Formats

When I started to play, way back when, there were no formats in Magic. All you had was the pile of cards you owned. There were no sideboards, no meta game. About the only thing was that we all played with lands on the top and creatures at the bottom. Dual lands were valued at about $5, and Moxes went for $25-$75 depending. (outrageous!)

After a few years though, Type I (1), and Type II (2) emerged. Type 1 was all the old stuff with restrictions, it is now called Vintage. Type 2 was all the newer stuff only, whatever was current for a bit of time and would rotate as new sets came in. You now know of it as As time went, people still liked some of the middle range stuff, so Type 1.5 was made. It banned all the one of restrictions of Type 1, and thus Legacy was born.

I was out of the game when they came up with Modern, which I guess was another attempt to push away from broken things in Legacy, which was a push away from ALL the broken things in Vintage.


When I got back in, I gravitated towards Legacy. The friends I play with like the format as well. Most of them have a fairly large investment in the game, and like playing broken things. However, I stay with it because of one simple reason that helped drive me out the first time- the pyramid scheme of Magic. This mostly applies to Standard, and some to Modern- to stay competitive, you need to keep buying the latest material. Either singles, packs, boxes, etc. Yes, I know Pauper is a thing, and for the price of two Chipotle dinners you could get a new deck- I don't want to know all the random commons anymore. I don't have time, I don't have the energy, and I don't want to go that route.

With that in mind- I keep tabs on new Legacy trends mostly. I currently have 9 different Legacy decks built and ready to go. I've gravitated towards Death and Taxes, and Sneak and Show as formats that appeal. I could build two more decks, but don't have the sleeves to do it. Ha!  Currently I am running Berserk Infect, and have killed on turn 2. Toughest match-ups for it- oddly Lands, and Death and Taxes. The key to locking it out- kill its Tropical Islands. Seriously.

Pre-release events

Since getting back into Magic, the only officially sanctioned events I have attended have been prerelease events. These have been very fun for me, and actually beneficial on each one I have attended. I've gone to Battle for Zendikar, Shadows over Innistrad, and Eldritch Moon. In each case, I have won at least 2 packs. Two of the events I attended included lunch in the $30 cost, and was very well organized. The other place was $25, but it was not as sane and no lunch.

Here are the best pieces of advice I have acquired for attending a pre-release:

• Take some water in a tight container
• Take a HEALTHY snack, it is a 2-3 hour event
• If you are sleeving your deck, pre-sleeve your basic lands, I do 10 of each. That has saved me twice!
• Don't take anything you don't need to play in the event. 
• Unless you are planning to do trading, or meeting friends before/after, there is no need to bring extra
• Make sure you understand any new mechanics, even if you don't want to be spoiled with the cards. KNOW how the new stuff works! 
• Have fun, this is a low pressure sort of environment. Or at least it should be... Heck, I once ran in to a guy's bachelor weekend. He was out playing the pre-release with a couple buddies.

     Even though the entire set is usually spoiled the week before pre-release weekend, I can never study up too much. I don't play mock sealed via Cockatrice. I go in knowing the new mechanics mostly. Thats the most helpful thing. Twice I tried to study up on the commons, and both times I got almost none of the ones I was hoping to get. That and I didn't use the colors I was expecting.

     I also have not landed a bomb (aka HUGE creature/spell towards the end of game) in the one time I had one in my pool. Two of my better decks were super heavy flyer decks. The only things that defeated me were a deck that seemed to pump creatures out faster than I could deal, and horrible drawing. Otherwise, little flyers always got me there. They had no answers. Loved it.

I make sure I put the weekend of the pre-release on the family calendar, just to make sure it is noted WELL in advance that I will be disappearing for a few hours.

Cockatrice- free on-line magic play

When I was getting back in last year, I discovered Magic OnLine. I was not as thrilled as I could have been. Yes, there was still collectability to it, but it failed as a platform. It is slow, clunky, awkward, and generally pretty poor as an interface for the official on-line platform. Yes, I realize there are a metric-ton of programming for all the possible interactions, but it should be a lot better.

Thats when I discovered Cockatrice. Its a bit daunting at first, but after playing for a while, I really love the ease. It doesn't have the slick interface, nor the collectability angle that official Magic has. I have copied a deck list, Ctrl-C, and started using it by pasting it in within a minute.

The single most confusing part of the game are the Ctrl interface. It took me a bit, but I cobbled together this cheat sheet. I have shared it with several newer players on the software. Here it is in the hopes others use it: (please note- you can pretty much edit your version of the software to have shortcuts however you like! Within the software, click on Cockatric, then Settings. Happy editing!)

F5 move to untap phase
F6 move to draw phase
F7 moves to first main phase
F8 moves to beginning of combat step
F9 goes to second main phase

F3- view library
F4- view graveyard

Ctrl +...
W views top cards
S for shuffling
I to roll dice
M to draw hand, then mulligan if needed
D to draw
E to draw multiple cards
Shift and d undoes last draw
L sets life
F11 minus 1 life
F12 plus one life
U untaps all
R removes all drawn arrows
T brings up token creation menu
G makes clone of last token
F3- view sideboard

Select a card and then...
Ctrl del moves to graveyard
Ctrl a attaches enchant/equip to a card
Ctrl h makes a clone of card selected
Ctrl + increases power ONLY
Ctrl - decreases power ONLY
Alt + increase toughness ONLY
Alt - decreases toughness ONLY
Ctrl alt + increases BOTH power and toughness
Ctrl alt - decreases BOTH power and toughness
Ctrl p sets power and toughness manually

Tokens

Just a small rant- why can't more tokens be like the double sided Zombie Token from the Eldritch Moon pre-release?

Seriously, it makes too much sense. Many tokens have advertising on the back- and I know NO ONE who cares or pays attention to that.

I put forth to Wizards, make ALL tokens double sided... and perhaps even sell a token pack like that. Throw some foiled versions in to make sure they get bought. You will make money.