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You people are extrapolating to a huge degree. Many people like to do their testing with physical cards. You really don't have to fire up magic online to test you know, some people have friends with which to play they game.

It's very strange that nobody noticed that he played an illegal card while testing, but to err is human.

It's very hard to believe that neither of the people he played against remembered that ponder was banned. And another gripe, why only one game against Tron? Was the opponent too embarassed to continue?

Good grief this comment thread is sad.

There's no way Jacob has falsified testing for this or any other article. Indeed, I can't help suspecting that it's the need to carry out tests every week that means he sometimes ends up playing paper games against non-expert opponents instead of building the deck on MtGO and giving it a ten match workout.

Missing Ponder's illegality is an easy mistake to make for any player who doesn't play Modern much since it's legal in Standard. Is that really worth an entire thread full of badly articulated hate?

Can we now please wish Jacob well in his future endeavors and brink back the magic online focused, multiple weeks per deck column? His effort to build bad tournament decks are just embarrassing by now.

There are times that is possible to build budget decks that can beat your local sanctioned metagame. But they are the exception, no the rule. This guy has to come week after week with new tournament "worthy" decks, with no real time to test(testing online is just faster).

If ate least posted the FNM that he goes with this decks, it would be more believable. But it's just sad.

I like JVl.  But recently, I find his articles a bit lacking.  In fact, perhaps as recent as the start of the year.  Writing for the mothership is supposed to be the pinnacle of a Magic-related field.  It should not be lacking in professionalism as such.  So how could such a problem arise?

This raises a few questions.

Is JVL doing any legitimate research?

If so, did he use Gatherer to conduct his research?

Are there any checks on the writer to maintain professionalism?

Are the articles ever vetted seriously?

I do feel that physical games are more engaging than online, but surely someone could call out on ponder being a banned card in modern.  If no one does, he/she has been clearly out of the magic scene/hasn't been reading/JVL could have cooked up some games of his own.

I understand that coming up with competitive decks every week is a huge task.  But one thing that the higher powers above never realized is that budget decks does not mean competitive decks, vice versa.  It will never be, because Modern and Standard Magic is based on a hierarchy.  It's high society.  The most expensive decks wins the most games, and is clearly the most successful.

Building on a Budget, as a weekly theme, is a dead man walking.  Chucking JVL away isn't the end all, be all.  But it is clear that he is at wits' end. you can't be budget and win the majority of the games.  Having fun is one thing, and winning games play a majority part of having fun.

And Trick is right.  This cannot happen again.  There are many extremely good writers out there dying to write for the mothership.  Give Gavin Verhay a chance.  Keep people like Noel, Adam, Maro, and Zac.  These people are dynamic, they keep reinventing themselves so they don't stay stale.  The rest have to be re-evaluated.