Marked Cards: A Player’s Guide

Marked cards are a curious thing. It’s an incredibly common penalty at any event, but it’s one of the least understood. There’s a widespread belief that marked cards automatically mean a player is cheating and that anyone with marked cards in their deck is going to be disqualified from the event, both of which are […]

Exemplar Wave #17: A Thank You

I find it difficult being a judge sometimes. I am not a career judge. I have little desire to judge big events. People have spent years asking me if and when I’m going to start judging MagicFests, but they’re a holiday for me and a chance to hang out with my friends. I don’t want […]

Tournament Report: Geeks & Gamers 1K Invitational Qualifer, 12/05/19

Before we start, shoutout to Alex Riley, who won the first G&G Limited Invitational on May 4th! We were back at Geeks & Gamers in Falkirk for their first Standard 1K Invitational Qualifier since War of the Spark dropped! In terms of meta, there were two…clear frontrunners, shall we say. Interestingly, the top eight was […]

Psychic Barrier: Why We Still Have To Talk About Women In Magic

I’m not going to talk about the Magic Pro League today, because it’s been done to death by people with a much higher personal investment in competitive Magic than I have. What I AM going to talk about is a paragraph in an article Elaine Chase wrote when Wizards officially announced the MPL changes yesterday. […]

Swim Until You Can’t See Land

One year ago, Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison went missing from the Dakota Hotel in South Queensferry. His body was found a day later on the shore of Port Edgar. He had taken his own life. I was at GP Birmingham as the news unfolded. Dumb in a state of grief and sadness that I […]

Competitive Magic: Playing in your First Event!

This weekend will see the first Mythic Championship Qualifier in the UK. Aside from MagicFest+ London, it’s the first major event in the UK competitive scene since the disappearance of PPTQs. Magic is bigger than ever right now, and with an influx of new players comes an increase in the number of people playing competitively. […]

Tournament Report: Geeks & Gamers 1K Invitational Qualifer, 20/04/19

A slightly delayed report this time, due to the the fact that I couldn’t attend this one and had to wait for MagicFest London to get the decklists from Cayce. Better late than never, though! Mono Green Tron is still the most popular deck in Scotland apparently, with GB Rock sliding into second place ahead […]

Just Like Brian Wilson: The MTGLondon Wrap-Up

Usually after a GP, I leave with a bit of a heavy heart. I’ve spent the weekend hanging out with excellent people I don’t see all that often, playing Magic, and rolling back to an Airbnb with my best friends to drink gin and engage in shenanigans. The real world is a depressing prospect. MagicFest […]

Tournament Report: The Other, Other Nationals

When my friend Cayce asked if anyone wanted to publish her tournament report from the weekend, I basically bit her hand off. Partly because it’s super well-written and informative, and partly because I laughed until I cried in the restaurant I was having dinner in when I read it. It’s a tale with everything: comedy, […]

Feel the Burn: Dealing with the Life/Magic balance

I’m writing this while listening to the latest episode of Dies to Removal with the Professor and PleasantKenobi. It’s fitting, so much so that’s it’s almost as though they reached out through the medium of the internet and forced it into my bleeding hands. Over the past two or three weeks I’ve run myself into […]