When the new card-face was revealed, many folk were mortified.
“Look at it! It's hideous! It's simply not Magic!”
In fact, there's even documentary evidence of my own personal distaste, albeit in photographic form. Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking... how can I criticise something for the way it looks while wearing that hideous orange shirt?
The thing is, Magic players fear change. Whenever something happens that slightly impacts our playing experience, the community is up in arms.
New card face? How dare they!
Pro Player Cards? What were they thinking?!
Premium Articles?!...
... Let's not go there.
Nowadays, of course, these complaints seem rather silly. For me, Time Spiral brought home the strength of the "new" card-face... seeing it sit side-by-side with the old-school cards from the Timeshifted subset really opened my eyes.
Whatever happens, we (as a community) clamor for heads as soon as the game alters in the slightest. Which is odd, considering the card-pool changes every three months... but I suppose that's one of the attractions.
We're in a new year here at StarCityGames.com. In order to streamline the site, and produce the best damn articles and content we can, I'm pleased to announce some radical changes. From today, we move forward from our usual free-form style to a column-based format.
We've already touched on this format, albeit on a smaller scale. As you know, The Ferrett writes a regular column here each Monday — You can read his latest article below. And Chris Romeo writes each Tuesday, and blisterguy each Wednesday...
From today, all our articles are weekly columns.
Two Premium columns, each and every day.
Three free columns, each and every day.
And, of course, Drafting With Rich will still be a daily feature. As will Ask The Judge.
As you can see, today's Premium columnists are Nick Eisel and Stephen Menendian. Today's free columnists are The Ferrett, Bennie Smith, and a new Magic Puzzles column by Jeff Till. For reference, here's what you can expect each week:
Monday
Premium: Nick Eisel
Premium: Stephen Menendian
Free: The Ferrett
Free: Bennie Smith
Free: Jeff Till
Tuesday
Premium: Jamie Wakefield
Premium: Richard Feldman
Free: Chris Romeo
Free: Mark Young
Free: Peter Jahn
Wednesday
Premium: Jeroen Remie
Premium: Raphael Levy
Free: blisterguy
Free: Josh Silvestri
Free: Rivien Swanson
Thursday
Premium: Tiago Chan
Premium: John Fiorillo
Free: Abe Sargent
Free: Zac Hill
Free: Talen Lee
Friday
Premium: Mike Flores
Premium: Craig Jones
Free: Sean McKeown
Free: Ben Bleiweiss
Free: Evan Erwin
I'll let the columnists tell you all about the cool stuff they have planned. I don't want to spoil all the surprises...
“But Craig,” I hear you cry, “there are other fine writers out there, writers who'll never get a chance to grace the fair pages of StarCityGames.com. What of their articles?”
Don't worry... we've not forgotten them.
Each week, in addition to the fifteen columns above (and a daily dose of Drafting with Rich), we'll have two “floating” articles on the front page. One each Monday, and one each Thursday. Both will be up for multiple days. Today's floating piece is the excellent Worlds report from Nick Lovett, a rookie who took the tournament by storm and powered to a third-place finish. So if your favorite writer is an Osyp or an Aten, a Moreno or a Chapin, a Rizzo or a Peebles-Mundy, never fear. Their articles will be appearing in the future.
Of course, in moving to this format, some cuts have to be made. We're saying goodbye to the SCG Daily feature and Battle Royale... but never fear, I have plans for those in the future. Submissionist articles now also take a back seat... but again, we do have some ideas regarding that.
In moving to the column format, we plan on bringing you the best Magic strategy, the strongest Magic decks, the finest Magic writing... just as before. We're dedicated to delivering the finest talent the game has to offer... again, nothing has changed there. The only real difference is in planning and co-ordination.
You want to read about Limited with Nick Eisel? He'll be here every Monday.
You want some funky deck ideas from the lab of the Mad Professor? Come read Craig Jones every Friday.
So there you have it: StarCityGames.com is a column-based site from this day forth. It's a change, we feel, that will best serve the Magic community as a whole. And while change can sometimes be a scary thing, I personally am very excited about our new format. I hope you are too.
Craig Stevenson
Managing Editor, StarCityGames.com
PS- Next on the agenda? A cosmetic overhaul. Watch this space...
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