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Chatter of the Squirrel – Unsexy: Singletons in Deck Design

Read Zac Hill every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, March 10th – Lists with singletons often appear to the outsider to be cobbled together at the last minute, haphazard scraps of “good-enough” that contain enough tools to get the job done, but are rarely optimized. Yet increasingly we’re seeing more and more lists from very good deck designers that feature numbers like “1 Terror, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Pithing Needle,” stone absent any tutors whatsoever…

Legacy’s Allure – Grand Prix: Chicago Overview

Read Doug Linn every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, March 10th – Hot off the heels of the largest Grand Prix in American history, get a first-hand account of the event! Check out the unconventional list that Doug played and see his proposed changes. Get a perspective on the Top 8 and a look at Legacy for the coming months and a look at possible changes to the banned list. Is Counterbalance simply too good? Find out inside!

Tribal Thriftiness #59 – Exaltation

Read Dave Meeson every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Tuesday, March 10th – When it comes to Shards mechanics, Exalted has seen plenty of mainstream coverage as both a Limited powerhouse and a backbone for Standard decks – and now the new Exalted cards from Conflux make it a viable strategy for budget decks as well.

Insert Column Name Here – The Casual Player’s Bargain-Hunting Guide, Part 13

Read The Ferrett every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!Monday, March 9th – This week marks an achievement – it’s the final listing of cards for the Casual Player’s Bargain-Hunting Guide! There’s one final article in charge, but now we finish N through Z of Kamigawa and Mirrodin Blocks… And thankfully, there are some absolute must-haves in here for multiplayer decks.!

Reflecting Ruel – Impressions of Kyoto

Read Olivier Ruel every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, March 9th – As one of the super-team including Patrick Chapin, Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, Manuel Bucher, and eventual winner Gabriel Nassif, Olivier Ruel managed a creditable 51st place at Pro Tour: Kyoto. Today’s Reflecting Ruel sees the French maestro examine the popular Five-Color Control archetype in depth, with a detailed sideboard plan, a card-by-card breakdown, and a post-PT decklist…

So Many Insane Plays – The Road to Chicago with Next Level Blue

Read Stephen Menendian every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, March 9th – Grand Prix: Chicago is now in the books, with attendance figures higher than anyone imagined. Despite failing to make Day 2, Stephen Menendian prepared well for the event, and today’s So Many Insane Plays chronicles this preparation. He outlines his final build, and shares his thoughts on the format in general.

Drafting With Olivier – Shards/Shards/Conflux #1

Draft with Olivier Ruel every day... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, March 9th – That’s right, folks… the popular “Drafting With” series is back! French uber-pro Olivier Ruel takes us through an 8-4 draft on Magic Online, sharing his picks from 1 to 45, and supplying interesting pick debates and information. For more analysis, visit the forums!

Removed From Game – Pro Tour: Kyoto in Review

Read Rich Hagon every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, March 9th – Without doubt, the Pro Tour in Kyoto was one for the history books. Rarely can a better Top 8 have been played out, in the amazing new Arena set for 2009. Gabriel Nassif and Luis Scott-Vargas took us all the way to a five-game thriller, and in this article we go behind some of the numbers to bring you the story of this fabulous weekend of Magic.

Constructed Criticism – Welcome to Thunderdome: Naya Zoo in Extended

Read Todd Anderson every week... at StarCityGames.com
Monday, March 9th – Since the Extended PTQ season is now in full swing and Pro Tour: Kyoto has come and gone, I feel it is time to focus solely on the Extended metagame. One deck that has performed surprisingly well lately is Naya Zoo, made famous at GP: LA by Adam Prosak.

Feature Article – Hitting the Heights: Top 8 at Kyoto

Read Feature Articles every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, March 6th – Cedric Phillips, the popular yet largely unsuccessful Magic celebrity, finally broke through and pulled off a Sunday performance at Pro Tour: Kyoto. Powered by a thunderous Kithkin deck designed in conjunction with Charles Gindy, Ced rode his skill and his luck through a field of the world’s best players. This is his story…

Positive EV – Kyoto Revisited

Read Manuel Bucher every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, March 6th – Manuel Bucher entered Pro Tour: Kyoto with high hopes. As part of the Chapin/Nassif super team, he felt his deck was tricked out to handle all comers. Sadly, illness and some bad decisions saw him missing Day 2… here is his analysis of his Standard choices, and a brief tournament report on his performance.

The Magic Show #133 – Post-Kyoto Pre-Chicago

Watch Evan Erwin every week... on StarCityGames.com!
Friday, March 6th – Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to be taking a look at the results from Pro Tour: Kyoto where Gabriel Nassif took home the top prize courtesy of Patrick Chapin and crew’s Five-Color Control list, and I snagged an exclusive interview. We got big news on next year’s Magic Cruise, what Legacy looks like for Grand Prix: Chicago, and more. Let’s go!

Magical Hack – Kyoto By The Numbers

Read Sean McKeown every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, March 6th – While I would be content to talk about playing Faeries in Extended till I am blue in the face, another near-miss at a Top 8 cannot hardly compare to the Pro Tour this past weekend in Kyoto…

You Lika The Juice? – Mayan Stylin’ from Richmond to Kyoto

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Friday, March 6th – In the forum thread to my column last week, a poster asked if I’d go into more details on the decisions I made when assembling my Ancient Ziggurat deck for the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open. Given that another Ziggurat deck just made a huge splash in Kyoto, being pretty much the only new and innovative deck to come out of the tournament, I figured it would be worthwhile going over the choices I made.

Feature Article – Standard in Focus

Read Feature Articles every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Thursday, March 5th – Now that the Pro Tour is mixed-format discipline, specific format specialists such as Quentin Martin are opening their minds to the other side of the game (whatever it may be). Today, Quentin examines a few of the Standard decks that caught his eye from Kyoto. The first? Black/White Tokens…