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Why the Banning of Splinter Twin is Good for You, New Modern Player

If you haven’t already heard that [card]Splinter Twin[/card] was banned from Modern play this weekend after being spoiled (yes, another inadvertent spoiler!) by an overzealous Magic Online playtester, then, my friend, you are just the player for which I am writing this article. Typically, I write about casual stuff like Commander and how I like…

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No Time to Waste – Brewing for Oath of the Gatewatch Standard

The spoilers are out.  All of them. The complete card list for Oath of the Gatewatch was finally released just a few days ago. A lot of cards caught my eye. A devoid, conditional [card]Rampant Growth[/card] variant looks to push the ramp decks’ abilities to get their game plan rolling faster than ever, despite putting heavy…

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Gruul Blitz – The Most Underrated Deck in Modern

First off, a belated happy holidays and a happy New Year to everyone!  As I mentioned in my previous article about the Modern ban list, I have spent the limited amount of time I’ve had to enjoy Magic: The Gathering testing different brews in Modern.  Lately I’ve been going off the deep end trying to make…

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The Eldrazi Mythos: The Past and Possibilities of Magic’s Eldritch Monsters

There are two things that are constant about me. The first being that I love Magic and the second being that I love a good Lovecraft story. I’ve read most of the classics and some of the more obscure ones. But that’s enough about me. I’m here today to talk to you about how Wizards…

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Mono Brew #1 – A Brewer’s Manifesto

No matter the stakes, no matter the format, the only thing you’ll find in this player’s hands is a brew. It might be the pet deck they’ve been tweaking and tuning for months, or it might be something new and spicy every week. Either way, playing a popular or “tier 1” deck is completely off the table for…

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Bagging on Boring Old Boros

Whenever someone on the internet starts a conversation about what the best color pair is in Commander, you get a lot of diverse opinions with a myriad of reasons and arguments. “Izzet is basically a Batman and Superman team up,” they’ll say. “Yeah but Azorius is like Captain America and Thor in a helicopter!” another…

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The Staple Binder – Making the Most of Your Collection

This past week, @seantabares and @andyhullbone, the guys at The Commander’s Brew podcast talked about a really cool idea that I believe many kitchen table players could benefit from thinking about.  That idea is the staple binder (Episode 22). A staple binder isn’t necessarily a binder with plastic card protector sheets. It is simply a collection of…

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It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Non Blue Alternatives in Legacy

It’s been a while since I last checked in and the Legacy format has changed a lot since GP Seattle. Lands taking down the Grand Prix and Punishing Blue winning the Star City Games Legacy Open in November certainly showed that the format is in a position now where decks can get away with not running four copies of [card]Brainstorm[/card]….

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Why Spoilers Suck

Trick Jarrett published an interesting article today and having had some time to digest the piece and the feedback (blowback?) from it, I’ve decided my opinion on the matter would be laborious and difficult to Tweet. What’s the point of owning a soapbox if you only ever pay other people to stand on it? I…

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Vintage Cube Retro Art Patch 2015

This patch is no longer being distributed, it contained images which infringed WotC’s copyrights. I did not consider this was occurring, I apologize for my transgressions. -Marcel I am working on a tutorial on how to custom the card art for any card on Magic Online, it should be live before the new year at:…

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To Ban or Unban?

It has been a while since I’ve contributed to the site and I’ve missed writing, missed seeing your comments, missed feeling like I’ve contributed to the community that I so enjoy being a part of.  Due to some personal commitments, I haven’t been as active a participant in the current Standard season, though I have…

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How Magic Almost Ruined My Life

Magic: The Gathering does a lot of good things for a lot of good people; it gives them an avenue to socialize, a hobby to be passionate about and a game to love and enjoy. In local game stores all around the world, long-standing friendships and relationships, deep cutting rivalries and meaningful senses of belonging…

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Taking All the Turns – A Modern Extra Turns Primer

If you ask a typical Magic player what their favorite thing is in the game, one of the common answers you’ll hear is “drawing cards.” It’s why cards like Howling Mine have been in the game since it was created, and why that effect has stuck around since. Ask a typical Magic player what the…

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A Veritable Mixed Bag: Looking Back at GP Seattle

Woah. What a week it’s been for the format. In the week running up to GP Seattle, Legacy seemed to go from being relatively quiet and keeping to itself, to exploding with energy and buzz. I was hoping to do this week’s article on the new Jace and his place in Legacy but a lot has…

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Jolrael and her Killer Lands

Land Destruction (it’s not what you think) People generally hate land destruction in EDH and I think that’s okay. Land destruction is not terribly fun for the affected and tends to make games last forever. So we’re a no go on land destruction – but what about land DESTRUCTION? As in, destroying people with your…

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BFZ – Standing in the Way of Control

Control decks have lost their way in BFZ Standard. They currently represent Less than five percent of the winning meta game. Control often flounders in the early meta because the deck is made of answers. If the threats haven’t stabilized in the meta, it is hard to know which answers to include. There are a number of…

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Miracles with Mr Miyagi: A Look Towards GP Seattle

Well it’s been quite an interesting couple of weeks. The banlist update really did give Legacy a new breath of life, not that it needed one but it’s certainly a great time to be playing the format. In the past two weeks alone, we’ve had an MKM Series in Prague and an SCG Open in…

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Enchanted – A Shot at Standard Enchantress

It became a necessity to find something else to play after losing eight straight rounds with Atarka Landfall, and another 4 with Atarka Red. I was determined to stop losing to the various Jeskai and Abzan decks that were flooding the format. Suddenly something clicked in my head while watching the coverage of Pro Tour…

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Organizing Your Collection #2 – Boxes of Cards

In my last article, I talked about what kind of things to take into account when you’re choosing how to store & organize your Magic collection. This time, I’m going to talk about a few of the most common methods people use to store their cards and how well they work for different purposes. Massive pile…

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Brewing With Battle for Zendikar

Welcome back for Brewing With Battle for Zendikar. First off let me apologize for the delay in this article, my computer died the day I was going to start and was down for a week. On the plus side it did give me some extra time to make even more decks. This time I brought…

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I Have Been, and Always Shall Be, Your Friend: The Dig Through Time Banning

I woke up on Monday the 28th of September feeling good. The weekend had been great, I was recently employed, everything was well. And then it came to four o’clock, and my heart sank as I logged onto The Source and I read these words: “[card]Dig Through Time[/card] banned in Legacy.” I couldn’t believe it. It…

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Organizing Your Collection #1 – Piles of Cards

When we moved house a few months ago, Himself wanted to call our new house ‘the house of cards’ as we own so many. Often we have piles of cards all over the house, until I get around to sorting them all out again. Himself has been playing Magic off and on since he was…

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Magic Online Standard – Down with Atarka Red!

Last weekend, with the StarCityGames Open at Indianapolis, we saw our first glimpse into what the new Standard format looks like.  There were a lot of really interesting decks that performed well and we saw some card choices I hadn’t anticipated.  I thought Brian DeMars did an incredible job of tuning his Atarka Red list…

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You Can Counter on Ephara

Some people hate fun. Whether they’re the dickhead boss that refuses employees nap time and Rock Band in the break room, or are simply an avid fan of TV’s Gotham, having a good time simply doesn’t appeal to some people. The same is often said for those who run a lot of counterspells in EDH….

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Legacy’s Allure

This weekend, my LGS is having its first Legacy FNM. For people who don’t play Legacy, this is just a chance for people to show off their dual lands, Force of Wills and Wastelands. I guarantee there will be some people who’ll show up just to see cards they may never see again. I mean,…

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