Essays on Magic: The Gathering

Introduction Merry spoiler Christmas!! It's amazing how much more exciting magic is around set release.. Ikoria is just around the corner and what a wild set it is. I'll be honest. I'm less excited for Ikoria than I was for Theros, but I'm still pumped. Theros had so many cards that looked like they could define new archetypes, that was exciting for the prospective brewer. This set has less of those cards, but the ceiling on their power level is higher. In the end, not many Theros cards ended up making an impact. However, we had a few weeks of wild brews and interesting exploration before Nissa/Uro put a nail in that fun. Doom Foretold, Mono Black, Mono White, Esper Midrange , UW control and WG enchantments were everywhere at the start and now are no where to be seen. Ikoria certainly has some goodies, but how many of them will be able to crack into top tier gameplay? In my opinion, there are some cards that have potential to completely turn the format on it

Introduction Whew, been a solid week of play testing and familiarizing myself with the new standard. It's been fun! First of all, wanted to give kudos to WOTC development for this set. Very deep, tons of options, lots of build arounds.. the cards are playing out as interesting as I expected from the spoiler.. Nothing is standing out as Oko egregious. The meta is still totally up in the air... However, a loose rock paper scissors dynamic has started to emerge. The three basic types of decks are 1) Synergistic agro decks looking to punish the ramp decks and their lack of interactions... Most mono color strategies fall under this category as well as GW enchantments or RB sac. They often play bad cards that work well with each other, or help break another excellent card. 2) Disruption decks, looking to prey on small creatures and decks looking to assemble a combination of particular cards to win. This is mostly dominated by various Esper, UB and Doom Foretold decks. 3) Gro

NEW STANDARD WOOHOOO!! The first month of a new standard format is easily my favourite time in magic. The unknown space where people are trying out the new cards and new ideas. In today's information rich environment it's one of the few opportunities deck builders and metagamers have to truly break it. The idea of breaking a format fuels my ego and motivates me more than nearly everything in magic.. I'm VERY excited for the new cards in THB standard. Lots of interesting build around cards with plenty of support. I think they hit a home run with this set (for standard). Ten Format Warping Cards Whenever I examine a new format, while most people are focused on what are the most powerful cards, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for what are the most format warping  cards and strategies. It doesn't matter if there are a bunch of great 1/1 creatures if every color has their own Goblin Chainwhirler. It doesn't matter if there are a bunch of great enchantments if

Pt 1 - "Play the Best deck" - Redefined If you have much experience in competitive magic, you've probably stumbled upon the  saying "Just play the best deck" many times. This saying is one of my biggest pet peeves in all of magic. I believe it is over used, misleading, lazy, and often.. not true. The intention behind this article is to explore some insights of  successful meta-gaming and hopefully provide a more useful definition of what a "best deck" is. Part of the issue with using the term "best deck" to refer to the "best recently performing deck" is the language of "best" is connected to a deep intuition of what it means to be the best at something. When we think of the "best player" in hockey, we think of the best performing, highest skill , scored the most points etc. Attributes that are fairly static. If you were the best player in the world last week, the chances you will be this week is extremel