Editorial Section:
Chapter 1: Pick a deck (RDW in my case).  Acquire the cards you can and build a road map for acquiring the cards you need.  What can you do without, what can you use in the mean time.  Pick a deck with the style you like.  Pick a deck that you can become comfortable with.  I wasted a lot of time, energy and tickets during Alara Block Constructed trying to work out an XColor Control deck I liked, when in point of fact, I really should have been playing Jund all along.  It was a mix of pride and over-confidence on my part.  I don't have the time or, quite frankly, the skill required to eek out wins in Block constructed with a deck based around knowing the best play and the best outs for every threat I see on the stack across from me.  As such, I should have focused on either Jund, Naya, Tropical Hut or some other aggressive deck.  Even if 5 Color Control was the best deck in the format; in my hands it wasn't the best deck.  Instead of using my skills to force my opponent to have answers I tried to perform above my skill level and paid the price for my arrogance.  Knowing what I know now, I realize I should have been playing aggro decks the entire time.  Maybe I still wouldn't have won the daily events but I would have optimized my chances of at least placing in the prizes on occasion.  And that, is how someone needs to get started with competitive magic if you're not made of money.  Find a deck that performs well enough for you to win some packs and start to improve or branch out. 

Interestingly enough, this topic is one of the least written about of all the topics I've put in the list so far (the rest are below).  However, I found it kind of odd that I couldn't really find an article talking about the way a player chooses a deck... and I after some time reading and reading and reading the answer dawned on me.  Good players write strategy articles for sites.  Good players can play pretty much any deck better than I can.  A good control deck in a good player's hands is far more potent than in mine.  Likewise, good players can play mid-range, rock, combo and aggro better than I can.  So when they write about a good deck they're doing it in the mindset that they can play any deck better than the average player.  From their perspective the only deck to play is the best deck in the format; since they'll have the best results in any given tournament.  BUT!  For the rest of us, for the average or slightly above/below average player, this is not always the best course of action.  Sometimes the best deck takes too much skill or effort to profitably pilot.  At this point, the best deck in the format is no longer the best deck in the format for that person.  Maybe with lots of testing, lots of work and lots of preparation it COULD be the best deck for that person.  And if the player in question realizes that their time or skill is just not where it needs to be to utilize the best deck it could be that the best deck for that person in that format is a more forgiving or more explosive deck.  

But not everyone plays the same decks the same ways.  For instance, some players may just grok combo decks better than the others.  Some people just understand the way handle a mid-range deck's resources compared to the others.  Others just really feel comfortable running some sort of control decks.  To these players the "Best Deck in the Format" may not be THEIR best deck in the format. 

So with this in mind it's probably a good idea to ask yourself a few questions for the format you are looking at getting into or improving.  

• What decks have I had success with in the past?
• What deck type am I the most comfortable with?
• Are there any decks in format that I like?  
• Can I afford the deck that I want to play?
• If not, can I be competitive with changes to the deck?

Once you know what you WANT to play the next step becomes a bit more important, and that is actually building it and playing it.  It's not a stretch to say that many people can't just run out and build the decks they want to play whenever they want to.  For the great many that have to make sacrifices for the deck they like to play then they really need to figure out if the deck they desire is even within their grasp.  Some things can be moved around a little bit without too much of a loss in functionality.  For example, back in the days of Affinity Arcbound Ravagers were pretty pricey.  They were a huge part of the deck but weren't the only way for that deck to do what it needed to do.  Atog was often run in decks alongside Ravager and sometimes instead of.  Trade-off's will cost a few percentage points of speed, damage, tempo, power, etc.  But as long as you can get close, and are comfortable with the deck you should be able to make enough in the two man queues and Daily Events to fund finishing off the deck.  

Going forward in the next few chapters I'll visit some other concepts in a coherent and repeatable manner.  I'm building this and will be appending the chapters week to week.  I'm doing it in a week to week fashion since there is a ton of articles and words written for each of these, but none of them compile them into one coherent itinerary style format.  Next week, I'll cover a lot of things that happen to destroy people's chancing of winning.  Feel free to add any additional topics I may have missed in the comments!  I'll add them in and cover them in the next few weeks, along with reference materials to study.

Chapter 2: Tightening your play

Chapter 3: Sideboarding

Chapter 4: Practicing the right way

Chapter 5: Preparing for the tournament, physically and mentally

Chapter 6: Playing at the high level

News/Discussion:
Urza's Legacy Beta underway, pre-releases announced.
The Urza's Legacy beta has started and is now well underway.  Which means that the pre-release isn't too far away.  Details can be found in the link above.

WotC Team for the Community Cup announced:
A decent group of players for the Community Team to trounce, it would seem.  

Master's Edition Sealed Deck I -
Perhaps one of the best ways to get a hold of some new copies of the in demand MED1/2/3 cards like Force of Will or some duals.  The more that join the more copies of these cards we'll get into the system through packs and prizes, which is pretty good news all around, I'd say.

Card Price Discussion:
Some of the highest increasing cards of the week are the planeswalkers, which have been seeing more and more play in U/W/x decks in Standard.  U/W Tapout, U/W Control, UWr Planeswalkers, etc, etc, etc.  Lots and lots of power in those Mythics, which we discovered a few weeks ago in the comments of our Freed from the Real podcast.  

As for decreasing cards, there are a handful of Classic/Legacy cards that have moved lower this week as the Legacy balance point starts to emerge.  Granted, these cards are still quite a bit higher than they were before Legacy was announced on MTGO. 

Card Price Tables:
First up is the Pack EV Table, which will have the average retail value of the singles inside the pack.  Of couse since this in an average of retail value of cards the actual resale value of cards on the secondary market is a bit lower overall, but it's still a good way to gauge where the best value for tickets will be. 

Card Price Charts:
"elspeth, knight_errant" chart
eldrazi monument chart
gideon jura chart
raging ravine chart
"jace, the mind sculptor" chart
entomb chart
ajani vengeant chart
abyssal persecutor chart
tezzeret the seeker chart
avenger of zendikar chart
raging ravine chart
eldrazi monument chart
dragonmaster outcast chart
"elspeth, knight_errant" chart
rootbound crag chart
devastating summons chart
terminate chart
goblin guide chart
kalastria highborn chart
stoneforge mystic chart
tarmogoyf chart
null rod chart
wasteland chart
vampiric tutor chart
mox diamond chart
"iona, shield of emeria" chart
kargan dragonlord chart
all is dust chart
phyrexian dreadnought chart
sarkhan the mad chart
kor spiritdancer chart
eldrazi conscription chart
summoning trap chart
consume the meek chart
filigree angel chart
knight of the white orchid chart
nyxathid chart
training grounds chart
master transmuter chart
awakening zone chart