card Archive

  • The way that the majority of limited games play out is that from turns 2-3 onwards, both players are generally making one play each turn that advances their position in some way. If this carries on indefinitely the game is almost certainly going to be a very close one. However, in the real world this does not tend to happen. At some point a player will pass a turn without making a play in the same turn cycle that their opponent did play a relevant spell. Another possibility is that a player did play a card that impacts the board in their favour, but their opponent played two! One more is that a player played a relevant spell and while their opponent did also play a spell, it had little to no influence on the current board state. These moments are the tipping points in the game that I like to call 'Tempo Swings'. A tempo swing essentially happens when one player makes a larger number of meaningful plays in a turn cycle than their opponent. I have found that a good yardstick is that if you have achieved a favourable tempo swing two times more in a game than your opponent and held that advantage over more than one turn, you are very likely to win. If we take this theory to heart our goal is to both try and get cards into our deck that allow us to create positive tempo swings and also play in such a way that we open ourselves up to causing these situations for ourselves, whilst attempting to prevent our opponent from doing so. I must stress that you cannot simply just cast any spell or activate any ability and call it a meaningful play. You can only count actions that have a reasonable positive impact on your game plan.

    Know Your Limits: Tempo Swings in Limited by Sean Davey

    Posted on May 12, 2013 | No Comments
    The way that the majority of limited games play out is that from turns 2-3 onwards, both players are generally making one play each turn that advances their position in some way. If this carries on indefinitely the game is almost certainly going to be a very close one. However, in the real world this does not tend to happen. At some point a player will pass a turn without making a play in the same turn cycle that their opponent did play a relevant spell. Another possibility is that a player did play a card that impacts the board in their favour, but their opponent played two! One more is that a player played a relevant spell and while their opponent did also play a spell, it had little to no influence on the current board state. These moments are the tipping points in the game that I like to call 'Tempo Swings'. A tempo swing essentially happens when one player makes a larger number of meaningful plays in a turn cycle than their opponent. I have found that a good yardstick is that if you have achieved a favourable tempo swing two times more in a game than your opponent and held that advantage over more than one turn, you are very likely to win. If we take this theory to heart our goal is to both try and get cards into our deck that allow us to create positive tempo swings and also play in such a way that we open ourselves up to causing these situations for ourselves, whilst attempting to prevent our opponent from doing so. I must stress that you cannot simply just cast any spell or activate any ability and call it a meaningful play. You can only count actions that have a reasonable positive impact on your game plan.

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  • Whew. Nearly there. Hopefully, based on publishing schedules, you’re reading this before attending one of the multitude of Dragon’s Maze pre-releases being held all over the world. Even more hopefully, something you’ve read in these articles will help you win a game or two. We can but hope.

    Dragon’s Maze Set Review – Part 5: Green, Selesnya & Simic by Grant Hislop

    Posted on April 29, 2013 | No Comments
    Whew. Nearly there. Hopefully, based on publishing schedules, you’re reading this before attending one of the multitude of Dragon’s Maze pre-releases being held all over the world. Even more hopefully, something you’ve read in these articles will help you win a game or two. We can but hope.

    Continue Reading...

  • My apologies to those who enjoy reading bits and pieces before the card reviews. I’m working a 60-hour week this week, which is very unpleasant, and consequently, I have very little free time in the evening that isn’t devoted to looking at pictures of Magical cards. If I skip intros, there’s a chance that on Friday, I can do something vaguely human with my girlfriend, like a cinema trip or restaurant visit, and there’s like a 99% certainty that I like her better than you, so I’m going to have to jump straight into cards.

    Dragon’s Maze Set Review – Part 4: Red, Boros & Gruul by Grant Hislop

    Posted on April 29, 2013 | No Comments
    My apologies to those who enjoy reading bits and pieces before the card reviews. I’m working a 60-hour week this week, which is very unpleasant, and consequently, I have very little free time in the evening that isn’t devoted to looking at pictures of Magical cards. If I skip intros, there’s a chance that on Friday, I can do something vaguely human with my girlfriend, like a cinema trip or restaurant visit, and there’s like a 99% certainty that I like her better than you, so I’m going to have to jump straight into cards.

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  • Guess who’s back? Having previously covered White and Blue, today we’re going to be moving on to Black, and look at Rakdos and Golgari cards as well. I’m really short on pre-amble at the moment, so without further foreplay, let’s dive straight into some new cards.

    Dragon’s Maze Set Review – Part 3: Black, Rakdos & Golgari by Grant Hislop

    Posted on April 29, 2013 | No Comments
    Guess who’s back? Having previously covered White and Blue, today we’re going to be moving on to Black, and look at Rakdos and Golgari cards as well. I’m really short on pre-amble at the moment, so without further foreplay, let’s dive straight into some new cards.

    Continue Reading...

  • Last time, we looked at White cards. With that unpleasantness out of the way, let’s move on to the best colour in Magic – Blue, and a couple of other colours that can sometimes be paired with it to good effect.

    Dragon’s Maze Set Review – Part 2: Blue by Grant Hislop

    Posted on April 25, 2013 | No Comments
    Last time, we looked at White cards. With that unpleasantness out of the way, let’s move on to the best colour in Magic – Blue, and a couple of other colours that can sometimes be paired with it to good effect.

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  • Third sets in a block are always strange. On one hand, they’re full of interesting new cards (Coldsnap notwithstanding), but on the other, the formats that they’re coming into are already pretty well defined, and have been thoroughly explored. It’s interesting to consider that if all the cards in a Standard environment were released simultaneously, obviously the metagame would look radically different. The thing is, as a small set, being released into an established environment, it’s likely that only the most powerful cards will see the light of day.

    Dragon’s Maze Set Review – Part 1: White by Grant Hislop

    Posted on April 23, 2013 | No Comments
    Third sets in a block are always strange. On one hand, they’re full of interesting new cards (Coldsnap notwithstanding), but on the other, the formats that they’re coming into are already pretty well defined, and have been thoroughly explored. It’s interesting to consider that if all the cards in a Standard environment were released simultaneously, obviously the metagame would look radically different. The thing is, as a small set, being released into an established environment, it’s likely that only the most powerful cards will see the light of day.

    Continue Reading...

  • Development has stopped on cockatrice and you can no longer update it with new cards, and Oracle, the program that use to update for you, no longer works. It is possible to update the card database manually however, and its really easy too!

    How To Update Cockatrice MTG Card Lists Database – Dragons Maze by Stuart Whyte

    Posted on April 17, 2013 | No Comments
    Development has stopped on cockatrice and you can no longer update it with new cards, and Oracle, the program that use to update for you, no longer works. It is possible to update the card database manually however, and its really easy too!

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  • Starting for the next few months is the incredibly exciting prospect of creating an entire Cube from scratch… but unlike other cubes this will be entirely based around cards that the community have designed. No reprints, no using real cards. A true test of card design, evaluation and group analysis to create a fun yet challenging cube for the masses to use!

    The mtgUK Design-a-Cube Project – Join in and take part!

    Posted on April 15, 2013 | No Comments
    Starting for the next few months is the incredibly exciting prospect of creating an entire Cube from scratch… but unlike other cubes this will be entirely based around cards that the community have designed. No reprints, no using real cards. A true test of card design, evaluation and group analysis to create a fun yet challenging cube for the masses to use!

    Continue Reading...

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