Practice

Everyone wants to win a Grand Prix or become World Champion, but only a very small minority will achieve it. What discern them from majority? Among other things - practice.
“Practice makes perfect”. The more you play, the better you get. It is as corny as it is true. When you will put innumerable hours into Constructed format, you will notice that games often play out in a similar manner. You start to recognize situations and patterns. As a result, they and a game as a whole become much easier to deal with. If you faced with such situations enough times, you know what is and isn’t a good play or how the game may develop. However, while practicing it is crucial that you are analytic and reflective and you are all the time analysing what you can be doing better. Be quality oriented, not quantity. Sometimes less means more. Try to find out why a deck is losing or why this play led to an unfavorable outcome. Sometimes you are going to make a good play and lose and you are going to play the right deck and lose, but to know that you made a good play you need to practice a lot first.

Magic RPG

Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios announced the development of a brand new RPG based on Magic: The Gathering. MtG has been adapted for PC and consoles several times. So far, however, the main concept of the game - playing card games, was brought into the digital world. The newest game, a big-budget AAA RPG, based on the Magic universe is supposed to be totally different.

“It’s Magic: The Gathering like you’ve never experienced before,” said Bryan Huang, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment. “We are ecstatic about the direction of the game Cryptic has been shaping. It’s always been a dream of ours to bring Magic’s Planeswalkers to a modern RPG.”

Publishers Perfect World, developers Cryptic and Wizards of the Coast have teamed up before for Neverwinter, a game that now boasts over 15 million players.

 And while it's unclear what character the game will be, whether it's going to be massively multiplayer, Neverwinter-style or just going to be more like in old-fashioned RPG style. One thing is certain - fans of the most popular card game have got something to look foward to.

Unstable

After 13 years of waiting, we are finally returning to the world of Silver-bordered cards. Unstable, which is a new Unset, will be released on December 8. It is worth mentioning, that Unhinged had been considered as a commercial failure. However, Mark Rosewater argues this wasn't because of poor sales, but because of overprinting. We must hope, that Wizards will not do the same mistake and Unstable will boost their sales, because next chance may not be given.

What do we know about Unstable so far?
- the expansion symbol is a a wrench with an acorn shaped hole. Not accidentally, because a non-legendary Squirrel lord and enough support to build a deck around the acorn-loving tribe will be in.
- full-art black-bordered lands, like its predecessors they will be amazing. Who knows maybe they will be the most popular basic land arts seen in tournament play.
- Steamflogger Boss will be printed on the land sheet to retain its black border. Contraptions, an artifact subtype, are part of the set. All creatures that make them are Riggers.
- foil tokens, even for popular tribes which do not appear in this set
- five ally-colored factions:
UW: Order of the Widget; cyborgs that use technology to constantly improve themselves with nonsensical inventions. They have no self control.
UB: Agents of S.N.E.A.K.; really bad spies with cool toys.
BR: League of Dastardly Doom; super villains scheming to take over the world. Rosewater describes the members of this faction as your typical death ray building, weather control device wielding, Saturday morning cartoon villains.
RG: Goblin Explosioneers; steamfloggers and tinkerers that experiment with lots of crazy ideas, many of which explode. They breed fast enough to not wipe out their race.
WG: Crossbreed Labs; fraction that believe true harmony can be found by altering biology and embodying the concept of unity.

MOPR changes

Every month, Magic Online players who have opted in to Magic Online Player Rewards (MOPR) can receive promo cards based on their participation in events and their purchases in the Magic Online store. Starting with August 30, a promo cards given to participants will be replaced by Player Reward Packs, which can be traded or opened. They contain a single promo card.

If you've participated in at least one League, scheduled event you play in, or 8+ player queue, you'll receive a Player Rewards Pack. If you've played in five qualifying events, you'll get two more Player Rewards Packs, so you can earn up to three through event participation. Additonally, if you've spent $20 or more (excluding coupons, shipping fees, or taxes) in the Magic Online Store, you'll receive a Player Rewards Pack. If you've spend $40 (with the same exclusions), you'll get two more Player Rewards Packs, so you can earn up to three through store purchases. This means you can earn up to six Player Rewards packs each month. What can be found? For instance, Cuombajj Witches, Path to Exile, Stoneforge Mystic and many, many more.