Writers

Abe Sargent has been playing Magic since The Dark, and is regularly found shuffling his two-thousand-card-plus Highlander deck "Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy." Over the years he has written for numerous Magic websites and publications, including StarCityGames, Scrye, Pojo, and Beckett Magic.

Andy Rogers is a casual player from Grand Rapids, MI. You can find him on deckbox.org as Andy_Rogers, or follow him on Twitter as ALRStories. When he's not slinging spells Andy spends time trying to figure out if his precocious 3-year-old will grow up to be a Johnny, Timmy, Spike or Vorthos.

Andrew Sitte started playing Magic in 1994, but took a long break before Magic Online lured him back into the game during Onslaught. After failed attempts at cutting up digital cards online he switched to cutting up paper cards instead, and has been making 3D altered cards since 2008.

Blake is an Austin-based writer and member of the Wizards of the Coast coverage team. He's been playing Magic since Jester's Cap was a thing. He spends (too) much of his time as a coverage reporter plumbing the depths of how professional players think, build, and play, and likes to think some of that has rubbed off on him. He probably overestimates just how much.

Brainstorm Brewery was created in March 2011 due to popular demand for a podcast focused on helping players understand the inner workings of Magic’s secondary market. Each week, podcast veteran Marcel White is joined by MTG Finance experts Ryan Bushard, Corbin Hosler and Jason Alt, a group with more than 20 years of combined experience in the field, as they cover the latest developments in both the competitive and financial arenas. With special guests and plenty of jokes, there’s never a shortage of both fun and quality information at the Brewery.

Brandon Isleib came to Gathering Magic from Muse Vessel, a casual Magic content site which he co-founded in 2011. From 2008 to 2010, he wrote about baseball for The Hardball Times, and he continues to write for its annual book. He's also a married, new-to-Seattle lawyer who enjoys British panel/sketch shows, cryptic crosswords, DOS-era gaming, and producing/consuming music.

If you seek limited or constructed tournament knowledge, wrapped up with excellent comedic writing, you are in the wrong place. Planted firmly at the kitchen table, Bruce is all things casual, focusing primarily on strategies for multiplayer games wrapped up with horrific, train wreck attempts at humour. Bruce is married to an extremely tolerant woman and has three children who will not go near him in public. In real life Bruce works as an attorney and lives just outside Boston.

Chingsung is a PTQ grinder from Boston, MA. He has been playing since 4th Edition, began playing competitively during Time Spiral, and specialized in Magic theory, history, and deck design.

CMDR Decks is produced, edited, and (mostly) filmed by Uriah Oxford. He has been playing Commander (Elder Dragon Highlander) since 2008, and is a casual player at heart. Although he lives in Colorado he travels around to larger tournaments when time allows. He does not live in a fortified compound in the mountains of Aspen.

Darwin is a Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame member and Invitational tournament winner (earning his depiction on Avalanche Riders). He built his tournament reputation playing Limited, but went on to great success with Constructed. He is also an active game designer, contributing to Ascension, and is still a Magic player to this day.

Casual to the core, Daryl has been playing casual/multiplayer since Legends. After winning accolades (but no actual money) during the StarCityGames Talent Search in 2010, he joined with Bruce Richard and Brandon Isleib to form the Muse Vessel. His background is in International Relations, which is why his writing focuses on theoretical and strategic issues as they apply to multiplayer. Although a New Zealander, he lived in Tokyo for a decade and just recently moved to Seoul.

Devon has been playing Magic for more than a decade. While he's had tournament success, he usually prefers to play Cube or Commander with friends. He was a finalist in The Great Designer Search 2, and he still intends to design Magic for a living some day.

Eric is a full-time Magic alterer out of Silver Spring, Maryland. You can contact him for commissions at eaklug@gmail.com, or see his latest work on his Facebook page.

Glenn Godard is four-digit DCI number player from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He collects and purchases all the Magic promotional materials, such as banners and posters, his wife will allow. With twenty years (and growing) of experience playing Magic and consulting within the gaming industry, he currently manages the annual State and Provincial Championship series.

Inside the Deck is a weekly video series produced by Rich Castle. Its signature is extremely high-quality production, mixed with sharp editing, of interviews, decks, and Magic culture in a documentary style.

Jack "The Mind Sculptor" Tran has been a Magic player on and off since 1994, and is currently a level 1 judge. When not playing PC games or drafting, Jack likes to use his zero loyalty ability and Brainstorm for new video ideas and add shiny things to his cube.

As graphic designer and illustrator, James (or Thatguyjames) makes artwork about the things he loves; Magic chief among them. Born and raised in New York, he works days as a professional graphic artist. He unwinds at night with a large cup of coffee and work on projects he loves, and considers it the greatest form of success when his artwork becomes an inspiration to others. He works mainly in the vector art program Adobe Illustrator.

James Pianka is an MFA in Writing (Integrated Media) student at The California Institute of the Arts. He plays Magic for the lore and design space, aligning on the Johnny-Vorthos spectrum. His work involves multimedia storytelling and nonfiction critical theory.

Jarvis has been playing Magic on and off since Revised. In 2006 he started to play Magic Online regularly, going on to 9-0 and 8-1 at Grands Prix Denver and Philadelphia, respectively, in 2008. He also qualified for two Pro Tours in 2011, as well as for Pro Tours Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored. in 2012. He spends considerable time building and tuning decks for competitive formats.

Jason is a PTQ grinder turned value trader and eBay merchant living in Michigan. He has been playing Magic since 1996, and playing Magic well since 2004. You can hear him as a member of the Brainstorm Brewery podcast, and catch him at most events in the Midwest. Jason is also a regular contributor to QuietSpeculation.com and Cat Fancy magazine.

Jay Kirkman started playing with Limited Edition Alpha, but took pauses from the game throughout its 20 year run. Most recently he turned to preconstructed decks, falling in love with them and has never looked back. He runs the preconstructed deck review site Ertai’s Lament, and lives in Kentucky with his wonderful wife and kids. An analyst by day, when not playing Magic he’s going stark raving bonkers over Glasgow Celtic football.

Jon started playing Magic at the tender age of 11. Over a decade later, he has a handful of FNM wins to his name. He still enjoys playing Magic and having his heart ravaged by the Buffalo Bills every fall. And he hates doing dishes.

Judge's Corner is a weekly video series produced by Rich Castle. Pulling from the knowledge of Magic judges everywhere, each week brings a piece of clarity to our complex game.

Jules is a physics student who hails from Los Angeles, and has played Magic since Odyssey. He's since discovered that Llanowar Elves does not, in fact, search your library for a Forest and put it onto the battlefield, and has started chasing the Pro Tour dream. Whenever he's not doing school work you can find him preparing for that weekend's events, brewing up a fresh Commander deck, or amateur card designs with the cast of characters who call goblinartisans.blogspot.com their home.

Kevin Crimin is a Magic: The Gathering YouTube commentator living in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is passionate about all things deck building, whether it's tuning the latest tournament decks, researching budget decks for new players, or concocting the next "rogue deck" to surprise his opponents with. He qualified for Pro Tour Dragon's Maze with his budget "Soul Sisters" Modern deck, and is excited to play in his first Pro Tour. You can also check out his channel.

Kyle Boggemes is a professional players with multiple top Grand Prix finishes, including a Top 8 at DC in 2010, and standing with more than 60 lifetime Pro Points with career best Top 8 at 2010's Pro Tour San Diego. He's also pursing a Masters in Finance, and plays locally at Get Your Game On in Ann Arbor, MI.

Kranny is the host of the Joy of Cubing podcast, and has been playing Magic for over 15 years. He’s the vocal advocate of the cube format, having written a number of articles detailing cube strategies and principles, from cube basics to unconventional cube builds such as his ever-popular combo cube.

Max is a competitive player who picked up the game with Apocalypse. With a national championship in 2006, Top 8 at Pro Tour Philadelphia 2011, and a more recent Top 8 at Grand Prix Ghent 2012, he’s a player to watch as the team captain for Finland at the 2012 Magic World Cup. He also moonlights as Bloom on SoundCloud.

Michael Robles has been playing Magic: The Gathering since Alpha. A former Community Manager for Wizards of the Coast, he has a passion for Magic and being engaged with the community. He loves Commander, crafting crazy Standard decks, and helping his fiancé organize The Lady Planeswalker Society. You can catch him on Twitter, Tumblr, or his stream.

Mike is a longtime member of Gathering Magic, ardent casual player, and writer for From the Lab on DailyMTG.com. He has a strong focus on casual duels and budget competitive decks.

Mike Linnemann is a writer by trade, formerly writing flavor text for the Magic creative team and directing art at Fantasy Flight Games with their LCG lines. He's a resident Vorthos, covering art, storyline and working in the industry.

MJ Scott has a checkered past as a shapeshifter, with identities including: professional craft bartender, auditor at a Big 4 accounting firm, actress/sort-of model, and notorious head-in-clouds Balvenie-swilling parasite at her parents' home. She's had the honor of working with the Magic creative team as a freelance flavor writer and promotes fiction, art, and sass at www.moxymtg.com. She enjoys red meat, being married to a pro-bike artificer, and sparring with her Izzety-Rakdos toddler progeny.

Hailing from Parts Unknown, Canada, Nassim has long been a PTQ grinder. First bursting on the scene with the infamous "Iggy Pop" deck at Grand Prix Philadelphia in 2005, and more recently finished in Top 32 at Pro Tour Nagoya in 2011, he is a former stock broker and economics student at the University of Western Ontario.

Natasha Lewis Harrington is a L2 judge who likes reading and writing about social issues, participating in pioneering the field of Geek Studies, and building Commander decks that create an unnatural number of tokens. When she's not exploring the Multiverse, she spends her time working towards her doctorate in psychology.

Nathan Weizenbaum is a programmer at Google’s Seattle office. He’s played Magic on and off since the Urza block, and is particularly fond of Limited formats and Magic puzzles of all sorts.

Nick Vigabool is a fan of all things Magic: the math of a metagame, the theory behind deck design, the flavor of the Multiverse, and the art on the cards themselves. He’s fascinated by how Magic works and can be related to the world outside of the game where he is a happy husband and proud father to twin boys.

Petr Joura is a freelance werewolf… sorry… freelance writer from Sydney, Australia, and runs the humorous Magic blog Nyxathid Goes to Town. He has worked as a video games designer and once dreamed of being a professional breakdancer. He has played Magic since Fallen Empires, and is currently in a long-term committed relationship with his collection of Bogardan Hellkites.

Rada is everyone's token "Russian spy" for a friend. She spends her off-time studying engineering, traveling, working out, playing poker and playing Magic: The Gathering. She has been playing in Limited FNMs for years, but has become more serious about the game by diving into Standard, traveling to Grand Prix events, and writing.

Robby Rothe Jr. is the blogger behind the Magic design/culture/humor blog mtgcolorpie.com, and has been playing since Revised. As an advocate of Commander and the "Social Contract" of the format he’s always carrying around a few 100 card decks.

Robert has been playing Magic as long as it's been around. Starting with Tangent's Manascrewed podcast, Robert has been featured on Monday Night Magic, SCGLive, GGSLive, and his long-running series The Men of Magic. He currently produces The Magic Studio podcast.

As a PTQ grinder turned trader and financial writer, Ryan has been playing Magic since Antiquities. A regular face at major US events, he can usually be found on the trade floor working his craft or watching the top tables for the latest deck tech.

Tha Gatherin is the Magic: The Gathering musical project of Buffalo producer and lifelong Magic player Bill Boulden (a.k.a. Spruke) and Magic Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin. Their self-titled debut album came out in May 2011 with sixteen tracks, reflecting on the game's cards, personalities, history, and culture, and is still available at StarCityGames.com and iTunes. Tha Gatherin continues to release standalone tracks, and there's certainly more Tha Gatherin coming up in the future!