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Ben accidentally deleted this fine article the first time so now he has to live with the shame of this teaser in his archives.

It’s pretty rare that Mike Flores and I disagree about Magical things. The last serious disagreement I can recall was at a Neutral Ground PTQ, where we disagreed over whether I should smash all the Neutral Ground faces and take the slot home to Your Move Games. Mike was understandably bitter about that one for a while. So when I read in the front-page blurb of his recent article that Mike disagreed with me – this time about the correct build for Flea Market – I had to step up.

The tournament began, and the format was Type One, single elimination. The turnout? Over six hundred people. This was before the Pro Tour, before Grand Prix, and was an event relegated mainly to the Magic players of the Northeast. I want you to consider how insane this turnout was by modern standards. There was virtually no internet advertising for this tournament. If you were from out of the tri-state area, the only way to find out about the New York Magic tournament was through word of mouth.

Ken didn’t play in the GP this weekend, but he did attend the event. If you want more explanation than that, you’ll have to check inside.

Magic is without a doubt a game with elements of both luck and skill. I happen to believe that the skill aspect is much larger than the luck part. How else would you explain repeat champions such as legends Kai Budde or Jon Finkel? One can acquire additional skill by reading strategy articles, play testing, and various other means. However, no matter how much you practice, there’s always going to be someone with more innate skill than you. There will always be bad matchups. There will always be bad draws. At some point in your Magic career, you will be the huge underdog, and this guide is for you.

What deck do you think will win the Standard portion of Worlds?

In 1994, while I was a student in New Orleans at Tulane, there was a man by the name of Tony Parodi who frequently stopped in at Jim Hanley’s Universe. Tony hated the feel of newsprint, and was not there for comic books. However, he had gotten into this great new collectible card game, and wanted Jim Hanley’s to start carrying the game, so he could pick them up during his lunch break. After weeks of pestering, the store employees finally agreed to order a single box of product. The product had already gone up above retail price on the wholesale level, so they priced the packs at $10 each. The box of Legends was put out at the register that morning at 10am. By noon, the entire box had been sold.

“I can’t believe I lost again.”
“Shucks, I just lost.”
“I thought I was going to win. I can’t believe I just lost.”
“Where are my pants?”

More mulligan decisions with the master.

Refusing to give in to the system, I decide to write today’s article. No Magic article has been in me longer than this one, yearning to breathe free. Writing this article is my greatest fear. And maybe my greatest joy as well.

It’s now halfway through the Block Constructed PTQ season. So far, the block looks pretty solid. A lot of decks have game, and nothing — not even Ravager — is dominant. It’s time for an overview and some breakdowns.

In the past month of playing at least a draft a day, I’m fairly certain that I’ve broken the MD5 draft format wide open with a single archetype. I basically go into every draft with the idea of forcing this deck in some shape or form, since the deck is extremely flexible and maximizes the power level you can obtain, while still keeping up with the tempo of the format.

Now with free Rogue Deck List! Recently Chad Ellis and others have published on a deck that I was working on (shh shh secretly) a while back. I will go into detail later as to why I disagree with a lot of what Chad thinks. First of all, here is my version…