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Deep Analysis – Tronnovation

Following on from last week’s “Big Mana Blue” article, Richard – with the aid of free columnist Zac Hill – brings us the latest innovation in Extended U/W Tron decks. According to Richard and Zac, this is the best deck in the format… and they have the results to prove it. Today’s article sees Richard explain the game-plan of this deck, and he delves deep into the reasons behind the choices made for this build. For more on the deck, be sure to tune in to Zac’s article on Thursday!

Limited Lessons – Draft Archetype Updates in Planar Chaos

Nick Eisel has now played – and won – a fair number of TTP Drafts (Time Spiral / Time Spiral / Planar Chaos). Of course, he’s picked up a few tricks along the way. Today’s Limited Lessons sees Mr Eisel share his thoughts on the ever-popular Green/Red archetype, plus some new ideas on the up-and-coming Green/Blue color pairing. Is this traditionally tempo-reliant pairing really the new aggro weapon of choice?

So Many Insane Plays – Winning on Turn 2 in Legacy

Stephen Menendian, the Voice of Vintage, takes a brief break from Magic’s broken format in order to dabble in a little Legacy action. So, does he pick up the Goblin deck and smash face? Of course not. Stephen’s a Vintage player – he rolls with the combo. This article examines the strength of the Tendrils of Agony based combo deck Iggy Pop. For more Legacy content, tune in later this week…

Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #37

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!

Insert Column Name Here – My Insanely White Deck

Read The Ferrett... every Monday at
StarCityGames.com!The Ferrett attended the prerelease, and opened a card pool that was freakishly abnormal. In fact, it was so utterly lopsided that he
could have gone mono-colored in Sealed. But was he insane enough to take this statistical aberration and go all the way with it… Or did he chicken out? All that, plus a request for help from you, the faithful StarCityGames.com readers!

You Lika The Juice? – Dredge Decks Out the Wazoo

Last week I Dredged through Planar Chaos; this week, I unleash the dog decks of Dredge that have been pinging around my brain these last few weeks. A quick caveat – these decks are untested and presented here merely as starting points, a way to get the deckbuilding juices flowing. In the coming weeks I will be attempting to get enough Planar Chaos stuff to start testing these ideas, and with any luck make it out to an FNM or two for trial by fire.

Magic Puzzles – Planar Chaos

This week in Magic Puzzles, we examine the Timeshifted cards of Planar Chaos. Are they better than the originals, or just bad imitations? Find out below…

U/R/W Martyr in Standard

Having tired of the Standard metagame after Worlds, and having lost faith in the DragonTron deck that took him to a commendable 12th place finish, Paul began casting around for something new to play. After tinkering with a Mono-Blue Morph deck dubbed “The Answer,” he soon moved on to fresh pastures. Today, he shares his discovery of a patriotic deck that harnesses the powerful Martyr of Sands…

Flores Friday – Re-positioning Linear Designs and Hybridizing Strategies: Two Ways to Cheat

The Extended metagame rumbles on, and many of us are looking for that elusive edge for our next PTQ tournament. As usual, Mike Flores may have the answers we seek. Today’s Flores Friday examines a fascinating tactic available to us, a tactic that could inform our deck-choices come Tournament Day. Is an exploration of linear card design the key to building a format-warping deck? Mike constantly redefines the metagame… maybe this view of Magic deck-building and design could see us do the same.

From The Lab – Prerelease Weekend: First Thoughts on Planar Chaos

Craig “The Professor” Jones takes time out from his twisted experiments to bring us the low-down on Planar Chaos Limited. Not content with a mere one or two Prerelease tournaments, Prof decided to go balls to the wall and submit to a straight 24 hours of Magic! There are thrills! There are spills! There’s also a dose of Planar Chaos card advice, and a bushel or two of quality fun – strategy and humor in perfect harmony.

Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #36

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!

Magical Hack – Chaos Theory

Read Sean McKeown... every Friday at
StarCityGames.com!
With the change to a weekly column with a few floating columns, it seems the five-part set review on StarCityGames.com has finally gone the way of “My Fires.” Instead of one series in five parts, naming each and every single card, I’m going to supply one article breaking down the potential I see across a variety of formats, some of which I may arguably be unqualified to speak upon. That said, let’s get this done in reverse-order fashion, starting with the format in which I have the least experience (Vintage) and crawling back up to Standard, where things make sense to me again.

The Magic Show #28 — Planar Chaos Prerelease

Hello everybody, this week is our Special Edition Prerelease show where I go unscripted and roam amongst the mouth-breathers to bring you what happened at my Planar Chaos prerelease.

The Real Deal – Planar Chaotic?

In today’s edition of The Real Deal, Ben examines the choices R&D made in choosing the Planeshifted cards in Planar Chaos. Within their own internal logic did these choices make sense? Ben weighs in with his opinion.

Also: Having trouble figuring out which new products StarCityGames.com is carrying? Ben wants to know how to let you know when new products become available on site!

Food For Thought – Black Knights: A Going Rogue Epilogue

In an additional article for the weekend, JMS takes us through the development of his own pet Mono-Black creation, Black Knights. Utilizing the powerful Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, and a plethora of Black beatdown monsters, does the deck have what it takes to impact the coming Planar Chaos metagame? And what does it gain from the new set, aside from a four-mana board-sweeping sorcery? JMS reveals all…