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The Real Deal – Card Stock

Read Ben Bleiweiss every Friday... at StarCityGames.com!
In today’s edition of The Real Deal, Ben dishes about Magic’s Card Stock. From Alpha to today, Magic’s Card Stock has been in fluctuation. Find out what Ben’s figured out about Magic Card Stock over the years!

Plus: Ben has a big announcement to make!

Peebles Primers – Gruul

Dragonstorm is the best deck in Standard. Coming in a (not-so) close second is R/G Aggro, a.k.a. Gruul. Since this game began, folk have enjoyed beating down with little Green and Red men, and finishing the job with red burn to the face. Future Sight has brought some interesting Red and Green cards to the table… just how do they fit into the grand scheme of reducing your opponent from twenty to zero? BPM reveals all!

Tact or Friction — A Fat Retrospective

Today, we’re going to talk about Fatties. We’re going to look over historically good fatties, a hall of fame of real king-hitters, those heavyweights and the few rare super-heavyweights. To qualify for this discussion, it’s not enough to be played. Once upon a time, Zvi said a spell that cost five mana or more, “had better win me the game right there.” This quote is trotted out many, many times by better players than you or I, and these players are almost universally wrong to mention it.

The Kitchen Table #181 — The Compendium of Alternate Formats, Entry 8: Elder Dragon Highlander

Hello all, and welcome back to both my next Kitchen Table article – the next installment in the Compendium. Today I am going to tackle a fairly common format as has been mentioned in several writers’ articles, including a surge from MagictheGathering.com page all the way over here… Elder Dragon Highlander!

Chatter of the Squirrel — On Intentional Draws

Intentional Draws… a blight on the game, or a harmless level of strategy? Today’s Chatter of the Squirrel puts the humble ID under the spotlight. Zac attempts to drain the moral quagmire and present the dilemma in easy-to-digest terms. So, are Intentional Draws the last refuge of pure evil? Whatever your stance, this is one article that’s guaranteed to put the cat amongst the pigeons…

Levelling Up – Grand Prix: Stockholm

Grand Prix: Stokholm… Time Spiral Sealed Deck. And the one missing thing from Tiago’s resumé? A Grand Prix Top 8. After a successful Day 1, Tiago was sitting pretty for Day 2 competition. However, as we all know, the wheels fell of his wagon somewhere. So where exactly did it go wrong? Tiago reveals all…

Unlocking Legacy – Columbus and the Format According to the “All Stars”

Grand Prix Columbus - May 19-20, 2007!
Countdown to Grand Prix: Columbus! In his pre-Grand Prix: Columbus article, Dan surveys some of the most successful Legacy players in the format and shares their thoughts on the upcoming Grand Prix and the emergence of Hulk Flash.

Feature Article — Mono-Red in Yokohama

Read new Feature Articles each Monday and Thursday... only on StarCityGames.com!
When preparing for Pro Tour: Yokohama, Mr Pelcak planned on running his homebrewed Red/White Control deck. However, when White Weenie started making mincemeat of that particular seventy-five, he audibled into the popular Mono-Red deck that almost took him all the way. Today, he shares the highs and lows from the tournament, and suggests some ideas for the deck post-Future Sight.

Ask The Drama — Standard Help, and Block Constructed Updates

Jeroen is low on questions again, folks! Get them sent into [email protected]. For this week, he rounds out the current batch with a couple of corkers. First up, he takes a look at the Block Constructed metagame, and updates Raphael Levy’s quarterfinal deck from Pro Tour: Yokohama. Then he looks at two uncomfortable-looking Standard decks, and offers his advice… All this, and much more, in the week’s Ask The Drama!

Deconstructing Constructed – The Summer of Our Eternal Discontent

Today’s Deconstructing Constructed takes a two-pronged approach. First, it looks at the older Constructed formats, tackling a couple of pertinent points and rounding out with an interesting take on Flash in Vintage. Second, it looks at the Standard metagame and bemoans the strength of Dragonstorm, before leaving us a fun-looking Angel Control deck that could prove powerful for Regionals…

You Lika The Juice? – Cleverness

Now that the entirety of Time Spiral block is released I think it’s starting to sink in just how ridiculous they’ve made Blue… again. People are chatting about it in the forums and such, and I wanted to spend my time this week adding my two cents on the subject before we shift into Regionals high gear. Imagine for a second if Teferi was Green… the cynical answer would be that they’d strip away Flash and add three generic mana to the casting cost.

Removed From Game – Since Last We Met

Taking over from Rivien Swanson, and appearing here every Wednesday, we have the one and only Richard Hagon! It’s been a while since he last wrote, but the man from Mox is here to take you through all the comings and the goings, the throwing down and the throwing up, and all the news that’s fit to print from the Pro world.

Pro Perspective — Levy on Luck

Raphael Levy, Hall of Famer, current leader in the Player of the Year race, has undoubtedly tasted his fair share of lucky breaks. However, there’s an old saying out there… one that states “you make your own luck.” Is this indeed the case? Is it possible to influence such random events with a little tenacious guile? In today’s Pro Perspective, Raph talks about the nature of Luck itself, and reveals that those lucky topdecks may not be so lucky after all…

The Combat Phase — Tip Day

Jamie Wakefield, the archetypical Green Mage, takes a long look at his Magic-playing tendencies of late. He’s tinkered with Black/Green, Blue/Green, even Red/Blue… is a more multicolored path his ticket to success, or should he return to his Mono-Green roots? He also warns of the dangers involved in teaching Magic to three people in two languages while drunk, and offers some handy tips for the sartorially-challenged amongst us.

Deep Analysis — Zooming Out on Standard

Dragonstorm in the strongest deck in Standard. As such, everyone is gunning for it. However, life can be difficult for the self-proclaimed Combo Killers when the tools at your disposal are nullified by a timely Gigadrowse. So what can we do? Richard takes a proactive approach, and looks for answers to the puzzle by examining the available disruption. He brings us four exciting decklists today, at least one of which can produce fantastic results against the 800-pound gorilla in the format.