Reboot

Good morning everyone. My name is Andrew Rula. I am an avid Magic player and Level 1 Judge. I write this here blog, and I've been more than a little bit negligent in my duties. After a couple of months of consistent two per week posts, I slacked off and missed a couple of months straight. Frankly, I got out of the habit, and I haven't been playing in a ton of events.

Fortunately, with the new year, I'm re-dedicated to exploring the world of Magic. Since last I wrote, there's been some changes in how I play and interact with the game. As such, the tone of this blog is going to be subtly changed. I am still a player, with Spike and Good Guy tendencies – and no, those are not mutually exclusive. I am a Judge, now over six months out from my Level 1 exam, and moving towards Level 2 as quickly as I can reasonably do so.

I've also had another major shift in how I play Magic – that is, my girlfriend has begun playing. Introducing her to the game has been a major time sink, and she's still learning remarkably quickly. I'll be going much more into this topic in the future, but the whole process really deserves proper treatment in it's own article.

This coming month is going to be a busy one – between GP Atlantic City, judging a SCG IQ, and the Gatecrash Prerelease. I should have more than enough to write about in the meantime. I'm also still working on Illyria, my custom set.

Fortunately, Magic has been exciting in the meantime. At the moment, we've got the most dynamic standard metagame in years. There are a number of viable decks, in various archetypes, that give players a variety of options – and the format shows no sign of stopping. It would appear that this standard never reached an unhealthy stagnation point. At the same time, Legacy's been the subject of one of the biggest shakeup's of it's history, thanks to Deathrite Shaman and the new BUG lists that have blossomed out of nowhere, striking a decisive blow against Maverick's share of the metagame. Even modern has been developing nicely, with the announcement of Modern Masters and a PTQ season underway, it'll be interesting to see if anything can break Jund's hold on the format.

Perhaps most importantly, at least for most players, is that Gatecrash Spoilers have begun. At the time of this writing, we have 40 confirmed spoils, and the set is already looking to have a major impact on Standard.

I'm going to make a promise to you guys, right here, right now. I will write two articles per week, to be posted on Tuesday and Thursday (with an attempt to have them submitted to the web at 9am). Despite being a little light on content, this will serve as the first article, with the next being submitted next on Thursday morning. At the moment, I plan for that article to be an overview of the keyword mechanics for Gatecrash, with an eye towards their playability from a design standpoint.

Until then, have a happy new year, and may all your spells resolve.