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Food for Thought: Frog Rides Again

Is there a super-fast Green/Red deck for Standard done in the style of the old Frog in a Blender decks? Dave Meddish thinks their might be, but he needs your help to know whether or not it’s really any good – just don’t beat him up for playing Lava Spike.

Deconstructing Arcane

With Dampen Thought-based Limited decks getting talked up a lot these days, the splice mechanic is getting the spotlight thrown on it in a big way. When drafting, as long as you know which cards are useful, the deck practically builds itself. Take the best card for you and pass; when it comes time to build your deck, you have all the pieces in front of you. In Block Constructed, the decisions aren’t quite as easy. With access to whichever cards you want, deciding which to run (and in what quantities) can be just as difficult to figure out as getting the draft version of the deck to come together.

SCG Daily – The Golden Age #3: My Favorite Giant

There were only thirteen of them, but their existence stretched from Legends to Mirage. That’s the length of seven sets (two large, five small) if you’re counting. If you opened a pack of Fallen Empires, Homelands, or The Dark, you’d never find one, but the mechanic they presented was a Magic staple nevertheless, a mechanic that found a home in each of the five colors. And of all the retired mechanics of the past, this one has, possibly, had the most influence on the later state of the game. What is this riddle of a mechanic I am talking about? Why it’s …

A Beacon of Fun

Who says all the fun decks in Standard can’t win? How about a deck that combines Dragons, Beacons, Rude Awakening, and Meloku plus Fecundity to boot? Bennie returns from his holidays to give you the lowdown on a deck that is powerful, competitive, and downright fun to play!

Sports, Women, and Magic… or “A Look at U/G Madness in Extended”

Good man and Grand Prix: Columbus Top 8 member Cedric Phillips makes his first appearance on StarCityGames.com with analysis of Pro Tour: Columbus, the skinny on the best builds of U/G Madness, and a couple of pictures of the smokin’ hot Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders. What’s not to love?

Mining the Crystal Quarry: The Champions Multiplayer List

John takes a look at the Champions winners for multiplayer so that you can get everything situated before you are scrambling to grab the best cards from Betrayers as well.

SCG Daily – The Golden Age #2: Leviathan, Too!

In the first article in this series, we looked at Sheep, Starfish, and Hippo tokens. Today, we’re going to the other extreme.

The Year in Preview: The 10 Biggest Magic Events and Trends of 2005!

Bleiweiss had a hell of a 2004! He was one of the most popular writers on our site, became the most reviled man in the Type One community, and predicted Magic card trends like none other. He’s back to kick off 2005 with a brand new set of predictions for the game we know and love. Which ones will come true and which ones will set off a firestorm of controversy? You’ll have to read the article to find out!

The Backup Plan

Everybody and their brother wants to draft Dampen.dec these days because… well, because it’s both powerful and stylish. But what happens when you don’t get the Dampen Thoughts that make the deck work? Is there a way to draft this type of deck and still win without the namesake card? Nick shares his thoughts today on how to keep winning even when you are a hopeless Dampen.dec addict like he is.

From Right Field: Extending New Year’s Greetings and Salivations

So, I started looking at a few of the most popular Extended decks like U/G Madness and Psychatog, and I noticed that Islandwalk might be good against them. Islandwalk usually means playing Blue, Lord of Atlantis, and Merfolk. Okay, it always means playing Blue, Lord of Atlantis, and Merfolk. Could such a deck work?

Context Analysis: Knowing When To Cut The Good Cards

It is very dangerous to point at a card and say, “That card won me that game; therefore, it should be in my deck.” There’s always more to the story than whether or not the card was good in one particular game or in one particular match. Even Feast of Worms can win games under the right circumstances.
That’s why this concept of negative context analysis is so tough to come to grips with. You improve your deck only very slightly when you realize that a good-in-general card should really be replaced by a jankier card that fits your deck better. If a certain “good” card wins you five out of ten playtest games, you’ll probably never stop to think whether a different card would have won you six out of ten.

SCG Daily – The Golden Age #1

We’ve finally done it. With the new year, we’ve now made a daily article besides Ask the Judge a regular feature on StarCityGames.com. This will be a rotating post filled by a number of our Featured Writers over the course of the year designed to give you a glimpse into their daily Magical thoughts. The first installment of this new feature will be manned for the next few weeks by none other than the quirky, entertaining, and most excellent Adam Grydehoj!

Star City Power Nine Tournament Series Event Coverage Archive!

Star City Power Nine Tournament Series Event Coverage Archive!

Blessed! Grand Prix: Chicago *Winner* Part 1

Pelcak, Aten, and Szleifer win Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix Chicago!It’s not every day that you win a Grand Prix, so Pelcak has decided to grace our site with another one of his wonderful reports. How did :B make it through Day 1 with a 7-1 record, setting them up for an undefeated Day 2? Details are inside!

Just How Good is Volcanic Hammer?

The deck in question is Red Deck Wins. The question in question is “Jet or Hammer?” Last week we talked about these cards in the RDW mirror match, and I came out saying that I like Magma Jet more. Since then, two outstanding Red mages have stepped forward supporting Volcanic Hammer. Now, I agree with them that Hammer is better in the mirror, but what about the other matchups?