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Sullivan Library – The Question of Pacing

Claim your territory at The 2009's State and Provincial Championships!Thursday, November 19th – Last weekend, Adrian Sullivan made Day 2 at Grand Prix: Minneapolis with an admittedly weak cardpool. In doing so, he learned a valuable lesson on the art of pacing. He shares that lesson today…

Flow of Ideas – Being Boros in Zendikar Draft

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Thursday, November 19th – Zendikar is an extremely fast draft format. While initially popular, a lot of players have began to bemoan its speed, saying games are over too quick and, as a result, there is a smaller chance for skill to impact each game. While that statement is partially true, a quicker format puts the skill emphasis not on play, but on drafting.

Embracing The Chaos – The Social Contract

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Thursday, November 19th – I’ve been cruising the Mediterranean on my way to Worlds in Rome. Somewhere around Athens, I realized that it would only be fitting that I talked about philosophy while in the Greek isles, the birthplace of much of modern thought. With apologies to Rousseau, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes (not to mention Socrates and Plato), here’s my shot at the Social Contract as it applies to EDH.

Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #302 – 43 New DCI Cards

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Thursday, November 19th – Grand Prix: Minneapolis was last weekend. It was the third largest North American GP ever, and it ran very smoothly. I’m not going to talk a lot about the play itself – the coverage can do that. I’ll talk about everything else.

The Justice League – Five Controversial Calls

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Thursday, November 19th – Most things Judges handle are rather routine. At every event I attend, there is always a common pattern of rules questions and penalties that occur. But, every once in awhile, we’ll get something that is worth of discussion at post-event dinners, on message boards, and even in articles…

Black Magic – Building GW Baneslayer in Standard

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Wednesday, November 18th – With Worlds just around the corner, Sam Black examines Green/White Baneslayer in Standard. He focuses on a selection of maindeck questions and sideboard options, and presents a pair of interesting lists. Will such strategies be on top of the metagame heap come Sunday?

Feature Article – Exploring Standard

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Wednesday, November 18th – Standard is proving to be an open format, and creative deckbuilders can gain a significant edge on their opponents with some wise rogue choices. Today, Nick Eisel shares a couple of interesting rogue strategies that offer a lot of bang for your buck…

Drafting With Olivier – Zendikar #9

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Wednesday, November 18th – 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!

Thirst for Knowledge – The “Best Deck Conundrum” and Mono-White in Standard

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Wednesday, November 18th – Think back, if you will, to Standard a year ago. Shards of Alara had just come out, and the format was still largely dominated by Lorwyn Block. Faeries was the undisputed champion if the format, and even more so before Time Spiral ripped Ancestral Visions from its despicable hands. Now I want you to think about what happened whenever someone pitched an idea for a new deck.

At The Gathering – Confessions From a PTQ

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Wednesday, November 18th – This past weekend, I played in my second Pro Tour Qualifier for San Diego. I played more Limited this time than I did for the last PTQ, but still failed to walk away with the Blue Envelope. While I’m pretty sure my rating went up overall, more importantly were a few of the lessons learned over the course of the weekend, which I’m going to share with you.

The Kitchen Table #312 – Yet More Stories from the Three Kingdoms

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Wednesday, November 18th – In a review of Portal cards in article #168, I spend some time talking about the Three Kingdoms set, and some of the stories behind the cards. Later, in article #190, I spend the entire time describing stories behind the cards of Three Kingdoms. It’s been a while, but I feel another entry in this vein would be timely…

MTGCast #181 – 72 Ounce Steak Challenge Web Cam

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Wednesday, November 18th – On this week’s edition of MTGCast, the guys discuss Grand Prix: Minneapolis, EDH, Richard Garfield, and more!

Positive EV – Control in Standard

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Tuesday, November 17th – Aggressive strategies abound in the current Standard format, on the broad back of Jund. With no Reflecting Pools around, it seems that multicolored Control is not an option… or is it? And if multicolored Control has indeed fallen, does Control have any other tricks up its ample sleeves? Manu investigates…

Legacy’s Allure – Entombing Treasures

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Tuesday, November 17th – In this week’s article, Doug considers two applications of Entomb in Legacy, the traditional Reanimator style and innovative Protean Hulk lists. How can Entomb power up a Reanimator list beyond getting a fatty to bring back? Get a history lesson about Benzo in old Extended, find out the different possible Hulk combination kills and get suggestions on how to play around graveyard hate in this week’s Legacy’s Allure!

The Long & Winding Road – Metagame Analysis: The AU Legacy Showdown

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Tuesday, November 17th – On 11/7, Alternate Universe – Blue Bell ran their first Legacy tournament; to my knowledge, this was the first non-weekly Legacy tournament in the area since the Grand Prix Trial for Columbus in 2007. I’d been pushing the store to run a Legacy tournament since early in the year, when I caught the Legacy bug while testing for GP: Chicago…