TagStandard

Peebles Primers — Road to Regionals: Zoo

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Regionals is mere days away, and by now you should all have chosen your starting sixty. After all, you’re always well-prepared for the big tournaments… right? For those of you who still harbor doubts, Benjamin Peebles-Mundy continues his excellent Primer series. Today is the turn of Craig Jones’s favorite deck, and the aggro option that has fallen from grace of late: Zoo. Does the addition of White give the powerful Gruul beat machine a run for its money? Is it the deck to take you to Nationals? BPM reveals all…

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Levelling Up – Identifying and Applying a Game Plan in Limited

Read Tiago Chan every Thursday... at StarCityGames.com!
As a break from the Constructed and Standard madness, Tiago Chan offers up this excellent companion piece to last week’s Identifying and Applying a Game Plan article. Last week he talked about Constructed. This week, it’s the turn of the forty-card game. Limited has a metagame, and archetypes, and in many ways mirrors its sixty-card stablemate. So why not be prepared each time you draft, and identify your game plan?

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Chatter of the Squirrel — Road to Regionals: The Regionals Metagame

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
In my experience (I’ve played in I think seven or eight Regionals by now) the tournament is more or less a representative sample of the field, but a few trends tend to take hold. First, people love “cute decks.” It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean by that, but maybe you’ll get what I’m saying. Trendy decks. Decks that are a rage on the Internet but people are trying to keep “hush-hush.” Does Dredge fit that bill? Hell yeah.

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Innovations — Road to Regionals: A Look at the Korlash Deck

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
In perfect time for Regionals, Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin brings us the complete lowdown on his super-top-secret Regionals deck. As the leaks about the deck continue to grow, what better way to prepare yourself for Korlash beatdown that to get the deck primer from the innovative creator himself? With decent matchups against the major players in the current metagame, has Patrick done it again? Read on to find out!

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Removed From Game — Road to Regionals: Standard From Scratch

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Quantum Mechanics, Bolivian Dance, and Standard. Three things Rich Hagon knew nothing about last Wednesday. Join him as he attempts to rectify one of these deficiencies. Yes, soon you’ll know that Bolivian dance repertoire, like other Andean cultures, consists of pre-Colombian dances performed in rural areas during religious and secular community celebrations, as well as the European influenced mestizo dances performed at popular festivals and celebrations of patron saints. Welcome to SupremelyCulturedGamers.com.

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Deconstructing Constructed — Road to Regionals: The Regionals Blowout

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
It’s that time again. Time for Ted Knutson’s usual metagame breakdown and tho… Oh right, he doesn’t write anymore (insert sad face here). Well, then it’s time for all the Standard players to come out from their holes in the wall and actually buy physical cards. Come out into a world where Project X is actually playable, because a bunch of annoying pop-up screens won’t time you out. Time for the 2007 Regionals preview!

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Ask The Drama — Road To Regionals: Jeroen’s Deck Clinic

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
With under a week to Regionals, Jeoren clears out all the Standard questions from his bulging mailbag in this extra-long edition of Ask The Drama! He looks at a number of interesting decks sent in by readers and fans, and gives his opinion on their choices and builds. And who knows, maybe one of these reader-built decks will be the one to pilot you to Nationals!

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Road to Regionals – Izzetron 2007

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
When I’m testing for a big tournament for Regionals, the modus operandi is usually to build a gauntlet, test, read, test, read, rebuild the gauntlet, settle on a deck, and, usually in my case, audible at the last second. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This year, I thought, might be different. For, you see, I found the deck I wanted to play very, very early in the testing process.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #181 — Road to Regionals: Regionals Comes at You Fast

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
With Regionals a week away, I have had zero time to playtest or innovate. I’m going to play at Regionals, basically, cold. I’m guessing I’m not the only one in that situation. I’ll talk about how I’m going to choose a deck, in the hopes that it might help others in the same boat.

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The Beautiful Struggle — Road to Regionals: Your Most Important Regionals Lesson

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Frankly, if you haven’t decided on a decklist by now, you probably shouldn’t attend a tournament this weekend. Most people have a pretty good idea about what they’re playing, or (as in my case) they have it narrowed down to a deck or three and they just need to choose. So instead of just ordering you to play Awesome Deck #1, #2, or #3, I offer you the lessons you really need to know for this Saturday…

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From Right Field — Road to Regionals: The Pre-Regionals Column

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Regionals is coming… and Chris is prepared. This year, he’s armed with a funky-looking deck courtesy of a close friend. It’s black, it disrupts, and it beats down. Who knows, maybe it’s the missing tech that you’re clamoring for. If you’re still undecided on your 75 of choice, maybe Chris has the answers.

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Deep Analysis — Road to Regionals: Tuning the Suicide Squad

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Last week, Richard gave us his exciting Orzhova Suicide Squad decklist… and it proved strong enough to qualify one lucky fella for German Nationals! This week’s Road to Regionals sees Richard take the deck through its paces against the most important decks in the metagame, tweaking and collating as he goes. The deck is a contender, of that there’s no doubt. Will it be the one for you? Read Richard’s excellent article and find out!

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Limited Lessons — Road to Regionals: Mono Black Rack

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
The Road to Regionals series continues all this week, and Nick is on the case! Today he tackles the popular fringe strategy Mono Black Rack, and offers some advice for the decks you’re likely to face this weekend. A lot of Magic pundits advocate storming with the Dragons at Regionals: does the heavy discard available to the Black mage offer hope against the Four Hellkites of the Apocalypse?

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Feature Article — Road to Regionals: Angry Colon Blues

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
Kyle Sanchez is back once more with his signature style of insanity and tech. Today he takes us through six different Standard decks, some old and some new, just in time for the Regionals carve-up this weekend. He also shares some of his favorite Future Sight cards, and reveals why he was less than pleased with the finale of Heroes…

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Feature Article — Road to Regionals: A Japanese Take on Future Sight Standard

Get ready for Magic the Gathering Regionals!
With U.S Regionals a mere week away, Japanese Constructed specialist Naoki Shimizu offers his formidable insight into the Standard metagame. He takes a lingering look at the power cards from Future Sight, and sees what role, if any, the new cards will take in the popular decks in the format. This article is essential for those players looking to march to the Regionals Top 8 table.

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