Do you remember your first game of Magic? I’ll never forget mine. I learned about Magic in the August 1995 issue of Disney Adventures magazine—the literature of choice for the sophisticated ten-year-old, and also a giant advertisement I paid Disney to send to me. In between page-turning news of the upcoming Power Rangers movie, there was a short article on …
Welcome back to Magic Gatherings! Last week I spent some time breaking down the results from Pro Tour Magic Origins, highlighted some cool new decks, and talked a little more about drafting the set. But after several weeks talking about Standard, Sealed, and Booster Draft, it’s time to go back to Commander. Casual mages, this …
It’s often said that it’s not the destination that matters, but the journey. Just so with today’s game, Tokaido, a recent (2013) offering from designer Antoine Bauza—he of Ghost Stories, Hanabi, and 7 Wonders fame. Tokaido is a very different game from Bauza’s other works, not least because of its unusual inspiration: the legendary Tokaido road, which spans some …
Welcome back to Magic Gatherings! Last time I regaled you with stories of Tim Lanning’s and my struggles at the Magic Origins prerelease. By now, though, Origins has been street-legal for two full weeks. At the same time, players around the world have been drafting Magic Origins—it’s been very popular at my local store—so we’re getting a better sense of …
Welcome back to Magic Gatherings! Last Sunday I attended the Magic Origins Prerelease at my Friendly Local Game Store: Pandemonium Books and Games in Cambridge, MA, a lovely institution where you are as likely to find a pickup game of Warhammer or My Little Pony as you are to find Max Gladstone and Elizabeth Baer playing D&D together. With me …
Welcome back to Magic Gatherings! We’ll be doing a double feature this week to celebrate the newest set, Magic Origins. In this article, like I did for Dragons of Tarkir, I’ll break down Magic Origins for limited play and take a look at what the draft and sealed environments will be like—just in time for the prerelease this …
Last week, writing at Star City Games, Jim Davis took a break from his normal oeuvre of deckbuilding and tournament practice to write an article about his top eight favorite Magic cards. His article generated plenty of discussion, and after a little thought, I left my own list of eight cards in the comments. …
Welcome back to Magic Gatherings! Last week we finished up our short series on themes. This week we’ll put some ideas from that series into practice as we look at my Selvala, Explorer Returned deck. This is a deck I was excited about, but it didn’t work out. I’ll talk about what was going on …
Welcome back to Magic Gatherings! This week we’re wrapping up our extended look at themes in Commander decks. In case you missed the previous installments, here are some links: Part 1: Series intro, Blink, Equipment, Tokens Part 2: Sacrifice, Artifacts, Tribal Part 3: Ramp, Fatties, Pillowfort, Lifegain Graveyard and Recursion One of the most robust …
Last weekend, South by Southwest (SXSW) Gaming announced the recipients of the second annual SXSW Gaming Awards. Star Realms, a new deckbuilding game designed by former Magic pros Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle, won the Table Top Game of the Year award, a new category for this year. The game was nominated by fans, selected …