Nerdy Project 2 - Update

All of the rules and the contents page are now posted at The MTG Rules Resource page.  More editing is needed to make it a smoother read, but its there.  By the way, it works great on your smart phone.  If you haven't given it a look, do so, you might find it very useful.

Building a Deck Is Easy, Tuning It Up Is The Harder Part

There’s a lot out there online about deck building, but I want to go out on a limb and say that deck building isn’t what’s really important.  (Pauses while collective gasp goes out from the masses).  It’s not deck building that makes a good deck, its deck tuning.  Let’s be honest, you could make a hundred decks, and in their very first form ninety-nine will probably suck, until they get tuned anyway.  Yes it’s important to build a deck with a solid strategy, a sense of tempo, an understanding of balance and the proper mana curve, but a new deck will always be just that, a new deck, one that it is untested and untried.  It’s what happens next that will determine whether that new deck becomes a good deck, or even a great one.

Broke Back Cards

Most of you have heard of 'broken' cards.  For those that haven't, we'll get into that in a bit.  This is the first in a semi-regular series of what I'm calling broke back cards.

Awesome Humor Site

If you love the game, but also know that it's just a game (unlike that weird, chunky, smelly guy at FNM who you just know is staying alive solely on a diet of ensure shakes and MTG Online 24-7), then check out The Magic Lampoon.

Are they funny?  Check this out...

If you are laughing, and God knows I did, then check out the site.

Nerdy Project #2: Online Rules

So while I am on the subject of nerdy projects, I came up with a new one.  I was playing a match recently and a rather complicated situation came up where the rule was necessary.  We agreed to go to the rulebook after a spirited discussion, and by spirited discussion I mean there were some rather choice comments about the parentage of various players involved.

Nerdy Project #1: Binder Cover Pages

Okay, its a bit nerdy.  Okay, okay, already, its really nerdy.  Here's the deal though.  Recently I decided to stop having big giant binders, and separate my cards by color and having smaller binders that are easier to handle and to update.  I bought hem in six colors, yes so I could color code them.  Stop judging me.  So I made these cover sheets for the fronts of the binders.  I said stop judging me.  I thought I would share them with the rest of the class, and by rest of the class I mean the rest of the anally retentive order freaks like myself who have some deep seated need to over-organize everything they do but still can't seem to get the hang of the their check books. Hey, math is hard.  Here they are, feel free to use them if like me, you need to.  My therapist and I are working on that.

It Looked Good On Paper...And Now It Really Is

Back in December of last year I posted a list of cards that looked good on paper, but in real life, not so much.  One of the cards I profiled there was Dark Depths.  A land that would eventually yield a 20/20 black avatar had to be awesome right?  The cost of counters, though, seemed to ruin the whole idea.  Case closed?  No, its not because along comes Vampire Hexmage and that's where things take a turn.  Recently someone pointed the combo out to me and that's when I had one of OMFG moments.

Check Out 02Drop.com

I recently discovered this site and I was really impressed with the content.  I would have to say that the articles range from intermediate to expert as far as theory and deck building go, and they definitely assume an advanced level of knowledge on the part of their readers.

To get a better idea of their articles, check this one out.  Its an excellent article on how and when to bluff effectively.

Or for something in a more humorous vein there's this column.

The main site is great and I've added it to my links section.  Enjoy.

Back In The Game

So here I am back after a long hiatus.  There's been a lot going on in the last couple of months, luckily I won't be boring you with the details.  Suffice it to say that I'm back and ready to to get back to blogging about the casual meta-game.  Coming very soon a profile of a Magic The Gathering Blog I think you'll like, I revisit my comparison between Affinity and Infect, and I debut Deck Building 101 tips, so stay tuned.