MTG Strategist

This time of year, I tend to reflect on the blessings in my life. Among them is the MTG community. I hope this message is taken with the love that is intended and reaches those who need to hear it. I was born into a large family with all of the problems that large families have. Of my 6 siblings, I am the third. We grew up with very little, but enough. My father was a pipefitter who was almost always getting laid off and my mother worked as an assistant manager at Pizza Hut for a large part of my childhood. At our highest point, we lived on a small farm with my father working steadily. At our lowest, we lived in a tent in a friend’s backyard. My older brothers struggled with alcohol and drugs, and spent time in prison for violent and nonviolent crimes.  I left home when I was 18 to join the military. A year in, my sister, the youngest of the siblings and my best friend growing up, was diagnosed with brain cancer and spent the last year of her life, after losing her sig

Recent events have forced some good changes for the nomination process.  Nominations continue to flow in.  At last count we were approaching 500.  Your enthusiasm for the program is inspiring. I have received many messages in the last week.  Most were of encouragement, and I sincerely appreciate it.  It steels my resolve to craft the awards into something that the community as a whole can enjoy. I have also received advice on who I should promptly remove from the nominee list.  I also appreciate those who took the time to contact me with this information.  It has helped me better define the bounds of these awards. The rules, as stated on the MTGCCA website, defer much of my decision making to the Wizards of the Coast Code of Conduct. ( HERE )   The most pertinent passages are quoted below: -Do not use, post, distribute or link to obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, graphically or gratuitously violent, derogatory, demeaning, malicious, defamatory, abusive, offensive, ha

Criticism is nothing to hide from.  You do not have to be afraid of someone voicing their opinion.  I have received a lot of criticism over the last few days and many of my friends rushed to see how I was handling it.  Some rushed to add another layer of criticism, and some backed away from me slowly, not wanting to be contaminated by our relationship.  I feel obligated to explain my reaction and my feelings. Before I go any further, I have to give you a little bit of history about myself.  I am not a child by any stretch of the imagination.  I've been a professional member of the military for many years.  I've been all around the world and have seen the type of things that only members of the military are privileged and cursed to see.  I've lived through moments that have shaped who I am as a person and moments that have inspired me to strive for who I want to be.    I've seen this term ' outrage culture ' thrown around as an explanation for why some people

I would like to first sincerely apologize for advertising a nominee who was fired by Star City Games for allegedly sexually harassing women.  My ignorance on the subject was quickly identified, but it was too late to take back any of the additional pain that I caused or could have caused by  irresponsibly throwing out  that name.  To the alleged victims of those acts, please accept my humble apology. This is the second year of this award program, and while I wish that I did not have to learn lessons this way, this event did bring to light a missing piece of this program.  My enthusiasm for getting content creators' names into the public cannot be overshadowed by my responsibility to vet every nominee prior to releasing those names.  Researching individuals by myself for violations of the Wizards of the Coast Code of Conduct is difficult.  And vetting these individuals publicly is not an option due to the possible damage to the integrity of the awards program and the pain that cou

Fires of Invention is my absolute favorite card from Throne of Eldraine.  I've never seen anything like it and I expect it to spur many different builds in multiple formats.  This concept deck is my first build for the card. The beauty of this card is two fold.  First, it automatically smooths your mana.  The type of lands you control no longer matter.  All you're worried about now is the CMC.  Additionally, it frees up your lands to activate abilities and to pay for other non-casting costs.  And finally, it doubles your mana.  You get to cast 2 spells, each less than or equal to the CMC of the number of lands you control. You can do a lot with that kind of power. So let's look at one way to abuse this card. Reading the text of the card, "You can cast spells only during your turn..." instantly makes me want more turns.  So here are a few cards I intend to drop once Fires of Invention is on the battlefield. First and foremost, a somewhat unplayable card