Another Patreon Update

Hi folks! Along with the prowess piece, today I'm announcing another pretty large change to how this Patreon's going to work going forward. This time, it's a bit of a mix of good and bad. I won't bury the lede:

I'm moving back to the $5/month + articles are free after 2 weeks model (but keeping the discord benefits for the paid folks!)

I'm no longer committing to publishing content every week, though I will definitely still be writing and recording content regularly!

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 keep writing about Magic.

Now, I'm faced with sort of the opposite problem -- I'm qualified for the PT through next January, but I need to look for some part-time work outside of Magic to make competing in PTs for this long financially sustainable.

I would love it if my writing were a way to do this, but realistically, it's still a passion project more than a real income, and because I'm going to be spending time on other work, I want to move back to a model that makes more sense from the "passion project" angle. I love doing this and I'm not going to stop -- but asking folks to support it like it's a job only makes sense if I'm going to treat it like one.

Promoting my writing while it was behind a hard paywall wasn't fun -- even though I stand by the idea that everything I made was worth charging for, it's harder to get in front of new people if there isn't a door into your content that's free to start. Doing the extra promotion/marketing that I'd need to do to account for that isn't something I'm good at, nor something I always feel great about (for example, I think leaving twitter had a really big impact on new people finding me). I want my work to speak for itself, so I think it makes sense to let it do that again! It also just feels better to know that people who can't afford to pay for Magic content will still be getting something valuable.

In terms of what this means going forward, here are the things I'm definitely still going to be doing:

Writing a thorough deck guide for every deck I bring to a major event

Depending on the level of effort involved, these are the one thing that might stay behind a paywall. Folks who subscribe monthly will always get them for free, and I will still sell them for a one-time fee for anyone who does't want to subscribe.

Writing a theory piece any time I want to explain how I've leveled up in some way in Magic (as long as I'm competing on the PT, I expect this to happen a lot)

Sharing any personal writing that I find valuable to create

Recording Limited set reviews with Mora & other special guests

Recording content from PT testing & any other Magic I play that I want to share (random drafts, early access, etc)

So basically, I still plan on doing all the same stuff -- I just won't be carving out time to "produce content" on a weekly schedule. Instead, everything I make is going to be something I actively thought was worth taking the time to make.

The ask is the same: Pay for it if it's worth it to you! I'm still going to be putting a lot of effort into everything that gets posted on here -- and of course, I cannot emphasize enough that paying for that labor will still be helping me make professional magic and writing about it a realistic thing to continue doing.

Oh, and I do plan on continuing to offer free coaching to players with marginalized identities! I might have somewhat less capacity for it now, but that's been a decision I'm really happy with and I don't intend to stop.

In terms of implementation --

I'm just going to move the "articles & discord" tier pricing down to $5/month, and manually go in and change everyone on that plan to the new minimum price.

If you actively want to pay more (folks have asked about this in the past), I just learned that this is how Patreon subscriptions operate by default - feel free to go in and edit the amount :)

I'll keep the old paid tier around since there are still some stragglers on there, but if you want to make my life easier, hop over to the new one so I can deprecate it!

I appreciate everyone who has taken time out of their day to read something I've written - It truly means the world that people care what I have to say, about magic or in general.

Thank you for being here ❤️