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The Real Deal – In With The Old, In With The New

In today’s edition of The Real Deal, Ben writes a companion piece to his Value of Planar Chaos Premium article (above). Which current Standard Legal cards does Ben think will rise in value due to Planar Chaos? Read on to find out!

The Magic Show #27 – The Planar Chaos File

Today’s edition of the Magic Show – Evan Erwin’s innovative video-based Magic article series – takes a look at some of the more exciting cards rumored to appear in Planar Chaos. If you’re attending a prerelease this weekend, Evan’s information could be vital to your success. WARNING: Contains heavy spoilers!

Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #31

Due to an abundance of Premium content, we’re offering today’s Drafting With Rich as a non-Premium article! For those unfamiliar with the series, Rich Hoaen – one of the world’s finest Limited players – brings us a Time Spiral Draft walkthrough each day, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

Tact or Friction – The Problem With Planar Chaos

Eventually, someone’s going to notice that I’m being published on a Magic site. That’s going to be a bit awkward, given how I’ve been drifting away from the game since Time Spiral’s release. The good news is, the Mother Ship keeps deploying questions that I can answer, trumping up my forum responses to look like actual articles. They have the added virtue of being Magic-related.

Chatter of the Squirrel – Extended Musings

Apparently, I am one of the lucky ones to have shotgunned a position for a weekly in time to actually get one. While in many ways this is akin to saying, “I’m one of the lucky ones to have shotgunned a position in the eighth-annual Beale Street Bleach Drinking Extravaganza,” it does mean that at least until I resume my usual slacklerly tendencies (which will probably be in and around Tuesday of next week) I get to wax melodramatic about the present Extended season.

The Kitchen Table #164: The Complete Equinaut Primer

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

Equinaut is one of my most enduring creations. I’ve written about it several times and received tons of positive feedback, so its time for that one final primer that will give you everything you need to know to play and build your own Equinaut.

Magic Grab Bag #1 – When Lands Attack!

For his first Featured Writer column, Rivien brings us an interesting Standard deck that abuses land in a variety of different ways. While unlikely to kick down the doors of high-level tournament play, it contains a sackful of synergy and a pocketful of fun…

Deconstructing Constructed – Exploring Extended: I Need Therapy

The Extended Pro Tour Qualifiers continue apace, and many of us are trawling the sites for the top tech that’ll bring home the Blue Envelope. Today, Josh brings us a fascinating look at the role of the many faces of B/W discard in the format. It’s true that discard is one of the stronger strategies available… so how can we maximise its strength?

Magic Online Musings – This Week on MTGO #44

Read The Blisterguy... every Wednesday at
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Going Infinite is the Holy Grail of Magic Online players the world over. How is it possible, in a game with a high luck element such as ours, for a player to be totally self-sufficient in the pack department? Blisterguy looks at a number of ways that it could be achieved, and examines the viability of each. All this plus the Extended and Standard MTGO Premier Event metagame data!

The Beautiful Struggle – Spoilers, The Big Picture, and Why Zvi Is Smarter Than You

In a recent Mark Rosewater column, MaRo revealed that Zvi Mowshowitz – who worked on the development team for Planar Chaos – was vehemently against the printing of a Black four-mana board-sweeper that you may be familiar with. Mark looks at Zvi’s reasoning behind such a belief, and posits his own theories into the wisdom, or folly, behind such a move.

Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #161 – Playtest Sideboarded, Damnit!

The art of sideboarding is elusive. The metagame evolves at a startling rate, and there are enough different archetypes across all formats to make everyone happy. However, this is not an excuse for us to ignore the sideboard altogether. In the first part of a two-part series, Peter stresses the importance of testing those sideboarded games, and supplies practical examples to prove his point.

From Right Field – You Down With OPD?

Read Chris Romeo... every Tuesday at
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Chris takes a sabbatical from his normal All-Romeo Deckfest Love-In, and concentrates his budget ability on Other People’s Decklists. He casts his money-conscious eyes over successful builds, and evaluates their potency in the budget Standard metagame.

Magic Puzzles – Fact or Fiction

It’s Monday… and that means it’s time for some Magic Puzzles! Each week, Jeff brings us the most fiendish Magical conundrums he can, each one brewed in his fevered brainpan. Do you have the skills to solve the problems? Be sure to leave your answers in the forums!

You Lika The Juice? – The Frailty of Men

With Planar Chaos promising a great deal for the control-loving mages among us, Bennie asks a simple question: what now for the creature strategy? In the face of mass removal by the bucketload, is it possible to succeed with monsters in the face of so much horror? Benne looks back through history, and presents us with a few theories and decklists that may just work…

How To Be A Mediocre Player

In the rush to become a Pro player a lot of people overlook the intermediate steps involved in getting to just “okay.” And Magic’s a complex enough game that really, just getting to “not sucking completely” is a significant accomplishment. When you’re a mediocre player, you can’t afford to rely on your play skills; you need to hone every edge you have, because the good players will outplay you.

Here are the tricks I’ve learned to improve my game significantly. These are the things that separate me from the truly bad; they’re the reasons I usually finish at the top of my prerelease pool. And if you integrate these into your play, you too can be at least mediocre.