Top 10 Dark Ascension Cards For Standard (Tips, Strategy, Review, & First Impressions) February 3, 2012
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This is my top 10 favorite Dark Ascension cards with Standard in mind. The cards on this list might never see play, but I think they are good when considered in isolation, and they are likely to see play at some point. (Perhaps after the next rotation.) Keep in mind that this list is created before Dark Ascension was officially released, so it is somewhat speculative. (more…)
Top 10 First Picks for Dark Ascension Draft (Tips & Strategy) January 24, 2012
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 4comments
Dark Ascension can be drafted alone or with two booster packs of Innistrad. Keep in mind that Dark Ascension will be the first pack you draft, so it’s a good idea to know what you want to “shoot for” when you start drafting Dark Ascension with Innistrad. The cards in this list are the cards that I think are (a) powerful, (b) worth drafting early, and are (c) common or uncommon. Rares are often the first pick, but you should be more familiar with the commons and uncommons since you will see a lot of them. (more…)
10 Powerful Colorless Cards for Commander (EDH Tips & Strategy) January 18, 2012
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I have mentioned my 9 favorite cards for Commander, but there are several other great cards that should be in almost every deck. Here is a list of 10 cards that meet that criteria. (more…)
Top 10 First Picks for Innistrad Draft (Tips & Strategy) September 29, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 19comments
When drafting it’s a good idea to look for the best cards in each pack to decide what colors you should play and what themes you should try to get. The rares are often the right choice, but you can’t count on getting any rares in particular. What you can count on is choosing between commons and uncommons, so I will list my 10 favorite common and uncommon cards from Innistrad for draft: (more…)
Top 10 Innistrad Cards for Standard (Strategy & Tips) September 22, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, constructed , 7comments
There are several cards that I like from Innistrad, but these are my 10 favorite cards that might be worth using in a standard constructed deck: (more…)
Magic 2012 Draft: Top 20 Common & Uncommon First Picks (Tips & Strategy) July 20, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, limited, draft , 5comments
When you draft, knowing which cards are best can be quite helpful. You should know if your rare is worth taking. Difficult choices generally concern the commons and uncommons. My 20 favorite commons and uncommons include the following: (more…)
Top 10 New Cards in Magic 2012 for Standard July 14, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, standard , 1 comment so farThere are many good reprints in Magic 2012, and some of them were gone for a while. Grim Lavamancer, Oblivion Ring, Incinerate, Ponder, Overrun, Goblin Grenade, Smallpox, and Solemn Simulacrum are all great cards that weren’t in Magic 2011 or any other set within the last year. My concern here are never-seen-before cards in Magic 2012 that I think could be good enough make a difference to Standard tournaments. (more…)
The Power 9 for Commander (Best Cards for EDH, Tips & Strategy) July 1, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, constructed , 5commentsCommander is a lot like a singleton version of Vintage (type 1), but many additional cards are banned. I will discuss which cards I think are the most broken in Commander. These cards could become banned at any time. (more…)
Top 10 Best Commander Precon Cards (EDH Tips & Strategy) June 24, 2011
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Wizards of the Coast has made Commander (AKA EDH/Elder Dragon Highlander) into an official format and five preconstructed commander decks have been released featuring 51 new cards. (Go here to see a spoiler of every card included in these decks.) I will now present my 10 favorite new commander cards from the preconstructed decks. My ratings of the cards are based on having the commander format in mind because most of the cards wouldn’t be worth playing in any other setting. (more…)
Top 10 New Phyrexia First Picks for Draft (Tips & Strategy) May 2, 2011
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The following are the my favorite common and uncommon cards from New Phyrexia that I will take a look out for while drafting New Phyrexia: (more…)
Top 10 Cards for Standard from New Phyrexia April 28, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, strategy, tips, constructed, standard , 6commentsHere are my current favorite cards for Standard from New Phyrexia. (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 4: 5 More Cards Good in Metalcraft (Strategy & Tips) March 26, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, limited, draft , 8comments 
Update (4/24/11): I added Ichor Wellspring to the list.
I have already discussed my 10 favorite common & uncommon cards to draft from Mirrodin Besieged and 5 other common and uncommon cards good in both metalcraft and infect. I will now discuss five more common and uncommon cards that I would want if I wanted to try to commit to making a metalcraft deck. (Actually, a few of these cards are actually decent in any non-infect deck anyway.) (more…)
Standard Red Deck Wins (Post-Mirrodin Besieged) March 15, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, standard , 5commentsNot much has changed about Red Deck Wins since I discussed it last (almost two months ago), but I did well in a couple large events with my newest version: (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 3: 5 More Cards Good in Infect (Strategy & Tips) March 4, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, limited, draft , 2comments
I have already mentioned various great cards drafting Mirrodin Besieged. Many of these are good in Infect. Viridian Corrupter, Go for the Throat, Plague Myr, Flayer Husk, Spread the Sickness, Sphere of the Suns, and Signal Pest are all my favorite non-rare cards to use when drafting Mirrodin Besieged and I discuss these cards here and here. The point of the first two articles was to make it clear what cards you should take before you know if you are going to play a certain theme. The point of this piece is to discuss what cards Infect players should be taking almost exclusively based on the fact that they are committed to the infect theme. My top 5 cards include the following: (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 2: 5 Cards Good in Infect & Metalcraft (Strategy & Tips) February 25, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, limited, draft , 6comments
Welcome to my second post about Mirrodin Besieged draft strategy & tips. Part 1 was “Top 10 Commons & Uncommons” and was meant to help you decide what colors to play. In today’s installment I will discuss more cards worth taking early on that don’t commit you to any theme in particular. These cards are good in just about any deck (as long as you are playing the right colors). It’s a good idea to stay flexible and to take cards that will be useful no matter what deck you end up playing. If you don’t see any cards from my top 10 list, then one of these cards should do fine. (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 1: Top 10 Commons & Uncommons (Strategy & Tips) February 7, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 14commentsAlthough great rares can help determine what colors you want to play, commons and uncommons are much more reliable and are likely to play an even greater role for that reason. Additionally, the first cards you take are likely to tell you what colors you should play and what colors other people aren’t playing — and they aren’t likely to be rares. The cards on this top 10 list are the cards you hope to take and they will help you choose what colors to play.
Updated 3/21/2011: Added Mortarpod to the list. (more…)
Why Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, is a Game Design Failure February 1, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, constructed , 8comments
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is quite powerful, and I agree that it’s not broken. So what’s the problem? The problem is that we can’t ignore it because it’s good. And the problem is that it’s the wrong colors. The problem is Tezzeret is wrong for the constructed metalcraft decks we should be able to make using cards from Scars of Mirrodin block. (more…)
Top 10 Cards for Standard in Mirrodin Besieged January 27, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, strategy, constructed , 2commentsI mentioned my 3 personal favorite cards from Mirrodin Besieged, but they aren’t necessarily going to be the most important cards in Standard. Here are the top 10 cards I think will be powerful (or highly useful) for Standard: (more…)
Standard Red Deck Wins (Post-Scars of Mirrodin) January 18, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, constructed, standard , add a commentI don’t know what Red Deck Wins will look like after Mirrodin Besieged, but I finally got a new red deck that did pretty well. I was able to beat 5 players in a row, then I tied to make it into the top 8. I ended up tying for fourth place. (more…)
Drafting Scars of Mirrodin Part 5: Proliferate November 14, 2010
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Scars of Mirrodin is one of the most difficult sets to draft because there are only two obvious decks to shoot for — Metalcraft and Infect. However there are also two other decks that most people either don’t know about or are unwilling to try to make — Sacrifice and Proliferate. I already talked about the sacrifice theme, and I only found out about the proliferate deck recently. (more…)