New ‘Magic Beyond the Box’ Up… and Another Giveaway!
Happy Friday! I’ve got another Magic Beyond the Box piece up at Quiet Speculation, where I train an analytical eye on the new Mirrodin Besieged Intro Packs and look to see what new direction has been taken with the Scars block decks thus far. I was quite pleasantly surprised!
Also, we just can’t seem to stop giving things away! Magic Beyond the Box has been a huge hit based on readership numbers, which is really showing the enthusiasm of the Preconstructed Community. I know I couldn’t have done that without the support of the Lament readers in particular, so I’d like to give something back.
This time, its a pair of foil cards up for grabs: Elspieth Tirel, and Fauna Shaman. The format is similar to givieaways we’ve held here before.
To Win the Elspeth
Head over to QS and read this week’s piece. Then either comment on the piece itself, or answer the following question: what is your favourite precon deck, and why? This gets you one chance to win.
You get a second chance to win if you retweet the note I sent out about the contest on Twitter: Want to win a foil Elspeth Tirel & Fauna Shaman? Check out today’s QS piece: http://bit.ly/eP1s61 RT this for a second chance to win! #mtg
To Win the Fauna Shaman
This one’s easy! QS is divided into three sections: Finance (the subscription service for MTG trading and speculation), Spike (competitive play), and Timmy (casual play, the group I’m a part of). There are a lot of really good Timmy reads on there, and if you check out another Timmy article and leave a comment on it, you get a chance to win! The more you read, the more chances you get. You can find the Timmy list here.
Both contests end on Wednesday, 16 February, and will be decided by random drawing from all eligible entries. Good luck, and thanks as ever for all the support!
Ertai's Lament 
Do my comments that I already made on your articles count? Just checking. By the way, I was thinking about subscribing to QuietSpeculation since it’s only five dollars. What would you tell the player who is thinking about coughing up 5 bucks to read the site in more depth?
Alas no, it’s for this week only, but I definitely recommend checking some of the Timmy articles out!
Great to hear you’re looking at Insider. Alas, I believe the “early adopter” window closed last week, so it’s $7-8 a month now. It’s an individual choice, but I will say this. I don’t trade, hardly ever. But that side of Magic I find really interesting, and some of the best articles I’ve read there have been Insider ones. There’s one fantastic series which combs through old sets to find the cards that have held their value today, sets I loved like Tempest-Stronghold-Exodus, and Urza’s, that I can’t get enough of.
I get it for free as a feature writer, but would I pay $8 a month for it? Probably so. But as always, others’ mileage might vary. If you’re into the financial bit of it, that’s a huge upside, because you won’t find a better value for money. Even the mighty Jon Medina is only published once a week on SCG, while Insider is a steady stream plus the Insider forums. One last note, before I sound like an infomercial… last Sunday during SCG Indy, I got a couple of “hot tips” from Insider in my email as the games were going on, looking at format-smashing cards and suggesting I consider getting them before the mad stampede drove the price up. Yep, speculation! Turns out the tips were solid, and if I’d acted I would have made that $8 back easily.
So if you are into trading or making money on your hobby, I’d say it’s an absolute bargain. If you like to read good finanical articles (as I do), then it’s good but may or may not be worth the money to you. If neither of these apply, I wouldn’t suggest it.
Well, you convinced me. I LOVE trading even if I can’t find many to trade with right now. And whatever I signed up for stated I would be paying 5 dollars a month so I figure it’s a bargain for someone like me. Thanks.