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Ready, Set, Extended!

Last weekend, the Extended season started with a very loud bang in the form of an 833 player Grand Prix in Europe. Clearly, this was a tough tournament to play in – but a lot can be learned from this bloodbath, which left 819 casualties on day one. The Day One survivors provide a snapshot of what decks are good in the post Houston metagame, because no bad decks are going 7-1-1, that’s for sure. What deck does Rob think that YOU should add to your playtest gauntlet right now?

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As God Is My Witness, I Will Never Suck Again

“For awhile, my game was getting progressively better. I was playing at a higher and higher level. Anyway, I’ve been noticing I’ve hit this plateau lately, so I was trying to figure out why I can’t get off of it. I want to know why I’m stuck.”
“Okay. I’m starting to feel like your therapist now.”
“Jungian?”
“Freudian – and I’m a little creeped out by it. What have you come up with?”

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Building Your First Five, Volume Five: Creating the Mana Base

This is it: The final part. The cards have been chosen for the three decks we’ve been creating… Now it’s time to add the mana. And Abe rolls up his sleeves and gets more down and dirty than he’s ever gotten before, discussing percentages, ratios, and basically discussing 5-Color mana bases like no one has before. Go Abe!

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FINAL JUDGEMENT: Grand Prix Los Angeles

My formal report about Head Judging Grand Prix Los Angeles is on the DCI Judge page; this report contains some of the other stuff that went on over the weekend. At the end, I’ll tell you how I got a well-known Pro Tour bad boy to be on his best behavior all weekend.

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Synergy In Onslaught Limited: Go Banana!

Blue has a lot of tricks in it, and you can get very sneaky, but in the end all you have are a bunch of overpriced 1/1 dorks that die to the smallest removal. What are you going to do, alpha strike with Wizards? This is like cheering for banana.

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Magic Art Matters – Onslaught’s Walking Desecration

As far as Magic art goes, there is no museum dedicated to it – at least not yet. But wouldn’t that be a nice idea? Imagine a finely crafted building, situated right there on the Wizards campus in Renton, perhaps designed in the style of the Tolarian Academy, or any one of a number of Magically-significant structures. Its sole purpose would be to house the finest art of Magic. And Daren Bader would have his own wing.

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Double Or Nothing: 5-Color Revisited

Each colour has at least five cards that cycle for colorless mana. Pick any four and two of the fifth and you satisfy the eight cards of one colour minimum but don’t need to play any land of that colour. This means you can, effectively, play mono-color decks in 5-color Magic. So why not?

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Ralphie’s Revenge, Rainbow Slide, and Other Tidbits

B/W Astral Slide doesn’t have the luxury of Lightning Rifts to burn out the little ones like its R/W cousin. It needs to survive the initial creature rush a bit better, as decks like G/W and U/G still can provide a lethal amount of heat out of the gates a bit too regularly. Also, with mirror matches now figuring in heavily as part of the metagame, the Treatment also needs a more flexibility against the other kids on the Astral playground. So the green has to be there – but in what quantity?

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You CAN Play Type I #68: The Control Player’s Bible, Part XXIII – Head to Head With German TnT

Several weeks ago, TnT went toe to toe against the best control players in Virginia and New York at the Virginia States Black Lotus tournament. Can Oscar do any better against a deck that can throw out threats as easily as you throw out excess Tahngarth’s Glares? Watch and see!

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From Right Field: How To Be An Elvish Impersonator

ELVISH CHAMPION: Okay, settle down. Let’s get down to business. I’d like to welcome you to the 23rd meeting of the Elvish Convocation Interdimensional. I’d like to say 23rd”annual” meeting – but as we all know, Odyssey block was a bad one for elves. So we haven’t met in over a year. Luckily, Wizards took our petition to heart and has added to our ranks in Onslaught. Which brings us to our first order of business: It seems that Jason Jablonski is all hyped about all of the Elves in Onslaught.

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Undefeated On Day One Again, Knocked Out Of The Top Spot Again – Grand Prix: LA Report

I wouldn’t advise playing Weird Harvest in every deck… But when you luck out and get the strongest sealed you’ve ever seen with Rorix, Butcher Orgg, Starstorm, AND Slice And Dice, you know your critters will be better than theirs. And let me tell you how the Top 8 Draft would have been entirely different IF one of the players had known how to play Magic…

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The StarCityGames.com Interview: Frank Kusumoto, founder of the Magic Dojo!

Thanksgiving was yesterday… and what are we thankful for here at StarCityGames.com? We’re thankful that great men like Frank Kusumoto founded The Dojo and made it possible for us to continue in the tradition of providing Magic strategy, holding debates on Magic issues, and expanding the community, that’s what! And to remind us of our roots, StarCityGames.com founder Pete Hoefling interviews The Dojo founder Frank Kusumoto… and makes an exciting announcement afterwards!

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Reanimating Benzo, Part 2: The Complete Sideboarding Plan

The main deck served me well enough: Benzo gets lots of easy game one wins versus players who have their answers in the sideboard. The real key to my success was in our sideboarding plans. As my opponents were boarding in cards that allowed them to beat Reanimator decks in their testing, I was bringing in cards that changed the way my deck worked. The cards they sideboarded in were simply inappropriate to deal with the deck they were facing in game 2… So let me show you how, and why, you sideboard against The Rock, TurboOath, U/B Reanimator, Aluren, Tog, Infestation/Upheaval, Enchantress, and Angry Ghoul.

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Multiplayer Is An Art: Part 21: Mox Jet Theories

So I’ve tried to persuade you that Mox Jet is not round. Isn’t that enough? No? Well, how about I answer Rizzo’s questions for you, and discuss cards that no sane person should never touch in Magic – like Coat of Arms?

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Force Of Will: Reworking The Metagame Clock For Extended

There’s been a lot of debate about what sorts of decks The Rock and Reanimator are – and although people are wrong in their placement, there is a radical shift of the metagame clock that is happening as we watch. However, there are still lessons to be learned – and what can the metagame clock tell us about the viability of Aggro-Control and the future of Reanimator?

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