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What I’m trying to do here is to compare Champions of Kamigawa to previous sets, looking for similarities in the play of Limited games that might help lay down some basics for the new Limited format. Particularly, I’m looking for the existence of some form of “fundamental play” in the new set. You’re all giving me funny looks, so I’ll explain what I’m getting at. Cue the wavy screen and flashback music… [This is one of the better Limited Fundamentals articles we’ve received in some time, and is highly recommended for anyone looking to get a jump on drafting the new set. – Knut]

Today’s column is advice to those of you who are looking to improve your game and become better players. I’d like to think it’s good advice. I’ve played the game for over a decade now, and I’ve come to learn many a lesson in my time. Some were learned early on, and some have come to me with age and maturity. What’s my motivation for passing on these pieces of advice? I’d like to make a positive difference in people’s lives, and I wholeheartedly stand behind the seven tips I’m about to post as ways to improve both your game and yourselves. Without further ado, here are my seven tips to become a better player.

There were more than a few standout cards for me at the prerelease, but I will only take the time to discuss the ones that really piqued my interest. Set reviews will have most of the Limited and Constructed applications for these cards well-covered, but I doubt you’ll have as a good a time reading them. Keep in mind that these may not be the best cards and my reasons for liking them may not be entirely sound – as I have been known to be irrational when it comes to certain creatures.

Mark Rosewater once talked about the three types of players in Wizards’s eyes: Johnny, Spike, and Timmy. They represent the hardcore win-at-all costs player, the win with combos player, and the win with big creatures player. I don’t like the terms Timmy, Johnny and Spike. To me, there are two types of Magic players in the end — those who play to win, and those who don’t.

Normally Michael contributes to the SCG community in the form of Magic art critiques. Unfortunately, since Wizards has not given him a flying bear with great art lately, there have been no critiques from him for a while. That does not mean he has abandoned Magic. In this article Michael switches gears on us and makes a case for the inherent strengths present in the mechanical game design of Magic.

Here at StarCityGames.com, we sometimes get SO many article submissions that we simply don’t have the manpower or time to properly process them all! Then there are times like this week, where the depth and quality of the submissions is so great that we even have to post some really solid articles in our forums so that these fine articles are still available to the community. Here are a few solid articles that should make for some nice weekend reading.

Forum member Norrytt shares his Prerelease experience, including his entire Team Sealed pool and how his team chose to build there decks.

Colin teams up with former Canadian Champ (and all-around good man) Josh Rider for Team Sealed at the prerelease to deliver some beats. This isn’t just your standard prerelease report though, as Colin gives good insight into what cards were good for his team last weekend, and points out which cards were more powerful than he expected. Good stuff.

William takes a casual look at everyone’s new favorite cycle of spirits.

Remember, these articles have been posted directly into our forums (and have not been edited). Please let us know what you think by sharing your feedback below each article.

Gifts Ungiven
Welcome to our power card of the set. Gifts Ungiven will be acted on quickly, of that I have no doubt. Who knows whether it will see restriction or banning. With Yawgmoth’s Will away, maybe its time for small mammals to play. Look for Gifts Ungiven to be highly sought after in Five Color circles if it is just restricted, as it looks to be an auto-include in virtually every deck.

For a more modern example, equipment is generally poor because it’s a turn where you don’t do anything. A maxed-out Opaline Bracers on turn 4 may sound nice, but if your opponent is attacking for five and playing another guy, you didn’t really do anything. Sure, in the late game your guys are demi-gods, but getting there will be a serious feat. God help you if your next creature you play gets bounced or killed. You’ll be so far behind you’ll start the next game at fifteen life. Speaking of modern examples, let’s examine one of the most potent tempo cards available in Champions of Kamigawa for a moment and see where it can be applied.

In this article, I will the tell you what I believe are the best five commons in each color in Champions of Kamigawa. These are the cards that jumped out at me through looking at the spoiler, and impressed me through what I saw at the prerelease, enough to make me believe they will be the premier commons in each given color. If you’re going to draft the new set and don’t really know what cards you should be taking, start with these 25.

Ben opens up the reader mailbag, where he answers your pressing questions! Thrill along with Ben as he responds to the burning issues such as this one from Christopher Feliciano, who writes “You are a stupid *** fat bald **** who knows nothing about magic and needs to go kill himself and get it over with! Your articles on starcitygames are pointless and suck! – A better player than you.”

Join Tim today, as the man many Magic Pros have called”the best writer in the business”, completes his tale of victory and defeat at the 2004 Worlds. Also, be sure not to miss his new”Barnecdotes” section, in what might just be the funniest Tim Aten report ever!

This week I decided to do one last MD5 Walkthrough since the format will still be up and running on Magic Online for quite some time. This time I used a different approach to the draft though, since some people have been claiming that I’m “handpicking” drafts that are too powerful or something. For this draft, I decided that it’d be more of a “Live” draft, since I’m just sitting down on MTGO, covering the draft, and then writing about it.