Monthly Archives: February 2011

This week’s In Development – Who wouldn’t want to play eight copies of Jane Goodall?

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Another week, another In Development!
This time around I’m debuting a Standard deck that arose from my failed attempts to usefully combine Fauna Shaman and Green Sun’s Zenith in Extended. Although I won’t be playing that particular eight pack of cards in the PTQ this weekend in Santa Clara, I did come up with a powerful, new take on the Fauna Shaman deck.
Check it out here and then give it a twirl — it’s surprisingly powerful!
And then, of course, let me know what you think.
As a special bonus, brownie points (although no material prize) if you can catch the reference to a pen-and-paper roleplaying game that went out of print well before most of my readers were born.

This week’s In Development – In which I cite a firearms study

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It’s In Development time again, and I’m looking at power!
Cue Ian McDiarmid here – “I have the power. Un…limited…POWER!”
Are designing a deck? Tweaking a deck? Picking someone else’s deck?
Whatever the situation, you’ll surely want to know if your deck is powerful enough. Which might prompt you to ask…what makes a deck “powerful?” What does that mean, anyway? Could there be a way of conceptualizing it, or, say, a rule of thumb?
Maybe. And maybe that’s what I wrote about this week.
Check it out, and then let me know what you think.

This week’s In Development – gearing up for Extended control

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In Development has rolled around again, and this week I’m reeling it back in from Legacy to spend some time talking about our current PTQ format.
This week I’m specifically addressing my path toward my current choice of control deck for the PTQ season. As I saw it, the question was Vivid lands or no?
…and if you read the blurb on the site’s main page, you’ll find my answer to that question veeeery confusing.
So, that said, click here to read the article, then comment, hit me up on twitter, or email me to let me know what you think.

The Dredge trilogy

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Did you get a chance to check in on this week’s In Development, about Dredge?
What about last week? And the week before that?
That’s right — it’s the Dredge trilogy. This is the first time I’ve done a multi-part series like this, doing an in-depth analysis of a deck and how to play it. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and I’m glad to see that people enjoyed this approach.
In case you missed it, or want to read the whole thing in one sitting, here are the parts:
Part 1 – My Zombies Rise from Seas and Bayous
Part 2 – Be the Big Bad (Part 1)
Part 3 – Be the Big Bad (Part 2)
…and then once you’ve had a chance to read them all, let me know what you think. Would you like to see more multi-part, multi-week articles like this one?

This week’s In Development – Moar Dredge Plz!

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So what’s a good chaser for Dredge?
Clearly, more Dredge.
As a follow-up to last week’s discussion of the Dredge deck and game one, this week I’m talking about sideboarded games with Dredge. More than simple sideboarding, it’s a discussion about the transition from the OBT (One Big Turn) of game one to the tactical interplay of sideboarded games. If you’re used to thinking of Dredge as “win game one and then pray,” hopefully this week’s article will help fully reframe Dredge for you.
At any rate, I hope it’s an interesting read, whether or not you plan on playing the deck.
If you’re all set to read, then you can click here to go the article.