Standard

Brewing With Shadows over Innistrad

Welcome back for Brewing With Shadows over Innistrad, and a new world order for Standard. With this latest set Standard is now a three block format that currently consists of Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, and Shadows over Innistrad. This is a super exiting time, because screw [card]Siege…

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Mono Brew #2 – Ignoring Reality

It’s been a few months since the first edition of Mono Brew, which I ended with the promise that my next article would be a primer on my Modern pet deck, “Bringing Gifts” (five color [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] with [card]Bring to Light[/card]). Much has changed in the world of Magic since then, as the release of Oath of the Gatewatch turned Modern season into “Eldrazi Winter”. I’m sure that most of…

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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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Brewing With Battle for Zendikar

Welcome back for Brewing With Battle for Zendikar. First off let me apologize for the delay in this article, my computer died the day I was going to start and was down for a week. On the plus side it did give me some extra time to make even more decks. This time I brought…

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Organizing Your Collection #1 – Piles of Cards

When we moved house a few months ago, Himself wanted to call our new house ‘the house of cards’ as we own so many. Often we have piles of cards all over the house, until I get around to sorting them all out again. Himself has been playing Magic off and on since he was…

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Magic Online Standard – Down with Atarka Red!

Last weekend, with the StarCityGames Open at Indianapolis, we saw our first glimpse into what the new Standard format looks like.  There were a lot of really interesting decks that performed well and we saw some card choices I hadn’t anticipated.  I thought Brian DeMars did an incredible job of tuning his Atarka Red list…

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Updating Esper Dragons for BFZ

I have been playing Esper Dragons since Dragons of Tarkir arrived with [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card]. The deck has been fun to play, and I’ve had success with it, but now that Theros is on it’s way out, is Esper Dragons going to survive? If so, will it be weaker or stronger? Will it even be the same deck?…

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Will the Aristocrats Join The Battle?

We finally have the full spoiler for Battle for Zendikar and, despite a lot of community dissent about the power level of the set and its mechanics, I am thrilled with a lot of the cards about to enter the Standard format.  I’ve been brewing and looking over cards constantly. That said, there is one card…

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Post-Rotation Standard, It’s Never Too Early. . .

Even though Pro Tour Magic Origins is still fresh in our minds and we are currently looking at a new Standard format, I want to look forward to what I think could be some powerful shells after rotation.  It may be premature, but there may be financial opportunity and a way to get ahead of the metagame…

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Weekend Magic: 4/3-4/5

Last weekend brought us Star City Games: Syracuse. This Open featured Standard as the main event with a side of Modern and Legacy. Let’s see what the results were and note any trending cards amongst the lists. Star City Games Open – Standard (Syracuse, USA) Decklists Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player G/R Aggro 1st…

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Kitchen Table Magic: Brewing Dragons – Ojutai Advantage

Hello. My name is Dave, and I am a Magiholic. [Editor’s note: Hi, Dave!] At almost 40 years old, I still collect and play with Magic cards. My relationship with Magic began over 20 years ago in high school, but I kicked it for four years, dumping all my Alpha and Beta cards in a…

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Analyzing and Deck Building: Featuring Outpost Siege

A common question people ask is: “How do I build a deck?”  It’s easy to say just get one from the internet and play it tons of times to become proficient, but some people really just have a passion for making a deck themselves.  In my opinion, iterative deckbuilding is the best way to build…

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Brewing with Dragons of Tarkir

Welcome back for Brewing with Dragons of Tarkir! Today, I’ll go over eleven lists that I’ve come up with using some of the new cards from Dragons of Tarkir. These decks won’t have fully formed sideboards, since I don’t have time to test them all or complete knowledge of the metagame (the one exception being…

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Weekend Magic: 3/13-3/15

Last weekend brought us Star City Games Dallas, which featured Standard as the main event with a side of Modern and Legacy. Let’s take a look at the results while also bearing in mind that Standard will yet again be shaken up by Dragons of Tarkir in just another week. We’ve got the full spoiler…

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Privileged Perspective 18 – DTK Preview Edition!

Sarkhan arose, wearily. He edged closer to the edge of the ravine, gazing into it with strain and apprehension. Ugin sprung to life from within the chasm, letting loose a cacophonous din that seemed to rend the very heavens. “What?” Sarkhan becked in reply, his voice coarse. Again, Ugin roared. Sarkhan seemed to this time take his meaning,…

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Weekend Magic: 3/6-3/8

WOTC and Star City Games teamed up to host Grand Prix Miami this past weekend, which will further add to the Standard results we’ve been seeing since Fate Reforged was released. However, we also need to keep in mind that Dragons of Tarkir is right around corner and that Standard again is due for another…

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Forced Fruition Reforged: Road to GP Vegas

On May 30, 2015, we’ll all be gathered magically at the Las Vegas Convention Center to play Modern Masters 2015. Until then, I’ll be spending my weekends playing Magic at local Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifiers (PPTQs) and Grand Prix Trials (GPTs) to reach the critical mass of Planeswalker Points needed for a round-one GP bye. Over this time,…

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Privileged Perspective 17 – Last Week and the Future

So last week’s article happened. The feedback that I got was mostly reticent confusion, which is how I imagine most test audiences walked out of advance screenings of Donnie Darko. Let’s address the problems with last week’s article: I started an experiment that I knew could not be quantified within my typical writing window (my…

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Weekend Magic: 2/27-3/1

This week brought us Star City Games: Baltimore, where Modern was the featured format with a side of Standard and Legacy. Let’s dive into the results to see what innovations were showcased this weekend. Star City Games: Baltimore – Modern Open (Baltimore, MD – USA) Decklists Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player Sultai 1st Gerard…

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Weekend Magic: 2/20-2/22

This certainly wasn’t a weekend to miss. Two grands prix, along with Star City Games Open Series in Los Angeles, means there is a ton of information for us to digest. Let’s dig in and see the results. Grand Prix: Memphis (Memphis, TN – USA) Format – Standard Top 8 Decklists Jack Fogle took down…

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Privileged Perspective 15: Challenging Perspectives

Confession: I wasn’t 100 percent sold on the name of this column when I started. I liked “Privileged Position,” but I think someone else is already using it. Privileged Perspective sounds like a Magic card name, and maybe some day it will be, but I’m worried the name doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you…

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Privileged Perspective 14: Loser

Magic casts a pretty wide net. I’ve met a lot of different people playing this game, with various work and education backgrounds. Magic finance, on the other hand, seems to largely attract those who have some sort of economics or business background (or like to think they do!). Perhaps this is why my perspective is…

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Privileged Perspective 13: Beginning to Look to the Future

Sometimes it is difficult to get the writing process started, and other times the words flow out as if someone else already did everything for me. There are weeks, like this one, where I have fragments of the piece I wish to assemble, but they are adrift of each other and devoid of interlocking context….

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Brewing With Fate Reforged

Welcome back for Brewing With <i>Fate Reforged</i>! Unfortunately, this set didn’t lend itself to a lot of diversity for me, but hopefully you’ll enjoy the lists I did come up with. Also, I must apologize for my lack of content lately—I did not do quite as well as I had hoped at Pro Tour Khans…

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Weekend Magic: 1/30-2/1

Last weekend brought us some Legacy action with Star City Games: Indianapolis, along with side events for Standard and Modern. Let’s see how the weekend turned out after the [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] banning. Star City Games: Indianapolis – Legacy Open (Indianapolis, IN) Decklists Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player Sultai Delver 1st Jim Davis U/W Control…

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