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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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Insert Column Name Here – What If Wizards Reprinted The Power Nine?

Read The Ferrett every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!A very old topic reared its ugly head in the forums in response to my article last week on 10th Edition. I’ve been editing the dang site for almost seven years now, and at this point I wish someone would drag this topic out back and beat it to death with a stick. But no, it keeps getting brought up, and so I figure I might as well flog this deceased equine with a few more savory paragraphs.

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Limited Lessons — A Closer Look

Read Nick Eisel... at StarCityGames.com!
In a change to our usual schedule, Nick Eisel brings us the latest edition of Limited Lessons a day early. Today’s article takes us through a TPF draft… but this is not your run-of-the-mill walkthrough. Instead, Nick zooms in on the trickier picks in the draft, and finishes with some intricate in-game decisions that are invaluable tools for those looking to increase their Limited prowess.

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Innovations – The Greatest Deck That Never Was

Read Patrick Chapin every Monday... at StarCityGames.com!
Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin, fresh from his sterling performance at this year’s U.S. Nationals, brings us the entertaining story of The Greatest Deck That Never Was. While the creation of this deck proved to be in vain, it does highlight how difficult it is to position yourself correctly in order to break a format. Plus, we have Patrick’s U.S. Standard decklist, and a fresh take on beatdown for Time Spiral Block Constructed.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #188 — U.S. Nationals

Read Peter Jahn... at StarCityGames.com!
I’m in Baltimore, for U.S. Nationals. It’s hot. I’ve got a couple hours to kill before I start work. I think I’ll head for side events and some drafts, but before that I’ll try to give you an update on the evolving Standard format. I’ll also give you a little bit of the feel of judging at an event like Nationals.

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Flores Friday – On the Couch, in the Brain

Read Mike Flores every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
In preparation for U.S. Nationals, and for the meatgrinders in particular, this week’s Flores Friday sees Mike bring us a selection of fun and powerful Standard decks across a number of popular archetypes. Looking for the best of Gruul beatdown? Or something more mid-range and controlling? How about a Green/White deck with plenty of trickery? Mike’s got all the bases covered…

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