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The College Dropout: Giving Gifts

So what are you supposed to do if you want to play Standard, but absolutely abhor the idea of having to play one of the established boring decks? I know casting a Vedalken Shackles and taking control of a dork is not a lot of fun to me, nor is casting a Plow Under, and hoping to draw an Eternal Witness. What else is there? What decks are exciting, and powerful and let you not play with nine-mana sorceries? What decks can you play with that are different – that can take the tournament by surprise and let you have fun while winning matches?

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SCG Daily – Episode 5: Revenge of the Pith

Pugg joins the 8-4 queue on Magic Online to try and go out with a bang for his final installment of SCG Daily. Hijinks ensue.

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Abeth Edition, Part 5: The Final Groupings, And Wrap-Up

Of course, there are lots of ways to gain card advantage in Abeth Edition, the alternate Core Set that I’ve created. The concept is so important that it should hardly be limited to Blue. Additionally, other colors get sweeping effects or multiple targets: Wrath of God, Wildfire, Shatterstorm, and Tempest of Light are excellent examples. But while White and Red get plenty of sweeping effects, Black and Green get hardly any. To compensate, both get some pure card drawing. Black gets Reprocess (which is hardly used) and Phyrexian Arena, which may be the first balanced Necropotence. Add in Skulltap and Skeletal Scrying and you have a solid amount of card drawing from common to rare.

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Greatest Win Week: The Winner, and Next Week’s Challenge!

This week’s winner was a slam dunk, except for one thing: He’d won the contest last week. Thus, I took a much closer look at the other entries; Spencer Bogan’s Breaking Wind was a funny look at a ridiculous deck, whereas Edd Black’s Three Deadly Wins were hysterical wins – but two of them were about wins that involved, well, cheating. Yet when it comes down to it, it’s hard not to give the award to an article with this punchline:

“I used my Scandalmonger to win game one in the last round of a tournament, playing against a legally blind little old lady, who was using an Elf deck she hadn’t seen until that morning.

“She went on to take the match.”

Thus, Sean Coleman wins the prize, making him (I believe) the first person ever to win any SCG article contest back-to-back. So what’s next week’s $20 Casual Challenge?

The Top Three Best Multiplayer Enchantments.

The difficulty? No Pernicious Deed. And remember, we don’t want just three cards; we want to see the decks these enchantments fit neatly into, and show us why they’re so darned spiffy when two or more players are facing you down. Send your best writing into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2, and you could win $20!

In addition, we’re looking for future Casual Challenge themes. If you’ve got a format you’d like to see highlighted or just have a neat idea you’d like to see other people writing about, let us know in the forums!

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Abeth Edition, Part 4: What Are These Cards For?

In the last three sections, I explained the basic principles I would use to construct an ideal Core set that would be better than what Wizards has done, and then I listed the cards and gave a brief synopsis of each. In these next two installments, I will try to explain and defend some of the more controversial choices, and some of the principles involved in their selection.

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Draft Archetypes, Part II: Practical Application

We’re trying something a little different today, as we bring you practical draft theory from two of the better drafters around. First on the menu today is the practical draft application section of Chad Ellis’s examination of Draft Archetypes, where Chad gives you a series of guidelines 99.9% guaranteed to improve your Limited game.

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Always Pick The Best Card

Also on the menu today is the latest from the Malaysian Sensation, Pro Tour: Nagoya semifinalist Terry Soh. In the past we’ve consistently featured articles that discuss taking cards that might be slightly lower in overall quality while passing your opponents multiples of cards in the same colors. Terry’s article today sets that theory on its head, as he explains exactly why you should always be taking the best card at the beginning of a draft. Once you’ve read both of the Premium articles today, tell us in the forums who you think got the better end of these two sometimes contradictory articles.

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SCG Daily: FUBAR? WTF. STFU!

Drafting with Pugg this week has been a very good time for all parties involved and the forums have been crackling with energy and feedback about each walkthrough. Of course, most of us keep waiting for the other shoe to drop – for Pugg to draft a really sweet deck for all of us to glory in. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

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Easy Bein’ Green

Aside from mono-Blue, mono-Red/Ponza and (maybe) White Weenie and MBC, every Standard Tier 1 deck is running Forests. That’s over half the field! It’s apparent that, right now, Green is the best color in Magic. Call Kermit the Frog, this is a real Muppet News Flash! Why, this kind of news could get Jamie Wakefield back into the game!

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Abeth Edition, Part 3: The Rares

With today’s installment, Abe fills us in on the last of the cards in his grand scheme to do Wizards one better by creating a workable Core Set! Now that you have all the cards, you can debate his choices… and tomorrow, he’ll fill you in on his playtesting.

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MODO On The Cheap: Playing Prismatic

In any 250-card deck, the first issue is getting the mana. In real life 5-Color, dual lands and fetch lands make that easy. Online, the dual lands don’t exist and the fetchlands are out of my price range for now. I don’t own the Cities of Brass, Tendo Ice Bridges, and so forth to help. I will have to make do with commons. That means that I am going to have to play extra forests and play a lot of green mana fixers.

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Blown Away

I am blown away by the improvements to Green since I have been gone. For you youngsters out there, Green was the color of sharing. Anything it got that might have been good was made horrible by the fact that it shared the benefit with your opponent. These days Green positively rocks.

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Papal Bull: Interactivity and You

JP chimes in with his thoughts on Interactivity, the changing applications of Force of Will and Mana Drain, plus some words of advice for those of you attending all these giant, rocking Vintage tournaments coming up.

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SCG Daily: The Pathos Less Traveled

The worst offense yesterday had to be in 303, where I took the Blademane Baku over Genju of the Falls. Forgive me for this transgression. Honestly, when I sat down and typed out that draft, even I felt like calling myself a moron in the forums. I came up with a lame excuse why I passed it, but hey, let’s just pretend I was on both crack and PCP when I did that. Except on June 3rd. That’s my court date.

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Down By the River – A Review of Magic Online Vanguard

If you play Magic Online, you are probably aware that the Vanguard release events are starting this week. But which avatars are the best and what decks do they belong in? Star Wars Kid’s got your back on this one, as he reviews the best of the avatars today as well as covering some of the major bugs you should be aware of before you participate in this new format.

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