Ryan C’s MTG

Trans People Are Who They Say They Are

I admired Cassie Pritchard's recent piece in The Argument but thought there were some very important things to add about a productive vision for trans people’s “mass…

Playing out the Hand (a Pain Update)

It’s been a while since I’ve written about my pain. I’d been planning to write about a different topic (related to transness and the moment we’re in, which I still p…

The Night Before PT Amsterdam

"Play the Game, See the World", the marketing slogan said... so here I am at my first non-US (non-Chicago, Atlanta, Vegas, or Seattle) PT, in my third year. So far I…

The Smartest Person in the World

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” There's a part of me that won't be satisfied unless I be…

The Night before PT Secrets of Strixhaven

I normally write that I'm super nervous in these "night before" posts. This is maybe the first time that nerves aren't the primary feeling I'm feeling. Does this mak…

Jeskai Deck's Mid: A (late) PT ECL Deck Reflection

It's taken me a while to figure out how I want to write about my constructed process for PT Lorwyn. So long that an entire new set has come out and the standard form…

Getting Good at Being Good

Author's note: This is going to be a piece where I complain about being good and successful at magic now, and spending most of my time playing a card game. I'll try …

The Night Before PT Richmond

One week ago, the vibes were as bad as they could realistically be going into a PT testing house, at least for me personally: I had woken up Thursday morning with a …

Otters in 2026: An Updated Guide

So I brought Otters to Worlds, and got popped by Grandma. My writing seeks to accurately represent my views. I don't want to be shilling every deck I work on and sel…

Failing at Worlds

"I'm not trying to panic - I'm trying to make an actual evaluation of how bad this is, because I have to play in Worlds tomorrow, and it's useful to know how difficu…

The Night Before Worlds (Running it Back Edition)

Well, if you'd told me last year the night before Worlds that I would have played all the Pro Tours this year, let alone be competing in Worlds again, I wouldn't hav…

The Case for Competitive Magic

An embarrassingly bad Spiderman crossover set with a somehow even-more-awful off-brand digital release that butchered one of Magic's most universally beloved formats…

The Value of Information Advantage in Competitive Magic

I've recently been mulling over (wait! please don't try to dunk on me!) a concept that I think goes underappreciated in its importance when preparing for Magic tourn…

What I Want New Sanctum Members to Know

I'm competing in the Magic World Championships for a second year in a row. Making it back here is an incredible feeling. At the same time, I'm never going to get to …

The Night Before PT Atlanta

Tomorrow I again do what felt for so many years, and still feels, like an impossible thing -- compete with the best Magic players in the world. I'm nervous as hell. …

Being Right and Being Happy

You are both a thinking and a breathing thing. I feel my writing to be most meaningful to produce, and best received by others, when it's being written to try and he…

EOE Arena Open Day 1

I decided to record my day sealed pools for this Arena Open --…

EOE First Impressions

We’re a few days into EOE being released online, and while the Pro Tour is still a few months away (kind of wild after getting used to 2-week turnaround windows), th…

On Empathy as a Skill in High Level Magic

I've recently been working my way through a huge anthology of Ursula K. Le Guin's books, and they've done what the best sci-fi can do: completely blow you away with …

Baby's First Amulet games

Jumping right back into PT prep because it's time to learn Modern!!! I've been deep diving on Amulet Titan these past few weeks in order to get a handle on…

How to *Actually* Play Izzet Prowess

I've already written one article about how to play Izzet Prowess. Before my 4-5 finish at RC Hartford, I wrote a guide to the Swiftspear-less list my team was bringi…

Another Patreon Update

Back in January when I moved to the new paid-only model,I was trying to create some insurance against my falling off of the Pro Tour that would make it worth it to k…

Pro Tour Final Fantasy Prep - Excerpts

As I'm working on a large piece about the prowess deck we played at PT FF, today I wanted to share some recordings I took during the testing process. This is just ra…

The Night Before PT FF

The nerves don't get any better. It's 93 degrees outside and the Vegas Sphere is the last thing I see before I close the door to my cheap hotel room and once again t…

Commons & Uncommons Limited set review coming out over the next 3 days!

Gettin' Familiar with Pauper

Today's gonna be a slightly less competitive-focused article. Mora & I will be recording a Final Fantasy Limited set review later this week to be released next week,…

A Tournament Finally Went Badly!!!!!!

When I was 2-3 at Grand Prix Atlanta, I remember telling Mora that "it's just not my tournament, this was bound to happen at some point, I'm just glad it's here and …

How to play Izzet Prowess in Hartford

In a shocking turn of events, I have decided to register the card Cori-Steel Cutter for Hartford. This won't be an entire deck guide -- This is already the most popu…

Shoutouts were missed?!?!

In an incredible turn of events, I have undercounted both the amount of PT qualified players and the amount of Worlds-qualified players in our community... Massive c…

Some shoutouts are in order

Not one, but TWO of our discord members have qualified for the Pro Tour this RC season!!!! Congratulations to Dragonfly99/Libelle, who made top 32 of the Europe RC, …

Oops, they broke standard

I only joined Sanctum for Worlds last year, so I missed out on PT Gurk and PT Nadu. I haven't yet played a constructed format where there's a clear "tier 0" deck, bu…

Izzet Prowess Gamelog Review (with Avi Grinberg!)

My friend Avi & I review some of…

RC Minneapolis/Hartford testing (with Nicole Tipple!) - Prowess side

Nicole Tipple and I recorded some testing of the Otters (with…

RC Testing vs. Nicole Tipple - Otters side!

Nicole Tipple and I recorded some testing of the Otters (with cutter!) vs. Izzet Prowess…

Speaking Truth

"Yeah, I think we should cut that, but I searched the document for the word "climate" and there are also other places where we mention climate change, even if it's n…

Chickens, Eggs, and Intuition

How long do you want to spend on this decision? A tenth of a second? Half a second? 5 seconds? 10? A minute? 2? How long do we have to answer this question? Oops, 5 …

TDM First Impressions

It's the first week of a new format, and this is one of the sweetest we've had in a while! The original KTK set was one of my personal favorite limited sets of all t…

Full TDM set review now live!

Rare & Mythics set review with Nicole is live on YT and Spotify!

TDM Set Review - Now on Spotify!

I finally figured out how to host these long-form audio files on spotify, so people won't have to keep a YouTube…

TDM Limited Set Review with Nicole Tipple!!!

Sanctum teammate Nicole & I sat down for a limited set review for Tarkir Dragonstorm :) Nicole will be uploading the cleanly edited…

PAUL

DFT Arena Open - Deep run!!

Finally found the time to post my Arena Open run…

I Want to Play a Fair Game

This is one of those pieces I talked about making publicly available, because I want it to reach as many folks in the community as possible! In the interest of not g…

PT Testing - 2v2 Esper Pixie Mirror

This is a match from Sanctum's PT DFT testing process that I'm uploading as a companion piece to my article…

Mono Red Guide: How to play the Best Deck from the PT

This probably isn't the first image you'd expected to see in an article about how I took Mono Red to the Pro Tour and went 7-3 in constructed piloting what turned ou…

Mono Red Mulligan Meeting pre-PT DFT

Here's the other raw meeting audio for the mulligans meeting! We went matchup by…

Mono Red SB Mapping Meeting pre-PT DFT

I just got back from Chicago last night, so the actual mono red guide will be coming later this week. However, now's the perfect time to share some more unrefined co…

PT DFT Finish & content plan

For those who didn’t see on social media / discord: I finished 11-5 at the PT, good for 27th place and a re-qualification for PT Final Fantasy in Vegas in June!! I a…

The Night before Pro Tour Aetherdrift

It still feels like an event horizon. It’s hard to imagine the thing I’ve been thinking about nonstop for a month (& that’s the understated version) will happen tomo…

DFT Set Review - Rares & Mythics

Uploaded this to the already-linked…

DFT Limited Set Review

Mora & I recorded a 7-hour-long commons & uncommons Limited set review for Aetherdrift as I start prep for the upcoming Pro Tour - Here's a link to the YouTube playl…

Standard Challenge Quarterfinals Gamelog Review - Gruul vs. Golgari

This week I'm going over the match that I called "one of my literal favorite matches of all time"…

Some Structural Patreon Changes

When I started this Patreon, I had just finished 2nd at Arena Championship 5 and secured a Worlds slot. I wanted to try my hand at writing about Magic because I thou…

For folks who are interested in what actions they can take in response to the VML news

Someone asked if there are any concrete actions they can take beyond posting on social media -- Triske's thread here does an excellent job of explaining how to influ…

WOTC has cancelled their support for VML

I’m writing this as I’m learning of the news in realtime. I know not my entire Patreon audience is as tuned into this part of the community as I am, but that’s why I…

GP Atlanta Tournament Report

What a ride!!! This weekend was incredibly fun, and well worth the few days of pain recovery I'm currently doing. The return of big, open-to-the-public tournaments (…

How to Succeed at Magic

I thought the mini-piece from the end of my GP Atlanta report was worth publishing as a stand-alone! Focus on what you can control, focus on what matters. I've had t…

For folks wanting info on cft's Otters list

Jointexploration on twitch just went live with cft talking about their build and thoughts from the weekend!

CFT in top 8 with otters!!

Cft is currently live in their quarterfinals match with a new build of otters!!!!!! Just wanted to give folks a notification if they want to check it out 🫡 (I got 1…

How to Play Gruul Aggro for Atlanta

Big news - I'm not going to be playing Otters in Atlanta, because I don't think it's the deck that gives me the highest winning percentage in standard right now. As …

Guest Gamelog Review: AvianScrolls

Sanctum teammate Chandler (@AvianScrolls) was kind enough to provide some Otters…

Guest Gamelog Review: FDN Limited

Recently Mike Provencher (@mtgscribe on twitter / @mtgscribe.bsky.social), who has been a great internet friend over the past year & an excellent Magic content creat…

Habits of Highly Effective Magic Players

It's been a while since we've had a soundtrack, but we're bringing it back! I've met so many new friends over the course of this year while I've been getting back de…

Otters Mirror Gamelog Review

I got to help Mora test the Otters mirror the night before VML…

Otters Mirror Gameplay

I got to help Mora test the…

Otters vs. Gruul gameplay with Autumn Burchett!

Was able to help PT Champion Autumn Burchett with its…

Foundations Arena Open

Mora & I recorded my draft for the Arena Open last weekend.…

How to exist online (if you're you)

Today is going to be a non-Magic post - but it is about something I think almost every Magic player, at least those who found & enjoy my content, might relate to. It…

Happy Thanksgiving!

No posts after the holiday this week - Working on a longer non-Magic piece and will likely be recording some content from VML champs testing with Mora when I get bac…

Foundational Ottering

I've been getting lots of good questions about adjustments to Otters and how Foundations will change the deck, so I wanted to consolidate all of those into one place…

Otters Gameplay vs. Boros Burn

Why Team Sealed is the best MTG Format

Howdy folks! Coming off of the Foundations prerelease where I was able to play Team Sealed with Mora and our friend Evan, I wanted to take some space to sing the pra…

Otters Gameplay vs. Leyline Red

I was helping a friend test for her…

The Journey to Worlds

We all like to make stories out of our lives. This week's post is a lot different from last week's, but I see it as coming from the same part of my brain that is goo…

The Ultimate Otters Guide

The Sanctum team brought a super fun deck to Worlds, and while the deck didn't put up amazing results over the weekend on a small sample size, it still got me my fir…

The Night Before Worlds

I'm writing this the night before Worlds because I want the record to be clear. Magic is a game of incredible, almost indescribable skill. I've learned so much about…

Phoenixing through it all at the Regional Championship

Last week I wrote about deck selection, and this week I'm going to share the deck I decided to play at the Regional Championship in DC. I'm obviously writing this be…

Post coming a little later this week

My piece this week is going to be about the deck I chose fo the RC and its' matchup gameplans - To avoid sharing information I got from testing with Sanctum of All, …

Duskmourn First Impressions

I love darker-themed sets, and most importantly, I love sets that I get to prepare in for a high level tournament. Does Worlds count? I've been able to get a lot of …

Stop Trying to Win

If you get everything right, then there's nothing else left. I've been playing so much Magic. Bloomburrow Limited for RCQs and Arena Opens, Pioneer for the RC, Stand…

First Bloomburrow Arena Open

Here's my day 2 run for the…

Vibes Draft

Recorded a normal draft where I…

Vintage cube 64-person Draft

I recorded my draft for the 64-player single-elim…

Breaks & Battle Boxing

This is a piece I wrote a few weeks ago & was saving for a blank content slot! I've been playing competitive Magic online & in person almost nonstop for the past 3 m…

On Variance

Magic twitter was on fire last week with discussions about whether there is increased variance in limited and whether this means that skill matters less these days. …

July MH3 Arena Open

There wasn't a good week to fit this in, so I'm using this week in between the BLB set…

Bloomburrow Set Review - Rare & Mythic

BLB Card ratings

Mora & I finished our set review (rares & mythics coming early next week!)…

Bloomburrow Set Review - Commons

Paid content coming a little early this week - I decided to sit down and do a set review with Mora! This…

Bloomburrow Set Review - Uncommons

MORA WON VML!!!!!

Pain and Magic and Me

I've said before that a large part of what I attribute to my recent Magic success is my chronic pain and what it's taught me about perseverance through difficult phy…

The One About Gameplay

I've been wanting to write a deep-dive post about gameplay for a while, but it's a very tricky subject. Let's get the annoying, yet obvious stuff the way first... Ma…

MH3 Arena Open

I recorded my Arena Open run for this week's post. There were some really fun games, I…

How to Build a Sealed Deck

It's time to talk about my favorite limited format. That's right! I'm a Sealed Enjoyer. Unsurprising given my love for limited, but most limited players prefer draft…

How to learn a difficult constructed deck

It's about time I wrote a bit about my VML experience! For those who don't know the VML (originally the Venus & Mercury League, pretty much known now by the abbrevia…

For the Love of the Game

This is a complicated question, but it's one worth asking and re-asking over the course of your life. According to Hasbro (the company that owns WOTC), 2/3 of Magic …

Arena Open Day 2 Draft 2

Here's the followup video from my $500 first…

Arena Open Draft #1 Breakdown (4-0)

This week's paid content is my first video! Here I break down my Arena Open Day 2 Draft 1, where I went 4-0 (and…

Announcement: Gyruda Quint guide is now public!

How to Draft Flexibly

11 years ago, Ben Stark wrote Drafting the Hard Way. It was, and still is, considered a seminal piece of MTG Limited theory. Funny enough, I don't think I had read i…

More thoughts on slowing down, patience, and curiosity

I want to write content that is useful in a short-term strategic sense (with format and/or deck knowledge), but also stuff that helps folks reflect on their relation…

Surely Not

This is a post I made on my personal blog last year about my experience with chronic pain. I wanted to share it here as I'm quite proud of it, and the concept of "Th…

Gyruda Quint: The Definitive Guide

It's taken a little bit, but I'm finally sitting down to write everything I know about the deck I piloted to 2nd place at the Arena Championship. This deck is very p…

Magic is Very Hard

Focus on what you can control, focus on what matters. This is a reminder I have on my phone that recurs at 5pm every day. I've had it since the beginning of college …

AC5 Team Prep Recap (& Mulligan Guide)

(Repost from YouTube) - Ethan…

Sealed: The Draft Format (OTJ Early Thoughts)

My first article was a deep dive on learning draft formats with almost no OTJ-specific content. Let's turn that around today and recap my early experiences in Thunde…

How to Learn any Limited Format (including OTJ!)

I've been a consumer of Limited content for a long time, and while I think there's some amazing stuff out there, I also think I have some perspectives that will be v…

You Have to Weigh It

Context for Patreon: This is a post I made on my personal blog last year - It does not contain significant MTG strategy advice, and is much more personal in content.…

AC5 Testing Diary #2

Playing, and paying attention to what wins is a good start. So is the aggregated version of this, using 17Lands data: The talk in the first few days of MKM was all a…

AC5 Testing Diary #3

We're in the home stretch!! The time has passed so quickly. Part of it was a great Chicago trip where I got to spend time with my brother & good friend, as well as a…

AC5 Testing Diary #4

I love Magic because it is an endeavor that requires analytical heft to get into, but the deeper you get, the more “soft” skills are required. These have typically b…

AC5 Testing Diary #1

I've been playing competitive MTG since I was 13, but hadn't had many meaningful results until the past few years. A lot of this I credit to living with my current r…

I see people who shouldn't talk to each other

The more time you spend on the internet, the more you realize that every type of person exists. Think of a political philosophy that's obviously made up and no one w…