Judges are some of the hardest-working members of the Magic community. They build and maintain healthy communities at local game stores, set and enforce equitable tournament policy, and make sure Magic‘s largest events run smoothly. Over the years, I’ve been especially impressed by the judges I know who regularly travel to Grand Prix, where they spend long days overseeing events, ... Read More...

Two years ago, we launched our in-house product line with Battle Decks: a series of casual 60-card decks. Battle Decks were created for enfranchised players looking to play some fun games of Magic on a budget, and we soon realized that there was a need for a separate, beginner-friendly product. We wanted to create a teaching tool for new and ... Read More...

As I mentioned in last week’s article, Ixalan has done a lot to change the way Magic players approach creature tribes. This week, we’re going to explore not only the power of our new Pirates, but the possibilities of combining them with additional tribal support as we look at the emergence of an up-and-coming Commander archetype, “Creature Type Matters.” WHY ... Read More...

APNAP (Active Player/Non-Active Player) is one of those little rules things underpinning Magic that serves to hold everything together without drawing too much attention to itself. It’s one of the many bits that lets the game function without becoming a tangled mess of unclear priority passes, garbled timing, andThe Batch. For anyone who played prior to the Sixth Edition rules ... Read More...

Somewhere in Ixalan’s never-ending, Neverland-esque Pirate-Dinosaur skirmish, our imagination, childhood, and hearts were smitten with the possibilities of some of the most refreshing designs to date. And boy, they didn’t disappoint! While most have been taken with the overabundance of new creature types, the biggest win for me is a long-standing theory I’ve held about creatures and the color pie: ... Read More...

My goodness, this preview season has been a doozy! And with the first rotation in what feels like years pushing the Battle for Zendikar and Shadows over Innistrad blocks out of Standard, it looks like there’s a wide open metagame just waiting for dinosaurs and pirates to invade. Between new cards and reprints, there’s definitely more than a few cards ... Read More...

To call Hour of Devastation Standard a success for the Red Deck would be quite the understatement. Over the past three months, loyal red mages got to see their deck vault into the top tier, culminating in Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s convincing win (amidst a Top 8 with six other red aggressive decks). The additions of Earthshaker Khenra, Abrade, ... Read More...