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Limited Lessons – The Over / Under Cards of Time Spiral

In the first of his regular weekly columns on Limited Magic, Nick Eisel examines some of the unsung heroes of Time Spiral draft. Those thirteenth- and fourteenth-pick cards that wing their way around the table time and again? Maybe they should be in your final forty. Nick also takes a baseball bat to some of the overblown cards of the format, busting their hype bubbles and sending them packing. Are you still picking Durkwood Baloth over Penumbra Spider? Then this is the article for you!

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So Many Insane Plays – Improving Ichorid

Recently, Vintage has discovered a new monster – Manaless Ichorid. In his last article, Stephen Menendian took us through a blow-by-blow account of ten games between Manaless Ichorid and Meandeck Gifts. In those ten games, Manaless Ichorid proved itself strong enough to kick back with the Big Boys. However, there is improvement to be made, and tweaking to be done. Today, Stephen suggests a radical change to Manaless Ichorid – adding mana.

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #27

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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You Lika The Juice? – The Frailty of Men

With Planar Chaos promising a great deal for the control-loving mages among us, Bennie asks a simple question: what now for the creature strategy? In the face of mass removal by the bucketload, is it possible to succeed with monsters in the face of so much horror? Benne looks back through history, and presents us with a few theories and decklists that may just work…

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A Novice’s Guide to The World Championships – *3rd*

Nick went into Worlds 2006 with high hopes. Even so, a Top 8 finish was beyond even his wildest dreams. However, with some smart play, excellent choices, and a little luck, Nick powered through the Constructed days undefeated. Today he tells his rags-to-riches story in fine style, sharing the things he learnt during his wild ride to the Top 8 of Magic’s biggest event…

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Magic Puzzles – Fact or Fiction

It’s Monday… and that means it’s time for some Magic Puzzles! Each week, Jeff brings us the most fiendish Magical conundrums he can, each one brewed in his fevered brainpan. Do you have the skills to solve the problems? Be sure to leave your answers in the forums!

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Extended 2007: Week One, Part Two – Mock Tournament Strikes Again

With MagictheGathering.com concentrating on all things Planar Chaos, today’s Flores Friday brings us the tournament lowdown from last weekend’s round of Extended PTQs. Mike breaks down the numbers from all the results that are in so far, sharing some of the winning and high-performing deck builds. He takes a long look at why they won, and makes his own personal suggestions for those hoping to succeed in Week Two of the PTQ roller coaster.

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Manaless Ichorid Versus Meandeck Gifts – A Matchup Analysis

Stephen Menendian has made some mighty big claims regarding his potent Manaless Ichorid deck… in this comprehensive matchup article, he puts his creation to the test. Ten games against one of the strogest decks in the Vintage metagame – Meandeck Gifts. So, can Stephen’s Ichorids bring home the proverbial bacon, or will Gifts be laughing all the way to the bank?

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Drafting With Rich – Time Spiral #26

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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Magical Hack: Name This Deck

Read Sean McKeown... every Friday at StarCityGames.com!

This week, I could try to be one of the “cool kids” and tell you how 1337 my Extended deck is, and that Scepter-Chant is one of highest-quality decks to play in the current Extended field. After all, PJ talked about how Boros is great (again), and Flores will tell you that his Green/White deck must be great because it won someone some PTQ somewhere… but not him. Instead of following the trend, we’re going to look at progress in motion and the herd mentality.

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The Magic Show #26 — Magic Online and the Best Card in Coldsnap

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. I’m your host, Evan Erwin. Today we’re going to take a look at Wizards of the Coast’s own little money maker, Magic Online. I know I’ve spent a fortune on those untouchable digital objects, and there are new players joining every day. But what is there to know about the game online? How does it differ from the delicious paper we know and love?

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SCG Daily – I’ll Take “Magic Writers on Jeopardy!” for $200: My Experiences on America’s Favorite Game S

While my flight down was comped by the fine people at Sony, bringing the significant other down was not, and last-minute flights from the middle of nowhere are not cheap. However, I was coming into some money soon (one hoped), and when was she ever going to get to see me on a game show again?

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BOO Voyage – The BOO Draft 4

Let’s play the assumption game. Let’s assume this cool new job opportunity / promotion comes up, giving you a chance at a company position with people you genuinely like and respect. That’s cool, but let’s assume that you’re kind of involved with the company already, at least peripherally. Can you even compete? Can we assume your presence won’t smack of favoritism? Who cares what people think, do a good job and they’ll know you deserve to be there? Okay, that make sense, but what if after all that you get eliminated? What then?

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Extended 2007: Week One, Part One

Going into the PTQ weekend, Mike had two choices: U/G or G/W. He told the world that if he rocked the mock tournament with U/G, that’d be the deck for him. If not, the G/W machine would be his weapon of choice. True to his word, Mike took his innovative G/W anti-Boros anti-TEPS Extended deck to his local PTQ… and as suspected, it rocked the house against the good matchups. For the story of both tournaments, and both decks, read on…

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Why I Threw Solar Flare Away — Part 2: Scryb & Force at Worlds 2006

In his previous article, Naoki Shimizu shared the reasons for ditching his popular Solar Flare deck in favor of something with a little more beatdown kick: the powerful U/G Scryb & Force deck. In today’s article, Naoki gives us the sideboard plan and matchup guide for all the metagame’s stronger contenders, and tells us the story of his own Standard odyssey on Day 1 of Worlds 2006.

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