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A Careful Study: My favourite Magic articles

It’s always fascinating to me how important writing is to Magic. Unlike the rest of the internet, it feels like Magic players really like to sink into long-form, theoretical writing. For me, reading Magic content has defined my experience as a player and is integral to my practicing process. I’ve gone back through time to read as many of the most acclaimed ideas from the game’s brightest minds. So today, I figured I’d share the highlights of that experience with you. Here are my favourite articles of all-time (in no specific order):

Level One: Full Course- Reid Duke

The true magnum opus of entry-level Magic theory. This has got to be the most extensive written Magic project of all-time. Reid takes new players through every aspect of the game in a concise and easy to navigate way.

Who’s the Beatdown- Michael Flores

Perhaps the most famous, and most referenced article ever. Flores breaks down level-one of role assessment in a way that allows players to level-up their game with just one read. Flores excels at breaking down often-generalized concepts in a way that both benefits competitive and casual players.

Thoughtseize, You- Reid Duke

An article close to my own heart. Reid took a deep dive into the theory of Thoughtseize after it was spoiled for Theros. These kinds of macro-level articles about trading resources are really popular among pros, but I think Reid does the best job at make these heavy theory pieces digestible.

The Elephant Method: A Case Study- Zvi Mowshowitz

Zvi is certainly a talented thinker, and this was no exception. This article goes deep into a deckbuilding theory where you build a 60-card deck for each matchup and then mash all of those together to create you 75 card best deck. Zvi explains the pros and cons and situational-nature of this idea extremely well.

Pondering Brainstorm- AJ Sacher

This is my favourite Magic article of all-time. To me understanding Legacy, and Brainstorm specifically, really leveled-up my game immensely and AJ does such a good job of discussing the modal nature of the card. If you read anything here, make it this.

Information Cascades in Magic- Patrick Chapin

This article dives very deep into the realm of game theory. Chapin’s premise is to describe information cascades and the way that general opinion and imitation can affect what everyone thinks may be good, or “correct” or the right way to play that turn. Magic can be a game of copycats, and this article gets to the bottom of that.

Eight way to Generate Virtual Card Advantage- Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa

This piece serves more as an example of Paulo’s writing than a best-of because I just couldn’t imagine not having him on this list. He’s not really known for any specific piece but his ability to be so thorough on a week-to-week basis with articles like this make him one of the best MTG writers ever.

 

 

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