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A staggering amount of Magic content is published each day each day on a plethora of content sites, blogs, podcasts, and discussion forums. No matter how honest an effort you make, it's easy to fall behind and miss incredible articles because there just isn't enough time to read everything.
To that end, we've collected some of the best articles of the week covering a broad range of topics. If you're looking for articles, these are the ones you don't want to miss!
On Teysa Karlov
Last week, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes shared the story of Ruric Thar. This week, Adam Lee sharing the story behind the Orzhov champion in Dragon's Maze. We've met Teysa, Orzhov Scion before, but Ravnica has changed since our last visit to the City of Guilds. The Ghost Council may be the guiding force of the Church of Deals, but that hasn't stopped Teysa from hatching her own schemes. Just what does she plan to do and will the Dragon's Maze offer the perfect opportunity for her to put her plans into motion?
DailyMTG.com: Adam Lee - Teysa Karlov
Teysa sat in her favorite chair, made from Utvaran ebony, and let the blasphemous thought dwell in her mind for a while. She savored the feeling that it generated within her—a thrilling blend of sacrilege and freedom.
Certainly, there was danger ahead of her. The Obzedat had given her the title of grand envoy, but Teysa knew it was so they could keep closer tabs on her—constantly testing her loyalty and keeping her busy with endless "official business." Teysa was no stranger to the game and she knew she could only gain so much influence on the side of the living before feeling the phantom strings of the Obzedat pulling her into their domain. And Teysa had been steadily increasing in power. She had felt their strings pulling for quite some time.
She'd had enough of these dead, old men.
On Community Commander
Adam Styborski recently passed the reigns to the Series Fun column and started the Command Tower column as an opportunity to talk about all things Commander. This week, Adam is featuring his first preview for the new column, as well as the first community Commander deckbuilding activity. Who is the new Golgari champion in Dragon's Maze and what kind of deck will the community build around them? Make your voice heard and follow the deckbuilding process. Head over to DailyMTG.com and submit your ideas.
DailyMTG.com: Adam Styborski (@the_stybs) - Do You Know the Mushroom Man?
Varolz, the Scar-Striped is unique among the denizens that are Golgari. When scavenge was featured in Return to Ravnica I wondered if there was a way to give all your creatures the ability to be recycled similarly.
Varolz is that way. Placing +1/+1 counters on creatures is among my favorite things to do in Magic, and I know I'm not alone. The potential of turning any creature in your graveyard into food for your troops is the most Golgari method of war imaginable, and it's easy to list a few creatures that fit into this plan nicely.
On Drafting with Dragon's Maze
How will Return to Ravnica draft chance when all three sets come together? That's the topic of Conley Woods's article this week. Conley does a great job of breaking down what the guild structure and pack order mean for your draft decks, and how the value of cards from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash change because of where they are in the pack order. If you're looking to get ahead of the curve for Return to Ravnica block drafts, this is a great place to start.
ChannelFireball.com: Conley Woods (@Conley81) - Redefining the Defined
It’s that time of the year again. If you haven’t been paying attention to social media, spoiler sites, or the mothership itself, allow me to be the first to inform you that Dragon’s Maze spoilers are in full swing. The set should do a lot to shake up Constructed, but that is true for just about every set. DGM does introduce some uncharted territory though, we just need to shrink our decks a bit to see it.
For the first time ever, we will see a set reintroduced into a draft format. 6 months ago, we were drafting three packs of Return to Ravnica. Now, we’re drafting three packs of Gatecrash. In a month, we’ll be drafting one pack of each, in reverse order—Dragon’s Maze, Gatecrash, Return to Ravnica. This obviously means a lot of things will change, so getting the jump on them is a good idea.
Because the set will essentially introduce two new sets into the Limited environment at the same time, you can expect twice as big of a mix-up. Sure, we have all played with the cards from Return to Ravnica, but how many of us have played with GTC and RTR together?
On House Rules
When you gather your friends around the kitchen table for some epic Commander games, 250 card Singleton, or Multiplayer Tribal battles, do you play with house rules? One of the great things about Magic is that there is no end to the possible adaptations and variations to the rules, and each of these rules push a different kind of fun. Last week, Andrew Rogers asked the community to share some of their house rules, and this week he's compiled the results and is sharing some of the most splashy and interesting variations. If you're looking to shake things up and try some new variations on casual Magic, this is an article you definitely want to check out.
GatheringMagic.com: Andrew Rogers (@ALRStories) - Compendium of House Rules
Last week, I asked the Gathering Magic community to send in their house rules. Readers answered the call and via Twitter, Google Docs, and the comments section of the last post. The following list is a compendium of everyone’s responses.
Many of these house rules have undoubtedly evolved over the last twenty years of Magic history. It is probably impossible to trace back to the exact origin of any of them. However, whenever possible, I included players’ names and original sources. I have also grouped similar rules under subheadings for easy scanning.
It’s interesting to note that around 34% of the house rules our community uses deal with card-draw and mulligans. Seemingly all of us are trying to, in our unique ways, avoid mana-screw and empty hands. I wonder what the rules managers at Wizards of the Coast think of this. And what about R&D? Does it affect how they design cards? Who knows, but the info is here for them as well.
Most readers provided a rationale for their house rules. For the sake of space, I’ve included the rationale only if it seemed necessary in order to understand the rule.
Without further ado, here is The Gathering Magic Compendium of House Rules. Enjoy it. It’s yours.
On Renegade Krasis
There's a reason Inside the Deck is a fixture of Fridays on Gathering Magic. Rich Castle does an awesome job of putting together great video content on a huge breadth of topics, ranging from interviews and deck techs to format overviews and Vorthos content. This week, Rich telling the story of a powerful Krasis who the Simic biomancers have lost control on, and which is making its presence known in the Dragon's Maze. What is Renegade Krasis and how will its story end? Go Inside the Deck to find out:
GatheringMagic.com: Inside the Deck - Renegade Krasis
On Angels and FNMs
In a Standard format with perfect mana, it's easy to lose yourself among all the combinations of powerful cards you can play. Decks containing various permutations of Sphinx's Revelation, Huntmaster of the Fells, Prime Speaker Zegana, and Olivia Volaren have been pushing their mana as far as they can to gain a competitive edge.
In the middle of all of these powerful cards and perfect mana, Chris Lansdell is slamming Angels onto the battlefield and crashing into the red zone. Above anything else, Chris's articles show a genuine appreciation for the breadth of experiences that Magic can provide, and looks to explore the awesome things that we can if we set out to. Sure, you could be casting Sphinx's Revelation for six. But you can also deal 32 damage to your opponent with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Aurelia, the Warleader, and one of these things is way more epic than the other.
ManaDeprived.com: Chris Lansdell (@lansdellicious) - Angel Investigations
The usual suspects were at Midgard when I arrived: the Twinjas, Extra Balls and Mike. As usual they were jamming Modern games and wanted me to join in, but I had a deck to build. I thumbed forward and backward through my binders but still nothing was coming to mind. I went through a mental list of outstanding achievements and remembered all the tribal decks I wanted to make and never got around to making. One of the Twinjas (let’s say it was Evan, though I can only tell them apart in person and not in memories) suggested I go with Angels, and we were off. That gave us the following achievements to aim for:
Go at least 2-2 with an Angel deck The achievement that lead to the deck being built. Anyone can build a tribal deck and go 0-4, but actually winning some rounds with it is a different proposition entirely.
Attack with Aurelia and Gisela together for the win Boros-coloured sisters that conveniently deal enough to kill someone even after 2 Thragtusks is something I want to do. If you’re lucky enough to Defy Deathone of the pieces, you don’t even need the second swing barring any lifegain on the opponent’s part.
Have 3 Legendary Angels in play at once Sigarda, Bruna and Gisela was the original inspiration for this achievement, though that requires playing four colours and Bruna is bad unless you build around her. Any host of angels I can combine in play should be enough to win a game, and even if they don’t…it will be awesome.
If you have suggestions for next week's recap you can send them through to us on Twitter, or share throughout the week in the comments below.
