apropos of nothing (timestamp important): youtu.be/wDglIkrmnTQ?...

#mtgPauper if you’re playing in the Saturday 1K at Paupergenesis, decklists are due *tonight*

POTG Episode 28: Landcycler (or Dinner)! YouTube: youtu.be/iJNlsXdqKHI Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3x7j... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... @fireshoes.bsky.social

It's wild to me that the Riftbound 10k in Pittsburgh this weekend is using Topdeck, notable Nazi-run tournament software. I was planning on going at first but after seeing this fact I don't wanna touch @excaliburevents.bsky.social with a 10 ft pole. Topdeck context: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

POTG Episode 27: Weighing the Odds An AWESOME spot from the limited champs qualifier over the weekend. What would you do here?? YouTube: youtu.be/HUcIx_8WUWw?... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1ZFx... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... @fireshoes.bsky.social

ended up 3-2ing into IDing into top 16 for the $100 mincash

failed to day 2 the team sealed spotlight, so i guess now it is time to play a riftbound 5k kinda curious how i'll do, this will be my first actual riftbound event (never even been to a local lol), tho i've played some amount online including helping aspirant's climb testing for hartford

Out at 2-3 in the vegas team sealed spotlight with this difficult-to-build pool! Can you build it better than we did? sealeddeck.tech/ob2dKipF7m

Something a little different on this POTG… Mora, Jason & I talk about team sealed for an hour!! YouTube: youtu.be/xsx3I4HhwSU Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3pVw... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... @fireshoes.bsky.social

Today is a momentous day for the workers of Arena! After months of planning, waiting and organizing, our dream is finally a reality; the votes have been counted, and our union of UWOTC-CWA has been officially elected. From this day forward, we have a union!

In preparation for Spotlight Vegas, Mora, Jason & I recorded ourselves building some team sealed pools from prerelease packs, and I uploaded them on the POTG youtube channel! youtu.be/9hIXqKrRg30 @fireshoes.bsky.social

7-0-1 at RQ Hartford with Diana. Feeling rather exhausted but happy with the day. It ended with a crazy match where I thought I could never win but managed to crawl back to a winning position but sadly needed one more turn I didn’t have. Excited for tomorrow and looking for a t8!

Happy Juneteenth. ✊🏿

I beat two games of Hollow Knight at the same time playing on two separate inputs (dance pad + controller). Really proud of this run and planning to do some optional x2 content in the game now ♡Thank you @teamcherry.bsky.social for this masterpiece ♡

POTG Episode 25: Threat Valuation! Going to be recording some after Marvel early access this week :) Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2Tv3... YouTube: youtu.be/-sG_0bNVtho?... @fireshoes.bsky.social

I started playing Riftbound recently. If I had a nickel for every time I looked at a Riftbound combo deck and then wrote like 1k words in Discord mathematically analyzing it I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's funny it's happened twice.

POTG Episode 24: Virtual Spellcasting! Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5uNp... YouTube: youtu.be/r3Cqb7EKCg8?... @fireshoes.bsky.social

It has now been officially confirmed by WOTC in the Pro Tour discord. When I thought I qualified for Arena Limited Championship I think it was fair to assume it was a draft event at least in some way resembling Arena Championship. In reality I just qualified for a LCQ on Arena.

the worst part is that at some point i was even thinking about if i wanted to try and qualify for the Arena Limited Champion even though i was already qualified for the normal Limited Championship, because just playing in more high stakes limited tournaments was appealing guess there's no point now

i'm so glad i've stopped engaging with arena competitive events. lots of bo1 with extremely high-variance prizing structures; very poorly organization with very frequent event structure and prizing mishaps; and now this

Arena Limited Championship To Have No Prize Beyond Qualification mtgscribe.com/2026/06/09/a...

i like a few of the marvel designs and it's feeling very hard to be excited about them given the context surrounding wotc & the union, as well as the creep of real world stuff showing up in UB sets. i don't want cops and nazis in magic.

Today we begin the official NLRB election for recognition of our union. We start with in person voting today followed by a period for remote workers to mail in ballots. We’re excited for every worker to have a chance to vote and look forward to the results in a couple weeks.

POTG Episode 23: Omens while the Omens are… Okay? Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3LMSOfE... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Youtube: youtu.be/yE6NCAPmBFY?... @fireshoes.bsky.social

So after openly deadnaming all our trans folks last week, leadership apologized, but then did not update employee's names for the vote today. This means our trans employees are being forced to openly deadname themselves in order to vote in today's union election. This is deeply fucked.

SCG CON can't happen without the incredible staff and judges who keep everything running. 👏 Nick Miller helps us understand why they do it! 🎤 Thank you to the team for making #SCGDC possible all weekend long! 🏆

POTG Episode 22: ‘Leveling Up’ the Fundamentals! Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7rLy... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Rw... @fireshoes.bsky.social

"I'm voting yes for UWOTC! In my 18 years in the games industry I've been blessed to have worked with a myriad of talented individuals and passionate teams."

Myth: When you join a union, you give up autonomy in the workplace. We are the union: a collective group of workers who have joined together for a stronger voice in their workplace. CWA is not a third party that tells us what to do.

"I am organizing for many reasons, but the biggest of which is I want to make working at Arena better for everyone; I love my team, and I’m tired of our lives being shaken up by top-down decisions that we have no say in."

UWOTC-CWA is seeking layoff protections for our members. Corporations are often short term profit seeking entities beholden only to shareholders — we believe this is detrimental to the health and well-being of our workforce. unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/2026-05...

HR 2616, text below, just passed today in the House. Now it's time to call your Senators & tell them to vote NO ON HR 2616/S 2251 (and the very similar bills: HR 2617 & HR 7661 which aim to ban all trans books from every public school in the country!) www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

Why are we, the workers of Magic the Gathering: Arena (MTGA), working with the Communications Workers of America (CWA)? CWA has been of great assistance as we’re getting started, but the union consists of the workers of MTGA.

Alright, I'm going to talk about one of my biggest reasons for unionizing on the Arena team. Forced relocation, aka "RTO" (Return to Office), "WFH protections" (Work From Home protections), or more recently "Ways of Working." Buckle in for a thread.

For two weeks, arena folks have been getting *daily* anti-union emails from the company fearmongering about how scary unions are. Now, they're sending letters to our homes. The union isn't a third party, WE ARE THE UNION. This doesn't scare me. I am voting YES for #uwotc-cwa! #wotcstaff

As if two straight weeks of fear mongering emails about the big scary union wasn’t annoying enough, now we’re getting sent these 🤡 letters directly to our homes. WE are the union. Not CWA. I am voting Yes, and it’s laughable they thought this was going to convince me otherwise 💅🏻✨ #wotcstaff

POTG Episode 21: Under the Gun in ACQ Day 2! This one went long 😊 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3XA5... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Youtube: youtu.be/mFtZHMZOMrA?... @fireshoes.bsky.social

Hello, everyone! Floor applications for CubeCon 2026 have been extended until May 18 (Monday). Be there, or be square! 👇 App Form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #CubeCon2026 #MTGCube

POTG Episode 20: (Attack into) Six Sevennn Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/62EQ... YouTube: youtu.be/jouStkmmlx0?... @fireshoes.bsky.social

I've uploaded our RC Tokyo coverage to YouTube and timestamped the matches in the descriptions. If you didn't stay up until 5am with @jasoniltg.bsky.social and me, we forgive you. But you can watch anyway: Day 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSG... Day 2 and top 8: www.youtube.com/watch?v=npAS...

Going live at the top of the hour with @jasoniltg.bsky.social for day two of the Japan/Korea RC. Can Noah Ma repeat with Temple Garden? Or will one of the Izzet decks claim the title? Will we pull a Slivdrazi in our MB2 packs? Let's find out on www.twitch.tv/ajlvi!

Going live with @jasoniltg.bsky.social to cover the Japan/Korea RC. Are you team Llanowar Elves or team Steam Vents? www.twitch.tv/ajlvi

woah it's me

POTG Episode 19: Together as One in the House! Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3xzf... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vJY... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... @fireshoes.bsky.social

This weekend on www.twitch.tv/ajlvi, we've got some Standard action from Tokyo! • The day 1 stream starts at 8:30pm Eastern (00:30 UTC). • The day 2 stream starts at 8:00pm Eastern (00:00 UTC). I'll be joined on the mic by @jasoniltg.bsky.social both days. Come hang out with us!

WotC declined to voluntarily recognize our union by Friday, May 1st. While we're disappointed in this delay, together we remain strong in our convictions. We look forward to sitting down at the bargaining table so we can make Arena better for workers, for Wizards, and for our players. #UWOTC-CWA

rooting with all my heart for rui "my pre-ban draven deck for playing for fun is sleeved but my constructed deck isn't" zhang to win the whole thing

Rui's had an incredibly dominant weekend and we're excited to see them keep going in top 8 tomorrow!

Our team is ready to go for #PTSOS We're quite large this time around, with 21 players, and we may have broken it with our spicy Izzet Maestro deck (which we internally called Gay Storm)

Happy International Worker's Day! Today, we hope to hear from WOTC and Hasbro on whether they will voluntarily recognize our union. Going to MagicCon? Show support by wearing red on Saturday. Can't go? Send us a picture of you in red instead! Keep the signatures coming! cwa.org/uwotcletter