Plus ca change...

I'm sure that I'm not alone in this, but does it seem like the same issues get rehashed on Magic sites time and again? TMD is far better than most, but even here there are still people who contribute to discussions in the vein of "I thought of that 2 weeks ago." What purpose does that serve?

First, it's essentially impossible to verify any of these claims. The internet has been great/terrible for intellectual property rights and this hardly qualifies for that.

Second, it is possible that two different people out of the 6 billion + out there had the same idea at roughly the same time. You're smart. Feel good about that. But you're not the only one.

Finally, what does it do to elevate the debate/discussion? I don't give a rat's ass who thought of adding Stifle to blue-based control. I do care about how many I should play in my meta and how to get the most out of the card.

You can have a great discussion over whether to include card X in a deck, but it can degenerate if everyone agrees card X is good but bicker over who figured that out. (My favorite TMD pet peeve: fighting over MUD, wMUD, Stax, etc. decknames--yes, different decks but c'mon).

I understand that if you're recognized as coming up with cutting edge tech, more people will listen to future advice but I'm smart enough to identify those people all on my own and I don't think I'm alone in that.