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AuthorBennie Smith

Bennie Smith began playing Magic in 1994 and started writing about it shortly after. A Virginia State Champion, he enjoys few things better than winning at tournaments with home brews. Commander is one of those things. He loved the format so much he literally wrote the book on it: The Complete Commander.

You Lika The Juice? – Rise of the Eldrazi… So Far

The StarCityGames.com Open Series returns to Atlanta!
Friday, April 9th – If you’re looking for excitement over Rise of the Eldrazi, you’ve come to the right place! What’s my favorite Magic set of all time? The newest one, and right now that’s ROE. While the prudent thing would be to hold off talking too much about the set until the full spoiler is available, I simply can’t wait that long.

You Lika The Juice? – The Case Against Seedborn Muse

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, April 2nd – Recently, Ken Nagle asked on his Twitter account “what card would you like to see banned in what format?” I pondered what card banned could finally knock Jund off its obnoxious pedestal, and eventually arrived at Bloodbraid Elf. Then I turned to other formats, and wondered what card banned would make EDH more enjoyable? My choice surprised some folks…

You Lika The Juice? – Digging into Knightfall

Visit the StarCityGames.com booth at Grand Prix Houston!
Friday, March 26th – For a while now, I’ve been focused pretty heavily on playing G/W Knightfall. After finally giving up on Summoning Trap, I turned to G/W Knightfall and it carried me to the finals of States last year. It’s a good deck, chock full of powerful cards… and yet when I’m checking out the Top 8s of the recent big Standard events, it seems to keep falling short.

You Lika The Juice? – From the StarCityGeezer Mailbag

Visit the StarCityGames.com booth at Grand Prix Houston!
Friday, March 19th – While I guess there are some writers who write simply for their own enjoyment, I suspect most writers are like me—we write to create a shared experience with our readers and hopefully elicit dialogue on topics that interest us. Reader response through the forums and through email let writers know whether our columns are making those connections we’re looking for.

You Lika The Juice? – Trying Landfall in Legacy

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, March 12th – Last week I talked about the Standard deck I ran at the StarCityGames.com Open in Richmond, but I didn’t go over what I had planned for Legacy. Since I’ve never actually played in a Legacy tournament before, it will probably come as no surprise that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to play. However, I did have something I wanted to try – bringing landfall to Legacy.

You Lika The Juice? – Opening with New Knightfall

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Friday, March 5th – When StarCityGames.com announced their Open series for 2010, I was extremely excited about it for many reasons, not least of which was the fact that the endgame Invitational would be held right here in Richmond. Obviously I really would like to qualify, and the path to qualification would start early in the season with the Open in Richmond this past weekend.

You Lika The Juice? – Jumpstarting an EDH Deck

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, February 26th – I figured by the time this goes up, you will have been inundated with Standard strategy in the wake of Pro Tour: San Diego and leading up to the next big StarCityGames.com Open this weekend, right here in my hometown of Richmond Virginia! Instead of adding my boots to ground well-trodden by guys far more knowledgeable and accomplished than myself, I figured I’d write about EDH again.

You Lika The Juice? – EDH Griefer Anonymous


SCG Open Richmond!

Friday, February 19th – In an EDH game, players aren’t locked in to playing against the griefer at the table. They are free to respond in a couple different ways. First, they can gang up on the player to eliminate the griefer before he can get his misery engine going; it’s pretty difficult to stand against a table united against you, especially early on.

You Lika The Juice? – Fun with Basilisk Collar & Worldwake


SCG Open Richmond!

Friday, February 12th – Despite the ridiculous winter weather she’s been dishing out against the Mid-Atlantic States, Mother Nature can’t keep a Magic man down. Even as the chance of me making the 30 minute drive to Richmond Comix for FNM and EDH dwindled to an icy and snowy zero last week, I still received my boxes of Worldwake shipped from StarCityGames.com, and eagerly started cracking the packs…

You Lika The Juice? – EDH Deck Clinic: Baru, Fist of Krosa


Grand Prix: Oakland!

Friday, February 5th – Welcome back a semi-regular feature here at You Lika The Juice—the EDH Deck Clinic! I’ve got a few emails in the docket for upcoming Deck Clinics, but feel free to keep sending them in to the email address posted at the bottom of this column (make sure you put “EDH Deck Clinic” in the subject).

You Lika The Juice? – The State of Green, Worldwake Edition


Grand Prix: Oakland!

Friday, January 29th – Once upon a time, Jamie Wakefield was the most visible and vocal advocate for Green in Magic, but I was always shouting right along behind him. Now that he’s moved on from Magic, I often feel a responsibility to provide feedback to the guys who make the cards on how well they’re standing by the color Green from the perspective of the fans who play the cards.

You Lika The Juice? – EDH with Omnath, Locus of Mana


Grand Prix: Oakland!

Friday, January 22nd – I’ve had a couple of readers ask me my method for taking notes about EDH games, so I’m going to do that today, along with providing some helpful templates to download. I’m also going to provide an outline for constructing an EDH deck based around Omnath, Locus of Mana, an intriguing new Mono Green general from Worldwake.

You Lika The Juice? – Announcing…

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, January 8th – One of my favorite cards from Zendikar is Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Longtime readers and friends of mine know my fondness for creature recursion (and in response to Mike Turian’s Twitter question regarding what card I’d most like to see in M11, I quickly replied “Oversold Cemetery”), and Emeria is the near-perfect realization of that theme.