CategoryMagic The Gathering

Vintage Metagame Analysis: From Waterbury to Richmond

The renowned Waterbury TMD Open and Richmond double Power 9 tournaments are now a matter of record and, due to a family emergency and a missed flight, I was not in attendance for any of them. As such, I was forced to quietly sit in front of my laptop watching the results pour in, my hands tented as I accumulated statistics to further my evil plan to take over the Vintage world (cue evil laughter)… but then I decided to write a massive statistical analysis article that everyone can enjoy.

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SCG Daily – Thoughts on Team Standard

For the first in his Daily Series, Zac shares his current Team Standard decklist. It’s proved somewhat successful for him… can it do the same for you?

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Behind the Scenes of Rakdos Augermage

Terry Soh’s Invitational card, Rakdos Augermage, has recently been revealed on MagictheGathering.com. Previous Invitational cards have sometimes been stellar – take Meddling Mage, for example – while others have been received with a little less enthusiasm. So, what does Terry himself think of the R&D spin on his creation? What strategic impications does it have on the upcoming Standard? And just how did Terry come up with his original submission? The answers are a simple click away…

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A Stake Through The Heartbeat: Controlling Team Standard

Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that Heartbeat is the must-have deck in Team Standard. It’s the strongest deck in the field, or so we’re told. Chad, however, has a different opinion. With Aggro on the decline, what’s the best way to combat mid-game sorcery-speed shenanigans? That’s right… Control. Looking for a deck that crucifies Heartbeat? Look no further…

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The Weekly Guild Build: What Do I Have To Do To Get You To Care?

Read The Ferrett... every Monday at StarCityGames.com!At StarCityGames.com, this time is known as the “What the heck can we do to keep you interested?” week. Who wants to read about Limited strategy now that a new set is going to rearrange the Limited rules in six days? So perhaps The Ferrett had better pull something more interesting out to get your attention, like… The first free-verse Sealed Deck review, as done through the eyes of a real poet!

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Team Strategies and Playing Vore

Steve comes to StarCityGames with a fine submission covering Vore, Honolulu observations, and Team Constructed strategies. This article contains a wealth of excellent information, especially for those serious about Team Standard…

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Food For Thought: Not Boros Deck Wins: Rethinking WW/R

I wanted to take White Weenie in a new direction. It ended up being an old and perhaps unfashionable one — WW/R. That said, I do not call my deck a Boros Deck Wins, because it operates with important differences. This week, I want to show you how I got WW/R to fit my playing style and work in a shifting metagame, while discussing some new and exciting tech on the way.

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SCG Daily – Lessons from Losses: TGI5

It’s time for the last installment of my daily column, and I think that it went fairly well. I will miss writing it… As for now, I’m going to talk about a deck that is legal in the current Standard format. Some dashing young upstarts played it at Pro Tour Honolulu, but the history of it has been lost to the sands of time… until now.

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Magical Hack: Ghost Writer

Read Sean McKeown... every Friday at StarCityGames.com!

At the start of the Team Standard season the easy default decks were known, but the format has proceeded past its origin by a few miles, and the best decks from Honolulu have effectively been blown in the dust already. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and as information flows around and around, a strange variety of decks are proving themselves in a format that is destined to depart in but a month’s time…

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Keys to the Kingdom: Twenty Questions, Scour Power, and a New Deck for Team Standard!

Even though Mike has qualified for PT Charleston on ranking, his Team Standard testing and strategy continues unabated. So far, he’d brought us the apparent optimal builds for a number of powerful decks, and an innovative Green/White deck that abuses Chord of Calling. Today, he offers up fresh meat. Are you a fan of attacking? Do you enjoy the phrase “to the dome?” If so, Mike’s new offering is the deck for you…

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D is for Dogpile

The incomparable BDM returns with the fourth in his alphabetical journey through Magic’s finer strategies. Today, instead of bringing play scenarios to the table, he warns us of the dangers in our card evaluation methods. When all is said and done, who’s to say that any card is good or bad?

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The Kitchen Table #127: Joey’s Ice Deck

Read Abe Sargent... every Thursday at StarCityGames.com!

Recently, Joe Johnson had an article published on this here site. Abe found the character that he describes as “Joey” to be quite interesting, especially Joey’s legendary Ice Deck. Today, Abe recreates the young boy’s super-deck. It has some 10/10s in it… and it’s the second-rarest deck in the world.

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SCG Daily – Lessons from Losses: Four Skullclamp

Today, I don’t think one particular anecdote will cover the extent of this lesson, so I’m going to tell two. That and bad beat anecdotes tend to be rather short due to the nature of said beats. It’s hard for one to write an article’s worth of amusing anecdote when one is out of the tournament in 3 rounds.

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A Scrub Brushes Up, #2: Two Heads, One Tale (and Top Four)

Kelly continues his journey through scrubdom and improvement. Today, he brings us an excellent report on his adventures in the Land of the Two-Headed Giant… A fun, involving, and enlightening read.

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Considering Your Options with Grim Long

Grim Long is arguably the most skill-intensive deck in the current Vintage metagame. Thankfully, Stephen is here to put us through our Type 1 paces. Armed with a gaggle of sample hands and game scenarios, he shares his extensive technical knowledge and informs us of the correct plays. Wanna play Grim Long like a champion? The information is a mouseclick away…

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