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Grim Long: All Your Questions Are Belong To Us

I’ve had a Grim Long list built since early 2004, waiting and ready for the moment that I thought would never arrive. That moment arrived — and although the Vintage metagame has undergone many twists and turns in the intervening years, I knew that I had to play Grim Long. I was pleased to make the top 4 at the most recent StarCityGames.com Power Nine with Grim Long at its first (and hopefully not last) outing. This article will explain the tweaks I made to the deck, how to pilot it correctly, and describe the major matchups.

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Rule of Law 12 – “Enchantment – Aura” and Other Oddities of 9th Edition

It is generally accepted that the Core Set is a little less exciting than an expansion. After all, if a mechanic is too complicated for the block it was in, there is no chance to bring it into the Core Set, as that is marketed to newer players. However, Core Sets are often seen as prime opportunities to try out new ideas, such as card faces, or rules adjustments. And in this case, that is exactly what is being done. The most notable change you will find to cards, especially if you’ve perused either the sortable spoiler from Wizards or just happened to be looking at the Oracle recently is the “Enchantment – Aura” type line. What does this mean?

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I Hear It’s Great, But Is It GOOD?

Master Flores takes time out of his busy schedule of self-promotion to run a deck that someone else designed this week. Greater Good combo decks are a blast to play and did quite well in a number of states last month, but are they any good in the new metagame?

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Making a Battle Plan

Many of you have enjoyed reading the trials and trevails of one Richard Feldman and his attempts to qualify for the Pro Tour. We’ll spoil this one a bit for you and tell you that he once again made the Top 8, but did he qualify? You’ll have to check inside for details on that and the 4-1-1 on his suggestions for improving your game in future PTQ seasons.

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SCG Daily – From Right Field: Da Man

Chris’s special ode to the man that draws few hotties, but who Chris still feels produces the best Magic art out there.

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The Unofficial 2005 Worlds Survival Guide

Seasoned Japan veteran Eli Kaplan tells you everything you absolutely need to know about Worlds in Yokohama, except for what to play and how to play it.

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SCG Daily: From Right Field — Land, Ho!

So, if Tuesday was all about the best pieces of non-Kev Walker art in Extended-legal sets, why weren’t there any land cards? Because I truly feel that lands need to be looked at separately. Magic is an active game (yes, ever against people playing Blue). A card’s art tends to reflect its mechanic in some way which means the art typically depicts some activity or shows a creature of some sort. Land cards, though, are more like still lifes.

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Diary of a Ravnica Drafter – The Rules of Ravnica Draft

Like many of you, Nick has been dreaming about cards games lately, and after a great deal of play with The City of Guilds, he’s come up witha set of rules for Limited play that you would do well to know, even if you don’t follow them. What’s the best card in the set for Limited? The best guild in draft? The answers to these questions and more are but a click away.

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Down and Back Again: A Pro Tour LA Report

How’d Noah’s Los Angeles go? Well, he scrubbed out of the Pro Tour, nearly got DQ’d, did some Pro Tour Feature Match coverage, watched Zvi Mowshowitz pick up babes, ate at Fogo De Chao, was assaulted by zombies in downtown LA, and got to ride rollercoasters. If you are a fan of the lost art of tournament reports, you cannot miss this one.

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The Complete Mind’s Desire Strategy Guide

From a purely strategic point of view, there are a good many reasons to play Desire at your next Extended tournament. The first (and probably best) reason is because the deck is just hard to play against unless your opponent has dedicated a large amount of time to it — which, given that you’re at a PTQ, is doubtful. So let me walk you through the intricacies of the deck that got me all the way to the Top 4 at Los Angeles.

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A Short Drink From The Metagame Fountain

Three hundred peeps in a room does not a format define.

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SCG Daily – From Right Field: The Best of the Worst and the Worst of the Best

I want to be perfectly clear on one point. I am most certainly not saying that the art on these cards is awful in and of itself. Magic has come a long, long way from the days of Reverse Polarity (“Worst. Magic art. Ever.”) and Reverse Damage. Nearly every card from Tempest on and especially from Invasion on has been a true joy to look at (Cepahlids aside). However, some of the art, well, it didn’t quite work on the card.

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Back With Black

Eternal fan favorite Geordie’s back — again! — this time packing a new deck that he thinks can clean house against Flores Blue and Combo. If you’re sick to death of Hinder and Keiga, he’s got a deck packing a card that you’ll never expect. No, really, you won’t expect it.

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Magical Hack: A Look At Legacy

In the forums, someone told me that I was obsessed with Cabal Therapy in my article on Extended… But of the most-played cards at the Pro Tour, Therapy finished behind only Forest, Island, Mountain, Chrome Mox, and Bloodstained Mire. Likewise, there are a few key cards that define the Legacy format — and instead of trying to predict the decklists that will appear, I’m going to step through the most powerful cards to see how they shape the environment.

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The Legacy Breakdown: July to October

Here it is, folks: the Legacy statistics breakdown from July to October. The results are in, the votes are tallied, and there’s one deck that is the big winner by a considerable margin. From the tournament data, it’s a Tier unto itself. What is it? To find out, you’re gonna have to click the link.

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