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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 Mediocrity
We're very excited to see the return of Jon Corpora to Magic writing. Jon is a very strong writer who has produced a significant amount of quality content. From his 52 FNMs series to his article on Magic writing, Jon has the same love-hate relationship with Magic as other grinders, and always has a great story to tell from that perspective.
This article in particular explores Jon's first experiences with Magic Online. If you're considering trying Magic Online for the first time, this is a great place to start.
ChannelFireball.com: Jon Corpora (@feb31st) - Avatar of Mediocrity
After a little time removed from paper Magic (my last paper tournament was clear back in January), I invariably started to miss the game. Given the explosion in streaming, I decided to give Magic Online an honest try for the first time.
The most common thing I hear about Magic Online from people at my LGS is that they’re not real cards, that it’s just digital money you pay for with real money, and that I’m dumb for buying them, because Magic Online sucks and I’m just going to misclick anyway. At this point, I don’t bother to point out credit cards (hey, that’s digital money you pay for with real money too! With interest!), or the fact that I’m perfectly capable of misclicking in real life. I just walk away, because trying to convince people of something is the worst and I’d rather tweet about how dumb they are rather than help them. In so doing, I get to bypass ethical egoism completely and just get rightfully branded as an ass.
One of the benefits of Magic Online that I’ve noticed is that it’s tough to get rattled by an opponent. As a guy who probably thinks about non-verbal tells too much, I tend to subconsciously tighten up during big games. I do not play my best when tightly wound. I don’t think anyone does. In amateur tournaments, simply committing the least amount of visible mistakes is usually enough to finish on the right side of the money, but in the higher levels of the game, creativity in both deck design and finding the correct play is rewarded, which is worth noting because it’s tough for anyone to do anything creative when they’re in a state of anxiety.
Results are what matters. These days this is the kind of attitude that permeates our culture. But does this attitude have any place in Magic? That's the question that Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa tries to answer in this article on results-oriented thinking.
Frequently, decision-making in Magic comes down to your experiences and judgment. How do you know when to trust your experience and when you should trust the evidence or math? This article is very good at showing the different ways of looking at results, and what kind of conclusions you can and can't come to. If you're looking to improve your testing, or to get better at analyzing your games and results, this article will provide you with all the tools you need.
On Results
ChannelFireball.com: Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa (@PVDDR) - Being Results Oriented
A while ago, we were discussing in our team forums how our preparation has related to our results. Someone pointed out that, at certain times, our preparation has been good (Nagoya, Barcelona) and our results haven’t, and in some other circumstances (namely Montreal) our preparation was not great but we were very successful.
For Montreal, some of the team members weren’t even there, others were too busy playing poker, others spent a long time eating, we ended up getting multiple rooms in a hotel and not having a good place to play—all goes what we imagine constitutes good testing. In the end we still put three people in the Top 8, and one in the Top 16.
That raised a question—are we, perhaps, placing too much value on things that are not as important? Should we change our definition of what “good testing” is, or were those tournaments just anomalies?
In Magic, it’s not uncommon to face this exact situation—one in which you think something is right, but evidence doesn’t seem to support it. Be that in making a play, choosing a deck, or finding a better way to playtest. When that is the case, what do you do? Do you follow what seems logically right to you, or do you follow empirical results? This is what today’s article is about.
On Getting Slimed
Brian Braun-Duin recently took down a PTQ with Junk Reanimator. This article is less of a tournament report, and more of a report of his PTQ season. Brian details how he settled on Junk, some of the key details and matches of each event he played in, and talks about how the deck evolved from tournament to tournament. What makes this article awesome is the story that Brian tells.
This isn't just a series of deck lists and game recaps. Brian shares the highs and lows of his PTQ season, from awesome matches and opponents to the Orzhov Guildgate that joined him for the ride. It doesn't matter that you know how the story ends; you're still drawn in. You want to know about every win, every loss, and every Acidic Slime along the way. With Dragon's Maze about to shake up Standard, the technology may not be as important, but this is still a great read.
StarCityGames.com: Brian Braun-Duin (@BraunDuinIt) - Renegades of Junk
The Story of the Table Guildgate
After the first round, Chris and I were talking about how our matches went. As we were talking, I noticed that there was a basic Forest and an Orzhov Guildgate just sitting on the table. I suggested that we should run them in our deck since they conveniently produced exactly the colors of mana we were playing.
After round 2, we were sitting at the same table again. We noticed that the Guildgate and Forest were still just sitting there in the same spot, untouched by mortal hands. It was clear that these were no ordinary Magic: The Gathering cards. This was an omen. Chris picked up the Forest and took it for good luck. I was left with the Orzhov Guildgate, but as an Orzhov affiliate I didn't exactly mind.
Fast-forward a few more rounds: Chris had mulled to five multiple times and his tournament was over, while I had good, smooth draws all day. Never bet against Orzhov Guildgate. Never pick up a Forest for good luck.
Choosing a deck to play can be one of the most difficult and important decisions you make heading in to an event. This week Adam Prosak wrote a report that shares his experience at the StarCityGames Invitational from testing to Top 8. This is a tournament report about the Invitational, but the real meat of the article is process behind the decks Adam chose.
What do you do in a Standard with so many options? The strategies are very diverse, which means you're going to have to answer different kinds of threats: Thragtusk, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Sphinx's Revelation just to start! How did Adam start at a UWR Tempo deck and end up on Jund, and why was Jund the best deck for him? In this article, Adam details how he identified and played to his strengths, and it certainly paid off.
On Perfect Information
StarCityGames.com: Adam Prosak (@AProsak) - Perfect Information - A SCG Invitational Report
I love SCG Invitationals. They are the tournaments I look forward to more than any other. Whenever someone tells me that they are qualified, I do my best to convince them that they need to go to every Invitational they can. If someone is not qualified, I try to convince them to go as many local Opens and IQs they can so that they can get qualified!
It is now quite apparent that SCG Invitationals love me back.
My preparation for this Invitational was quite different from the others. In the past, a few weeks of testing revealed a pair of decks that I at least felt comfortable with. No such luck this time.
On Competition
Competition is a big part of tournament Magic. It's what drives us to build better decks and step up our game. It can bring together people from disparate backgrounds and regions into cohesive teams. But not all competition is good. Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we get frustrated. And that can bring out negative aspects of our personalities.
Natasha's article discusses the difference between good and bad competition. How do we distinguish between rivalries that drive us to come together and improve from the ones that will lead to resentment? How can we teach ourselves to reconsider the importance of winning and losing, and frame competition in a more constructive way?
GatheringMagic.com: Natasha Lewis Harrington (@natasha_lh)- Competing Constructively
I have always enjoyed reading articles about dealing with tilt and losing. They tend to be some of the more psychologically-focused articles out there, and it is intriguing to see how different top players deal with it. The most recent is Brian DeMars' article, focusing on bouncing back from a losing streak, and Gathering Magic's own Darwin Kastle did one last year. Jackie Lee actually did two—one on losing in general and a recent one specifically on theneuroscience behind tilt. Interestingly, though, I noticed that these articles rarely focused on the dynamics between players (apart from pointing out what a poor loser looks like.)
We don't operate in a vacuum. When you're losing, you're losing to a person. It might be a stranger, it might be a friend, or it might be someone you can't stand. But one way or another, this will often bring up emotions—and if those emotions aren't dealt with, they can have unwanted results.
On Exploring Ravnica
This isn't the first time that James has explored Guild-themed graphics. This all started with his absolutely incredible Cereals of Ravnica images last month. This time he's back with a new series of Guild posters, featuring some of the landmarks of Ravnica.
These images are designed in the style of travel posters, and do an awesome job of capturing the feeling of all ten of the guilds. Won't you consider vacationing in Ravnica?
GatheringMagic.com: James Arnold (@thatguyjames2) - Ravnica Travel Posters
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.
