Welcome to day four of the Hipsters of the Coast 4th Anniversary Celebration Countdown! All week we’ll be counting down the top 25 articles of all time on Hipsters of the Coast. We’ll include some updated commentary where we can so you can relive all of the excitement of the past four years in the Magic community. If you haven’t checked out Chief Hipster Rich Stein’s welcome article for Anniversary Week, make sure you check it out first.
Each day we’ll also highlight more great content. First, prior to the countdown, will be an honorable-mention article. This list was primarily compiled by page views but some of the earliest articles from the site’s history did not have the benefit of the audience size we currently hold. These are still incredibly important articles for Hipsters of the Coast’s history and we want to highlight them. After each day’s countdown checkout a bonus Top 10 countdown list, sans commentary.
Today, Hunter “Rolex” Slaton reflects on his time as Editor-in-Chief and Hipster’s place in the Magic community:
I was Hipsters’ Editor-in-Chief from the early days up until last summer, when I decided to step back in order to spend more time focusing on my career, which is also in the writing game. When I was doing Hipsters, it was so fun. It felt like a club, but not one that was just for us — it was a Magic club for anyone who was, or wanted to be (or wasn’t at all!) a cool kid. (I mean, we’re all playing Magic, how cool can we be.) That’s why we loved and stuck with the name that Zac Clark came up with, Hipsters of the Coast—because it was simultaneously a fun, funny name, and also a thumb in the eye of the too-cool-for-school Magic system.
One of the best parts of working for the site was when we would go out to Grand Prix, and rep Hipsters with playmats, custom tokens, and photos. Invariably, people would recognize us: “Hey, you write for Hipsters, don’t you?” (It even happened this past weekend, at GP Louisville, which speaks to the love that a certain subset of Magic player has for our site; I haven’t written for the site in more than a year.)
But it wasn’t the being-recognized that was the best part—it was what those people inevitably said after, which was that they dug us for being “a Magic lifestyle site,” or some such. As a person who has worked for publications for basically his whole career, there is nothing better than when readers “get” exactly what you and your colleagues have been going for. And in this case everyone got it. From Matt’s “Blur of” articles, to Derek’s flavor-text cut-ups, to the social-justice issues that Rich, Jess, and many others addressed on a weekly basis, we tried to go beyond the moribund decklist + analysis rut that so many other Magic sites fall into. We tried to have fun and make a difference, because—at its best—this game and community are very fun and meaningful, and we wanted to champion that. Kudos to the Hipsters crew for making it to four years! Here’s to four weird more.
Day 4 Honorable Mention: Jesper Myfors Interview by Matt Jones
Commentary by David McCoy
Matt’s Arting Around articles are some of the most unique Magic content we publish on Hipsters. Despite the fact that card art is omnipresent and a major part of the Magic’s success, the artists and their art are a criminally undercovered part of the game. Matt always brought his own perspective as an artist to his coverage of Magic art and even goes full fan boy in this amazing interview with Jesper Myfors.
#10 – Magic Offline by Rich Stein
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a few years since Magic Online was crashing constantly and had to be taken completely offline. Now we have leagues, and cubes, and tournaments that fire consistently! The community outrage in the wake of Brian Kibler’s blog post about the absurdity of Magic Online has led to Wizards taking their product seriously for the first time in what seems like forever. No offense to the folks who ran MTGO in the past, but there’s a real sense that things are very different nowadays.
#9 – The Blur of Eldritch Moon by Matt Jones
I already said a lot of nice things about Matt Jones above, so now just look at some of the amazing visuals he’s come up with for the Magic community with the help of his vast creative ingenuity.
#8 – On the Events of #SCGPHILLY by Stefano Black
For a very long time we went back and forth on the merits of having commentary on MTG Finance. I didn’t think it had a place at Hipsters of the Coast because there are plenty of places like MTGPrice and Quiet Speculation that have that topic all covered. But then I met Stefano and realized there are massive amounts of uncharted territories in the realm of MTG Finance content. Unfortunately, due to real life commitments, Stefano was only able to write a small collection of columns for us, but as far as I know they remain a unique body of work that no other finance site covers. This particular piece isn’t exactly about finance but about Stefano’s personal experiences at an SCG event.
#7 – Modern Hero: Prologue by Rich Stein
I’m very proud of the entire Modern Hero series and if I could bring it back tomorrow I would. I assure you we’re working on the time and resources to bring it back as a full-time weekly feature. In the meantime, check out the prologue and read all about how I bought a Modern Event Deck, played it every week at my LGS, and then took it to a Grand Prix (and didn’t do too bad I might add).
#6 – Convicted Sex Offender Wins Pro Tour by Rich Stein
I believe we’ve already said everything we have to say on this topic, but it’s worth noting that Wizards of the Coast have since become incredibly supportive voices in the Magic community towards the goal of making sure tournament spaces are safe spaces.
Bonus Countdown: Top 10 Commentary Articles
- The Imagined Magic Hygeine Problem by Shawn Massak
- On the Events of #SCGPHILLY by Stefano Black
- Magic Offline by Rich Stein
- ILLUSORY GAINS: On Speculation by Stefano Black
- M14’s Sexy Shirtless Guy’s Card Quest by Clayton Adams
- The Travis Woo Interview by Rich Stein
- Top 100 Pro Magic Players by Rich Stein
- On Banning Top by Kate Donnelly
- Pauper Tireless Tribe Combo by Lexie Mettler
- The DCI vs Sportsmanship by Gabe Carleton-Barnes