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The Secret Weapon Does it Again – Grand Prix: Detroit *2nd*

If you’ve been around Rich Hoaen for any period of time, you’ll understand that he’s probably better known for his powers of flatuence than he is for his Magic play. This is in spite of the fact that he’s consistently one of the top Limited players in the world. Today you get the story of how he finished second at Grand Prix: Detroit and while you’re reading, feel free to count the number of his opponents that actually had no idea who this “Rich Hoaen” guy is.

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SCG Daily: MODO Genuine Draft

Hello once again. So much has happened since yesterday. How about that Pro Tour Player’s club, eh? What about the return of Family Guy, huh? Remember that last article of mine, do you? Me neither, so I’m stalling for time while I reread it. I learned a lot from yesterday’s draft, and especially the kind and not so kind forum responses from the article. Many thanks to all who wrote in and crushed my fragile spirits! In the spirit of the fine forum responses I received, I shall detail the lessons I learned yesterday and use them to guide me in today’s draft.

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Ce Plus Change, Ce Plus Memes Choses

The return of Sean McKeown to regular writing curiously coincides with a return of obscure French article titles, moody song lyrics, and more Standard decklists than you can shake a stick at, including what Sean would be working on if he were playing in the Pro Tour: Philly LCQ this weekend.

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Pondering Inevitability and Its Effects

A while ago Kyle Boddy wrote an article on the concepts of momentum and inevitability, which was based off an article written by Flores. It was an interesting topic and really got me thinking about what inevitability actually means in different formats. Inevitability itself is hard to explain, since between two decks with similar strategies and speed, there is nothing truly tangible to argue one way or the other. It becomes completely dependent on the board state and resource position when two decks of similar types square off typically. Here’s my basic definition of inevitability…

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The Flower in the Room

In his second-to-last article before the Pro Tour commences, Zvi takes a look at the various Hana Kami decks and searches for broken synergies with this seemingly innocent 1/1 spirit.

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Vintage Metagame Breakdown: March

The reason I wanted to wait an extra week or so on describing the March data was to find some continuity between Trinisphere and post-Trinisphere metagames. Fortunately, the connection isn’t “games are over on turn 1”. The connection is Mana Drain. Any look at the March tournaments begs the question of what will now disappear from the Vintage metagame, and what will be playable that wasn’t before.

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SCG Daily: How’s my Drafting? Call 1-800-EAT-THIS

Pugg Fuggly is not a sane man. In fact, we’re not even sure he’s human. When he came to me and told me his idea about doing a daily draft walkthrough and then using forum feedback to adjust his strategies each day, I tried to talk him out of it because I knew it would be an insane amount of work to pull off. That didn’t stop him, and now you get five straight days of hot drafting action. Please, take pity on the man – read this article and then help him out in the forums!

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Abeth Edition, Part 1: The Commons

I have spent over two months constructing, playtesting, and balancing a basic set to see if I can do Wizards one better. So let me explain the principles behind Abeth Edition, how and why I chose the cards, and what rules that Wizards has laid down that I choose to break.

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Major Changes to the Star City Power Nine Tournament Series!

The Star City Power Nine Tournament Series... Bigger and Better than EVER!

More proxies.
More prizes.
More Bleiweiss?!?!

Absolutely.

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Velocity

Did you ever notice that certain decks out there always seem to have cards moving from place to place… It’s not accurate to call what these decks do card drawing per se; their focus, or advantage if that is the element in question, is not based on bulk or even necessarily qualitative card advantage. Like sharks, these decks need to move in order to live… Should they stop, they don’t typically get up again. That’s the topic we will be discussing today, along with a look back at some great decks in history that have exhibited these traits.

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Mind Your Step – A Grand Prix: Lisbon Report *T8*

You want to know how one of the best Limited players of all time added yet another Grand Prix Top 8 to his busty resume? Today StarCityGames.com delivers.

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SCG Daily – Chad’s War Stories Five: Pure Silliness

This has been a fun mini-column to write. For my final installment, I’m not going to talk about Magic – at least, not entirely – I’m just going to share a random stream of consciousness. Why? Because that’s who I am.

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From Right Field: Eradicate This!

Due to some timing issues, Chris couldn’t finish the Rat’s Nest evolution article this week, but in its place you get a budget deck that includes some swell things to do with three colors, Lifespark Spellbomb, and Eradicate.

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What to Expect at Waterbury

One of the hottest deck designers and most amusing Vintage writers around gives you a sneak peak at what decks to expect at this weekend’s Waterbury megatournament. As if that weren’t enough, he also provides decklists for players of all shapes, sizes, races, creeds, and budgets and tells you what he’s playing this weekend. How could you not read this?

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Theme Deck Week — The Winner, And Next Week’s Challenge!

Theme Deck Week was an interesting contest to judge, since how do you judge a theme deck? Playability? Creativity? Adherence to theme? But the two best decks were two things dear to my heart: Metroid and Ender’s Game. They were both great decks, but the tiebreaker was playability – and based on that, Sean Coleman’s 8-bit U/R Magic Metroid deck took the $20 prize!

This past week was creativity. Next week, however, we’ll reward storytelling with a very open-ended contest:

My Funniest Win Ever.

That’s right; everybody loves Ben Bleiweiss’s and Geordie Tait’s wacky stories about their friends and the weird games they’ve played in, so now it’s your chance to share entertaining stories with the crowd! Remember, the several thousand people who visit StarCityGames.com every day have absolutely no clue what you or your friends are like — so the better you can paint a picture in words, the greater your chance of actually making us laugh. Remember, it’s not just how the cards flopped, but the good times you had along the way!

Send your funniest win into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2 today, and you could win $20!

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