• Five Card Blind

    We all love Magic most of the time, but its roots as a casual pastime have left us with a bizarre legacy of unwanted randomness. Ladies and gentlemen, today I present the solution to these woes and more! An excellent and yet hitherto underpublicised Magic variant. The game is Five Card Blind, known to players and fans as simply 5CB.

  • The Only One: Origins

    "Ideally we want it to be a format where everyone can play their best (you don't have to self-limit by building intentionally bad decks to let others be competitive), where the games are long and interactive, and where it's strategically correct to play a different set of cards than other formats... larger, more expensive, more powerful cards. It doesn't accomplish any of those perfectly, but it does a reasonable job of all three."

  • Kill By Numbers: The Zombie Revival

    The time of Friday Night Tribal has come and gone. It was given mixed reactions, and rightfully so. Some players were speculating the idea of tribal Soldiers, tribal Dragons, and even tribal Birds, but Wizards quickly shattered those ideas by announcing that Friday Night Tribal could consist only of the Lorwyn tribes: Goblins, Giants, Merfolk, Kithkin, Elves, Elementals, Changelings, and Faeries. What would the brain-eating, rotten flesh-donning Zombies be capable of if they were allowed to participate in the official Tribal wars again?

  • Morningtide in Elder Dragon Highlander

    Hello, all! It’s that time of year again--snow, cold, and the excitement of opening those Morningtide packs and taking in that new card smell. And, like all good sets, Morningtide lends itself to some interesting set analyses. I am sure that by the time this is printed, several articles on the set in Standard, Limited, Extended, and Legacy will have made an appearance. But there’s another format, much closer to my heart, that just craves set analysis...

  • Sliver Wars: The Beginning

    A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away... Dominaria was under an attack, and all the slivers we loved from the Rath cycle would be sure to die in the Invasion. Flash forward a little, and we learn that these lovable creatures not only survived, but mutated and evolved! Things were looking up for them once more. Then soon after Legions we're thrown into a metal world, never to see slivers again... Until now.

  • Battle of the Sets VIII: Play-in Results and Pairings

    The Play-In Division, is an unusual part of the Tournament, which is not unlike countries in soccer that need to earn their way into the World Cup, because they aren't good enough to qualify based on their past performance. Basically, all of the worst decks and sets in Magic history are fighting for the opportunity to make it into the main tournament, and only the victor of the 8 man mini-tournament will be able to take that final remaining spot in Battle of the Sets. Who will it be this time? Read on to find out!

  • Battle of the Sets VIII: Introduction Pt. 1

    Hello and welcome to another exciting installment of Battle of the Sets! I am your host and tournament organizer Alfred, and I welcome both tournament newcomers as well as those of you who have had the opportunity to read BotS before. We're looking at brand spanking new competition, boasting many deck changes as well as three new decks who dare to challenge the established decks in a battle to the top of the heap, and to be known as the best set in the world of Magic: The Gathering.

  • Guises of Magic: Sparky's Cultists

    When playing a game of Magic: The Gathering, it is usually a duel between two planeswalkers who have gained vast knowledge by viewing and learning from the history of the many planes in the Multiverse. These planeswalkers are non-descript, and are very much alike. They are shrouded and battle for fame, glory, greed, or sport. But anyone who has read any of the novels based off of the sets knows that it is not the non-descript planeswalkers that are dueling. So if these "Legends" from Magic can duel each other, why can't we play as them? Oh, wait, we can!

  • Wordplay: Round 1

    In the Wordplay format, each 40-card deck may consist of only 26 cards other than basic lands, one for each letter of the alphabet. Following the Legacy banned list, six MTGS writers created decks to pit against each other in a battle of wits. (No, not that Battle of Wits.)

    We met the writers and their decks in the introduction article. And now, in their own words, the writers comment on the results of the first round.
  • Older Articles