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Ask the Editor, 11/08/2004

When you’re covering Pro Tour matches do you think that while you’re writing the coverage down it makes the players play differently? For instance they think longer before they do something so as not to look stupid on the biggest MTG website out there?

How legendary would I be if I won the Cheesehead championship (WI States) running a r/g deck whose kill condition is an unhasted Leveler? The deck i’m taking runs rude awakenings as a secondary win condition. Primary? Leveler. And It’s R/G – splash of White for Leveler/ Beacon of Destruction/Beacon of Immortality.



I get game one on the blatant mistake of playing a leveler, then they do nothing because I die next turn. Game two, i board vs them, but how do you board vs me?



So once again, my question for the states decklist of yours (I’m playing leveler regardless, and i’ll finish no less than 5-3 GUARANTEED) is:



How legendary would I be if I won the Cheesehead Championship running a deck with a primary win condition of leveler without shared fate or endless whispers?



The testing is disgusting. More later mr. Broodstar.



-Redd Wizard (Edd Black)



Well, you would have been quite unbelievably legendary if you had pulled this off, but while the Wisconsin Top 8 decklists were very strange, they did not include any Levelers — not even in Hron’s 5-Color deck, so debates about what your status would have been are now relegated to being a cow’s point — it’s all moo. (Yep, I’ve used this one before. I still like it, so bite me)

While we’re talking about goofy decks here, I just wanted to take a moment and point out that Aaron Forsythe lost a match at the Richmond Power 9 tournament to a deck running… Shared Fate. What’s that again? Oh… that’s right — he lost to a deck running Shared Fate. In Type One. I believe this is on a similar level to my high school baseball box score when pitching to female batters, which was something like 1 hit, 8 walks, and 2 Ks. Now let’s move on before I start to cry or go about reliving those "Glory Days".

Alright, so I could just bug the crap out of Star Wars Kid until he gives me the decklist or just beat him and take it. But I’ll ask you a question. When you’re covering Pro Tour matches do you think that while you’re writing the coverage down it makes the players play differently? For instance they think longer before they do something so as not to look stupid on the biggest MTG website out there?

-Some AOL Guy that didn’t include his name who I’m guessing is Josh Adams



Beating the crap out of Star Wars Kid is frequently warranted (particularly if he was your money drafting partner in Columbus), so don’t hold back on my account. As for your question, Feature Matches (though not necessarily having somebody around doing coverage) make different players react differently. Tim Aten supposedly loathes being covered, while Olivier Ruel and Osyp feed off the spotlight, and old-schoolers Mike Long and Tomi Walamies were simply awesome when they had a crowd around, so the effect of Feature Matches certainly differs based on the players involved.

One very recent example of a feature match implosion came from relative youngster Mike McGee, who seemed extremely nervous in his Feature Match in Columbus – so much so that it nearly submarined his whole tournament as he went on a huge losing streak after his FM, pulling out of it just in time to finish in the money. I actually think Mike will get a lot better if he has a few more chances to play under the big lights, but some players never do, and their hearts are lanced with an icicle of dread every time Randy Buehler or Mark Rosewater calls their name at a Pro Tour.