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Black Magic – Building a Control Counterbalance Deck in Legacy

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – Legacy is becoming a hugely popular format, with a host of powerful decks and strategies. With this weekend’s StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Indianapolis looming, Sam Black investigates building a Counterbalance Control deck… is this the deck that can power you to the top of this Sunday’s tournament?

Drafting With Olivier – Zendikar / Zendikar / Worldwake #1

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – Hall of Famer Olivier Ruel takes us through an 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online. He shares some comprehensive thoughts about both the picks and the games, and talks us through each step of the way! If you’re looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!

The Justice League – Dirty Deeds

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – A whole lot of articles written by judges will talk about the sandy beaches of Honolulu, the late night drafting, the interesting rulings at a PTQ, or a story of their first Grand Prix. However, that is not what I’m here to talk about. I’m going to tell you the stuff we don’t go around bragging about…

Too Much Information – StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Richmond

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – Five hundred sixty one players descended on Richmond for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open, and they played 3506 matches. What can that tell us in preparation for this weekend€™s SCG.com Open in Indianapolis? Jared crunches the data to find out.

Legacy’s Allure – Entomb, Exhume, and You

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – Your opponent, on their first turn, casts a Dark Ritual, followed by a Thoughtseize, Entomb for Iona, Shield of Emeria, and then Reanimate. Welcome to the New Legacy, with the scariest deck of the moment being Reanimator. This week, Doug looks at how Reanimator works and the most effective lines of play for stopping the deck. Find out why you need to combine hate cards and how to get the most out of your limited sideboard space in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

Duel With Ruel – Jund versus Blue/White Control: The Blue/White Control Perspective

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – With the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Indianapolis this weekend, the Ruel brothers have joined forces to test one of the most important matches in the metagame: UW Control versus Jund. Today, Antoine takes us through the matches from the UW Control perspective. Join us later in the week for the Jund opinion!

Best of the West – The Extra Mile

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Wednesday, March 10th – In a recent article, Patrick Chapin observed that he is no longer as young as he once was. He asserted that he was losing games because he was already worn out when he sat down to play. The Innovator changed his behavior across the board when it came to preparing for Magic tournaments, and has said that he felt those alterations have contributed to his recent high finish at Pro Tour: San Diego. I am certain he is right.

Constructed Criticism – Accepting Your Punishment

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Tuesday, March 9th – An incorrect assumption about the metagame, or players in that particular metagame, is generally where I fail in tournament Magic. Before Austin, I had plenty of time to playtest real decks against real people, and that testing helped a little, but ultimately I disregarded everything I had learned.

Embracing The Chaos – Chaos Incarnate

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Tuesday, March 9th – Week six of the Armada Games EDH League set the standard for creating the chaos. Surprises and eleventh hour rescues were the order of business for the evening. I understand that Hive Mind and Warp World both resolved in one of the later games, but we’ll come back to that…

Reflecting Ruel – Extended Thoughts From Oakland

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Tuesday, March 9th – Extended, it seems, is not going away any time soon… and that means Zoo and Dark Depths are still on everyone’s minds. However, for Grand Prix: Oakland, Oli wanted to try something more… fun. So he set his sights on a cool Tezzeret build packing Pulse of the Fields. His Day 2 performance, and stories from the tournament floor, are contained within!

Pro Tour Extra – Complete Mike Turian Interview

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Tuesday, March 9th – Hello everybody! In this special Pro Tour Extra, we have my entire interview with Mike Turian. You only saw a few minutes in the past two weeks, and this video features our entire 20 minute conversation. In it we talk in depth about Jace, Manlands, Tectonic Edge, developing Phyrexia vs the Coalition and more. Let’s go!

Reintroducing Stock Mana

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Tuesday, March 9th – The winner of any Magic game is determined by the person who nets the most mana. What I mean by this is that spending mana is how you generate your advantage. Everything has a Stock Mana value (how much something is to cast) and an Equivalent Cost (how much it “should” cost, based on design guidelines in the game).

Sullivan Library – Midwest Masters Minneapolis

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Tuesday, March 9th – In today’s edition of the Sullivan Library, Adrian looks at the results from the recent Midwest Masters Series tournament in Minneapolis. While the presence of Jund is once again dominant, there is much innovation to be found; perfect information for those attending the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Indianapolis this weekend!

So Many Insane Plays – Chapin Was Right: A Legacy Result Overview

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Monday, March 8th – A year ago, Patrick Chapin made what was then perceived as a curious deck choice for Legacy. The recent results from Madrid and the StarCityGames.com Open have proved him to be correct. Stephen Menendian examines these recent high-profile Legacy tournament results, and draws some conclusions about the format going forward.

Innovations – What Would Wafo Do? Deckbuilding, Teachings, and Tells

StarCityGames.com Open Series: Indianapolis on March 13-14
Monday, March 8th – Patrick Chapin is a dedicated Control player. Of course, he’s not the only one; Guillaume Wafo-Tapa is another player addicted to the Blue cards. Today, Patrick examines the philosophies behind Wafo’s deckbuilding choices, with special reference to his Extended Teachings deck. He also discusses tells, and the need for a strong poker face.