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Recently, Mike Flores used the term “velocity” to describe a certain type of deck behavior. In that article, however, he merely noted it as a conceptual notion, without offering any theoretical context or application. He attempted to demonstrate its presence, but in this author’s opinion and others, he did not accurately describe his observation in terms that have useful application. While what he describes is not deniable, his descriptions are ex post facto observations, and not a theory to be applied in a logistical matter to deck construction or play skill. This article will attempt to define velocity in terms that are more in line with other concrete Magic theories, and identify its application.

It’s mid-week. We are halfway through a list of the worst, most reprehensible Magic decks of all time. These aren’t just the decks that had Wizards R&D folks crying, “What have we done?” and stepping in front of busses – these are the decks that had the bus drivers stomping on their brakes because “getting creamed by a bus was way too nice a death for people like that.”

Today, StarCityGames.com is rolling over. If you look at the URL above this blurb, the end of it reads “10000.html” – which, in nerd parlance, means that you are looking at our 10,000th article. That’s gotta be the largest article archive in all of Magic; people have written ten thousand articles on some aspect of this silly little card game we all love, sent it in, and had it published for people to read. Thus, as the Editor-In-Chief of StarCityGames.com, I figured I should probably celebrate this completely arbitrary anniversary with a look back at the milestones of this site we all love – including the two most influential writers on StarCityGames, the real explanation of why we went Premium, and StarCityGames.com’s worst humiliation.

07/6/05 We’re back from Origins and Regionals! How did we do over the past two weeks? Let’s just say that we have several hundred thousand cards to add to our inventory!

Over the coming weeks I’m going to feature cards being added to the system. Today’s feature? Nothing less than the Power Nine – 8 pieces of Alpha, 8 pieces of Beta, and 43 pieces of Unlimited power – for a total of 59 pieces of power added to our system overnight!

Click here for a complete list of these cards, plus several other high end cards (Mishra’s Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, etc) added to our system today!

-Ben Bleiweiss
General Manager, StarCityGames.com

Here’s a fact for the history buffs – the phrase “You lucky son of a b*tch!” only dates back to late June, 1998. That’s it – it was never heard before that date. The phrase was coined in that month, apparently in many places simultaneously. In all cases, though, the phrase was first uttered by a Magic player. A losing Magic player.

This week’s daily series counts down the five most evil decks in Magic history. These are not necessarily the best decks ever, just the ones that made playing Magic the equivalent of having a root canal – and having one every other round all day. These are the decks people really, really hated.

Chris revisits his love of Shrines, this time with a strictly Block Constructed flavor. What Ideal cards does this deck gain from Saviors of Kamigawa, and what does Chris’s build look like? The Fourth of July answer is inside.

Today, I would like to offer advice on how to read a card. I will focus more on rules text, and on certain words that have specialized meanings in Magic, as that is where confusion is rampant. Most of this is obvious, but everyone can benefit from a few reminders.

Delicious stories from the Magic Invitational. E-mail Osyp and bug him about his own Invitational Report while devour Tim’s goodies.

The best Magic format of all time happens to the the Cube draft. If you have never heard of this type of format before, don’t worry, I’m here to explain it and provide a complete listing of what you can do with a Cube and what is in my personal Cube that I play with pro Magic players around the world.

Dear Tim Hoyt Aten,
You’re officially insane.
Love,
Knut