About Cranial Insertion

A Long Time Ago...

Cranial Insertion is the longest-running rules column for Magic: The Gathering, published every Monday since late March 2005. It's featured a team of rotating writers over the many years and a variety of translations into ten foreign languages and counting.

The column's goal has been to educate the readers on Magic - primarily in the game rules that apply to everyone, from the most casual kitchen-table players to the pros on the Pro Tour circuit, but also in tournament rules and policy. In an attempt to make this education more memorable, its style has been to use humor where reasonable (and sometimes where not).

In March of 2012, Cranial Insertion moved to its own site, and here you are now!

The Writers:

Eli Shiffrin has been around since the very beginning. He started off as a Level 1 judge, and is currently L3. Based out of Tucson, Arizona, if someone's complaining about it being too hot, that's probably Eli.

Carsten Haese is Level 2 judge from Toledo, Ohio, and flits around the Midwest as his job and family allow.

James Bennett is a Level 2 judge from Kansas who does a whole lot of programming stuff and travels more than most would think sensible.

Honorary mention goes to Thijs van Ommen, Eli's original partner in crime in creating Cranial Insertion - a brilliant rules-master from the Netherlands who proves that you don't need to be a judge to understand the game better than most. He's moved on to bigger and better things since.

Former (Regular) Writers:

* Brian Paskoff

* Aaron Stevenson

* Diane Colley

* Ted Dickinson

* Tom Fowler