Welcome to Nerd Rage Gaming’s Online Articles

Welcome to the launch of Nerd Rage Gaming’s online articles.

Our mission is simple: To provide high-quality Magic content for you to enjoy, learn from and share. To do this, we’ve put together a team of contributors with a wide range of experience across multiple formats.

Our contributors:

Mat Bimonte: Mat first picked up the game during Theros block, but already has a Modern 5K championship under his belt, as well as a number of smaller Standard tournament wins. Based out of Bloomington, Illinois, Mat is a regular on the Star City circuit, with future aspirations of qualifying for the Pro Tour. Mat got his start as a writer by posting tournament reports on Reddit, and has since become a regular writer for multiple sites. You can read Mat’s debut “Grinding for Fun and Profit” today as our first feature article.

Caleb Scherer: Caleb’s Storm counter is cooler than yours. After all, his has his picture on it, his reward for winning a Star City Games Invitational. A grinder from Missouri, Caleb is a lover of cats, peanuts and unfair combo decks. When not traveling for the next Open or GP, he spends his time hanging out with his cat, Wilt, and jamming games on MTGO.

Devin Koepke: Devin is a Midwest grinder who will jump in a car and travel off to a far-off land at any opportunity. Specializing in whatever the tournament is that weekend, he has a wide range of knowledge and skills that he is excited to share with you. So sit back, crack open an ice-cold beverage and get your Hot Pocket out of the microwave, because this is going to be fun. (Editor’s note: No word on how well peanuts and Hot Pockets go together.)

Max Kahn: Max is a Level 2 judge from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, who also regularly plays competitive tournaments. His judging career includes numerous Star City Opens and Grand Prix, as well as serving as the head judge for the Nerd Rage Gaming Championship Series. As a player, he has two PPTQ finals appearances (one win), a 5K Top 8, and a 10th place finish in an SCG Classic event. Max will mostly be writing a monthly judge column, but will also occasionally chime in from the player’s perspective.

Casey Laughman: A mostly undistinguished Magic player, but a veteran journalist with almost 20 years’ worth of experience in writing and editing. As the editor, I’ll mostly be handling the behind-the-scenes work and a weekly update on what’s going on with our articles and Nerd Rage, but I’ll also write an occasional feature. Usually some sort of harebrained deck idea that’s almost crazy enough to work.

We’ll be sending out an email newsletter and posting new articles every Monday to start, with the goal of increasing frequency as time goes by. We’re also going to be on the lookout for new contributors, so if you’re interested or have any questions, drop me a line at claughman@gmail.com. I can’t promise anything, but I’m happy to discuss possibilities.

New at Nerd Rage

This year, Nerd Rage is hosting its first championship series. The championship, held in December, will be a 16-player, $2,500 tournament. To qualify for the tournament, players have to either win one of the 10 championship trials or be one of the six at-large players with the highest championship trial point totals.

The trials rotate between Standard, Modern and Legacy; each trial is a $1,000 cash tournament and finishers earn championship points based on their final standings. The next trial is Standard on May 21 at Nerd Rage. Pre-register here.

The June 4 trial has an added bonus. Not only is it a Modern 1K, but a case of Eternal Masters is being added to the prize pool. The event caps at 90 players, so pre-register here to reserve your spot. As if that wasn’t enough, Nerd Rage will be hosting a Standard PPTQ on June 5, so you can spend the entire weekend slinging cardboard (with an occasional break to gorge yourself at the Portillo’s just down the road).

Bonus Decklist

Normally Mat Bimonte would be all about the decklists, but due to a rare vacation this week, he wrote a more philosophical article. It wouldn’t be right to leave you without any decklists, so here’s a little something I’ve been tinkering with.

Nayadrazi

4 World Breaker
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
3 Kozilek’s Return
3 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
3 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Hedron Archive
2 Nissa’s Renewal
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
10 Forest
4 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
4 Sanctum of Ugin
3 Cinder Glade
2 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Wastes

Sideboard
4 Jaddi Offshoot
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Reality Smasher
2 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Warping Wail
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Kozilek’s Return

Casey Laughman is the editor of NerdRageGaming.com. Contact him at claughman@gmail.com.

Sharing is caring!

Comments

comments

Casey Laughman