQ and packed my bags for PT Chicago in 2000. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=93128Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:05:19 GMTWelcome to the 637th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Attendance is even higher than last week, and we manage to get off two 3v3 team drafts and a lengthy ten man booster draft as well. I break down the two best decks of the ten man draft and also share some play-by-play of a series of games played with those two decks.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=92990Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:28:40 GMTWelcome to the 636th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Attendance was back up this week. We had twelve players by 7:30 and no late arrivers. We ended up playing three different Zendikar drafts, all were 3v3 team drafts.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=92678Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:02:46 GMTWelcome to the 635th weekly meeting of the Texas Guildmages. Meeting 635 took place on Tuesday, December 29th in the Guildhall, the upstairs loft of my home in Coppell, Texas. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=92677Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:29:59 GMTThis week, Artificer delves into using Blue control decks at the multiplayer table.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=92454Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:17:37 GMTThis week, Dallas looks at building decks around Scornful Egotist!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=92451Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:49:07 GMTNew methods to submit writings. All writers please read!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=92011Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:16:11 GMTI think that many of us Magic players often lose sight of what attracted us to the game in the first place. I, for one, am often in that boat. I get too caught up with playing competitively and building competitive-level decks at times. Sometimes we need to step back and see Magic for what it is: a very customizable card game. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91883Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:21:41 GMTMagic is a great game. I'm assuming you think so as well, as you probably wouldn't be reading this if you hated it. Thing is, Magic requires an opponent.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91758Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:17:36 GMTZendikar has many things to offer players, but does it have what it takes to make powerful decks for budget multiplayer?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91757Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:57:27 GMTFor those who do not know me, I am Raphael Levy, seasoned Magic veteran and Pro Tour Hall of famer. I have been playing Magic for 15 years and on the Pro Tour since Paris in ’97. You might have read some of my articles on mtg.com where I was writing the column “Ask the Pro” in 2006-2007, and on another famous strategy website where I was telling about the Pro Tour lifestyle. I now want to share some of my experience with you, mtgfanatic readers. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91654Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:34:09 GMTBefore we bring 2009 to a close, we should take a look back on it and all that it's done for us, both for better and for worse.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91193Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:09:43 GMTIn this article, I’m going to take you to the last PTQ of the season in San Antonio. I’m going to share what happened to me and my deck. I talked to Jay Wise, one of the most interesting Magic players in Texas, and he shared some of his thoughts about the Zendikar sealed format. He also talked to me about lots of other Magic-related topics.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91093Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:57:55 GMTThe holidays are upon us in a big way, and holiday time has always meant two things to me. First, you reminisce about the events of the almost-finished year. Second, you get to set your work or school responsibilities aside and just PLAY a little bit. Today we’re going for fun. Serious competitive formats are out, at least until we light a few more candles or finish off the Christmas cookies. Fun is in. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=91054Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:17:39 GMTLandfall is the latest keyword that’s been dished out to us to meddle with. It’s mana flood’s worst enemy and Johnny fodder to boot. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=90955Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:14:41 GMTA comic strip depicting the experiences of some of the MtgFanatic Crew in Missouri.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=90458Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:37:33 GMTThere're always the cards that people are instantly attracted to, and some that only really succeed at the draft table. Then there're the ones that are just plain bad. But in between all that, there's usually a crop of cards that are just waiting to be used at the casual table, and used well. So, what should we, as casual players, be taking advantage of?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=90366Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:25:33 GMTI’d like to introduce you to someone I like to call ‘Gus’. You may have heard or read about the psycho-graphic profiles that Wizards has come up with in an effort to define how to market Magic (Spike, Johnny, Timmy, etc.). I think they are quite creative in this regard, and do an admirable job of appealing to these different types of players. There’s only one problem: I don’t fit into any of them very well. So in my own ‘special’ way, I’ve defined a new one:http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=90148Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:19:17 GMTAfter weeks of looking at attempting to play constructed on a budget, I'd like to get back to casual decks for a second. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=89627Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:59:26 GMTAllie interviews an experienced Pro Tour player named Tom “The Boss” Ross and a female Magic player, Alana.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=89387Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:07:46 GMTMagic: the Gathering has an enormous card base to work with. In the flurry of new releases and special edition sets, it’s not uncommon for us to overlook the value in sets that are no longer current.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=89091Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:50:34 GMTMagic’s State Championship rules, as well as the rules of physics, only allow players to compete in one State Championship. However, if you hustle, it is possible to cover two states at the same time. If you are willing to drive a lot and aren’t afraid of deer. This year, it was my pleasure and responsibility to run the State Champs tournaments for both Oklahoma and Kansas...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=88919Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:56:21 GMTA few weeks ago, I looked at playing competitively in Extended on a budget with a Hypergenesis build. Now, I'm going to look at doing so in Standard. http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=88618Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:39:06 GMTSomeone asked me, the other day, if I thought it was worth his time to travel to the State Championships this weekend. Since I am “in the know” about the event, I told him all the reasons why I believe it certainly is worth the trip. Here’s the what and the why.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=88595Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:40:46 GMTEvery once in a while, we all come across those cards that we absolutely must build a deck (or five) around. For quite some time, one of my cards has been Panoptic Mirror. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who’s the best combo card of them all?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=88339Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:44:51 GMTA lot of players don’t care for Zendikar limited formats. Yet Zendikar sealed and booster draft are completely relevant formats right now, as Magic players find themselves cruising toward the end of a sealed deck/booster draft qualifying season for the San Diego Pro Tour coming in February. Still, there are a lot of haters. I like Zendikar limited formats a great deal, actually. I am going to talk about Zendikar sealed and booster draft, the pros as well as the cons.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=88152Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:26:40 GMTCasual play has many facets of creativity. Some of them are simple in nature, some are complicated, and some are downright aggravating. I elected to do some discussion regarding the complicated aspects or, in other words, combos.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=88013Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:26:43 GMTThis is a new article dedicated to everyone’s favorite weekly tournament, Friday Night Magic. Here you’ll find limited and constructed decks, playtesting results, tournament reports, and much, much more. What you read here isn’t going to win you a Pro Tour, but should get you well on your way to earning some extra prize packs and a nifty FNM promo card.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=87946Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:48:17 GMTCasual Carnage Vol XIIhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=87945Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:56:16 GMTCasual Carnage Vol XIhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=87944Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:55:09 GMTCasual Carnage Vol Xhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=87943Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:52:57 GMTPauper Updatehttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=87942Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:48:43 GMTEvery Card Countshttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=86195Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:04:02 GMTBuilding a competative extended deck on a budget.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=86193Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:54:52 GMTAn article dedicated to hose who are involved in trading. A general "Rule sheet" for fair trade to make sure all parties involved are happy with the outcome of the trade.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=86192Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:41:34 GMTCasual Carnage Vol VIIIhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=85718Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:25:35 GMTSaying Goodbye - Shadowmoor and Eventidehttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=85245Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:40:21 GMTBeyond the Deck: Budget Lessonshttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=85244Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:36:15 GMTNosferatu - Adventures with a Vampire Deckhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=85243Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:31:38 GMTEvery Card Countshttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=84679Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:52:31 GMTSaying Goodbye to Lorwyn and Morningtidehttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=84353Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:54:58 GMTDallas' Weekly column Vol IV http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=84054Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:07:34 GMTA study of Master Transmuterhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=84038Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:22:13 GMTPlaneswalkers: Money and Multiplayerhttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83936Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:25:36 GMTEvery Card Countshttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83935Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:11:51 GMTCasual Carnagehttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83513Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:07:03 GMTEvery Card Counts.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83506Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:24:37 GMTWhat do you think?http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83356Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:15:12 GMTAn article demonstrating how understanding the rules in depth can help your game.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83315Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:16:02 GMTWe all have them. Piles and piles of cards lying around, potentially unsorted. The one thing they have in common: A black set symbol...http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83312Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:57:25 GMTCasual Carnagehttp://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83296Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:03:57 GMTMaking the Most of M10: Part 1http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=83293Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:26:35 GMT.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=82751Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:09:57 GMT.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=81860Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:57:51 GMT.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=81020Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:24:23 GMTHere they are!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=80929Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:46:26 GMT.http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=80590Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:21:36 GMT http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=79418Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:18:57 GMTRead all about it!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=76810Sun, 24 May 2009 01:02:16 GMTWho won it all? http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=74438Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:57:05 GMTArticles are coming to MtgFanatic!http://www.mtgfanatic.com/Articles/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=72272Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:05:28 GMT