MTG Blog

When I wrote my set review for Murders at Karlov Manor, I wrote extensively about how much I liked Vein Ripper. I tried to temper my expectations somewhat due to my own well-documented vampire bias, but it turns out I was right to be excited about Vein Ripper. Rakdos Vampires, running a full playset of Vein Ripper, took down the PT illustrating many of the points I made as to why the card is so powerful. Vein Ripper presents an extremely fast clock, and the only way to kill it is to two-for-one …

WASTING NO(T) TIME FINDING A GOOD MIDRANGE DECK IN PIONEERHello again everyone! After a brutally embarrassing showing in pioneer at the PT I decided it was time to put Rakdos midrange down for a while. I decided after the PT that I really want to focus on playing more MTGO events this season, after making top 4 in a standard showcase Challenge last year. This past weekend there was a Pioneer Showcase challenge and I was kind of lost as to what to play. I thought the Nassif UB control list from t …

Hi everyone! I’m Cris Smith, a member of Team Swish, and a competitive Magic Grinder. I have multiple NRG series top 8’s and a win qualifying for NRG Champs.Throughout this article I will be speaking in broad terms but the examples will be Pioneer-related due to the recent PT. The reason I think this article is important and relevant is the PT results! Seth Manfield registered Rakdos Vampires, which was considered a Rogue/jank deck, and the other finalist finished a strong run using Boros Heroi …

Return to the Pro TourBy: Stephen DykmanHello again everyone! A few weeks ago I was able to compete at my third Pro Tour, PT Chicago, after a 7 year hiatus. As always, the Pro tour was filled with many ups and downs, and unfortunately I was unable to make day two with yet another 3-5 finish. In the following article I will explain what went well for me and what did not go well that led to this finish. I qualified for the PT thanks to my finish at NRG champs with a 14-1 record and winning the eve …

Members from Swish Gaming went to MagicCon in Chicago and participated in a wide variety of events and formats. From an 8-man single elim draft all the way up the Pro Tour itself!Everyone commented how great it was to see people they hadn’t seen in a long time, whether friends, judges, or even old opponents from the NRG Series. These new MagicCons fill a niche that went away when the old Grand Prix system faded out. But they arguably do it better because they take the competitive aspect and prov …