Cathy (Catherine) Nicoloff is a former professional Magic player, deck designer, member of Team Legion, and writer for sites such as The Dojo and StarCityGames, as well as the creator and webmaster of Meridian Magic, one of the earliest portal/content aggregator sites for the game.
As a player[ | ]
Cathy's first notable tournament win was at the four-slot last chance Pro Tour Qualifier held in Dallas, Texas on November 16, 1996, which was the weekend before Pro Tour Dallas. She played black/white Infernal Darkness, based on a deck that Mario Robaina had been using with great success in Los Angeles, which was itself a derivative of the black/white Necropotence deck that Brian Weissman and Matt Place had played in Pro Tour Columbus.[1][2]
Cathy had just three days to build and playtest a deck for Pro Tour Dallas. She did very poorly at the Pro Tour (but did place above Tommi Hovi).[3]
As a deck designer[ | ]
| Tournament | Format | Deck | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| PT Paris 1997 | Mirage/Visions Constructed | Black/Red | Both Brian Weissman and Matt Place took this deck to Pro Tour Paris in 1997. Weissman placed in the top 16 (11th) [4]. |
| US Regionals 1997 | Standard (Type II) | Five Color Green (5CG)[5] | Cathy played 5CG to victory in the 1997 Florida Regional Championships, with all three 5CG decks in the tournament making the top 8. Created as part of a collaboration with Matt Place, with extensive input by Dan Burdick and Nate Clarke, 5CG was called a "near perfect metagame deck" by Tom Guevin [6]. 5CG made up just 7% of the field during the US Regional Championships that year, but 62% of those who played it qualified for US Nationals.[7] |
| US Nationals 1997 | Standard (Type II) | Turbo Abeyance[8] | A collaboration between Cathy and Brian Weissman. This deck is sometimes erroneously attributed to Andrew Pacifico[9]. It was played by Brian and his friend Chris Pantages. Both ended with a 4-1-1 record for the Standard portion of the tournament. |
| US Nationals 1998 | Standard (Type II) | The Deck T2[10] | A Standard version of The Deck developed by Cathy and Brian Weissman. Originally based on a deck played by Kimmo Hovi, elder brother of Tommi Hovi. Also known as The Control Freak. |
| World Championships 1998 | Rath Cycle Constructed | 5 Color Anarchy[11] | A collaborative deck created by Team Legion. Brian Weissman played it to a 5-1-1 finish, earning the deck a place in the Rath Cycle Top 8. |
| PT Rome 1998 | Extended | MoM Stasis[12] | A collaborative deck created by Team Legion. |
As webmaster of classicdojo.org[ | ]
In 2020, two posts on Reddit revealed that Cathy has been the secret webmaster of classicdojo.org, a nearly complete archive of the original pre-Psylum Magic Dojo, since 2002.[13] [14] She also stated that the site had been created using a backup personally given to her by Frank Kusumoto.
Personal Life[ | ]
In Cathy's two posts on Reddit, mentioned above, she also revealed that she was now in a physics Ph.D. program. A search for 'Catherine Nicoloff' on ResearchGate turns up a profile with over a dozen peer-reviewed physics publications since 2015.[15]
Notes[ | ]
- ↑ A Magic Career by Cathy Nicoloff, originally published on thedojo.com: https://web.archive.org/web/20010309034121/http://www.thedojo.com/column2/col.991008cni.shtml
- ↑ Tournament report by Lawrence Chancy from classicdojo.org: https://classicdojo.org/tourney96/ptq.961118pga.txt
- ↑ Pro Tour Dallas Day 2 Results from wizards.com: http://www.wizards.com/ProTour/PTDallas/Dallas_Day2.html
- ↑ Pro Tour Paris 1997 Final Standings: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptpar97
- ↑ Cathy's 5CG tournament report from 1997 (with additional commentary by Eric Taylor and Erik Lauer) at classicdojo.org: http://classicdojo.org/history/5CG_01.html
- ↑ Tom Guevin, 1997: The Magic Year in Review (long!): https://classicdojo.org/bou97/bou.971231tgu.txt
- ↑ Analysis by Frank Kusumoto of The Dojo, originally posted on rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy/8WKnVWq3n_c
- ↑ Turbo Abeyance deck list and Brian's commentary from the Team Legion website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010303060502/http://legion.ccgnews.com/decks/turbo_abeyance.shtml
- ↑ Nate Clarke admonishing Pacifico for taking credit on rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy/c/Gu_GzfeaxGI/m/fRX-JoKhX-sJ
- ↑ The Deck T2 deck list and Cathy's commentary from the Team Legion website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010303005758/http://legion.ccgnews.com/decks/control_freak.shtml
- ↑ 5 Color Anarchy deck list and Cathy's commentary from the Team Legion website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010302022412/http://legion.ccgnews.com/decks/5canarchy.shtml
- ↑ MoM Stasis deck list and Cathy's commentary from the Team Legion website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010303005900/http://legion.ccgnews.com/decks/momstasis.shtml
- ↑ "classicdojo.org missing, my apologies": https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/gvd80d/classicdojoorg_missing_my_apologies/
- ↑ "classicdojo.org returns": https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/gwjh58/classicdojoorg_returns/
- ↑ Catherine Nicoloff, Michigan State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Catherine-Nicoloff