Last week saw the Banning of six cards in Extended and the Restriction of three cards in Type I. Aside from watching two formats get turned upside down, we also published a few articles as well.
Constructed Strategy
Tuesday saw Ben Snyder turn in a contest-winning effort with his Twiddle-Desire Godbook (part II is located here). After being harshly criticized for some of his earlier efforts, Ben took the criticism to heart and produced a stellar piece of material that teaches you how to play the deck, while giving the reader some metrics they can compare themselves to in order to see if they are playing the deck well. Congratulations on a job very well done!
Dan Cato also chimed in on Tuesday with what was technically a tournament report for his 9th Place finish at Pro Tour: New Orleans, but his article also contained a good deal of strategy about how to play and update Red Deck Wins for your PTQ season. If I could have given out an award for second place last week, Dan definitely would have received it, as he turned in a strong effort that was clearly a fan favorite.
Thursday saw long-time dialogian Pale Mage break new ground with an article reviewing his pet deck, Aluren. The article was notable as much for including actual paragraphs and strategic analysis, as for being a primer for those new to one of last season’s more popular combo decks. Pale has a really nice flow to his writing, so those of you planning to play Extended after January 1st should definitely check this one out.
Limited Strategy
Last week marked a slight change in the Dilemma series, as we started publishing the articles on consecutive days instead of giving both of the arguments to you on the same day. Some readers voiced complaints about this, but it is part of an experiment that is going to run for at least a couple more weeks. (Send all complaints to Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2) The complaints didn’t hamper the popularity of the articles at all though, and the forums were officially hopping with debate on this one. The unofficial count had [author name="Ken Krouner"]Ken Krouner[/author] and Pewter Golem winning the vote by a three-to-one margin. Additional congratulations to Mike Turian are in order for showcasing a new controversial, and personality-riddled style of writing.
Casual and Multiplayer
Friday saw the return of StarCity alum Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar. Jay will be popping back up on Star City as often as he schedule allows him, but this time he took a look at all the Mirrodin cards he finds interesting for casual games in”Waiter, Menu Please!” Welcome back, Jay!
Tourism
In everyone’s favorite-article-written-by-a-German this week, Jan Nebendahl chronicled Munich nightlife for all of those attending the weekend’s Grand Prix. Considering over one thousand Magic players attended Grand Prix: Munich over the weekend, it is our hope that more than a few of you made it out onto the town, past the bouncers, and to the bars with hotties in tow.