The Blog of Sam Craven

Sam's Recommendations for a Weekend in Dallas

A friend recently asked me for advice on what to do with her parents on a weekend in Dallas. Here's my recommendations.

Quick Thoughts from GP Houston Side Events

This past weekend, I attended the Grand Prix here in my hometown of Houston. This was my first Grand Prix since Channel Fireball took full control over the Grand Prix circuit. Note that

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17 August 2017 Single Match Report

I had a funny match yesterday. Here's the story.

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My Best Judge Call Ever

You see, back in the days before "Miracle" meant anything more than, "an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs**," we had to earn our Counterbalance-Top wins. This was a day before Mentors. Before Miracles. Before the facists in Seattle took our Tops away***.

Eternal Weekend 2016 [Partial] Report

I text Ben. The tournament starts in less than 48 hours and I’m going to audible both of my decks. I ask him if he can lend me Shops.

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Thoughts on Changes to the Tin Fins Sideboard Post-Top Ban

How does the Tin Fins sideboard change in the couple of months post-Miracles banning? My thoughts

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My Greatest Magic Moment

It's late in the Legacy rounds. I'm X-2 and on track to money. I have several friends with the same record, so we meetup before the round to check pairings and share information about our opponents. Ben recognizes my opponent and tells me what he's playing. I immediately forget.

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Last Night, I was Blown Out by a Casual Player

There's a couple of guys who come in to play casual games on the same night as our legacy tournaments. Last night, they decided to sign up for the tournament to try it

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Today, I Played Against a Player who Couldn't Hear Me

Earlier today, I tweeted: Played against a 100% deaf player for the first time. Had zero communication-related errors which felt nice. #MTG This got more feedback than I'd anticipated (which is to say, any feedback), so I thought I'd talk about it a bit.

poetry

(Untitled Poetry 1)

I am exclusively victorious

The Blog is Dead. Long Live the Blog!

Unfortunately, a few months ago, this blog died and died hard. There were no backups and only a few survivors. What happened I have a bad habit (that I'm trying to get over)

Trying out Ghost

I’ve been trying out Ghost this week. It’s pretty neat and what it lacks in features it makes up for in usability. Check out my Ghost blog at http://ghost.seemsgood.

Four Magic Cards: Part 4

When I first started posting my submissions for Four Magic Cards, I left the fourth blank. This wasn’t because I wanted to be a tease or because I wanted you to read

Four Magic Cards: Part 3

In my last post, I talked about when I first started getting into eternal formats. I started with Merfolk and went on to build Bant. Let’s rewind just a little bit and

Four Magic Cards: Part 2

As with many players my age, I started Magic young, quit, and came back later. My previous post addressed when I first got into Magic. This post will address the second, and most

Four Magic Cards: Part 1

When I first saw the four Magic cards thing trending, I’ll admit I… guffaw’d. I’ve batted back and forth about what my four cards would be but never really seriously

Grand Prix New Jersey tournament report: 3-3 with Deathblade

Decklist Round 1: Brian with Elves Game 1 Not much to speak of. He builds up a small number of elves and beats for a few turns. Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth threatens

Does Star City Games officially support repealing the reserved list?

First things first. Yes, I’m aware that Betteridge’s law of headlines states that the answer to this question is no. I just wanted to point out that the official Star City