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Feature Article – Sullivan Library: Reach, and Explaining the Demise of White/Green

Read Feature Articles every Monday and Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
The Time Spiral Block Constructed metagame is constantly evolving. Early in the season, it seemed that White/Green Tarmogoyf would conquer all — it certainly relegated Mono-Red to the “Where Are They Now” pile. However, the control decks reacted to the beatdown threat and ascended to the top of then heap once more. So why did the beatdown die? Adrian examines the necessity of reach in an Aggro deck, and offers some solutions to those determined to swing for the win.

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Deep Analysis — U/B Teachings Play-by-Play

Read Richard Feldman every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Today’s Deep Analysis sees Richard “U/B Control” Feldman continues in his rich vein of form as he tackles one of the more intriguing matchups in Time Spiral Block Constructed: U/B Teachings versus Adrian Sullivan’s Baron Harkonnen deck. With aggressive decks slowly fading into the metagame background, Control on Control is the one match you need to crack in order to capture the blue envelope. Let Richard show you how!

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From Right Field – Staples from Kjeldor and Beyond

Read Chris Romeo every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
Today’s From Right Field sees Chris return to familiar ground: he updates his Staple Rare list to include both Coldsnap and Tenth Edition. As both sets have a huge number of possible Constructed powerhouses, and both sets will be around for many moths to come, should you be saving for those Sunscours and hoarding for those Haakons? Let Chris lead the way!

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Unlocking Legacy – Scepter Chant

Read Legacy articles every week... at StarCityGames.com!
Kevin presents the deck he believes is the best choice for the upcoming Legacy championships. He’s been tuning a combo-control deck for over five months, and he’s finally ready to share the results…

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The Kitchen Table #192 — The Finale of the Bad Rare Decks

Read Abe Sargent every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
I normally keep a box of bad rares… er…. “low value” rares by my computer. I already took them out of the box so I could use it for something else. Now I have this stack of rares ready to be sent off to be sold or given away. Since I am about to take this stack down and divide up the pieces, I thought I should get one last chance to pull out a few rares and give them a little sunlight. Today may be my very last bad rare article.

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So Many Insane Plays — Fireworks in the First Few Turns: Analyzing the GAT versus Flash Matchup

Read Stephen Menendian every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
Stephen Menendian, the Voice of Vintage, continues his championing of GroAtog as the premier deck in Vintage. However, there’s always another option in such a broken format. The Vintage Flash deck, obviously faster and more resilient that its now-deceased Legacy counterpart, is another Tier 1 deck with game and pedigree. Stephen analyzes the matchup from both sides of the table, and deconstructs the strategies needed for success no matter what your deck.

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Peebles Primers — Blue/Green/White Blink

Read Benjamin Peebles-Mundy every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
With both U.S. and UK Nationals now in the books, the Standard metagame is beginning to take shape. One of the major players in this evolving meta is Gabe Walls and Gerry Thompson’s U/G/W Blink deck. Today’s Peebles Primer sees BPM take us through the history of the deck, and he also lays down some matchup specific sideboarding plans for other decks in the field.

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The Online Outlook #18 — A Tale of Two Drafts

Read Craig Stevenson every week... at StarCityGames.com!
This is the story of my personal performance at last weekend’s UK National Championship. In particular, it looks at the highs, and lows, of my Limited game, and sees me in part soaring with the eagles, and in part snouting with the truffle pigs. In short, it is the tale of two drafts…

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Chatter of the Squirrel — Lessons From Nationals

Read Zac Hill every Wednesday... at StarCityGames.com!
Everyone does a “Lessons From…” piece on a tournament, especially when they don’t do all that well, and the tendency is for these to be quite sparse in the way of actual lessons. I aim to avoid that pitfall, but nothing I’m going to say will be succinct. I haven’t written the article yet, but I’m imagining that it’ll be quite long, quite drifting, and altogether broad in its scope.

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You Lika The Juice? – How I Won U.S. Nationals *1st*

Read Bennie Smith every week... at StarCityGames.com!
I’ve been playing Magic for nearly 14 years now, and I’ve always dreamed of going to Nationals. Since I haven’t ever qualified, I could really justify the expense of flying to Florida or California just to hang out, since what are the odds of actually qualifying through the Grinders? This year though, Nationals was in Baltimore, a short three-hour drive from Richmond, Virginia, so I knew I had to go…

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From The Lab – Everyone Should Play Mountains: Great British Nationals 2007 Report *Winner*

Read Craig Jones every Tuesday... at StarCityGames.com!
Last weekend, Craig “The Professor” Jones pulled himself out of his Magical doldrums to win the Great British National Championship. While this is clearly the wrong choice of Craigs to win this event (bitter much?), it’s nice to see Prof back on course and returning to the top where he belongs. Today’s From The Lab sees Craig take us through the tournament from his perspective, and gives us an insight into the future of Red Deck Wins.

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Feature Article – Innovate This

Read Feature Articles every Monday and Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
John Friggin Rizzo, the innovator behind the popular Extended Friggorid deck, returns with an article packed with his usual wit and wisdom. Today he shares some intriguing Standard and Block Constructed technology, and suggests that all theory articles may be pointless. Do you agree? And has Rizzo broke the format once more? Read on to find out!

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Deconstructing Constructed – Goblins and Slivers and Dryads, Oh My!

Read Josh Silvestri every Tuesday... at StarCityGames.com!
For now, I’ll be taking a break from the Time Spiral Block format to take a look at Vintage. The last time I mentioned Vintage was when I was writing about how broken Flash was, and why you should be playing it right now if you weren’t already. Waterbury has come and gone, and more or less bolstered my suspicions that Flash is the deck to beat (along with GAT).

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Removed From Game – Non-Pro, Non-Player Blog

Read Rich Hagon every week... at StarCityGames.com!
With Craig Jones’s Pro Player Blog being so popular, the Master of the Magical airwaves Rich Hagon brings you the very antithesis of the Professor’s postulations. Yes, it’s time for five days of musings from the man who’s already made it to every Pro Tour final table this year, and fully expects to be there in Valencia and New York too.

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Unlocking Legacy – The Red Death Primer

Read Legacy articles every week... at StarCityGames.com!
The general strategy of Red Death is to play disruption, creatures, and burn to win the game. Its creatures by themselves are not fast enough to win the game against most decks in Legacy. The disruption provides an opportunity to slow down an opponent’s gameplan to allow the creatures to win the game. The burn spells either finish off a player who has a low life total or act as additional disruption by removing creatures. It is the combination of disruption, creatures, and burn that makes Red Death successful.

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