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Saviors of Kamigawa: The New Cards In Review

The last set in a block has always held some surprises that stir the pot: Eternal Witness showed up to help fight Affinity last year, while Goblin Warchief and Eternal Dragon completely overpowered the decks spawned for Pro Tour: Venice. Perhaps the best way to learn about Saviors (and how it might affect both Kamigawa Block and Standard) is to get it straight from the source: official previews. We’ve just had our first full week of official previews at magicthegathering.com, and it’s not too early to at least pretend to understand what these cards are going to mean to Constructed and Limited formats alike.

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Frozen Fish – Searching for Rogue Aggro-Control in Standard

Ben Snyder is rapidly becoming known for two different things: detailed articles about whatever combo deck catches his attention and articles about crazy rogue creations that just might work in Standard. Today’s article is one of the latter, and it should provide some interesting fodder for the Friday Night Magic crowd to play around with.

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From Right Field: Fighting the Good Fight

Sometimes, I just abhor Wizards of the Coast, The DCI, and, of course, penguins. Damn all of their tuxedo-wearing souls. Want to know why I’m ranting this time? Step inside my friends, as I talk about Regionals, metagames, and more Regionals. Oh, and penguins.

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Adventures in the Motor City, Part 2

Andy once again takes a savage beating from the GP: Detroit attendees but in the process churns out an article that is pure fun to read.

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Philosophy of Fire 2K5: Kuroda-Style Big Red for the LCQ and Standard

When looking at a new Standard season, it’s always a good idea to peak back at the previous year’s Block Constructed Pro Tour and see what ideas you can take from that tournament. Today Flores uses Masashiro Kuroda’s winning deck from Kobe and turns it into what may once again be one of the best decks in the format.

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SCG Daily – Pimp my Precon: Speed Scorch

This week, I have been taking 8th Edition precons, adding enough lands and commons to make them Constructed legal, then turning them into turbocharged racing machines. It’s like NASCAR… if NASCAR started with lawn tractors. Little lawn tractors. It’s Friday, and the only deck I haven’t powered up is Speed Scorch, the goblin thing, so fire up the torches and let’s start cutting.

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Fighting Fire with Fire: Supercharging Ponza

While Kenji Tsumura and Gadiel Szleifer were battling for $10,000, Rick was over playing in the $2,000 Amateur Standard event and learned quite a few things about how Red decks work in this environment.

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The Story of Ink-Eyes, Gifts Ungiven, and the Little Flower That Could

Once Knutson’s only barn, Star Wars Kid (Chris McDaniel) has since graduated to Featured Writer, Level 2 Pro, and a solid slinger of spells. Today this Taking Back Sunday team member gives you a look behind the scenes at the development of the winning Pro Tour: Philadelphia deck, shows you the humble beginnings of his version of the deck, and explains why sometimes it’s just not possible to get a good night’s sleep before the Pro Tour.

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Going Down the Drain: Examining the Best (Mana Drain) Decks in Vintage Part 1

Deciding to play the right deck is critical to Type One success. This article is going to provide a comprehensive overview of the six best Mana Drain decks in the format. It will trace the trends in development thus far and bring us to some very recent design innovations. The trend that was already in the making has suddenly blossomed at the same time as the restriction of Trinisphere, resulting in the most broken Drain combo decks ever.

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Pimp my Precon: Sky Slam

I’m spending my week turning the horrible 40-card 8th Edition precons into amazing Constructed decks. I tuned Expulsion for Standard, turned Lifeboost into a killer Peasant Magic deck and converted Heavy Hitters into a smashing Vanguard deck. Today I tackle Sky Slam, which is destined to become a new Type Two archetype.

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Introducing… The Season Summary Pages! (Or: What Have We Done With The Deck Database?)

Yesterday, I introduced you to the amazing new StarCityGames.com deck database, showing you all of the cool new features… or at least all the cool new features you could find by looking at a single deck. Today, we go over the Season Summaries, which give you the metagame at a glance.

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MODO Learning

I’ve now spent… must be close to a hundred hours on MODO. I just can’t imagine getting back into Magic without this tool. Without a store nearby to play in, it would be impossible. Without being able to test my deck a couple hundred times before Regionals, it would be impossible. Without being able to see what everyone else is working on and how the metagame is developing, doing well at a sanctioned event would be the equivalent of buying a Powerball ticket. And yes, I’m still working on the Elf deck – but that’s not the only deck I’m working on…

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Shirei in Standard: A Case of Neither/Nor

Mr. Grydehoj takes you on a wild ride into the world of one-power creatures, where no matter what you try, the decks don’t quite end up working. That doesn’t stop them from being fascinating experiments in deckbuilding.

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SCG Daily – Pimp my Precon: Heavy Hitters

I’m busily turning the 8th Edition precons into well-oiled machines, one per day. On Monday I turned Lifeboost into a steam-powered chicken plucker soaked in rancid olive oil. Yesterday I turned Expulsion into an electric pencil sharpener, dripping with the SAE 30 I drained from my tractor. Well-oiled machines indeed. Today it’s time to tackle Heavy Hitters.

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A Second Gift From The Other Side Of The Ocean

A Gifts Ungiven deck that uses Goblin Charbelcher and Mana Severance, but completely removes Goblin Welders from the deck? Can that possibly be good? Our favorite Frenchie Vintage writer thinks so, and there’s a good chance that you’ll see more than a few people running it at the Vintage Megaevent in Paris this weekend!

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