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Restless: Kentucky State Championship *5th Place*

I’m not here to present what you should have played at States, or what could have won you the State Championships. I’m here to tell you my story. I’m one of the players who thinks that States is nothing more then a social event; a tournament that is best held in the presence of good friends. Much more relaxed than a Pro Tour Qualifier, but much more difficult than, oh, your local Friday Night Magic. And yet still I managed to come in fifth out of a hundred and sixty-six people.

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Virginia Top 8 – The Coverage!

Alas, Ted didn’t manage to make the Top 8 this year – but he did prepare for his upcoming coverage of New Orleans this weekend by covering the Quarterfinals, the Semifinals, and the Finals of the West Virginia State Championships! Witness the U/B Mesmeric Orb vs. Goblin Bidding matchup, see Shane”Second Place At The Vintage Championships” Stoots attempt to take the Championship, and witness”The Jankiest Deck Ever To Make A Top 8″ versus U/B Zombies!

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Interviews With The Top 8 Of Virginia States

…And to further cement the coverage, Ted interviews the Top 8 to see how they developed their decks and what they thought their chances were!

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Why Is Wizards Using Us To Beta Test Magic Online?

Why isn’t there a dedicated group of Magic Online testers that are given the time to really test out the system? Each Magic expansion has a core set of testers that plays and practices with the product extensively to make sure none of the cards are too powerful or too weak such that it will ruin the enjoyment of the game. In fact, this is the hallmark of Magic that Wizards is proud to trumpet. So in light of the sad and unprofessional cancellation of Chuck’s Virtual Party this weekend, where is the core group of testers for the Online game to make sure that our enjoyment isn’t ruined?

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Critical Mass: Why Vintage Needs Bannings Now, And Three Approaches To Help Make It Painless

Burning Desire has shown us the way of the future: There are enough ways to break the rules that they barely exist anymore for a Type 1 combo deck. Granted, I didn’t play during Combo Winter – but I’ve never seen a deck before where drawing the eye-popping three-land hand was considered a serious blow to the probability of that hand being playable (even Gro decks and ten-land Stompy don’t hate drawing their land as much as this). So what can we do about it?

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The Basics Of Mirrodin Sealed

I was shocked to discover how low the attendance was at the last PTQ I missed. It wasn’t just that event, either. Attendance was low everywhere. I just didn’t get it. It was a cool new format, the cards people would get in the event were from the new set – yet people were just not turning out in numbers. My confusion lasted until about a week before the Grand Prix, when I finally cracked open my first Mirrodin Sealed deck, and ground to a halt; I had absolutely no idea how to build a winning deck out of these cards.

Finally, I understood: This set is so different from past formats that many players probably haven’t figured out how to build a good deck from their card pools, and who would want to play in a PTQ if they can’t build a deck? So I figured I’d better show people what I found out.

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Mixed kNuts: The 2003 States Preview, Or: Damn Those Crazy Germans!

It’s that special time of year – when Teddy K. is at his peak of performance! And as usual, The Holy Kanoot goes over the top decks you have to be prepared for at States (including one deck that’s fallen off of everyone’s radar) and their chances, and the Five Rules of the New Standard. Ted’s always had the accurate scoop before… So what are you waiting for?

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My Champs Deck: It Must Be The Shoes

I was hoping Affinity would stay a little more under the radar, but it has not. Why would I hope this? Well, obviously because I am playing an Affinity deck at Champs! While all the conventional builds are fast, they all lose to very popular cards in the environment. Let me illustrate:

Affinity player:”I will cast Frogmites and Myr Enforcers and Atog. YUSSS!”
Control player:”I will Akroma’s Vengeance. Would you like to scoop up all your permanents or would you like to regenerate your one land with your Welding Jar?”
Affinity player:”Derf.”

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Situation #1 Through #3: Mirrodin Drafting And Choices

Basically, what happened was that I was sure I was running red for most of the draft, and my second color continued to evade me as I was continually passed high picks in other colors. In the end, I accumulated an excellent set of cards to compliment my red – thirty-seven playables – with the problem being that I had about an equal number for each of the other four colors. Quite a predicament! So how would you build it?

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Playtesting For Champs: The Aggro And Combo Decks

So States is this weekend. What the hell am I playing? I have Affinity.dec, MRC, Mind’s Desire, Goblins, WW, and I have the cards for Rising Tog. I sit and stare at the decks piled on by desk and I thank the Magic gods that I have tested all of them. The best deck (if massive amounts of hate aren’t aimed straight at its dome) is Affinity. Because it is so easy to hate out, I can’t play it. This bothers me, because it is just so damn good. In the end, I needed a deck. So I came up with a solution.

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Old Format, New Conflict: Old-School Versus New-School In Type One

Type One is becoming more and more in its dynamics like Type Two, and some Type One players don’t like it. What it really boils down to is that a good many players have invested in a format they thought was casual – and although they built good, competitive decks, tested them and tuned them, even went to GenCon to play it out, what they now have come to realize, is that Type One has finally arrived, and it wasn’t what they bargained for.

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You CAN Play Type I #108: The State Of The Metagame Address (Or, Is Oscar Tan His Own Worst Enemy?)

Again, what should we do? Innovate towards faster kills, meaning Turn 1? I think there’s a point where you know where the metagame is taking you, and you should take the wheel from the driver already. I mean, we now have a format where a 2/1 for one mana has long since been too weak. My point is that Type I is too fast, and that proposing to slow it down is not a move to make Type I less competitive; it’s a move to make Type I more realistic.

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The Road To States 2003: Affinity

Chris, local player and recent addition to my playtesting group the High Plains Drifters, says that affinity is the new madness – and he’s pretty much right on the ball. If you’ve played around with affinity-based decks, they’re much like the aggro-control U/G Madness decks – drop some early threats that are both undercosted and large, back them up with a pinch of countermagic, and win the game before it gets into a war of attrition.

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States Metagame: Goblins

Fresh off his second-place finish this weekend, Nate discusses what’s coming up for his favorite tournament – States! And even though the decklist is old Onslaught Block hat, what other decks are emerging that might threaten Goblins?

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The Mono-White Drive-By: Rapping Strategy, Take II

Yo, I’m Craig, and I’m a card-playing wizard,

Beating you up with my mono-white blizzard,

Throwing superior skill in your face,

Winning the gold in the Human Race,

Mono-white rapping like Vanilla Ice,

You wanna do well? Here’s my advice:

Swing with men and dish out defeat!

Play White Weenie, it’s the deck to beat!

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