This was a big week. Formative moments in internet culture; PAX East quickly approaching; and Commander challenges laid out, and that's just the beginning. This week Adam and Carlos share a few of the things they're most excited about, from upcoming events to a rekindled nostalgia for things long past. They also call out some of the awesome Magic content and happenings that this week had to offer. Spend your Sunday with Team Gathering Magic and take a look at a few of our favorite things.

Picks of the Week: March 1, 2015

Adam Styborski is Content Manager for Gathering Magic, writer of Command Tower for magicthegathering.com, text coverage reporter at Grand Prix and Pro Tours for Wizards, a Pauper Cube developer, and known curmudgeon.You can find him sharing things on Twitter as @the_stybs.

I’m a terrible editor.

While that’s clearly exaggeration for effect, I’ve been behind on many things that people ascribe to good ones:

• Writing weekly editorial pieces, like this very series I cooked up.
• Plowing through all of the submissions awesome people send in.
• Keep grammar, spelling, punctuation, descriptions, captions, and attributions correct. (We have an awesome copy editor for a reason.)

I’m finally back in the saddle again just in time to take off for Grand Prix Cleveland and some awesome in Boston.

Pax Tecum

PAX East is almost upon us and I’ll be there for various reasons: Magic, NHL, and continuing my casual rivalry with my Canadian nemesis.

To be fair to Bruce, former Gathering Magic writer and current incumbent for my old post at Serious Fun, he’s still super happy despite all the shenanigans I put him through, and pulled Ant Tessitore into to boot:

But don’t be fooled. He’s preparing well:

There’s also a Magic panel on Dragons of Tarkir, an interview I plan to fire off with a brand manager, and a Bruins game to potentially jersey foul at. Next weekend is going to be full of Magic, so follow along for the panel, Commander, and more.

You’ve been warned, just like Bruce.

We Won

I’ve mentioned the importance of net neutrality before and explained why I feel it’s so important for games like Magic, with communities built on fan sites and social media and online gaming that doesn’t need even more complications affecting it.

I just wanted to share that I’m excited for the better future of our Internet, at least in this capacity.

Azusa, Found and Sparkling

Working with MJ Scott is a treat. She’s funny, witty, passionate, and talented with her work in cosplay and creative. You’ve seen the power of Modern’s Amulet Bloom deck, but taking Magic to an even more personal level is becoming part of the game itself.

Few do cosplay the way MJ does, and fewer still show the process so raw and complete.

See the GDC

Game Developers Conference kicks off this week and I’m excited. I don’t get to attend (That’s PAX East!) but given it’s proximity to Wizards it’s no surprise plenty of Magic’s makers are making their way in.

What Polygon’s covered about GDC is true from all the first-hand accounts I’ve been given: GDC is where smart, savvy people share some of games’ greatest ideas. The effect on Magic is no mistake: The ways and means of better integration, community activity, and event promotion are growing in part thanks to what GDC provides.

While Tarkir Dragonfury may not seem interesting at a glance, the idea to find an in-store, semi-randomized promotional method that mimics what it’s like to breath dragonfire upon your enemy is a pretty visceral way to highlight that Dragons are the new kings of the roost.

These tie-ins and gimmicks may not delight entrenched players, the first-timer that loved all three The Hobbit movies that gets lucky with a spindown die roll will be hooked. Keeping the newest players around long enough to become entrenched starts with experiences like these, and experiences like these start at GDC.

Party Rock Anthem

Early last week I asked the Magic community – as in I asked my friends and followers that mostly play Magic – to give me some super sweet songs to feel good by. Throw this playlist on random and enjoy an entire spectrum of music from others that play the game.

If this doesn’t tip you off to how diverse and varied we are as a group I don’t know what will.

Carlos Gutierrez is an Associate Editor for Gathering Magic, an engineer-in-training, and a Commander and Pauper enthusiast. By day, he works as a STEM educator, but he spends his weekends hitting all his land drops and trying new board games, puzzles, and video games. You can find all of him sharing Commander craziness, baked goods on Twitter, and complaints about graduate school at @cag5383.

Colors of Commander - Alex Ullman

Alex is one of my favorite people to talk about Magic with because we approach building and playing decks so similarly; with the core tenet that small edges add up over time to overwhelming advantages in the later phases of the game. In this article, Alex puts forth a really interesting conceptual tool that is particularly resonant with me. Not only do decks and cards have color identities in Commander. So do the players.

If you play Commander for long enough with the same group of people, you recognize stylistic flairs in both play and deck construction that are unique to particular players. In this article, Alex breaks down different styles as distinct player color identities. In doing so, he provides a familiar framework for approaching unique situations that I will certainly be using moving forward.

Who's the threat at the table? That guy may be playing Red-White, but he feels like a Blue-Black player, so maybe I need to fear a combotastic endgame. How do you help someone build a deck in a color combination they're unfamiliar with? Maybe it still needs to feel and play like a color combination they're more comfortable with. Again, this isn't an idea that's going to revolutionize Commander as a format, but it is an important shift in perspective that opens up a lot of room for interesting discussion and problem solving.

After all, Alex and I have already decided that all of my decks play like Blue-Green decks, regardless of color identity. That means that, despite playing with a lot of different cards, I'm still doing basically the same thing. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it also means I've got a long way to go if I'm really looking to broaden my horizons.

I Wanna be the Very Best

I've always been a fan of the Pokemon franchise. I was the perfect age for it when the comic previews, games, and cartoons first started making their way to the states. I played the classic gameboy games, collected the cards, and raced home after school to watch new episodes of the cartoon together. My aunt even got us access to all kinds of fun merchandise before it actually hit shelves.

The original Pokemon Red and Blue games were an enormous part of my childhood. My friends and I started and restarted our games over and over to help one another collect absolutely everything and collect enough TMs to have all the attacks we wanted. We had epic battles on the back of the school bus featuring all kinds of overpowered teams with mono-legendaries.

Pokemon has come a long way since then. Genders. Held Items. Natures. Abilities. Mega Evolutions. Oh, by the way, there's more than four times as many Pokemon as there were when I last checked in.

The point is, there are millions of ways to customize Pokemon now. Battles have evolved from the slugfests that we had in the back of the schoolbus into exciting games of hidden information, bluffs, and prediction. With millions of ways to build a team and customize individual Pokemon, there's an incredible amount of depth that my girlfriend and I are starting to explore together. She still has yet to finish a Pokemon game after a traumatic experience getting lost on the S.S. Anne way back in Pokemon Yellow, but so far we've been having a blast with the newer games (she's just gotten her 6th badge in Pokemon X). There's plenty of variation and optimization to explore for the power gamer in me, and lots of great art and awesome nicknames to be had for her. If you're a fan of the series and have never considered competitive battling before, I encourage you to check it out on an organized site or one of many YouTube channels and take a look.