All the Articles on our Site
Welcome back, readers! In my last article, I discussed why I (erroneously) thought that Kiki-Pod would be stronger then Melira Pod at Pro Tour Born of the Gods. Today, I thought it would be a beneficial exercise to analyze why this was a mistake, and take a [card]peek[/card] as to why Brian Liu was able…
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This article is the final part in the Funning For Your Playgroup series, which explores silver-bordered cards appropriate for Commander. Un- cards offer a lot to a casual Commander playgroup with a strong social contract. Unfortunately, there is only one multicolored card suitable for a rules update in the Un- sets. There are quite a…
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Welcome back to the Puzzle Box! This week, we’re starting into the next chapter of the life of this cube list. Archetype revisions are a really fun part of being a cube manager. Today I’ll be diving into the artifact archetype and swapping some cards to make it come alive. This deck can be a…
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This article is the third part in the Funning For Your Playgroup series, which explores silver-bordered cards appropriate for Commander. Like with previous colors, red and green Un- cards offer a lot to a casual Commander playgroup with a strong social contract. Red [card]Blast from the Past[/card] 2R Instant Madness R, cycling 1R, kicker 2R, flashback 3R,…
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLs4gxqbLAAD7RWuQVSbMIoO2K9SIqKV9q&w=640&h=360] Welcome to Forced Fruition, the weekly show where we find ways to broaden our views on playing the game of Magic. Forced because we’re imposing some kind of rule or theme on our game, and Fruition because we’re going to learn something. On this episode, we dive into a THS-THS-THS draft. Very quickly,…
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This article is the second part in the Funning For Your Playgroup series, which explores silver-bordered cards appropriate for Commander. Like white, blue and black Un- cards offer a lot to a casual Commander playgroup with a strong social contract. Blue [card]Carnivorous Death-Parrot[/card] 1U Creature — Bird Flying 2/2 [card]Checks and Balances[/card] 2U Enchantment…
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So this past weekend, I won a PTQ in Tallahassee, Florida. I’d like to give a big shoutout to the tournament organizer, Gamescape, and its owner, Benjamin Bloodworth, for consistently putting on the best tournaments and running the best local shop I’ve ever been to in my twenty years of playing Magic. I played Mono-Black…
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In an interview on CommanderCast #137, during a rapid-fire question-and-answer session, the hosts asked Sheldon Menery, “Would [the Rules Committee] ever consider making the Un- sets legal?” Sheldon’s answer was an expectedly simple, “No.” Sheldon’s justification behind the answer was not explored, but it can be easily intuited. Mainly, many of the silver-bordered cards require…
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On MTGO, interacting with bots ends up being a mandatory endeavor at some point. While trading between players is often the most profitable, sometimes you need to interact with a vendor with a large number of cards in order to pick up what you need. Bots drive the MTGO economy in very significant ways. We…
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“Leave the last 10 percent for the next guy.” This sound line of reasoning has been promoted by the guys from the Brainstorm Podcast and I tend to agree, although it may seem counter-intuitive initially -“Why give up profit margins on my speculation targets that hit?” Because cards are ultimately only worth what someone is…
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For the last installment in this series of C+C Magic Factory, we’ll be reviewing the Commander 2013 deck, Nature of the Beast. Here’s a review of the grading system we’ll be using. The first grade for each card is a Cube grade, the second is a Commander grade. Cube: [A+]: First-pick card on power level alone…
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This is a headline that makes me chuckle every single time I read it: “Apple posted quarterly results that beat estimates Monday … shares dropped more than 5%.” For those who don’t follow non-Magic finance, the reason this happens (and it happens all the time to all kinds of companies) has to do with expectations….
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Welcome back to Serum Visions, everyone! I am writing a finance article this week! After a couple of months of process articles that weren’t particularly inspired by MTG, I think it’s time to take it back a little. With our favorite green creature reaching a very upsetting $200, and [card]Misty Rainforest[/card]s and [card]Scalding Tarn[/card]s both…
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Hello, fellow speculators! It’s the week of Grand Prix Richmond, destined to be the most-attended Constructed tournament ever, and the format is Modern. Registration is already shattering previous records for every past event except Grand Prix Las Vegas, the Modern Masters Limited GP. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that Modern…
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After introducing my Naya Midrange deck, I promised to go over changes I felt were optimal and that is exactly what we are going to do today. First, we’ll explore what changes I made for a local grand prix trial for GP Richmond. Afterward, we’ll get to how we can go bigger and effectively dismantle…
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Recently I was conversing with a friend of mine on Standard. My opinion on Standard used to be: absolutely not. I couldn’t imagine spending $500 on something that was going to rotate out in a year. My argument was that Standard changes too much to try to keep up. On the other hand, Legacy seemed…
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You see, I’m a bit of a cynic. While many if not most players believe that Wizards has been looking for the proverbial, “Sweet Spot,” with the banning and un-banning process in Modern, I believe that what is and will continue to actually happen is that Wizards will ban and un-ban cards as they…
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True Cost: The lowest amount of real cash needed to acquire a card. All Magic Has a Price Gravestorm J. Graves Tampa, FL Let me know your thoughts at [email protected] Follow @jwgravesFL About AMHaP All Magic Has a Price focuses on Magic: The Gathering finance from the player’s point of view. AMHaP discusses…
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“Are you a restrictions-breeds-creativity kind of guy?” This is the question that our dear community manager, Jason Alt, asked me when I was wondering about what he wanted for the site. The answer was yes, but actually I had no idea how strongly that answer applies. I know that there are people who live outside…
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Either as Magic players or Magic financiers, we each try to get the most value out of the things we do related to the game. It has turned into a lifestyle for many of us, but we all do it on the most basic levels. Before we got to where we are in regards to…
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[Editor’s note: DJ submitted this article before the pro tour took place. Some of his metagame predictions didn’t turn out quite the way he thought they would, but the thought process behind them is still valuable and informative. DJ will be back next time to address what went wrong in assuming Kiki Pod would be more popular than…
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Author’s note: Since this article series was started, Born of the Gods has been released. Its addition altered the Dimir, Simic, and Gruul decks enough to warrant a revision of the example deck lists. For the Standard Commander format including Return to Ravnica block and Theros block, the addition of the Born of the Gods…
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Welcome back, brewers. This week, you’re getting a slightly different article. Considering that this is Brainstorm Brewery, I wanted to write a finance-related piece for once. Fair warning: I’m a player first and a financier second, but I thought it might be interesting to see how a player takes a look at finance. I also…
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Sometimes when you’re brewing, you strike gold with the first draft of your first list, and that’s exactly what happened here. I knew I wanted to brew a mono-green aggro/devotion deck that could easily abuse [card]Aspect of Hydra[/card]. As I feverishly began scribbling cards down that were reasonable in it, it began to feel more…
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Serum Visions! This has been a fun week for home brewing in the Colman house. I got to do some bottling of beer that has been in the fermenter for well over three months. It doesn’t take too long to bottle beer, but you need a friend to do…
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