Approach of the Second Blog

Much like player turns in Magic: The Gathering, our lives go through phases. Our roles, responsibilities, and availability change as we go through each one. Our relationship with Magic adapts to the conditions of each phase. I write this as I find myself happily settling into a new phase, fatherhood. Even though my time is more limited than ever, in this phase, this blog has bubbled up to the top of my library. It has been seven years since my last post here. I’m determined to not let it go stale again.

The website has been given a complete refresh. I left all the old posts. I have enjoyed looking back at them and thinking about how different my relationship with the game is now, compared to their time of publication. All previous posts were made pre-COVID. My focus was Commander. I was obsessed with creating unique builds that were both reliable and durable. I thought my time was limited then. What did I know? But still, I wanted to maximize my time at the table by ensuring my decks allowed me to play the game; no misfires. I internalized those lessons and don’t have to think about them anymore. As for Commander as a whole, I don’t spend many mental reps on it now.

Post-COVID, in the work-from-home era, we found ourselves venturing into Commander YouTube content. Who didn’t? Channels were popping up everywhere. Spare time and enthusiasm enable art.

I built a studio. I taught myself how to film and edit. We produced four videos you can still find on YouTube. Maybe, don’t though… Return to the office took back the two hours I spent editing video every morning. The fifth video died on the vine. Hasn’t been one published since.

By 2024, several members of our group and I grew a bit tired of the continuous mismatch in expectations inherent to Commander. Commander Brackets are still trying to solve this problem at the time of publishing. Limited became the primary focus for those in our group disenchanted with Commander. Not that Limited was ever absent. It’s been there since the beginning, especially drafted Emperor games. Tim O., founding member and host supreme, started that tradition on day one. Limited became the reason for getting together, with Commander falling to the time filler option.

Universes Beyond has been the most recent thing to push our interests in a new direction. We have several players, myself included, who have no desire to draft Universes Beyond sets. That aversion includes the excellently crafted draft sets like Final Fantasy. Cube was there the entire time, lurking. Just waiting for us to discover it. And we did.

The Limited and Commander content I consumed transitioned to cube content. Before I was done constructing LSV’s Vintage Cube, Lucky Paper Radio was teaching me that other cube concepts were just as fun. Our group’s rotation consists of several cubes: LSV’s Vintage, 100 Ornithopters, a Dominaria Set Cube, Baldur’s Gate Commander Cube, Amonkhet Set Cube, Tarkir: Dragonstorm Set Cube, and a Sticker Cube. Several more are in various stages of construction. I expect that most future posts here will be related to a Limited environment.

I started keeping a record of some of our drafts by hand. You can now find some of these results and records on the site. They aren’t all there. Some Swiss drafts don’t get all their rounds completed, but where they did finish, the results are posted. Future posts will likely explore and review these events. I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I enjoy the games that lead to them.

Stay tuned, we will see what appears on the top of the library next.