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What If Mike Turian Could Critique Your Play?

How much would your play improve if you could have Mike Turian sitting over your shoulder during a draft game, explaining what he would have done, which cards he considers suboptimal, and what the right play should have been? Well, one lucky winner will get to have that chance….

When you read the words”Mike Turian” on The Sideboard coverage of almost any major event, the words”world-class Limited player” almost invariably precede it. And why not? The man has a 2002 Limited rating, and other pros look to him for advice on how to play Rochester Draft.

In fact, if you count the number of people who’ve benefited from Mike’s experience, you’d have to add Eugene Harvey, Erik Lauer, Andy Johnson, and Aaron Forsythe – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

You say you want his help?

StarCity can get it for.

Mike has generously agreed to watch an average-to-good player’s game online – and he’ll write an article describing your match through his eyes. You can get the benefit of seeing what your mistakes were from a high-level pro’s perspective.

So how can you be like Mike?

Simple. First, you have to meet the criteria:

1) You have to have access to the final, paid version of Magic Online and an active account. If you’re chosen by Mike, we’ll pay for the virtual packs – but you must have a decent connection and the ability to play.

2) You have to be available at a time that Mike can watch your play. He will not help you during the match – that would be cheating. But he will take copious notes and tell you the turning points after the game.

3) You have to be a good player. If your ranking is in the 1600 and under range, you probably are a little too far out of your depth. Mike’s hoping to help the 1700- to 1800- players – the guys who are good, but still get whipped by serious pros.

If you’re available and want to have Mike help you out, then email [email protected] with the following information:


  • Your name
  • The hours and days you’re available to play
  • Your Limited Ranking (either beta MOL or actual)
  • A description of about 100 words telling us what your most common problems during draft games are and what you’d like to understand about draft matches.

We’ll choose the top five responses and hand them off to Mike – who’ll choose the person who has the most interesting problems. (All submissions must be received by midnight on Monday, July 1st.)

Let’s head off some questions:



Will Mike be helping me draft? No. Watching a draft would be almost impossible in Magic Online, and we assume that anyone who’d want this help knows how to build at least a competent draft deck.

Isn’t drafting more important than playing? Maybe. But there are hundreds of articles on how to draft properly – okay, 95% of them are written by Gary Wise, but you can still find other ones somewhere. What’s frequently the breakthrough is knowing how to play a deck – when to attack, when to hold back, and what sorts of tricks to save and which to use when. Knowing that’s an important part of the game that has rarely been addressed.

Will Mike help me while I play? As stated, that’d be cheating, chief. StarCity won’t sponsor that.

Can’t we use Apprentice for this? Nope. Don’t even ask. On the bright side, we’ll pay for your draft packs and entry fee if you’re chosen.

So send ’em in today!

Signing off,
The Ferrett
[email protected]
The Here Edits This Here Site Here Guy