Summer of Magic

Magic this past summer has been weird. Because I knew that M10 was only going to be standard legal for a year and due to the shortage, I didn’t buy that much or draft that much M10. That plus the knowledge of knowing that Lorwyn Block will be phasing out in the early fall; I didn’t play that much Standard or Magic in general. But with the time that I did focus on Magic, I focused in the following areas:

Jump to 6:40.

Extended: I don’t have that many extended cards, in fact in my only Extd deck that I have, half of the cards are proxies. Over the past couple of months, I’ve come to like Extd and am seriously considering playing it now. It does break my heart a little bit that Lorwyn Block is going to phase out of Stnd but that means that I am now 1 set into Extd.

I was telling Blong and Peter that Extd is expensive to play and that when we start playing it we should be in no hurry. Our goals should be to play Extd regularly in a couple of years. If you look at a set as, “you only get to play with it for 2 years and then it’s gone,” then when Blocks rotate out of Stnd, it’s going to hurt you in a lot of ways and might even make you want to quit Magic. But if you look at buying Zendikar cards as a 2 year investment into Stnd and then another 4 years investment into Extd, then it’s not so bad. Extd is a fun format, you just have to give it a try. I’ve also decided that I must resist buying Mirrodin Block cards because this Block will be phasing out in a year.


Legacy: there is a huge Legacy scene up here in MN. They run events up here called “The Gauntlet” where you have 3 Legacy decks and play that one deck until it loses, once that deck loses, it’s eliminated from the tournament and you have to use your other 2 decks. Once all of your decks have lost, you’re eliminated from the tournament. Plus there are weekly tournaments where you could win a good Legacy cards like a Tarmogoyf, Force of Will, or original Dual Land. I know that in Legacy, sometimes it comes down to who goes first and can get a better draw, but there is still a lot of strategy involved in it. I’m currently working on two Legacy decks, one is half proxies and the other one is half built.

Cube: that’s right… I said a Cube… I’m no longer making a foil common/uncommon cube. I tried it out and it’s really agro, there aren’t as many archetypes in it so I decided to make a cube with some of the best cards in Magic. I’m almost done. I need about another 50 cards, some lands, and more sleeves and it should be all set. My goal is to get this Cube ready before the winter hits so that us guys will something different to do on those cold winter nights.

Top 5 Cards that I will miss from Lorwyn Block:

5. Reflecting Pool
4. Vivid Lands
3. Cloudthresher
2. Kitchen Finks
1. Mulldrifter