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My Own Private Idaho (States, That Is)

I’d fallen hard for the speedy beats of WW/r (henceforth referred to, more eloquently and appropriately, as "White Lightning") ever since I got a hold of the Ravnica spoiler, well ahead of Knut’s extolling. I had a pretty well tuned version for almost a month. Unfortunately, you know how it goes with the latest “best deck”… I had a very bad feeling that I was going to be walking into the lion’s den wearing T-bone underwear, but it was far too late for me to scrounge up another set of Ravnica lands.

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SCG Daily – Ask the Editor

All your questions get answered today, including the revalation of Kanoot’s favorite goblin and the answer to: Who would win in a fight between Morphling and Superman?

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Ben’s Corner: Coldsnap, Power Nine Chicago, and Extended Commons for Sale!

Wizards of the Coast has announced the release of the long-lost third set from the Ice Age block. Coldsnap will be released in July of 2006. What should you know about this new set and how do I suggest you prepare for the new release? Find out inside this week’s Ben’s Corner!

Also this week: By popular demand, I’m offering up ten lots of four of each of the 100 Most Essential Extended Commons. Click on this article to read the full details of this package.

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The Continuing Struggle Of The Best Player

The Best Player Syndrome comes when you are the best player in your multiplayer group… Or at least people think you are, anyway. Abe developed the Best Player theory several months ago, but in recent weeks he’s had some new ideas on it. So how do people react to the Best Player, and what can you do if you are the Best Player?

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Peace of Mind: Expectation

Battle of Wits? No, seriously. Battle of Wits? The other day, I was perusing magic-league.com, and I saw a Battle of Wits deck. I remarked to myself, “Hmm, looks like someone messed up and put the deck in Standard by accident. Ah, well.” I chuckled amusedly and didn’t give it a second thought. Imagine my quirked eyebrow and short bark of laughter, therefore, upon seeing that it had done so well at Minnesota Champs.

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The BOO Draft Happeneth

Far be it from me to say that Wizards doesn’t know what it’s doing, but sometimes people like to play with cards from a different set. A non-existent set, to be fair, but no less fun for its lack of mass production or corporeal presence. A bunch of us were sitting around one day, drafting Cube/Champs block, and having a fun, although pedantic time. “What if”, someone suggested, “We draft with cards the players made? What if everyone creates cards for a draft, and then we draft them? Wouldn’t that be a fun time?”

Yes it would.

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SCG Daily – The Seven Levels of Magic Writer

Progressing at writing is not unlike progressing at Magic. The more you work at it, the easier it gets to perform at a high base level and the more you can excel at something beyond the rudimentary skills of the game. Having been intimately involved with the recruitment and training of Magic writers for years now, I have come up with a silly tiered system that describes where most writers fall in the community hierarchy.

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SCG Daily – Translating Good Taste

Today Ted spotlights two interesting decks from the early States results, talks about the mistakes he made when attempting to predict this year’s metagame, and then discusses why country music certainly isn’t America’s most popular musical export.

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Magical Hack: Extend Your Point Of View

States has come and gone, but Extended PTQs started Sunday, so it’s time to shift focus to the newly-rotated format where almost broken things can happen. Today Sean takes a look at the Extended metagame and provides eight starter decklists for those of you looking to do battle in the next couple of weeks.

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Judging Dredge: Top 8 at Virginia States

It’s not everyday that a sixty-card draft deck makes the Top 8 at a big tournament like States, but that’s what appeared to happen last Saturday in Richmond. Today Bennie explains what this crazy deck is, how it came together, and whether cards like Stinkweed Imp, Moldervine Cloak, and Greater Mossdog belong in future iterations.

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Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Jon Becker only writes once or twice a year, but when he does it always ends up being one of the best articles you read all month or sometimes all year. This article is no different, as our favorite crank covers spiders vs. elves, a dearth of Jay Schneider articles, a superior Ravnica sealed deck, and soliciting for charity in his usual laugh-out-loud style.

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Boros and Natasha

Lately my draft results have been showing that the best two decks by far in Ravnica Limited are R/W and U/B. Since I’ve already said my peace about the U/B Mill deck, I figured it was time to discuss the fastest archetype in Ravnica Limited.

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The Beautiful Struggle: It’s All Good in Virginia

Before the tournament Saturday, Mark Young was debating between two decks, Critical Kudzu and something rather rogue and not completely tested. His foolish friends convinced him to run the rogue deck and it landed Mark smack dab in the middle of his first Virginia States Top 8. What deck did he play? Why Greater Good Combo, of course!

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The Speed Demon’s Complete Failure – GP: Nottingham, the Fluffy Bunny Report

This is it. What I’ve been working towards these last three weeks and wouldn’t you know? I completely wasted all my testing because I failed to realize that the sealed deck format is completely and utterly different from what I thought it was. The reason for this is that all my impressions where gleaned from prerelease style events with three boosters and a tourney pack rather than just two boosters. Sure, I built and played around with some proper sealed decks, but not in a real tournament setting.

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SCG Daily – Rude About Food

Just before London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic games, French president Jacques Chirac was overheard commenting that the English have the worst cuisine in the world as he was leaving a press conference. This supposedly caused outrage among the English and was given partial credit for pushing London’s bid past that of Paris. After all, who wants to hold Olympics in a country once governed by some obnoxious toad who doesn’t like English cuisine?

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