You Make the Pick #7: PT JOU Edition

Hey Zoners! Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx was this weekend and, if you're anything like me, you were glued to the webcast the entire weekend soaking up all the coverage you can get LIVE from Atlanta, Georgia. We were treated to a special treat early on in the tournament as we got to watch Pro Tour Theros champion Jeremy Dezani in the day one draft. Dezani is a hot topic right now as he was at the top of the standings for the Player of the Year race going into the event; an award which would cap off a stellar 2013-14 season if he can manage to win it.

So try to picture yourself in his shoes. You are playing the best Magic of your life, it is nine a.m. on the first day of the Pro Tour. You have flown all the way accross the Atlantic ocean, tested for countless hours over the past two weeks to familiarize yourself with the new draft format, there is $40,000 up for grabs, and Player of the Year honors at stake. This is the pack you open:

Rather than tell you about the pack myself, I am going to let you hear it straight from the former PT champ himself. Brian David Marshall met up with Dezani live on stream to break down his picks and get some insight into the thought process he had as he was drafting. Check out the video here:

You can look over the draft viewer which lets you see every pick from every seat in Dezani's pod, as well as tons of other articles and videos at the PT coverage page here if you missed any of the action over the weekend: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptjou14/welcome

So now you know the stakes, you've heard the analysis, and you know what Dezani took. The only question left is...what would you pick?

TGZ News 2/21/14

Hey Zoners! Big news from the Magic world and beyond. I am back in the world of the internet living and much has happened since our last news segment. Let's dig in and see what all the fuss is about.

For the last few years Wizards has been in the habit of releasing new casual products every Summer. This has brought us some awesome products like the Commander pre-constructed decks and Planeschase. This years product is called Conspiracy and is designed for multiplayer drafting. As a big fan of casual drafting, I am very excited by this. The preview cards revealed with the announcement have already got me salivating, but what I am most excited about is this: this is the newest expert level product that also shares a name with a card. You can read the product info here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1430

This year's From the Vault product is also poised to deliver excitement. FtV: Annihilation, as it's called, is a collection of the most 'brutal' cards from Magic's history. As always, they have teased the announcement by showing one of the beautiful new pieces of art and, always, the internet is aflutter with speculation as to what this card might be. If you as me the answer is pretty clear, Sulfur Vortex. It is brutal, powerful, has a storied history within the game, playability in Legacy and Cube, and has never received a reprint.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1426

Magic has always had appeal to collectors, but many of the side merchandise have never really caught on. Wizards plans to change this with a new line of collectible figurines from Funko featuring the ionic planeswalkers from Magic. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1431

Finally, Pro Tour Born of the Gods begins today. The top players in the World are going to be battling it out with Modern decks featuring the brand new Modern Banned list. So far, the effects have already been felt with Wild Nacatl powering a resurgence of Aggro Zoo decks alongside a small smattering of Faerie decks utilizing Bitterblossom. You can follow the coverage all weekend long on dailymtg.com and you can watch the live web stream here: http://webcastplayer.wizards.com/