MTG Salvation
| MTG Salvation | |
|---|---|
 Logo as of February 2017 | |
| Type of site | Spoilers and forums |
| Website | http://www.mtgsalvation.com |
| Registration | Required to post |
| Launched | July 11, 2004 |
MTG Salvation (MTGS) is a community website dedicated to Magic: The Gathering. It hosts forums, spoilers, articles, and a deck sharing tool. The MTG Salvation forums are some of the oldest remaining traditional forums on the internet, and have outlived several competitors, as well as the official forums on Magicthegathering.com.
History
MTG Salvation was founded by Xenphire, a user who received a ban from MTGNews, a major community website in the early 2000s. He launched MTG Salvation on July 11, 2004, and rapidly drew in other members of the MTGNews community, including administrators and staff members with grievances against that website's ownership. After a wave of high-profile departures on January 1, 2005, MTGNews locked its own forums and began banning users who mentioned MTG Salvation, which instead accelerated the exodus. One user, Sakabatou, was named as MTG Salvation's second administrator. A prominent source of spoilers and leaks, rancored_elf, also joined MTG Salvation during this period.
MTG Salvation added new functionality throughout 2005. Near the end of the year, MTG Salvation began selling advertising space to StarCityGames.
Wiki
In December 2005, MTG Salvation added a wiki. The wiki followed MTG Salvation through several changes of ownership, and in the process became a part of the Gamepedia and Fandom networks. As of 2025, the MTG Wiki is hosted by Scryfall and is no longer associated with any of those entities.
Hasbro vs. Rutter
In 2006, Wizards of the Coast filed a lawsuit against Daron Rutter, known on MTG Salvation as rancored_elf, in response to leaks of unreleased product information. Simultaneously, Wizards submitted a DMCA claim to remove those materials from the MTG Salvation forums. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
Changes of ownership
Magiccards.info
In early 2005, MTG Salvation accepted an offer of hosting and a vBulletin license from Hannes, the owner of MagicCards.info. Shortly afterwards, Xenphire began to make decisions which were controversial among the staff and members. An election among the moderators yielded zero votes in favor of his leadership, and he retaliated by demoting many of the moderators and an administrator, Wolfwood. Sakabatou, the only other remaining administrator, then stripped Xenphire's administrator rank, and re-promoted the moderators. Following Xenphire's demotion, ownership of MTG Salvation was transferred to Hannes.
Curse
In September 2012, it became known that the owners of MTG Salvation were in sale negotiations with Curse, a network of gaming websites. The deal was finalized on December 17, 2012.[1] The MTG Salvation Wiki became a part of Curse's Gamepedia network.
Twitch
In 2016, Amazon-owned Twitch purchased the entirety of Curse, including MTG Salvation and Gamepedia.[2] In 2017, the MTG Salvation Wiki was rebranded as the MTG Wiki, but remained part of the Gamepedia network.
Fandom
In December 2018, Twitch sold most of Curse's properties, including MTG Salvation and Gamepedia, to Fandom, formerly known as Wikia.[3] Following the purchase, a separate Magic wiki hosted on the same Wikia network was closed as redundant.
Magic Find
In May 2019, MTG Salvation announced that its would be closing permanently on July 8, 2019. Fandom stated that its development team "[could] no longer justify the development, infrastructure, and maintenance costs of the site".[4] Some staff members from MTG Salvation departed to launch MTGNexus. MTG Salvation avoided closure when, in early June, Fandom accepted an offer from the Magic Find platform to purchase MTG Salvation and several other Fandom properties.[5]
Gallery
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Forum banner circa 2005 -
Forum banner circa 2007 -
Wiki logo circa 2005 -
2007 banner (hi res)
References
- ↑ MTG Salvation acquired by Curse
- ↑ Jon Martindale (August 17, 2016). "Twitch is swallowing up the entire Curse brand". Kitguru.Net.
- ↑ Damian Mason (December 13, 2018). "Twitch is selling Curse Media to Wikia’s Fandom". Kitguru.Net.
- ↑ Feyd_Ruin (May 29, 2019). "The End of an Era". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Chaud (June 13, 2019). "A New and Exciting Beginning". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
External links
- MTG Salvation
- "The 2006 Sally Nostalgia thread..." — MTG Salvation
- MTG Salvation group at Last.fm