Ertai’s Lament and the Great Designer Search 2

As many of you may know, the Ertai’s Lament crew has been right in the thick of the Great Designer Search 2 this past week, assisting all four of the finalists with fine-tuning their intro decks for Design Challenge #5, “Introductions Please,” in which the aspiring designers are asked to make an intro deck for their set.

Our series chronicling our experiences playtesting the four decks through a gauntlet of precons will begin tomorrow on Quiet Speculation, in our Magic Beyond the Box series, so be sure to check it out!

Also, if you’ve been gollowing the GDS2, you’ll no doubt recognise the name Jay Treat. A top-8 finalist, his earlier elimination hasn’t stopped him a bit (and really, when you’re in a crowd of eight designers amongst over a thousand, why would it?). He’s reached out to Ertai’s Lament to collaborate with him on designing intro packs for his completed set Escape to Muraganda. Be on the lookout for Muraganda-themed articles and journeys into intro pack design here on Ertai’s Lament!

News: More on Mirrodin Beseiged Intro Packs Revealed

In case you missed it, last week’s Magic Arcana over at the mothership introduced us to our four Intro Pack decks for the upcoming Mirrodin Beseiged set. Exciting stuff, and right around the corner!

News: New ‘Magic Beyond the Box’ Article Up

Ever wonder what it takes to make a successful Duel Decks release? Certainly balance between the decks makes the short list of critical factors, and in today’s Quiet Spec column I analyse the series with an eye on precisely that. What have they done right, what have they done wrong… and why was Phyrexia vs The Coalition- irony of ironies- a radical break from the past?

Come on by, say hello, and find out for yourself!

News: New ‘Magic Beyong the Box’ Article Up!

If you’ve had your fill of our special (and extra-lengthy) Flyover “meta-review” and are hungry for more precon coverage, head over to the new and exciting Quiet Speculation for my new column on rekindling a precon romance. Take those old precons off the shelf, try something new and fall in love all over again!

An Open Invitation to the Great Designer Search Contestants

Welcome, aspiring designers!

Thanks to Eric “Mr. Suitcase” McCormick (@thewachman), we’ve been getting some attention from the Great Designer Search 2 on account of the fact that the latest design challenge involves designing an intro pack!

As it happens, in the past month we’ve written several columns on what makes good and bad intro decks for Quiet Speculation that might be worth a read:

Three Deadly Shortcomings

Five Reasons Why Intro Packs Matter

Five Elements of the Best Precon Decks

Additionally, we have reviewed the Intro Packs for a number of sets, including all sets in the current Standard environment (we’re in the midst of Worldwake presently). If you feel our analysis might offer some insight, feel free to browse the archives!

Finally, we are happy to offer aid in fine-tuning your deck(s) prior to submission by running your deck through a “precon gauntlet” and reporting our findings directly to you. Deck stress testing will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and can be tailored to what you’re looking for. Send us a message on Twitter (@ErtaisLament) and we can discuss this option further.

We’re proud to be a part of the Magic community, and delighted to be of any help we can for this worthy challenge!

News: New ‘Magic Beyond the Box’ Article Up

A new column is up at QuietSpeculation.com, and today I step back from the shop-talk about precons and instead discuss the upcoming spoiler season for Mirrodin Beseiged against the incredible persistence of memory.

Why don’t you come on by, check it out and say hello?

New Year’s Day State of the Site Address

Welcome to 2011!

At the start of a new year, it’s always useful to take a moment and reflect upon the one that’s passed, and having missed our site’s six-month anniversary, I thought it fitting to do so here.

First of all, a huge thanks to all the members of the Precon Community who have made Ertai’s Lament as successful as it’s been. We really didn’t know what we were getting into when we put up our first post on 03 June, but since that time we’ve gone from a few-hits-a-week site to one that averages somewhere between 500-1000 a day. It was great to see so many folks out there have the same interest and passion as us! Certainly, we could not have done it without all the thoughtful feedback we’ve recieved from all of you.

On that note, here are a few things on our minds as we enter 2011.

Read more

The New Quiet Speculation Unveiled!

After being down for a few days of upgrading, QuietSpeculation.com has been relaunched for the new year and it looks amazing. It has an all-new visual layout, although the vision for the site remains the same. It will be run on a “freemium” basis, which means that Spike and Timmy content, such as my weekly column Magic Beyond the Box are and will continue to be free. The “QS Insider” subscription applies only to articles dealing with the financial side of Magic (and are certainly well worth looking into if you have that interest!).

Head on by and check it out!

Vote: New Magic Writer of the Year

If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m up for New Magic Writer of the Year over at the annual poll for the Mana Screwed Podcast. I can truly say without reservation that it’s an honour just to be ranked amongst the likes of Jon Medina and Scotty Mac. Nevertheless, I’d love to have at least a respectable showing to represent some love for Magic’s under-represented Preconstructed community!

If you’d like to show support, head on over to the poll– New Magic Writer of the Year is question #13.