Eli is a level 2 area trainer certified by the DCI, currently based in Tucson, Arizona and serving the entire AZ region. You can often find him at Magic Tower Games in Marana for FNM or at the state events in Phoenix, where he is bouncing around with lots of coffee and possibly an energy drink in him.

• Cranial Insertion: Statecraft (November 10th, 2008)

  Statecraft or, Bet You Didn't Realize That Was a Card By Eli Shiffrin, Diane Colley, and Brian Pask

• Cranial Insertion: Riddle of the Chimp (October 20th, 2008)

  Riddle of the Chimp or, The Answer Is Obviously "Brains" By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and

• Cranial Insertion: Going to Pieces (September 29th, 2008)

  Going to Pieces or, Mmm, Bacon Demons By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Diane Colley Kablooie! Welcom

• Cranial Insertion: The Answer, My Friends (August 25th, 2008)

  The Answer, My Friends or, Finally, No Mirrorweave Questions By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Diane

• Cranial Insertion: Snake in the Mirror (August 4th, 2008)

  Snake in the Mirror. Or, Weaveform? By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Diane Colley Fun Fact: Eli's mo

• Cranial Insertion: Fast Falls the Eventide (July 14th, 2008)

  Cranial Insertion Fast Falls the Eventide or, Moar Hybrids! By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Diane C

• Cranial Insertion: Answering Spree (June 15th, 2008)

  As always, drop us a line at cranial.insertion@gmail.com if you have any questions, from the most basic to the more arcane, from tournament policy to Unhinged.

• Cranial Insertion: Order of Operations (May 26th, 2008)

  Cranial Insertion Order of Operations or, Don't Touch the Sides By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Di

• Cranial Insertion: Flood of Questions (May 12th, 2008)

  Cranial Insertion Flood of Questions or, It's Raining Qs and As By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Te

• Cranial Insertion: A Midnight's Tale (April 20th, 2008)

  In case you can't tell, I am dreadfully delighted to get out of the Disney version of fairy tales that was Lorwyn and into the Grimm, grim, ghastly, and apparently very colorful land of things that go bump in the night.

• Cranial Insertion: Into the North (March 2nd, 2008)

  A pile of today's questions come from Grand Prix: Vancouver, and another pile comes from our cranial.

• Cranial Insertion: Wren's Run's Roads Ran Rugged (February 10th, 2008)

  Welcome back to another wonderful week of whimsical questions! We've had a grand flood of emails to the cranial.

• Cranial Insertion: Morningtide! (January 20th, 2008)

  Now that Morningtide cards are floating around like faeries who inhaled helium to sound even squeakier, the questions will surely come flooding in.

• Cranial Insertion: It's the End of the Year as We Know It (December 30th, 2007)

  Here we go again - a bright new year is upon us, one filled with four new sets of Magic and over a thousand Cranial Insertion questions.

• Cranial Insertion: We Need to Talk (December 9th, 2007)

  We're going to step aside from rules questions and the cranial.

• Cranial Insertion: Questionable Content (November 18th, 2007)

  It's time to wean ourselves off of Lorwyn and get back to our regular cornucopia of conundrums.

• Cranial Insertion: Dreadful Questions (October 28th, 2007)

  Halloween is right around the corner, and the haunt ability has just left Standard entirely.

• Cranial Insertion: Carpe Capram! (October 7th, 2007)

  All is not well in the happy, sun-drenched meadows of Lorwyn.

• Cranial Insertion: Trust Me, It's a Shortcut (September 9th, 2007)

  The new Penalty Guide includes, as sections 50 and 51, a guideline on player communication and shortcuts.

• Cranial Insertion: Time Colander (August 19th, 2007)

  And we're back from GenCon, which included the Vintage and Legacy Championship tournaments, as well as a zillion side events and a rules-nightmarish Grand Melee tournament.

• Cranial Insertion: Conspiracy to Commit Delay (August 5th, 2007)

  It's been quite the week for us here at CI.

• Cranial Insertion: Helter Skelter (July 29th, 2007)

  Hi gang! On the Tuesday immediately before US Nationals, we suddenly came to the awful realization that all four CI writers, as well as previous writers Thijs, Brian, and Jeff, are out of town this weekend, mostly for US Nationals.

• Cranial Insertion: No-Headed Giant (July 8th, 2007)

  Slivers won a Pro Tour.

• Cranial Insertion: Those Crazy Teenagers (June 17th, 2007)

  And we're back, with even more questions from Regionals, and a whole slew from the mailbox! Looking back at both the box and the event, it seems that Blood Moon, that shiny little card from The Dark, that simple little bastion of simplicity .

• Cranial Insertion: Hot, Hot Rules Questions Inside (May 27th, 2007)

  Hey, look, Future Sight's legal! Well, it was legal last Monday, too, but no one really cared - this past Friday was the first FNM with Future Sight, and people cared about that.

• Cranial Insertion: The More Things Change (May 6th, 2007)

  So, the Future is on the shelves and legal for limited.

• Cranial Insertion: Tempus Fugit (April 16th, 2007)

  How quickly time goes - it's almost time for Future Sight, and there are still so many fun questions with Time Spiral and Planar Chaos to answer! Moko's trying to travel through time and jam more questions into our older articles.

• Cranial Insertion: Full Future Sight Spoiler! (March 26th, 2007)

  Going by the timestamps on my 325-page Word file, it has been two years since I first hijacked the excitement of the then-upcoming release of Saviors of Kamigawa to bring to you this little column about rules.

• Cranial Insertion: Crime and Punishment (March 12th, 2007)

  This Saturday just past, the DCI put into effect a new set of penalty guidelines.

• Cranial Insertion: The Morph You Know (February 12th, 2007)

  In 2002, Ixidor, Jeff Donais, and Mark Rosewater unleashed morph upon the world in Onslaught.

• Cranial Insertion: Until the End of the World (January 22nd, 2007)

  So, did you all enjoy your Planar Chaos? Did the tectonic plates heave and toss your city into the roiling oceans? Did the stars align and bring forth the Great Old Ones to play sealed deck with you? Did you pwn Cthulhu in round one? Somehow I doubt you'd

• Cranial Insertion: We'll Take a Couple Questions Yet (January 1st, 2007)

  Happy New Year, readers! We've all been up celebrating in a perfectly nonalcoholic fashion (except for Moko, whose mother won't read this and cut him out of her will.

• Cranial Insertion: Jingle Bells, Kormus Bells (December 25th, 2006)

  Hey, it's Christmas.

• Cranial Insertion: When Words Collide! (December 4th, 2006)

  Friday was the first of December, and you know what that means.

• Cranial Insertion: We Are the Champions! (October 22nd, 2006)

  It’s the final Champs week – Standard Champs! Some of you have already had yours, and the rest are coming up in a few days.

• Cranial Insertion: Thyme Spiral (October 1st, 2006)

  Time Spiral's prerelease was hands-down one of the best events I've worked.

• Cranial Insertion: First Draft (September 10th, 2006)

  On the tournament floor at Grand Prix Phoenix, the other judges and I noticed something about RAV-block limited: there are simply no new questions.

• Cranial Insertion: Thirty Common Mistakes (August 26th, 2006)

  I'm going to expound upon the article Thirty Common Mistakes Players Make.

• Cranial Insertion: I Fought the Law (August 6th, 2006)

  We're going to jump into some more random questions this week, including several non-card questions that have been bouncing around our inbox.

• Cranial Insertion: Coldsnap in the Desert (July 16th, 2006)

  Still got questions? Send them to cranial.

• Cranial Insertion: Of Mice and Monkeys (July 2nd, 2006)

  Two of this year's three Champs tournaments are over, a Pro Tour just went by, middle of the summer.

• Cranial Insertion: And Thou Shalt Come to Judge (June 11th, 2006)

  Hi y'all! Tom and I are gearing up for the excitement that is Pro Tour: Charleston, so I'm spending a bit of time on the east doing things that in no way promote my goal of global domination that you can't prove I have planned.

• Cranial Insertion: Yo, Ho, Ho, a Demon's Life for Me (April 30th, 2006)

  Welcome back to Cranial Insertion! For our first of three Dissension guild weeks, we'll kick off with the one that knows the real meaning of having a bloody good time.

• Cranial Insertion: Here Comes the Rain Again (April 9th, 2006)

  Ah, the smell of a new set on the horizon.

• Cranial Insertion: Divide // Conquer (April 1st, 2006)

  Welcome back to Cranial Insertion.

• Cranial Insertion: How to Play a Spell (March 19th, 2006)

  Here we go, the last Cranial Insertion of our first year, magical number 52! This being the third Monday of the month, it's time for an in-depth look at something.

• Cranial Insertion: When Tournaments Attack (February 26th, 2006)

  We've spent the last few weeks of Cranial Insertion covering Gruul and declaring things other than vows of eternal love.

• Cranial Insertion: That Pacty Thing Between all Them There Guilds (January 22nd, 2006)

  Here I am at the Guildpact prerelease, and I should be doing something useful, but instead I'm writing Cranial Insertion.

• Cranial Insertion: Super Party Fun Pack (January 1st, 2006)

  Hey, look, it's a bright shiny new year! It's also a bright shiny new Cranial Insertion article, because we rule so much.

• Cranial Insertion: Fire Good! (December 11th, 2005)

  Here in bright, sunny, balmy Tucson, the desert city an hour north of the Mexican border and a mere 3 hours east of the glittering Gulf of California, IT'S BELOW FREEZING.

• Cranial Insertion: (Kinda) (Sorta) Live from LA! (November 13th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion (Kinda) (Sorta) Live from LA! or, The World Needs More Internet By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Tom Fowler Edited by Goblinboy and Moko I wrote this Cranial Insertion article two weekends ago while at Pro Tour: Los Angeles, and fo

• Cranial Insertion: Guess the Theme Week! by Woapalanne (October 16th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Guess the Theme Week or, Guess the Obvious Theme Week! By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Tom Fowler Special thanks to Lee Sharpe for hunting down obscure new rulings.

• Cranial Insertion: Rah! Rah! Ravnica! (September 25th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Rah! Rah! Ravnica! or, Now You May Ask Those Questions.

• Cranial Insertion: Test Your Metal (September 11th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Test Your Metal or, Silly Subtitle No One Reads By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Edited by Goblinboy Cranial Insertion, the column where we cram fluffy bunnies into your head.

• Cranial Insertion: Recurring Nightmares (August 28th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Recurring Nightmares or, FAQ It! By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Edited by Goblinboy We’ve had a whole bunch of Cranial Insertion articles by now.

• Cranial Insertion: Welcome to the Fold (August 14th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Welcome to the Fold or, Sanctioned Tournaments Are Fun! By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Edited by Goblinboy Hmm.

• Cranial Insertion: Rotten to the Core (July 31st, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Rotten to the Core or, You Look Familiar By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Edited by Goblinboy & Moko Welcome back to an exciting Cranial Insertion article! This Friday past (aka the coming Friday as I write this

• Cranial Insertion: Take Your Turn (July 17th, 2005)

  Hey, what do you know? Another Cranial Insertion article! Normally we make Thijs write articles that go in depth on one topic, but I get to do it this time.

• Cranial Insertion: How the US Southwest Was Won (July 3rd, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion How the US Southwest Was Won or, Actual Questions from Regionals By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Good $time_of_day, boys and girls and other! I’m starting to write this Cranial Insertion article while at the US So

• Cranial Insertion: Enchantments Don't Dance (June 12th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Enchantments Don’t Dance or, Combolicious! By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska We find ourselves in yet another exciting installment of Cranial Insertion, where we stick fluffy bunnies in your head.

• Cranial Insertion: Rock Your SoKs (May 29th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Rock Your SoKs or, Chimps Have Big Hands By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Welcome back to Cranial Insertion! Where we left off, Thijs has discussed priority, Moko was zooming around the Atlantic in an Atlantean hover

• Cranial Insertion: Casual Mayhem Week (May 15th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Casual Mayhem Week or, The Lost Lotus of Atlantis By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Eli: Welcome to a very special Cranial Insertion! For casual week, we decided to do something a little different – Thijs, Jeff, Mok

• Cranial Insertion: Where the Judgely Things Are (April 24th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Where the Judgely Things Are or, Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Welcome to our yet another episode of Cranial Insertion! It’s time for some weird interactions, questions on t

• Cranial Insertion: Dawn of the Dead (April 10th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion Dawn of the Dead, or: When a Body Meets a Body.

• Cranial Insertion: Full Saviors of Kamigawa Spoiler! (March 27th, 2005)

  Cranial Insertion "Full Saviors of Kamigawa Spoiler!" or "Welcome to the Column!" By Eli Shiffrin, Thijs van Ommen, and Jeff Vondruska Now that I have your attention, welcome to Cranial Insertion! This is a weekly column for rules que