Month: November 2014

BSB Classic: Brave New World

Editor’s note: Due to Thanksgiving, we’re taking the next couple days off. Enjoy this BSB classic and your holiday! “All right then,” said the savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” On A Comedown When Brian Kibler first started ranting about the November MOCS crashing, many Magic Online regulars rolled their eyes. We already knew…

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Brainstorm Brewery #124 – Prototype

Can I level with you? I’m not entirely sure which portion, if any, of what we recorded is fit for consumption. This isn’t a gag; really, I’m serious. We sat down and we really, truly had the best intentions. Corbin made show notes, and they had topics on them. We had plenty to talk about,…

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BSB Classic: Trading to Your Outs

Editor’s note: Due to Thanksgiving, we’re taking the next couple days off. Enjoy this BSB classic and your holiday! Hello again! For those of you who took the time to read my last article and still bothered to click on the link to my second piece, I thank you. I hope I was able to share enough…

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Casually Infinite – Preserving Khans for Future Play

One thing I really like to do is draft good sets. While most cubes provide a unique experience in which you get to play with a wide variety of powerful cards from various sets, there is something about a well-designed and playtested Limited environment that far outshines the enjoyment of having to decide between [card]Jace,…

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Weekend Magic: 11/21-11/23

This past weekend featured Star City Games: Richmond. Let’s take a look at what decks were featured in Standard, Modern, and Legacy. SCG Open Richmond – Standard (VA, USA) Decklists Finish Deck Finish Deck 1st Jeskai Combo 9th U/B Control 2nd Esper Control 10th Abzan Midrange 3rd Abzan Aggro 11th Temur Midrange 4th Jeskai Aggro…

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Pitt Imps Podcast #95 The Future

In what can only be described as a slow week, the time is taken to explain exactly what to expect once the next century of the Pitt Imps begins. We go over SCG Columbus and let you guys know that the PPTQ schedule has been announced.   Host Angelo @ganksuou Co-Host Ryan @brotheryan Co-Host Will…

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Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding versus Midrange and Control

Welcome back again! I hope my previous article was able to help you all with the more explosive matchups you will face and I hope this one will help you with the more grinding matchups. A Quick Refresher The Deck [deck title= AZooni (Big Zoo) ] [Creatures] 4 Wild Nacatl 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Tarmogoyf 4…

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Privileged Position 5: No Sleep ‘Til Edison

Last weekend was Grand Prix New Jersey, the third-largest GP (or any tournament, really) of all time. I had a great time, but more than anything else, the past couple of days were a glimpse into what is likely the future of Magic’s organized play program. The official attendance for this tournament was 4003, but…

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Brainstorm Brewery #123 – Unpronouncable

Winter strikes, and the cast has a difficult time assembling at the designated time. It’s actually going to be a bit telling who assembles the show notes because someone both shows up late and doesn’t really know what was discussed for the first fifteen minutes of the episode. That same person may or may not…

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Conjured Currency #40: Lessons from Grand Prix New Jersey

Grand Prix New Jersey has come and gone, and it was certainly an event to remember. With 4,003 people playing in the main event, Magic players have proven once again that Legacy is not a dead format. MTG even finally managed to beat Farm Simulator 2015 on Twitch, reaching over 15,000 viewers at its peak….

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Finance 201: Putting Theory to Practice

For the purpose of this article, I will be using fictional card prices that may or may not reflect the current prices as of the date this article is written or released. All prices quoted are in US dollars. As a Magic: The Gathering financier, you likely hold a substantial number of cardboard Magic cards. But…

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Weekend Magic: 11/14-11/16

Two Grands Prix for the price of one! This weekend featured Grand Prix New Jersey and Grand Prix Madrid. New Jersey featured some sweet Legacy card slinging, where players were either playing [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] or playing around it, and Madrid featured some great Modern action where players were… basically doing the same thing. Let’s see…

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Pitt Imps Podcast #94 The Rickets

Seriously, people, stop cheating. I can’t believe I got to go over another suspension this week. Oh, well. We also got a couple GPs and SCG Oakland, which had the real breakout deck of the week. Plenty of news came out of the Aussie PAX and Angelo goes off on a rant about Modern. You’ve…

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Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding Versus the Aggressive

Welcome back, everybody! I assume since you are here you want to learn how to sideboard with my Zoo deck against the more aggressive decks in Modern. If not, tough luck. Against these decks, you want to start off as the control deck and stabilize before transitioning into being the beatdown to close the game….

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Privileged Perspective 4: The Mana From Another Place

One of my favorite aspects of Magic finance is the one that is very likely the least discussed. People will pore endless hours over set reviews, Modern breakouts, and Reserve List buyouts, but there is, comparatively, nothing written about foreign foils and obscurities. There are several different factors that contribute to this, but in an era where…

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Brainstorm Brewery #122 – Moneystorm Draughtbrew

You’re not hearing things; Brainstorm Brewery has been invaded! Determined to bend the universe to his will in the interest of making his own life easier, Jason records Money Draught and Brainstorm Brewery back to back this week and brings JR (@Time_Elemental) and Slick Jagger (@Slickjagger) with him. Two’s company, but five’s a crowd as…

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Conjured Currency #39: The Nekusar Effect

Hey, everyone! I’m going to take a moment and assume that not all of you reading this article have been playing for longer than a year. For those who are unaware of what the title of this article is referring to, let me give you a brief refresher: [card]Nekusar, the Mindrazer[/card], was one of the…

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Pimp My Deck: Commander 2014Guided by Nature (the Green Deck)

Hey, everyone, I’m here to bring you a brand-new article series to help newer players get into Commander.  I’m planning on covering all the new decks over the course of a few articles, and today I’m going to start with the green one, Guided by Nature. The first thing I’m going to do is break…

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Weekend Magic: 11/07-11/09

Magic coverage this week includes highlights from Star City Games Columbus. As usual, the Open this week includes Standard and Legacy, with a side of Modern in the form of a Premier Invitational Qualifier. Let’s see what results came out of the weekend. SCG Open Columbus – Standard (OH, USA) Decklists Steve Rubin took down…

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Pitt Imps Podcast #93 Eternal

Yes, it’s a long one. Not my fault. Way too much crap to go over, with everything from saying goodbye to cheaters to Eternal Weekend. We got GPs, SCGs, and even Commander spoilers. Let’s not forget the MTGO policy changes. It took a while, even with Will taking the night off. Host Angelo   Twitter @Ganksuou…

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Welcome to the Jungle!

Hello, everybody! I’m back, but this time, instead of a tournament report, I am here to teach you how to play Big Zoo in Modern. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg] It All Started Here To give you all a background of where this deck came from, I’ll give you my background as a player. I was introduced to Magic:…

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The Puzzle Box: Personalizing Your Cube

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Puzzle Box! Now, that is probably more of a welcome back for me, rather than you, as I’ll have to assume that you have been around these parts more than I have as of late. Last time I showed up here, I was winding up my life in…

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Brainstorm Brewery #121 – The Real Diva

Ray’s the rookie, Jeskai Ascendancy continues to evolve, and Commander (2014 Edition) is the stones. Sometimes, everything is right in the world and you start firing on all cylinders. With a few topics to cover, the gang got right into it. Who’s the real diva on the cast? What’s the rarity on Jason’s Pick of…

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Conjured Currency #38: Finance 101, Arbitrage

Arbitrage. Noun. The simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities, or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices. In “Finance 101” terms, this basically means that we’re going to buy something at one price from some entity, then immediately turn around and sell that exact same thing to somebody else…

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Casually Infinite – Catching Cheaters

With the recent wave of bans for cheating dropping on various known Magic personalities, one of the most common questions I’ve seen is, “Why haven’t judges been catching these issues far earlier?” I’m going to break down the duties of a judge at large events to try to bring some perspective as to why people like this…

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