Why You Should be Playing 1v1 Commander
For most of its first two decades, Magic was designed and marketed as a competitive discipline — a puzzle to solve with tournaments as its apex experience. However, while it may be hard to imagine now, Commander was once an upstart format which defied that default assumption about how and why people play Magic. Elder Dragon Highlander (and later Commander) ... Read More...
A Winner’s MTG Mentality: Preparing for Tournaments
As the Regional Championship Qualifier season gets into full swing, many people will be playing in more competitive MTG tournaments than they have in a long time. As players return to paper Magic, it is important that they come back with the right mentality. Like anything else in life that involves competition, if you want to win, you’ll need to ... Read More...
MTG History: Coldsnap (July 21, 2006)
Welcome back to another edition of “This Day in Magic History.” This time, we’re taking a look at the release of Coldsnap, which was released on July 21, 2006. Coldsnap is one of the weirder black-bordered releases we’ve ever seen. It was printed as the intended third and final set of the Ice Age Block. That might not sound strange ... Read More...
Expressive Iteration’s domination of Magic formats
Expressive Iteration is in every top deck in every format it’s legal in. If you go and check the data, Standard, Modern and Legacy are all run by the best card draw spell printed since Treasure Cruise. Pioneer, a format where Treasure Cruise is legal, recently banned Expressive Iteration. So, how is this little uncommon that didn’t even get noticed ... Read More...
Off the beaten path: 10 decks to mix up MTGA
Sometimes playing Magic: The Gathering can feel like facing the same decks repeatedly when formats grow stale. This, however, is an inevitable part of the game. There will always be some best deck that performs better than the competition. Pros and other players familiar with each format call these the “tier 1 decks.” These decks then inevitably become more popular ... Read More...
What to know before your first RCQ
With Regional Championship Qualifier Season in full swing, many folks will be returning to competitive paper Magic after a long hiatus. However, for some players, this will be their first foray into organized play. We recently covered what you should bring to a CommandFest, and while a lot of that information will transfer well to preparing for an RCQ, competitive ... Read More...
Rebound – MTG Keywords Explained
Rebound appears on instants and sorceries. When a spell that you cast from your hand with Rebound resolves, instead of going to the graveyard, it gets exiled. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you then may cast that spell without paying its mana cost and ignoring timing restrictions for sorceries. Cards with specific timing restrictions (like Savage Beating, which ... Read More...