Cathy Nicoloff

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.A Magic Career by Cathy Nicoloff, originally published on thedojo.com: https://web.archive.org/web/20010309034121/http://www.thedojo.com/column2/col.991008cni.shtmlTournament report by Lawrence Chancy from classicdojo.org: https://classicdojo.org/tourney96/ptq.961118pga.txt 
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).Pro Tour Dallas Day 2 Results from wizards.com: http://www.wizards.com/ProTour/PTDallas/Dallas_Day2.html
====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) Pro Tour Paris 1997 Final Standings: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptpar97.
US Regionals 1997 	Standard (Type II) 	Five Color Green (5CG)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 	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 Tom Guevin, 1997: The Magic Year in Review (long!): https://classicdojo.org/bou97/bou.971231tgu.txt. 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.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
US Nationals 1997 	Standard (Type II) 	Turbo AbeyanceTurbo 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	A collaboration between Cathy and Brian Weissman. This deck is sometimes erroneously attributed to Andrew PacificoNate 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. 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 T2The 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 	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 Anarchy5 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 	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 StasisMoM 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 	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."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/ 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.Catherine Nicoloff, Michigan State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Catherine-Nicoloff
==Notes==
==External links==
* Internet Archive Wayback Machine - Meridian Magic (archives 2000-2001)
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