If anyone subscribes to the various subscription sites with articles on Magic the Gathering, I’m considering it, and want to see what you think. A few questions to start the discussion:
I have had both at one time or another. Those are the only two I’m aware of. There a few other sites which are non-public, but they’re by invitation only, not simply charging a fee.
Brainburst: I’ve never been a huge fan. They hype the hell out of their premium writers, but they’re pretty underwhelming. Two categories here: Players no-one’s heard of presenting semi-tested decks (Jarrod Bright, Remy Lupira), or pros presenting tech that’s one or two steps behind their current testing (Kai Budde, Jeroen Remie). I didn’t renew because, well, I can get it elsewhere for free.
Starcity: Long time fan, and they only keep growing. They have the best writers, period. Mike Flores, Stephen Menendian, Zvi Moshowitz, Philip Stanton, Osyp Lebedowicz, Chad Ellis, Antonino De Rosa, etc. All of these are essential to the format they write about, not to mention Flores’ contributions to Magic theory. Plus, they’ve published me, so that’s got to count for something.
I’ve played since 1995, and am at the PTQ, GPT level. At least, I was before my wife and I had a baby. Now, I play mostly Magic Online when I have the chance. Still, I contribute to my local groups playtesting and brainstorming sessions, and I read SCG, mtg.com, and misetings on a daily basis. I’m a frequent contributor to the message board at misetings, and I used to be on the newsgroups before they died.
If you only do one, do Starcity.
I’ve never been impressed by Brainburst. I rarely even ever read the site’s free content(do they even have any free content anymore?). StarCity certainly has some strong offerings in their Premium section but some of it seems like fluff.
Some stuff seems banged out just to satisfy the article writing requirements. The articles range from high-level theory with very little in the way of clear instructions on how to apply it(I’m looking at you BP Flores!) to low-level tournament reports with lots of the “how”(written in short hand which is indecipherable to anyone not extremely familiar with the cards and metagame already) and very little of the “why”. Still, Chad Ellis has written some very good stuff there since they went Premium and I would guess he’s probably worth the price on his own, at least as long as he keeps up this pace and quality.
A level of my own. I’ve played the game for over ten years but I play casually versus competitively. I very rarely play tournaments although I try to hit the pre-releases to get some cards cheaply. Even after the prize structures were re-done by my local TO I usually come home with 2/3 of a box worth of prizes from a pre-release and a place in the top 10 in the flights I play in. I don’t enjoy playing competitive M:tG although I have the play discipline, rules knowledge, and skills to do well when I am willing to give up a weekend to play.
To be honest the content on MagicTheGathering.com has really been impressing me recently. Adrian Sullivan doesn’t seem like he’s taking his column seriously, but the other writers are producing top notch articles.
Enjoy,
Steven
I suppose I should answer my own questions.
I agree about Brainburst being basically worthless. I rarely read any of their content. I read Starcity (free) and magicthegathering.com daily, and generally enjoy a lot of stuff on each, but since Starcity went premium, it seems like all the good articles were in the premium section.
I’m sure part of that is marketing. They got a lot better at writing the blurbs for the premium articles. But I wondered how much of it is due to some good articles. And, recently, when Jamie Wakefield came back, I got even more interested.
I played casually and semi-casually for many years, but recently I’ve had more time and money to devote to getting better. I play at the PTQ level, and have been pushing myself lately. I’m quite good at limited, getting 2nd and 9th 
at the two sealed PTQs I’ve gone to. I finished quite middle-of-the-pack during the extended qualifiers, but mostly because I played a pet deck that was only moderately competitive.
Have you heard of Misetings? It was originally started as Magic humor site, and still is. However, I’m convinced that outside of TheManaDrain for Type 1, it’s forums are THE best on the net for sound Magic advice, period. Warning: It’s more hostile to outsiders than most places, but if you have to patience to work your way in, you can get consistently strong advice about every format.
Oh, and what was your pet deck, just out of curiosity?
My own personal build of Growatog. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t particularly format-defining. I’d also claim that I tended to get less than excellent luck.
I’ll check out the forums at Misetings. I used to read the humor there all the time, but they stopped posting much, so I stopped checking as often.
Just a quick note, “better” is subjective. For me it wouldn’t matter what my wins/losses ratio was as long as I had fun. I’ve had friends who go to the tour and even worlds and they come back disappointed and tired and don’t want to even look at their cards for a while. I’ve kept my love of the game alive by playing in environments where it is a sad thing when a game is over. My personal choice, obviously, and I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong in how they play, but keep in mind your own long term goals in the game. For me it’s to have a challenging and complex game to play with friends and I don’t care if I’m ranked first or last in the DCI standings.
Enjoy,
Steven
This is one of the reason why I really, really love Magic Online. I can explore every aspect of the game, any time I want. Last weekend, I played a marathon of 8-man Standard tourneys with an evil land destruction deck. When that was done, I relaxed in a 2-headed giant Prismatic game. With my winnings, I picked up some cards for a goofy Grinding Station deck and messed around with that. Tonight, I’ll probably draft. Or I might play some Rainbow Stairwell decks, or Tribal with Minions.
I still play paper with friends when I can, but I lurrrvve to convenience of mtgo.
Fair enough. I’m interested in becoming a more competitive player. For the longest time, my ability to play magic was limited by free time, money, and having people to play with who were good enough to make the game interesting. Now, after graduating from college, I find that those constraints have been greatly lifted, and I can spend a lot more time playing the game and improving my skill at it.
I do care about my rating, but not so much that I act like a jerk or sweat each loss.