Mana Sculpting

Mana Sculpting

Mana Sculpting is a community of players from the Midwest region devoted to improving the level of competitive magic at the limited and standard constructed level.  Our team, authors, and podcasters are commited to sharing their love of the game with its fans and this website serves as a gathering place for players of all skill levels to read about the latest decklists, drafting strategies, and major news in the MTG universe.  

Lake Geneva Games

Mana Sculpting is commited to building the player base and we believe the Gathering aspect of MTG to be the most important element.  We started playing the game due to the community it creates, because of this we are avid fans of local game stores and we are proud to make our home at Lake Geneva Games.  Lake Geneva Games is commited to offering gamers of all levels a fantastic experience and they play host to 3-4 MTG events a week.  They have an amazing selection of boosters, singles, card boxes, sleeves, dice, and even some of those other games that people far geekier than MTG players tend to enjoy...so please if you are in area stop by and say hello.

www.lakegenevagames.com

Trevor Isham

Founder, Author, Podcast Host, Team Member

At my first tournament ever at 12 years old I played a pre-constructed Urza's block faeries deck and ended up getting blown out by a card I read about five times because it seemed to break every rule I thought I knew about MTG in my one week of experience. (The card was Lifeline, years later I tracked it down and keep it next to me at all times for sentimental reasons.) My early experience really never progressed beyond the kitchen table and my little cohort and I had no idea what standard was we just bought whatever packs we could find and made whatever decks seemed awesome.  High school came and I put the cards down for a while. After college I moved to the Windy City and needed a winter hobby and wanted to meet some new friends, I walked into my local game store to see if MTG was still around watched some guys play standard, saw a Jace, The Mind Sculptor get cast and was hooked.

For the last year I have played a lot of MTG. I discovered I love UW control with reckless abandon, my favorite archetype is draft, and that nothing is more satisfying than watching a new player discover something new and exciting about the game. For all these reasons I started this website and podcast.  I wanted a place to share my random musings, next level ideas, and decklists with my friends and the MTG community at large. I also wanted to promote the Gathering aspect of MTG as I feel it is criminally underappreciated. I hope you enjoy reading and listening to everything on the site as much as I have enjoyed making it.  Cheers!

Wally Bullard

Podcast Host, Author, Team Member

My first Magic deck was "The Spikes" precon from Stronghold.  I played during lunch while in middle school.  I picked up other CCG that my younger brothers were interested in.  I didn't pick up magic again until Lowryn block.  Even then it was still just casual.  My first DCI event was the Rise of the Eldrazi Release.  I was instantly hooked.  I started with Red Deck Wins as lots of players do.  I've developed an enjoyment of building and brewing new decks too.  I have gone from playing red to ramp to control. 

 I'm excited to have a place to share my thoughts about Magic, be it decks or just evaluating cards.  

John Sykora

Author, IT Guru, Team Member

I am a relative newcomer to the game, I started playing during Scars. While I don't have many wins under my belt, I enjoy playing the game, coming up with deck ideas, and I always am willing to learn new techniques, play habits, rules etc. I enjoy all formats of play, draft weekly, play standard casually and in store tournaments, and recently have been enjoying EDH. As a new player, with a shallow card pool, the pre-built Commander sets were awesome, although the decks I bought have already been heavily modified.

I've learned how to program web applications using Django/python. I'm excited to be the developer and webmaster for this site. I'm hoping to add a lot of cool features, but for now we're starting of slowly. Thanks for visiting!