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AuthorStijn van Dongen

Please allow me to introduce myself - I'm a man of wealth and taste. I've played around for a long long time and laid many men's decks to waste. (With a long, long time being defined as since The Dark.)I sincerely love multiplayer the most of all formats and even dare decree that it is a form of art. I'm a student of Molecular Life Sciences in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, where I spend a lot of time watching the Simpsons and writing bios in first person, in distinct opposition of the more convenient fashion.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 26: An Axe For All

What is this multiple article doing in the strategy section? Well, as it turns out, even though the series is about multiplayer, the article is about how Stijn won his prerelease and why certain cards are just plain good. Take a look!

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 25: Princes Of The Universe

My highlander deck has been highly entertaining. Do you know how I once saved all my creatures from a Savage Twister with X=6 with Glory? “How’s that special?” you ask. “That’s what she’s for. Just activate her. What a boring anecdote!”

Ah, but Glory wasn’t at all in my graveyard when the Twister was put on the stack. No siree! In response to the twister, I…

Activated Winding Canyons
Cast Glory
Sacrificed Glory to Infernal Tribute, netting me a card
Activated her ability to give all my men protection from green

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 24: The Forest Whispers My Name

Somebody asked me to write about my wolves Tribes deck, curious as to how I had built it. Now, the deck is in constant state of flux – or at least the non-tribal part of it is – so I couldn’t really write about the deck. Furthermore, the non-tribal part is so taste-dependent and highlanderish that I can’t really do a good article about it, since there would be no real strategic reasoning behind the cards I chose for the deck. And yet that will not stop me.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 23: Time Regression With Highlander

Look, your test group might think that life gaining is fun – but excuse me, I know no such people. And it’s not for lack of idiots; there are quite the group of morons at my store. So do not blame it at that I am a too”Johnny: kind of player. Timmy hates life gaining too – at least over here in the Netherlands.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 22: Killing Time With Highlander

This article is provided as a time killer. For when you’re bored because you need to attend the visits of aunts and grand uncles that you’ve never even heard of. They call you by your brother’s name, because they do not know you either and they can only vaguely remember a set of names which they randomly try, hoping to match them all correctly at the first try. All I can do to pass the time is tell you about my Highlander deck….

Multiplayer Is An Art: Part 21: Mox Jet Theories

So I’ve tried to persuade you that Mox Jet is not round. Isn’t that enough? No? Well, how about I answer Rizzo’s questions for you, and discuss cards that no sane person should never touch in Magic – like Coat of Arms?

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 20: Spellenspektakel

There’s only one question lingering through my mind:Is the Mox Jet round, or does it have a bulge in the center? You know you’ve been playing too much Magic when you spend hours debating the roundness of a Mox. I was called a heretic when I first told this at the Labyrinth – but now I have a number of believers at my side. Together we’re forming the Bulged Mox Jet Front (BMJF).

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 19: Plague Post

“Life’s just much too hard today,” I hear every player say. They just don’t appreciate getting killed. But maybe that’s just because getting killed means that they lose yet again. It gets tiring very fast. And do you know what they just lost to? To my broken Plague Post deck.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 18: Tapping Creatures With A Red Enchantment

Stijn discusses NOT multiplayer, but his second-place finish at the prerelease, along with several strange combos for Future Sight and the man who countered a Silvos – and had it turn out to be an incredibly stupid move.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 17: Don’t Read This While Working, At The Peril Of Angry Bosses

Okay, so you can make a Sacred Mesa work with Beasts thanks to an Artificial Evolution. You knew that, right? However, the infinite loop with Words of Wilding and Carnival of Souls, plus a Ravenous Baloth, is probably something you missed. And then there’s the fifteen-card infinite combo that really requires some work, but thankfully needs only two cards to set it off….

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 16: Ten On Three, Multiplayer-Style

How many good creatures have there been for three mana? What other three-mana creatures have influenced multiplayer? Stijn takes on Geordie Tait and comes up with not only the top fifteen three-mana creatures in multiplayer, but the top five three-mana enchantments!

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 15: A Mental Note.

Heard about this Mental Magic format, but don’t know how to start? Stijn introduces you to perhaps THE wackiest format in Magic, the house rules they’ve developed from years of play, and solid strategy to use when you decide to make your Wild Mongrel into a Seedtime.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 14: Drow Conspiracy

People love the single Drizzt allusion I made last time more than they love my article. More than half of the responses were about the Matron Mother. So what else is a man to do but make a Dark Elves deck that smashes face in multiplayer?

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 12: Rhox.

Well, it turns out that last week we posted #13 and missed #12! So Stijn backtracks to discuss the prevalence of newbie Rhox players in his area and how he deals with them graciously, defeating them whilst teaching them.

Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 13: Dwarven Patrol and Deep Spawn.

These are particularly eccentric decks. They do weird stuff, attract onlookers, make them laugh, make your opponent die smiling. People will want revenge against these decks when they lose – and they won’t mind being beaten again, because the decks are funny.