The Duelist

The Duelist was a magazine published by Wizards of the Coast from 1994 to September 1999 for 41 issues. Originally it was a quarterly magazine but later it switched to bi-monthly, and then to monthly. The Duelist Online was introduced in May 1999. The magazine and the site can be considered the analog and digital precursors of magicthegathering.com.

Editorial staff

 * Publisher: Wendy Noritake
 * Editor-in-Chief: Kathryn Haines (1993-1996), Paul Hughes (1996); Mark Rosewater (1997-1999); Will McDermott (1999)
 * Assistant Editor-in-Chief: Robert Hahn (1998)
 * Managing Editor: Terry Melia (1996-1997), Scott McGough (1998-)
 * Senior Editors: Paul Hughes (1993-1996), Jeff J. Lin (1994-1996), Melody Alder (1996-1997), Will McDermott (1997-1999)
 * Associate Editors: Allen Varney (1994), Michael G. Ryan (1994-1995), Jenny Scott (1996-1997), Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes (1997), Cory Herndon (1998-1999), Michael Mikaelian (1999)
 * Art Director: Amy Weber (1993-1996), Shauna Wolf Narciso (1996-1997)
 * Style Editor: Robert Dalton (1997-1998), Blaise Selby (1998-1999)

Contents
The Duelist brought the latest news on Magic and other trading card games, puzzles, event coverage, design articles, a deck-construction column called "Excuse Me, Mr. Suitcase?", fiction, product checklists, rules questions and a column by Richard Garfield ("Lost in the Shuffle" ). Early issues featured a key artist who created a unique cover (often based on an existing card) and whose art was showcased inside the issue. In addition to all that "important" stuff, there were various articles and regular features showing off the lighter side of Magic. One enduring feature was "Extra Pulled", featuring "rejected" Magic cards allegedly pulled from sets in development. Phil Foglio and his wife Kaja resurrected Phil's former Dragon strip "What's New?", which ran for almost the entire life of the magazine.

As Magic grew, a companion newsletter (The Duelist Companion), which was the Official Newsletter of the Duelists' Convocation / DCI, was sent out to The Duelist subscribers in between magazine releases. The Duelist Companion was published from May 1994 till March 1996 (19 issues). Eventually it was dropped in favor of bimonthly magazine circulation, and still later a monthly magazine. The magazine lost focus on Magic as it put more emphasis on other trading card games; with Pokémon's immediate North American success, The Duelist was converted into a dual-format publication, with general separate sections for Magic and Pokémon. By this time, it also had expanded to covering video games and other stuff.

A companion magazine, The Duelist Sideboard was launched in July 1996 and focused on Magic tournament play. The Duelist Online website, launched in May 1999, was designed for breaking news. It featured articles from recent issues the Sideboard and also exclusive content.

TopDeck
Duelist was replaced by the magazine TopDeck which continued many of its features while broadening the focus even more to non-Magic games. This magazine lasted for fifteen issues until it was cancelled in February, 2001.