Mirrodin Tournament-Ready Event Decks are Awesome

So last night I took a break from WoW and played an unhealthy amount of Magic: The Gathering with Eric and Jon.  I hadn’t played in a couple months and it was awesome getting back to it again.  I think Cataclysm was a huge reason I hadn’t checked it out much and also the Mirrodin block so far isn’t overly impressive to me.  I think infect is a neat mechanic, but the whole poison counter thing is kind of a drag to me.  Sure you could obliterate opponents earlier on with 10 counters, but I guess I don’t like my games to go that quickly.  While we mainly played decks of our own design (save for my Jund in the picture up there), it was a great time.

However, especially cool was that Jon picked up both of the new Mirrodin Event decks, which were dastardly.  I didn’t even know these existed but apparently they just came out.  You can check out the decklist and a post from Wizards of the Coast here, but suffice it to say every card in each deck is low cost, destructive, and engineered to be tournament-ready.  Each include a 60-card standard-ready deck with 15 card sideboard and a 20-sided die to boot.

Sure not building your own takes away from the appeal of MTG a bit, but if you’ve always been afraid to step into tournament territory with a pre-made, these might be worth checking out.  Below are amazon links to each if you’d like to purchase!

Into the Breach


Infect and Defile

Studies Into Standard – Time for Action

Welcome one and all to another exciting episode of Studies into Standard. First of all, let me just say sorry for the delay. I’ve had a rough week. First, my laptop breaks. Then my car breaks down. Then I have to work a 60 hour week this week at the warehouse… anyways, I finally got it finished! So in this episode, I take my U/W Control deck that I built in my original article, and play at my local FNM. For those of you who don’t remember, here is the decklist that I posted:

U/W Control by JB Martin

Planeswalkers

2 Jace Beleren
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Gideon Jura

Instants
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
2 Condemn
2 Deprive

Enchantments

3 Oblivion Ring
2 Cancel
4 Mana Leak

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My First Friday Night Magic Event

While I’ve attended prelaunch parties before for The Rise of the Eldrazi and the 2011 Core Set, I’d yet to go to a Friday Night Magic event.  Typically these happen on Friday nights (obviously) at game stores all across the country.  Because I’ve yet to find one in Dublin, I’ve been heading to Magic events over at Comic Town on Morse Road.  While I was a little freaked out to try my hand at a draft tournament, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  It was a lot better considering I had Jon, Eric, Erin, and Nicole along for the ride. So how did I fare?  Read on…

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What to Bring to a Magic the Gathering Tournament

This is a guide for people who are entering their first tournament. I realize most of this information is well known to you grizzled, veteran plansewalkers out there, but it’s info I wish somebody would’ve told me before I started so I thought it might be helpful for anyone curious about what to bring. I’ve also provided links to some of these products on Amazon if you feel so inclined. Considering MTG has a lot to keep track of, your number one item should be…

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My First Magic the Gathering Tournament

Today, Jon, Eric, Erin, and myself walked into Comic Town as mere mortals, but emerged as DCI sanctioned tournament players.  The game?  Magic: The Gathering.  Specifically, we were there to attend the Rise of the Eldrazi Prerelease party.  Normally I’d head to The Guardtower to get my fix, but unfortunately they didn’t participate in the prerelease.  Regardless, I’ll now chronicle the experience so that those of you who are also new to tournament play can know what to expect and those of you that are far more experienced can have a hearty, nostalgic laugh at my noobishness.

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