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2005 Championship Deck Challenge, Week One: Mono-Green

Welcome to the 2005 Championship Deck Challenge!
Teddy Card Game’s challenge to many writers on this here fine website was to participate in the Championship Deck Challenge, some of which are easy hurdles (“Talk about Black/Green decks for Standard!”) and others of which are something more difficult. Or at least less popular, as it would seem. My mission, as I have chosen it for myself, is to take a hard look at some of the unloved archetypes that are inevitably going to have some kind of footprint on the format, be they the stomping boot of progress or the mangled road-kill of first-iteration stinkers. This week, I’ll be talking about Mono-Green, or “the color that R&D forgot.

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Sealed Revealed: Ravnica Card Pool Zero

Not so long back, I wrote a series of articles called “Sealed Revealed.” The aim then, as it is now, was to take some “Sealed,” and, well… “Reveal” it. At the time of writing, I am sat by the pool in a Floridian villa, enjoying a two-week vacation. It is the day after the Ravnica Prerelease. Yesterday, I entered a 100+ player “Mega Flight,” as my first (and so far only) foray onto the playing fields of the Shiny New Set. I have my prerelease card pool on the table by the laptop, and I’m up for a little deck-building discussion.

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SCG Daily: Judicial Advice on Rules Cheese

Years ago, you could get a free game win by catching your opponent on a rules error. That has changed. Today, both players are responsible for ensuring that mandatory actions take place, etc., and both players can get cautions and/or warnings if the game state gets screwed up. Judges are clamping down on “rules cheese.”

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Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part IV: Red Cards

Mike Flores Reviews Ravnica: City of Guilds!

StarCityGames.com is proud to have one of the hottest deckbuilders around and best Magic writers in history give you the lowdown on every card in Ravnica. Flores’s task today is to discover whether there are any goodies in Red besides Char and Hunted Dragon, and just how far you will have to sink in order to find playable one and two-drops for your aggro decks.

[Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part I: White Cards]
[Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part II: Blue Cards]
[Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part III: Black Cards]

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SCG Daily: Judicial Advice on Foils

First of all, I want to stress that Wizards wants people to play with foils. They like seeing foils. They do not want judges to discourage foils. In fact, the Wizards folks make that point fairly emphatically. You can play with foils. You just have to be careful when you do it so you don’t wind up with penalties for having a marked deck.

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2005 Championship Deck Challenge: Angry White Men

Welcome to the 2005 Championship Deck Challenge!

Welcome to StarCityGames.com’s 2005 Championship Deck Challenge, where each week some of the best writers we have square off against each other in a battle to deliver the best deck for States. Each deck must adhere to the theme for the week, and on Friday Supreme Arbiter Flores will choose a victor. This week’s theme: Build a Mono-Colored Monstrosity. Mark Young’s swipe at this theme involves one of the more common things you’ll see at States this year – attacking for two.

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Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part III: Black Cards

Mike Flores Reviews Ravnica: City of Guilds!

StarCityGames.com is proud to have one of the hottest deckbuilders around and best Magic writers in history give you the lowdown on every card in Ravnica. Today michaelj tackles the awesome power of Black, where some very saucy dishes are just waiting to be broken.

[Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part I: White Cards]
[Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part II: Blue Cards]

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2005 Championship Deck Challenge: Taking Red to the Limit in Standard

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Welcome to StarCityGames.com’s 2005 Championship Deck Challenge, where each some of the best writers we have (including Chad Ellis, who returns from hiatus today) square off against each other in a battle to deliver the best deck for States. Each deck must adhere to the theme for the week, and on Friday Supreme Arbiter Flores will choose a victor. This week’s theme: Build a Mono-Colored Monstrosity.

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While You Were Away – Adventures in Sealed Decks

While most of the Magical world was off enjoying their Ravnica prerelease experience, Nick Eisel was at home battling Ken Krouner and others for digital glory.

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SCG Daily: Judicial Advice on Sleeves

Today I want to talk about sleeves. I want to tell you how to avoid penalties including game loses, match loses and even disqualifications, because you screwed up with your sleeves. Worn, folded or unusual sleeves all look different from other sleeves and, accidental or not, the result is marked cards. Marked cards are serious yang and should be treated appropriately.

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Ravnica In 5-Color

There are a lot of highly playable cards in the set, so watch out. In fact, this may be one of the best sets for 5-Color since Odyssey block. In fact, let me show you fifty-five cards that might just change the face of 5 as we know it!

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Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part II: Blue Cards

Mike Flores Reviews Ravnica: City of Guilds!

StarCityGames.com is proud to have one of the hottest deckbuilders around and best Magic writers in history give you the lowdown on every card in Ravnica. What goodies has Wizards left for us in the Blue cards? Flores hops in with both feet to find out whether or not there are treats lurking that lack guild stamps.

[Ravnica Constructed Set Review Part I: White Cards]

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Mixed kNuts: Skeleton Bones of Standard, Part 2

This is going to sound weird, especially coming from me since I’m typically pretty harsh on Timmy decks in my metagame predictions, but one of the hottest archetypes for the upcoming Standard season is almost certainly going to be enchantment-based.

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Restless: Enduring Ideal in Ravnica Type Two

Man, I am so glad that Mirrodin is going to rotate out of Standard in the coming weeks. Gone will be the days that anyone can tap three Urza lands and two Forests and beat you. So long Sword of Fire and Ice, I’ll see you again in Extended season! Goodbye Vedalken Shackles. Two fingers to you, Troll Ascetic! Now it’s time to focus on what decks are interesting for States. You might be surprised to find Hondens is near the top of my list.

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SCG Daily: Judicial Advice on Tourney Prep

As a player with years of tournament experience, I can give you some advice on how to get ready for a tourney – and how to avoid game losses for stupid mistakes. As a judge, I have to wonder why I keep giving out game losses for these same things. Jeez, people – this stuff isn’t hard. Winning a tournament is tough enough, don’t shoot yourself in the foot at the start.

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