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Unlocking Legacy – U/G Threshold versus Cephalid Breakfast Matchup Analysis

Read Legacy articles every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
Today, Doug takes a look at two of the hottest new decks from Gencon and evaluates how they play against each other. Find out whether the Aether Vials in Cephalid Breakfast can create an inevitability that Threshold cannot match, or if the Spell Snares from the other side of the table are simply too much to combo out against! Take part in the forum and discuss whether Doug made the right plays or if his sideboarding plans were incorrect!

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Levelling Up – Stories and Strategy from Grand Prix: Florence

Read Tiago Chan every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
In Block Constructed’s last hurrah, Tiago Chan stuck with the tried and true: Blue/Black Teachings. He placed a creditable 46th, and recounts his performance here. But this is not your run-of-the-mill report, dear me no. It’s packed with strategic insights and laugh-out-loud stories. The format may be finished, but the memories will linger long… enjoy!

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Deep Analysis — Public Service Announcement

Read Richard Feldman every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Richard is on a mission. For the past few weeks, Mike Flores has been lending his support to the “four and one” school of deckbuilding: this theory explains why having any number of a particular card in your deck other than “four” and “one” is inherently flawed. Richard disagrees. In today’s Deep Analysis, he attempts to set the record straight with what we in England call “fightin’ talk.” Let battle commence!

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Limited Lessons — Draft Situations #3

Click here for more info on Grand Prix Daytona Beach!
It seems that Nick Eisel’s week off has lasted less than three days! In this late edition of Limited Lessons, Nick returns to his popular Draft Situations article series, and today’s tricky troubles are from the top drawer. Our Limited expert touches on choosing bombs over consistency, how to correctly analyze a draft cardpool, and when to gleefully ignore the cool plays when going for the throat…

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From Right Field – What’s in the Bag?

Read Chris Romeo every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
It’s been a while – probably too long – since I reached into my male bag. I mean, my mailbag. Without further ado, let’s see what interesting stuff is in here. As usual, I’ll be changing the names to protect whatever dignity people have left after writing to me. Unless they want me to use their name. In which case, I will decide if they’re just going for Internet immortality or if they’re being genuine.

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The Beautiful Struggle – Walk the Line

Read Mark Young every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
At the prerelease, I would be shocked if someone didn’t try to play Garruk, add a counter, play a two-drop, and activate the Overrun ability all in the same turn. Or, alternatively, someone will try to make three Beasts in one turn. Or perhaps someone will try to make a Beast during an opponent’s attack step. Of course, it doesn’t work in any of those ways; you can only use one of the loyalty abilities each turn, you can only use it once, and you can only do it at sorcery speed.

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The Kitchen Table #198 — No Rares Allowed: 200 of the Best Casual Cards (#150 – #101)

Read Abe Sargent every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Good Thursday to you! Welcome back to the series that will take 200 non-rares and put them up for your perusal. Included here are some of the best hidden gems I know. Today we are counting down 150-101, but remember, these cards are not ordered… not until we get to the Top 50. Ordering a Top 200 would be a bit much, don’t you think?)

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So Many Insane Plays — The 2007 Stephen Menendian Type Four Invitational!

Read Stephen Menendian every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
Last week, Stephen took us through an entire Type Four draft, and highlighted the difficult decisions made in this most frenetic of formats. This week’s follow up article takes us through the entire game, play by play and chat by chat, with some of the most powerful cards in the history of the game being thrown about left, right, and center. If you’re looking for something a little different, then this is the format for you!

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Peebles Primers — Team Drafting With Nagy

Click here for more info on Grand Prix Daytona Beach!
This week, BPM takes a break from Constructed strategy in order to bring us a dose of Limited goodness. One of his Pro Tour: Charleston team-mates, Steve Nagy, recently took part in an interesting three-on-three team draft, and BPM was there to take notes. He takes us through each pick of the draft, highlighting the juicier decisions, and opens the doors on the intricacies of the Pros’ favorite Limited format…

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #194 – MTGO Status Report

Read Peter Jahn... at StarCityGames.com!
Two and a half years ago, I first downloaded MTGO, started playing and wrote my Diary of an OnLine nOOb series. I’ve been playing ever since — a lot. I want to step back and see what the online game is like, how it has affected my paper play, and where it is going.

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Chatter of the Squirrel — Type Four

Read Zac Hill every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
For those of you unlucky enough to have experienced the wonderment of Magic’s best format, it’s basically the most enjoyable vehicle for card-slinging ever conceived. The rules are simple. Infinite mana of each color. One spell per turn. One additional spell a turn with an alternate cost. One land. You start with an opening hand of four cards, and a carefully-crafted deck of the most powerful cards in Magic. Awesomeness ensues.

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You Lika The Juice? – Takes on the Plane(swalkers)

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Gamers aren’t born, they’re created. I remember as a kid, games were big in my family. I can remember learning Risk at a young age, with my mom and dad and my sister and I battling across the globe some Saturday evenings, quickly realizing that trying to hold Asia was a fool’s errand, and learning the joys of Fortress Australia. Whenever the cousins on my Mom’s side got together at my grandparents’ house, we’d break out various board games. One favorite was Clue, and I was always Mr. Green. Hmm, foreshadowing perhaps?

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Feature Article — Planeshifted Paskins: Blue Deck Wins

Read Feature Articles every Monday and Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Nick Eisel is taking a well-earned vacation, so in his place we have an article by the King of the Blue Mages, Planeshifted Dan Paskins. He brings us his Time Spiral Block Constructed deck of choice — Blue Deck Wins — that he played in the recent Grand Prix: Florence. He also looks at some of the reasons that Tomoharu Saitou is almost certainly a better player than you.

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Sullivan Library – Distinctions in Strategic Archetypes

Read Adrian Sullivan every Tuesday... at StarCityGames.com!
We’re all pretty clear on some of our Magic archetype definitions. Aggro? Easy. Control? Slightly woollier, but simple enough. Combo? Obvious. But… Midrange? Aggro-Control? Are the two archetypes the same, or do they have important differences. And while we’re at it, the differences between “archetype” and “role” can also spawn confusion. Today, Adrian takes a machete to this particular linguistic jungle…

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Deconstructing Constructed – Minor Deck Customization in Vintage

Read Josh Silvestri every Tuesday... at StarCityGames.com!
The recent discussion of cutting Library of Alexandria or Mana Drain from GAT reminded me of the constant pressure on newer Vintage players not to cut sacred cows from decks. Although this is a good general rule, people tend to stick stubbornly with certain builds/choices until the end of time. For example, there’s the removal of Smokestack in certain builds of Stax for cards that actually do things.

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