Forum Fight Between Menendian and Wright

by News | posted at 2010-01-01 02:09:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, StarCityGames, StarCity, SCG, Steve Menendian, Stuart Wright

Steve Menendian's recent StarCityGames.com column broke out into the flame war to end all flame wars. In the piece, Steve proposes a testing method that led him to conclude 7 Swords effects in Legacy is correct. In the forums, well respected British pro Stuart Wright, posting under the moniker "Sti," responded:

"While 4 swords might be good vs a lot of those decks, I'm not sure running so many removal spells is truly great in legacy. Seems like you have a lot of reactive cards a hand full of plows is no good vs top/balance.

And there are plenty of decks like survival or bg rock where it is fine but isn't the sort of card you'd want to draw three of in your opening hand making me wonder if it is really great."

That in turn brought a somewhat sarcastic response from Menendian, who said "There seems to be some sort of misapprehension about what legacy is. Facts are facts. Statistics are statistics. Tarmogoyf is in roughly 42-50% of decks in the field. Your primary win condition also happens to be goyf. Legacy is a creature-based format, unlike, say Vintage. You want an abundance of plows. It ensures that your strategy succeeds sooner rather than later.

That's why my five step method works: it's based on facts rather than perception warped by minor or irrellevant concerns. It tethers itself unrelentingly to reality, even in the face of powerful -- although inaccurate -- beliefs, even received wisdom. It allows to cut through to the TRUTH."

From there things quickly spun out of control. Wright and Menendian engaged in a virtual shoving match over method, ideology, and other with occasional interjections by well known Magic personalities (and StarCity writers) like Patrick Sullivan, Patrick Chapin, and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa. For thirteen pages the flaming stretched until moderator Ben Bleiweiss shut the entire conversation down with the following quote:

"Thread locked. Multiple bans. Will review the thread once $10K Dallas is over to determine permanent bans.

- Ben."

To read the full conversation beginning with the first page, visit this link.

Menendian's article for this week has seen relatively polite feedback in comparison. He interviewed recent StarCityGames.com Legacy Open champion Lou Christopher.

Follow us @starkpo.

Email the author.

Become a fan.