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My card advantage articles had to assume that only card advantage was important, so you could do the bean counting without getting too confused. However, it’s painfully obvious that card advantage isn’t always the most important thing:
For example, Force of Will trades two cards for an opponent’s spell, yet it’s one of the best blue cards ever printed. So why is Force of Will good? The answer lies in the frequently-misunderstood concept of Tempo.

Conventional wisdom says that while forcing a certain deck may work out some of the time, the numbers say that the important cards for the deck will not show up frequently enough to reliably force it. This is simply not so with Goblins in Onslaught draft because of the huge number of cards that the deck can key off of. Cards that aren’t even playable in other decks become powerhouses, simply because they belong to the Goblin tribe. So despite the protests of a couple close friends who have made a good bit of profit off of the Goblins draft strategy on Magic Online, I’m here to share it with you today.

Most people have some idea of what signalling is, but nearly everyone thinks they are bad at it. But on the plus side, it’s one of those areas that you can claim to be bad and still sound good. By acknowledging you are bad at signalling, you are basically saying,”Okay, I suck – but at least I suck at something very cool and mysterious, while the rest of you are busy sucking at ordinary things.” But how do we signal? I looked at four drafts I did, and asked people what colors they had actually wanted me to play, and what the people I had signalled actually did play, all in order to see how it’s done.

Ted gives his usual dose of”strategic excuses to post pictures of scantily-clad women,” discussing Onslaught Block and the futility of his attempts to win at it, and dissecting a recent Roanoke PTQ to see what the field looks like these days.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Star City Events is unable to host a Mirrodin Prerelease in our usual city… Richmond, VA. But why let a little thing like that stop us? On September 20th, join Sheldon Menery and the rest of the Star City Events team… when, for the first time EVER, we proudly host the Mirrodin Prerelease in beautiful Virginia Beach, VA! Mark your calendars!

NEW! Full information on the Virginia Beach Mirrodin Prerelease is now posted!

Our take on B/W Control has shown the most promise. I find it hard to believe it’s nowhere to be seen among the top-tier Onslaught Block decks. It has all the tools to handle the current Tier I decks – Zombie Bidding, Goblins, MWC, Slide – but I haven’t seen a build that can beat those decks. That doesn’t mean I don’t think such a build exists. In my opinion, the right mix of cards hasn’t been found yet – the archetype is solid. So let’s take a look!

The flavor texts of Ice Age are given new substance in the novel The Eternal Ice. However, unlike The Dark’s novelization, the flavor texts from Ice Age serve in a much more environmental capacity than in a storytelling one. For example, Disa, the Restless has a large role to play in the flavor texts of Ice Age, but no place in the novel – and no real impact on the goings-on of the time period. Alternately, Jaya Ballard has many enjoyable quotes from this set and plays a large role in the story, but the two facets of her existence are not interrelated. Therefore, as usual, The Real Story Behind Ice Age will give further insight into the storyline behind the flavor texts….

Bennie clears house on his past articles, discussing why he really loves control (just not the hard counterspelly kind), goes back to see whether he’s been able to beat the notorious Chuck, and airs his views on Magic writing – and tells you why his viewpoint is valid even if he has no pro points, dangit!

The Claw, Darwin Kastle’s top 8 deck from Pro Tour: Venice, is dead… But this doesn’t mean you have to give your Kilnmouth Dragons away to the local kids! Although the modified Explosive Vegetation incarnation of the Claw is now obsolete, Dragons can live on as a version of a R/W Control deck. Basically, the Neo-Claw takes the powerful control elements of MWC, and adds board-controlling burn and important tools for control mirrors from Red to create a nice complement to the powerful flying finishers.

When people in the Magic community think of me, I can only wonder what they think, but I’m sure that in between thoughts of”That guy’s terrible!” and”What was he thinking!?” they wonder why I play the most ridiculous decks every time without fail. And trust me – I have good reasons for playing a Cleric deck at Nationals!

Some of you may be thinking of tearing up cards that go to the graveyard, but that’s not what I’m talking about – that’s a different”Ironman.” This was an equally crazed version of normal Magic: Five-hundred card decks of all five colors, ten card hands and a hundred life, played at a table with as many opponents as you could find. And one more thing: Every single card, basic lands excepted, was restricted.