Tempest: Flames of Rath Review (Part 1 of 2)
When we began Ertai’s Lament in June of 2010, we knew what we wanted to do- review Magic’s varied and storied preconstructed decks- but little direct sense of how we wanted to go about doing it.We knew we wanted to give a full accounting for each deck, which meant both a card-by-card analysis as well as a playtest in the field against another deck to see how it did in practice, and we had our starting point as the recently-released set of five Duels of the Planeswalker paper decks, but beyond that it was all glorious trial and error.
New Year’s Eve: Pack to Fortune 2011
Some of you may recall last year we staged an event called “Pack to Fortune.” A fun and whimsical fortune-telling device centered around reader participation and an unopened booster pack of cards, we looked to divine what we had in store for the coming year based upon what you opened. It was a lot of fun and we had some great responses.
Planar Chaos: Endless March Review (Part 2 of 2)
Our final look at Planar Chaos sees me up against the deck that started us off- the mono-Blue Ixidor’s Legacy. With Jimi behind it, can Endless March hold its own, or will it fall to morphing and trickery?
Into the Roil: Graveborn (PDS)
I strolled the hallways of nothingness in search of battle. Quite simply, I was looking for a fight. The plane of Innistrad had left a bitter taste in my mouth. It was a new place and I was unaccustomed to its mana.
Planar Chaos: Endless March Review (Part 1 of 2)
In our previous review of Unraveling Mind, we remarked upon the memorability of keyworded mechanics, and how having a keyword can make even a small set of cards stand out in the minds of players. Today we’ll be looking at a mechanic which is something of a corollary- one which saw a lot of play, was never keyworded, and now labours under relative obscurity.
Planar Chaos: Unraveling Mind Review (Part 2 of 2)
It’s a little Christmas-day insanity as Sam and I go head to head at the card table. Can my madness-filled Unraveling Mind get the better of her Rituals of Rebirth, or am I just in a state of delusion?
Planar Chaos: Unraveling Mind Review (Part 1 of 2)
In Magic: the Gathering, it is occasionally fashionable to talk about how Wizards might be ‘running out of ideas,’ with the thought that innovation and creativity is a somewhat finite resource that is in danger of becoming expended. On the other hand, it can be sometimes surprising to discover just how little developed many mechanics have been over the course of the game’s history. Read more 
Planar Chaos: Rituals of Rebirth Review (Part 2 of 2)
Graveborn might be the proverbial 800-pound reanimating gorilla, but Planar Chaos had its own recursion deck, Rituals of Rebirth. Today we test it against Jimi’s Endless March, which relies upon abuse of the gating mechanic.
Planar Chaos: Rituals of Rebirth Review (Part 1 of 2)
In our recent review of Premium Deck Series: Graveborn, the recent all-foil reanimator deck, we observed the following:
[Graveborn] follows a very simple formula- take something enormously fat and difficult to deal with, and get around its matching pricetag by chucking it into the graveyard and then using a cheaper spell to reanimate it into play. Read more
Ertai’s Meddling: Deathly Dominion (INN)
Good news for fans of precon tinkering! Today we’re exploring the runt of Innistrad’s ghoulish litter, Deathly Dominion! A Black/Green deck built around the morbid mechanic, we judged this one to be the worst of the lot- and most in need of a makeover.
Ertai's Lament 