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My thrill, when it came to pro competition, was the accomplishment and not the reward. When I won money at Pro Tour: Mainz, I was thrilled that I had finally finished in the money, more so than with the money I had won. Sure, the money was good, but the part I felt best about was having done so well. This attitude is what separates the true professional Magic players from the weekend warrior Pro Tour players. Gung-ho, must-win Pro players have their eyes on the prize.

The only constants, from October of 1995 until the summer of 2002, were the specter of my parent’s divorce, and the game of Magic. The divorce would take me on a soul searching journey up and down the Eastern seaboard, across the seas, and into my heart and mind.

Do you think it’s a good idea for Wizards to let players decide which cards will tournament-legal and easily accessible for the next two years?

Since Phoenix is a creature, I figure it will win this week’s vote regardless of whatever silly words Ben and I put on the page discussing the merits of each card, but this is a vote the mtg.com readers may get right. For once.

Here’s the updated Oracle text for Hammer of Bogardan as of August 1st, 2004:
Hammer of Bogardan deals 3 damage to target creature of player wayyyyyy slower than Barbed Lightning and a turn later than Volcanic Hammer.

RRR2: Skip the rest of your turn. Use this ability only during your upkeep.

Four PTQs have gone by in the Ohio Valley for Pro Tour: Columbus, and all four have featured at least one copy of the GFC Freshmaker in the Top 8. In the first PTQ of the season at Origins 2004, three people (including myself) made the final cut with the deck. There have been eight Top Eight appearances by teammates/partners of the GFC in those four PTQs, with more than twice as many top sixteen performances in the same PTQs. I only have one question for you: Why aren’t you playing this deck?

As a special thanks to Jay on the last day of this tremendous experiment, we are running Blog Elemental in the Strategy section. For those of you just catching up with Jay’s deckbuilding, we encourage you to relive the excitement by checking out the Blog Elemental archives. Here’s a snippet from today’s article:”It’s also interesting to note that since version 2.0 of the deck, I’ve had a very respectable 64-11 record in the Casual Constructed room of MTGO. That’s probably a higher winning percentage than I would expect from an evolved preconstructed deck built for casual play.”

For the PTQ recently held in my neck of the woods, I decided to go with Big Red, primarily because I liked that it had game against the entire field, and in the words of teammate Chris Fox, “when in doubt, burn ‘em out.”

Those of you who were around the old Magic Dojo site might remember a series I did at the end of 1999 called Rule of Law. With this introductory article, I hope to resume it here, picking up where I left off.

Current scuttlebutt around the watercooler is that Wizards, with its first deployment of “official” rules, is attempting a foray into multiplayer tournaments. Will this destroy the sanctity of the casual player’s realm by throwing a few sharks into the fish pond? Or will it become a paradise for those estranged individuals who long for more social interaction in Magic?

Chris: “Pay two life, discard that. I’ll gain two life with my Fountains.”
Anthony: “Whoa, whoa, whoa Huang! Give me a second to think here.”
Chris: “There’s nothing to think about. You can’t have the card.”
Anthony: “Let me think about it.”
Chris: (Getting more annoyed). “I deny!”
Anthony: “What?”
Chris: (Grabs the card out of Anthony’s hand, and throws it in Anthony’s graveyard) “I deny!”

Is it”Crooner” or”Crowner”?

Cog Elemental has added some key rares since its initial Nuts and Bolts decklist, but the heart of the deck is still a pile of commons and uncommons. Heck, most of the variations I discussed last Friday are also fairly rare-light. One of the comments I’ve heard from several people online and in the Forums is that the deck can be built for far less than $50 total. Even still, on this penultimate day of my experiment, I want to retrace my steps and look at how to make a version of the deck that is truly”lite” (a phrase I coined on magicthegathering.com meaning”without rares”).

Okay folks, we have to be honest here. Romeo’s out of ideas. No really, there are only so many times you can write about Centaur Glade, Johnny Damon’s hair, the model for Eternal Witness, Lindsay Lohan, and playing Magic with your brother who lives in Iceland. Therefore, your job is to read Chris’s latest ramblings and then chime in with ideas for Chris’s next article. In the meantime, enjoy a variety of budget decklists Chris has been working with on Magic Online.

All Suns’ Dawn is up for Banning
Bringer of the Black Dawn is up for Banning
Eternal Witness is up for Restriction

Change the minimum color requirement to twenty cards of each color.