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 The Ferrett's second sojourn into Magic Video Technology (TM) leads to a look at legality, morality, and of course the fine game of Tiddlywinks. What are PTQs for? When should one invoke the Dark Side of the Jedi Mind Trick? The Ferrett weighs in on a touchy topic. |
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Tuesday, June 17th - For his final article before he is swallowed by the Wizards Machine, Tom LaPille takes a look at the Kithkin mirror match in Lorwyn / Shadowmoor Block Constructed. While it appears to be little more than luck at first glance, there are tried and tested strategies that can tip the balance in the battle of the Little White Men. Good luck at Wizards, Tom!
Tuesday, June 10th - On July 23rd, Tom LaPille begins a six month internship at Wizards of the Coast, in Research and Development. A lot of folk would give their shuffling hand for such an opportunity. Tom shares his journey from Pro Tour wannabe to newest Magic employee, and does his best to Teach Us How To Get A Job At Wizards. 
Tuesday, June 3rd - We’re in a busy period of Magic right now. We’ve just had a Standard Pro Tour, and Regionals are fast approaching. Last weekend saw a Block Constructed GP, and the upcoming Pro Tour season is the same format. And Vintage… we all know what’s happening there. Today, Tom LaPille looks at all three disciplines, and suggests the deck he’d play at Regionals if he weren’t leaving to work for Wizards of the Coast…
Wednesday, May 28th - Last weekend, Tom played in his last Pro Tour for the foreseeable future. Low on preparation, and bereft of options, he decided to rock out with the Red spells. While he didn’t cause a splash in the grand scheme of things, he did learn some significant lessons on the evolving Standard format. To learn these lessons, and to discover why PT: Hollywood may well be his last, read on!
Tuesday, May 20th - With Pro Tour: Hollywood only days away, the debate still rages over what can be done to curb the Blue/Black Faerie menace. One popular option is Mono-Red Aggression, with copious amounts of burn ready to keep the Bitterblossom players on their toes. Is such a strategy ready for the big time, or will the Fae seize the day?
Tuesday, May 6th - When we roll up to a large Constructed tournament, we like to think we’re prepared. We’ve quietly and thoroughly honed our deck and sideboard with a myriad of tweaks and a plethora of gauntlet test games… right? If things haven’t gone to plan, we could be scrambling for cards in the hour before the tournament. So how do we maximize our chance of success when we’re working on no preparation whatsoever? Let Tom show us how!
Tuesday, April 29th - Today’s Nick Eisel article saw Nick sharing his thoughts on the powerful U/W decks available when drafting triple Shadowmoor. Not to be outdone, Tom wades into the fray and brings us his own thoughts on the newly proclaimed Best Archetype In The Format. Where do you agree with Tom, and where does Tom disagree with Nick? Read on to find out!
Tuesday, April 22nd - Tom rocked up to the Shadowmoor prerelease looking to relive the halcyon days of powerful multicolored Limited formats such as Invasion and Ravnica. He soon discovered that while the fun was still there in spades, the power of the Hybrid strategies wasn’t the gleeful joyride he expected. In today’s Arcane Teachings, he investigates why…
Tuesday, April 15th - With the re-emergence of a certain Black sorcery into the Standard arena, a far few players are hoping that hardy perennial Mono-Black Control will return to the metagame as a timely response to the tribal creature builds that plague Constructed. Today, Tom LaPille talks with Grand Prix: Vancouver Top 4 competitor Zack Hall, and together they flesh out the Mono-Black idea…
Tuesday, April 8th - In the realm of innovative deckbuilding, it seems that we can be held back by our preconceived notions of what should and should not be played. Today, Tom attempts to cure us of this creative malaise, offering a few choice tips to help us break free of such constrictions. If you’re looking to build the next metagame-warping deck, this is the article for you!
Tuesday, April 1st - With Lorwyn tribes apparently ruling the roost in the current Standard metagame, a number of what can only be described as “fringe cards” are finding their way into decks across the globe. Tom LaPille believes that while such choices are good for deck synergy, you can’t beat a pile of high quality cards…
Tuesday, March 25th - Extended season is winding down, and PTQ players have likely chosen their deck of choice for this coming weekend. Of course, not all preparation is flawless… with mere days until the Last Chance Saloon opens its doors, those folk requiring a change of deck direction could do worse than turn their eyes to Domain Zoo. Tom LaPille walks us through the details…
Tuesday, March 18th - Tom finished Grand Prix: Philadelphia in twelfth place, and he did it with Domain Zoo - a far cry from the Next Level Blue variants he has been playing all season. He explains why he changed decks and the logic behind the decklist that he and Ben Wienburg played to the Top 16 and Top 8 respectively, then walks you through the matchups that he played in the tournament.
Tuesday, March 11th - Magic Online: a blessing and a curse. Testing and drafting on MTGO can be a fantastic experience when flowing smoothly… but throw a server crash in there, and we have tears and tantrums galore. Today’s Arcane Teachings sees Tom look at the strengths and weaknesses to online play from a self-improvement perspective, and argues that although the benefits are there, they maybe aren’t as tangible as it appears…
Tuesday, March 4th - In his first Premium article, Tom LaPille examines the nature of being “under the radar” in the current Extended metagame. With so many options, and a plethora of powerful decks, how can we leverage our deck choice into those vital wins? Can we capitalize on the size of the format in order to run through the rounds without facing hate? Maybe we can… and Tom shows us how. [Editor's Note: Adrian Sullivan will now run later in the week... so stay tuned!]
Wednesday, February 27th - Going into the tournament, I suspected that the metagame was changing in a way that was bad for actual Counterbalance decks. The card Counterbalance itself is best against the mirror and against midrange decks that actually give you time to set up a lock, and quite bad against decks that are very fast, play spells that cost tons of mana that you can't use Counterbalance to stop, or both.
Monday, February 18th - I've been very fortunate to meet some truly wonderful people through Magic. Some of those are people I work with on decks, some are people I practice with on Magic Online, and some are people I hang out with at tournaments. Two recent conversations with two such people resulted in some interesting shifts in how I think about Magic, life, and the universe, and this article centers around those conversations.
Monday, February 11th - My favorite card type in Magic is land. Lands make mana, which allow me to cast spells and therefore interact with my opponents. Some of them even stand in fairly well for spells a decent amount of the time. However, this extended season I have learned from working with fellow players and looking at winning decklists that not everyone shares my love of land. In fact, many people appear to have a strong distaste for playing more lands than they absolutely have to. 
Watch over Tom's shoulder as he takes an in-depth video look into the Counterbalance mirror in Extended, discussing common tricks, traps, and situations through the lens of one recorded game on Magic Online. He also talks about how to best use mirror-directed sideboard cards.
Tom’s journey came to an end when he won the PTQ in Butler, Pennsylvania this past Saturday… or did it? Tom shares his take on the Patrick Chapin / Gerry Thompson created Counterbalance deck, talks about the tournament, and muses about the mindset necessary to succeed at Magic.
Most Extended decks are built with one goal in mind, and that makes them very good at doing what they do and strategically simple to play. When you play Red deck or Domain Zoo in Extended, every game you win will involve small creatures attacking and some burn. When you play Doran, every game you win will end when your large creatures finally get through for twenty…
Tom takes an introspective look at his experiences at the recent Extended double feature weekend at the Star City Game Center in Roanoke, and muses about how to give the universe no choice but to send you to Hollywood.
Extended is a complicated format, with intricately constructed decks and even more complex manabases supporting them. Tom shows you how to use Onslaught’s Fetchlands, Ravnica’s dual lands, and basic lands to maximize your colors and chances of success.
Tom sketches out his schedule for the upcoming PTQ season, tells you why he is willing to travel so far to chase an invitation, and challenges you to do the same thing in pursuit of fun, personal improvement, and maybe even a ticket to Hollywood.
The cube has recently taken the Magic world by storm, starting with the Magic Invitational and spreading around the world; it even infiltrated Wizards of the Coast’s internal Draft Club. Tom shows you how to make a cube, talks about his own cube, talks with Aaron Forsythe about the Magic Invitational cube, and gives a brief recap of the Saturday Night Cube Draft that he and Evan Erwin hosted at Worlds.
Tom is back from Worlds, where he played in the first PTQ for Pro Tour: Hollywood. He didn’t come home with the invite, but he did learn about the format and he shares his opinions with you. Also inside is an autobiographical account from the Gifts Rock deck that Tom played.
Wizards promotes Pro Tours as where the best players in the world play, but how hard is it to actually qualify for one yourself? Tom argues that your competition in PTQs shouldn’t intimidate you, and that with a little work and persistence you could win your own ticket to the big show. Tom LaPille and Evan Erwin invite you for Saturday Night Cube Drafting at the Magic: The Gathering World Championships in New York this coming weekend. Details inside!
Finding the best deck in a format can be hard. However, there are often obvious signs that a deck is just not good enough to win a tournament. Tom shows us four of them, and also warns us about two reasons that we should not use as justification for rejecting decks. Also, Tom and Evan Erwin invite you to Saturday Night Cube Drafting at Worlds this weekend. Details inside! Seasoned players tend to talk about "sideboarding plans," which is not a surprise since sideboarding well is really all about planning. Tom looks at some decks and asks you to think about how their sideboards do or do not fit with the decks’ game plans. He wants to convince you that you need to be aware of and take into account your deck’s plans to build the most effective sideboard you can.
The majority of the time you spend playing Magic is occupied by thought. Tom, in his first strategy article for StarCityGames.com, shows us three ways to think faster inside the game, and explains why doing that will make you play better and win more often.
A thoughtful and learned look back on Lapille's first Grand Prix Top 8 experience.
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The Magic Show #152 - US Nationals 2009 Finals And More!by Evan Erwin, originally published on 2009-08-07 
Friday, August 7th - Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week I took the time to nicely edit all five games of the 5-Color Control mirror in the 2009 US Nationals Finals match between Charles Gindy and Adam Yurchick. Also check out WotC's own Tom Lapille talk about power curves, power creep, and how Harm's Way was developed. Let's go! MTGCast #130 - States, Worlds, and Ward of Bones!by MTGCast, originally published on 2008-11-19 
Wednesday, November 19th - Play in two FNM's between 11/14 and 12/12 to earn a free foil promo DCI Hypnotic Specter. If you haven't seen it before (like Tom), check out the very cool Magic Online Draft Converter. Tom LaPille discusses WoTC's current plans regarding the Elves deck in Extended in his latest article with respect to possible bannings. Arcane Teachings - Entity Weaving: The Kithkin Mirror Matchby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-06-17
Tuesday, June 17th - For his final article before he is swallowed by the Wizards Machine, Tom LaPille takes a look at the Kithkin mirror match in Lorwyn / Shadowmoor Block Constructed. While it appears to be little more than luck at first glance, there are tried and tested strategies that can tip the balance in the battle of the Little White Men. Good luck at Wizards, Tom! Arcane Teachings- Wizards Schoolby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-06-10
Tuesday, June 10th - On July 23rd, Tom LaPille begins a six month internship at Wizards of the Coast, in Research and Development. A lot of folk would give their shuffling hand for such an opportunity. Tom shares his journey from Pro Tour wannabe to newest Magic employee, and does his best to Teach Us How To Get A Job At Wizards. Arcane Teachings - Topic Trio: Standard, Block, Vintageby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-06-03
Tuesday, June 3rd - We’re in a busy period of Magic right now. We’ve just had a Standard Pro Tour, and Regionals are fast approaching. Last weekend saw a Block Constructed GP, and the upcoming Pro Tour season is the same format. And Vintage… we all know what’s happening there. Today, Tom LaPille looks at all three disciplines, and suggests the deck he’d play at Regionals if he weren’t leaving to work for Wizards of the Coast… Arcane Teachings - Mountains and Mutavaults at Pro Tour: Hollywoodby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-05-28
Wednesday, May 28th - Last weekend, Tom played in his last Pro Tour for the foreseeable future. Low on preparation, and bereft of options, he decided to rock out with the Red spells. While he didn’t cause a splash in the grand scheme of things, he did learn some significant lessons on the evolving Standard format. To learn these lessons, and to discover why PT: Hollywood may well be his last, read on! Arcane Teachings - Mono-Red in Shadowmoor Standardby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-05-20
Tuesday, May 20th - With Pro Tour: Hollywood only days away, the debate still rages over what can be done to curb the Blue/Black Faerie menace. One popular option is Mono-Red Aggression, with copious amounts of burn ready to keep the Bitterblossom players on their toes. Is such a strategy ready for the big time, or will the Fae seize the day? Feature Article – Elemental Control in Lorwyn Block Constructedby Gerry Thompson, originally published on 2008-05-13
Tuesday, May 13th - Tom LaPille is having a week off... in his place, we have StarCityGames Mega-Magic Weekend Top 8 player Gerry Thompson! With a Block Constructed PTQ season on the horizon, and a Block Constructed Grand Prix in the UK mere weeks away, GerryT takes us through an exciting Elemental-themed control deck that has fine matchups against the aggro creature decks in the evolving format… Arcane Teachings - Judging a Deck By Its Coverby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-05-06
Tuesday, May 6th - When we roll up to a large Constructed tournament, we like to think we’re prepared. We’ve quietly and thoroughly honed our deck and sideboard with a myriad of tweaks and a plethora of gauntlet test games… right? If things haven’t gone to plan, we could be scrambling for cards in the hour before the tournament. So how do we maximize our chance of success when we’re working on no preparation whatsoever? Let Tom show us how! Arcane Teachings - Tackling Triple Shadowmoor: Blue/White Aggressionby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-04-29
Tuesday, April 29th - Today’s Nick Eisel article saw Nick sharing his thoughts on the powerful U/W decks available when drafting triple Shadowmoor. Not to be outdone, Tom wades into the fray and brings us his own thoughts on the newly proclaimed Best Archetype In The Format. Where do you agree with Tom, and where does Tom disagree with Nick? Read on to find out! Arcane Teachings - Early Shadowmoor Limited Impressionsby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-04-22
Tuesday, April 22nd - Tom rocked up to the Shadowmoor prerelease looking to relive the halcyon days of powerful multicolored Limited formats such as Invasion and Ravnica. He soon discovered that while the fun was still there in spades, the power of the Hybrid strategies wasn’t the gleeful joyride he expected. In today’s Arcane Teachings, he investigates why… Arcane Teachings - Mono-Black Control in Shadowmoor Standardby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-04-15
Tuesday, April 15th - With the re-emergence of a certain Black sorcery into the Standard arena, a far few players are hoping that hardy perennial Mono-Black Control will return to the metagame as a timely response to the tribal creature builds that plague Constructed. Today, Tom LaPille talks with Grand Prix: Vancouver Top 4 competitor Zack Hall, and together they flesh out the Mono-Black idea… Arcane Teachings - Unreasonable Deck Construction and Shadowmoor Standardby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-04-08
Tuesday, April 8th - In the realm of innovative deckbuilding, it seems that we can be held back by our preconceived notions of what should and should not be played. Today, Tom attempts to cure us of this creative malaise, offering a few choice tips to help us break free of such constrictions. If you’re looking to build the next metagame-warping deck, this is the article for you! Sullivan Library - The Big Lie of "Good" Cardsby Adrian Sullivan, originally published on 2008-04-04 
Friday, April 4th - Earlier this week, Tom LaPille shared his thoughts on the old debate of Good Cards versus Good Synergy. He fell squarely in the "Good Cards" camp… and this caused Adrian Sullivan’s blood to boil! Today, he offers a strong rebuttal to Tom (and to Zac Hill by proxy) in an article that is sure to get the forums jumping… Arcane Teachings - Good Cards, Faeries, and Merfolk in Standardby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-04-01
Tuesday, April 1st - With Lorwyn tribes apparently ruling the roost in the current Standard metagame, a number of what can only be described as “fringe cards” are finding their way into decks across the globe. Tom LaPille believes that while such choices are good for deck synergy, you can’t beat a pile of high quality cards… Arcane Teachings – A Last-Minute Guide to Domain Zooby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-03-25
Tuesday, March 25th - Extended season is winding down, and PTQ players have likely chosen their deck of choice for this coming weekend. Of course, not all preparation is flawless… with mere days until the Last Chance Saloon opens its doors, those folk requiring a change of deck direction could do worse than turn their eyes to Domain Zoo. Tom LaPille walks us through the details… Arcane Teachings - Project Hollywood: Grand Prix Philadelphia (12th)by Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-03-18
Tuesday, March 18th - Tom finished Grand Prix: Philadelphia in twelfth place, and he did it with Domain Zoo - a far cry from the Next Level Blue variants he has been playing all season. He explains why he changed decks and the logic behind the decklist that he and Ben Wienburg played to the Top 16 and Top 8 respectively, then walks you through the matchups that he played in the tournament. Arcane Teachings - Magic Online, Live Play, and Youby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-03-11
Tuesday, March 11th - Magic Online: a blessing and a curse. Testing and drafting on MTGO can be a fantastic experience when flowing smoothly… but throw a server crash in there, and we have tears and tantrums galore. Today’s Arcane Teachings sees Tom look at the strengths and weaknesses to online play from a self-improvement perspective, and argues that although the benefits are there, they maybe aren’t as tangible as it appears… Arcane Teachings – Under the Radar in Extendedby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-03-04
Tuesday, March 4th - In his first Premium article, Tom LaPille examines the nature of being “under the radar” in the current Extended metagame. With so many options, and a plethora of powerful decks, how can we leverage our deck choice into those vital wins? Can we capitalize on the size of the format in order to run through the rounds without facing hate? Maybe we can… and Tom shows us how. [Editor's Note: Adrian Sullivan will now run later in the week... so stay tuned!] Arcane Teachings - Grand Prix: Vancouver Postmortemby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-02-27
Wednesday, February 27th - Going into the tournament, I suspected that the metagame was changing in a way that was bad for actual Counterbalance decks. The card Counterbalance itself is best against the mirror and against midrange decks that actually give you time to set up a lock, and quite bad against decks that are very fast, play spells that cost tons of mana that you can't use Counterbalance to stop, or both.
Arcane Teachings - Project Hollywood- Mental Game with Rich Hagon and Doug Linnby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-02-18
Monday, February 18th - I've been very fortunate to meet some truly wonderful people through Magic. Some of those are people I work with on decks, some are people I practice with on Magic Online, and some are people I hang out with at tournaments. Two recent conversations with two such people resulted in some interesting shifts in how I think about Magic, life, and the universe, and this article centers around those conversations. Arcane Teachings - Lands Are Awesomeby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2008-02-11
Monday, February 11th - My favorite card type in Magic is land. Lands make mana, which allow me to cast spells and therefore interact with my opponents. Some of them even stand in fairly well for spells a decent amount of the time. However, this extended season I have learned from working with fellow players and looking at winning decklists that not everyone shares my love of land. In fact, many people appear to have a strong distaste for playing more lands than they absolutely have to. Down And Dirty - Undefeated Saturday and Cheon-LaPillerviewsby Kyle Sanchez, originally published on 2008-01-31 
Kyle planned on attending a PTQ last weekend... sadly, things didn’t quite pan out. Instead, today’s Down And Dirty sees the inestimable Mr Sanchez interview Tom LaPille and Paul Cheon on their lives both inside and outside Magic. Kyle also shares his own theory on the feline direction in which our great game is headed... Saturday Night Cube Drafting at Worldsby Tom LaPille, originally published on 2007-12-07 Tom LaPille and Evan Erwin invite you for Saturday Night Cube Drafting at the Magic: The Gathering World Championships in New York this coming weekend. Details inside!
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