I thought it would be fun to make this editorial into a cooking lesson. That is, a cooking lesson for stuffing in a Thanksgiving Day turkey. However, each ingredient in the recipe will enlighten you on some thanks that I have to other sites on the web. These other sites have helped shape and influence all of the facets of Magic Deck Vortex you know of today. Everything from the deck database to links to features such as the top 10s will be elaborated upon and help to stuff our Turkey. Not only will I enlighten you, but also give you an excellent recipe for making stuffing. And thus, let us begin stuffing the MDV Turkey! Note: This stuffs 20 pounds of Turkey!

Preface: You’ll need some butter or margarine.

I could start this off by giving the typical, thanks to Wizards of the Coast for making the game, but that would be too ordinary. Same with the thanks to you.  While thanking either of these would be extremely applicable, they aren't too unusual.  While I am thankful for both, I want to get down to the nitty-gritty of what made Magic Deck Vortex what it is today. That said, a quick little background…

Magic Deck Vortex began in August of 2002 and it started out as just an Excel Database. This database held the deck lists of all 80 decks I had put together at the time. After an accident that left me car-less for several months, I wanted to venture into the Worldwide Web. With the help of my brother, Jason, I was able to start a very primitive site that contained all of the decks in my database sheet. After a very rough beginning, I eventually started pulling decks from other parts of the web, incorporating contests and a deck clinic, making an art section and other things like primers and top 10 lists. After four years of revising things, adding things, revising things again and so on… you have Magic Deck Vortex as it is known today. I’m still surprised that a little Excel database turned into a full blown and semi-popular website known as MDV.

Interesting Note: I originally wanted to name the site Magic Vortex, but some other magician on the web, who most likely doesn’t play Magic: the Gathering at all, already used the domain name of Magic Vortex Dot Com. And thus, Magic DECK Vortex was born. I must say I like the “Magic Deck Vortex” name much better than just Magic Vortex because it abbreviates into MDV… that not only has a nice ring to it but also is three characters long. Most popular acronyms are only three characters long and perhaps that has played into the popularity of MDV. *grin* Of course, I can always make slogans like “I want my… I want my… I want my MDV…”

But to move this editorial along, and to have something to stuff MDV’s turkey, let me finally give thanks to a few of those websites I referenced in the opening paragraph. I don’t want to bore you all with the beginning of Magic Deck Vortex. If you really wanted to know about that more in depth you would read the “About MDV” page… I want to entertain you (perhaps bore you for those that just check the site out for new spoilers) with some if not all of the sites that have had some influence on the features, facets and many pieces of Magic Deck Vortex.

Decks: 1 Loaf of Bread, toasted and cut into cubes

The decks of Magic Deck Vortex have always been one of biggest attractions of the site. At least I would like to think they are. I mean, that is what Magic Deck Vortex started on… One of the sites that lead me to really make a database of decks and turn that into making my own site for decks was www.mtgfanatic.com.

Before I ever started my own site, I was posting my personal decks on MTG Fanatic. While their main purpose was to provide the net with great card prices, their deck submission programs were top notch at the time. (And they still aren’t bad!) I was able to post decks and receive comments from other users at the same time. It would help me shape the decks in the right direction and give me some status among the deck designers on the site. At that time, I believe I was the one user of MTG Fanatic that had the most decks submitted at one time. While I see this as being an obsessive thing of the time, I turned it into something that was beneficial for everyone: having a database that is sorted by color and type, for anyone to access for review. And this isn’t a bad thing. Especially in a game that has endless possibilities.

One other thing that MTGFanatic brought to MDV are the mana symbols you see on EVERY deck page, except those that are no color. And except for the 5-color symbol, but I can't remember where I grabbed that from... Thanks, MTGFanatic!

Also, with regard to the decks of MDV, I have gone through MANY deck page layouts over the past four years. The original layout was bad and highlighted my primitive understanding of Front Page (which I use to put the site together). While the most current view of decks in the database may still be considered primitive to some net surfers, it is the best it has ever been. I can’t say any one particular site influenced the layout of the decks, but one thing is fun to know. The background you see on the decks, which is actually shown throughout the site in many different color variations, was originally found on www.magicthegathering.com. I liked it so much that I changed the hues and placed it on many other pages throughout the site. Thanks MagictheGathering.com!

I almost ended this section, but I can’t forget all of the other sites that provided decks for the deck database of Magic Deck Vortex. I won’t elaborate on each, but here are some of the other sites that have contributed to the 2000+ decks on MDV:

www.magicthegathering.com
www.mtgfanatic.com
www.starcitygames.com
www.magic4you.nu
www.dericksmagic.com
huynh.homeip.net/~eric/magic.html
www.londes.com
www.mtgparadise.com
www.playordraw.com (deceased)
www.cardshark.com
www.pojo.com
www.mtgworld.com (deceased)
www.casualplayers.org
www.mtgsalvation.com

These are just a few of the sites, but thank you to all.

Art Catacombs: 1 Pound of Fresh Mushrooms, Diced.

Another big attraction of the site is the Art Catacombs of MDV. But before I get to that, let me quickly elaborate on one graphic design aspect of the site: the RED!

Many people have commented in depth on how painful the red background is to them or how obnoxious it is. I’ve even read it on other foreign sites in other languages! I am sorry if the red annoys any visitor of Magic Deck Vortex, but I’ll tell you this. The first time you visited the site, the red background and theme to the colors was one of the first things that stood out to you. It probably even made you remember the site. Not probably. But definitely…

How many other red sites do you know of on the web? Even non-Magic: the Gathering sites? Not many, I bet. I will continue to theme the main site with red colors for as long as the site is around. I do it for many reasons including standing out against the other sites. And we all know there are hundreds of them just dedicated to MTG. I don’t want MDV to be lost in the sea of other MTG sites on the web. I know that was a little tangent to the article, but I felt it important to know.

Now onto the catacombs! It’s unfortunate that the site most influential to the beginnings of MDV’s art collection is no longer around. That site? MTG World.

Many of you won’t remember this site. However, if you are one of those that do, let me know in the forum what you remember about this site. MTG World went under sometime in 2004. If it weren’t for the Wayback Machine on the web, I wouldn’t have been able to find the original banner for the site, shown below.

MTG World was a site dedicated to Magic Art and Decks. While it had an impressive list of decks submitted by visitors, its Art Gallery was what made me want MDV’s own art gallery. At the time, MTG World had 13 galleries of Magic Art each with around 12 to 16 different pieces of art and variations of the same. When I say variations I mean the owner of the site played around with the images in Photoshop and made them look cooler. Anyway, if it wasn’t for MTG World, I might not have the Art Catacombs. So, thanks MTGWorld!

The other influence, or really provider, for the Art Catacombs was www.magicthegathering.com. You’ll notice lately that they have increased the amount of card art that they post on the site. And decent sized art, too! Previously, it wasn’t as usual to see a nice piece of art in the articles, features and Arcana. While a good portion of the other art I have is from Artist websites, the creators of the game have provided a good chunk of it. Thanks MagictheGathering.com!

Articles: 2 cups chopped celery, diced.

Having an article section on Magic Deck Vortex has always been something I have wanted since the beginning of the site. However, articles weren’t truly devoted to until sometime in 2005. It was around this time that I finally found a layout I liked and had a team of writers to work with. While I can’t speak for each MDV Writer’s influences for their articles, one thing is clear. MTGSalvation helps to pave the way for a smooth article layout. You see, one of the problems I had with articles was that I couldn’t make them look nice and fit into the theme of MDV at the same time. MTGS gave me an example that worked well in both categories.

You’ll notice that MTGS has always had a nice banner at the top of their articles and also a nice summary for each article including the name, author, link to discuss and etc. The MDV layout sort of mimics this. Being a graphical person at heart, I thought the banner at the top added a lot to the article in terms of drawing in readers to read it. I struggled over the years trying to find a nice article layout, but MTGS finally gave me something to work with. While MDV’s layout isn’t an exact copy of their layout, it was heavily influenced by it. Be glad if you haven’t seen the way I used to format new articles. To get back to point, thanks MTGS!

Visual Spoilers: 1 Egg Beaten

Some areas of the reference section of MDV were heavily inspired or quoted from other sites. Things like the deck types summary, visual spoilers and deck primers were all borrowed or developed from other sites. First up, the visual spoilers.

Everyone always complements the visual spoilers of MDV. One person along the way said looking at the MDV Visual Spoilers for sets was like opening packs for the first time. Where did I first get the idea? Believe it or not, it was from GamingETC.com!

Back in the day, Gaming ETC used to have a spoiler for all of the different, popular creature types like Zombies, Elves and Clerics. They would show a card pic for each. Some of the card pics were crooked and sized differently than the others, but this is where I got the idea. I thought, how cool would it be to see all of the card images in one page for a new set of set of creatures? I took their idea and instead made thumbnails for each card image and then sorted them by color. Eventually, I called them visual spoilers and applied them to sets of the game and creatures. Walla! The visual spoilers of MDV!

Currently, GamingETC has a text link of the creature types with a link to the card images. I suppose they thought that this approach would be better. Of course it is for their uses as they found out something I found out in the beginning: showing the full card images can be quite bandwidth exhausting. Thanks GamingETC.

Rumors: Chicken Broth

And then there’s the Rumor aspect of visual spoilers. I have to admit that a good portion of the people that come to the site most likely found out about it through the posting of rumors for new sets. Numerous sites out there have been found to link to MDV’s visual and text spoilers for an upcoming site. While I don’t want MDV to be known for rumors (as we have both MTGNews and MTGSalvation for that) I like that it introduces the site to many that would have normally not ever seen it.

In the beginning of the site, there was MTGNews. They provided the majority of all rumored information and it was this information I gathered and posted in MDV’s own rumored spoilers. Coupled with the visual aspects of the spoilers, I created the pages and people came. If it weren’t for MTGNews, I wouldn’t ever have information about the new sets. So, with that said, Thanks, MTGNews!

Then something happened. Someone bought out MTGNews and things began to change. After several internal struggles within the site, there was a grand dissension in the staff of the site and a new site sprung up. That site is currently known as MTGSalvation. Currently, MTGSalvation is the most viewed and visited Magic: the Gathering site on the web not counting WotC's site. MTGSalvation, with prominent figures like Hydro and Rancored_Elf, gets the bulk of all rumored information, even after the great Wizards vs. Rancored_Elf saga. While it was a very unfortunate time, rumors still lived on, even if they are completely fed by Wizards of the Coasts reps.

Despite this thought, and as previously mentioned, the rumor mills live on and still get exciting new information. Not all of the information begins on MTGS, but it is certainly all gathered in one place and discussed the most. Where else can you get a new card or false ad posted and get 100’s of replies within an a few minutes of the original posting?

Anyway, currently I look to MTGS for all new spoiler information and then post it on MDV. I may not always have the time to post it immediately, but that’s not the point. The point is, thanks MTGS for providing MDV and the MTG web community with juicy new set information for the rest of us to digest. Although I can’t say it will be as delicious as the stuffing we are making for the MDV Turkey!!!

Other References: 1 cup chopped nuts

Visual Spoilers have always been considered a reference item on Magic Deck Vortex, but contrary to popular belief, they aren’t the only reference item on Magic Deck Vortex. There is an entire navigational section devoted to referential items including the visual spoilers, creature lists, mechanics and other spoilers, reserved list and term glossary. While I may again revise the structure within the reference section on MDV, I am OK with the current setup.

Creature lists are really the same as the visual spoilers mentioned above, with an ancestry in the GamingETC spoilers. However, Wizard’s Gatherer provided the bulk of their content. Before the Gatherer I used search engines provided by both MTGFanatic and CoolStuffInc to gather the information. Thanks to all three of these sites for providing information to complete the spoilers and provide images for the creature lists.

Mechanics and other spoilers include mechanic spoilers, mechanic features, vanguard spoilers, banned and restricted lists and vanguard features (articles). While I can’t really claim much inspiration from other sites to any portion of this section, CabalCity provided all of the card images shown in the Vanguard Spoiler on MDV. CabalCity is the victim of a no-longer-existent Magic website syndrome on the web. It is quite unfortunate considering it hosted stuff for both Angels of Magic and Transformers. (I was a HUGE fan of Transformers but not as HUGE as my brother who owns every Transformer toy and figurine even known to exist). Anyway, thanks Cabal City for providing the photoshop’d images of Vanguard Cards using the old vanguard card layouts from when they originally were issued.

And thanks to MagicTheGathering.com for providing the updated lists for the Banned and Restricted lists. While I don’t update them as often as I should, I still try to keep them updated as often as necessary and... possible.

Oh yes, there are a few referential aspects of the site yet to discuss including the Glossary of Terms, Primers and Deck Types. While the Deck Types and Primers are navigated under the deck section, they are really referential.

The Glossary of Terms has been compiled from sites like www.suffolkmagic.com, www.wizards.com and www.mtgsalvation.com. I have yet to really bring this glossary of terms into completion, but I used the terms discussed in all three of those sites to make that page.  Thanks sites!

Suffolk Magic is no longer around, but they also provided information to start off the deck types section of Magic Deck Vortex. Like MTGWorld, if any of you remember the site, please let me know what you remember about it in the forums. Suffolk Magic had a rather detailed description of all of the major deck types of the time and before. I took that information, elaborated upon it, added more types to it and made the deck types page(s) what it is today.

Primers... you know, those mini-articles explaining how a deck works, were originally provided by users of the www.magicthegathering.com forums. When I first quoted them on MDV, I caused quite an uproar within the community of people that put them together. However, I smoothed that over with the organizers of the primers and to this day they are still availableon MDV. While they might not all be current, they will provide a little background to those deck types. In the future, I would love to update all of this information, but no one has given me an inclination to do so. If you are interested, please let me know.

Links: Salt and pepper to taste

Links have always been an important aspect of Magic Deck Vortex. Being a vortex and all, one would expect the site to be a plethora of information for a given topic and a portal to other places of similar topic. With that said, Magic Deck Vortex has always taken pride in having a wide assortment of links. In fact, I feature at least five new links every month to prove my pride in links.

If it weren’t for links to other MTG sites, MDV may not have survived to today. You see, I spent countless hours setting up link exchanges with other sites on the web when the site first began. While this was primarily an effort to get the website name out there, over the course of time I realized that links were an important part of the website. In fact, without them, MDV’s Google rank might be 1 instead of 4. Not that 4 is all that impressive, it was 3 last year so I must be doing something right.

One site that stood out as being a king of MTG site links was MTGCity.com. They had this little Top 100 Magic Sites feature that played heavily into the knowledge of Magic Deck Vortex on the web in the beginning. You see, you signed up for an account, set up a banner, and posted a link to their list. Every time someone clicked on the link, their vote would increase your standing in the list and bring you closer to the top of the list. The closer you were to the top of the list, the more people that visited your site. It was quite an ingenious set up on the webmaster’s part as it provided a link portal for many sites, but also increased the knowledge of its own site.

Once MDV got big enough, I eradicated the Top100 button, sponsored by MTGCity, from MDV. However, it was crucial in getting MDV out there to the masses. To this day, MTGCity's Top100 list is still alive and kicking and provides a good start for any new Magic website out there. On a side note, it is also a good place to start to find old Magic sites on the website as even dead sites’ links are still up there 10’s of pages into the list.

Another listing, and similar to MTGCity’s list but more advanced, is the Magic Radar. Designed by Hannes from MTGS, it started on MTGNews and then moved to MTGSalvation with the dissension mentioned earlier. The Magic Radar lists several of the top Magic sites on the web and sorts them by the last update. It also shows details for the most link to and most updated sites among the list. Magic Deck Vortex was lucky to get on this list when it was on MTGNews and to this day it still provides a decent percentage of links to the site. If your site, should you have one, is a regularly updated site with decent to excellent content, I would encourage you to apply for a spot on the Magic Radar. The exposure is excellent especially since it resides on MTGS, which in my opinion is the most heavily trafficked site on the web (for non-Wizards's MTG sites, anyway). Thanks MTGS, and Hannes, for providing this excellent portal for MTG Sites like MDV!

Features: Dried crushed sage to taste

The MDV Features section currently includes fictional cards, card spotlights, MDV Contests, polls and the MDV Forum Highlights. To be honest, I can’t really remember who inspired each of these sections. Perhaps, *gasp*, they were original ideas on my part. Polls are pretty common amongst all sites, the forums I will get to in a minute, contests are also pretty common, and fictional cards are a section I had planned more for but never really made it into it’s full potential. Let’s see if I can still elaborate on each section.

Polls are something I never really figured out how to code in Frontpage. However, there was one site I visited that had a www.pollhost.com link to it. I can’t remember where I found that link, as I know it was a MTG site, but I digress. I do thank Pollhost for providing a semi-free (if you don’t mind ads) poll platform for MDV to use.

Card Spotlights don’t really jump out at me as being inspired by another site. The first card I ever spotlighted was Triskelion, my all time favorite card. Back in the day, I used to offer a card spotlight of a winner’s choice to the contest victors. Unfortunately, as time progressed, it became more difficult to grade the contest entries. While I’ve tried to remedy this issue in the past, it still remains a sour point for MDV. Sorry to all those that submitted entries for deckbuilding contests from 2005 and before but were never ranked.  I guess this article couldn't be all about thanks...

MDV Contests – I think I already said a few words about that. That and I don’t think any one site inspired this section of MDV. It might have been www.magic4you.nu who first threw a contest in front of my eyes, but I can’t be sure. However, Magic4You has always been another site to encourage the development of MDV, and for that I am truly greatful.

Fictional Cards have been a dream of every Magic player at some point in their lifetime. And thus there have been a host of sites out there that are devoted to or just dabbled in fictional card creation. Some sites that come to mind include Magic: the Creation, www.misetings.com, www.londes.com, www.frivolity.com and Project Overworld (for making a set based around a sixth color of Magic – purple). However, not one of these sites inspired the idea of a section on MDV. For a time, I boasted on being a site with largest archive of fictional cards, but that didn’t last long. I found the majority of the cards created to be a waste of space and removed them.

However, the one site to inspire me to create my own set called Celixia was MTGEditor. MTG Editor was a program made that allowed you to make your own cards with card images and everything while keeping it all organized into a set.

But then in June 2006, Wizards demanded a cease and desist order against Wollo, the creator. Thus, he was forced to remove the program from the web. I guess all I can say is that I’m glad I still have it on my computer. But that’s not all I can say. Thanks, Wollo, for creating MTGEditor and giving MDV and me a chance to develop and create a fictional MTG set. Currently, the second set of the Celixia block is being designed although time restraints have limited to development of it lately.

Forums: Dried crushed thyme to taste

Last up are the Forums of MDV. I must admit I was very skeptical of having live forums run on Magic Deck Vortex. Until Mastabling from MTP (MagicTradingPost) approached me in early 2005, I had remained skeptical. Mastabling encouraged me to join the MTP cause and use it as a forum for MDV users. After some heavy discussion, I caved in.

Both magicmaniac and Mastabling owned MTP. With their assistance, I set up shop in their forums. Linking to their forum, people from MDV started joining the site and thus started talking. I think it was in March of 2005 that this began. For several months, I used their forums for the MDV community. It was good – until things started getting weird within the structure of the forum. And thus, I found a way to start MDV’s own forum within the same server as MDV Main. While I regret severing ties with MTP, I must thank MTP for their persistence in getting MDV on a forum somewhere.

A Forum for MDV has provided a much more personalized aspect to the site and for that I am thankful. I could never have the great article review team, article discussions and games that people can participate in without the initial approach from the MTP owners. And thus, thank you MTP for bringing MDV into the forum world of the worldwide web. It has done great things for the site and visitors.

A quick little note: while the site is from good ‘ol Chicagoland, Illinois, the visitors of the site are from all over the world. Everyplace from China to Chile to Russia to Germany to Africa… MDV has had such a presence in the MTG Online Community that people from any language can view and read the site and enjoy it. Thank God for Babel Fish. *grin*

While MTP closed, it will remain in the memory of MDV for a long time. After MTP closed, one of the owners started a new forum somewhere else, closed that a while later, and then started another new forum, and closed that one. I’m not too sure what happened to the owners of the site, as I haven’t spoken with them in a while, but I wish them the best of luck in anything they do. Thanks again guys!

Making it work…

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter or margarine. Add onion, celery and mushrooms; sauté until soft.

Mix in bread cubes and egg with enough chicken broth to moisten. Add nuts, salt, pepper, sage, and thyme; stir until well blended.

Proceed to stuff turkey in your usual way.

I hope everyone enjoyed this unique perspective into the making and background of Magic Deck Vortex. I know I enjoyed reminiscing on the many sites that helped influence MDV.

Should you have any questions, comments or even rebuttals to this, please let me know in the forums. Thanks for visiting MDV!

John Streetz
webmaster of www.magicdeckvortex.com

P.S.: Happy Thanksgiving!!!

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

Articles Spotlights from 2006
The Games People Play - Tactical Magic.
If I worked at R&D
The Beginner’s Guide to Rogue
Druid Week Primer
Opting In: Ravnica
MDV Idol: Finale!
Avatar Week Primer
Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
Raiding Ravnica: Guildmages and You!
Lands-More than Mana: Part One