Locations
I’m trying my best to see if I can keep coming up with a new theme every week. I could easily just start at the beginning and do something like Judges, Part 2, but since I managed to find an excuse to use Sheldon Menery last week, I am not super-jazzed about doing another Judge article just yet.
This week, I decided I would profile a few other writers because this is my column, and you can’t really stop me. Shake your fist at your computer screen and silently rue all you want, but this is happening. You’re better off just sitting there and enjoying it. Strap yourselves in because this is going to come at you at a speed determined by your reading level. I give to you: Who to Follow (I have caught people referring to this column as WTF, and it pleases me. Conveniently enough, it’s a good abbreviation for the 140-character format on Twitter) TCGplayer writers style.
Frank Lepore
Where You Know Him From: Sometimes, the article’s theme says it all.
Current Title: Communications Manager, Editor at TCGplayer
Social Media:
I have a policy about posting stuff from Facebook. That is to say, I don’t do it. I realize your expectations of even a modicum of privacy are naïve if you have them, but recently, someone posted a wall post from my Facebook (which was at the time for friends only), and I never really got over how douchey I thought that was. Even if other people don’t care, I’m still not going to do that to people.
In this case, it’s too bad because now I’m going to have to clumsily paraphrase a recent conversation that took place on my wall.
Me: Am I the only one who thinks that if Plasm Capture were going to be good, people would have been playing Rewind this whole time?
Frank: Yes.
Now, that whole exchange in and of itself made me laugh and might have been the end of the conversation. Up until that point, I hadn’t heard anyone talk about Plasm Capture without saying, “Sphinx's Revelation,” in the first two sentences, so I thought if that were the entire point, people would have been jamming a bunch of Rewinds since a main-phased Revelation seems really durdly to me. A lot of my friends chimed in and talked about their ideas (and one of them mentioned that Rewind did see fringe play), but at the end of it all, Frank said the only intelligent thing I’ve heard anyone say about Plasm Capture: Use the opponent’s mana to develop your board and keep your mana for countering threats.
This whole scenario kind of fell into my lap by virtue of me being a smartass and Frank kind of being an also smartass (he actually put the period after “Yes,” which made the whole thing funnier), but I think it’s a decent example of why receiving the opinion of someone like Frank is valuable. Frank writes articles you should read. But he also adds value to “extra-curricular” conversations on social media. Isn’t that why you read this series? So that I can recommend you follow people who have five times as many followers as I do? Anyway, Frank’s a good guy, and you should receive his advice any way he’ll give it.
Just as a short post script: For my finance followers, even though I like where Frank’s head is at vis-à-vis utility for Plasm Capture, I didn’t buy in at $4. Anecdotally, these are trading at $10 in certain parts of the country, but a lot of copies can be had at $4, and I’m not seeing the predicted “$15 ceiling” some have mentioned ever happening.
Craig Wescoe
Where You Know Him From: Wearing a collared shirt under a tee shirt
Current Title: TCGplayer writer, Pro Player
Social Media:
I decided to jam Craig here although he could have easily fit into a second iteration of Who to Follow – Financiers, as he dabbles in finance and brewing alike. This makes him seem a little bit schizophrenic during spoiler season, but the same could easily be said of me. To that end, I feel silly pointing out that I find following Craig very valuable during spoiler season, as I’m pointing this out to you the day before the Dragon’s Maze release event. However, this gives you time to become acclimated with all the different ways Craig dispenses wisdom in preparation for the Modern Masters spoiler season, which will be the most financially relevant set to come out in the history of ever. Okay, maybe since Chronicles. The contents of Modern Masters are going to drastically alter prices and availability, and even though you might not consider yourself invested in the finance game, you sort of are if you buy cards. Should you sell stuff that is tanking and rebuy it later? Yep! Should you buy stuff before it goes up? Also yep. Following financiers is key for a transition like this, and financiers who understand the game very well are especially valuable. Craig’s varied skillset makes him an ideal candidate for parsing out how prices are going to be affected.
If you’re not inclined to get finance advice, don’t worry, that’s not all he has to offer. His weekly articles devote a lot of time to brewing as well. Craig wins a lot, so he’s probably on to something, and we should let him tell us what it is when he’s inclined to. Craig’s stream is also worth watching. Basically, he knows a lot, he’s willing to share it with us for free, and the least we could do is take him up on it.
Steve Guillerm
Where You Know Him From:
Current Title: TCGplayer Columnist, obvs
Social Media:
Does anybody remember that insane Twitter thread that started out about whether a linear game the winner of which was determined solely by the result of accumulated dice rolls was technically a game? It started out semantic . . .
@maro254 If I say "let's play a game where we roll dice and move around a track....first person to end wins" isn't that a game?
— Brian David-Marshall (@Top8Games) March 27, 2013
@maro254 @mtgaaron @top8games Indeed. It's about being precise, not about being jerks. Candyland is a randomized process.
— Alessandro (@techn0madic) March 27, 2013
. . . ended up philosophical . . .
@top8games @walktheplanes @mtgaaron @maro254 candy land isn't a game. No decisions to be made.
— Steve Guillerm (@steveexplosion) March 27, 2013
. . . and became super-serious at the end.
@top8games I come from a game theory background. Candyland has as much "play" as a video cassette.
— Steve Guillerm (@steveexplosion) March 27, 2013
If you’re not following at least one person on Twitter who can say, “I have a game theory background,” I feel sorry for you.
I could easily have jammed Steve in some sort of “Dabbles in Finance” article alongside Craig I suppose. Steve is a Quiet Speculation Insider and has contributed some good tips and analysis (he helped me get ahead of a price spike on Fury of the Horde for one) to that community. Again, even if you don’t think you’re involved in Magic finance, you are if you buy cards. Hearing a tip from someone that Thragtusk is too cheap as an $8 preorder saves you almost $70 when you don’t have to pay $25 each on them a week later. A lot of players knew Thrags was a good card, but it benefits you to follow players who have finance sensibilities so they can go one step beyond “this card is good” or “this card is bad” and say, “You might want to buy this now.” I feel that Steve is a writer who has good finance instincts but whose offerings aren’t overtly financial. I believe a great example of what he has to offer is a best-of-the-year winning piece explaining this game to a nonplayer. I saw it as a bit of a rubber-duck test to remind us why we play this game as much as it was an actual primer for nonplayers.
So, we have a writer with a game-theory background, strong finance sensibilities, one of the best TCGplayer articles of 2012 under his belt and half as many Twitter followers as I have, a guy who thought Boros Reckoner was 4 mana last week. (It was last week when I thought it; I didn’t think he went up by a mana for a whole week. That doesn’t even make any sense). If you’re not going to read everything Steve’s ever written (I’ve read a lot of it, and it’s all worth it in my opinion), at least follow the dude on the Twitters. You never know when another tweet chain like the one above will break out (how do you not love MaRo, Forsythe, and BDM riffing like that? How does Twitter not cost money!?). If it does, make sure you’re following the right people. I guess by “right,” I mean the people I tell you to follow.
You can stop shaking your fist, now.
