Hello all.

I'm posting this announcement to let you all know what's going on with me and my article series. At this point, I am done writing. This most likely is not a permanent change, and it's 100% my decision.

To put it bluntly, I'm burned out. I have been feeling more and more burned out over the past months, but recent events in my life have made things far worse. I don't feel like airing my dirty laundry and misfortune in a public post, but if you're really wondering you can always try to message me and see if I reply.

My hope is that these issues I'm having resolve quickly and that I'm able to return to writing soon. I've enjoyed the work, and it's a tough thing to walk away from.

Thanks for your support over the past two years.

P.S. I haven't had much time to be on TMD, so Facebook Messenger and Email ( josephfiorini06@gmail.com ) are the best ways to contact me.

Power Trip!
Beyond being a reference to my favorite Monster Magnet album, this article's title is referencing the trip many folks will be making to win some Power Nine cards this summer. If you haven't heard yet, Star City Games (SCG) is bringing back their old "Power Nine Series" for at least one big two-day event this June 8th through 10th at SCG Con.

The original SCG P9 Series went on during a time in which I was on hiatus from Magic altogether, so I don't have any firsthand information about them. However, I know from the fond reminiscing of many older players that the SCG tournaments were instrumental in keeping the Vintage format alive during that time. Just like SCG has its popular Standard/Modern writers/grinders working and writing today, in days of yore there were multiple people writing about Vintage for Star City and playing in the event series back then. These event are remembered longingly by veteran Vintage enthusiasts as folks were sad to see them end. The tournament series was popular and influential enough that Steve Menendian has chronicled the history of these events in a recent article.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/vintage-101-power-trip

@nucleosynth I'm not even remotely thinking about attending. I don't like to travel far, it's tough to get time off, I don't want to take time off for myself and not include my wife and son, I don't have a set of power anyway, and so on. I'm glad they're trying the event though. I just hope it doesn't wind up getting very few attendees due to the lack of proxies, then have SCG use that as an excuse to say "see, Vintage can't draw a crowd!".

Whoop Whoop.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/vintage-101-looking-forward

I've been pretty burned out lately. It's super hard to find the time and energy to play (sometimes when I have free time I'm so tired that I don't want to play). I used to play and write my articles during late nights and early mornings, but that is just too much for me now.

Once things get a bit better I will be back to my old self. I still think that the format and community is a great thing.

Posting here to remind myself to enter the discussion when I have more time

Last year it seemed to me that we were getting a lot of good stuff given to us. Vintage players usually get the shaft with new sets because those new sets simply are not designed for us! However, despite that fact we got awesome stuff like Walking Ballista, Fleetwheel Cruiser, Paradoxical Outcome, and much, much more.

Today I was looking at the newest spoilers I could find and I just didn't see much of anything. Maybe I'm being blinded by my cynical views on things, but I just saw a lot of standard-only fare peppered with a ton of draft chaff.

So, I ask of you: What cards are you excited about? Is there something from Rivals that you think needs discussion? Let me know, because I'm not seeing it!

Spoiled Rivals
It's 2018! Welcome to the future, Vintage peeps! Spoilers for Rivals of Ixalan have been trickling out and the Magic community awaits each new nugget of precious information like an excited puppy waiting for its master. As always is the case with new Standard releases, Eternal format aficionados must carefully sort through each spoiler looking for diamonds in the rough. So far I'm not seeing much that appears to have potential, but the community has been discussing a few of the new spells. Let's take a look at the cards people are talking about!

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/vintage-101-spoiled-rivals

@bazaarofbaghdad players are legally obligated to play with Baral. You could say that he has us all bent over a Baral.

Is there any chance you would upload this list to MTGGoldfish? https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournaments/new