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You Lika The Juice? – Dredging through Planar Chaos

I spent last week in a bit of a funk over the impact of Damnation and having two virtually identical copies of the incredible Wrath of God in Standard and Extended. While I reached some conclusions on how creature decks can fight the expected increase in control decks, I wasn’t completely satisfied with going the smash-mouth haste route, and the flash creatures by and large aren’t exactly powerhouse cards. However, there is a silver lining for me in this new format – one of my “pet” strategies happens to thrive in Wrath of God dominated formats. Yep, I’m talking about Dredge, baby!

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Magic Puzzles – First Turn Kills

Welcome to the second article in the Magic Puzzles series. This week we’ll be exploring every Vintage player’s dream: the first turn kill…

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Barriers and Opportunities – Ten (or so) Standard Challenges and Rediscoveries, Care of Planar Chaos

In the first of this week’s extra Premium articles, Mike Flores takes us through his preliminary thoughts on the impact of Planar Chaos in Constructed. What does the metagame gain from a fresh 165, and how will the dominant strategies compare when the new cards go live in tournament play? The color pie is truly smashed: White has pinpoint removal, Green draws cards, and Black has Wrath of God. This excellent article is the first step towards exploring a Brave New World…

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Flores Friday – Shark Hunting II: Week Two

With Week Two results from the Extended PTQ season slowly filtering in, Mike takes a long look at the Oklahoma City results. Their Top 8 featured a number of decks that were off the radar going into the event. Can such off the wall metagame-specific choices bring success across a wider field, now that the decklists are in the public domain?

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From The Lab – Making That Deck Choice

Craig “The Professor” Jones begins his weekly column with an examination of metagaming and deck choices. When preparing for a tournament, be it a Pro Tour or an FNM, how far down the slippery metagame slope are we willing to slide? As usual, Prof tackles his weighty subject with a deft touch and a humorous eye… this is an excellent start to his column, and one that promises great things to come!

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #31

Due to an abundance of Premium content, we’re offering today’s Drafting With Rich as a non-Premium article! For those unfamiliar with the series, Rich Hoaen – one of the world’s finest Limited players – brings us a Time Spiral Draft walkthrough each day, 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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The Magic Show #27 – The Planar Chaos File

Today’s edition of the Magic Show – Evan Erwin’s innovative video-based Magic article series – takes a look at some of the more exciting cards rumored to appear in Planar Chaos. If you’re attending a prerelease this weekend, Evan’s information could be vital to your success. WARNING: Contains heavy spoilers!

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The Real Deal – In With The Old, In With The New

In today’s edition of The Real Deal, Ben writes a companion piece to his Value of Planar Chaos Premium article (above). Which current Standard Legal cards does Ben think will rise in value due to Planar Chaos? Read on to find out!

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The Financial Value of Planar Chaos

Planar Chaos!
Ben is back again with the full lowdown for Planar Chaos, based on information gathered from the MTGSalvation.com spoiler. Do you want to know which cards will be hottest at your prerelease? Want to know which you should trade away, and which you should hoard like no tomorrow? Let the General Manager of StarCityGames.com fill you in on the key cards to keep, and those you can do without!

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Magical Hack — Crisis on Infinite Dominarias!

Read Sean McKeown... every Friday at StarCityGames.com!
With the prerelease of Planar Chaos tomorrow, figuring out what is going to be what with Time Spiral — Planar Chaos Limited is something everyone is already chomping at the bit to do. Time Spiral was an enormous puzzle, an enigma of unknown quantities prior to its release… and following hot on its heels is an enigma wrapped around a riddle stuffed inside a booster pack, because Time Spiral showed that there were no sacred cows and anything could happen… and what happens when you crank that up a notch? Chaos!

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Innovator.dec – Got Hate?

Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin brings us a strange Vintage concoction… one that targets the expected metagame and smashes it to pieces. According to Patrick, the deck destroys anything ever created by our own Stephen Menendian. Whether Stephen agrees is, of course, up for debate, but with a matchup guide and sideboarding plans for matches against all the major players in the Vintage metagame, this is a deck you cannot ignore.

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Exploring Desire in Extended

For his first article for StarCityGames.com, John Fiorillo takes a look at Extended’s most successful Combo deck – The Extended Perfect Storm, or TEPS for short. As a self-confessed Combo Junkie, John loves the deck… and his tips may be the link you need to gain success at your next Pro Tour Qualifier. Planning on running Boros Deck Wins? Never fear… John has some words of wisdom for you too.

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #30

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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The Kitchen Table #164: The Complete Equinaut Primer

Read Abe Sargent... every Thursday at StarCityGames.com!

Equinaut is one of my most enduring creations. I’ve written about it several times and received tons of positive feedback, so its time for that one final primer that will give you everything you need to know to play and build your own Equinaut.

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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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