Electing Rakso to the next Invitational

[chosen_one]

I'm sure most of us new Vintage players came back to the game/ format because of Oscar's articles at Starcity. His insight on the "sleeping" Type 1 singlehandedly brought Vintage to the mainstream and gave us the yearly Type 1 championships. His classic jousts with the likes of Rosewater and company showed that there were still a lot of players that cared for Type 1. Almost forgotten is his role as moderator and primer writer of Beyond Dominia, the legendary site that was TMD's predecessor. If there's someone that deserves our write-in votes, it is none other than Oscar Tan.

Thoughts? Reactions?

[rvs]

Oscar doesn't reallly play magic. He plays backwash on Apprentice

[Jebus]

I certainly wouldn't want him to represent Type 1 at the invitational.

[Klep]

As much as we all love Rakso, Zherbus is more deserving of the slot for all the work he does for free to keep this site up and running and a great place to discuss Type 1.  Rakso may bring people to Type 1, but it is the existance of this community that keeps them.  If not for Zherbus, we wouldn't even be discussing the possibility of voting a Type 1 community figure into the invitational.

[Shock Wave]

... an awful, awful choice.

[Prism]

whenever people say good things about rakso, it's really hard for me to tell whether they are being sarcastic or not.

that said, electing (or trying to elect, whatever) rakso for the next invitational has got to be the worst idea i've read on themanadrain.com ever; yes, worse than those crazy suggestions like psychic venom and whatnot. we don't get that kind of nonsense even in the newbie forum, even at the time of the so-called 'decline of themanadrain.com'.

and, of course, i say those words in the nicest way possible. ;D

[wuaffiliate]

may ninjas kill you in your sleep.

[savekeeper]

Can some one explain to me whats wrong with Rasko?

[MarkPharaoh]

... an awful, awful choice.

Agreed.  I honestly don't understand these topics, we are outnumbered by players in other formats like 5:1 (atleast).

[chosen_one]

Out of all the Vintage Adepts, Rakso has the most recognition and legitimacy. Rakso has already won the Writer's War (ahead of writers like Zvi, Wise etc) and regularly corresponds with Budde and other Magic Juggernauts. Oscar still writes the best and most widely-read Vintage articles around.

[Jebus]

Out of all the Vintage Adepts, Rakso has the most recognition and legitimacy.

Recognition?  Maybe.  He's written more articles and it seems a lot of people have read them.

Legitimacy?  How is he legitamite?  He spends most of his time trying to play an old version of "The Deck" and making it look like the best thing ever by pitting it against decks no one even plays anymore.  And over Apprentice no less.  Backwash machine go!!!

I often wonder how he's become a "Vintage Adept."

Rakso has already won the Writer's War (ahead of writers like Zvi, Wise etc) and regularly corresponds with Budde and other Magic Juggernauts.

What do Zvi, Gary, and Kai have to do with Type 1?  Nothing.

So winning a "Writer's War" makes you the Type 1 poster boy now?

Oscar still writes the best and most widely-read Vintage articles around.

When I think about good type 1 writers, names like Stephen Menendian, Phillip Stanton, and JP Meyer.  Always writing about relevant issues and current deck archetypes.

Rakso normally comes across as either talking about something that doesn't really matter, or is blatantly obvious.

[Ric_Flair]

First of all, let me say that I appreciated Rakso's old stuff.  I am a fan, if for no other reason than the trip to nostalgia land that he provides.  But Rakso has not made a solid game play, theory, policy, or community contribution to Vintage in at least a year.  So what he has a column.  He gets PAID to write it.  That is not as big a contribution as what Steve has done, which is UNPAID.  His theory is antideluvian at best and the policies he advocates are just recapitulation of gossip from his Pro Tour and famous deckbuilding friends.  Finally, the game play stuff he advocates is literally MONTHS behind any significant innovation.  In all of these areas Steve has made as important or MORE important contributions.  Let's not split the vote here.  Steve has done far more recently than Rakso (ever) has.  We are, after all, writing this on Steve's site.  Smennen has made more contributions than Rakso and I still think Z is more deserving.  If Z doesn't go then I think Smennen or JP is a good second.  Rakso is WAY DOWN ON THE LIST.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Man, rakso got me into Type One, but that doesn't change facts. I endorse Ric_Flair's post.

I often wonder how he's become a "Vintage Adept."

I believe all the Paragons were, at least on the old TMD.

[wuaffiliate]

Out of all the Vintage Adepts, Rakso has the most recognition and legitimacy. Rakso has already won the Writer's War (ahead of writers like Zvi, Wise etc) and regularly corresponds with Budde and other Magic Juggernauts. Oscar still writes the best and most widely-read Vintage articles around.

crock of shit. rakso is the pity friend of t1.

[walkingdude]

More importantly, Rakso probably won’t win very many matches, he’s a cool guy, but what the scene like where he lives? How many high stakes games does he play?
A lot of the type 1 players active now are solid players who, if they put in the effort, probably could do fairly well in the invitational. The pros are good, but so are the best type 1 people. Granted, the pros are more good than the best type one people are, that’s why the pros are pros after all. But the gap is probably not so large that luck couldn’t make up for some of it.
With rakso, I think the gap might be large enough that even with luck he’d still get rolled. I’m not saying Zherbus or Carl would win (though it would be awesome if one of them did), but if he could finish low middle that would be massively better than dead last and would bring the format some respect instead of mockery.