Recently I received the first issue of The Duelist in the mail from a friend who lent it to me to write a post on it. There’s actually a lot of content in it so I decided to post it into two separate parts. I also have some extra responsibilities this summer so my free time is limited and breaking it up into two parts made it easier for me to get some material out on this blog this summer. Check out part one if you haven’t already.

In the last post we ended with the interview with teen movie cool guy Anson Maddocks. Today we’re going to start with the next article titled, “Lost in the Shuffle: The musings of Richard Garfield” in which he talks about what he defines as “wild” Magic and “structured” Magic.

Garfield’s definitions of “wild” and “structured” were a bit different than I was expecting. My expectation for “wild” was right but I had expected “structured” to simply reference to tournament play. Then I remembered this magazine came out in the winter of 1994… This article also continues on the theme of considering power winning decks to be boring because it keeps players from having fun with the game – or at least as much fun as they could have. Although Garfield does claim that it’s also fun to play as the underdog with the odds against you. I agree with that. How fun is it when you have your jank deck beat the control or U/R counter-burn deck? Those sorts of things are rare and it really comes down to luck on your part and bad luck on the opponents, but it’s pretty fun what that sort of thing happens. I think it’s fun even when I’m the one that loses in that situation.

Next up is “Magic Conundrums: A Look at Magic: The Gathering’s Most Confusing Cards.” This is the first of many articles like this that were needed to clear up confusion on how certain cards were supposed to be played.

The section on Twiddle and Icy Manipulator were pretty interesting because I always saw tapping a card as the cause of the effects of the card. I knew that both Twiddle and Icy didn’t cause any effects or abilities to happen but when I tapped my cards for mana or any abilities, I saw that action as what released those abilities or effects rather than just seeing tapping as an indicator that the card has been used. Pretty interesting. It makes more sense to see tapping as an indication.

Let’s look at the Chaos Orb section. This is great: “there are no rules against setting up your playing area at the outset of a duel in a way that makes using the Orb difficult, like tapping your cards to the wall or placing them around the room.” Fortunately today we have new errata on this! The best is the conclusion: “Usually, though, there isn’t much to worry about when the Orb comes in play because few people can drop it with any accuracy.” Fast forward to 2017 and witness serious Orb flipping talent.

According to Mr. Pling…who is Mr. Pling? Whoever he is he has the scoop on the upcoming Deckmaster games. I’m pretty sure Vampire: The Masquerade was released but was Netrunner and Middle-Earth ever released?

Coming next issue…Mezlok’s Challenge. I’ll try to get my hands on that issue at some point.

Back in the early 90s when Magic was the only thing of its kind…

UPDATE: New Magic expansion coming out in February! Antiquities!

Wait! There’s more! Legends is coming out in April!

Alright now we have some questions for Mr. Toad, the Magic: The Gathering master sage. Ask him all your questions and learn from him young grasshopper. The first question is from a “fool” named Snark. Let’s check it out.

I’m absolutely putting together a red burn deck and calling it Backyard Barbecue. Forks included of course. What a goofy, awesome name. Now we also know the Original Sin of Magic: mono-colored decks. Turns out i’m quite the sinner.

Below we have a story form of a Magic match between to players at GenCon 93.

There’s not a whole lot interesting in the rest of the magazine but I’ll sign out here and post the pictures below. Next post will be another first issue of an early 90s magazine! Enjoy!