Photo by Justin McConnell Media

Magic: The Gathering is known for bringing people together. There have been countless Magic cards with marriage proposals and Magic-themed dates, and both of us have a friend who brought a binder full of Magic cards with floral artwork to a date as his “bouquet of flowers.” People who play Magic are very passionate about the game, and it shows in just about every aspect of their lives. When we became engaged, we knew that Magic had influenced us so much that it was going to be a huge part of our wedding.

I’ve been altering cards for about three years now. In this article, I walk through the steps from initial inquiry to finished alter. I’ve heard there are great tutorial videos on altering out there on YouTube, and I got started through the tips and how-to’s Jeremy Froggatt and Eric Klug put out back in the day. Other than that, I’m self-taught. I did well in art class in high school, and I took some art school classes, but I never had a formal education. This article will give you an idea of the time commitment in my process of creating original alter art, and if you’re new to the craft of altering and are interested, it should have some useful tidbits to give you a jumping-off point.

Full art replacement Mayael the Anima

While it’s a blast to get rowdy with extensions and partial replacements, my favoritest thing to do is original, full-art replacements on cards I love. This commission definitely fit the bill, so you can imagine how excited I was.

Hurray! A unique take on Azusa, from scratch. Right up my alley. Plus, Azusa is such a badass lady in both Modern and Commander. I’d done an Azusa extension before and really enjoyed it—jumping in and swimming naked in the warm waters of her effulgent green fire and all that—but I’d never done an Azusa full art. My next move was to e-mail Joshua with a few questions that would help me develop his concept.

So where/what do you want to eat?

A phrase heard all too often after a long day playing Magic. Such a basic question can be so difficult to answer depending on various factors, most often influenced by the time of day and number of people eating. Once you’ve managed to jump over those hurdles, you’re left trying to figure out a suitable restaurant while watching the battery life on your phone slowly dwindle away one scrumptious benedict photo at a time. Decisions can be hard, but fear not, for there is a helpful guide to light the way to satisfaction.

All too often I’ve found myself in a city for the first time, hungry, with a bunch of friends, and everyone is looking at me for a "sweet place to eat." I’d somehow acquired the reputation of being a foodie. I’m not really sure how that happened, but in any case, there may be a few other people who may be able to relate. Regardless of how much you love food, you may find yourself visiting Phoenix for the upcoming Grand Prix, and if you’re anything like the rest of us, you’ll probably have to eat at some point along the way.

Hello!

A couple days before PT Born of the Gods, I found myself without a deck. Since I didn’t like anything, I decided to go with one of the team decks—Scapeshift or Affinity. I picked Affinity up to play a couple games and EFro told me that with the very limited time that I had, he didn’t think I could learn to play Affinity at a good enough level, so I probably should not play it.

I think he was right. I consider myself a very good player, but I also consider Affinity a very complicated deck, and one I’m not used to, so I knew wouldn’t be able to play it at a satisfactory level. I thought Affinity might have been the better deck, but I played Scapeshift anyway because that deck was easier and, with little practice, I thought I would do better.

This requires two different assessments—first, I need to know my strengths and my limits. I would have played, for example, UWR on a whim, because I’ve played this kind of deck before and I’m good with it; not so much with Affinity. Second, I need to know how hard the deck is to play properly and what kind of skills it requires. I need to know that my skills with, say, Faeries, will not translate into skills with Affinity, whereas they would maybe help me if I was playing something like Merfolk. Much is written about the first assessment, but the second is rarely mentioned, as if it’s not important—but it is very important.

Whip of Erebos... Erebos, God of the Dead... Chandra, Pyromaster... you can probably rattle off a list as long as your arm of four-mana spells capable of winning games on their own. We already know that good four-mana spells are often very good.

This is an article about more expensive spells; that is, largely more expensive than four mana. Which are the ones worth playing? When should you play them? How do they differentiate themselves from cards that "merely" cost four—that are already at the end-point of what should be capable of winning the game?