New Perspectives | Playable Magic

Personal Expression in Deck-Building

February 7February 7 by Bob

New Perspectives

I have been having a bad time with Magic lately.

I don’t mean to say the game has gotten worse, or that I’m getting tired of it. I just mean I’ve been having bad games of Commander, feeling salty at my opponents, and feeling bad about myself as a player. For a while I thought it was bad luck, but I took a step back and looked at things objectively, and I’ve come to realize that it’s because of the way I build decks. I want to share what I’ve learned with you, so you can avoid or overcome similar pitfalls.

Sundial of the Infinite

February 3February 3 by Jordan

New Perspectives

When it comes to really weird cards, you’ll find that we absolutely love them. Typically this relationship is not a healthy one; what conceivable way can we make this odd thing work? Viability be damned, I’m going to play this little weirdo. But within the heap of nonsense we consider, there are diamonds in the rough. One such uncut diamond is Sundial of the Infinite.

Board Wipes, Pt II

January 20January 20 by Jordan

New Perspectives

Last time on New Perspectives we looked at the board wipes we could consider while building a Commander deck that contained White, Blue, or Black. Today we finish up this two-part series with a look at what Red, Green, Colorless, and Multicolored board wipes have to offer!

Board Wipes, Part I

January 6January 7 by Jordan

New Perspectives

On this site, we encourage our readers to build their own suites of removal, ramp, board wipes, and the like (unless a certain card is applicable to the topic at hand). This is mainly because we don’t want to recommend the same six to ten cards every time we’re writing about a certain color, but it’s also because we want to leave room for creativity in our articles. We want readers to feel free to build a deck that feels like their own, based on our ideas. Today, however, I want to show you what I think are the best options per color when it comes to clearing the board in a game of Commander.

Mirage Mirror, Part II

December 9December 9 by Jordan

New Perspectives

Ever since this card was given to us in Hour of Devastation I’ve been waiting for players to find wild ways to use it. It is a card that can be used quite ridiculously, but for whatever reason it hasn’t “broken out” and performed in the way I expected. In fact, the research I’ve done has revealed that players are just using it to “copy something good once a turn” and that just won’t cut it for me. So what else can we do?

Food

November 25January 16 by Jordan

New Perspectives

It’s nearly Thanksgiving folks! This week on New Perspectives I decided to take you through the most fitting mechanic for the holiday: Food! I’m going to show you as many weird and interesting ways to use Food as I can think of, so you’ll be well-equipped to feast this Thursday.

Wild Defiance

November 4January 16 by Jordan

Gemstone Mining

When we’re growing our creatures, it doesn’t usually make much sense to lean heavily on “until end of turn” effects. Unless the goal is to kill our opponent immediately with infect creatures, this strategy is often laughed at and simply forgotten by most players. That’s why I’m here to tell you about Wild Defiance.

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

October 28January 16 by Jordan

Synergy Chamber

I’m a big fan of “chip-away” strategies; deal one damage to opponents enough times, they’ll eventually be dead. It’s a slow strategy most of the time, using our pea shooters to keep the battlefield clear and whittle our opponent’s life away. However, Throne of Eldraine gave us Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, and he turns our pea shooters into artillery cannons that will close out the game in no time.

Generous Patron

October 24January 16 by Bob

Gemstone Mining

Today on Gemstone Mining, we’re going to take a trip to Valor’s Reach stadium and the world of Battlebond! This set was released with a set of very valuable reprints and a cycle of dual lands that are in high demand, but the other cards in the set fell by the wayside because they weren’t played in any competitive formats. Our gemstone Generous Patron is an Elf Advisor that seems to encourage giving away +1/+1 counters to other players’ creatures, but a more insidious plan is possible if we look a little deeper…

Rankle, Master of Pranks

October 14January 16 by Jordan

Synergy Chamber

Symmetrical effects used to be everywhere in Magic: the Gathering. However, aside from board wipes they are something we seem to be getting less and less of as time goes on. As I understand it, it’s because newer players don’t understand that an effect on their card might hurt them, or help their opponent. Why would Goblin King buff our opponent’s goblins? Why would Deft Duelist‘s shroud stop me from helping him? These things are off-putting to people who are just learning the game. Every once in a while, though, Wizards prints an interesting symmetrical-effect card (usually at Mythic rarity). Rankle, Master of Pranks is one such card.