Welcome to another exciting 'Week' at MDV. While normally our weeks would be a Theme Week, or possible First Impressions Week, or maybe even MDV Idol week(s?), this week will be a little bit different.

This week will be dedicated to introducing you to a completely new idea; a new concept that has been developed and now fleshed out.

Take a look inside and find details on what exactly a Mini-Article is.

Over the years, Magic has released many expansion sets. With the release of those sets, some of the most exciting pieces of information are the new mechanics of the set. These mechanics always provide new twists on old ideas and continues to keep the players both interested and fascinated with these new concepts.

While brainstorming interesting new things before the turn of the year, I came up with the thought, “Why can’t our articles have mechanics?”

I sat down and pondered this thought for awhile and had some really good ideas. Most of those ideas I will keep hidden from you at the current time, as I want to have future releases like this week. This week? That’s right, this is an entire week devoted to the first MDV Article Mechanic: the Mini-Article.

What exactly is a Mini-Article?

Imagine a split-card, say… Fire // Ice.

Just as in the card, there are two separate parts to the article. These two articles are in the ‘article’, yet are written by different writers.

Clear as mud right?

The way we went about developing this concept was by me bouncing the idea off of the Guild and they stared at me just like you probably are right now. Just like I ended up doing to them, I do to you now; “Trust me, this will work, and will be cool.”

In order to explain what I wanted to do, I first developed a list of themes I then told the guys to find a teammate. Each team then picked an article theme. The guys discussed their chosen theme and wrote an article, by themselves, about the theme. They were both to write about the same theme, yet not the same article. Having already seen the articles, I must admit that they exceeded my expectations. As a matter of fact, Beebles and Luther couldn’t stop once they started, which is why you will see more than one Mini-Article by them together.

I decided that I wanted to show you the list of concepts that were developed and give you a taste of what could be to come in the next week:

1. Lorwyn Commons
2. Direct Damage
3. Land Destruction
4. Lock Decks
5. Goblins on a Budget
6. Controlling the Game: Without Blue
7. The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall
8. I Don’t Need To Beat You, You Just Can’t Beat Me!
9. Winning, More Than Just 0 Life
10. Winner Kills The Most People
11. Mono Color Decks
12. Tempest Block vs. Odyessy Block
13. Barren Glory
14. The Creatures Only Game
15. The Most Expensive Deck

Does that inspire creativity in you? I hope so, because it did for the Writer’s Guild.

With that, I present to you the first MDV Article Mechanic: Mini-Articles.

cpn

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Articles Spotlights from 2008:
How to Win with Milling: A Guide to a Slow Painful Death
Memories of an Old Magic Player 10: The Outsiders Journal #3.
The Apprentice Magician, Part Three.
Class-Wars Deckbuilding Contest Results!
Tribal Coffee: The Smaller Tribes.
[Mini-Article] Controlling the Game: Without Blue.
Raiding the Dollar Bins: Return of the Vault Ninja.
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
More Evil Than Evil.
Memories of a Jarhead.