Out of all the classic card effects in Magic, lifegain might get the least respect. And though it pains me to say it…with good reason. The problem with expending cards and mana to gain life – especially if that’s the only thing you’re doing – is that lifegain alone will never win the game for you, so all you’re doing …
There’s a lot of two-card combos in Magic, but the best ones often come from way back in the game’s history. To a degree, that’s just statistics – the number of unique cards printed over the last 29 years is just so much larger than the pool of Standard-legal cards at any given point. This means that the combos we …
Big news in the multiverse! While the Magic community is still happily soaking in the glow of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Wizards has put out the first release information and card spoilers for the second new Standard set of 2022: Streets of New Capenna! Since this was just an early teaser, most of what Adam Styborski showed off on the Magic …
“A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES!” The journey of a new competitive player – or at least a player new to a particular format – is often hard in Magic compared to other games. Each incarnation of Standard has its own field of tier decks and leading cards to study up on, even if your grasp of the fundamentals is strong from …
Welcome back, my scientifically-minded Draft players! At time of writing, almost two weeks of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Limited are on the record. Various surveillance thopters and cyber kami have begun filtering that data into a more complete picture of the format – one that can supplement and validate our first instincts as Magic players. That’s what this Draft By Numbers …
Heed my word, Magic players: the future is now! Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has launched to much fanfare and applause, with its daring cyberpunk setting drawing many curious players back into the game after the holiday lull. Just glancing over the spoiler for Neon Dynasty gives you the feel of something different and special, with a remarkably high density of artifacts …
There’s no disputing it at this point: Ninjas are the most- and best-remembered part of the original Kamigawa block. Even with close to 20 years of power creep and shifts in Magic design against them, Ninjas are still an iconic and popular creature type, with a huge number of players maintaining Ninja tribal decks to this day. What makes Ninjas …
With such a powerfully thematic new set on the way, a lot of attention is given over to the reveal of new mechanics. Of course, new tech like reconfigure and modified expand Magic and create the most new opportunities for deck building and gameplay, and that’s why a set is often judged by the mechanics it introduces. But sometimes a …
Welcome back to Combo Crash Course, our semi-regular exploration of Magic’s greatest combo decks. This week, we’re kicking things up a notch in the power department. While previously, we’ve spent some time with famous combo decks from Standard, Historic and Modern, this will be our first time delving into the explosive combo potential of eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and …
Reanimator – bringing back huge creatures from the graveyard with relatively cheap spells – is one of the oldest and most recognizable strategies in Magic. The mechanic draws inspiration directly from the fantasy stories which inspired the game’s creators, where wizards reanimate the fallen as shambling undead or reincarnate them to full glorious power. As you’d expect, both black and …
