Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Tom Anderson”
After each new banning shakes up Standard, there begins a cycle of hope. I rush to Arena and go to my maxed-out Decks screen, where jank brews untold await testing and tuning. “This time,” I say to myself. “This time W/B Auras and Mono-U Self-Mill and Vito Aggro will be good!” Then, I take them to the ladder and realize …
It seemed destined by fate that Emma Handy — who helped rally the Magic community around the “No TERFs on Gruul Turf!” slogan — would end up crashing the Top 8 of a Worlds-level tournament with a red-green aggro deck. “Gruul Adventures was honestly the sort of eleventh hour audible you always hear about — but this time it worked.” …
Current Standard has more ramp than a skate park built in a multi-level parking garage. Ramp decks have always been a part of Magic, escaping the limits of the mana curve since the first Llanowar Elves tapped to cast Force of Nature. But design changes in the Standard rotation shifted the balance of power, doing away with many of the …
This past week has seen drafters on MTG Arena and MTGO make their long-awaited return to Zendikar — and the plane of hedrons is NOT as we left it! Not only are we free to explore the wilds without Eldrazi interference for the first time since original Zendikar, but there are these new double-faced “spell lands” running around everywhere, challenging …
This past weekend’s Mythic Invitational brought a satisfying conclusion to one of pro Magic’s biggest storylines: the rise of Historic as a premier format. It seemed so unlikely at first; prior to the pandemic, Pioneer was the popular choice, while Historic was hampered by negative PR and a lack of clear direction. But with Historic available on Arena through this …
Zendikar Rising spoiler season has just begun, bringing a bunch of evocative and interesting new cards to the game. And this time, I’m not just reporting on them or speculating on them. I’m revealing them! Now, in case you haven’t heard, these are two sides of a double-faced card. Creature on the front, land on the back. There are a …
Waiting for Standard to rotate is like waiting for Christmas to come. If you’re excited about it, the weeks crawl by at a painful pace; if not, the big day will sneak up on you before you’ve had time to really think about it! But ready or not, we will soon lose half of the current Standard card pool: Guilds …
2020 will go down in the history books for many reasons, but while I’m writing a Magic blog, I may as well add that it’s been an absolute bumper year for new card sets. From Theros Beyond Death to now, we’ve seen twelve new product releases, if you count digital-only ventures like Amonkhet Remastered. And it’s only August! Unbelievably, that pace …
Alright readers, who’s ready for a bit of sun and sand?! Amonkhet Remastered releases imminently on MTGA, bringing back the powerful graveyard synergies and red deck staples that marked Magic’s stay in the realm of the God-Pharaoh. Historic players are abuzz figuring out the impact of these new cards (particularly those looking to build around The Scarab God and The …
The Magic community has filled great tomes with the discussion of the 2019-2020 Standard environment; at this point, it’s hard to justify repeating the analysis in detail. Suffice to say that the format is historically short on deck variety, and one reason why is how incredibly hard it is to play aggro decks right now. Standard has been dominated by …
