Famous Players

[Secret Asian Man]

Hey, I've been curious about this for a while and this seemed like the place to ask. Could anyone give me a sort of history of famous Magic players and the impats they had on the game? I read somewhere a few days ago that the reason the DCI adopted the Paris mulligan rule was because of this one player, and also that the former magic champion invented everquest or something?

If anyone can contribute to a big list of notable magic players that I'm compiling with facts like these, I'd appreciate it. This is my new ongoing project, I guess.

Thanks,
~Ray

 

[Duel]

Okay, let's start with the greats:

Jamie Wakefield:
The theory of beatdown, developement of interactive card advantage. People's Champion.

Jay Shnieder:
Theory of mana curve, rescource developement

Brian Weissman:
Developed the theory of expendable life, and card advantage.

Zvi Mowshowitz:
Probably the single best human being for designing a deck concept.

John Finkel:
"The machine" is either the best or second best magic player of all time.

Kai Budde:
See "John Finkel"

Mike Long:
Brought cheating into the public eyes....

David Price:
The king of beatdown, of red.

Mike Turian:
Possibly the best drafter ever. Potato.



If I were you, I'd go to www.mtgword.com, and check their living archives for classic articles. Give you an idea of who's who. Pity the dojo shut down. If anyone still has "The schools of magic" I'd love to see it again...

Also, look into: Gary Wise, Al Tran, Mike Flores, Eric Taylor, ANYONE in CMU, the OMS', my god there are alot.....

 

[Turtlewax Joe]

Why was Brian Kowal and Brian Hacker not mentioned? What about Randy Buehler and Chris Picula?

T.J.

 

[Secret Asian Man]

That was exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

Also, if anyone has any amusing or entertaining anecdotes about any notable players, please post them.

Also: Zak Dolan? Olle Rade? Who are these people?

More! More!
~Ray

 

[Gizmo]

Olle Rade and Tommi Hovi pretty much rewrote the Professional magic rulebook. They were almost complete nobodies, both youngsters at the time (17,18) who came out of nowhere with decks nobody had ever heard of to beat all the established names playing the established best deck. Playing a new deck 'TurboStasis' they destroyed a field of Necropotence decks to win the Pro Tour, and in so doing set a precedent - the kids were coming to take the crown from the old school, people like Regnier, Justice, and Chalice were all swept aside.

Since then Magic has been as much about the emerging newcomers as it has been about the current names. It also set a precedent for carefully metagaming the Pro Tour and keeping your decks SECRET until the beginning of the first round of the Tour.

Who else? John Ormerod - carefully guides his test monkey Ben Ronaldson to create ever improving ways of beating people with powerful green spells (ie, Gaeas Blessing, Oath of Druids, or Plow Under). The 1-2 combo of JohnO and JesusBen is the best design team in the world. (I cant beat them, they wouldnt let me join them. So I`m screwed ). Also a part-time CPA member.

AND SAVING THE BEST TIL LAST
Cruelly forgotten - simply BY FAR the most important man ever in terms of magic`s development as the worldwide game of strategy that it is - Frank Kusumoto. Invented among other things, netdecks and metagames. Without him we`d still be putting Holy Strength on our Mesa Pegasus.
In fact, without him Magic would have died four years ago.

 

[artifact]

How about George Baxter?

Don't know if he is still a top player or not but he was one of the first writers for magic stradegy in how to books for new and old players. It made you think of new stradegies and deck concepts.

 

[Duel]

Zak Dolan was an early champion of magic (the first worlds champ, I think) who more or less dropped off the face of the earth......

I can't possibly mention everyone. too many players to think of.

All the members of the old mogg squad made significant developements in magic.

Ryan Fuller, Chris Benafel, and the rest of Alpha Beta Unlimited.com

Massimo Esposito for being the first and only person with a lifetime ban (sleeping with the judge's wife, I believe, was the call) is a magic legend, more than anything.

Kowal also worked with the metagame and as a deck developer and player and things

Frank Kusomoto invented THE magic site, the dojo, which is now sadly closed. It was a golden age for magickers near and far while he reigned.

Chris Senhouse, another player who's recently dissapeared, as a great player/deck developer/theorist. Alot of people fall under this category.

Aaron Forsythe, for being a good writer, excellent player/designer/theorist, and for taking his brother's casual deck and making it a force to be reckoned with....

Andrew Cuneo as a deck designer and player

Andrew Johnson, the same

Anthony Alongi, popularizing multiplayer along with.....

THE FERRET. editor-in-chief of starcity

Nate Heiss, for the average guy thing, in the CMU, and being a nice fella, and a good player/designer/theorist

John Rizzo, for being one of the best writers anywhere, and the biggest scrub in CMU

Theron Martin, for his reports on the metagame, basically defining it, and for his sad, long, exile

Lan D. Ho, Trey Van Cleave, Matt Vienneau, and several other people who are just all around good. Writers, theorists, and players.... too many to list.

 

[Spiderman]

I think you ought to break it down into people who actually play Magic, people who write, and people who do both. Otherwise, you get almost every name under the sun.

You should also define "notable". Do you want names people remember? Do you want a list of the World Champions? US (and other regionals, I guess) Champions? Pretty much anyone going to the Duelist Inivitational could be considered as "notable".

To that end, you have Bertrand Lestree, who was Zak Dolan's opponent in the first World Championships and Michael Loconto's opponent in the first Pro Tour (and the runner-up each time).

You have Henry Stern, one member of the US team back around Ice Age with Mark Justice, who later became a WOTC Magic designer.

You have Cathy Nicoloff, one of the first female writers AND players who helped design several decks (of which I can't remember).

Someone touched on Shawn "Hammer" Reginer (sp?), one of the first "flamboyant" Magic personalities known for his trash talking.

You gotta break it down...

 

[Gizmo]

Basically the games been going a long loooong time. There are lots of people who are famous for one thing or another, for one reason on another.

I guess it would actually be kinda interesting to try to draw up a list of the most famous, try to put them in order. Finkel wins, by a country mile, cos his is the name on everybody`s lips when they think of a good player. But a top-10 would be good to see, I think there would be some old names in there who`s star has not waned alongside newer faces. Zvi would be in there just cos he`s got a silly name.

 

[theorgg]

The person who put the top over the Paris Mulligan was one of the inquired about personalities. Ollie Rade( the "little Viking" as the sideboard once called him) played a deck that followed the four of a kind rule to the limit. If memory serves, he used eighther four or eight dual lands in a deck built around Snake Basket, and could basically choose what hand he wanted by using "No Land Mulligans" all day and night. The deck was nicknamed "Turbo Mulligan" at the tournament, according to the sideboard.

 

[Turtlewax Joe]

Brian Kowal is the man! He popularized Ponza, and makes the best decks, the man doesn't even believe in a mana curve! If the deck works it works and he's the magic player that simply makes the "qotes" on the tour. The guy makes magic sound poetic!

I just like the guy period and wish he would play more often but like most of us he couldn't muster up the balls to play T II on Pro Tour. I want to see his name on top during Extended season!

T.J.

 

[Spiderman]

Originally posted by theorgg
The person who put the top over the Paris Mulligan was one of the inquired about personalities. Ollie Rade( the "little Viking" as the sideboard once called him) played a deck that followed the four of a kind rule to the limit. If memory serves, he used eighther four or eight dual lands in a deck built around Snake Basket, and could basically choose what hand he wanted by using "No Land Mulligans" all day and night. The deck was nicknamed "Turbo Mulligan" at the tournament, according to the sideboard.

Was that the one where he used four Urza's Baubles, just to "draw cards" and basically cut down his deck to 56 cards?

 

[Sammy Dead-O]

...if he used the Baubles in that deck, but probably...

I do know that Olle Rade is one of the first Magic celebrities I ever heard about. Back in about '96, before I had ever even played Magic, I picked up an InQuest cuz I was pretty amazed by the Magic culture I saw developing, even though I thought I was too busy or cool or something to deal with a silly little card game. He was in there for his Pro Tour II(?) win, with his Spider deck (that featured 4 Baubles). I want to say he was about 16 at the time.

Dennis Bentley was also featured in that issue with a big tournament win...I think he had beaten George Baxter in the finals. Bentley's explanation for his victory was something along the lines of, "God likes me best." I've always found that kinda funny...

From what I understand, all three of these players have had reasonably successful Magic careers...haven't they?

 

[Apollo]

Olle Rade was the first celebrity Magic player I ever heard of. I saw him in a magazine, perhaps that very same one.

 

[Spiderman]

Mine was Zak Dolan, the <in booming voice> FIRST EVER MAGIC WORLD CHAMPION <end booming voice>

The play summary of his and Bertrand Lestree's championship games were a bit hard to follow, as they were using cards I wasn't familiar with (this was '94-ish and I had come in during Revised), so I was seeing "Old Man of the Sea" and "Psionic Blasts" and what have you.

I liked the subsequent articles in the Duelist from Zak though; I remember one was how he showed how he traded a Revised Starter (2 Rares, 15 or so uncommons, and the rest commons) to a deck that still only contained Revised cards and could beat a deck with Moxes. He ended up with 50 spare Revised rares or something.

 

[Gizmo]

Wasnt he Mr Suitcase?

Ive still got a Duellist #2 around somewhere. I kept it because it was the one with Quinton Hoover as the feature artist.

 

[Spiderman]

Mr. Suitcase was Paul Peterson (the one who wrote the column).

 

[Killer Joe]

You can personally thank her for having Necropotence and Dark Ritual being banned from Extended via the Necro/Donate deck she built last year.

What about Paul Sligh for his version of Red Weenie.

Cathy Nicoloff is famous for her five color green deck way back in the day.

 

[mogg bomber]

Has mentioned Donais? Those Donais 5-color blue decks were very annonying, they weren't really in type 2 long though.

 

[theorgg]

Originally posted by Yellowjacket


What about Paul Sligh for his version of Red Weenie.

NO NO NO NO NOOOO!!!!!

Paul Sligh played a deck designed by Jay Schnider called the Geeba deck(after the goblins at solarinc.org). He played it to a high finish, and the people misnamed the deck the "sligh" deck.

I have the feeling that Isty's afro man parody would have been awkward if it was "Until I fough schnide", but that's what it should be in truth.