The Planeswalker's Stronghold

This week Mark Rosewater presented a design article addressing the impact of design on the draft environment. In addition to my normal weekly exercise, I will be discussing some of Maro's points from the Repack Draft Perspective. Layering ...To understand layering let's begin by talking about a new axis, the number of concepts in a set. On one end of the axis is one idea. (It can't be zero as a set has to have at least one idea in it.) A set on this end of the spectrum has every card dedicated to this idea. On the other end of the spectrum is a set where every card is about a separate idea. Neither end of the spectrum makes for very good Magic . To understand why, let's look through each extreme through the eyes of drafting. ... The second extreme creates a draft where there are no inherent strategies. The set has no identity or cohesion and, as such, there are no through-lines to draft. No cards change value based upon deck types, and the draft boi

Periodically, this great game of ours finds itself in a position which requires a change. With Wizards recently announced back peddle to more stringently enforce the Reserved list, I believe the game finds itself at the precipice of just such a change. Brief History of Magic Formats: 1993 (290 cards) Magic debut with Alpha late 1994 (1 year, 9 sets, 985 cards) Magic deck construction rules are formalized and Standardized by the Duelist Convocation, giving birth to what would later be called type 1. late 1995 (2 years, 14 sets, 1,446 cards) Magic deck construction rules were officially split into 2 separate formats, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 2 was later called Standard, Type 1 Eternal. (Type 1.5 was also used to signify a format with which the type 1 restricted list was instead banned) late 1996 (3 years, 16 sets, 1,903 cards) Extended was created as a format. Standard had a rotation of approximately 1 year, Extended 2 years. 2002 (~8 years, ~45 sets, 6,056 cards) Standard and Exte

Sorry folks, I missed last week. it was just crazy and something had to give. So here we are in Week Eleven, and lets see what the pack gods brought us.Each week I crack a repack, and do a walk through of the contents. I've seen these sort of draft walk through done a lot of different ways, but in my mind, there is one critical question to ask about every card. Should this wheel and why? I use a three point system to analyze a pack  In a "normal" pack, there should be 5 cards of each grade in them. 1) Shouldn't Wheel- these are the best cards in the pack, and should be scooped up before the pack comes back around. Your first pick should almost always come from this group, since odds are you shouldn't see any of them again. If one of these does come back around, and it still fits your developing plan, it's almost a sure thing to pick up on the wheel. One of these coming around may also indicate an open color, or deck strategy, and always worth givi

So I decided to take my fully powered list to the SciFi Weekly Legacy event, and see what happens. The new prize structure was just too much to pass up. This is the final list I used for the event. Creatures: Kavu Predator x4 Kird Ape x4 Tarmogoyf x4 Qasali Pridemage x4 Wild Nacatl x4 Grim Lavamancer x3 Spells: Invigorate x3 Lightning Bolt x4 Sylvan Library x2 Swords to Plowshares x3 Punishing Fire x3 Umezawa's Jitte x2 Land: Arid Mesa x4 Grove of the Burnwillows x4 Plateau x3 Savannah x2 T-A-I-G-A x2 Windswept Heath Wooded Foothills Forest, Mountain, Plains 1 each. Sideboard Pithing Needle x4 Tormad's Crypt x2 Relic of Progenitus x3 Krosen Grip x2 Pyroclasm x3 Wind Shards I really like this list, and it just hammers home how good Goyf is for this deck. Wing Shards seems like on-color tech against Progenitus, which appears to be a growing segment of the meta, both local and regional. I may be running a bit to much graveyard hate, but with Reanim

Sunday in Richmond was really a great time. I went 2-2 drop, which honestly was better then I had expected. I was able to do some real trading, picking up a promo Jitte, my last two dual lands, and my last two fetch lands. Now I have a one of set of duals, and fetches. I also picked up a pair of textless Lightning Bolts, and about a dozen other cards from my shopping list. Oh and there was tournament also! Going in there were certain match ups which I simply new were not good ones. CounterTop Progenitus was one of those match ups, and there it was across the table from me in round one. Game one all I could do was cross my fingers and race. I got lucky, and got him as low as 10, despite a Warmonk on the board, before he was able to resolve a late game Progenitus. Game two, I brought in the side board tech, and used my main list Kavu's for a surprise factor, which I road for the win. Game three was a different matter, on turn two I was looking across at 2 lands and a hierarch. I ha

I really hope you all are enjoying this weekly series as much as I am. Welcome to Repack Walk Through Week Nine. Each week I crack a repack, and do a walk through of the contents. I've seen these sort of draft walk through done a lot of different ways, but in my mind, there is one critical question to ask about every card. Should this wheel and why? I use a three point system to analyze a pack  In a "normal" pack, there should be 5 cards of each grade in them. 1) Shouldn't Wheel- these are the best cards in the pack, and should be scooped up before the pack comes back around. Your first pick should almost always come from this group, since odds are you shouldn't see any of them again. If one of these does come back around, and it still fits your developing plan, it's almost a sure thing to pick up on the wheel. One of these coming around may also indicate an open color, or deck strategy, and always worth giving a little thought to. 2) May Wheel-I put these

Now that's Big! Please note the card number is 6 of 248. This means if they stick with traditional set numbering, that this set is most likely all colorless, having no colored mana symbols in the costs. It could also indicate that there have been a change to the numbering system, and that either colorless creatures come first, or that all Mythics or Eldrazi spells come first. My money is on all colorless, after all they just did the first all gold set! Please note how the art extends into the frame. I love it! is this something we will see on all future cards, just this set, just Eldrazi? Don't know but I like it. In other news, this little corner of the Multiverse had another stellar month. Both January and February generated +1400 unique hits to the site.