AuthorTed Knutson

My first question is this: What the hell happened to Jon Finkel? The guy disappeared like Bobby Fischer or something, did he fall into Magic obscurity or just give up the game for career/family etc?

My question pertains to something that Mike Flores wrote in his article concluding the U/W deck challenge. He mentioned that when he playtested his Mono Blue deck vs. your Tooth build he devised some tech that was able to win the matchup for his deck a good amount of time. What was that tech that he would not mention? He said that you would update us.

How much do you think Cranial Extraction will limit the types of decks that are viable?

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?

Kanoot answers fourteen of your questions today, including the following: Okay, so let’s say my roommate had just recently purchased a Beta Black Lotus. Keeping in mind that this is ENTIRELY hypothetical, what would the moral/ethical ramifications of booby trapping our home to facilitate his early demise be, if my intention was to appropriate his collection in the event of his passing? Do you have any experience with this sort of a dilemma, and if so, what advice could you offer to someone grappling with this paralyzing conundrum?

One of your most famous articles featured you performing at a tournament while under the influence of Marijuana. Some years later, as a head of Starcitygames, itself a head of the world of Magic strategy, do you feel this past transgression harbors your site and/or yourself in a negative light? Or do you feel it is easily pawned off under the guise of “experimentation”?

Can you imagine a card Wizards could print that would make Affinity not the pre-eminent deck without narrowing the field of viable decks even further?

As an editor, does the sheer amount of anonymous retardation the internet affords people ever frustrate you?

Kanoot kicks off his month long series answering all the questions you have always wanted answers for regarding StarCityGames.com, the Pro Tour, Magic, foreign policy, college football… whatever you ask, he’s answering.

Here at StarCityGames.com, we sometimes get SO many article submissions that we simply don’t have the manpower or time to properly process them all! Then there are times like this week, where the depth and quality of the submissions is so great that we even have to post some really solid articles in our forums so that these fine articles are still available to the community. Here are a few solid articles that should make for some nice weekend reading.

Forum member Norrytt shares his Prerelease experience, including his entire Team Sealed pool and how his team chose to build there decks.

Colin teams up with former Canadian Champ (and all-around good man) Josh Rider for Team Sealed at the prerelease to deliver some beats. This isn’t just your standard prerelease report though, as Colin gives good insight into what cards were good for his team last weekend, and points out which cards were more powerful than he expected. Good stuff.

William takes a casual look at everyone’s new favorite cycle of spirits.

Remember, these articles have been posted directly into our forums (and have not been edited). Please let us know what you think by sharing your feedback below each article.

Some of you may have read about the 3-D cards of Master Seishiro Ookubo this past weekend, but you probably didn’t get a chance to see many of the special cards that he made for Wizards staff. If you’ve ever wondered what a 3-D Jester’s Cap looks like, or a 3-D City of Brass, or perhaps a 3-D Foil DCI Balance… well look no further, because we have photos inside.

Furnace of Rath is the flaming engine for the pyromaniac in all of us. If you are the type of player whose fingers leave little trails of smoke behind when you sling your spells and there are scorch marks on your seat after you’ve reduced your opponent to nothing more than a pile of burning embers, the choice is obvious.

This summer has been completely insane for me. I’ve covered U.S. Nationals, Pro Tour: Seattle, Grand Prix: Orlando, The StarCityGames.com Power 9 tournament, Grand Prix: New Jersey, and the first Vs. System Pro Circuit event so far, and on Tuesday I will be heading out to San Francisco to see my first Magic Worlds. Today I’m going to tell you what I learned about Block Constructed during that period of time, take a brief look forward to what you can expect to see at Worlds, and tell some more tales.