StarCityGames.Com Article Search Results!

Results For "Iain Telfer"
at StarCityGames.com

If you can't find the results you like here, try our advanced search page, which allows you to search by article format, key words, dates, and more!

Matching Titles:

No article titles were found matching "Iain Telfer."

Matching Authors:

Iain Telfer and Reuben Fries - 2004-06-18
The Two-Headed Limited Review - Fifth Dawn Black and Red

Ebon Drake
Reuben - Ebon Drake is a single card race that can be an absolute disaster for you. If your opponent gets a Tangle Spider to stick, you are best ramming into it. If he or she gets a Tel-Jilad Archers, Spire Golem, or Arachnoid, then what are you going to do? You can leave Ebon Drake behind to block, but your opponent should be just fine with a standoff, since your Ebon Drake is allowing him or her to avoid the combat step entirely. It makes me very sad to know that I will never play Ebon Drake, but I will lose to it occasionally.

Iain Telfer - 2004-06-11
Teen Titans - A Look at Archmage Combo

Sometime before Regionals a friend of mine got very excited about a mono-Blue combo deck that worked post-Darksteel. He referred to as"Teen Titans." I'm told the deck is well known, and was considered to be a pretty good deck locally, although I don't know exactly who came up with it or where the deck's exact origins are. I could probably say something like"The Japanese came up with it" and that would satisfy everyone. The better name for the deck is probably simply"Retract-storm combo." Here's how it works...

Iain Telfer and Reuben Fries - 2004-06-09
The Two-Headed Limited Review - Fifth Dawn White and Blue

Hello and welcome the never-ending two-headed review, Fifth Dawn edition. In this review we cover the basics of card analysis, discuss card design here or there, and occasionally I wig out, spilling gibberish all over the keyboard.

Iain Telfer - 2004-05-26
Bursting With Flavor - Early Thoughts on 5-Color Green in Limited

Every once in a while I get an idea for an article that I assume is going to get me yelled at. Not by my editor, who doesn't even yell at me when I make fun of him. I mean by my readers. I think I've curbed my arrogance a great deal and I've tried to be more friendly, but still, there are always those articles drifting in the back of my head. This is one of those articles. This article is on drafting MD5. MmmDeeFive. Say it outloud with me. Mmm Dee Fiiive!

Iain Telfer - 2004-05-11
Ban Sheep

Ted Knutson makes the argument that because Skullclamp is nigh universal, it should be banned. Ban Skullclamp! My problem with his argument is threefold...

Iain Telfer - 2004-04-02
The Decks of Steve - Part 2

Back when Mirrodin first came out, I threw together a Beasts deck for Steve. It wasn’t a serious deck — even less serious than anything you’ll ever see in here — And Steve hated it. I admit the deck was a little wacky, as I was a touch inexperienced with the new cards. I’ve done a lot of testing and playing of Standard since Mirrodin came out, so I’m a better deck-builder now than I was then.

Iain Telfer - 2004-03-29
The Complete Goblin-Bidding Primer: Part Two

All the matchup information is included in part two of this comprehensive article.

Iain Telfer - 2004-03-29
The Complete Goblin-Bidding Primer: Part One

If you've been playing Goblin Bidding for a while or are familiar with it, you will probably not get too much out of this article. I'm only writing this for people like me: People who, for a long time, only played against Bidding or ignored it, only to pick it up more recently for its extremely solid game plan against Mono-White control and the other control decks that had seemingly been the top of the format for a while. So, if you've just picked it up recently, or were thinking about picking it up, you've come to the right place. Goblin Bidding is one of the rare breed of deck known as Aggro-Combo, so it can be a very interactive and interesting deck to play.

Iain Telfer - 2004-03-18
Baloths Are Sneaky?

Whenever a new set comes out, a freakish occurrence spills into the Magic world. Players completely forget everything they knew before the metagame shifted. Or at least, it seems like writers live in that world, and the rest of us sit there wondering what's going on. People discuss matchups that have already been discussed three or four hundred times before. I haven't yet seen a name for this phenomenon, but I'm sure we're all pretty familiar with it. Hopefully, I can avoid that. I am going to talk about a previously known archetype that never pushed above tier 2 in the previous format, but it's been changed by Darksteel enough that it's reasonably interesting.

Iain Telfer - 2004-03-12
The Decks of Steve

One day, an idea occurred to me. Why don't I write about the decks my friend Steve ends up playing? They are almost uniformly rogue or less-played ideas that many of StarCityGames' readers, in my mind, would probably love to comment on. This is a feedback welcome article, and any part of this series that follows will also be open to feedback. Good reader ideas will go into Steve's decks and then I'll report back to you on how he does with them.

Iain Telfer and Reuben Fries - 2004-03-04
The Two-Headed Darksteel Review: The End

Iain - Nemesis Mask falls into the"goofy trick" category of Equipment. When placed on a regenerator, it puts your opponent in a situation where they can not block. In a situation where you've got larger men, you can force your opponent's smaller men into combat to be ground up. There are also a couple men who trigger effects when blocked, such as Ogre Leadfoot and Tel-Jilad Wolf, which can also get a very frightful use out of the Mask. If nothing else, it's a Falter-type effect, and those can be quite valuable in Sealed deck. In draft, you'll want to have the elements that make Nemesis Mask stronger, such as Nim Shambler or various Green cards, before you put it in your pile.

Iain Telfer and Reuben Fries - 2004-02-23
The Two-Headed Darksteel Review: Artifacts Galore

Arcbound Worker is surprisingly good when you can get a few additional uses out of him. With Krark-Clan Grunt or similar on the table, Arcbound Worker can function as a super Goblin Sledder. Powering Affinity and Nim creatures is a significant boon, and can easily make Arcbound Worker playable. The final additional use is of course, the one I have been stressing with all the Arcbound creatures: more Arcbound creatures. Arcbound Worker gets better the more Arcbounds you have, and those Arcbounds get better with Arcbound Worker in the deck.

Iain Telfer and Reuben Fries - 2004-02-18
The Two-Headed Darksteel Review: Green and Strapping Arcbound Men

Fangren Firstborn
Iain - This is a very strange card to evaluate. It seems to me that it's a bit of a Nim - low toughness, high power and a would-be yearning for the Nim Equipment we've discussed previously. In fact, it fits in pretty nicely with a lot of them - bringing their toughness up and making them hardier in battle seems like a decent deal. But then you look at the mana cost and wonder if you'd ever cast it.

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2004-02-09
The Two-Headed Darksteel Review: Red and Black

Krark-Clan Stoker
Nathan - Getting only two mana from an artifact land is kind of disappointing when Goblin Clearcutter was in the last block, and was a better creature anyway. But by sacrificing an early Arcbound creature, you can create a monster and cast a new one on your same turn. I don't expect Stoker to be very exciting normally, but I suspect most people will see it as a mediocre-but-necessary creature with an occasional bonus.

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2004-02-03
The Two-Headed Darksteel Review: White and Blue

Stir the Pride
Iain - This card being an uncommon makes up for Turn the Tables being a rare. This card's effect comes in two flavors - good, and completely insane. The effect on the surface resembles a weaker (but easier to cast and set up) Overrun. Any mass power bonus is generally pretty good, since it allows you to break up ground stalls through multiple positive trades. If you reach the seven mana to entwine it, you don't get quite as much out of it as, say, entwining Grab the Reins, but the effect is definitely not negligible.

Iain Telfer - 2004-01-23
The Darksteel Trader's Guide

Back at the start of the year, I wrote an article outlining the mistakes and overhyped cards in Mirrodin. That was only twenty days ago from when I write this, and it's time to make due on my promise and write a trading preview for Darksteel, as at long last we have the completed spoiler. Or the almost completed spoiler. The mostly completed spoiler. The"I think there might be two or three cards missing" spoiler. Regardless, this is where I put my neck out on the line and offer up the cards I think you should be looking to trade for.

Iain Telfer - 2004-01-09
It's Like Voltron, Except With Dragons and Angels

A couple weeks back I was putting together Astral Slide and I was considering running Temple of the False God. Oh yes. The Temple of the Four Land Mana Screw. The Temple of the Beating Myself In the Face When Playing Land Destruction. It's like I played a land and it says nothing on the card! Hoboy! Beatings! So instead, I put in the Cloudposts. It changed my world. It opened my eyes.

It let me cycle a Decree for fifteen power in tiny White men during the end step of a U/W control player's turn. I was in love. And like all loves, a person just ends up looking for the better and better high. Maybe I mean drugs. I probably mean drugs. So when I glanced at that infamous Kai/Roland Bode article I was sorely tempted. Why bother with Cloudpost when you can have the mighty Urzatron

Iain Telfer - 2004-01-02
Cutting Through the Hype With a Butter Knife

Articles - many articles - are written every time a set comes out, but does anyone ever go back and call people up about their trading articles, hot picks, and so on? Hell if I remember - I don't recall last week very well. I don't think they do, though. Not often. Hot picks come out and then no one ever makes a comment about them months later, to see how they panned out. What I'm going to find out is,"Where are they now?"

Iain Telfer - 2003-12-23
Konfrontin' Kartin' Ken and his Krazy Konklusions

I want to talk about how Ken Krouner isn't right when he says Green is the best color in Mirrodin draft.

One of the things posted recently in response to an Eisel article on Red pick orders was that when you argue with someone, you're saying they're"stupid and wrong." I feel Ken is wrong in his observations - but I don't feel Ken is the least bit stupid. The man is known for being somewhat unorthodox and at times even a little ahead of the curve; neither of which are attributes I personally find offensive in writing. That being said, I do disagree. And I do bite my thumb at him.

Iain Telfer - 2003-12-09
Exploring Zombo.com - A Standard Walk With the Undead

Zombies is basically within the same family of decks as mono-Black Control; they are related and share cards freely. Pure Aggro Zombies exists on one end of the spectrum, and then pure mono-Black control exists on the other. Generally you slide closer to MBC by removing Zombies and putting in more anti-aggro spells, like Barter in Blood or Infest. Between the two decks exists a happy medium, where spells like Persecute and Phyrexian Arena roam freely. The goal of this article is to discuss the cards and the play style of the midrange decks.

Iain Telfer - 2003-11-27
Ten Thousand Goldfish Swimming in my Mind's Desire

Mind's Desire is not a deck, it's a twisted demon; a parasite that infects your brain and sucks all the gooey morsels out, leaving you nothing more than a haunted shell of a man. This is the tale of a downward spiral in the tainted, aberrant madness of something far more sinister than Magic or playing solitaire. It is, indeed, a tale of Ten Thousand Goldfish! Mad, insane Goldfish. Actually, at some stage I will give you a pretty good idea where Mind's Desire sits in regards to strength and speed in Standard... but mostly I'll just rant and rave like a lunatic. Saddle up!

Iain Telfer - 2003-11-19
The Schizophrenic Archetype: U/w and W/u In Mirrodin Draft, And Why You Should Know The Difference

Drafting Mirrodin requires careful consideration to build the best deck. Though you should usually take the best card in your first pick in pack one, decisions get quite interesting from there. For example, there are two archetypes within the Blue and White color combination - both of them attempt to do the same thing, and yet they behave very differently. What are these two decks, and where do their strategies for the win diverge?

Iain Telfer - 2003-10-31
Round 8: Raphael Levy vs. Tsuyoshi Fujita

With two white mana in his pool and two untapped Loti, he cast Mystical Tutor and dropped the Tendrils of Agony on top of his library. A moment later, he used Trade Secrets to dig up the Tendrils, then fed the remaining Lotus' mana into his pool to fire off the Tendrils of Agony for more than enough to finish Levy off. After the game, Levy asked Tsuyoshi how many games he had won on turn 2. Tsuyoshi raised his hand and showed five fingers, then gave Levy a quiet smile.

Iain Telfer - 2003-10-31
Round 4: Bob Maher Jr. vs. Brock Parker

Bob Maher - who is, of course, the Great One, sat down running the newly-developed version of Turbo Oath, which runs Isochron Scepter and Fire / Ice to take advantage of it. His opponent, who was part of the team that won the last Team Pro Tour, is Brock Parker who has a teched-out Psychatog deck in his hands.

Iain Telfer - 2003-10-03
Chrome Mox And Other Silver Wonders

Like anyone else I've been testing and making new decks. Of course by new decks, I mean I'm putting old cards backwards in cases and then scribbling (in my terrible hand writing) words like"extraplanar" and"chrome" on small pieces of paper and then slipping them in. This, combined with a testing partner, results in testing out new decklists... Which I will now give to you, my readers. Then I will talk about the decklists. Which were tested and observed, under fire from other decks. Deck that might also be terrible. I think this is the real fun of new format testing: All of your decks are garbage, but you don't know that yet.

Iain Telfer - 2003-09-22
A Mirrodin Sealed Deck Primer

Mirrodin offers a very refreshing change of pace from other Sealed deck formats. The necessity of running artifact removal, the mana acceleration in every color, the powerful artifact creatures and the bonuses equipment add can all drastically alter the way the format of the game plays. There's a huge depth of playable cards as well, and running three colors is rarely as punishing as it would be otherwise. You're offered a lot of options - so let's try to sort them out, shall we?

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-25
8th Edition - What Do The Pros Think?

Iain asks Gary Wise, Eugene Harvey, Adrian Sullivan, David Rood, Mark Zajdner, and Osyp Lebedowicz what they think of the new Core Set!

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Semifinals: Bob Maher vs. Alex Shvartsman

The two players discussed the number of Grand Prix wins between them while they shuffled their decks. Alex noted he had six Grand Prix wins to his name, while Bob noted that he only - only! - had two. But alas, only one of them would be walking away with a chance to add yet another gold star to their resume...

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Quarterfinals: Eugene Harvey vs. Mark Herberholz

Rumor has it that Mark Herberholz is teched out to win the mirror match - a situation that could turn unfriendly for Eugene Harvey. But this is Eugene Harvey, former US Nationals Champion, and he is not to be underestimated.

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Round 12: Eugene Harvey vs. Tony Goodson

This is a battle of archetypes, with former US National Champion Eugene Harvey armed with Slide. He is facing Tony Goodson, who qualified for Pro Tour: Boston with his team Strategery. Goodson is running Goblins - the flagship deck of this format so far. Theoretically Slide beats Goblins... But match wins aren't theory.

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
An Interview With Ron Spencer

Ron Spencer has been a Magic artist from the beginning, illustrating Alpha cards. Since then, he's gone on to illustrate some of the most popular Timmy cards - Sliver Queen, Angelic Chorus - and the Johnny cards like Hammer of Bogardan and Yawgmoth's Will. He was doing a signing at Detroit, and we had a request in our forums for art interviews, so we had a few words with him...

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Round 9: Ben Rubin vs. Max McGuffin

Max drew, but found nothing, and passed the turn. The mutant zombie then entered the red zone for five. It was then joined by another T-bomb and an Undead Gladiator. Fresh from the grave. It looked like perhaps Ben, hanging onto the game at one life, would manage to come back from the game...

Ben Bleiweiss and Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
The Day One Top Sixty-Four of Grand Prix Detroit: Decks And Players

We'll not only tell you what pros made it to Day Two, but tell you what decks made it, along with the percentage of the field they comprised! Hint: Sligh and Mono White Control were not all that and the bag of chips. So what was chiplike? Click the link!

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Round 7: Eric "EDT" Taylor vs. Matt Rubin

Rubin discussed the virtues of Goblin Goon versus the Clickslither he used. He noted that Goblin Goon has a tendency to bounce uselessly off Dawn Elementals or Silver Knights when facing Mono White Control or Slide, and in the mirror match it's fifty-fifty."50% chance that it attacks or doesn't attack." I asked him about his feelings on it, and he responded:"I'm betting that people who make the top eight with Goblins won't have Goon in their deck; they'll have Clickslither. The good decks are running Clickslither, it's just so good with Siege-Gang Commander."

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Round 5: Jon Sonne vs. Lucas Glavin

Even a Dragon isn't hard to remove with seven mana untapped, prompting Glavin to consider his options before he sent Rorix into combat. But with a flick of the wrist, the mighty dragon is felled by a sky-born disaster - a Starstorm, in fact! - and yet the Silver Knight managed to survive. Glavin passed into his second main phase and threw down a Form of the Dragon after combat, causing Sonne to look closely at the card... What kind of deck was this?

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Round 3: Richard Hoaen vs. Mauro Bongiovanni

This matchup is a face-off of Canadian players: Richard Hoaen, who hails from Ontario, is the third on the Canadian Nationals team after having a very solid year so far that's included a Top 8 appearance in Pro Tour: Yokohama - and he's up against Mauro Bongiovanni, a tournament organizer who operates out of Quebec and has a Top 8 or two to his name himself.

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-14
Round 1: Justin Schneider vs. Hakan Jackson

Justin's slightly nervous about being back, because he knows why he has the Feature Match; two years ago, in this very city at Grand Prix: Detroit, he was banned from the game for cheating. A long-time member of Tongo Nation, he recently made fourth place at Grand Prix: Pittsburgh with Mike Long and Mike Krzywicki, but he's hoping to make Detroit his individual comeback.

Iain Telfer - 2003-07-10
Playtesting Gabriel Nassif's Amazing B/W Deck

This deck was the real surprise to come out of the Championships, and is actually a lot more powerful than I initially felt it was. It feels very similar to Wake, with you tapping out for insanely powerful effects like Decree of Justice and Decree of Pain... But considering the deck's eight Wrath effects punish you for playing creatures, encouraging you to hold them right in your hand where you can Therapy them out, it works really well together.

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2003-06-13
Two-Headed Scourge Review - Green

Green did not get quite the power it lost in the Onslaught pack. Losing key commons like Wirewood Savage, Wirewood Elf, and Snarling Undorak, you're left with a somewhat unsavory taste in your mouth when looking over Scourge green. You're offered an almost Might of Oaks-level Giant Growth effect to soothe you, but overall it's a bit worse.

Iain Telfer - 2003-06-12
What Can Wizards Learn From Yu-Gi-Oh?

At this time, Yu-Gi-Oh outsells Magic, but not quite as much as appearances would suggest. I watch Yu-Gi-Oh players of ages eight to twelve wander into the store and throw down more money than I'd care to admit. I have no idea where these tykes are getting their hands on freshly-printed, unmarked one hundred dollar bills, but as I wipe off the cocaine left over on the textured bling I am struck considering what exactly is better than Magic in this game.

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2003-06-05
Two-Headed Scourge Review - Red

Red stinks in Scourge, and it's kind of depressing, and I didn't really want to talk about it too much. Torrent of Fire is pretty kick-ass - but so was Skirk Marauder. It would be nice to have more than one excellent common in an entire set. Red's still solid over the course of OLS, but there's not much exciting here except the thrill of knowing that the color depths are going to change over the course of the three packs.

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2003-05-30
Two-Headed Scourge Review - Black

While the positions of all the other colors might be debated, it's pretty clear how black works these days: It's on top. Black got a solid load of cards in Legions, and gets even better stuff in Scourge. With powerhouse commons like Twisted Abomination and Lingering Death, as well as two of the most synergistic of the tribes (Zombie and Cleric), you should definitely feel safe in the hands of Black. So let's debate which cards are good, and whether Unburden is worth it...

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2003-05-27
Two-Headed Scourge Review - Blue

Everyone agrees blue got a boost in Scourge, but not everyone seems to agree on how big that boost is. Some might not be excited by how blue seems to be playing a different game in Scourge than we've seen in the rest of the block, while others might consider blue's turnabout to be as strong as Mirage block's white - not great early, but worth sticking with in order to get the juicy cards in the third pack. But is Rush of Knowledge an Empyreal Armor? Is it even blue's best common?

Iain Telfer and Nathan Kovner - 2003-05-21
Two-Headed Scourge Review - White

A while ago, Nathan and I were discussing how to improve the normally-dismal Limited reviews. Yes, they're fun to write, and lots can be learned from them... But they tend to be a bit faulty and often don't have the scope to really catch all the information you want to give. Plus, they never have a dissenting viewpoint. The author is simply presenting a single set of ideas, and not letting anyone tell him otherwise or usually interjecting other people's opinions. So why not use two authors at once and have us debate the worth of the cards for you?

Iain Telfer - 2003-05-02
Further Fiddling With Flores: Hunting Sound 2K3

"Hunting Sound" is the pet name for the Hunting Grounds deck I played six months ago, re-applied to the updated U/G/w aggro mold. The deck was extremely aggressive, with almost no board control elements whatsoever. This made the deck somehow comforting to play. You either beat your opponent upside the face , or the deck just didn't deliver and you'd shrug your shoulders to show your disdain for those overpriced fetchlands that don't even fix mana 75% of the time."Flooded Strand," you'd remark,"Who needs 'em?"

Iain Telfer - 2003-04-09
Legions Synergy Review: The White Cards

I wasn't the world's biggest fan of straight Onslaught drafts. With one color brutally handicapped in all but a single archetype, and another pair of colors unplayable together since they couldn't handle Visara or Sparksmith, you were looking at a lopsided, bland format. But Legions helps to reverse all that.

Iain Telfer - 2003-03-28
Fun With Flores: Hunting Sound

Captivated by Mike's brilliant writing, I gave his threshold-based deck a few spins on Apprentice; the basic wisdom learned from that matchup was that the deck was really inconsistent and weird at times. I discussed the deck with a friend of mine - somewhere between Flores' deck and his, I think, lies the answer.

Iain Telfer - 2003-02-28
Talking In My Sleep About The Second-Worst Tribe

The Bird Deck does get a wonderful enchantment in the form of Soulcatcher's Aerie. Admit it: 1/1 dorks are going to die. That's about all they're really good for, besides occasionally attacking for single points of damage. But no, dying is their skill! It's their bad stylish ability. And the Aerie rewards you for having your stupid birds die in horrible, painful fashions. And that's really what military strategy is all about: Stupid, annoying birds dying in droves.

Iain Telfer - 2003-02-14
Talking In My Sleep: We Are Not A-Mused

I will freely admit I simply threw a Lavaborn Muse deck together and expected it to do hideously poorly. The thing is... The deck sort of surprised me. Lavaborn Muse did its job a lot better than I thought it would. Muse range is a great place to put your opponent. So with that in mind, I playtested the other four Muses to see how they did...

Iain Telfer - 2003-01-30
Talking In My Sleep, Dreaming Of Slivers

Slivers are one of the favorite"tribes" in Magic for a reason: They bridge the gap between casual and competitive players. A casual player can rave about Slivers, and Grumpy McTournamentman won't walk over and smack him in the head. So let's look at the Slivers and see which ones may be tournament-worthy and which ones are not, and then create some preliminary Standard decks to look at.

Iain Telfer - 2003-01-09
Talking In My Sleep: Combing The Deck Database For The Best Extended Decks

Why would I declare these decks as the first tier? Is it their power that leads me to this belief? No, not really. While these are all powerful archetypes, the only reason I would present them as tier one decks is simply because - as the Deck Editor who inputs every deck into StarCityGames.com's Deck Database - these are the ones I find myself entering over and over again.

Iain Telfer - 2003-01-08
Onslaught Limited Synergy Review: The Last

What we need now, is a set like Tempest with lots of cool mechanics and combo cards. God I'm sick of this damn set. I love playing it... But writing about is like stabbing myself in the forehead with a fork. CREATURE TYPE! CREATURE TYPE! MORPH! Blargh.

Iain Telfer - 2002-12-24
Onslaught Limited Synergy Review: So Many Elves...

Spitting Gourna
What am I supposed to write here? Okay, five mana, 3/4, blocks flying creatures! It's like creativity has me inspired me so far as to poop in my mouth! Remember that if you can't pay GG, you can play G through the morph cost to flip it over! And you can surprise your opponent's fliers by morphing it during combat!
Morph creatures... surprising people? That's never happened before! I swear! It wasn't the theme of the whole freaking set, now was it?

Iain Telfer - 2002-12-17
Onslaught Limited Synergy Review: Burn, Baby, Burn

Erratic Explosion
Ah, the Explosion. One of my favorite cards in the set, the Explosion is a burn spell which actually deserves to be talked about as a combo card. I mean shock, it... Shocks a creature. Woo hoo! But the explosion, it's interesting.

Iain Telfer - 2002-12-09
Onslaught Limited Synergy Review: Five Million Husk And Pathmage Tricks

I've got lots of tricks for Limited players - but considering that 90% of them revolve around unblocked black creatures that do horrible things to you when unmorphed, there are staples. Oh, and Dirge of Dread.

Iain Telfer - 2002-12-03
Synergy In Onslaught Limited: Go Banana!

Blue has a lot of tricks in it, and you can get very sneaky, but in the end all you have are a bunch of overpriced 1/1 dorks that die to the smallest removal. What are you going to do, alpha strike with Wizards? This is like cheering for banana.

Iain Telfer - 2002-11-26
Synergy In Onslaught Limited: The White Cards

Most players are capable of judging the face value of cards: Yes, Silvos is a good green card and Cruel Revival sure is consistent kill! This, however, is more a discussion of which cards work well with each other and what combos you should look out for while drafting, or building your sealed decks. Hence,"synergy."

Iain Telfer - 2002-11-18
The New Extended: A New Overview

What are the core cards of the new decks? Which decks didn't place in the Top 8, but did surprisingly well anyway? Where does the new Extended fall on the metagame clock? Lots of questions, lots of answers.

Iain Telfer - 2002-11-15
I Hate You, Milkman Clone

Legends, on the whole, make no sense. Okay, for a second here, just picture Kamahl, Fist of Krosa killing Kamahl, Pit Fighter. All right - shouldn't this open up some sort of space time paradox wormhole which immediately blows Fist of Krosa boy up and sprays some sort of meaty goo around the room?

Iain Telfer - 2002-10-23
Playing Fetchlands Properly

I've seen people do it:"End of turn, tap Flooded Strand to go look for a ..." The point is that there is clearly no actual reason to use the fetchland - because you're short on land! You want to draw a land next turn. Use the damned things right.

Iain Telfer - 2002-10-18
...And If You Made The Sets Right, Spoilers Wouldn't Bother You

Wizards shouldn't write articles how they're vexed with the fact that I'm allowed to judge a set on its own merits - and not as it is presented in their carefully-presented propaganda induced visions. Strangely enough, they weren't featuring Skittish Valesk as one of their preview cards.

Iain Telfer - 2002-10-11
Is This The Right Build?: A Sample Sealed Deck Analysis

Iain opens up a real Sealed set and attempts to build the best possible deck for the season... But he can always use the input. Did he choose the right colors? Did he choose the right cards? Come on over and help him out!

Iain Telfer - 2002-10-01
How Wizards Goofed Up In Odyssey - And My Tribal Cleric Deck

Werebear is not an Elf
Phantom Centaur is not a Beast
Mystic Crusader is not a soldier
Cephalid Looter is not a wizard
There are few Zombies

Iain Telfer - 2002-09-24
The Mana Curve Of Future Standard Colours

The first thing to mention about upcoming Standard is that, unless things changed dramatically, we're going to be looking at a lot of U/G for at least the first month or two, unless I'm really missing something. The second thing to mention is that the resulting Tier One control deck will either remain U/B Tog, or be Upheaval based, or be U/W based.

Iain Telfer - 2002-09-18
A Casual Player's Dream Set?

Gigapede is perhaps one of the best cards in the set given it's innate comboliciousness with Violent Eruption, but the card represents a clear sign that Wizards intends for Green to have access to graveyard recursion, at least for now. Genesisseemed a little out of flavour, but was fine due to the whole"Judgement Incarnation" factor. Gigapede, on the other hand, feels like a black card.

Iain Telfer - 2002-09-11
Smells Like Urza Spirit

Ever looked at a set and thought to yourself that a mechanic looked surprisingly... Familiar? Well, not surprisingly, morph is a lot like echo in that it allows you to spread a high cost over a few turns. What effects does this have on the Constructed environment?

Iain Telfer - 2002-09-03
Where R&D Errs

How does R&D refusal to treat three-mana as a green weenie affect the environment? What does red discard mean to red's strength as a whole? Why did white, which got weak madness activators, get the weakest madness cards as well? An analysis of what R&D didn't do... And thoughts on what they could have done.

Iain Telfer - 2002-04-01
Gemini, Beats, and Junk: Three Decks To Look At Before Regionals

Iain Telfer - 2002-03-26
Myriad Thoughts On Blue's Power (And How To Fix It)

Iain Telfer - 2002-03-18
The Last Of The Draft: Red, Green, and Lands in Torment

Iain Telfer - 2002-03-11
Torment Draft Review: How's The Black Lookin'?

Iain Telfer - 2002-03-05
Odyssey Limited Drafting With Torment: Is Blue Any Good?

Iain Telfer - 2002-02-27
Into The Depths Of The Pooper Trooper: A Limited Analysis Of Torment (no Odyssey) White

Iain Telfer - 2002-02-22
Reply To "Bear With Me, There's Three Decks At The End"

Why IS blue so damn strong?

Iain Telfer - 2002-01-29
How Does Torment Affect Odyssey Limited?: Looking At Odyssey Again Now That Black Is Back

Iain Telfer - 2002-01-17
'Cuz I Hate Black: Thoughts On Torment's Preview Cards

Iain Telfer - 2002-01-08
A Synergistic Draft Review Of Odyssey, Part II: Red, Green, And Everything Else

Iain Telfer - 2001-12-31
An Odyssey Synergy In Draft Review #2: Black and Blue

Iain Telfer - 2001-12-26
Draft Odyssey Synergy Review #1: White

Iain Telfer - 2001-12-20
Serra In The Court?: Hey, White Got Screwed, Too!

Iain Telfer - 2001-11-21
The Last Word On Tiered Tournaments: Why I Quit Magic, And What Tiered Tourneys Could Have Done To Stop Me

Matching Flavor Text:

Ask Ken, 06/10/2004
by Ken Krouner, originally published on 2004-06-10
Today's guest columnist Iain Telfer tackles the age-old question of why there aren't more female Magic players.

Standard - What's the Best Control Deck For Regionals?
A StarCityGames.com Discussion from 2004-03-18

What's the best control deck for Regionals? It's a simple question, but you have a lot of options available. Is it Big Red, MWC, U/W, G/W, Sarnia Affinity, Slide, or is control not the right choice for Regionals? Nate Heiss and Iain Telfer gave their opinions in their respective articles today, but we'd like you hear what you think.

Standard - Urzatron Control, Good or Pure Hype?
A StarCityGames.com Discussion from 2004-01-09

Earlier this week, Ron Parnaso discussed Urzatron Control, while today Iain Telfer swings his bat at the same deck. Is Mono-White Control a better deck than U/W these days? Do those of you who have playtested the deck believe in the hype, or is it just another casualty in the Goblins/Affinity/W/x Control metagame?

Limited - What Really Is The Best Color in Mirrodin Draft?
A StarCityGames.com Discussion from 2003-12-24

First you had Ken Krouner touting Green as the best color in Mirrodin Draft. Now you have Iain Telfer suggesting the consensus has been right all along, and Red is the best color in Mirrodin Draft. Now we want to know what you think - Which color is the best in Mirrodin Draft and why?

Yet Another Useless Article About A 5-Color Deck
by blisterguy, originally published on 2003-06-24
My 5-Color deck reflects an inner anal-retentive nature that Taeme, a.k.a. Iain Telfer, loves to point out on roughly a biweekly basis. It is focused on two colors, and the other colors will feature no more than eighteen cards each. Not nineteen: Eighteen. Only eighteen. Damn straight I'm sticking to that.

What Will Scourge Do To ON/LE/SC Decks?
A StarCityGames.com Discussion from 2003-05-14

In an AIM chat yesterday, Iain Telfer predicted the rise of U/W as an archetype - now we have Penmin's Aura and Frozen Solid to deal with pesky creatures, and U/W's traditional enemy Sparksmith is now in one-third fewer packs. Another change may be that given that every creature in Scourge seems to cost five billion mana, you now only have two packs to draft the low end of your curve. But what do you think? Sound off!

Help Name A New Deck!
A StarCityGames.com Discussion from 2003-05-12

Deck names are important to keep our fantabulous deck database consistent, so that you can search by deck type. And our deck database master Iain Telfer asks:" Alright, we've got a deck brewing these days centred around Zombies, Clerics, Recursion and Ensnaring Bridge. It looks like Aggro-Control, but the bridge, and the fact it's likely an emerging archetype for next season, means I should probably give it its own name within the database. Dave Meddish and LOTS of other people have written about in the last few months, but none of the names really seem to have stuck. So, I ask ye humble forum-goers: Suggest a good name for this archetype, and I'll use that in the database for it."

Reanalysis of the Sample Sealed Deck: No Two Alike
by Larry Jex, originally published on 2002-10-16
The build that Iain Telfer suggested in his article last week uses the powerful bombs, which is generally good strategy... But he does so at the risk of a shaky mana base. While it may not boast the added strength of Jareth, I feel that my build would be far more consistent: Something that can help win games.