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Feature Article – Sealed Deck Disconnect

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Building the perfect Sealed deck is a fine art. Sure, there are times that you get all the good Green and all the good Red, but even then there are decisions to be made. Steve Sadin believes that, along with the usual card power concerns, building a successful Sealed deck relies on understanding exactly what type of deck you need. If you’ve three byes at your next Grand Prix, the art of building a Sealed deck can be radically different to those building to ensure PTQ success. Intrigued? Then read on!

Innovations – Thermodynamics in Magic

Read Patrick Chapin every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!
One of the most important questions players are forced to answer during a game of Magic is “What is my role?” Mike Flores tells us that Misassignment of Role = Game Loss, and while that is certainly true, there is more to the theory behind that statement than meets the eye. Today, in a contender for Article of the Year, Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin explores the novel concept of Thermodynamics in Magic. One deck is warm, the other is cool… just where do the boundaries lie?

Unlocking Legacy – Built On Squares

Read Legacy articles every week... at StarCityGames.com!
When in the course of deckbuilding, sometimes you end up stepping back from your project and asking why you’re even trying to make a new deck. Players get all sorts of satisfaction out of Magic, and much of that can come from tinkering with new ideas. Timmy, Johnny and Spike all get a chance to play. I admit that all three kids come play with me when I want to make something new. Do I want to play with ridiculous cards like Mindslaver, Timmy asks? Spike wants me to beat everyone in the room. But I succumb the opiate whispers of Johnny, telling me that together, we can be clever.

Scouse of Cards #2 – A Journeyman’s Tale

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Today, I share the tales and torments from Saturday’s PTQ, an event that saw 60-plus players take to the Bradford playing fields. I share my cardpool, and my build, and recount the wacky hijinks that ensued! Did I make Top 8? Did I scrub out and draft? Did I punch the head judge and get banned for life? All is revealed within!

Flores Friday – How to Win a PTQ

Read Mike Flores every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
The elusive Blue Envelope… the Holy Grail for which every PTQ player pines. How, exactly, can we put ourselves in the proper mindset to achieve a PTQ win? Is it about practice, belief, luck… all of these things? Today’s Flores Friday examines the qualities you need to step up and reach your true potential. Another master class from Mike – you don’t want to miss this!

Levelling Up – Lorwyn Limited in Bangkok

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After eight rounds on Day 1 of Grand Prix: Bangkok, Tiago Chan stood proud and undefeated at the top of the ladder. Perhaps this Grand Prix would bring him that elusive Top 8 he’s been hunting for so long… Sadly, Day 2 was an outright disaster, seeing poor Tiago drop from the top of his game to the depths of despair. He shares his decks – Sealed and Draft – today, bringing us fine advice on what to do – and what to avoid – at our next PTQ…

The Magic Show #69 – The Magic Invitational 2007 Part 3

Watch Evan Erwin every Friday... on StarCityGames.com!
Hello once again Magic players, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to tackle the Finals of the 2007 Magic Invitational, a little bit of Rosewater, a little bit of Kenji, and the next big thing: Learn how to send the Magic Show to the World Championships!

Magical Hack – Standard in Motion

Read Sean McKeown every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
Seeing how we are now two weeks away from the State Championships, we have the opportunity to examine the Standard metagame in motion. We are on our way to the World Championships in a month’s time, give or take a little, and in addition to looking at the States metagame as it played out, we can advance it one week into the future by examining the results of this past weekend’s Grand Prix in Krakow.

Inside SCG – The Road Warrior / The Real Deal

In this new weekly column, we bring you inside StarCityGames.com to see the strategies, thoughts, trends and feelings about Magic from inside the minds of the StarCityGames.com employees themselves! To kick off this inaugural column, we’ve got Chris Woltereck’s quest to qualify for Worlds ’08, and Ben Bleiweiss’s thoughts about how to fix Magic Online!

Deep Analysis – One Game

Read Richard Feldman every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
We all know that Magic is packed with intangible, incremental gains and losses. Players show their true colors time and again, bluffing and counter-bluffing all the while, attempting to throw their opponent off their game. By highlighting the true level of complexity that is found in one single game, Richard shows us how we can charge those tiny credits to our accounts. This is one of the best articles I’ve read for a while… an instant classic. Enjoy!

Down and Dirty – The Krakow 10

Read Kyle Sanchez every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Kyle ain’t messing about this week… he takes a long hard look at some of the more exciting decks to come out of Krakow, including a few lists unseen by the Top 8 coverage, and offers his opinions on the new Standard metagame. He also analyses Paul Cheon’s winning 75, before diving into a revealing interview with the newly-minted Level 6 Mage himself!

The Beautiful Struggle – States Part 2 and GP: Krakow

Read Mark Young every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Last week’s article was a little awkward, because my deadline was a couple of days before States decklists went up, but the article came out on the same day the States page went live. It’s like I was frantic and scrambling for some obscure theorem to use on a midterm, and then an hour after I turned in the paper someone uploaded Stephen Hawking’s entire brain into my skull.

From Right Field – Onward Kithkin Soldiers

Read Chris Romeo every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
I made a Kithkin Soldier deck. I know. I can’t believe it, either. Me, Chris Romeo, building a White Weenie deck as his first one using the latest cards. Go figure. I wanted the goodness of Clash in there somewhere, to smooth the draws. This is the part where you scurry to figure out which card with Clash I could possibly use in a White Weenie deck. It’s Springjack Knight.

The Kitchen Table #206 – The Compendium of Alternate Formats, Entry 9: Bugwar

Read Abe Sargent every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Hello and welcome back to the weekly catalogue of the casual. I began the Compendium way back in February of 2003. That’s a long time ago. The Compendium is an attempt to create a large number of formats for casual players all in one place. Just go to my archives and search for “compendium” to find the other eight entries. Today’s format? Bugwar.

So Many Insane Plays – Vintage By The Numbers

Read Stephen Menendian every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
In today’s So Many Insane Plays, Stephen unlocks the metagame secrets of Vintage, breaking down all of the tournament results since the Vintage World Championship. What’s winning and what’s changing in Vintage? This is a must-read article for Vintage players!