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The Beautiful Struggle – Closing the Book on Block

Read Mark Young every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
The sun is setting on Block Constructed season. The last tournament in my area was last weekend (I finished an unceremonious 2-1-2, after picking up a pair of draws with U/B Mystical Teachings). DragonCon’s website is a little confusing, but it doesn’t seem that they have any Magic tournaments this weekend, much less Block events. Grand Prix: Florence is next weekend, and then it truly will be over. For most of the Western Hemisphere it’s already time to move on to Lorwyn Block.

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The Kitchen Table #196 — Tribals on the Loose

Read Abe Sargent every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Now that we know that Lorwyn has a tribal theme, it seems like a solid idea to actually explore some tribal ideas and make some decks in homage to the new set. If Lorwyn really changes the nature of Tribal decks, then these might be the last old school tribal decks I will build for a while.

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So Many Insane Plays – Crashing The Invitational

Read Stephen Menendian every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
Unsurprisingly, Stephen Menendian’s Magical thoughts are currently mired in the Invitational. Today’s So Many Insane Plays details the Voice of Vintage’s thoughts on hearing of his Invitation invite, and takes us through some his ideas on the possible upcoming formats. He breaks down the Invitational info from the past, and highlights the mammoth task ahead of him…

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Peebles Primers — A Dredge Walkthrough

Read Benjamin Peebles-Mundy every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!Now the Tenth Edition Release Events have finished, it’s business as usual with the Standard and Block Constructed Premier Events. Benjamin Peebles-Mundy returns to his beloved Vengeful Dredge deck and walks us through a tricky match against Red/Green Aggro. Just what can you do when they kill all your Dredge enablers?

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You Lika The Juice? – Preparing for Champs, Day 0

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
With Time Spiral Block Constructed season winding down, and everyone holding their breath for news of Lorwyn trickling out from Wizards, Scrye, and other magazines, and the eagle-eyed sleuths at MTGSalvation, it’s tempting to just drift away from thinking about Magic right now. I mean, you spend eleven months devouring Magic strategy and content, you can take a month off… right?

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Chatter of the Squirrel – The Great Divide, or Why Gabe Walls is Good For You

Read Zac Hill every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
While it may shock people to hear this, Wizards’ employees do not sit enraptured at the edges of their chairs paralyzed in sheer ecstasy at the thought of handing out company dollars to random people they’ve never met before. It’s not as if being good at a card game automatically entitles you to a plethora of $40,000 checks hand-delivered to your doorstep with a smile.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #192 – Judging the Last Valencia PTQ

Read Peter Jahn... at StarCityGames.com!
Last weekend I had a chance to head judge the very last (at least locally) Valencia PTQ. I’ve got the Top 8 decklists (for those of you planning on playing the format on MTGO, I guess), plus one “how the hell can that be in contention” deck, and the mystery of the phantom judge. It’s the dog days of Magic writing, with only a handful of Lowryn cards released. Could be worse — I could be writing about how the Lowryn basic land artwork will impact Legacy.

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From The Lab – Parting Lessons

Read Craig Jones every Tuesday... at StarCityGames.com!
Craig “The Professor” Jones is signing of his weekly column for a few months in order to complete his PhD… and he goes out with a proverbial bang. Today’s From The Lab sees Prof in a reflective mood, as he takes a trawl through his personal history books and highlights all the lessons he’s learnt thus far from high-level play. There’s definitely something in here for everyone… good luck with your PhD Prof, and come back soon!

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Limited Lessons — Draft Situations #2

Read Nick Eisel... at StarCityGames.com!
Limited expert Nick Eisel continues his excellent Draft Situations series with an in-depth look at a couple of interesting forty-card dilemmas. He brings us another tough pick in a TPF 8-4 draft, some tricky draft build considerations for a strong-looking pool, and a powerful pack from a three-on-three team draft at his local store. If you’re looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!

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Removed From Game — The Cost Of Lorwyn, Part 2

Read Rich Hagon every week... at StarCityGames.com!
In the sequel to last week’s bestseller, Rich Hagon casts not one eye but two over the winners and losers in the coming Magic year. Good news for Drafters talented or otherwise? Constructed formats of delight? Sealed success or Limited limitations? Find out where your dollar, pound, yen, drachma, or euro will be going during the next twelve months. Plus no accountancy joke this week, which will disappoint none of you (plus or minus 10%.)

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Deconstructing Constructed – Vintage: Now and Then, Here and There

Read Josh Silvestri every Tuesday... at StarCityGames.com!
This article will be about the history of Vintage, and some of the personalities / in-jokes you may have missed if you’re new to the format. I’m hoping that, in the future, a few more articles can be written about the subject, since the format has had quite a long history and much of it from three or more years ago has been lost over website moves and server crashes.

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Feature Article – Sullivan Library: Power, Resilience, and Fragility

Read Feature Articles every Monday and Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Throughout the years, Adrian Sullivan has designed his fair share of powerful decks. His latest creation of note qualified him for Pro Tour: Valencia early in the season. Looking back at his creations, Adrian concludes that while all his successful decks achieved their goal, some of them were fragile or underpowered. Today, he offers the theory that fragile decks have a place in the metagame… and he shows us how to position ourselves to take advantage of an evolving metagame.

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Down And Dirty – How Do You Win A PTQ?

Read Kyle Sanchez every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!
How to win a PTQ… a conundrum that’s plagued some of the best Magic minds since Organized Play began. Strategy, mental focus, deck choice and construction… it all goes into creating that perfect formula of success. Today’s Down And Dirty sees Kyle interview a host of top-level pros (and me) and ask them that most pertinent of questions. Just hoe DO you win a PTQ?

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Feature Article – Return to Heroes Kingdom

Read Feature Articles every Monday and Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Jamie returns to grace the fair pages of StarCityGames.com, and as always, he’s doing what he does best: swinging with the Green guys! He’s currently back in the States for a prolonged vacation, and what better way to spend that free time than chewing the fat and sharing smiles with likeminded spellslingers? Table talk, Green beats, fun stories, all delivered with Jamie’s unmistakable panache. Welcome back!

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Insert Column Name Here – Why Magic Online Failed

Read The Ferrett every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!There have been apocalypses predicted for every change to this game that I’ve ever seen…. And none more so than Magic Online. Magic Online would be the death of Magic, it would fail miserably, it would get hacked. We all knew it, and people wrote tons of articles at the time telling us what would happen. So I went back to the halcyon days of 2002 to see what people were saying at the time, and I compared what they were worried about to what actually happened, just to see how accurate the Magic community is as a whole at seeing things coming. Which led, in turn, to kind of a snapshot of Magic Online as it stands today.

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