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Okay, so I've got a couple things I want to make readers aware of today, but rather than trying to decide between one and the other, I'm just going to briefly touch on both.
Jon Loucks Hates Magic
Maybe that's not completely fair to say, but in this week's episode of Constructed Resources—only episode 14, mind you—Loucks left the show.
According to him, he just didn't have the fire for Magic anymore. It makes you wonder: was his negative experience working in R&D for Wizards of the Coast that bad, or is it just something that happened naturally apart from that adventure? We'll probably never get a straight answer from Loucks (nor am I sure we would even want one), but it's certainly sad to think that WOTC just drove the love of Magic straight out of the guy. Further adding to that theory is the signoff I discussed here, which evidences a not-so-subtle contempt for the state of Magic Online in general.
One last thing about Loucks: in the Fate Reforged set review for CR, he spoke highly of Renowned Weaponsmith, despite the fact that the card itself is not good nor is Heart-Piercer Bow. We don't yet know what Vial of Dragonfire does (it almost certainly will appear in Dragons of Tarkir), but Loucks does know, given that he worked in R&D recently. I'm not about to go pick up a ton of foil copies of Weaponsmith, but it's a little something I noticed that I figured I'd point out. Maybe you want to pick them out of your draft junk, at the very least.
Elspeth vs. Kiora Decklists (???)
There is not yet official confirmation that I can find, but several sites are posting the contents of Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Kiora. Unfortunately, the lists don't look like they're packed with amazing cards, but even getting copies of Elspeth and Kiora for the MSRP is not horrible. Mother of Runes, Decree of Justice, Simic Sky Swallower, and Inkwell Leviathan are the cards that stand out to me, and none of those are exactly insane.
You can check out the full list here or here. Hopefully we'll get some confirmation that this is real soon—or better yet, that these are fake lists and the actual decks have way better cards. Keep your eyes peeled.
Could R&D make you want to play Magic even less than being a MODO programmer? Most people would kill to work in R&D, sad to see it sap someone’s enthusiasm. I’ve played Magic over half my life, I couldn’t imagine going cold turkey.
I personally think that Jon’s lack of enthusiasm for Mtg was apparent even during his run on LR. By the end of his time there he often mentioned that he didn’t play as much as he used to, often sounded like he was phoning in his analysis and was clearly more interested in signoffs than in talking about limited itself. I enjoyed Jon as a host but I don’t think anyone should be surprised about him moving on from being a large part of the mtg “media” community.