Welcome back to another edition of Ideas Unbound. I haven't been playing very much Magic lately, so I haven't had a whole lot to write about. So instead, I've decided to do a Mailbag edition where I answer questions from my friends and local players. As you will see, I got a lot of really good questions, so I plan on doing more of these from time to time.

Alright, where were we? Oh yeah, getting better at Magic. Something to do with Nick Saban...

I have become bored with commander as of late. I have had some of the same decks for 4-5 years and I decided it was time for a change of pace. I hadn’t built a Voltron general yet, and, as soon as I saw Daxos in the Theros spoilers, I knew that he would be my next commander. For those of you who are newer to Commander, Voltron makes reference to the old cartoon in which all these smaller robots combine to make a bigger more powerful robot (like Megazord from the Power Rangers series).

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who reads our blog. You guys are the reason we continue to create this content. As such, it is our goal to continue to produce content that you guys will enjoy and to produce a lot more of it.

We would like to apologize for the current dry spell in content. I will be correcting that soon with a new Ideas Unbound post later this week. I believe Jonathan is also working on another commander oriented Final Judgment post as well. What I’d like to do now is talk about some of the changes we have planned for next year.

One of the worst feelings in the world is when a judge issues you a game loss that you could have prevented. I still remember the first time it happened to me. It was State Champs-Sealed (Ravnica Block) and I had turned in a 39 card deck list. I was so disappointed with myself. In my defense my pool was terrible and I had a hard time building a deck. I had all the mana-fixing, but no actual win-cons. Anyways; I should have been a little bit quicker when building my deck, so I had time to double/triple check my decklist. Most of the time, Game Losses (GL) can be prevented, so I will go through what to watch out for at Competitive REL events.

Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. This year, I had the opportunity to play in two SCG Invitationals. For those who are unaware, the Invitational is a split format tournament. Each day you play 4 rounds of Standard and 4 rounds of Legacy. I play alot of Standard through the year, so that portion of the tournament has never concerned me. However, I have very little experience actually playing Legacy so I did very poorly in that portion of both events. I have resolved to not let this happen again.

Once again, I must apologize for my lack of content. It has been a crazy few weeks with many tournaments involved. Its all behind me now, though, so I should be back to writing and recording again. Today I'm going to look at my last 12 months of Magic and share some lessons I have learned along the way.

Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. The first major Standard event using Theros is in the books. Today we are going to look at those results and see if we can get an idea of where the format is heading. I’m still planning on attending Grand Prix Louisville, and I want to try to have a firm grasp on the metagame.

Well folks, it has been a minute since I last felt the compulsion to write about Magic: the
Gathering. Personally, my life has been somewhat of a whirlwind. I have kept up with the
current events to a point, and I am aware that a new set has been released. I, also, happen to
know that the Standard format is about to change dramatically. Gone are the days of Olivia
Voldaren, Huntmaster of the Fells, Restoration Angel, and Thragtusk. We now usher in a new
era brimming with divine intervention. Theros beckons for us to tread her rolling plains. She
begs we conquer her illustrious mountain peaks. She pines for us to dive deeply into her
sprawling waters. She wills us to creep ignorantly about her fetid marshlands. Her forests urge
all passerby to venture between the trees. With that in mind, I would like to make an attempt at
some Standard decks that could potentially show some teeth come this fateful Friday.

Theros has lots of goodies for us EDHers. So, let’s take a look!

Vintage is arguably the most thought provoking format in all of Magic. Between the Power Nine and cards like Necropotence there are a potentially endless number of decks that you could build in order to be competitive is this high powered format. I would like to introduce you all to one of the decks that I am currently playing when somebody asks whether or not I want to play in this format.

The Phyrexian Arena is proud to welcome a new columnist to our line up. The Final Judgment column is written by Jonathan Holland, a level 2 judge out of Middle Tennessee. He will typically be writing about Judging, Commander, and whatever else crosses his mind.

This weekend brings us another Prerelease. As I’ve done for the last few sets today I’m going to do a Theros Prerelease Primer. We will look at some general strategies for Sealed as well as how it pertains to the Theros specifically. Then we will take a brief look at the mechanics as they pertain to Sealed play. At the end, we will evaluate the commons of each color and see look at my top 5 for each.

I've been promising video content for awhile now and I can finally deliver. This is a recording of a Momir Daily I played in this morning. It includes an intro video with a brief description of the format and all 4 rounds of the event. I would especially like feedback about this so I can improve the video content going forward.

Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. Last week we looked at the mechanics of Theros. This week, we are going to delve a little deeper looking at the cards themselves and how to use them.

With the end of the current Innstrad and M13 Standard format coming, its time to look back at the top cards that influenced the standard format.

Welcome back to another week of Ideas Unbound. The next major event I plan to attend is Grand Prix Louisville, which is after Theros comes out. Between this, and the fact that my new schedule at work means I will not be able to play FNM means that I won’t be focusing much on the current Standard format. Today we are going to look at some of the spoilers from Theros and see what we can divine about the next few months.

So, I am sure that the few readers I had (yes, I like to falsely reassure myself with my own feelings of self importance) are wondering, where's the posts at? What happened to you, Matt? Where've ya' been?

Magic is a game bigger than itself. To play this game at the highest tiers requires commitment. There are several things you have to focus on, from the intricate decision trees that exist in each game and figuring out the right decisions, to the study and focus required to solve metagames and make deck building choices. If you have dreams of one day playing on the Pro Tour, like I do, then you have to be willing to put in the time to achieve the results you desire. I have not been doing this.

Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. We have reached the pinnacle of Standard where the most cards possible are legal before the Fall release cuts our card pool almost in half. This is always an exciting time because more cards available means more options. Unfortunately last summer, it was Delvers as far as the eye can see, and the summer before that it was Squadron Hawks and Batterskulls. This summer we still have a couple of heavy hitters but there is a larger range of decks available. Let’s take a look at what Standard looks like at the moment.

Welcome back to another week of Ideas Unbound. Sorry for the lack of content, lately. I am going to try to post something weekly, but that is not always going to happen. I will soon be playing a lot more Magic Online so, hopefully, I will have more to write about as well as some video content.

This past weekend, I attended the Star City Classic in Knoxville. I ended up 5-3 and dropped before the last round. Not my greatest performance, but certainly not my worst either. Today we are going to look at my results.

Welcome back to another week of Ideas Unbound. Today we are going to do another Training Day article for the newer players out there. If you would like to see my previous Training Day articles you can find them here (Card Advantage) and here (Drafting 101).

A single game of Magic consists of a great many choices. Should I mulligan (I will be writing a whole Training Day article about this question in the near future)? Which land should I play? Is it smart to attack here? Should I kill their creature now or wait? Even the tiniest decisions can change the outcome of these decisions. At times, it can be overwhelming. Our goal should be to make informed decisions as much as possible, and so we want to have as much information as possible. And on the flipside, we want to limit the amount of information we are providing to our opponents so they will make bad decisions. Today we will look at information and how it can be exchanged in Magic.

Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. We have another Prerelease coming up this weekend, so I thought I we would do a little Prerelease Primer today like I have done in the past. This Prerelease is for a core set, which generally has a simpler limited environment making it a little easier to build your sealed deck, but there are definitely some things to keep in mind when doing so. We will start with a few general pointers on building your deck and then look at some specific cards that you may want to look for this weekend.

I would like to welcome everyone back to Ideas Unbound. First of all, let me apologize for the long delay since my last content. I have been busy with work and life, and haven’t had a lot of time for Magic lately, but I’m planning on changing that and getting back to a regular content cycle. Hopefully, this will also encourage my fellow Arena writers to get back to it as well.

Vintage is arguably the most thought provoking format in all of magic. Between power nine and cards like Necropotence there are a potentially endless number of decks that you could build in order to be competitive is this high powered format. I would like to introduce you all to one of the decks that I am currently playing when somebody asks whether or not I want to play in this format.

My dearest Phyrexians, it has been too long. Dragon’s Maze is legal in Standard, and everything has changed. Well, honestly, not much has changed. Junk Rites is still the deck to beat, as Sin Collector allows the deck more interaction versus dedicated hate cards. The midrange Jund strategies gained a powerful weapon with Sire of Insanity. Red Green Aggro lists have become the default aggressive shell in the format, as widespread adoption of Ghor Clan Rampager seems to finally have taken a foothold in the aggressive decks.

All in all, Dragon’s Maze has not been format shifting, but it did bring a few golden nuggets out of the woodwork. Yet, if we look closely, there are few new decks that can be found amongst the Forest, Plains, and Islands. SCG Charlotte has come and gone, and the Bant shard yearns to be seen. First things first, how about we crank the annoyance up to eleven?

Legacy is for the most part the most diverse format is all of magic. Theoretically you can play just about anything in the format as long as it has at least some good match-ups with the tier one decks of the format.

This is a list that I am currently working on is a variation Stoneblade using thopter-sword as a win condition.

Welcome back to another Training Day article. This is a series of articles I’m writing to help new players grasp some of the more advanced concepts of the game. You can find my previous Training Day about Card Advantage here. A new draft format is soon to be upon us with the release of Dragon’s Maze, so today we are going to do a beginner’s course in drafting.

Friends, humans, soon to be Phyrexians, lend me your eyes. It would seem that Niv Mizzet has constructed a maze that needs to be solved. Luckily, enough powerful resources have been strewn about Ravnica that conquering the Dragon's Maze is not a mere dream, but an obtainable reality. The full spoiler has been released, and the Dragon's Maze prerelease is only a scant few days away. So, without, further adieu, let us take a gander at some of the newest tools to impact competitive play brought to us by the newest set, Dragon's Maze.

Welcome back to another weeks of Ideas Unbound. We are deep into Dragon’s Maze spoiler season, so I thought today we would like at some of the cards spoiled. I’m going to break this down, and look at my favorite card for each guild so far.

This past weekend, I attended the Star City Games Invitational in Atlanta. While it was not a great weekend for me when it comes to actually playing Magic, I had an absolute blast all weekend. I learned a couple of valuable lessons that I would like to impart to you today. I would also like to take this time to go over some of my experiences this weekend and why I encourage Magic players to attend events like these.

My younger years, before there was such a game as Magic, were spent playing video games & chess.  Most of the video games that I enjoyed were puzzle games like Tetris, Minesweeper, and Mahjong.  Chess was my 1-on-1 competitive outlet in those days:

1. e4 e5
2. Qh5?! Nc6
3. Bc4 Nf6??
4. Qxf7# 1–0

Games of chess don't often end so quickly.  So, why do I bring up these in an article about Magic?  Patience my young padawan...

Hello arena attendees. Today is the story of another top eight choke by yours truly. In what is becoming an alarming trend, it would seem I am having trouble closing at tournaments. I suppose that means no Glengarry leads for me, since those are for closers.

In addition to being a Magic player, I am also a Level 1 in the Judge program. I don’t judge often because I would rather play, but I do run most of the events for my local game shop including Friday Night Magic, Prereleases, and Game Days. Because of this, a lot of the newer players will ask me questions about their deck or game play or if I think a particular card is good. As a result, I have decided to start a series of articles here on the Arena that are focused on newer players and helping them improve their gameplay. For those of you who are more experienced, you may want to skip these posts. Then again, you may find some useful information in seeing another player’s perspective.

I am pleased to announce a new addition to the group, Corey Vangel (Zielle47)

Corey is from the Toronto area and his area of expertise is Legacy especially combo decks.

Corey's column is Forcing Through


Infecting Magic One Grinder At A Time

Hello, fellow mages! I continue to scour the interwebz looking for knowledge to further my ascent to tournament glory! I have decided to try a different approach to my writings and format in the hopes of attracting more readers and providing those who do read my articles with a more useful and informative experience.

As most of you are well aware, Magic R&D decided to bring back the segment where You Make the Card.   The first vote was incredibly close between Land and Enchantment (only 24 votes separated the two) with Land winning.

Wizards decide to have a runoff.

I want to apologize to my readers as I have not been active the past few weeks.  I have had some issues with writer's block.  I have had to put that article away until I can overcome it.

Greetings to the attendees of the Colosseum and viewers of The Phyrexian Arena!  You have joined us here, in the grand arena, because you want to get better at Magic.  There is a question that you can train yourself to ask constantly that will help you become a better Magic.

First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack on content in the last two weeks. I was busy preparing for Grand Prix Charlotte and then I got sick. Hopefully, I won't be missing any more weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to play in the largest Magic tournament ever held: Grand Prix Charlotte. It was an amazing experience that I will not soon forget. But it also made me stop and think about Magic and what it means to me. So today, we are going to get a little introspective and hopefully I can pass along some wisdom in the process.

A bag of goodies to talk about today, and as promised, a larger portion for your reading pleasure. Highlights for this week's article include: Standard decklists galore, Ramblings, Tips on improving, and more...

Hello to attendees of the Colosseum. Today, here within Phyrexian Arena, we are proud to feature a special pit fighter.  A champion's champion made to defeat the Standard minotaurs, werewolves, vampires, and beasts in the glorious art of combat.  We present a deck that is not afraid to bite it's thumb against the supreme verdict of the emperor.  Behold the mighty. The legendary.  The one. The only; Junk!