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The Magic Jerk: Your Sealed Deck Lucky Charms

Here’s the problem with Sealed Deck: you get an unopened pack of cards and have to build a deck out of it. How many rares in there? Three. How many boosters? Two. So that’s a grand total of five rares, which means you get five chances to open a Kumano, Meloku, Jitte or random (non-Red) Dragon. Oh you didn’t open up one of those? Oh darn, unless you’re really good at Magic the chances of you Top 8’ing this PTQ just went down dramatically. Now if you’re an unlucky sap like me, you’d better grab a cup of coffee and read the rest of this article, because you’ll probably be opening a lot of Misako’s and Swirl the Mists this season.

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The Color Wheel: Black

Many people think that the color of Yawgmoth’s Will needs little if any tweaking. I agree wholeheartedly. Black is the best understood color (despite that whole “can it be good, not evil?” issue), and it has had the most consistent abilities for ten years as a result. Black is a color with a little of everything, from good, reliable mechanics to good, reliable weaknesses. As a consequence of being so well mapped-out, Black teaches us a lot that can inform design and reformation of other colors’ abilities.

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SCG Daily – The Battle for Kamigawa Chapter Four: The Fevered Dream

As Hashi fell from the destroyed bridge, the wind ripped the air from his lungs. During his descent he tumbled head over foot; through sheer luck, he impacted the water with his feet pointed straight down. The impact buckled his knees and twisted one of his ankles, knocking the wind out of him. Pressing his way back to the surface, he gulped cold air. The new pack that Fumiko had given him was airtight, and served as a floatation device while he checked himself for injuries.

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Playing Fair

Mike claims that the deck he discusses in this article just might be the best Constructed deck he’s ever designed. Okay fine, those who know Mike know that he says this sort of thing at least once a month, but what if he’s right?

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Grim Long and the Impact of Portal on Vintage

In the first months of 2004, we threw together some Grim Tutor variants of the deck in preparation for what we believed would be a forthcoming announcement. We did some preliminary testing and tuning and then we waited. And waited. And waited and waited and waited. Finally, the announcement came. Now that people are concerned about the deck, some even claiming (absurdly) that Grim Tutor needs restriction. This article is going to demystify Grim Tutor and introduce Grim Long by tying my experience with all three incarnations of the Long.dec archetype together to provide a solid foundation for your own testing.

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Sealed Luck #2

Two PTQs, two sealed decks, one saucy, one not. Oh, and one burning question: Is Ornate Kanizashi playable in the maindeck in Betrayers Sealed? Did Martin Dingler complete his 1200km trek with a spot on the Pro Tour like Craig Stevenson achieved last week? You’ll have to read it to find out.

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SCG Daily – The Battle for Kamigawa Chapter Three: The Bandit King of Tendo Pass

After he had buried Ishita next to his family, Hashi rested on a rectangular stone that had once been part of his home’s foundation. He contemplated the blisters that ridged both palms, cracked and stinging, then clenched his fists until blood ran from his fingers, letting it fall on the freshly turned earth.

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No-Ponza Red in Standard

StarCityGames.com would like to officially welcome Constructed powerhouse Keith McLaughlin to our family of writers. Keith’s topic du jour is Medium Red, a deck that hasn’t received a lot of press yet, but one that will be a powerful player in the Standard metagame for months to come.

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The Heart of Kamigawa: The Mana and the Legends

The last two weeks Zvi has peeled the Kamigawa Block onion, revealing the goods that lie within. This week he reviews the heart of the block, including playtesting results from one of Kamigawa Block’s most promising contenders.

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The College Dropout: Under-Staffed

The constructive feedback in my last article was surprisingly good and many of the changes the forums suggested to Green/Black Control have been incorporated into my latest version. Sadly, I’m not really here to discuss my favorite deck in the Standard format, but a new version of an old favorite that has stormed the Kentucky Magic scene: Proteus Staff Control.

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Five Days to Reach Five Conclusions: A Look at Stax in the New Standard

So the last time I wrote an article about porting a Vintage deck to Standard, I got quite a lot of positive feedback. With all of that, it inspired me to write this article on another potentially viable port: Stax. Don’t think it can work? You’ll be surprised at the lengths I go to in order to determine whether or not that’s true.

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The Online nOOb’s Ongoing Saga: A League(s) of My Own

Pete checks in with an update about what he’s learned since his initial forays online, includes some basic trading tips for Magic Online newbies, and gives his evaluation of the usefulness of MTGO Leagues.

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SCG Daily – The Battle for Kamigawa Chapter 2: The Destruction of Niigata

Niigata’s townspeople, terrified, clung together in shivering groups. Toshiro knelt weeping beside the body of his sister, his palms grinding against the smashed glass. Oblivious to the gathered mass of the townspeople, he suddenly jerked his hands from the ground, fresh cuts already oozing blood…

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Weak Among the Strong: Making Top 8 with your Sealed Deck

Many years ago, back when I was probably Weak Among the Weak, let alone Strong Among the Weak or Weak Among the Strong, Matt Rauseo said you should always maindeck Annul in Urza’s Block Sealed. “Why?” I asked. “Because you need to beat the 4-0 decks.” Understanding this concept will not only change how you build your sealed decks, but it also can be instrumental in pushing you over the PTQ Top 8 hump.

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The Beautiful Struggle: White Weenie Versus the World

The forums keep swearing this deck is good. The testing results from our writers seems to indicate otherwise. So which side if right and what does Mark Young add to this debate? The answers are only a click away and include additional discussion about Mono-Blue, Big Red, and Tooth and Nail.

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