magicthegathering.com

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magicthegathering.com (MTG.com; also MagictheGathering.com) is the official website for the game of Magic: The Gathering and a subpage of www.wizards.com the official page for Wizards of the Coast. It features columns by R&D members and by several prominent Magic players, such as Mike Flores, alike.

Contents 1 History 2 Features 2.1 Magic Arcana 2.2 Ask Wizards 2.3 Card of the Day 2.4 Orb of Insight 2.5 Columns 2.5.1 Retired columns 3 See also 4 References

[edit] History

Magicthegathering.com went online in early 2000. Their first page was not Magic specific May 30, 2000 edition. The first Magic specific page went online in early 2001 around the time of 7th Edition April 30, 2001. They moved to a column format (ala newspaper looking) in early 2002.

[edit] Features

[edit] Magic Arcana

Magic Arcana is a section of the magicthegathering.com site that provides readers with sneak peeks of future products and revelations of little-known factoids about the game's past.^[1] It is updated daily.

Every Friday, Magic Arcana has a "Wallpaper of the Week", which is a card artwork that is downloadable at 1280 x 960 pixels, 1280 x 1024 pixels, 1024 x 768 pixels, and 800 x 600 pixels. Magic Arcana keeps an archive of Wallpapers of the Week.

Lexicon is a part of Magic Arcana. The Lexicons are articles that define words used in card titles. For instance, the lastest entry lists a caldera noun as "A large crater formed by volcanic explosion or by collapse of a volcanic cone."

The 1000th Magic Arcana was updated on Wednesday, January 25, 2006.^[1] Its début on the magicthegathering.com was on Wednesday, January 2, 2002.

Mark Rosewater wrote of Magic Arcana:

“

Each day we will tell you or show you something you’ve never heard or seen before. News of an upcoming set, original sketches, alternative packaging, playtest cards, uncropped artwork, style guide images, etc. "Magic Arcana" will go where no Magic site has gone before.[2]

”

[edit] Ask Wizards

Ask Wizards is a section of the magicthegathering.com site that answers sent-in questions of the public. It, like Magic Arcana, is updated daily, but may repeat questions on holidays, or certain occasions.^[2]

[edit] Card of the Day

Every weekday day, Card of the Day is updated with a Magic card with an interesting factoid or two; this feature provides readers with "inside" scoops and Easter Eggs. The chosen card often relates to the theme of the week, if there is one, or the other cards chosen during that week.

[edit] Orb of Insight

The Orb of Insight is a recurrent feature that is available prior to a set's release. It is a JavaScript-based object that, when available, one can type in a term, word or number, and the Orb will return with the number of mentions of such term in the forthcoming expansion. Although it does not take flavor text into consideration, it does consider card names and rule boxes.

Mark Rosewater wrote of the Orb of Insight:

“

You enter any word, and the Orb will tell you how many times that word appears in [a given set]. It counts all text on the cards with the exception of flavor text. What can you figure out with this little tool? To be honest, I’m not sure. But I plan to have fun watching all of you learn what you can.[2]

”

[edit] Columns

The columns are:

• "Feature Article" by various authors
• "Making Magic" by Mark Rosewater
• "Limited Information" by Steve Sadin
• "Serious Fun" by The Ferrett
• "Taste The Magic" by Doug Beyer
• "Building on a Budget" by Ben Bleiweiss
• "Swimming With Sharks" by Mike Flores
• "House of Cards" by Chris Millar
• "Latest Developments" by Devin Low
• "The Week That Was" by Brian David-Marshall

Columns appearing on an irregular basis include:

• "Magic Podcast"

[edit] Retired columns

• "Uncommon Knowledge" was a history column that ran from January 2nd 2002 to August 15th 2003, with a single column on November 29th 2006, during the Time Spiral nostalgia period. It was authored by Ben Bleiweiss with one guest article by Aaron Forsythe on November 6th 2002.

• "Saturday School" was a question and answer column that ran from October 2002 to July 2006. It was first authored by Norwegian Rune Horvik,^[3][4][5] then John Carter.

• "Magic Academy" was a rules introduction column that ran from July 2006 to August 2007. It was initially authored by Ted Knutson, then Jeff Cunningham. Guest lecturers included Scott Johns, Ben Rubin, and Shuhei Nakamura.

[edit] See also

• Magic columnists
• WotC employees

[edit] References