Tournament Report - NH States 2011

Allow me to start by saying that this year's States was the least prepared I ever was for a tournament, even to go so far as saying I didn't even know if I was going to enter when we got there. and in the end, I almost didn't. I was still missing some cards and had only played four matches with the deck, for that matter a different build of the deck, not to mention that I haven't played aggro in standard since years before I was doing this site, so this was a really risky venture for me. Without further ado, here's the list I submitted (but technically, didn't bring to) States 2011:

Card of the Day - October 6th 2011

What is it with the randomizer and green cards? Anyways, today I have a nice modern treat for you all in a card that only saw print a few weeks ago.

From the design perspective, I love this guy. It just makes sense that the human with leadership experience would carry that over to his werewolf half. Plus, a straight human lord or straight wolf lord would always be doing nothing half the time. This transformer pumps your team, day and night.

At the same time, I'm very disappointed that there's no straight-up human lord in white. Aside from Adaptive Automaton, this is the best we have. Of course, I understand why, and it's the same reason why humans as a tribe have never had a lord before. Humans historically have been simply too diverse, as well as being the crutch for development. If a card is too strong for x tribal deck, just make him a human! Easy, right? Which is exactly why the Mayor exists. Humans are simply too hard to balance properly for the sake of all formats. The tribe has everything from Hero of Bladehold to Grim Lavamancer to Noble Hierarch to AEther Adept to Royal Assassin. Although much of human history is in white, they're simply too diverse to balance accurately. The automaton was a great way to test the waters in this field, and it appears that no massive stack of humes has taken any events, so we may be in the clear for a straight human lord by the end of the Innistrad block. However, making human tribal will forever change the future of magic design. It's doubtful that we'll ever see a full human lord (with playability).

Now then, back to the Card of the Day.

The mayor has been a big talking point lately, especially for token decks that have been sprouting up. The human side pumps a team of soldiers from a Hero of Bladehold, Elspeth Tirel, or Shrine of Loyal Legions, while the wolf side makes some minimum 2/2s himself. That way, when he flips back, the wolves and humans will be just the same size.

Expect this card to see plenty of play for the next year.

Card of the Day - October 5th 2011

I wish some of the scrubs at FNM would take one of these.

Wanderings is pretty simple, so I'll get right down to it. The base effect is nothing more than a bad Cultivate or Rampant Growth, so if you're looking for some acceleration it's best to go elsewhere. This card would be completely useless were it not for the existence of Commander.

Commander is unique for being the only format where every deck wants more mana, even after the point in the game where you'd have threshold. Unfortunately, this card only pulls basics, but three basics for one spell is pretty damn good. You also get huge points if Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is in that very same deck, or any landfall cards like Lotus Cobra (making Far Wanderings free) or Khalni Heart Expedition (fetching you an additional two lands).

That's it for today's CotD. Wander far, my brethren.

Card of the Day - October 4th 2011

I had a different kind of blast in my pants.

It's obvious that this card was and is amazing. I can only imagine what this would be like in standard as an option for kuldoltha red decks back in the days of Goblin Bushwhacker. Yeah, I know, that was about a week ago, but whatever. The point is big brother Artillerize just didn't cut it, and for the most part, neither did the return of Goblin Grenade.

Card of the Day - October 3rd 2011

Bounce chicka wow wow.

The first thing that came to my mind is effects that play cards off the top of the deck. You can recycle landfall triggers with Oracle of Mul Daya, shut off an opposing Vampire Nocturnus, or stop a counterspell coming off a Magus of the Future.

Fallow earth can also reset opposing manlands, for some taking them up to two turns to reactivate. Earth also does a good job of resetting Dark Depths when Vampire Hexmage isn't there to boost it.

Lastly, Earth excels at disrupting blue's host of Brainstorms, Preordains, Jaces, etc. Often, the blue mage plans according to what their next draw is, since more often than not they know it. Fallow Earth can put one more turn between them and the answer they need, which all too often is one turn too late.

It's worth noting that the sheer power of denying a player their draw for turn in green is a potent effect indeed. This card can be relevant in more ways then the above few situations. Try it out in your next game of EDH. You may be surprised.

Card of the Day - October 2nd

Card of the day or flavor of the week?

Vastwood Animist is an ally, so like all allies, nobody wants to talk about him. The Zendikar tribe is like the Voldemort of magic, speaking the name is like saying it has relevance, but no more. Because the Animist is today's card of the day.

He just had a brainstorm. Or he just found out that Dumbledore was gay. One of the two.

As much as I love me some Vastwood, this one is pretty lackluster. He doesn't have a large body himself, he doesn't have an etb trigger, and the dude he makes isn't even an Ally. This is one of the few allies that doesn't just autowin off a resolved Rite of Replication with kicker.

What he does have is ANOTHER fatty, because all to often allies don't have any at all. All your biggest guys come from white, like Hada Freeblade, Talus Paladin or Kazandu Blademaster, and they take time to build up. The animist needs a board that's already developed in order to shine, but to win he doesn't need to come down as soon as possible on the curve like his white brethren. For that reason alone, he's much more useful than first glance.

So love allies or hate them, just like the transform cards, they exist, so deal with it. That's what the rest of the world has done with Charlie Sheen's drug issue, and we're much better off for it.

Card of the Day - October 1st

"I know where you sleep."

Today's card is the Dream Stalker, an annoying little dude from Time Spiral with a lot of powerful interactions. By himself, a 1/5 on turn two at the cost of a land drop is a pretty good way to put a damper on aggressive strategies in the pre-dismember days. Not that it matters, since that's not what he'll be used for.

Oh shi-

A unique and uncommon pauper strategy, but a strong one nonetheless, relies on powerhouse Ninjutsu creatures, like Mistblade Shinobi. The idea is that the the ninja will replace the Stalker and then the Stalker will come down and reset the ninja. The strategy is potent as monoblue with Call to Heel, Sea Gate Oracle, Mulldrifter, and a handful of other cards, but has a great support in white in the form of Momentary Blink and Kor Skyfisher. The former will reset a stalker, Mulldrifter, etc., while the latter serves as a second Dream Stalker while providing an evasive body for the ninja at the same time.

When I first started playing EDH, I had a bad straight blue bounce deck with Linessa, Zephyr Mage, designed to profit as much as possible from bouncing the table and ways to bounce the table as often as possible. Aformentioned staples like Mulldrifter and the Dream Stalker made the cut alongside cards like Thalakos Seer, Cryptic Command, AEthersnipe, Capsize, and Evacuation. It didn't win much and was built more to have a good time (as Commander should be), and that's what it did. And the Stalker let that happen. So a shoutout to this crappy common is well deserved.

Deck Tech: BantBlade

Last time, I shared my list for an oddball innustrad deck, so jank to the point that Angelic Destiny was not only played, but there was a playset of them. This time, I've decided to share my -real- list, the sexy tech I've been brewing and sharing with some community members behind the scenes. If you're looking for -the- deck, odds are you're going to find it here.

This deck came about about a month ago from the rotation of Squadron Hawk. I wanted to find a replacement- a card that would generate a sea of dudes like the hawks once were. And I found him.

Innustrad's Destiny

For the past few months, I'd pretty much dropped the idea of brewing casual stuff, instead focusing on more serious content for the site. Well now, that's about to change, and you're still probably gonna steal some games. It was foretold in the heart of the cards, man. This is your destiny.

It's your destiny to get 2-for-1d with this card.

Magic Deckbuilding Variant: Deckmaster

Tonight, I've been thinking about a Magic variant format to turn a stack of cards into Ascension style deckbuilding games.

At their heart, DB games have an acute similarity to MtG's Cube drafting, in which players prepare their own stacks of cards to draft with, creating their own limited format. Both are games that give the sensation of drafting without the financial wound of three packs a piece every game. The difference is that while cube drafting offers the Magic experience we all know, it also takes an exceptional amount of time. The large benefit to games like Ascension is the time factor- you're both drafting your deck and playing the cards at the same time. So I thought, why has no one combined the two?

Tonight, I will. I am going to share with the world how to play Magic: Deckmaster.

Modern Marvels: Soul Sisters

In the past, I've only done articles directly relating to standard. For limited, there's too many better than myself out there and I'll just be wasting your time. For the other constructed formats, well I simply never played them enough to offer an opinion. But I have been doing some tooling in Modern, and today I'd like to share that with you all.

HDC 003: Bombshell Babe

I haven't added to the HDC in a long time, so today I thought I'd take a look around that inbox and I found this email from Nick T:

Fastest Deck in Standard
The deck must be able to drop bombs on turn three or sooner.  Bomb being a plausible  win condition that cost five or more. Mana dorks/mana acceleration  should be the only none bomb cards. The core idea is to blast ahead faster then any other deck in the meta, by for example dropping a titan on turn three.  Green seems the optimal color but any color or combo is allowable. Just an idea, hope you try it out!

So basically, I need to construct a standard deck with mana dorks, ramp spells, fatties and nothing else. Oh boy, doesn't this sound like fun. Time to get my Timmy on.

Planeswalker Points

Wizards of the Coast announced today their new rating system to replace those old DCI numbers of ages past- Planeswalker Points. Basically, the big difference is that you can't lose PW points for losing games. This, along with a special tournament for players with the most points earned from FNM each season, will help to encourage more active play from professionals at local stores instead of just sitting back on rating.

GoodTrollsLive

I'm not normally in the business of plugging other Magic stuff out there, but I gotta give some mad props to @GoodTrollsLive, or https://sites.google.com/site/goodtrollslive/.  These three guys have started from tonight onward commentating over the SCG stream as a replacement to the often frowned upon commentary from StarCity's team.  It's a blast to head on with them and hang out, and even for those not normally interested in event coverage I recommend checking it out.  Make sure to say hello to myself (dndfreak in the chat) while you're there, and follow them on twitter to add to their growing army.

So I'm playing Hawks With Swords

So about a week before M11, I decided to leaf through my binder to see what I could have built for the new standard environment.  SuperShock is still a good deck, but is extremely anti-meta and the numbers need to be tweaked based upon what the field looks like.  Until the format re-establishes itself, I won't be slinging any Dark Tutelages any time soon.  Instead, I'm using the classic, 'nerfed' hawks with swords.

I was lucky enough to literally have the entire deck built minus Jace, TMS and two Stoneforge Mystics.  I sleeved up my list immediately and have been playing the same build since (not even adding Ponder/Oblivion Ring from M12).

So I Had a Fun Draft

This isn't a real article, I just had a blast down at my local release event and I thought I'd share my draft deck with you all.  Enjoy.

Cheap Weenies

A local player had asked me yesterday about a list for a budget white weenie list.  And by this I mean regular old weenies.  No Quests, no Puresteels, no Tempered Steels.  Regular old weenies.  Come to think of it, I don't believe you can find much in the archetype at the moment, so I agreed to write up a list.  Instead of a passed along note, I thought I'd share my list with all my followers out there.  Without any further ado, I give you my cheap weenie.

That's what she said.

Deck Tech: Tezzeret's Empire

Hey there, folks.  I know I've been gone a month, and it couldn't have been a worse time, but instead of being remorseful about the spoilers and bannings I missed, I want to jump straight back into the brewing game with a cycle of cards that have managed to pique my interest.

Spoiler Alert: Magic 2012 Part 1

Last spoiler season, New Phyrexia came a bit too early, rather a large disappointment, but hopefully with M12 we'll be back on track, and like usual, I'll be periodically posting articles going over the cards that have been spoiled so far and giving my opinions.  Trust me, I have a lot of opinions.

Duels 2012 Gives You Funny Hats?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/49470/


That's right, folks.  Free hats in TF2 for preordering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 on Steam.  FREE HAAAAAAAAAAAATS!


I'm not going to lie, I wasn't going to buy Duels 2012.  But for ten bucks, I get to make my Soldier look like Garruk Wildspeaker.  WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


[officially shortest post ever]

Probing Standard

It's rare for me to do a strategy piece, but I really wanted to talk for a bit about the relevance of this card.  In New Phyrexia, a new Peek entered standard in the form of Gitaxian Probe.  It refills itself, it's an instant, but most importantly, it can be played without any color dependency.  Git Probe begs the question- does it go in every deck?

Didn't they use one of these on
Cartman once?

Magic 2012 Planeswalkers

Folks, this most recent promotional video reveals something that's been a huge point of debate for a while now, and I'm glad to see that it's officially over.  The Gideon Jura shown at the end of that Duels of the Planeswalkers ad is the very same Gideon Jura from Rise of the Eldrazi, only with the M12 set symbol.  In other words, Gideon Jura is going to be reprinted, in all of his turns-into-a-creature glory.  While the cards themselves behind Gideon were covered, their artwork was displayed at the end of the ad, leading most all to believe that all of the other walkers will be repeats of their 1.0 versions, and I personally think that's safe to assume.  I've felt ever since the fab five were first announced that this would be the case, and I'm glad to see that I should be right.

#banjace

I don't have much of an article for you today, more of an image.  I was fooling around with flash for a little today and I felt the urge to post something.  Well, here you go.

Giant Gap

Recently, WotC released this article, explaining how over time, cards had been whittled away from Magic's core sets, until M11 rolled around and only two remained in every core set since Alpha: Giant Growth and Giant Spider.  The pair have been in every standard format since before there even WAS a standard format, and now, there can be only one.  Read more to find out which of the pair won't be hitting the tables with Innustrad.

Under the Hood - Bloodfall #2

In the original article, found here, I talked about the flavor and background for a block that I plan on building myself over the next few months.  To sum things up, the first set, Bloodfall, is about a demonic ritual gone wrong, resulting in a river turning to blood and the demon sleeping somewhere underneath.  The planeswalker who performed the ritual, Kecra, seeks to find the Demon to fulfill his pact, but the natives of the plane all have their own reactions to the river of blood and have essentially used the event as an excuse for a declaration of war, fighting over control of the rivers.

In the article, I posted image files for four different cards to illustrate the feel of the set, created as I typed the article.  However, astute readers may have noticed that the four cards lacked any new (or even uncommon) keyword abilities.  In essence, they were generic.  Now that our flavor is established, the next step is to design the base mechanics for the cards that fall in line with the setting.  It's time to grab a wrench and head under the hood.

Productivity Through Boredom - Bloodfall #01

I've found that often times, surrounded by things to do, no one thing motivates me more than another, and I end up just lying prone due to my own indecisiveness.  In that period of inactivity, I'm essentially bored out of my mind, and yet I know there's plenty of things I could be doing to keep me busy.  As much as it is a flaw, a lot of things in my life have come from this quirk of mine.

For you see, in this psuedo-boredom, I often brainstorm for something that will pull me out of my rut of inactivity.  I'll search the depths of my creativity for an activity that draws me more than whatever else I may have been choosing between.  It's periods like this that resulted in the creation of this site in the first place, among a number of things that were much more productive than whatever else was on my to do list.  In this way, I gain productivity through boredom, and it suits me well.

Now, what does this have to do with Magic?  Well you see, I'm doing it again.  I already have the column, so what is it this time, you may ask?

I want to build a block.

Deck Tech - Splinter Twin

Nothing says Lorwyn block quite like a
creature combo that wins as early as T3.
Quillspike, anyone?

For those of you who don't know, this has been a combo in Extended for a long time now between Pestermite and Splinter Twin, a combo that also works with Pestermite and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.  Basically, a Pestermite enchanted with Splinter Twin taps to create a 2/1 with flying and haste.  When the token enters the battlefield, his trigger untapsthe enchanted Pestermite (or Kiki-Jiki).  In this way, you can create an infinite number of creatures and swing for lethal damage on T4, T3 with acceleration.

In standard, another Pensermite is about to be printed and the combo shall live again.  There's been a lot of talk of just what shell the deck will fit into, so I'm here today to share my views on how to get to that magical Christmas land.  And boy, is my sack full of presents for you!

October Deck Day: Mono-white Equipment

Insert WoW reference here.

A local player was looking for some advice last FNM on a mono-white equipment-focused deck post-rotation.  He showed me his list, which had questionable cards like Sunspear Shikari and Brass Squire with little to no disruption to back him up.  I told him that not only would I work on a lost for him, I'd type up a full article on it.  Now, this will probably be full of inaccuracies, since M12 and Innustrad will both be legal sets after the rotation period, meaning that I'm basically building a block deck with some obvious core set reprints thrown in.  Oh well.

What'll you play post New Phyrexia?

NPH has garnered a lot of attention, being spoiled far in advance of the normal season and with a lot of future staples.  Cards like Mental Misstep or Surgical Extraction that will see play in legacy for ages to come.  But with the set spoiled in advance, the community is already focusing on what the best decks for standard will be without even getting hold of the cards themselves.  Never shying away from a bandwagon, I'm here to take a look at what you may be seeing in standard after the release of New Phyrexia.

HDC 002: College Pool Party

Last week, one submission for the HDC caught my eye that I really wanted to talk about, especially because this deck is extremely fun to play.  I've tested a little with it already for Manaleak's budget contest a few weeks back and, although I didn't take it far, there was definitely some cool interactions.

Anthony E. says-

 "For your horrible deck challenge, I wish to submit a deck built around Knowledge pool. It must win by stealing it's opponents cards rather than running good ones itself."

Spoiler Alert: New Phyrexia Part 1

Well folks, it's that time of the season yet again.  I know I skipped the first wave of spoilers this time, so I'm going to tackle the first set along with the most recent announcements for a total of 44 cards from the up-and coming set.  Let's get things started, shall we?

Bryan Haak Owes Me a Night on the Town

This past Saturday, I was at a tcgplayer.com 1K qualifier at the home store, The Game Castle, in Londonderry, NH.  The list I took was a slight alteration to Super Saiyan Shock I decided to try out, cutting two Bloodchief Ascensions and two Forked Bolts for a playset of Inquisition of Kozilek, the two forks replacing BSZ in my sideboard.  The fact is that while FB is a great way to kill two birds with one card, Inq does manage to kill four. I haven't been running them mostly because Blackleave Cliffs is my only land that comes down untapped on turn one and taps for black, but helps to deal with swords and counterspells that the rest of my maindeck simply can't handle.  It even helps my Valakut matchup by getting rid of GSZ pre-board.  The only real issue with Inquisition is that unless I'm facing down Kor Firewalker or Leatherback Baloth, I'd simply rather have the burn.  It's just more versatile.  A lot of times I'm just sitting there, waiting to draw the last point or two of damage, and Inq doesn't help me get there later on.  There's also some times when I get absolutely no value from it, albeit rare but it does happen. Nevertheless, Inq certainly did its job today and could have netted me a slot in top 8.

Tournament Report: TCGPlayer 1K Qualifier- Manchester, NH

This weekend, I headed down to a 1K piloting Super Saiyan Shock alongside Russel Keeler playing RUG, Raymond Cipoletti playing Elves, and Andrew Kiwatkowski with RDW.  The shop is Level Up Gaming in Manchester, NH, kindofa small space but with enough for the 61 players in attendance and a full six rounds of swiss.  However, the TO still had to turn back a good 20 players due to lack of space.

Build With Me- Standard Aggro Part 3

I didn't expect to keep on with this deck, but I've played a few matches with the deck against various opponents and I've quickly come to hate the choice in a few things.

Announcement- Clash of the Titans

WotC is giving out a new set of promos for Duels 2012, as announced here.  There's three different cards available, one for each platform the game is made for, and each one is a titan.  Which means that the titan cycle is without a doubt returning to M12.

Announcement- Action

Today, Wizards of the Coast announced that the wait is over, and 'Action''s identity has been decided.  The plane of Mirrodin has been compleated, and New Phyrexia is born.

Build With Me- Standard Aggro Part 2

Last article, I shared with you all the initial steps involved in me breaking into an aggro deck from scratch.  This time, I'll continue where I left off and go over what I want to do on turns 3-4.  Note that I'm building the deck as I'm writing the article, so you'll see the entire process that I'm going through.

Girls Girls Girls

There's a whole lot of stir going on about this article that talks about the gender gap in Magic.  A lot of folks seem to be putting their two cents in, si I figured I'd join in.

Build With Me- Standard Aggro Part 1

Today, I decided I'd build a new aggro deck to play around with simply because I haven't played a true creature aggro deck in a long time (since pre-SSS Vampires).  But I want to do something a little different this time.  I'm writing this article with no preparation whatsoever.  I'm going to be building this deck right here and now, and take you through the process step by step; so you can see exactly how my thought process works when it comes to building decks.

It's time for a little Karn action!

Today, WotC announced the two potential sets of packaging for 'Action', the third set in the Scars block.  A quick look at the art raises a few questions.

Announcing Innistrad

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/666

The next large set has been announced by Wizards of the Coast, and it goes by Innistrad.  The set appears to have a bit of a continuation of the horror theme that we've been seeing as of late with Vampires, giant monsters in the Eldrazi and then the return of Phyrexia.

Right on the front is new art for Liliana, meaning it's quite likely that after the most recent mirrodin block is done we're going to get Liliana 2.0, and possibly the corrupted Garruk that was hinted at in the official webcomic a while back.  If the cards are good enough, it looks like black may be the dominating control color in standard after the next rotation.  Keep that in mind when making your trades if you already have whatever you need for what you're playing at the moment.  It's still half a year away, but there's nothing wrong with being prepared even before the spoilers hit.  In short, keep those Swords of Feast and Famine at the ready!

Racialist Bloodchiefs: The Return

I was very surprised by the reactions that people had to the HDC list I posted earlier this week.  The deck was a jank combo that tried to win by getting bloodchief online with a Decimator Web and then mill for lethal damage.  And what happened?  People took it seriously.  I had gotten asked for playtesting results, various choices I had made in the deckbuilding process, what I would do for a sideboard in the tournament meta, etc. etc.  It seems that there's actually a market for a deck along these lines and it quickly became one of my more frequently viewed articles, so I began thinking about how I would actually build it.

HDC 001: UB Bloodchief

The challenge: "I want you to build a deck in which no card has a converted mana cost greater than four.  The deck must run Jace Beleren, not JtMS, and win off of Jace's ultimate ability.  With the exception of Trinket Mage, you may not run creatures which do not have an ability that mills the opponent."

mtgUK Design a Deck 2011

Over at www.manaleak.com/mtguk, another site where my articles are featured, there's a deck design contest going on with the goal of one standard deck costing under 60 pounds (about $100) being sold on their website under the creator's name, the designer receiving a copy of their deck, a shirt, a Deckbuilder's Toolkit, and about $25 in store credit.

Deck Tech: Super Saiyan Shock

A couple months back, I had built a deck known as SuperShock, my adaptation of the original post-rotation vampires list as was introduced to me by Bryan Haak during the last States.  I apologize, for some reason I can't find the exact list, but a similar build by Caleb Durward can be found here, only with three Doom Blades over Vendettas and Dark Tutelage and Captivating Vampire beating out two Pawn of Ulamogs and the equipment.

Mistah Boweh's Horrible Deck Challenge!

Now, if you've ever been here before, you'd know that I have a passion for taking rogue deck concepts and trying to get them to fit in the current meta.  It's very rare for me to ever play a deck that will result in more than ten percent of my matches being mirrors.  It's just how I roll.

Anyways, the point is that sometimes, it's hard to tool a deck to make it possible to win games, even for someone piloting it at FNM.  There's no way I'd be caught dead trying to build any of these decks, because I simply won't endorse something that's guaranteed to fail, no matter who's the pilot or the opponent.  At least, not unless I had an excuse.

That being said, it's time for the Horrible Deck Challenge!  The idea is simple- send me an email over at dndfreak@gmail.com with 'HDC' in the subject line, containing a concept for any standard-legal deck.  You can be as specific or vague as you want, such as 'build a deck that uses two Myr Galvanizers to win the game' or 'build a deck with blue in it that costs under $20'.  Whatever it is.  Approximately whenever I feel like it, I'll go through the submissions and pull out the first comprehensible idea that I see, and try to construct it to the best of my ability.  If you want, let me know in the email, and I'll include whatever personal information (name, location, etc.), and I'll also reply with a link to the article if I use your suggestion, so you don't have to worry about checking back all the time (although your mom would appreciate you more if you did!).

Without further ado, let the Horrible Deck Challenge begin, and may it give me many restless nights.

Tournament Report: TCGPlayer 1K Qualifier

This weekend, I was at a 1k qualifier (for the TCGPlayer.com invitational in Chicago) over at Level Up Gaming, in Manchester, New Hampshire.  There was a pool of 63 people at the event, not that big but larger than some.  Honestly, space was a bit tight, so I'm happy there weren't any more contenders.

I'm now on Manaleak!

Manaleak.com is a Magic site/store based in the UK, with a huge selection of singles and all that jazz.

Thinking about: Level Up

Now, I'll admit, I doubt that this mechanic will ever become mainstream.  As an aggro deck, it's just too slow, but as a control deck it involves way too much tapping out and leaving yourself vulnerable.  However, I feel like there's definitely some potential for the mechanic, and it comes from an enchantment I had completely forgotten about, stumbling across it when shifting through a binder of uncommons.

Duel Deck Creation Contest

Today, Wizards announced that they're holding a contest, where entrants design decklists for a set of online duel decks based off Mirrodin Pure and New Phyrexia.

Thinking about: Living Weapon

As of late, my recent foray into Tezzerator had me scrolling through all the artifacts that appear in standard.  At the time, of course, I was focused on a different kind of artifact, but I can't help but think about one of the coolest mechanics I'd seen in a while- Living Weapon.

Mind-Sculpting Tech- Getting Even More Real

This Sunday, a rather controversial article went up on Channel Fireball's website, found here, in which pro tour veteran Kyle Boggemes pretty much bashes innovation in the face with a Loxodon Warhammer the size of his ego.  I mention this because this article has truly inspired me.

Announcing From The Vault: Legends

It appears that Wizards of the Coast is pandering yet again to those of us who play EDH... Err, Commander.

My Thoughts on Mirrodin Besieged: Hands On

Alright, I'm a little late as the set's already been released, but it's better late than never, I suppose.  In this article, I'll talk about all the limited events I've played over the last few weeks, and what seems to work or not work throughout.

Token Spam Gets a Remodeling

I apologize for not yet having anything about the Mirrodin Besieged prerelease, I'll have it up at some point before the release event.  I've been really sick the past couple days and it's been stopping me from getting any sleep since Friday.  To really go in-depth about what I saw at the prerelease, I want to shake the constant headaches at least a little bit first.  In the meantime, however, I want to go over the deck I played at FNM that Friday.  I still can't believe that actually worked.

Magic: The Gathering: Tactics

It's come to my attention that a surprising number of people have even heard of Sony Online Entertainment's recent release, found here.  The new PC title is a bit similar in form to Magic: Online, only the game itself has been changed around a bit.  Instead of a completely freeform table like we're used to, MtGT plays out on a grid, akin to a Magic themed game of chess.

Spoiler Alert: Mirrodin Besieged Final

Alright, I've been a little 'lax on checking the spoiler in the last few days and now it's officially gone up to the full 155.  So instead of figuring out what I have and haven't covered and go through all the changelogs, I'm just going to go back through the entire set at once, recapping what I've already seen and adding in the new stuff.  Due to the nature of this style, I won't be talking about pretty much every card like I had in the past.  this time, I'll have to be much more focused in on what's to come.  Those of you interested in my Maro-rage antics should check out the spoiler articles for Besieged from the beginning, and for the most part pay attention to the blue spells.

Spoiler Alert: Mirrodin Besieged Part 3

Another 21 cards, another article.  Let's see how many more draw engines there are today.

Spoiler Alert: Mirrodin Besieged Part 2

Looks like it's that time again, a whopping 29 new cards since my last spoiler alert.  So I'm gonna go ahead and do a quick rundown of what to look for in the new set.

Spoiler Alert: Mirrodin Besieged Part 1

That's right, it's that time of the season again.  As of so far, there are nineteen cards that have been officially spoiled, and as I have yet to mention any of them on the site, I figure it's about time.  So I'm gonna pick out a few of them that have piqued my interest.

Tournament Report: Valakut Can Kiss My Moneymaker

This Saturday, the Game Castle held a Type 2 event, but it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, so not a lot of people heard about it, so only nine people showed up, which means only three rounds.  The day actually turned out to be pretty lolzy, and I saw the whole thing with my round one bye.