You know, I see a lot of people on here piling on, and yet I have not seen one example of any actual evidence proving this "conclusive point" so many of you seem to have about the guy. All I see and have been hearing from others is nothing more than speculation. The only people who "know" anything for sure are Paul himself, and the DCI.

I've been back playing MTG for a few years now, and pretty much only play Vintage here in the Northeast. And during this time, I've been told about several players that were "definitely cheaters", just like Paul. Here's a list of those that I've been told by multiple sources are shady cheaters:

1. Josh Potucek
2. Justin Kohler
3. Matt Murray
4. Brian Kelly
5. Tom Dixon

You notice something consistent in that list? ALL of them are consistent Top 8'ers, just like Paul is. In fact, outside of a handful of others like Rob Edwards, Shawn Griffiths, Joel Lim, and Keith Seals, these 5 guys make deep tournament runs very often here in the Northeast. I've heard many times from many people that Mark Hornung and Allen Fullmer, back when they were playing and winning often, were cheaters. It seems pretty unlikely to me that in a community this small there are so many of it's top players that are shady.

I've personally played against Paul, and each and every person I listed above numerous times throughout these last several years in tournaments. Not once have I ever seen any kind of "shady-ness" from ANY of them during the MANY times I've faced all of them. Not once have I ever even heard of a definitive example of one of those guys trying to blatantly cheat during a match. All I've ever heard was a lot of speculation, with no good evidence ever offered up as to why these guys are "shady players."

Now I'm not naive. I know damn well that Paul or any of these guys could, in fact, be former or even active cheaters. But I also know that any of you could be the exact same thing! So before you all start lighting up your torches and getting your pitchforks sharpened any further, how's about you offer up some REAL evidence to these claims so many of you so definitively have before you all go forming your lynch mob. Players make mistakes during games. Players make lots of play errors during tournaments. Especially in Vintage. It's a fast-paced format. I'm willing to bet each and every one of you has effed-up often during your individual tournaments. I'm willing to bet each and every one of you has ROYALLY effed-up as well and simply had the good fortune of not getting caught on it by your opponent as well. To call someone a cheater or shady is to say with certainty that that person is deliberately and maliciously trying to gain an unnatural advantage over their opponents. Not one of you has provided any evidence to prove that in Paul's case. Not one person who's told me about the other players that they considered shady has ever provided that either.

I'm thinking it's time to come out of my sabbatical for this. Been way too long since I spent a day slinging cardboard.

Excellent podcast, guys. Probably my favorite one of all the ones you 2 have done so far.

While I agree with Steve's assertion that the metagame was much more diverse prior to Love Boat's printing, I am very interested in seeing where it's going to go. I have no problems at all with a good shakeup like this.

And Oath wins it's 1st Vintage Champs.

Wow.....This report's been up for almost 3 hours now, and Gottschall hasn't posted within 30 seconds of it going up? Weird.....

Anyways, big ups to those who Top 8'ed today! Especially Keith Seals, because Keith Seals is da sexiest mo-fo in Vintage.

Great job, Mr. Seals!!!!!

I've recently been working on an updated version of East Coast Wins myself too. It's been too long since that deck has seen the light of day, and I think it's time to bring it back to the forefront.....

This looked like it was a tremendous event. Hopefully, I'll be able to go to next year's.

Congratulations to fellow Ramrodder Mr. Seals for winning the Main Event, and Mr. J.P. Kohler for taking down the Sunday event.

I also want to thank Jaco and Eternal Central for their awesome round by round coverage, which was just perfect for me to keep tabs on those I knew that were playing on Saturday while I was stuck at work.

And of course, a big congratulations to Mr. Detwiler for getting an awesome turnout!

I'll be there as well to be your friendly round by round bye.

Seconded. Great job, Keith, and congrats to the rest of the Top 8 as well!

I for one would love to see "1984" be remade, with John Hurt playing the role of O'Brien. I had read several times that Ron Howard was interested in remaking this, but yet, it has not come to pass. It's one of those timeless cautionary tales that gets referenced so much, but, I am certain that many of the younger generations are totally unaware that Big Brother is not just the name of a bad reality T.V. series.

Very nicely done, Keith! Way to represent the 'Rod!

Seconded! Way to go, Keith!

And big ups to Ream Ramrod's own Mr. Grim for his Top 4 finish as well as the rest!

I can't really argue with the card choices at all. This is about as tight of a deck as one can be, given the goals of this type of deck. Thank you for sharing this, Soly. Looking forward to seeing how it performs in action.

Big ups to Lance and the rest of the Top 8. Sorry to have missed this one, but will certainly be at the next one! Also, "Brian Kelly Decks" just may the the single best description of Brian Kelly decks that I've ever seen. 

I had never heard of Trapmaker's Snare until now. That's actually really clever.

Excellent report, Vito, and once again, great job on the day! A big thank you for the props as well.

You don't stand a chance in the face of Team Ramrod once we get the syrup in us

Team Ramrod's message to those who will try to oppose us for the title

And that is why Nick Coss is the REAL Godfather. Looking forward to being there.

I agree with this. For the mana cost of Perish/Virtue's Ruin (Both of which have seen Vintage play for a long time in decks that did not splash Red for Pyroclasm) and, essentially, the life-loss total of Dismember (Which has also seen plenty of Vintage play), this card is a Pyroclasm that works against Workshop decks. Now, granted, the life loss associated with this card doesn't have the Phyrexian mana benefit that Dismember provides (Meaning you still have to pay 3 mana to use this card regardless), but, the fact that no matter how many Lodestone Golems, Steel Hellkites, or Forgemasters are on the field, this card will wipe them all out at once, ALONG with their annoying Phyrexian Revoker counterparts makes this card an incredible weapon as it's still equally useful against the Aggro decks, unlike Pyroclasm, which is virtually useless against Workshop decks.

I understand that it's your previous Grow deck with Bobs over Regrowth and Jace, and in fact I bought the primer the day it came out (I just enjoy reading about Vintage, in general), so it's not something like that I was expecting. Just something more along the lines as to why you made that specific change and how exactly it worked out for you on the day is all. Obviously, you did quite well with this configuration, and congratulations on that. I love seeing Gush decks doing well.

Bob-Gush-Mancer. That's interesting, for certain. I presume there will be something coming from you on Eternal Central in the near future, Steve. I'm interested in reading it, if that is the case.

Thank you, Jaco.

The Shining? May I ask what that is?

Although I've never had the honor of meeting him in person, I am well aware of the legend of Bill Copes. When the Bible was first written, it was originally supposed to be titled "Bill Copes & Friends", but, Bill Copes' modesty allowed it to be named what it is today. Happy Birthday!