Honorable Mentions:
In Dreams – Lord of the Rings
Hotel California – Domingo Mendoza
Hello – Lionel Richie
4. Careless Whisper – George Michael
3. Time To Say Goodbye (Con te partiro) – Will Ferrell
2. Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
1. My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
Top Four Influential Constructed Cards from Shadows over Innistrad
One of my personal favorites from the set. Tireless Tracker continues to show up in a wide range of green decks, even starting to break into Modern in decks like Jund where fetchlands rule.
Ridiculously powerful removal. It’s mostly confined to Standard, but it dominates there and changes the way you play, since playing multiple creatures with the same name can be risky, and the way decks are built, since white has access to such solid removal.
Everyone knew she would be good, and surprise surprise, it turned out she was really good. Perhaps not appearing in enough decks to be considered format-breaking, but certainly powerful enough to, once again, change the way Standard is played and decks are built on a fundamental level. If your opponent has white mana and five mana up, it’s a completely different game.
Not exactly a Standard all-star yet, although she continues to appear in more and more lists, and I think that trend will only continue. Nahiri, the Harbinger gets the nod as most influential card because of her synergy with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and her impact of Modern. She’s showing up most often in Jeskai Control, but she’s showing up in plenty of other decks as well.
Top Four Movies
4. Groundhog Day
I could put The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable here, but I don’t want my Top Four to be mono-emo. Bill Murray rules! When are time loops ever a bad time?
3. Inglourious Basterds
Probably not even most people’s favorite Quentin Tarantino movie, but I think it has incredible acting, interesting things happening in every scene, and a lot of rewatch value since there are so many little hidden things behind every character.
2. Memento
Complicated, interesting, and gives terrible/fascinating insights about the human mind. Good rewatch value since there’s a lot going on and an unconventional narrative style.
1. The Dark Knight
Scary and captivating. I should go rewatch the Batman trilogy right now.
Top Four Magic Blocks
4. Ravnica
Multicolor! I loved drafting the different guilds and bouncelands in Limited. Great set from a flavor standpoint. I also won my first PTQ drafting Ravnica block.
3. Mirrodin
A fun block with plenty of powerful cards and interesting limited decks and games. It also coincided with my return to tournament Magic after not playing for several years, so it was basically the peak for my hunger to play Magic and get better.
2. Return to Ravnica
Dragon’s Maze being all multicolor and having Guildgates instead of basic lands was fun and five-color was great in Draft. Coincided with me becoming a Pro Player right after as well.
1. Time Spiral
Easily the best block in my opinion. Rolling a bunch of complicated mechanics into a block, playing off old cards, tons of cards (most of them complicated), and breaking the color pie. Suspend, morph, and Flashback are all amazing in my book. Really cool unique cards for long-time players and a Spike’s dream from a competitive standpoint.
Top Four Modern Decks I Don’t Enjoy Playing Against (AKA Modern Decks Good Against Jeskai Control)
4. Merfolk
The deck just oozes cards that make games non-interactive. Aether Vial, Cavern of Souls, Spreading Seas, islandwalkers, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner…
3. Scapeshift
There’s something demoralizing about knowing they’ll just play lands and eventually kill you and you probably won’t draw enough interaction or a clock to stop them.
2. Goryo’s Vengeance
Instant-speed combos that instantly win the game and Blood Moon.
1. G/W Hexproof
Hexprooooooooooooooooof!
Top Four Great TV Shows You Might Not Be Watching
4. Mike Tyson Mysteries
Really good characterization, somewhat continuing storyline, and solid meta humor. Really strange that it’s good since, you know, you probably wouldn’t expect that from a show called Mike Tyson Mysteries. The perfect popcorn show for some fun bite sized entertainment.
3. Silicon Valley
Hilarious and full of smart and silly moments. The perfect palate-cleanser after watching one of these new episodes of Game of Thrones.
2. Horace and Pete
Created by Louis C.K., so if you like the show Louie you’ll probably end up liking this as well. Really weird and often depressing but solid anyways.
1. The Knick
Speaking of depressing, The Knick is nearly flawless, has a great atmosphere and soundtrack, is frightening, disgusting, and nothing short of real.
Top Four TV Shows That I Would Bring Back From Being Canceled
4. Firefly
Yup, Firefly (which is like the go-to response for nerds when asked for a show canceled before its time) is fourth on my list. Not entirely sure how good it would end up being if it came back now, and the Serenity movie was a reasonable conclusion anyways.
3. Community
Brilliant, meta, and often hilarious. Great characters and great gimmick episodes.
2. Frisky Dingo
The spiritual successor to Archer. Quick humor and kind of the Arrested Deveopment of cartoons with reusing and building on its jokes over and over.
1. Stargate Universe
You don’t even have to be a Stargate fan to love this. If you haven’t, go watch it now! It’s making me sad just thinking about this show being canceled.
Top Four TV Shows That Were Amazing, Then Suddenly Got Terrible
Honorable, Honorable Mentions: Futurama and The Simpsons.
Honorable Mention: Arrested Development.
When it gets bad: end of Season 3. This just gets an honorable mention, despite it going from one of the best shows ever to fairly unwatchable, mostly because it’s somewhat understandable why it got bad. It came back after seven years of being canceled and something changed it that time. Maybe the writing or maybe just that the entire cast had blown up and become stars and so they weren’t available to film together. Probably both. Either way, it just lost its magic.
4. Sword Art Online
When it gets bad: end of Episode 14. Cool show for competitive gamers with interesting mechanics. The story actually has the perfect stopping point at the end of episode 14 and gets terrible, confusing, and redundant immediately after. (I assume; I couldn’t stomach watching much more.)
3. Adventure Time
When it gets bad: not entirely sure, somewhere around season 3? Adventure Time is just the wicked mathematical story of a rad boy and his radder stretchy dog saying and doing fun things. Then a bunch of terrible characters get focused on and confusing plot gets introduced and the whole thing turns to dip. Rhombus!
2. Death Note
When it gets bad: end of Episode 25. I swear I don’t watch that much anime! Seriously. The show is going along great, with two characters playing an intelligent game of cat and mouse, and then something irreversible alters the ability of one of those characters ability to think well anymore, and then the show becomes terrible forever.
1. Game of Thrones
(Trigger Warning if you love Game of Thrones. Also, extensive Game of Thrones spoilers ahead, and if you don’t know anything about Game of Thrones, just skip it.)
When it gets bad: end of season 4. Sue me.
Top Four Favorite Decks I’ve Played
Honorable Mentions: You’d think maybe my Pro Tour-winning deck or Pro Tour-seconding deck would be slots one and two, right? Nope, nope, nope, nope. Nope. We can do better than them.
4.
Creatures (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (32)
Holy cow, this deck was sweet. I got first place with this beauty at States (AKA Provincials for the Canadians in the audience).
Debtors’ Knell and Court Hussar combo! Three Spell Burst!? Sacred Mesa! Four Annex in the sideboard!
I’m actually drooling. Past Shaun, I think I love you. Nice first-place finish, buddy.
3.
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (8)
Lands (25)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
This list is hilarious more than anything. I think I only ran three Jace, the Mind Sculptor due to availability issues and Preordain was legal but I wasn’t running any…
Doesn’t matter, got first.
2.
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (12)
Lands (26)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
Damn, this deck looks good. Also first place.
1.
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (27)
Okay, okay, obviously Jeskai Control gets honorable mention and first on the list. Even if Jeskai Control wasn’t the best deck, that victory was a labor of love. I practiced the format and deck endlessly, knew how to play against all the other decks, and took home the trophy. First!
Top Four Basic Magic Article Archetypes
It’s sometimes difficult coming up with a Magic article topic. Am I trying to entertain? Teach? Somewhere in-between? It’s important to have a template you can fall back on sometimes.
Honorable Mention: The Meta Humor Article. Don’t have anything useful to say? Just try to make a couple jokes that are vaguely Magic-related and then talk about Game of Thrones.
4. The Tournament Report
Falling out of favor lately, but an oldie, and a goodie.
3. The Metagame Analysis
Simple analysis of the major decks of the format, or the decks that performed well at the last big tournament.
2. Fundamentals
Talk about some key concept or advice that leads to Magic success, not necessarily related to a specific deck.
1. The Deck Guide
Far and away the most common type of article, but why not give the people what they want? Toss in a sideboard guide and you’re golden.
Top Four Video Games
Honorable Mentions: Mario Kart 64
Final Fantasy VII
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Diablo 2
Warcraft 3
+ Like 50 more.
4. Braid
Great puzzles and a fantastic mind-blowing ending.
3. Chrono Trigger
Nostalgia points! Still remember seeing this game for the first time and watching my brother play. Great story and characters.
2. Portal 2
Puzzles! The characters and hilarious dialogue really steal the show though and the puzzles are a pleasant afterthought.
1. The Witness [You’re fired. –Ed.]
Puzzles that melt like delicious butter on your brain. The Witness is nothing short of a joy to play and somewhat like a meditative brain massage rather than a game. Despite the ending(s) and story (or lack thereof) being weak at best, this is still the best game ever made in my opinion, and an indicator of the potential video games actually have.
Top Four Cards
Honorable Mention: Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Pop-pop Jace will always be the number one planeswalker.
Card draw and lifegain! Fair and interactive.
3. Electrolyze
Card draw and damage! I can’t wait to play against that new G/W Tokens deck in Modern with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar so I can give those Plant tokens the Electrolyzes that
Card draw and an 0/4! Also fair and interactive.
MVP, enough said.
Top Four Reasons It’s Awesome to Be a Magic Pro
Honorable Mention: The Community. There are a lot of amazing people who love Magic and they are generally very welcoming and kind to one another.
4. See the World
I’m much more of a nester type but I still appreciate the opportunity to travel every now and again. Or at least to snap a selfie of myself at random landmarks.
3. Article Writing
I’ve always enjoyed writing and really appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts and words on a weekly basis. Having a deadline each week is a great way to improve your writing skills as well.
2. Fans
I’m a shy guy, but I love it when people come up to me, ask me questions, ask me to sign things, say they love Jeskai, ask me questions while I’m streaming, or take a picture.
1. You get to play lots of Magic
It’s kind of interesting how all my free time used to be spent playing Magic. Now I get to play and write about Magic and claim I’m being productive! Pretty awesome.
Top Four Mental Tips for Getting Better at Magic
4. Realize you’re good enough and allowed to win.
3. Let go of your mistakes. They aren’t a big deal.
2. Imagine that Magic Online is a good program.
1. Be obsessed with Magic and love it deeply.
Translating the Top Four Types of Angry Complaining Comments on Magic Articles
Honorable Mention: “Random Wildly Offensive Remark Designed to Hurt the Author and Get a Reaction!”
4. “I Am Unhappy, My Wife Just Left Me, My Dog Ran Away, and I Wish to Share This Feeling With the World – or at Least This Comment Section.”
3. “I Have No Idea How Any of These Cards Work.”
2. “I Don’t Get the Joke and Will Loudly Complain About It!”
Mark Nestico’s articles are over here.
1. “This Isn’t Premium Content!”
Come at me!
Top Four Top Fours I Should Never Have Thought Of
4. Top Four “Top 5 PV” Articles
3. Top Four Ways to Cuddle a Magic Player
2. Top Four “Top Fours” from this article
1. Top Four Offensive Playmats
Top Four Things to Do Once You Finish Reading This Article
4. Take three deep breaths, smile, and stretch yourself out.
3. Think of one thing you’re grateful for.
2. Tell someone you care about that you care about them.
1. Read another Magic article and procrastinate a little longer.
Disagree with anything? Let me know! Keep in mind these are just, like, my opinions, man. Enjoyed the article or agreed with any of my rankings? Let me know, and I’ll do another article like this in the future.