The Duelist (magazine)
The Duelist (or simply Duelist which it later was officially known) was originally a quarterly magazine produced by Wizards of the Coast to accompany the increasingly popular Magic: The Gathering trading card game but later as a gaming magazine with a focus on the collectible card game and trading card game industry.
What initially separated The Duelist from other card magazines of its time, such as InQuest or Scrye, was its beautifully detailed pages. Each issue featured a key artist who created a unique cover (often based on an existing Magic card) and whose art was showcased inside the issue (however in later issues, this was cut altogether).
In addition to being rich with art, the magazine also included strategy articles, game design articles, fiction from Magic storylines, product checklists, rules questions, Magic tournament coverage, and Magic puzzles were even introduced. Pricelists were eventually included as well. Phil Foglio did a monthly comic for almost the entire life of the magazine, and Mr. Suitcase had its own column. Creator Richard Garfield often wrote the quizzical back column of the magazine.
The Duelist was known to occasionally give out promotional cards from upcoming Magic: The Gathering releases. In addition to Magic, it also served as a way for Wizards to introduce players to other products it owned, including the somewhat unknown Vampire: The Masquerade and the more popular Legend of the Five Rings.
As Magic grew, a companion newsletter was sent out to subscribers in between magazine releases; eventually Magic switched to a bimonthly circulation and then became monthly. Other card games were profiled, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, and Pokémon. Magic would continually lose the magazine's focus as it put more emphasis on up-and-coming card games; with Pokémon's huge, 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 had already expanded to covering video games and others.
The Duelist survived for over 30 issues. It was canceled partially due to Hasbro's buying of Wizards of the Coast, but also likely due to much of its readership looking online more and more for gaming content. Wizards did publish The Sideboard, which was dedicated solely to Magic tournament play that eventually was reborn as an online publication, and in The Duelist's wake, some of the content from the magazine merged with The Sideboard to create magicthegathering.com.