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The Road To Los Angeles, Week 3: Tight Play and Surprises

Last week I made the semifinals of a PTQ in Cost Mesa, CA, playing a Heartbeat of Spring/Gifts Ungiven deck I worked on with Rob Owen. Being an absolute mastermind when it comes to deck titles, I dubbed this creation Rob.dec. After the results of GP: Minneapolis, I was still convinced the deck was strong enough to qualify with, so I brought it to another PTQ in Mesa, Arizona. What follows is the story of that tournament, the lessons we learned from it, and the latest iteration of the infamous Rob.dec.

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SCG Daily – Designer’s Journal #3: Lessons of the Past

Whether a game is great or not certainly matters – that’s obviously a big source of demand – but it is far from the only consideration in determining whether something is a great product.

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My Five Color Vision

This is what things would look like if Abe ran the Five Color world.

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The Greatest Creature in the World… A Tribute Part 2

Yesterday’s version of this labor of love received a very warm reception from StarCityGames.com readers, and today’s article is arguably even better, including guest spots from Josh Ravitz, Geoffrey Siron, Anton Jonsson, and the one and only Kai Budde.

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The Beautiful Struggle: Clash of The Titans

The word going in to U.S. Regionals was that Tooth and Nail was the best deck in the format, and it certainly posted that kind of result. According to the spiffy Star City deck database, decks identified as Tooth and Nail took first place in 12 Saviors-legal Regionals events, and took a total of 84 Top 8 slots in those events. On the surface, one of Tooth’s worst matchups is supposed to be the speedy Red decks, so I decided to put these two decks to the test and see just how big the advantage for the Red deck is here. With Nationals on the way everywhere, this could provide crucial information about just what deck to choose for the big day.

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5 Fundamental Lessons Of Magic Applied To Vintage

Tired of seeing the atrocities commited by Vintage players everywhere, Josh Silvestri steps to the fore with five simple rules that will help you become better at the game of Magic.

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Designing For Vintage 2: Rotations (and the lack thereof)

As everyone knows, Type 1 is defined as the format in which every card is playable, no matter how old or overpowered. This creates huge hurdles for new cards to overcome, since a card may already exist which is just better than you, but the huge number of possible interactions also open up many unique situations in which a very specific, situational card may find a place if it’s the best (or in some cases, only) way to deal with it.

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Heretic’s Corner – Dealing with the Rating System

The ELO rating system has been adopted by Magic for some time now, for reasons I have yet to understand. I don’t hold that opinion out of some deep-seated frustration borne of not understanding ELO. In fact, I understand it about as well as anyone, as will be made evident throughout this article. It is precisely because I do understand it that I think it is inappropriate for Magic.

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The Snapping Thragg Experiment 4 – Dissecting a Limited Matchup

In the past Nick Eisel has produced some of the most creative and interesting Limited articles around as part of his Snapping Thragg series. That series is back today, as Nick takes a chance to examine one particular matchup in full block Limited at a very detailed level to see which archetype is clearly superior.

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The Greatest Creature in the World… A Tribute Part 1

It’s not often that we get an article that unexpectedly amuses the editor with just how clever and a fun it is, but that’s exactly what this one did. Today Quentin gets in touch with his Pro Tour friends and forces them to talk about their favorite creatures in the game, while explaining exactly why they fell in love. This first article contains snarky segments from Ruud Warmenhoven, Jelger Wiegersman, World Champion Julien Nuijten, and Martin himself and should be a delight for anyone who simply likes to play the game.

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From Right Field: It’s Grrrrrr… Pretty Darn Good

The beats just won’t stop as the inimitable Mr. Romeo keeps plugging away at block, looking for decks off the beaten path that give up their wins more easily than a Grinch gives up an ounce of Christmas joy.

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SCG Daily – Designer’s Journal #2: The Search for a Hit

Yesterday I hinted that we’d come up with a game that was very exciting as a product – much cheaper than other games in its category, with enough rebuy potential to let us (and stores) invest in customers but not so much as to turn off a new gamer.

That game is Battleground: Fantasy Warfare.

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Contest Winners, Get Your Contest Winners!

Kanoot finally updates the weekly contest winners. If you’ve submitted an article in the last six weeks, check inside to see if you have won.

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Big Snips in London, Part 2

The controversial Mr. Szleifer returns with the conclusion of his London report, which includes more than a little discussion of bad beats, getting smashed by Nicolai Herzog, and a hint of self-reflection. Love him or hate him, this sixteen-year-old Pro Tour winner certainly gets a reaction out of his readers.

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The Philosophy of the Mulligan

Are you losing games because you keep bad hands? Are you unsure what makes the difference between a good hand and a bad hand? Are you the type of player that knows what hands to keep when playing a Constructed deck but are clueless in Limited or vice versa? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then Terry Soh is here to help you and hopefully add a few more wins to your tournament experiences.

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