Let's take a look back at what happened through Magic's 16th year, 2009. This year has been an amazing one for Magic players around the world. In this article I look back over the year and share the biggest news events, stories, and surprises of 2009. In no particular order...

Brian Kibler's run for a Pro Tour Win

Wizards has always loved to have a big winner. A player who is dominant in every shape of the game, and 2009 was the year of the return of a retired-pro, Brian Kibler. Brian had played for years, retiring a few years ago, doing well enough but never really breaking through. That's no longer the case.

Brian took 2009 by storm. After deciding to return to Magic he qualified for Pro Tour Honolulu by attending a PTQ in Las Vegas (driving from his home town of San Diego) and then went on a spectacular run. He was undefeated in Day 1 of Pro Tour Honolulu, and nearly the same in Day 2, qualifying for the Top 8.

Combining his personality, his good looks, and his unquestionable ability to sling Magic spells it was a heartbreaker to see him knocked out in Honolulu. However, the 'Dragonmaster' was back. He went to Pro Tour Austin wielding an Extended deck built by his friend and Magic Pro tour Hall of Famer Ben Ruben, a modified Zoo deck that was top heavy with Baneslayer Angel. He went on to dominate Extended and won the whole tournament.

His win was not without an asterisk. Video coverage revealed a missed trigger that would have changed the game and lead to defeat for Brian. Neither judges, nor coverage, nor players noticed it in time and it went unpunished (notable only due to a disqualification for the same sort of event at Worlds in Rome.)

Brian Kibler is a crowd favorite, as well as being an insider in the gaming industry for his role as lead developer on Chaotic, a trading card game aimed more at the mass-market with its own cartoon series and online tie-ins.

StarCityGames' Announcement of the 2010 Open Series

Weeks after players cried out in shock as the 2010 Grand Prix schedule had been released, revealing a decreased number of events worldwide, with a handful of regions and indeed continents being left out in the cold, StarCityGames revealed their greatly expanded 2010 Open series.

It is the largest non-DCI tournament series in Magic history, and its climactic Invitational tournament features the largest non-Pro Tour cash prize ever. StarCityGames has for a long time been considered a powerful force in Magic's existence with their sizable online store and strategy site, their tournament series advances them miles further in the eyes of players.

While the tournament series remains only in the United States, it is still a major step in progress for the future of Magic as a game, and the announcement of this series will indeed be a sizable event in Magic's history.

Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox Live Arcade

The announcement of a Magic the Gathering game for Xbox was met with much questioning and fear, players worried it would be poorly done and generally a waste of time. Duels of the Planeswalkers quickly proved all doubters wrong as it reached hundreds of thousands of gamers whom Magic had not been able to reach before. Duels of the Planeswalkers did so well that it quickly was followed up with an expansion and news that the game would be expanding to the Playstation 3 in 2010.

The game is credited by many for an increase in Magic sales and interest online, as it provides an easy gateway to re-engage past gamers, and to draw in new players. Wizards also revealed that the next version of their popular Magic Online would mimic the Xbox's interface in many ways though it is still a few years off.

Unquestionably the game was a resounding success and though to the normal Magic player its effects are largely overlooked or invisible, they are there, below the surface, driving more and more players to the game we all love to much.

Magic 2010

The most controversial event of 2009 can only be that of the changes ushered in by the latest core set. Magic 2010 brought with it the most extensive set of rules changes since Sixth edition a decade ago, rules changes which were loudly objected to by players, with thousands of pages on forums dedicated to players venting their upset.

Wizards held strong, confident in their decisions and indeed they were proven right. Magic 2010 sales blew all expectations out of the water. According to Aaron Forsythe, Magic 2010 sales surpassed two years of 10th edition sales in only two months. Magic 2010 carried with it numerous changes, but in the end the players have spoken and it is a hit.

Zendikar and its Hidden Treasure

As a Magic podcaster and writer, I see a lot of things. Rumors. Fakes. Just crazy Magic stories. But I will never forget the night that news of the treasure in Zendikar broke. I was frantic trying to find more information. I couldn't believe it, but I wanted too.

Zendikar was already a hotly expected set, with presales at many outlets shocking them and causing a spike in the price of booster boxes from their normal rock bottom of $80 USD to upwards of $120 USD before slowly deflating and dropping back down.

When news of the treasure in packs broke, the Magic players went crazy. The idea that Wizards would do such a thing was beyond belief. It had to be fake! It was real. Packs contained treasure. From Black Lotus to Time Walk to Taiga to the first seen Candelabra, players eagerly popped packs at the pre-release events hoping to see an older card amongst the fresh cards.

This too was met with fear and anger as many felt Wizards was worming through a loophole around their 'Reprint List.' A list of cards that Wizards created to reassure Magic collectors that their investments would not become worthless by the reprinting of Magic cards. However in the end the players again settled down, accepting that the previously printed and now redistributed 'treasure' cards proved to be one of Magic's greatest surprises for its players. Wizard cannot even admit it is true, using the party line that they never discuss collation of packs. We'll have to wait until the statute of limitation passes to hear them utter anything.

Yuuya Watanabe is the Player of the Year

The Player of the Year race has never really been the spotlight of competitive Magic. It's an elite handful of players, battling to out-play, out-perform and out-jetset their competition. The players rotate as events occur, being wildly variable as the year begins and settling down around the second Pro Tour. This year though one name remained among the top from nearly start to finish, Yuuya Watanabe.

Yuuya had an amazing string of top finishes in 2009. Starting with GP Kobe in April (2nd), then to place 2nd in his native country's Nationals, GP Bangkok in August (6th), GP Niigata also in August (8th), GP Prague in September (2nd), and winning GP Melbourne in October. He then places sixth at Pro Tour Austin and rounded out his year with a fifth place finish at Grand Prix Kitakyushu.

After winning Rookie of the year in 2007, he said his goal was to win Player of the Year, and he did it just two years later. When 2017 rolls around, and he becomes eligible for the Pro Tour Hall of Fame, this player will most assuredly be on the ballot and a heavy favorite to get that ring.

Magic Goes into Overdrive Online

The Internet has always been an integral tool for Magic. They are nearly the same age and Magic's formative years centered around players utilizing the online resources to further their understanding and skills with the game.

The Internet though had grown stagnant, article sites and forums were the dominant tools for communication. IRC being left to a precious few. Magic Online holding a near monopoly in online play. Not much was changing.

In 2009 the Magic metaverse took a leap forward with social media. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and even Google Wave proved to become powerful tools for Magic players.

Blogging has been around and there were a handful of Magic blogs over the years, but the majority of people fed the article sites their content, hoping to be carried in one of the central veins. In 2009 we had dozens of new blogs start up focused on the game, writers taking independent voices and their own channels for distribution to make their name.

Twitter has become a required tool for major tournament coverage. Wizards, ManaNation and Evan Erwin all utilize it to give up to the second results and news from the tournament floor. Where as before the fans would have to follow the oft-delayed match reports, round results, and wait hours to know how a favorite player did.

The Rise of Extra Products

2009 marked a new high in the number of cards printed by Wizards of the Coast. Reaching nearly 1300 unique cards printed by the company it was done despite the actions they took to decrease the set sizes. How? The rise of the extra products.

Though the Duel Decks and 'From the Vault' series were launched in 2008, it wasn't until this year that their abilities were seen. With two duel decks, a premium deck, From the Vault, and a casual format 'Planechase' they released nearly 500 unique cards which did not have any effect on the competitive magic format sizes.

While they may have had missteps with these new lines, for example the 'From the Vault' series had stores raising prices to meet demand. To many this was seen as pure profiteering from retailers, but the fact is that it is simple economics. For economics to work, stores have to push to maximize profit so that they can take losses, like with the Sliver Premium Decks.

While the Sliver Premium Deck has sold fine, it never left MSRP (as far as I know) and I am willing to bet that the online retailers ordered too many over-estimating the demand in the market. Those sliver decks will eventually sell. Possibly for a loss. And it's profiting off of things like the From the Vault series that allowed it.

These new side products have added revenue to the entire chain, from Wizards' printing partners, to Wizards, to vendors, to retailers, to you and me and Kelly Reid looking to make an extra buck in trades or selling cards to the secondary market. It's the circle of life.

Overall it was quite an awesome year for Magic and I think we can expect 2010 to be just as awesome.