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Chatter of the Squirrel – Extended Musings

Apparently, I am one of the lucky ones to have shotgunned a position for a weekly in time to actually get one. While in many ways this is akin to saying, “I’m one of the lucky ones to have shotgunned a position in the eighth-annual Beale Street Bleach Drinking Extravaganza,” it does mean that at least until I resume my usual slacklerly tendencies (which will probably be in and around Tuesday of next week) I get to wax melodramatic about the present Extended season.

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Tact or Friction – The Problem With Planar Chaos

Eventually, someone’s going to notice that I’m being published on a Magic site. That’s going to be a bit awkward, given how I’ve been drifting away from the game since Time Spiral’s release. The good news is, the Mother Ship keeps deploying questions that I can answer, trumping up my forum responses to look like actual articles. They have the added virtue of being Magic-related.

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Levelling Up – Playtesting to Perfection

In this enlightening article, Level 6 Mage Tiago Chan reveals his personal playtesting system, which has powered him from PTQ regular to (arguably) the strongest and most consistent player in the world. He shares his preparation techniques, plus advice and tips picked up from testing sessions with Frank Karsten. Playtesting is a skill at which we could all do with some pointers… Tiago shows us the path to PTQ success.

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The Pro Perspective – Reflex Versus Automatism

Raphael begins his weekly column with a detailed examination of how to improve our Magic play. His intricate theories look at how our mind works in relation to the World’s Greatest Game, and his conclusions may be surprising… in order to excel at Magic, is the key to play less than we do? This is a fantastic article, and one that all aspiring Pro Tour players should read.

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Ask The Drama – Beating The Decks That Beat The Metagame

Jeroen’s back, with a new column title for the New Year! As before, he answers reader-posed questions with candor and fun. Today’s batch of posers include how to get the edge in the Extended metagame – just how do you beat the Boros deck that’s teched-out to beat Boros? Jeroen also lets fly with his opinions of Planar Chaos… and as usual, he pulls no punches. If you have a question for Jeroen, send them to [email protected]!

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #29

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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Magic Online Musings – This Week on MTGO #44

Read The Blisterguy... every Wednesday at StarCityGames.com!

Going Infinite is the Holy Grail of Magic Online players the world over. How is it possible, in a game with a high luck element such as ours, for a player to be totally self-sufficient in the pack department? Blisterguy looks at a number of ways that it could be achieved, and examines the viability of each. All this plus the Extended and Standard MTGO Premier Event metagame data!

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Deconstructing Constructed – Exploring Extended: I Need Therapy

The Extended Pro Tour Qualifiers continue apace, and many of us are trawling the sites for the top tech that’ll bring home the Blue Envelope. Today, Josh brings us a fascinating look at the role of the many faces of B/W discard in the format. It’s true that discard is one of the stronger strategies available… so how can we maximise its strength?

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Magic Grab Bag #1 – When Lands Attack!

For his first Featured Writer column, Rivien brings us an interesting Standard deck that abuses land in a variety of different ways. While unlikely to kick down the doors of high-level tournament play, it contains a sackful of synergy and a pocketful of fun…

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The Combat Phase – All In: Mono-Green in Standard

Today sees the return of the incomparable Jamie Wakefield, in the first of his weekly columns here at StarCityGames.com. And what better way for Jamie to begin than with a long look at the state of Mono-Green Aggro in Standard? Jamie shares his latest Green beatdown machine, waxes lyrical about the health of the current Standard format, and shares stories with his usual wit and vigor. Mr Wakefield, it’s great to have you back!

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Deep Analysis – Wasted Time

Richard Feldman is here to make you a better player. Not by bringing you a teched-out decklist – although he’s done that before, and will do so again. And not by leading you by the hand through a tricky playskill minefield – again, something he excels at. Today, Richard Feldman is here to make you speed up your game. Such skills are invaluable to the tournament player looking to gain that elusive percentile edge over their worthy opponents…

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #28

Rich continues his excellent series of Time Spiral Draft walkthroughs, presenting each pick as it happened and highlighting each card chosen. He shares his final decklist, and gives us a brief overview of his results and processes. As usual, for more detailed draft deconstruction, come visit us in the forums!

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From Right Field – You Down With OPD?

Read Chris Romeo... every Tuesday at StarCityGames.com!

Chris takes a sabbatical from his normal All-Romeo Deckfest Love-In, and concentrates his budget ability on Other People’s Decklists. He casts his money-conscious eyes over successful builds, and evaluates their potency in the budget Standard metagame.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #161 – Playtest Sideboarded, Damnit!

The art of sideboarding is elusive. The metagame evolves at a startling rate, and there are enough different archetypes across all formats to make everyone happy. However, this is not an excuse for us to ignore the sideboard altogether. In the first part of a two-part series, Peter stresses the importance of testing those sideboarded games, and supplies practical examples to prove his point.

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The Beautiful Struggle – Spoilers, The Big Picture, and Why Zvi Is Smarter Than You

In a recent Mark Rosewater column, MaRo revealed that Zvi Mowshowitz – who worked on the development team for Planar Chaos – was vehemently against the printing of a Black four-mana board-sweeper that you may be familiar with. Mark looks at Zvi’s reasoning behind such a belief, and posits his own theories into the wisdom, or folly, behind such a move.

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