Nicol Bolas: A History

Simon IrvingMagic Story

The shadow of Nicol Bolas looms large over the history of the Magic storyline. The elder dragon planeswalker has been part of the game’s rich lore since Legends in 1994. Alongside the Eldrazi and the Phyrexians, he’s considered one of the three greatest threats to the multiverse. In Hour of Devastation, we see Bolas making a rare center stage appearance, …

Judge’s Tower: Playing with Layers, Pt. 2

Chris CornejoUncategorized

Once more, with feeling! We’re looking at layers again today, mostly because there’s still a lot of weirdness that goes on with the different layers interacting with one another. Getting the order of operations down can be a little tricky, but it’s worth hammering home. So, to start, a quick review of what the layers are, along with examples of …

New Battle Decks: July 2017

Card KingdomProducts

Happy Battle Deck Day! This month, we’ve created a trio of tricolor decks that you’ll want to add to your Battle Deck collection. If you enjoy Junding your opponents out (as our friends LoadingReadyRun would say), pick up a copy of Consume the Weak! This deck features an assortment of token-generating creatures and sacrifice outlets, and not to worry – …

Leveling Up in Magic

Courtney RudigerStrategy

I have to admit that I’ve been in a bit of a Magic rut lately. I started out this year with my best GP finish ever at GP San Jose; then, I went to several PPTQ’s in the spring, but never even made top 8. I attended two more GP’s and didn’t even finish Day 1 with a winning record …

Card Kingdom Affiliates: Rhystic Studies

Card KingdomCommunity

Welcome back to the blog! Today, we’ll be continuing our series on our Card Kingdom Affiliates by introducing you to our newest partner: Rhystic Studies! Sam has been creating YouTube videos since August of 2013, and has quickly become one of Magic‘s most respected content creators. Whether he’s expounding on the cultural significance of Lightning Bolt or analyzing Raymond Swanland’s …

Hour of Devastation Release: A Photo Essay

Card KingdomCommunity

Release Week is the busiest time of the year here at Card Kingdom. We receive thousands of preorders from customers around the world, and we aim to get the new product into players’ hands as quickly as we can. A ton of work goes into a production this large, so today, we wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes look at …

Hour of Promising Commander Cards

Aaron DurbinCommander

With new gods, a God-Pharaoh, old demons, and Crucible of Worlds on a stick, Commander is getting a handful of fresh, powerful spells when Hour of Devastation drops on Friday. While it’s easy to chase the new hotness, it’s also never too early to start speculating about sleeper cards. Here’s my shortlist of Commander cards that are flying slightly under …

Hour of Devastation Limited First Impressions

Hallie SantoLimited

The Hour of Devastation prerelease took place last weekend, and as has become my tradition, I signed up for a few tournaments at Mox Boarding House Seattle. After nearly five years of playing tournament Magic, prereleases are still among my favorite events. It’s always thrilling to open those shiny new booster packs put my Limited skills to the test with …

Red Mages Quarterly: Hour of Devastation

Simon IrvingStandard

Reports of the Red Deck’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. While much of this past Standard season was defined by the Aetherworks Marvel in the room, my red-deck-minded associates and I were enraptured by an entirely different strategy. I am of course talking about the SaffronOlive special, Two Tix Red. Despite some initial skepticism on my part, I’ve seen lists built …