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AuthorStephen Menendian

Stephen Menendian was the 2007 Vintage World Champion and the Season 1 Vintage Super League Champion. He's also the author of "Understanding Gush: Strategies and Tactics."

So Many Insane Plays – Understanding Magic

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Monday, December 29th – The holiday season continues apace, and what better way to celebrate the approaching New Year that with a meaty Game Theory article from Stephen Menendian. Grab a coffee, pull up a chair, and settle down for a skull-shattering read…

So Many Insane Plays – Vintage On A Budget: Christmas (G/R) Beatings!

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Monday, December 22nd – A few weeks ago, Vintage maestro Stephen Menendian turned his eye towards a budget version of our game’s most venerable format. While this deck is a little more expensive than its predecessor in the series, it’s still a budget force… and it’s still a blast to play!

So Many Insane Plays – Are You Down With OP? The Trouble With Shahrazad

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Monday, December 15th – Down the years, Vintage Maestro Stephen Menendian has championed the cause of many maligned cards, cards that have been banned, restricted, or have received errata. Today, he brings us the story of Shahrazad, banned but not forgotten, and presents the argument for its reintroduction into Vintage…

[Editor’s Note – As usual, Worlds has impacted our article schedule. Rest assured that all scheduled articles will appear later in the week!]

So Many Insane Plays – Vintage On A Budget: Suicide Black 2K9

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Monday, December 8th – Vintage, by its very nature, is hardly budget-friendly. Excluding possible cards is somehow against the purity of the format. However, Stephen Menendian believes it’s possible to build creative budget options that aren’t necessarily suboptimal…

So Many Insane Plays – Vintage Tezzeret Dissected

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Monday, December 1st – When Shards of Alara hit the scene, Vintage maestro Stephen Menendian pounced on the promising planeswalker Tezzeret the Seeker. The card is no bearing fine Vintage fruit, and Stephen crunches the numbers to make the strongest composite list possible. Could this be the new leader in the Vintage metagame?

So Many Insane Plays – Zero Variance: The Ultimate Mental Magic Format

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Monday, November 24th – In a break from his usual Vintage exploration, Stephen Menendian explores a Mental Magic format that showcases analytical thought in its purest form. Fans of Stephen’s exhaustive play-by-play articles will find this fascinating…

So Many Insane Plays – About Those TPS Reports… Did You Get The Memo?

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Monday, November 17th – Today’s So Many Insane Plays sees Vintage Master Stephen Menendian in fine form. He takes his TPS deck to a local tournament in the quest to pick up some jewelry… his report is typically intense, intricate, and illuminating.

So Many Insane Plays – What’s Winning in Vintage? The September/October Vintage Metagame Report

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Monday, November 10th – The months roll by, and metagames shift beneath our feet. Today’s So Many Insane Plays sees Stephen Menendian on familiar ground, as he brings us his perennial Vintage Metagame report. He highlights the movers and shakers from tournaments across the globe…

So Many Insane Plays – Unrestricted Vintage: A Magical Experiment

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Monday, November 3rd – As a strategic exercise, and as a response to an enquiring reader, Stephen Menendian has turned his eye to a theoretical Vintage format in which no card is restricted! He examines the decks he feels would be the most broken in this most broken of formats, and investigates the lessons they teach the regular Vintage format…

So Many Insane Plays – First Place: A Post-Shards Vintage Tournament Report

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Monday, October 27th – Over the past month or so, Stephen Menendian has been telling us that TPS – The Perfect Storm – is perhaps the best deck in the current Vintage metagame. However, the deck itself has not been gathering many followers. Today’s So Many Insane Plays, however, may change that… Stephen takes his TPS build to the winner’s podium! For detailed in-game analysis, read on!

So Many Insane Plays – Crazy Stax!

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Monday, October 20th – The Vintage metagame is brimming with powerful cards and strategies, and Shards of Alara adds a new level of intricacy to the mix! Today’s So Many Insane Plays sees Stephen Menendian take an unassuming Blue artifact for a spin, pairing it with some of the most broken cards in the format! [Editor’s Note – Patrick Chapin will be appearing later in the week!]

So Many Insane Plays – Meandeck Ad Nauseam

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Monday, October 13th – Ad Nauseam… a card that has polarized opinion in the Vintage community. Is it a powerful effect that promises much in the Vintage-with-Shards metagame, or is it an overpriced and over-hyped waste of resources. Stephen Menendian believes the card has potential, and Team Meandeck have created a deck to prove it…

So Many Insane Plays – The Parfait Ambush!

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Monday, October 6th – White is Magic’s perennial whipping boy… and Vintage is the format that wields the biggest whip. In metagames past, Vintage players were conditioned to skim the White sweetmeats in their rush to get to the Blue cards. Can Meandeck’s Parfait Ambush deck convince players that White is Right? Read on to find out!

So Many More Insane Plays – Shards of Alara Vintage and Type 4 Set Review

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Monday, September 29th – Shards of Alara is packed with Vintage possibilities. In fact, Stephen Menendian believes it’s the most impacting set for Vintage since Mirrodin. With such impressive shoes to fill, can Shards of Alara live up to the hype? Read on to find out!

So Many Insane Plays – Walking Through the Ruins of the Vintage Apocalypse

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Monday, September 22nd – The Vintage metagame currently rests between two ports of monumental change. The fallout from the first – the so-called Vintage Apocalypse that saw Blue staples hit the Restricted List – is chronicled today in Stephen’s metagame rundown. Stephen also updates his TPS list and shares an exciting Keeper deck, all before the metagame reaches its second port of change: the arrival of Shards of Alara.