Hi there. Some of you might remember me, as I used to edit this here site here half a decade ago. I also did coverage for Wizards of the Coast and wrote articles about Magic for most of a decade. Last week, Pete Hoefling (a.k.a. el jefe, President and Owner of StarCityGames.com) invited me back to help revamp the website as the new Content Manager.
For the last three years, I’ve lived on an island (literally), with a bunch of other Magic players who didn’t really play Magic anymore. When I returned to civilization in March, I was disappointed to see the state Magic writing was in. I was particularly disappointed with what I saw at my old home. Patrick Chapin and I got into some lengthy discussions on Facebook about what could be done about it, and most of my positive impact at the time came from grousing about what I didn’t like, encouraging what I did, and doing some of my own writing.
Two weeks ago, Pete asked for help. At that point, lending a hand seemed natural.
Here is what I can tell you so far: Change is on the horizon. Expect it to arrive in packages big and small over the next couple of months. There will be a renewed focus on quality writing. We will also diversify the types of content we run while adding new voices to our stable of writers. The look of the site will become more user-friendly, and the technologies employed will be current (and hopefully pretty cool). I can’t give you more specifics than that right now, because that would spoil the fun.
What I can promise you, however, is the changes you see on the site will be positive. Within six months time, my goal for StarCityGames.com is to be better than we have ever been.
To commemorate my return, I’m going to do two things we have never done before here at StarCityGames.com: The first thing I’m going to do is offer you a
free month of premium
as part of a year’s subscription (or renewal). But — here’s the rub — I’m only going to do this for five days.
Starting at 12:00 a.m. on Monday and running until 11:59 p.m. Friday (all times are EDT), you get 13 months of Premium for the price of 12. We have
never
discounted Premium before, and I can personally guarantee that we won’t be doing so again anytime soon.
Let me tell you about the other thing we’re doing today that we’ve never done before. We’re publishing an article from
Kai Budde
. You know… the German Juggernaut. He of the seven Pro Tour victories. He of the ten Pro Tour Top 8s — including Amsterdam just a week ago.
He’s in the Hall of Fame.
He’s the best of all time.
And he’s here on StarCityGames.com.
For. Free.
Finally, in this week of free, I have one more freebie to place before you. One of you will win a
free Jace, The Mind Sculptor
. To do this, you will need to do one of two things. First, subscribe/renew for any period of time of Premium (remember, buy twelve months and get one free!). Or you can just subscribe to our newsletter. To do so, just click on the banner at the top right of the page (the one conveniently labelled ‘Newsletter’), put in your email address and click the button. That’s it. I’ll announce the winner in another Letter from the Editor (Emeritus) next week.
Free Kai. Free Premium. Free Jace.
If that’s not enough to convince you that great things are in store, do yourselves a favor and take the schedule listed below for the rest of this week and an indicator of things to come.
Monday
—
Terry Soh writes about his rogue red/green concoction that helped him finished tenth in Amsterdam. Jonathan Medina discusses the Magic economy and teaches you how to get the most from your trades. Patrick Chapin recaps the fascinating bits of Pro Tour Amsterdam.
Tuesday
–
[Secret, revealed at midnight Eastern on Tuesday]
Wednesday
–
[Secret, revealed at midnight Eastern on Wednesday]
Thursday
–
[Secret, revealed at midnight Eastern on Thursday]
Friday
–
[Secret, revealed at midnight Eastern on Friday]
You might as well sign up now and get the free month of Premium and a chance to win Jace. You’ll be kicking yourself a week from now if you don’t.