Locations
A staggering amount of Magic content is published each day each day on a plethora of content sites, blogs, podcasts, and discussion forums. No matter how honest an effort you make, it's easy to fall behind and miss incredible articles because there just isn't enough time to read everything.
To that end, we've collected some of the best articles of the week covering a broad range of topics. If you're looking for articles, these are the ones you don't want to miss!
On Conspiracy for Two
Are you excited about Conspiracy but too busy to get 8 friends together for a few hours to draft? Mike and Tifa Robles love two-player formats, and have put together a way to enjoy Conspiracy in a heads up draft format for two. What better way to find out what kind of treachery you can expect from your closest friend?
GatheringMagic.com: Mike and Tifa Robles - Conspiracy for Two
Winston-drafting is our favorite two-player format because we both love drafting, and this way, we can experience the choices, the deck-building, and all the fun of a Draft, and we can play a few games with just the two of us. Plus, it doesn’t usually take more than an hour or two.
With the latest release of Conspiracy, Wizards of the Coast has managed to create a great, new, multiplayer experience. We were thoroughly excited for this release since we were both able to playtest it while at Wizards. Before it was even out, Tifa knew she wanted to try out Winston-drafting the set. It didn’t take much convincing.
Once we decided we were going to attempt a Winston Draft with Conspiracy, we needed to make some decisions. A lot of the draft-matters cards were going to need to be changed. So, we talked about options and made notes on how each of the cards would need to be changed, regardless of what we opened. This was a fun process in itself because we were able to consider the open world of possibilities that Winston Draft has to offer the Draft environment and how different it is from regular drafting—as well as how it’s similar.
On Building a Plane
Put on your worldbuilding hats, because Ant Tessitore is beginning an exciting community project: We Make the Plane! Do you have what it takes to build the next Innistrad or Ravnica, jam packed with awesome characters, flavor, and stories? Read up. Get involved. Make something awesome.
GatheringMagic.com: Ant Tessitore (@ANThroplasm) - We Make the Plane
The Magic conversation has been growing as well. Between Twitter, Facebook, reddit, Tumblr, the mothership, and countless Magic-related sites, our community has developed a voice all its own.
Of all the accomplishments we have completed as a community, there still exists one thing that has eluded us—one thing that we have yet to do together:
Create our own plane.
On Matchups
What defines a matchup between two Standard decks? Normally we break things down into cards that are important and cards that aren't. Sometimes there's important sideboarding tips, sometimes there are sequencing tricks, but most Magic strategy treats deck matchups in a pretty linear sense. That's not true of Reid Duke's latest article. Reid delves into the subtleties of the Black Devotion vs Blue-White Control matchup, breaking down different types of games and deck variants and how small details dramatically affect the texture of the matchup. The key lesson? Matchups are about more than just cards.
ChannelFireball.com: Reid Duke (@ReidDuke) - The Matchup: Black Devotion vs UW
The Top 8 of Grand Prix Chicago was all Black, Blue, and control. It's become clear where we stand, and what the Standard format is all about. But there's nothing to be gained by crying about it, we just need to do the best with what we're given.
Along those lines, I'd like to explore one of the defining matchups of the format: Black Devotion vs. control. I'll discuss the pros and cons, in regard to the matchup, of some of the more popular builds of each deck. I'll make suggestions on how to improve your chances on every battlefield, from deck construction to sideboarding to game play. My hope is that this article will be helpful, at least in some small way, to control players and Black Devotion players alike, as well as to those simply looking for a deeper understanding of the format.
On Planeswalkers
Planeswalkers are hard to play with. They're super fun and powerful, but are among the most decision intensive cards in modern Magic. This week, Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa breaks down the ins and outs of playing with Planeswalkers. How valuable are loyalty counters? When should you throw away your cards and board to defend your companion? When should you be ticking up towards an ultimate versus grinding out value with middling abilities? Learn from the best and get the most out of your Planeswalkers.
ChannelFireball.com: Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa - How to Play with Planeswalkers
Planeswalkers are probably the most unique card type in Magic. When they were first introduced, in Lorwyn, we had no idea what to think of them, and evaluating new Planeswalker cards was very hard. Even Jace, the Mind Sculptor, one of the best cards ever, was savagely underrated by most people at first, despite everyone knowing by then how good Jace Beleren was. Granted, that was probably a function of Jace TMS not being as good when it was released into a world of Bloodbraid Elf and Blightning, but even after those cards rotated out people still played two or three Jaces in their decks when four eventually became the obvious choice.
Planeswalkers' uniqueness makes them hard to evaluate, but it also makes them hard to play with and against. They bring a whole new element to the game, and many matches have been lost because a player decided to play a planeswalker one turn too soon or one turn too late, because they gave it too much or not enough importance. Assessing how important a planeswalker is, and how much should you try to defend it, is very hard and very game dependant. There is no clear-cut answer because it will depend a lot on the particular game you’re playing. In this article, I’ll try to provide general guidelines for how to play your planeswalkers so that when the time comes you can make a more informed decision on whether you want to save it or not.
