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20 02, 2014

The 99: Combo-tastic!

By |February 20th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

If you have been playing Magic for any length of time, it has probably happened to you before. The game is progressing at a leisurely pace until suddenly the person across the table from you (who has until now been quietly sculpting their hand) throws down a series of cards and declares “I win”. Combos take many shapes and forms in Magic but the result is usually the same; without an answer to the combo, the player wins the game. Combos are a strong win condition simply because they can steal the game in a single turn, unlike creatures which may take a full turn-cycle to be able to become relevant threats. Commander has access to some of the most extravagant combos in all of Magic, both because of its deep card pool and because of the higher starting life total. Here are some of the most common types of combos:

 

Infinite mana:There are several combos in Magic which will generate infinite mana. Common ones include endlessly tapping and untapping mana-generating permanents like with attached or enchanted with . Personally, I believe infinite mana combos are the weakest of the infinite loops one can achieve. Why? Because infinite mana alone does nothing to affect the board state. Once the next step or phase of the game rolls around, all that hard-earned mana disappears. Infinite mana requires another card to be effective such as to make your opponent draw their entire library and lose or even something like . This simply means that the combo takes more pieces to be effective and the more moving parts involved in a combo, the harder it is to pull off consistently.
Infinite creatures:As with all combos, […]

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28 01, 2014

The 99: An Introduction

By |January 28th, 2014|Article|0 Comments

Today we’re going to be taking a look at my favorite format: EDH. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Elder Dragon Highlander (or Commander) is played using a deck of 99 unique cards and one legendary creature as your commander. Rather than being shuffled into the deck, your commander sits in a special zone called the “Command Zone”. You may cast your commander at any time you would be allowed to cast that creature and if it dies or is exiled, you may return it to the Command Zone. Each time you re-cast your commander from the Command Zone, you must pay an additional 2 colorless mana for each time the commander has been cast. Players start at 40 life rather than 20 but you can also lose the game by taking 21 points of damage from a specific commander over the course of the game.

What makes EDH so special? For one, it is a singleton format which means you may only include a single copy of any card except for basic land cards. This forces you to dig deeper into Magic’s vast card pool when building your deck and also ensures that there is a greater deal of variance from one game to the next. You must also build your deck around your commander’s “color identity”, meaning that you cannot include cards with mana symbols that are absent from your commander. For example, is mono-Blue which means that you may only include Blue or colorless cards in that deck. EDH rules also state that you may not produce mana outside of your commander’s color identity. If for some reason you control a creature or land that produces mana outside of your […]

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19 01, 2014

Luke Goodwin playing Brian Kibler round 12!

By |January 19th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Luke Goodwin playing Brian Kibler round 12

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19 01, 2014

Grand Prix Sacramento! Wahoo!

By |January 19th, 2014|Event|1 Comment

Joseph Burkett working as an L1 judge at Grand Prix Sacramento.
Jimmy Cookman and mark Melendy playing two-headed giant at GPSac
Nugames Grand Prix Trial winner , Luke Goodwin is playing very well, 10-1. Go Luke!
Humboldt counties own Michael Hoge is two seats over and also playing amazing

Laura and the head judge Sean Catanese.

 

 

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15 01, 2014

Theros Sealed Deck Building Practice

By |January 15th, 2014|Uncategorized|1 Comment

I know that some of you are going to Grand Prix: Sacramento, as am I. So, I figured I should write a little something about Sealed deck building! I opened up six Theros boosters using this random pack generator that I found online and I’m going to take you through my mind while I build this Sealed Pool. It’s nice to get multiple views upon how to build different Sealed Pools as you might miss something that someone else sees or you might be too attached to a certain card or color, while an outside figure could tell you that you should just play a different color or card. Teamwork! Here’s what I opened:

 

White:

Heliod’s Emissary

Cavalry Pegasus

Gift of Immortality

Lagonna-Band Elder

Last Breath

Vanquish the Foul

Observant Alseid

Scholar of Atheros

Divine Verdict

Fabled Hero

Hopeful Eidolon x2

Leonin Snarecaster

Ordeal of Heliod

Ray of Dissolution

Ephara’s Warden

-16 Cards

 

Blue:

Meletis Charlatan

Nimbus Naiad

Voyage’s End

Benthic Giant

Stymied Hopes

Wavecrash Triton x2

Fate Foretold

Lost in a Labyrinth

Mnemonic Wall

Omenspeaker

Breaching Hippocamp

Coastline Chimera

Griptide

Ordeal of Thassa

Triton Fortune Hunter

Vaporkin

-17 Cards

 

Black:

Cavern Lampad

Cutthroat Maneuver x2

Fellhide Minotaur

Returned Phalanx

Lash of the Whip x2

Erebos’s Emissary

Sip of Hemlock x2

Asphodel Wanderer

Pharika’s Cure

Returned Centaur

Scourgemark

Insatiable Harpy

Read the Bones

-16 Cards

 

Red:

Akroan Crusader x2

Minotaur Skullcleaver x2

Spearpoint Oread

Messenger’s Speed

Ordeal of Purphoros

Borderland Minotaur

Portent of Betrayal

Deathbellow Raider

Titan’s Strength

Two-Headed Cerebus

-12 Cards

 

Green:

Hunt the Hunter

Leafcrown Dryad x2

Savage Surge

Commune with the Gods

Defend the Hearth

Nessian Courser

Nylea’s Presence

Nylea’s Emissary

Centaur Battlemaster

Pheres-Band Centaurs

Mistcutter Hydra

Nemesis of Mortals

-13 Cards

 

Multicolored:

Battlewise Hoplite

Psychic Intrusion

Akroan Hoplite

-3 Cards

 

Artifacts:

Opaline Unicorn

Witches’ Eye x2

Guardians of Meletis x2

-5 Cards

 

Land:

Temple of Silence

Unknown Shores

-2 Cards

 

For your ease, I have bolded all of the rares. That’s the first thing I usually do after I open and sort all of my packs: look for the rares. Normally, your rares are going to be a guide to which colors you should play as they are usually the strongest cards that you will open, but in this […]

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8 01, 2014

A (Brief) Introduction to Standard Pauper

By |January 8th, 2014|Article|1 Comment

 

We have a Standard Pauper tournament coming up on this Sunday. So here’s a crash course on Standard Pauper.

 

First off, the only cards legal in this format are commons from Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon’s Maze, Magic 2014 and Theros. If a card appeared as an uncommon in one of these sets, but was a common in a previous set, such as Syncopate, then it is not allowed. It has to be a common in one of the sets that is in Standard. Pretty simple, right?

 

Where do you start with all these commons though? Well besides Googling “Standard Pauper MTG” and looking at different websites (which is what I did), you can merely play your favorite commons. Since the Guildgates exist, manafixing is very easy which allows you to play any cards you want pretty much.

Colorless Manafixing Options: Guildgates, Prophetic Prism, Unknown Shores, Guild Cluestones, Traveler’s Amulet, Opaline Unicorn.

 

That’s a lot of options for no clear color. You can easily make a consistent two-color deck thanks to all the fixing. Three-colors is also viable and you can even do four or five with some more manafixing from Green. Nylea’s Presence, Lay of the Land, Gatecreeper Vine and Verdant Haven are all good options if you are base Green and want to play more colors.

 

Because there are no huge spells very often in Pauper, aggressive decks are usually good. Creatures are generally worse overall due to rarity, but so are all the cards so that shouldn’t stop you from building a deck with a lot of great creatures.

In general, your creatures should be able to do multiple things or you shouldn’t play them unless […]

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31 12, 2013

Welcome our Newest Level 1 Judge Mr. Joseph Burkett

By |December 31st, 2013|Article|1 Comment

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28 12, 2013

UW Control in Standard

By |December 28th, 2013|Deck List|0 Comments

I’m going to be writing a little bit articles for you guys every now and then about random things and this is my first installment. Granted that I no longer play Magic nearly as much as I used to, I’m very sure that I still have a good enough grasp of the game and the formats that I can write these for you guys.

 

Standard is quite an interesting format right now. There isn’t a whole lot of variation going on, and the same decks continue to do well. Some would say that this makes for a stale format, but considering that it’s only a few weeks left until Born of the Gods comes out, I think it’s fine. Plus you can always brew up new decks that do work in this format, since it’s still kind of fresh.

 

The deck I’ll be taking a look in this article is my personal favorite deck choice and has been since Jace, the Mind Sculptor came out: UW Control. Now, William “Huey” Jensen just made the finals of GP: Dallas this last weekend with the deck, and the weekend prior, Stanislav Cifka made the Top 8 of GP: Vienna. They both played different builds, but overall, the decks are one in the same. Let’s take a look at the decklists.

 

UW Control by Andrew Cuneo, 2nd place by William “Huey” Jensen

 

4 Azorius Guildgate

4 Hallowed Fountain

8 Island

2 Mutavault

8 Plains

-26 Lands

 

4 Azorius Charm

4 Detention Sphere

4 Dissolve

4 Divination

1 Elixir of Immortality

2 Quicken

1 Ratchet Bomb

4 Sphinx’s Revelation

4 Supreme Verdict

2 Syncopate

1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

3 Jace, Architect of Thought

-34 Non-Creature Spells

 

Sideboard

1 Blind Obedience

3 Fiendslayer Paladin

3 Gainsay

1 Jace, Memory Adept

3 Last Breath

2 Negate

1 Pithing Needle

1 Ratchet Bomb

 

 

 

UW Control by Stanislav Cifka,

 

4 Azorius Guildgate

4 Hallowed Fountain

7 Island

2 Mutavault

6 […]

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2 11, 2013

Commander Decks!

By |November 2nd, 2013|Product|0 Comments

Yes we have the brand new Commander decks! And remember we hold casual Commander events every Thursday at 6PM.

Five brand new decks filled with cards for Commander!

Commander is one of the most popular multiplayer MagicTM formatsand enthusiasts have been anxiously awaiting new cards and decks—
their wait will soon be over!
Each of these new Commander offerings includes a 100-card
preconstructed deck and three oversized, foil legendary commander
cards (that also appear in the deck). The decks are filled with cards
from throughout the history of Magic and also include…
15 new Magic cards in every deck!

The five new Commander decks each contain two brand new three-
color legendary creatures and 13 other never-before-printed cards.
There are 51 unique new cards spread across the five decks (some
cards appear in multiple decks). These new cards will not only bring
excitement to the Commander format but are also legal for use in
Vintage and Legacy tournaments!

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2 11, 2013

KaiJudo Duel-Day

By |November 2nd, 2013|Event|0 Comments

Come play constructed KaiJudo once at week. Call for more details.

First and second place winners receive a promo card. The card of the month is Enslaved Flametropus.

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