Mike and BDM discuss (among other things) the Top8Magic.com M10 preview card… Mold Adder! You may need to turn the volume up a bit as this was recorded on BDM’s iPhone.

Mold Adder!

The ballots for the fifth class of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame have gone out and 2009 is shaping up to be an interesting year as many people see this year’s crop of pros as a potential “catch-up” season for a handful of players like Steve OMS, Chris Pikula, Justin Gary, Scott Johns, William Jensen, Mark Justice, Mike Long, and a host of others.  Antoine Ruel and Kamiel Cornelissen are the only two people new to the ballot with numbers that leap off the page so there is clearly room for someone from year’s past to make a move. Here are all the players on this year’s ballot (which includes players still eligible from previous ballots). Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Lepore is a long-time Top8Magic listener who has previously written a tournament report for Top8Magic.com about his attempts to reach the beaches of Hawaii. This most recent piece was inspired by events at his local FNM store as well as the recent changes to the game’s rules and base set card pool.

Has Magic Lost Its Way?

The following is my cumulative opinion of three separate events that transpired last night which lead me to believe that not only is Magic in more frightening shape than it has perhaps ever been, but that it may never return to the form that I once fell in love with. Before going any further I would like to completely stress the word “opinion.” Nothing said is by any means meant to be presented as fact, and I not only welcome but encourage counter points and arguments.

The first event occurred while I was running the local FNM last night. At one point in the night, I was leaning on a counter that overlooked a game that was in progress and I began to watch. One player who was obviously less familiar with the intricacies and timings of the game, Magic’s token casual player if you will, had a Chameleon Colossus in play. He was piloting a sort of red green aggro deck. His opponent, a player who had even won a Regionals once, was playing Cascade Swans. His relevant cards were a Seismic Assault and a Ghitu Encampment with one land in hand.

The incident in question happened when the Chameleon Colossus attacked into the Swans player. He in turn activated his land and blocked. After this was declared, the Colossus player played double Colossal Might on the Colossus – which should not be said five times fast – without stopping to ask for responses or pass priority. It was at this point that his opponent said to him, “After first strike damage, kill it before the Colossal Might resolves?” Read the rest of this entry »

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 5 they finish discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 5

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 4 they continue discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 4

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 3 they begin discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 3

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 2 they discuss an interesting strategy that emerged from PT Honolulu, Alara Block constructed, and Type 2.

Reunion Cast Part 2

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 1 they discuss the Hall of Fame ballot and the increasing presence of MTG players in the World Series of Poker.

Reunion Cast Part 1

Kazuya Mitamura may have won PT Honolulu but for the Constructed portion the winner was Jim Davis who went 9-1 with his cascade-based Jund deck. The Long Island, NY native wrote a tournament report for a local website about his unique approach to the format, which saw him choose to be on the draw in all the matches he won. In fact, the only Constructed match he lost was the last one when he veered from the script and chose to play first in the last game.

From his report:

The shocking revelation is that I chose to draw rather than play first. In fact, every single game in the constructed portion (save for game 3 round 16, which I will get to later) I was on the draw. This worked out very well because despite losing most of my die rolls in 10 rounds I was always exactly where I wanted to be as my opponents all chose to play.

Now, why draw? When I was first testing the deck Blightning was in the board, and it was simply devastating in the mirror. The deck has no card draw style card advantage, and needs its lands to get going, which means Blightning either stunted mana development brutally or spiked two big spells. This is huge because the way the deck is designed all of your spells have the card advantage built in, meaning most are in essence two spells in one. So if you discard two spells to Blightning you have discarded almost 4 spells of value.

With one or two more wins in Limited — a format that he has traditionally done well in — Jim could have easilly have made the Top 8 of this event and his decision to draw first would have been one of the most talked about in recent Magic history. Due to the split format his performance — and the decision that may have led to that performance — was buried in 33rd place in the final standings.

Loyal Podcast listeners are probably aware that the infamous/reclusive Matt Wang (mattwang97 on Twitter) “won” GP-Boston in 2007. I put “won” in quotes because it is unclear (and the topic of much debate) how much of that win should be attributed to Wang, since it was a 2-Headed Giant tournament and his partner was none other than multiple PT Top8 finisher and Pro Tour Los Angeles winner Steve O’Mahoney-Schwartz (3 PT T8s/1 PT win, 10 GP T8s/4 GP wins, 237 lifetime Pro Points). Wang and OMS beat Top8Magic friend Gerard Fabiano and his partner Eric Zeigler in the finals to bring home the trophy to the Top8 offices.

Despite the pedigree of his partner, a win is a win and in the NYC area that means cake. Winning Regionals, a PTQ, an LCQ, a GP or a PT are all grounds for a cake party (Billy’s or otherwise). However, Wang has yet to make good on the promise of cake despite taking part in multiple cake celebrations that have transpired since his win. The solution to this problem is obviously peer pressure.

All Top8 fans who have Twitter, please use the hashtag #WangOwesCake whenever you Tweet about the following: Cake, GPs, PTQs, LCQs, Winning, Top8Magic or Matt Wang. BDM (Top8Games on Twitter) already started the trend over the weekend and we hope everyone will pick it up.