I regularly do contract-based work for Wizards of the Coast. This is my most recent work, the edited finals of Pro Tour: Berlin. These are fun little romps and are based on the play-to-play editing style I innovated. You can also see them in context via Paul Jordan’s article on magicthegathering.com. Enjoy!
Yay! I finally got the DVD produced, edited, and out the door. Those who have pre-ordered the DVD got those placed into the mail today.
Here’s a look at the spiffy new final DVD cover (click to enlarge, of course):
The Magic Show US Nationals 2008 DVD cover
The DVD includes both episodes from the US Nationals 2008 coverage, along with over half an hour of never-before-see footage. This includes:
- The missing segment “Describe the Faerie Menace in One Word”
- Extended Interviews with Billy Moreno, Adrian Sullivan, and more
- Extended Wizard of the Coast interviews with Ken Nagle and Masters Edition 2 discussions with Erik Lauer
- The Richard Hagon-ran Magic Game Show
- Much, much more!
You can pick up the DVD in the store for a mere $14.99 plus shipping. Purchased DVDs will be sent out the following business day. Thanks so much for your support, it keeps the Magic Show alive.
Support the Magic Show by purchasing the Nationals 2008 DVD, now available for pre-order over in the Support The Magic Show Store. I’m working on the new cover which I’ll debut here soon, and for only $14.99 you get:
- Both Nationals 2008 Episodes
- Over half an hour of uncensored, never-before-seen footage! This includes deckbuilding chats with Adrian Sullivan, Billy Moreno and more, R&D discussion from Wizards of the Coast Designer Ken Nagle, the Magic Game Show with Rich Hagon, the lights shutting off with Kyle Sanchez, and more!
So I got this idea in my head that I could do a ‘daily’ series. In writer terms, these were five 800 word articles. In amateur video, this was gaining a second job for the week.
My first idea was to film my Suicide Rakdos, how it performed, trying new things out, etc. I was recording my matches when I ran up against a very interesting new combo deck using cards from Time Spiral that had just been released.
Lotus Bloom…Dragonstorm? What was this craziness? I had to build it! I saw all of three or four of the cards in the deck and was off.
Of course, looking back, seeing as Dragonstorm won Worlds 2006 and all, then followed up with 2nd place at Worlds 2007 courtesy of Patrick “The Innovator” Chapin, as it was - by far - still the best deck in the room. And it turned out that Lorwyn supercharged it with Spinerock Knoll driving it further into the stratosphere. Patrick was one burn spell away from taking it to Game 5, but it wasn’t to be.
This video may be a bit grating as you’re just screaming at it “JUST PUT 4X RITE OF FLAME ALREADY” but it’s still not clear yet. I’m far too busy packing it full of garbage like Truth or Tale. That and, wow, did I seriously not understand the Storm mechanic back then? Oh, those were the days (I was 26). Not the worst of my blunders, but hey, I showcased a match in which I played no one of importance against a deck that did absolutely nothing that gave a combo deck about 4,000 turns to win. Go Magic Show!
Ugh. Lots to learn with this episode, but I could only improve a little at a time here. I filmed this episode and the next over the series of a few hours of deckbuilding and brainstorming (i.e. 4-6 hour period). When I finished with them, on Monday night, I realized I had to finish Wednesday’s before Tuesday night, as it was airing…well, Tuesday night. And of course, I wanted to do something special for that Friday too. *head asplode*
Next time we’ll see how I tried the “untested” Rite of Flame and found that it was, you guessed it, kinda good in the deck. But then I threw in the Urza lands? Wha?
Archived shows are posted one week after their airing.
Original Airdate: September 12, 2008
Length: 14:39
In this show I went over the latest Magic Player Rewards foil, Cryptic Command, discussed the return of States with the man who brought it back (Glenn Godard), and went over a bunch of Shards of Alara spoilers.
The story about the Cryptic Command is that this was a secret I had to keep for a long time. I had known about the card since Pro Tour: Hollywood (i.e. May 2008), and finally got the art and okay from Wizards of the Coast to display it to the world. I should’ve asked them for the other textless cards to boot (Flame Javelin and Unmake - yay!), but that’s for next time.
The interview with Glenn Godard was fun. As I hope you know, these interviews are heavily edited for time, as me and Glenn spoke of States-y stuff and prerelease marketing that got cut along with a lot of ‘uh’ and ‘ums’.
As for the spoilers, of course I can’t go three shows without mispronouncing something horribly, and Sigiled Paladin is actually pronounced SIDJ-el Paladin, not Sygg-el Paladin (ala the Merfolk Legend). Oh well, just another tip in the hat of embarrassing flubs. I’m used to them by now and don’t let them bother me.
The reactions to this episode were kinda funny to. Apparently, since I railed on Wizards of the Coast so hard-core last go around, I was now seen as ‘pandering’ with this episode. For what it’s worth, I don’t pander to a soul. If I’m happy or excited about something, I let you know. If I don’t (as they found out in the previous episode regarding the overhaul of magicthegathering.com), I let them know that too.
Either way, fun little episode. Big thanks to those who supported the show this week, as always.
In this, one of my lowest-watched shows ever (only 3,800 views or so before I featured it here), I see me stumble my way through live video.
It’s a lesson in how my editing’s improved, I guess, as I watch players cut off, sound bites chopped, and so on. I was also disjointed in the edits I used and there is no music to be found. Me talking into the camera THIS CLOSE probably didn’t help much either.
I also cringe at the lament at the end on how difficult it was. Yeah, video is always difficult. It’s always tough, it always takes forever. Whine whine. No more whining from me, I believe, after this brief blip. You just get the work done. Live video takes considerably longer than any other content produced for the show, but that’s not reason to cry about it
Let’s see, my favorite moment from this episode is when the kid describes Time Spiral as “Ridiculous. That’s what it is. Ridiculous.” Cracks me up.
I of course ruin what would probably be the best moment by accidentally shutting the camera off while the guy was going on about how Psionic Blast and Call of the Herd were the “shiznoz.” Oh well.
Prereleases I film nowadays are more focused on the special segments that don’t have much to do with people’s reaction to the set. For example, I’m extemely happy how the Shadowmoor Prerelease video came out. The Heart Attack segments were goofy and fun and could provide a thread to tie the segments together.
Anyway, as for this one, there aren’t any famous “This card sucks” proclamations that were proven completely incorrect yet (I think we have to wait for the Future Sight Prerelease for things to get that wonky), and this experience was important for me to improve in the future. When it was over I saw a hundred little mistakes, mistakes I worked on correcting for my next outing.
The following week, I decided to do a daily video series. It damn near killed me. We’ll talk about it next time.
Archived shows are posted one week after their airing.
Original Airdate: September 5, 2008
Length:14:04
A few notes on this episode:
- It’s surprising how many people complained about the talking head thing. I do this maybe three, four times a year (just me on camera, that is), but the response was pretty clear: Give us our funny cards and FAIL pics. Okay then.
- I liked how Aaron Forsythe wrote on my Facebook instructions on how to bookmark the new Daily MTG site. The point is, I shouldn’t have to.
- Thanks so much for those showing support, including the first person to ever purchase a trinket (and the most expensive to boot), Wesley Hall. You have cemented yourself in Magic Show history, sir. To make it to Germany I’ll need a few more purchases, but my fingers are crossed. With fans like these, I find myself optimistic.
Original Airdate: September 27th, 2006
Length: 10:34
This is the episode where I officially overstepped my bounds. I’m sorry, but at this point in my career/life as a Magic player, there is no way I should’ve been going on about how to connect Sun Tzu to Magic. I could draft decently and play an okay game of constructed, but anything above that is wishful thinking.
The worst, of course, was that this connection had already been done years and years ago by The Dojo, where people who were laying the foundations of modern Magic strategy were actually forging paths forward, instead of my goofy ass reciting book quotes and what I think that means.
I got called out on it in the feedback, and as such I find this episode a little painful to watch. Firstly, and this is an issue with a lot of the early stuff, I simply believe I talk too slow. My #1 tip to those going into web video is talk fast. Seriously. Talk even faster than that. I mean, look how good Zero Punctuation is, and that guy talks about a hundred words a minute.
Anyway, after being called on my high-falootin’ ways, I calm down for Show #5. In this one I tried to both reach too high and create a story arc to tie it up at the end. Oh well. I shot for the moon and exploded on the launch pad.
This is an important episode because sometimes you have to suck really hard to know what not-sucking feels like. That doesn’t erase or invalidate the hours of effort put into this video; it simply makes them worth it.
In this episode I begin to widen the scope of the Show as people knew it. I wanted to begin focusing on the ‘big picture’ issues rather than just decks and cards. I began to feel that the best way for me to connect to the Magic playing populace would be to examine exactly why we play Magic, what is happening behind the scenes as well as in front, and what we were expected to do versus what we actually did.
The issue in this one is Ken Krouner’s comments regarding the parting ways/laying off/firing/who knows between Ted “Teddy Card Game” Knutson and Wizards of the Coast. No one knows but them and their close friends, and no one was talking about it. However, Ken more or less rubbed in the fact that Ted was being let go immediately, and took some glee in his unfortune.
This caused me to call Ken an ass and hopefully open a dialogue about what is and isn’t kosher amongst us. In actuality, Ken didn’t know Ted was fired until after his comments, as he was under the impression Ted just got another job or something. This, too, I believe is interesting and makes exploring these issues worthwhile.
This episode laid the groundwork for me to look at issues with a bird’s eye view and with a more critical eye towards the community. It was also the first episode where I got a comment from Wizards of the Coast. It may sound silly, but being encouraged by the people who make the game factored in heavily towards my efforts to keep going and getting better. Here is what Randy Beuhler posted just a few hours after it went live on the StarCityGames forums:
Fun stuff — keep up the good work.
Randy
Just a few words, just a little encouragement. Sometimes that makes all the difference. I appreciate Randy taking the time to tell me this. To this date, he’s only left 17 comments on those forums, and this is one of them.
Other notes: I’m not exactly sure why I sound like I’m in a cave or perhaps behind a thick windscreen in this video. Maybe it had to do with me recovering from surgery or something. I’m not sure.
“Beware Sausage Fests” still cracks me up.
Another first: While trite, the first advertising to ever show up in The Magic Show appears at the end. It’s an effort to get you to take a look at the final set of my custom fan expansion, Fires of Heaven. While I’m more proud of its follow-up, Rise of the Titans, Fires of Heaven was great fun in learning how design and development are ridiculously underappreciated jobs.
Lastly, it’s funny to look at spoiler reactions from that era. Wheel of Fate was being hyped, and Ancestral Vision was still up in the air as possibly a crap rare. Oh, we were young then…
Just so we’re all clear in what is going on in the Support The Magic Show page, I wanted to give you an example of what a show might look like all tricked out with support trinkets. Check out this image (click to enlarge):
What a show with Trinkets looks like
Hopefully this gives you some idea of what I’m going for in terms of the looks of the trinkets and their placement. Also note that you’ll be included in the credits, of course, under whatever Display Name you see fit. Any Personal Message attached will be included as ‘alt’ text (i.e. when you hold your mouse over the trinket, the Personal Message will pop up).
Here is what the checkout form looks like:
Trinket Checkout Details
Update: All payments are processed through Paypal. Just FYI!
The Trinkets are based on various nicknames I’ve given cards over the course of two years of creating The Magic Show.
This method of fund raising allows people to give back week after week as they see fit and on their budget, instead of the ole “We need $X by X date” fund raising. Many times friends and players have asked me about contributing to the show, and this is a sure-fire method of providing me the assistance needed to create better content. These donations add up over time to allow me travel money to make it to Berlin in October, and next year I’m going to attempt to go to Kyoto, Rome, Austin, and Honolulu with your help.
Thanks again for watching the show and for your support!
