News: New ‘Magic Beyong the Box’ Article Up!
If you’ve had your fill of our special (and extra-lengthy) Flyover “meta-review” and are hungry for more precon coverage, head over to the new and exciting Quiet Speculation for my new column on rekindling a precon romance. Take those old precons off the shelf, try something new and fall in love all over again!
An Open Invitation to the Great Designer Search Contestants
Welcome, aspiring designers!
Thanks to Eric “Mr. Suitcase” McCormick (@thewachman), we’ve been getting some attention from the Great Designer Search 2 on account of the fact that the latest design challenge involves designing an intro pack!
As it happens, in the past month we’ve written several columns on what makes good and bad intro decks for Quiet Speculation that might be worth a read:
Five Reasons Why Intro Packs Matter
Five Elements of the Best Precon Decks
Additionally, we have reviewed the Intro Packs for a number of sets, including all sets in the current Standard environment (we’re in the midst of Worldwake presently). If you feel our analysis might offer some insight, feel free to browse the archives!
Finally, we are happy to offer aid in fine-tuning your deck(s) prior to submission by running your deck through a “precon gauntlet” and reporting our findings directly to you. Deck stress testing will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and can be tailored to what you’re looking for. Send us a message on Twitter (@ErtaisLament) and we can discuss this option further.
We’re proud to be a part of the Magic community, and delighted to be of any help we can for this worthy challenge!
2009-10 Precon Championships: The Finals
Hello and welcome back to our continuing coverage of the 2009-10 Preconstructed Deck Championships! Today your patience will be rewarded, for after three exciting rounds of contests, we are closing in on final victory and the glory that comes from being the last deck standing!
Early action was furious and full of surprises. The Duel Decks- an early favourite- found themselves stymied at every turn. Of the four in contention, only Phyrexia was able to advance past the first round. The Coalition, Garruk, and Liliana all faced punishing upsets at the hands of decks who had never had so much as a sniff of a mythic rare between them.
2009-10 Precon Championships: Lauer Division (Part 2 of 2)
Here we are once again, sports fans around the world and of all ages, to see the remaining division in the Forsythe Conference be decided! It’s all come down to these four: Kor Armory (ZEN), Invading Spawn (ROE), Leveler’s Glory (ROE), and Rapid Fire (WWK). By the end of the day, only one shall remain to move on and challenge for the divisional banner and right to represent the Confereince in the finals!
Guest Meddling: Upgrading the Coalition
I’m a fan of preconstructed decks, especially some of the non-intro products Wizards has been putting out. However, I take a different approach than Jay. I like to customize, tear apart, rebuild, refocus, and repurpose what I pull out of those boxes.
Sometimes I like to retool decks into easier-to-play, more-consistent versions of themselves, so that I can hand them to new players and explain them quickly. Other times I like to tinker with decks and fill them with bomby, splashy cards that make for lots of fun. Once in awhile I like to optimize for the kill. Either way, I feel like personalizing preconstructed decks is a great way to make them more interesting and more fun, utilizing some of the basic framework.
One of my favorite preconstructed decks in the past year was the Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs the Coalition set, because I loved that storyline and was thrilled to be able to play as Urza and Yawgmoth, re-enacting that climactic battle. Then I played the decks.
News: New ‘Magic Beyond the Box’ Article Up
A new column is up at QuietSpeculation.com, and today I step back from the shop-talk about precons and instead discuss the upcoming spoiler season for Mirrodin Beseiged against the incredible persistence of memory.
Why don’t you come on by, check it out and say hello?
And Now… Our Pack to Fortune Winner!
- A Smile to Greet the New Year!
Our Pack to Fortune New Year’s Eve activity was a delightful success, and gave us lots of amusement to read. As promised, we are giving away one draft set (three boosters) of Scars of Mirrodin to one lucky participant chosen at random, and that winner is Ninja!
Ninja, please check your email. Thanks to all those who posted and those who read- we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
2009-10 Precon Championships: Lauer Division (Part 1 of 2)
There’s a buzz in the air today as we begin our coverage of the 2009-10 Precon Championships: Lauer Division! With three divisions already decided, we’re down to the last one- the Lauer Division. As we work towards our ‘Final Four,’ we have just a few more rounds of grueling competition to get through to determine who will carry the banner as the Lauer Division’s champion, looking to take on Presence of Mind for the right to represent the Forsythe Conference in the finals!
New Year’s Day State of the Site Address
Welcome to 2011!
At the start of a new year, it’s always useful to take a moment and reflect upon the one that’s passed, and having missed our site’s six-month anniversary, I thought it fitting to do so here.
First of all, a huge thanks to all the members of the Precon Community who have made Ertai’s Lament as successful as it’s been. We really didn’t know what we were getting into when we put up our first post on 03 June, but since that time we’ve gone from a few-hits-a-week site to one that averages somewhere between 500-1000 a day. It was great to see so many folks out there have the same interest and passion as us! Certainly, we could not have done it without all the thoughtful feedback we’ve recieved from all of you.
On that note, here are a few things on our minds as we enter 2011.
The New Quiet Speculation Unveiled!
After being down for a few days of upgrading, QuietSpeculation.com has been relaunched for the new year and it looks amazing. It has an all-new visual layout, although the vision for the site remains the same. It will be run on a “freemium” basis, which means that Spike and Timmy content, such as my weekly column Magic Beyond the Box are and will continue to be free. The “QS Insider” subscription applies only to articles dealing with the financial side of Magic (and are certainly well worth looking into if you have that interest!).
Head on by and check it out!
Ertai's Lament 