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Thirst For Knowledge – What To Play At A PTQ

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Wednesday, June 2nd – Not surprisingly, Standard is the hot topic right now in competitive Magic. Although I don’t feel as though there is a lot more to be said about this format that hasn’t already been said, it wouldn’t hurt to discuss the decks in Standard post-GP: DC and pinpoint the direction things are going. I’ve always said that playing the right deck for any given event is probably the biggest edge you can give yourself, so let’s get right to it.

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Ideas Unbound – A Naya Primer for Standard

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Wednesday, June 2nd – Gerry Thompson built the Naya aggro deck that stormed U.S. National Qualifiers. Recognizing that Vengevine is completely insane against Jund and U/W control decks, Gerry built an aggressive deck designed such that Bloodbraid Elf cascades nearly always triggered Vengevine. Then he added the combination of Cunning Sparkmage and Basilisk Collar to fight other creature-based strategies.

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MTGCast #209 – Mythification Justification and the Iron Sheik

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Wednesday, June 2nd – On this week’s edition of MTGCast, the guys discuss Pro Tour: San Juan, Archenemy, Elspeth vs Tezzeret, and more!

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Constructed Criticism – Grand Prix: Washington D.C. Part 2 *45th*

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Wednesday, June 2nd – When we last left our hero, I was 7-1-1 after Day 1 of Grand Prix: D.C., the largest North American tournament in quite some time. With over 200 people making the cut for Day 2, there was sure to be plenty of competition, and I was ready for it.

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The Kitchen Table #330 – The Deckbuilder’s Toolkit

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Tuesday, June 1st – Hello all, and welcome to the column dedicated to the casual player in all of us. Today I want to do something that a few other writers have already done, and I don’t care, because it seems like a cool idea. I have purchased a Deckbuilder’s Toolkit and will open the cards, tell you what they are, and then build a multiplayer deck.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #337 – Behind the Scenes at Grand Prix: D.C.

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Tuesday, June 1st – Ingrid, my wife, was head judge of Grand Prix: D.C. I was also judging. This gave me a fairly unique perspective on the largest North American event ever held.

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Embracing the Chaos – The EDH Invitational

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Tuesday, June 1st – I’ve often dreamed of an EDH Invitational. Maybe someday, we will even make it a reality. Until then, we’ll play it out in our heads. For an EDH Invitational, I would invite 16 players, and play in four pods of four, probably in some kind of round-robin fashion, giving everyone the opportunity to play with as many others as possible…

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Legacy’s Allure – Introducing Shelldock Doomsday

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Monday, May 31st – Doomsday has always been at the fringes of Legacy, setting up precise Storm combo stacks and killing opponents with Tendrils of Agony. It retains standard storm kills with Ill-Gotten Gains and Infernal Tutors, giving it more flexibility. Now, thanks to Doomsday’s library thinning effect, players can trigger Shelldock Isle easily to cast a giant spell. What giant spell would be worthwhile to cast in Legacy? What about Emrakul, the Aeons Torn! Check out this week’s article to see how to get giant monsters and lethal storm counts in Magic’s best format!

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Special Feature – Archenemy Schemes and Decklist!

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Monday, May 31st – Hello everybody! I’ve got a kick ass spoiler of the list from the Archenemy deck “Scorch The World With Dragonfire.” Check out the list, and the wacky / campy names of the Scheme Cards inside!

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The Long & Winding Road – Vintage: Mid-Year Check-Up

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Monday, May 31st – Vintage Champs 2010 is two months away, so this seems like a reasonable time to catch up with the current state of the format. I get a lot of emails about various decks; most of my time playing and testing Vintage lately has had to do with Noble Fish, MUD, Oath of Druids, and Dredge, so I’m going to give you some updated versions of all of those decks today.

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The Chump Block – Cruel Ultimatum For Fun And Profit

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Monday, May 31st – The first of many questions that may arise when one looks at my list is “No Siege-Gang Commander?” While Siege-Gang may be the five-drop of choice for any deck packing a significant amount of Red, I’m not really convinced that it is head and shoulders above the Malakir Bloodwitch which is taking its place now.

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Practical Legacy – Entomb Ichorid

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Friday, May 28th – If the case to include Entomb is overwhelming, then the only decision left is what it should replace in any given list. As mentioned earlier, this is not a simple decision, but the number of cards that can be considered is incredibly small, as much of the deck needs to remain intact for it to work as designed.

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You Lika The Juice? – Revenge of the Green Mythics

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Friday, May 28th – Time to fill in the big hole from last week’s recap of my day at the Virginia Nationals Qualifier—what deck I actually played. It’s quite interesting in retrospect that I waited a week to talk about it, considering the role two particular Green mythic rares played in my story, and in the current story of Standard writ large.

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Tribal Thriftiness #114 – Mythic Dollar Bin

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Friday, May 28th – Tired of all the talk about mythics being about how much they cost? Dave tries to get back to the “heart” of the mythic rarity, and digs up some forgotten treasures. Treasures, arr!

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The Magic Show #190 – Grand Prix: D.C.

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Philadelphia June 5th - 6th
Friday, May 28th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re live and in person at Grand Prix: D.C. where I finished in the Top 100 and still had some time to chat with some of today’s biggest names. Inside we talk about the cost of Standard decks rising, ROE versus ZEN Limited, the power of Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund and much more. Let’s go!

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