Recently, an article circulated on Facebook and Twitter concerning Magic and its growth. I can’t find it right now, and it isn’t really vital to the story anyway. In fact, I wouldn’t bring it up and tease you like that if it weren’t vital to the picture I’m trying to paint for you. So bear with me.

There was an article. Someone wrote it, for some non-Magic outlet, and the thrust of the piece was, “OMG, I used to play Magic years ago, and look at how many people came to this thing in Las Vegas!” and it talked about the game. One of you reading this knows the article I mean, and you’re going to link it in the comments. You needn’t bother, but by doing so, you can demonstrate how good your memory and/or Googling skills are, and, sure, fine, take a bow. You earned it, font of esoteric knowledge. Again, the article is not really vital to the story. What is important to the story is the comments section, where some dingleberry was waxing philosophical about how Magic is, at its core, a game where you win by spending more money than the other guy.

How do you address that sort of attitude in a person? Do you not bother because the game has an estimated twelve million players, and in that twelve million are quite enough dingleberries already? Do we need to craft an argument persuasive enough to change the mind of more dingleberries? I didn’t type anything to try to persuade him, but I went ahead and had the mental argument anyway because I do stuff like that. You know that concept l’esprit de l’escalier? Yea, that’s the kind of esprit I have going, longtemps.

So, anyway, I’m undressing this guy’s argument, mentally, like an hour later while I play Freecell or whatever, and I got him good. He yielded and went and bought a Deck Builder’s Toolkit, and now he teaches orphans how to construct mana bases—the works. I got him really good. The crux of my winning argument was that, irrespective of how much money Constructed cards cost, better players are inevitably going to do better on the whole in Limited, and the fact that this game has the best Limited format of any card game ever means that there is an immense amount of skill involved. I also brought up the fact that you can make a winning Legacy burn deck for the cost of a medium stuffed-crust pizza, but by that time, in my imagination, the guy was already crying.

So, since you all, my loyal readership, are not berries of the dingle or of any other variety, you all understand that Limited is the real deal. But whom should we follow to hear advice on the format? I’m glad I pretended you asked me that. Without further ado, I bring you “Who to Follow – Limited Edition.”

Ben Stark

Where You Know Him From: Convincing Jon Snow to become a Ranger

Current Title: Magic Pro

Social Media:

Twitter

Accolades

ChannelFireball Archives

Masterclass

Ben Stark knows a thing or two about Limited. In fact, he was brought to Team ChannelFireball because of his Limited prowess. Now, I stood in a group of people this weekend in Detroit who were talking amongst themselves about how he mostly only knew how to play Limited and wasn’t a very good Constructed player. “Don’t get me wrong,” they kept saying, each time they maligned him a little more, “He’s an excellent Limited player. I think he just won a Grand Prix last year. But he’s not that great at Constructed.”

I heard significantly less of that the longer the day went on. Apparently, it was by some sort of stroke of luck that he managed to Top 8 Grand Prix Detroit this weekend—that or maybe he knows a thing or two about Constructed as well. His Hall of Fame induction would back up my theory, anyway.

But it is specifically his mastery of Limited (that Grand Prix he won was Indianapolis 2012, by the way) and his video with Luis Scott-Vargas, tagged Masterclass above, proves that there is no one else on ChannelFireball LSV would rather have by his side, teaching the rest of us how it’s done. But don’t take my word for it! Let’s let his tweets do the talking.

Honestly, I’m advocating following a Hall of Famer who wins Limited Grands Prix and whom LSV considers the best Limited player on team ChannelFireball. If I can’t convince you of that, I might as well start losing the arguments in my own head, too.

Marshall Sutcliffe

Where You Know Him From: Limited Resources is kind of a popular podcast.

Current Title: Poker and Magic player, coverage . . . must we label everything?

Social Media:

Twitter

Facebook

Twitch

Limited Resources

Limited Information

I found a picture of Marshall that makes him look kind of like a poor man's Timothy Olyphant. So, that’s pretty cool that he has that going for him.

You know what else he has going for him? Being everywhere. He streams on Twitch, he hosts arguably the most popular Magic podcast, and he gets to make puns on the word “Limited” so often that I think his next project should be called Limited Tolerance, and it can be a place where people can talk about how many puns he gets to make and how it’s probably one too many.

Am I disparaging the man? Hecks no! He’s carved out a nice niche for himself, and he practically set up shop atop the word “Limited” and with good reason. He came on our podcast and told us about going infinite on Magic Online, and it was one of our best episodes—the episodes where we’re leant credibility by sheer virtue of our guests associating with us voluntarily frequently are. I think if you can go infinite on Magic Online playing Limited, you can make as many puns on “Limited” as you want . . . Unlimited Limited puns.

Limited Resources is a great, err, resource, and it’s one of the highlights of my weekly podcast gauntlet. If you like seeing more than hearing, perhaps watch his Twitch stream and witness a man going infinite firsthand. If you’re not inclined to listen to an entire hour of a podcast, I felt that the best advice he gave us was when he advised Marcel to man up and enter 8–4 prize payout events because you’ll never go infinite playing 6–4–1–1. The upside to winning the entire event is too low to offset the times you don’t win the whole thing. Sure, it’s fun to pick up at least a booster for one win, but that leads to what he calls a “slow bleed,” and you’ll be thinking, “Well, I only need to buy two packs to play the next Draft,” and that mentality sets in, and soon, you’re selling your furniture for tix so you can “chase the dragon.” (The quotes are mine. He never said that.)

Oh man, I forgot about that. I should link that so you can all be equally bewildered. If there is anyone Wizards trusts to wrangle a bubbly, energetic lunatic like Mark Rosewater, it’s Marshall Sutcliffe. Check this out. Marshall actually makes him stick to the one-minute-per-year limit, which I would not have had the discipline to do.

Jan van der Vegt

Where You Know Him From: Twitch

Current Title: Limited Genius

Social Media:

Twitter

Facebook

Twitch

With a Top 8 at Grand Prix Gothenburg to his credit as well as a finish in the money at Pro Tour San Diego, his pedigree is quite impressive. Not content to rest on his laurels, Jan streams all day every day. If you keep his Twitch stream in mind, there is a good chance, at any given time, you can catch him streaming, even if it’s not Limited. I tuned in tonight hoping to pick up a few pointers about Magic 2014 Core Set Draft and caught him chain-smoking while he played Vintage on Cockatrice. It was almost too surreal to put into words. With thousands of subscribers to his Twitch channel, it seems pretty likely that there is almost always something entertaining going on with his stream. Other nights found me getting some great insight into Limited, and there aren’t many people who know Limited as well as Jan. Best of all, he tweets in English.

How good is this guy? Well, it appears we already voted because Jan was on the Community Cup team that trounced the Wizards employees’ team this year. What we have is a dedicated grinder who streams constantly, cashed a few high-profile Limited events, tweets often, and is entertaining to boot. This is a textbook follow, folks. Get on it.

That does it for Who to Follow this week, folks. Join me next week, when I’ll aim to go with a shorter preamble, which I’m making up for by cutting this section–