In Development – Wishing for Gifts
Thought you’ve seen all the possible applications of Gifts Ungiven in Extended? Think again! Alexander’s just getting started.
Alexander Shearer
In Development – Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
How are you making your in-game decisions? What can we learn from fighter pilots to improve our play?
In Development – Think Less and Play Better
Magic is a difficult game in the best of circumstances, so why make it harder on yourself?
In Development – Lawyers, Guns, and Money – Fine-Tuning Your GWx Deck
The GWx mirror is becoming more common, so Alexander ponders a few ways to gain an edge.
In Development – Choosing to Fight Fairer
Card advantage is still king, but how is it applied in Standard? Alexander breaks down the format and looks at all possible sources of card advantage.
In Development – Developing Your Planeswalker Algorithm
Lorwyn introduced planeswalkers as a card type, but what is the best application of them in today’s Standard environment?
In Development – The Cost of Resilience
Alexander brings his approach to the Standard metagame into sharper focus in the wake of Worlds.
In Development – Tangling with the Devil
Alexander deconstructs Standard and tell us why reactive strategies do not work in the current metagame.
In Development – Iona, I Choose You
It’s a trap! A Summoning Trap? Also in this article Alex defines his pet word, orthogonal.
In Development – Building the Enemy
The Standard metagame is slowly taking shape, so now it’s time to take a look at how to take advantage of your available resources.
In Development – Building Up From Good Enough
Today’s lesson plan includes the ever-continuing need to adjust your deck despite getting good results.
In Development – A Series of Harrowing Decisions
Now that the Vivid + Pool combo is gone, how do we build suitable mana bases? Alexander takes his usual thorough approach to solving this puzzle.
In Development – Tensions in Sideboarding
So you’ve got a good skeleton of a deck. Now you need a sideboard. Alex explains why you shouldn’t just slap 15 cards onto the end and call it a day.
In Development – Red Teaming
Continuing to refine his builds, Alexander learns some important lessons in the budding Standard format, and introduces a new term to Magic players: Red Teaming.
In Development – Developing a Context
Alexander gets to work on building new decks for Standard. The first card he wants to build a deck around is Luminarch Ascension.
In Development – Clarity of Purpose
Channelfireball.com is proud to welcome Alexander Shearer to Wednesdays. He’s another player with a rogue’s spirit.