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I would say that this article will be different from your normal Magical Hack, but I don’t think it will be. You’re going to hear the same kind of stories that you always do when you come to a site like this one. But my perspective is different than what it once was – since the last time I’ve written, I’ve fallen off the face of the earth, completely reorganized and relocated my life, sold off my physical and digital collections, quit the game for six months, and returned again in the everlasting hunt for a healthy yet time-consuming hobby. Seeing as I’m writing this at 1:22am, you might have guessed that I haven’t been successful at the healthy part.

Hello everybody, today’s show focuses on an 8-4 draft I played in the other day, come along with me as I guide you through all 45 picks and subsequent deckbuildling. I also include the live recaps of the matches and my Invitational Bid Video. Woohoo!

Ten names on the Storyteller Invitational ballot. Of those ten, we have eight names that write (or have written) for StarCityGames.com! So make your way over to the votes page and champion your particular hero. Good luck Mike, Prof, Kyle, Evan, Stephen, Rizzo, Jeroen, and Jeff! May the best man win!

I may not use Chimeric Staff in every tourney I play in while it’s Standard legal. In fact, I’m sure that I won’t. However, if I want to build a deck with that card in it, I know that I have it. I only chase those cards that I think I’ll use, though. As I’ve stated many times before, if it’s not a card you think you’ll use – whether it’s because of the card’s color, the card’s type, or the kind of deck in which it would have to be used – then it’s not a staple for you.

I said to myself that I’d write again if they let me keep my Hall of Fame vote, but I figured since I was so far out of the community at this point I’d never get a vote. Apparently knowledge of PT history still counts for something, as I was given a vote again. I’ll save my actual votes and reasoning for the end of the article. Mostly because as I am writing this I still haven’t finalized my ballot. For now I figured I’d editorialize on some current events. Let’s see what’s in the news.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about six “precons” that I built for my playgroup. Since then, the group has really embraced playing with these precons in games both large and small. As such, I set out to build more precons for my group. My task was to make these new precons about the same power level as the old precons. As a reminder, these decks were all built out of the cards left over at the store after years of people picking through the boxes.

I’ve learned tons about 40-card Magic in the last month, mostly thanks to chats with Ervin Tormos. Said Ruski planned on writing “the definitive booster draft article,” but instead decided he’d rather just share his knowledge with friends on AIM and save himself the trouble. Well, I’m not so benevolent, and I’ve got a deadline-thumping Brit to impress, so this is going to be my side of the story…

This is the time of year when I start culling my Type 2 (well, Standard I guess is the correct phrase) card boxes, shifting out the old stuff – Ravnica block, Ninth Edition – adding in Tenth Edition, and anticipating adding in Lorwyn stuff. Truth be told, I’m a bit sick of Ravnica – Standard right now feels a lot like Invasion Standard, where everyone is able to pick three or more colors, select the crème de la crème from each of them, glue it all together with ridiculously easy mana, and have themselves a really good deck.