By now you are probably all aware that yesterday was April 1st, also known as April Fool’s day. Some of you clicked on StarCityGames.com yesterday and thought,”Hmm, something’s going on here,” while others of you (perhaps a surprising amount) clicked on the site and commented”Wow, that’s a really bad Knutson article,” or”Oh My God, Wakefield’s back!” To those in the second category, I have to say thank you for making my day.
Here at Star City, we have a history of pulling pranks on April 1st. Here’s what the page looked like last year, when our Editor-In-Chief detailed his resignation and subsequent move over to rotten.com, Tony Costa conspired to fool people into believing Phage was Phabulous, and blisterguy did his thing. Well this year, I wasn’t just going to just repeat el Ferretto’s previous performances… nossir, I had to go for something different. Something bigger.
Soooo, I figured we’d have a theme day for April 1st. I’ve been wanting to do a mixed-up writers day for ages, and I thought it would be a nice prank to play on the masses. I also wanted to mix”real” articles with spoof articles as well, just to mess with your heads. Layers upon layers of complexity would ensure that even when people thought they’d figured out the gag, they’d still just be scratching the surface. I sent out the e-mail detailing my plan to my Featured Writers and got a huge response… everybody was interested. I figured, what the hell, we’ll just do it over the course of a whole week! They’ll never expect that!
Then Pete stepped in and said,”You have one day.””But Pete, I have infy articles!” says I.
*Darth Vader breathing*”One day.”
*Gulp*
Guess the joke was on me. So that, my friends, is why you see sixteen articles on the front page for April 1. And that’s after I cancelled an article of my own writing as Becker and after two other writers cancelled their pieces due to schedule issues.
So now you know the joke… sort of. You know we ran mixed-up writer day, but the question on everyone’s mind is: Who wrote the articles?
The answer I’ve been giving everyone is: Noooooooot tellin’!
Well, not yet anyway. Why? Because I’m a right bastard. You see, I’ve been planning this shindig for six weeks now, and while it’s not as cool as mtg.com’s”You Decide,” it’s still hella-cool. Plus, sixteen articles in a single blow is insane. Therefore, one day just wasn’t enough.
Nobody knows who wrote all the articles right now except me. I’ve been receiving IM’s and e-mails all day from the writers who were spoofed wondering who wrote as them, and I still won’t tell. What I will do is run a guessing game though, and then reveal all the answers on Monday.
Who Were the Fools Contest
Here’s the deal: You folks go ahead and guess who wrote what in the forums of this article. Any reasonable set of guesses qualifies you for the prize. Each person only gets one guess, and don’t go trying to create a million accounts, because I see right through that stuff. All guesses must be in by 12AM Monday morning (when Sunday’s update pops up).
Once everything is locked, I’ll choose two winners at random to send a stack of foils to. If somebody (or a group of somebodies) actually gets all sixteen authors correct, then I’ll choose a random winner from there to give a better prize to. I haven’t run a contest in a while, and the winners are being chosen at random strictly for time considerations. There are thousands of you, and I unfortunately cannot take a whole day to sort through your entries.
There is a handy-dandy list of writers at the end of this article to help you organize your answers.
Like I said before, nobody knows who wrote what at this point. The writers don’t know. The Ferrett doesn’t know. Even Pete Hoefling, owner of this here site here does not know. Since the game would probably be impossible to complete if I were to just run it as is, I’ll toss in a few hints to help you out.
1) Contrary to popular belief, at least two people wrote as themselves. No more than four did.
2) Josh Bennett and Gary Wise even joined the festivities.
3) I wrote something, as did The Ferrett, Osyp, Mike Flores, Chris Romeo, and Pale Mage (and sundry others as well). Mike Turian, Ken Krouner, and blisterguy did not.
4) No one wrote more than one article.
5) Pete did not write as himself.
6) In spite of the fact that it tricked numerous people, I did not write”my” article. In fact, it completely skewers me and my writing style, but I always appreciate clever beats, so it’s all good. I do find it ironic that you can work years on crafting an image as a reliable Magic writer, and then one day somebody writes an April Fool’s article as you, and all your supposed credibility goes right down the drain, as people chastise you for writing bad articles about bad decks with no real playtesting results, and claiming credit for creating said decks as your own, even though they’ve been previously featured on major Magic websites. [More periods, less rambling please. – Knut] Some people are so gullible.
Oh, and one last hint. The Wakefield article is not real.
Nah, I’m lying. The Wakefield article was written by Jamie himself.
Oookay, maybe it wasn’t.
Nah, it was.
Laugh At Your Friends
Speaking of gullible, if you were fooled, you weren’t alone. Here are some quotes from various friends and forum members who did not immediately”get” the joke.
Last year’s b00b of the day was clearly Gary Wise, who fell for The Ferrett gag hook, line, and stinker. The official b00b of the day award this year goes to Jarrod Bright, who had these insights to share:
1)”Um… Ted, check out the results from the Last Chance Qualifier for PT: Kobe. I believe the Japaneese Magic community may take issue with you claiming that Jim invented that deck.
Also, the Ravager matchup is horrible once your opponent realises that your deck falls apart if they kill off Auriok Steelshaper on sight with Pyrite Spellbomb. Also, Genesis Chamber tokens are useless against extremely large Blinkmoth Nexuses and are a liability against opposing Disciples of the Vault.”
2)”Ah Blisterguy… Your April’s fools articles are always the best…”
3)”Ken, nobody ever remembers being”Really Drunk”…”
4)”Yeah yeah… just looked at the date and figured it out (and I’ve even been having a great time playing the”the server is about to crash” joke on everyone in the office today…)
Just that this article looked a lot more… genuine.”
Mary van Tyne:“I got punk’d.”
Type 1 World Champs Runner-Up Shane Stoots:
Shane: i’ve heard rumor of a wakefield article?
Me: from where?
Me: which site?
Shane: never mind…some irc pranksters 🙁
Me: perhaps (sends Shane link)
Shane: i’m digging it
Shane: Wow, that Wakefield article is great! Is he going to write more for you guys?
Me: Jamie’s a little hard to pin down.
Shane: Yeah, I can see that. He did fall off the Earth for like five years.
Shane (8 hours later): The Wakefield article wasn’t real, was it?
Pete Hoefling:”Jamie didn’t actually write that article, did he?”
Suckamouf37: (from Oscar’s article)”Wait…lemme think for a minute. You mention Spelljack and Mystic Snake but you forget Daze and Spiketail Hatchling, two key componants of U/r Fish. You do realize you’re writing about Type one, right?
I’ve always been a bit annoyed when people called you out of touch with type one because I thought you did a good job of getting more people into the format, but this is just getting out of hand.”
Mrfloyd5933:”Another good article by JFR. Not sure how I managed to be the first post…”
“heh, I looked at the date this was for… damn it I fell for it, damn you april fools day!”
Khelavaster:“Uh, it’s a Rizzo article. Where does this article’s strategy or logic even start? Just kidding. Though I’m amused by the similarities between this deck and BraidsGroom. I reckon he missed that article in his ‘net wanderings.
And Holy sheepdip, Rizzo *and* Wakefield on the *same day*? Talk about a score! Congrats, Star City!
EDIT: Oh wait, today’s that day, isn’t it? Well, Star City, ya fooled me with both articles, so I guess congrats are still in order. Or not. Heh.”
Overall though, I think the forum responses from”Pale Mage” article take the cake.
Anyway, I hope you all appreciated our fun on April Fool’s Day, and that you found many of the articles to be as entertaining as I did. For those who were not amused, the site is back to normal today and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, have at the Who Were The Fools Contest, and may you be the lucky beneficiary of the random number generator.
–Knut
Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2
P.S. Jamie didn’t write the Wakefield article.
P.P.S. No, he really did. Ain’t it cool?
P.P.P.S. Okay, so this is just another example of”noooooot tellin’!” Yep, I’m still a bastard.
Knutson =
Krouner =
Turian 1 =
Flores =
Costa =
Tan =
Rizzo =
Wakefield =
Shuler =
JP Meyer =
Jahn =
blisterguy =
Hoefling =
AskKen =
Pale Mage =
Turian 2 =