It’s been a while since I had a tournament result that inspired me to write about the event, and even longer since that event was a Pro Tour. Finishing outside the money (and in most cases, the second day) at Pro Tours Hawaii, Barcelona, Seattle, and Montreal was not pleasant. That, combined with my attendance at more Grand Prix this season than any other (and mediocre results there, too), led me to put some serious thought into what was happening.

Was I doing something wrong? Was I getting horrendously unlucky? What could I do to fix things? Was going to all these events worth it?

Unsurprisingly, there was no easy answer to any of the questions. As the wise Shuhei Nakamura would say, “both is ok.” I was doing things wrong, I was also getting somewhat unlucky, fixing things was possible, and my schedule was something I’d need to take a look at.

We want to have access to the maximum number of packs worth of strong first-pickable gold/guild cards. If you are drafting the powerful gold cards, then you aren’t very concerned with which color you end up in, mostly just which guild. Wizards basically made that very easy for us, as Boros, Simic, Gruul, and Orzhov are all very good in Gatecrash and all have a marquee gold common listed above. Dimir, on the other hand, has no good marquee gold common in Dragon’s Maze (Pilfered Plans is mediocre) and is the worst guild by miles in Gatecrash.

If you have to go to plan B (see which colors come late to then plan for pack 3), then colors matter again and not just guilds. You end up drafting mostly non-gold cards until pack 3, then you slam a guild. In this scenario, it’s a bit better to be more one color than two because it allows you to slam into two guilds and not just one. You do not always have this option and should not force it. If you are seeing both green and white cards late in pack 1, then just draft GW—however, if you are mostly seeing green late in pack 1, then prioritize the green cards in pack 2 so that you have the option to be either Golgari or Selesnya in pack 3, depending on what you open and are passed.

A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to ask some questions about The Secretist, a three-part e-book novella series produced by Wizards of the Coast and written by Magic Creative's Doug Beyer about the story of Return to Ravnica block. We've heard from Doug before about his history with the game and stories he's written in the past, but we haven't really heard about The Secretist in detail. With Part Three of The Secretist being released in just a few days, it seemed a good opportunity to become an Undercity Informer to get some more dirt. I wanted to delve deeper into the details of the story, his inspiration, and maybe convince him to put in a good word with the Dracogenius for me.

I met Mr. Beyer at Stomping Grounds Coffee Shop on the corner of Tin Street and Ivy Lane to get some answers.

Last weekend I made a reasonably long drive for the sole purpose of getting Nashty in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is home to many aspiring musicians and—little known fact—also apparently home to a lot of Burning-Tree Emissarys. Who knew? Play Supreme Verdict. Only you can prevent forest fires.*

As for myself, I wanted to try something different than my normal fare of G/B/W Reanimator. Instead of casting, blinking, and reanimating Acidic Slimes, I opted to try out something on the complete opposite end of the archetype spectrum. I decided to run with a sweet Bant Brew—not to be confused with Boat Brew. The central strategy of the deck was to cast, blink, and then clone Acidic Slime. There was literally no overlap in strategy between the two decks. None whatsoever.

The deck featured some classic format-defining staples, such as Cackling Counterpart, along with a few newcomers to the scene in Progenitor Mimic and Aetherling. You can check out the deck tech for it here.

I just returned from Spectrum Live 2, the second annual convention in Kansas City, MO that celebrates imaginative realistic art. I’ll explain a bit more about the convention and then give you some data to really understand what it’s all about.Spectrum, in case you don’t know, is an annual book—a volume rather—that showcases the best in the field of fantasy and science fiction art. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the volumes. They’re called individually “Spectrum X: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art.” The X is replaced by the number, and it’s relevant to GatheringMagic in that Magicart often makes it into the peer-selected annual.The convention is a gathering of artists, art directors, collectors, and fans in the middle of America. The convention celebrates the annual book and the art field. How the art is actually selected into the annual book is that a group of art directors, artists, and industry leaders are chosen as the jury, and they spend countless hours going through the images. How it works is this:

Villainous Lair Gaming in San Diego, CA has been receiving a lot of attention. The store looks awesome, they encourage cosplay, and for Dragon’s Maze, they built a Niz-Mizzet. The Facebook album will show you how this Dracogenius was created, step by step. It’s fantastic to see stores adding unique culture into their environments. Displays like this help stores stand out and make events even more memorable. This additional effort encourages other stores to do the same, and it keeps players coming back to see what the store will do next. Keep up the good work, Villainous Lair! Next time I’m back in L.A., I might have to hop on the 5 and head down to San Diego to visit!