Magic: The Gathering

Otherworldly Journey – MTG in the Middle Kingdom

The great Chinese philosopher Laozi once said: “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and true now as it was then my [card]Otherworldly Journey[/card] into the MTG scene in Asia started with a chance encounter with the greatest game ever made. I boarded the cardboard crack train like many others.  With the…

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Why Linear Decks are Not a Bad Thing.

Splinter Twin got banned, Summer Bloom got banned, players raged at the world, at their family, at their lives, but mostly they just raged. I feel it was a net positive for the Modern format to grow and adapt. I think unbans should have occurred with [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card] and [card]Ancestral Visions[/card] but thats not what…

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To Ban or Unban?

It has been a while since I’ve contributed to the site and I’ve missed writing, missed seeing your comments, missed feeling like I’ve contributed to the community that I so enjoy being a part of.  Due to some personal commitments, I haven’t been as active a participant in the current Standard season, though I have…

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How Magic Almost Ruined My Life

Magic: The Gathering does a lot of good things for a lot of good people; it gives them an avenue to socialize, a hobby to be passionate about and a game to love and enjoy. In local game stores all around the world, long-standing friendships and relationships, deep cutting rivalries and meaningful senses of belonging…

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BFZ – Standing in the Way of Control

Control decks have lost their way in BFZ Standard. They currently represent Less than five percent of the winning meta game. Control often flounders in the early meta because the deck is made of answers. If the threats haven’t stabilized in the meta, it is hard to know which answers to include. There are a number of…

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You Can Counter on Ephara

Some people hate fun. Whether they’re the dickhead boss that refuses employees nap time and Rock Band in the break room, or are simply an avid fan of TV’s Gotham, having a good time simply doesn’t appeal to some people. The same is often said for those who run a lot of counterspells in EDH….

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Legacy’s Allure

This weekend, my LGS is having its first Legacy FNM. For people who don’t play Legacy, this is just a chance for people to show off their dual lands, Force of Wills and Wastelands. I guarantee there will be some people who’ll show up just to see cards they may never see again. I mean,…

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Teaching People to Play Magic

I believe that Magic is a great game, and if you’re reading this there is a good chance that you agree with me. It’s normal human nature to want to share things that we enjoy with our friends, but introducing Magic to people not familiar with a similar game can be a daunting task. If…

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Financial Five: Fate Reforged

With each new set it seems like retailers are getting better at pre-pricing cards to fit card hype and demand. I look past the chase rares/mythics and find the diamonds in the rough. Below are five cards I think are worth investing in. [card]Alesha, Who Smiles at Death[/card]($2) The list of “bring-backable” creatures seems be…

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Resurrection Perfection – An Abzan Reanimator Primer

Dredge. Reanimator. Storm. All of these decks are extremely powerful. All of them are current tier-one strategies in Legacy. All of them have one thing in common: they use their graveyards as a resource. So why wouldn’t you do the same thing in a less powerful format like Standard? [deck title=Abzan Whip, by Ken Crocker] [Creatures]…

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Getting LUCKy: Mulligans

If I had to guess why most games are won and lost in Magic,  the first stop on the blame train would be mulligans. A good number of players have a hard time knowing what is keepable and what would be better as a random six.  An even larger number of players don’t know when…

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Playing Magic for Free #2: From Trading to Trader

Read Part 1 of this series – here! Completing the Transformation I was talking to a friend, Kevin Grigsby, who has bought and sold cards off and on since well before my start in the game. We discussed a story dating back to the unbanning of [card]Land Tax[/card]. It was the first time I was…

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Playing Magic for Free #1: Catching the Cardboard Bug

When a newborn Magic players opens her eyes for the first time, it’s difficult to not be overwhelmed with the price others will pay for multicolored cardboard.  If you read the title to this three-part mini-series, it’s obvious I’m not here to justify card prices or imply the financial requirement to play this game. I’m actually…

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Getting L.U.C.K.y: Playtesting

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. -Thomas A. Edison I’m going to take a bit of a break this week and shift into getting L.U.C.K.y while playing the game. In a game such as Magic, where there are sixty randomized cards built from thousands of…

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The Financial Five: Born of the Gods

It’s the first set of 2014! The second installment of Theros block, Born of the Gods, is here, ready to improve your favorite Standard brew.  More importantly for MTG financiers, a whole batch of potential investments are waiting for speculation. Here are my five picks for a beneficial Born of the Gods speculation session (say…

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Standard Commander Gatecrash Archetypes and Example Decks, Part 1

Author’s note: Since this article series was started, Born of the Gods has been released. Its addition alters the Dimir, Simic, and Gruul decks enough to warrant a revision of the example deck lists. Those lists will be included in part two of this article. For a Standard Commander format, Gatecrash guilds are going to…

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The Financial Five: Multicolored Devotion

I know what you might be thinking. Why talk about multicolored creatures in regard to devotion? High devotion needs to be built up in the first three of four turns, right? You’re not wrong.  All that extra mana can enable a hand-barf, but why not play a powerful creatures earlier than intended?  Even better, what…

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Kirsin Koch – When Nukes Hit the Commander Playgroup: The Standard Commander Challenge

It is entirely likely that many a Commander playgroup is approaching the final stretch of the arms race to build increasingly powerful decks full of format staples. And why not? Thanks to Eternal players and speculators seeking to offload extra pieces of the Mind Seize deck, there is a massive influx of Commander 2013 product….

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Andrew Colman – The Puzzle Box: White Section

The opposite of a profound truth may very well be another profound truth. – Niels Bohr I have to be honest, I voted for the $400 version of this cube. The vote came very close between $200 and $400 and I was hoping that if I just gave it another day things might turn out…

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