It was episode 250 that I announced Michael Hinderaker and Matt Kling would be leaving Constructed Criticism. I couldn’t announce then that Michael was taking a job at Wizards of the Coast and Matt Kling was thinking of quitting Magic, but knew things were changing and didn’t really know how long those changes would last.
I had brought Matt onto the show to replace Michael one day and it was sad to have Matt not work out at that time. Michael and Matt were amazing to work with and I still miss them all the time on the show.
It was that same day that I announced Gold Pro Jon Stern and Hall of Fame Elect Seth Manfield would be joining the show. Jon and Seth were excited to do the show and I was excited to have them. It is today that I announce they are leaving the show for some outside reasons.
Jon was giving Magic one more go as he had heavily considered quitting before agreeing to do the podcast. I knew going into this that I might not have Jon for very long as he was pretty down on Magic but I was hoping he would have a great year and enjoy doing the show enough to stick around.
Jon has decided that it isn’t best for him to be on a podcast with how he is feeling about the competitive landscape and where his focuses are. The idea of keeping up with the Constructed formats all while doing a show about helping people improve at the game just isn’t something Jon feels like he can give his all too right now and I completely understand.
I’ve always said with all my cohosts that it is important to love the work that comes with #AlwaysImproving. Jon has been amazing to have on the show and I wish him nothing but the best. I believe he will be great at whatever he ends up doing in life even if it isn’t magic related.
Seth joined the show at the request of Jon and I am happy he did. Seth has given great feedback for the show and has also made listeners and myself about Magic in whole new ways. When Seth agreed to join the show he didn’t yet have any knowledge of the MPL and what that would involve as far as time. With the MPL changing and more things coming onto Seth’s plate from it he wants to focus his efforts on that, and I completely support him on that.
It would be hard for Seth to give the attention to the podcast that I expect while juggling all the other things he is doing and I have become a big fan of Seth’s and just want to watch him succeed. He will always be a part of the Constructed Criticism Family.
I want to say thank you to Jon and Seth. Their time meant a lot to me and to our listeners. They each brought things to the table I don’t know that could have been brought by anyone else.
So thank you. I’ll be a fan forever.
For those wondering the show will not end. I am deciding on who will replace Jon and Seth and I have narrowed it down to a few people all of whom I believe can really help the listeners be #AlwaysImproving and can offer a lot to the show.
I will be announcing that person or people this week and am excited about the future of the show. There are some amazing changes for the listeners and supporters of the show incoming and I can’t wait to share.
Thanks so much for all of the support and thanks again to Seth and Jon.
I look forward to watching each of them succeed in their lives.
Spencer Howland
Constructed Criticism