AuthorThe Ferrett

This week’s challenge brought out a bunch of the old’ standbys: Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Seedborn Muse, Avatar of Woe, Soul Warden. But who took the $20 prize for the week for listing their picks for the Top 5 multiplayer creatures?

That would be Stephen Davis, for his phenomenally-amusing The Tenth Annual Tolarian Academy Awards. Stephen wins the sawbuck because he took a dry format and spiced it up with a lot of humor and a smidge of strategy!

So what’s next week’s challenge? Well, this is a little tougher, since it’s a new casual format that doesn’t have quite the following that multiplayer does… but it’s fun as heck. How does access to infinite mana sound? The next week’s challenge is:

Type 4: Limited Infinity.

If you want an overview of the rules, check Stephen Menendian’s excellent article. If you don’t want an overview of the rules, write an article and send it in to Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2! You could win $20!

Last week’s Multiplayer Combo Challenge was a success, getting an astounding twelve people to share their thoughts on the greatest multiplayer blowout decks. So the question on everybody’s lips is: What’s next week’s challenge?

The Top Five Multiplayer Creatures.

Of course, as always, there’s a catch. Given the Kokusho-packed articles from last week, Kokusho may not be on your list. Remember, articles that simply give the five cards along with a one-paragraph description probably will not win; we want decks to go with the creatures, and a good idea of what sorts of players/strategies these creatures do well against. Pick your five favorites – but back it up with anecdotes, strategy, and above all, fun! The winner gets $20 in cold hard cash!

The winner of last week’s contest? Well, there were a lot of fine entries, but in the end Chris Franson won for “The Best Multiplayer Combo?” It wasn’t the most entertaining deck out there – Staff of Dominance-based decks are depressingly alike – but Chris not only did a fine job of explaining both his decks, but provided an alternate build and discussed other cards that could be used. And that’s the sort of thing we like to reward!

In StarCityGames.com’s never-ending quest to improve the Casual and Multiplayer section, we will now be offering the $20 prize every week to the person who writes the best Casual and Multiplayer article. The twist? The article has to be on the topic we’ve chosen for that week.

That’s right: Each week, we’ll choose a different Casual and/or Multiplayer topic for you to write about, and the person who provides the best in-depth analysis wins an easy $20! This week’s topic?

The Best Multiplayer Combo.

Remember, we’re not just looking for a deck; we want the strategy of how to play it, what sorts of other decks and/or people disrupt it, and ideas on possible alternate builds. So send your submission into Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2! Your money awaits!

As a part of the revamped Casual and Multiplayer section, StarCityGames.com is looking for new writers to produce weekly columns on alternative formats! The two formats we’re looking for experts on are Peasant Magic and Tribal Wars.

Potential writers must be able to:

• Write a consistently entertaining column, week in and week out;
• Have a basic knowledge of that format’s general metagame;
• Be able to come up with creative, interesting decks (or reports on other interesting decks found elsewhere);
• Be able to explain why a particular deck is good (and, more importantly, why it’s not good) to a casual general audience.

Note that for Tribal, we’re not strictly concerned with the smashing the format, but are looking more for someone who can design a deck around a specific creature race every week. (Hint: Don’t start with Goblins.) Still, it should be able to stand up to the competition in Tribal Wars or Creature World.

If you think you can handle this, please email a sample column and links to any previously-published articles to The Ferrett, Casual and Multiplayer Editor, at Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2.

The one thing that everyone seems to agree upon, me included, is that the casual side of StarCityGames.com has dropped off over the past couple of years. So where do we start improving? That’s where I need your help.

Some users may experience a slow StarCityGames.com today. Unfortunately, our web server host (who holds the computers that StarCityGames.com) is experiencing some fairly severe network congestion, and access to the site may be spotty for select areas during the day. We thank you for your patience.

The bad news is, we no longer offer $50 in credit. The good news is, two people will now win cash every week. Click the article and read on for details!

Long-time reader, first-time asker John Cochrane barrages me with eight questions on editing vs. webmastering, the locations of old writers, international politics, and whether I prefer chocolate or vanilla.

Richard Vaughan asks:

“Of all the writers who have come and gone, who is your favorite, and who do you miss the most? (I will not be very surprised if both answers are Rizzo, but Meh!)”

Actually, it’s not Rizzo…. And I do have a personal favorite, which is not to slight the other many wonderful writers who have put their stamp on SCG. But do I dare to actually mention this man’s name in print?

Oh, heck, I just might.

Sometimes, I think you should be able to say, “Screw the official rule – you know damn well what it’s supposed to do, so make it do that.” But you can’t do that in tourney play because there’s no room for ambiguity, and so I’m sure there are many good, flavorful cards that hit the circular file because they can’t word it properly. That’s just one of the reasons I like Unhinged.

The guy next to me handed me my deck as if it were a dead squirrel. “I’m sorry,” he said funereally.

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” I asked, alarmed.

“Oh, your deck isn’t bad,” he said, in tones that indicated that it clearly was. “It’s just all over the map. Good luck trying to build a deck with it.”

Having played enough Sealed games in the interim, I know now that I definitely misbuilt my deck at the Prerelease. But that’s because I’ve learned a few lessons about Kamigawa Sealed – some that I could not have possibly known at the time, and some that I should have learned from past seasons. What could I have done differently?

Team AWWAJALOOM allowed Magic players everywhere to believe that they were far superior to other people, without the slightest shred of evidence to prove it. When a Team AWWAJALOOM member went 1-3 for the seventh tourney in a row, he would shout the official team slogan: “I could have won if I had worked at this!” And then all of the team members would gather at a bar after their crushing loss and drink a beer, bitching about how they were so much better and it was terribly unfair how the all the other players had won. But what happened to the Team?

Elske Van Der Vaart asks:
“StarCityGames.com is basically a competitive player’s place now. As a casual player, I come for the Issues articles and the occassional Abe Sargent gems, but that’s basically it. My question: Why has this happened? Is the problem that all Casual writers have disappeared or that most Casual articles don’t meet your new quality standards?”

Jensen Bohren, famed casual freak also known as The Orgg, asks a very good question:
“Once Star City Games was much like The Dojo and other Magic sites online, and posted most of the ‘decent’ articles with a fair amount of speed; rejected articles were also ‘thrown back’ with a similar amount of speed. Today, I know of only one site that will publish nearly anything, and it’s the only site that will link to the ‘good stuff’ on other Magic sites. Why has Star City become so inwardly focused on itself and turned away from the larger picture of the Magic community?”

It’s been a while since I’ve been on-board with this whole Editor thing, so you may have even forgotten that I exist… But on the other hand, I’ve been editing StarCityGames.com for almost five years now, and I have a wealth of experience and I am still the Editor-in-Chief. So hey, as long as I’m pinch-hitting for The Holy Kanoot this week, I’ll cheerfully answer any and all questions you have for me.

Wanna know something? Email me at [email protected], and I’ll do my best to answer, starting Monday.

Also, if you’ve sent an article to Ted over the past few days, you may want to resend directly to me. Some of the emails have been lost in transit, and we’d hate to see a good article vanish into mysterious mists of the Internet.