Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by PureMTGO.com today!  It felt like it was time to update the sites Writer's Guide, and it could not come at a better time!  Soon, we will be rolling out the ability to add hover cards (as you may have noticed in a few test articles on the site already) and the ability to download decks!  I also wanted to add updated contact information for the site and the Article Submission guidelines as well. 

Hover card tool

Let's go ahead and talk about the big thing, hover cards!  A hover card happens whenever someone hovers over a linked card name and an image pops up of the card.  We can see those popup cards here with a few examples: Price of Progress, Price of Glory, Steady Progress.  That's pretty cool right?  It is, and it is nice to finally add this much requested feature to the site!  

How do we get the hover cards to work?  A writer for the site, Xger, has put in a lot of work and effort to create a tool for me to use in order to add hover cards to articles.  We are very appreciative of the work that went in to create this tool! 

There is a small change to how card tagging works now, and this is going to allow you, the writer, to show off as much personality and flare as possible in your pieces.  Xger's tool does work with the old way, so if you want to use (cardname), that is wonderful and fine, and cards will hover regardless.  If you want to add some flare to your articles, you are going to have to be a little more specific.  How do you add that personal touch to the article?  You use a tag that looks like this: (Cardname:Set Identifier).  It's a little bit more work, but it's worth it to see the creativity and favorite arts be shown off in your piece.  To use a real card as an example, (Counterspell : EMA) without the spaces of course, will bring up a hover image of Counterspell from Eternal Masters!  Want to tag Rancor but with the Urza's Legacy art?  Simple!  It's just (Rancor : UL) (again without the spaces!) How about using a Promo version of Mother of Runes?  Again, super simple!  (Mother of Runes : PRM).  The possibilities for customization are endless!  Unless the card only has one version on MTGO, then it's not, but still endless!  

If you need to find the set identifier for a card just point your browser to MTGOTraders.com.  Type in the card that you are looking for and when the search results pull from the site, the set identifier is the code underneath the set heading.  For something like Skyreach Manta you would see that the set identifier is either 5DN, MMA, or MM2. 

To recap:  To add hover images in your article, please tag your card in the old fashioned way (Cardname) or if you want to select your personal favorite arts, you can tag the card like this (Cardname:Set Identifier).  You do not have to tag basic lands, as it is assumed that everyone knows what those cards are.  You also do not have to tag every mention of the card.  Say you're writing about a Commander deck, you would not have to tag your Commander each time, but the first time you mention it tagging it would be best! 

This change does not matter in regards to freestanding images in the article.  (pic=cardname) and (tmb=cardname) will continue to do what they have done in the past. 

What is the next change that is happening to the site? 

Decklist Tool

After hover cards we wanted the ability to have a deck editor that allowed us to have a download feature as well.  Xger again stepped up to the plate and knocked a homerun for us!  Another tool was created for me to use to give us a nice looking decklist feature that not only captures the spirit of the old decklist generator, but also gives us the functionality to add download links as well! 

How do you take advantage of that? 

Easy!  When you submit your article please submit it in this format.

Decklist Title
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Experiment One
2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Kird Ape
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Pendelhaven
4 Atarka's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
Sideboard
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Dismember
2 Rending Volley
3 Molten Rain

Notice how the decklist is sorted by Creatures, Lands and Spells. 

I will then take this decklist, upload it to MTGOTraders.com and their deck section (or you can do that yourself), and run the decklist through the tool that Xger created for us and the decklist will end up looking like this!  It has download links!  How cool is that!  

Green Red Aggro Download .txt version!Download .dek version!

- 71 Cards Total

1 4 Experiment One 4 Goblin Guide 2 Grim Lavamancer 4 Kird Ape 4 Wild Nacatl 18 cards 2 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Strangleroot Geist 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Atarka's Command 16 cards

4 2 Ghor-Clan Rampager 2 cards

Land 2 Dryad Arbor 1 Forest 1 Mountain 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Stomping Ground 1 Temple Garden 3 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wooded Foothills 1 Pendelhaven 20 cards Sideboard 2 Scavenging Ooze 2 Choke 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Destructive Revelry 2 Dismember 2 Rending Volley 3 Molten Rain 15 cards

Why do we need to upload the deck to MTGOTraders.com?  That gives us the deck number, which I need in order to generate the code to make the download links.  If you upload the deck yourself, please make sure you note the deck number like this. 

{Deck Number 120} 

Those brackets will let me know that you added the deck and all I have to do is add that number to our new tool! 

If you have a specific background color that you would like us to use in the deckbuilder, please make mention of the RGB code in the same way as the deck number.  You can use this site as a reference point for RGB codes.

{RBG Code 51,51,255} 

Contact information

The easiest way to get ahold of me is to email puremtgoeditor@gmail.com.  I keep the email inbox open from 6am to 2pm, which is typically when I am working on the day's updates, polishing them and getting them ready for publication.  Another way to get ahold of us is to send us a direct message on Twitter!  Our account is @Puremtgodotcom.  That account is checked multiple times a day.  We are also on Reddit, our user name there is puremtgo.   You can of course also feel free to message me on MTGO. My account is JXClaytor!  Finally we are on Facebook as well, just search for Puremtgo.com!

Article Guidelines. 

A lot has changed since I last wrote the article guidelines for the site.  Premier events still existed, video coverage was not really a thing yet, and streaming was for sure not a thing!  Pro Tour Qualifiers were not even on MTGO yet!  As we have grown and taken advantage of video and podcasting possibilities, we still exist to deliver the best in MTGO articles.  Here is what you need to know if you want to write for PureMTGO.com! 

PureMtgo.com is a community driven website.  As you can see in the archives we have covered a large variety of subjects.  We have stuff for hardcore tournament players, and we have stuff for the hardcore casual players.  You could think of us as a one stop spot for all things MTGO! 

We have a very unique user interface for writing articles as well, consider yourself to be an editor as well as a writer.  You can add your own images, your own tables, and your own hyperlinks in a very easy manner in our word pad.  You can check out a slightly dated video of how to write for us here.

Now that you have made yourself a little bit more familiar with the program, you have decided that you want to write for us.  I think that is a fantastic choice!  You should write about what you know, I mean, if you are an expert in Pauper formats, it does not really make much sense to have you writing about the hottest Vintage deck right?  Likewise, if you consider yourself to be a serious player, does it make much sense to write about casual formats?  No, of course not!  Stick to your strengths!  Of course you cannot just write anything and expect it to get published, so here are some guidelines for what we expect here at PureMtgo! 

1.  We only accept exclusive content.  If you have sent it an article to another site that has been published, please to do not submit it for consideration here.  We want the best you could offer, not a rerun from another site!  This of course does not include YouTube videos.  You do have to publish the videos after all!  

2.  We ask for content that is related to Magic: the Gathering Online.  We are a community based website that uses this program a lot.  While it is great to hear about your placement in the latest Grand Prix and we will make exceptions for those, we really want to hear about the Set Championship or MOCS that you took down with your sweet deck! 

3.  Articles that clock in at less than five hundred words are not normally going to get published.  Short articles do not typically get your ideas across, and leave a lot of hanging threads, some loose ends if you would.  I recommend keeping your article length in between 1200 and 1700 words.  That is typically three to five pages long, and the word count really allows you to flesh out your ideas. With well-done videos the word count can be lower in those cases.  

4.  Keep your game related slang to a minimum.  We all started off as "Noobs" and some of us out here in the cyber world consider that to be an insulting word.  Also, some people recognize (Giant Solifuge:EMA) as Cap'n Tickles, but some of us do not, when you reference a Magic card, just stick with the name.  It will save you a lot of time in the comments section!  Also please do not use shorthand, abbreviations or emotes.  

5.  For draft recaps please use the tools available at zizibaloob.  You can find that tool here. 

6.  When adding YouTube videos or Twitch streams, please use the embed code.  Also please remember that we are a family friendly site and language should be clean!  

That is not so bad correct?  In fact you've already written and submitted your first article to the site, now what happens? 

Well one of two things will happen, the first and most obvious path that your article takes is I will edit it further (do more spell checking, grammar checking, and formatting of tables.)  If it's good, it's going to get published, and you're going to get paid. 

However, if the article seems to be lacking something, maybe it's too short, or maybe you have gotten two and too confused with to, at that point, I am going to leave you a message with some feedback, so you can fix the article and resubmit it.  Do not be afraid if I reject your article.  Some of our current writers have had some articles rejected, and often times they come back, rework it a bit, and make that piece shine! 

You may be asking yourself now, what is going to get me rejected? 

What steps can you take in order to keep from being rejected? 

1.  Say something interesting.  We all know why the most recent Pro Tour winning deck is one to watch out for, but why?  Is it because of some card choices, or maybe there are some suggestions that you would like to see implemented.  If you're doing a tournament report make sure you grab some screen shots to show your deck in action, or maybe add a video replay of a few games of your hot new tech in action!  Stand out from the crowd and you have a better chance of making better money! 

2.  Playtest your deck.  I'm not going to publish something that says "Man, my deck is great!  It has ninety percent match ups across the metagame!"  Well, I might publish that, and I will if you can write why your deck has a great match against the top five decks in the meta game.  If there are bad matchups, be sure you can show why that match up is bad for your deck.  Rogue deck lists are great, but they are not going to be published based on that alone.  Give us some reasons the cards you are playing with are in your sixty, and why some cards are not in the main.  Be detailed! 

If your find your article hit with a Disapproved Reason, do not fret!  That is just a way for an editor to reach out to you and explain why exactly the article has not been published yet.  These messages are going to be sent in a friendly manner, so do not be afraid that one of us is going to come up to you and slam what you have to say, it's very important that you use your voice to your best manner!  The long and short of it is, if you send in something that everyone else has covered in a manner like everyone else, it most likely will not get published.  If you try to pass off anything unproven because of a lack of research or playtesting, it will also get rejected.  You have to sell your articles to us!     

So this has been a small overview of the writing guidelines for puremtgo.com.  What are you waiting for?  Write for us, and get paid!

Set Identifiers Table

Card Tagging Commands

Generic Card Tagging:  (cardname)
Specific Card Tagging:  (cardname:set identifier)
Card Picture:  (pic=cardname)
Card Thumbnail (tmb=cardname)