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MagicCon Chicago 2024

This was an event I had been looking forward to for months. Booked an AirBnB back in November (before the hotel rooms were available), started making hang-out plans in December, and spent January coordinating and agonizing over Thursday's party. The end of January came and we did the Murders at Karlov Manor roundtable the night I turned 32, I took some time off work to play Persona 3: Reload, then went back to work for a few days before dropping my dog Pluto off at the kennel and flying to Chicago on Wednesday. This event has occupied most of my waking mind for 2024 so far. And it exceeded my expectations. It was a whirlwind of a weekend; I barely sat in one place for longer than a meal, saw so many old friends and made so many new ones, and got to spend quality time with my best friends (who I don't see often enough).

If you read my CommandFest Richmond write-up (or somehow found the secret MagicCon Philadelphia one), you'd know I'm not exactly in the most normal position when it comes to these events. I don't attend them as a creator, which makes sense as we stream 4-6 times a year and I'm not even on camera for our streams, but I don't really attend events as a Magic fan either; a combination of factors over the years has led me to stop buying Magic product and being unable to play Commander games in-person or remote due to my overnight work schedule means I'm not the typical audience for these events. I just come here to see my friends. It's just that a surprising number of these friends happen to be content creators and cosplayers, so I am regularly hanging out with people who others ask for photos and autographs, which puts me in an enviable position that I try my best not to take for granted. I'm lucky and honored to know these people.

I say all of that because I need to frontload that this is not a Normal Con Experience. With that out of the way, let's talk about my week in Chicago.

WEDNESDAY

I fly out of Atlanta and into Midway in Chicago without any issues. We actually manage to arrive a few minutes early. I took an Uber to the AirBnB and met up with Crim (TheAsianAvenger) and Lava Spike (Lavea_spike3).

Crim and Lava were the two people I hung out with the most in Richmond, which was my first big event. I saw Crim in Philadelphia, but I hadn't seen Lava since Richmond and it was real refreshing to see them both again. After I unpacked a bit (physically) and Crim and Lava unpacked (emotionally, even though I had ~just~ got there), we headed to High Five Ramen. Their wait was over an hour long but they directed us to Green Street Smoked Meats upstairs where we could get drinks until our table was ready. After a couple of drinks and an honest mistake which led to our reservation getting delayed, we finally sat down to eat. This is a ramen spot that Crim last went to when he was in Chicago ten years ago for his cousin's wedding, and after eating there, I can see why this was the first place he wanted to go. The food and service were phenomenal; shout out to Lisa and Brendan who made sure we were taken care of.

After a brief Uber back to Target to grab some supplies and a quick walk back to the AirBnB, we jammed a couple of Commander games. Crim took the first game with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind after turning Lazav into Lava's Syr Konrad, and Lava took the second game with Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir. I played the Tenth Doctor and Villains Doctor Who precon decks and they felt entirely capable in those games out of the box. Afterwards we went to bed around 2.

THURSDAY

Woke up in the morning to greet Andy (epos87) when he arrived from the airport. Andy is one of my best friends, and even though I live 90 minutes from him it took coming to Chicago for us to see each other for the first time in like two months. I can't say enough good things about having Andy as a friend and I'm glad that he was here for this weekend. Andy also does all the graphics work for the channel, which means he knows a lot of creators through our Roundtable events but they don't necessarily know him, and we were excited to finally get to introduce him to folks.

Lava had made breakfast for everyone, so after eating the four of us went to grab some coffee at Cafe Press up the street. This is something that keeps happening on my trips so I think I'm going to make it something I do deliberately: find The Place. The Place doesn't have to be somewhere great, it doesn't have to be somewhere cheap, but it does have to be somewhere quick, reliable, and close to either the con or where you're staying. For CF Richmond, The Place was the Secret Sandwich Society, for Philadelphia, The Place was this fried chicken restaurant that materialized in front of me on my walk home at 2 am half a block from my AirBnB. For Chicago, The Place was Cafe Press. I was there every morning over the weekend, and twice on Monday. When you spend your whole weekend trying to figure out what to do or who to play with or where to go, having The Place available as an easy fallback is a relief. If you go to Magic events in the future, make sure to find your The Place as early as possible.

Coffee in hand (with an extra coffee for Diana (DimiccoDiana), who somehow knew the exact moment we got to Cafe Press and texted Crim to pick her up something), we went to the convention center to grab Lava's badge. Since he was Crim's +1, his badge was only available through will call, which is kind of a ridiculous system because it means any guests or people who win badges from content creator giveaways can't register for ticketed events (which often sell out) ahead of time. Still, we picked it up and then ran into Kess (Kesswylie). Kess had narrowly avoided being mobbed by Dentists, who were apparently having their own convention in a different part of the hall (they had giant inflatable toothbrushes, which I am sad I did not get one to take home). After being gifted a 1/∞ The One Ring proxy by someone who goes by the name "Obzedaddy", we found Diana and gave her her coffee. We walked around the convention center for a bit, then walked over the skybridge towards the hotel, where we ran into Jim from The Spike Feeders (JimTSF), Carson (Cmassive13), Alan (MisplayMental), Seth (SethArar), and Ced (Ced_Senpai) and Derik (DjMadorma) from One More Mana (ManaSquad). After catching up with everyone for a bit, Kess and Alan went back to their hotels and we went back to the Airbnb to chill until Claybee (mtg_claybee) and Cyrus (cyrone119) could get there.

Claybee is my other best friend. I've known them almost as long as I've known Andy (10 years in April for Clay, almost 11 for Andy) and Clay is easily the most recognizable of us, partially because they're the most active on social media but also because they can often be found wearing extremely bright colors. Clay, Andy, and I started the CnCPowerHour back in 2017 as a way to make sure that we could hang out. Never in a million years did we think it'd put us in a position to meet all the people we did this weekend.

Cyrus is Clay's younger brother. We got to know Cyrus real well when they stayed with Claybee for a summer years and years ago. The three of us were in Cy's wedding party when he got married. We were also the only people at the con Cy knew about because Cy doesn't engage with Magic content, or really even with Magic outside of pre-releases, so this would be a great event for him since he would get to meet a bunch of cool people, especially tonight.

They both arrived from their bus from Indiana around 4:15. It turns out that the other group on the bus was coming into town for the dentist convention, which is a fun coincidence. After they got to unpack and relax for a bit, we headed off to Fatpour Tapworks for the party. We arrived early so we stood outside where we ran into (in no particular order) Maeve (MaeveFearne), Beth (QueenoCardboard) (another Georgia native I should make the effort to see more often), Andrew Baird (SigmaCaldera), Schmandrew (schmandrewart), Chris your Commander Mechanic™ (CmdrMechanic), and Mr. Bevers (Mr_Bevers). Seth (probably better known as SaffronOlive) saw Crim and walked over to say hi. The folks behind Jackal Costuming (JackalCostuming), Gin (scratchkitty) and Matt (scrapperferret), came up because they saw a bunch of familiar Magic folk on the sidewalk. I'd run into them a few times more over the weekend but I wish I'd gotten to chat more; we caught a game together back in Richmond and I hadn't seen them since and they are both hardworking and genuine folks.

A brief aside about some of the folks I mentioned. I would see them all throughout the weekend, and every time was like a breath of fresh air. Schmandrew is bright and positive, which perfectly matches both his wardrobe and art style, and is willing to help where he can. Andrew Baird is thoughtful and observant, quick with a compliment and always good for a laugh. Mr. Bevers is calm under pressure, adaptable, and creative. I get to chat with him weekly because we play Desitny 2 together, but I've only met him in person at two events and I truly cherish our time together. He was a constant companion at Philadelphia and I'm glad I got to spend as much time with him this weekend as I did, and I'm more glad that Andy and Claybee got to meet him in person for the first time. Chris, your Commander Mechanic™, is easily one of the best friends I've made through Magic, especially since the pandemic. They helped with this weekend immensley and do an amazing job throughout the year with our events. I appreciate them all dearly and wish we saw each other more often, a sentiment that is going to be mentioned repeatedly throughout this post.

After the party (yes, I skipped the party; I'm going to talk about it at the end because it has me full of Feels™ and I don't want that to get in the way of the already long recap), Crim, Lava, Clay, Cy, and I headed over to the Marriott with Ben Wheeler. I had met Ben in Philadelphia at the LRR signing but I figured he wouldn't remember me since it had been a year and the interaction was like maybe 30 seconds so I reintroduced myself. We sat down to relax for a little and Crim convinced Wheeler to go grab a Commander deck. Crim, Claybee, and I were all playing decks Crim brought against Wheeler's Kiyamaro deck. Wheeler won with an Akroma's Will when I was literally 1 point of Commander damage away with Alela, Cunning Conqueror thanks to a Gravitational Shift. It was a neat game, Wheeler's decks are full of cards you don't get to see often (including TWO Forecast cards) and he was a blast to play with. I've never played a game where the "draws up to two" clause on Arcane Denial was relevant, much less twice, but those silly interactions where cards don't work the way you planned are what make EDH fun to me.

Afterwards, Wheeler went back to his hotel room and we went back to the AirBnB and went straight to bed around 2 am.

FRIDAY

Crim had to be at the convention early, so he and Lava left before the rest of us. Andy, Claybee, Cyrus, and I got some breakfast from Cafe Press and got to the con around 10:30. The security lines were long but they kept it moving at a really good pace so we made it through in a few minutes. We headed to Mr. Bevers' Chaos event, which eventually had 3 pods going at once: one with featured creators (Jim from The Spike Feeders, EK (ekplayscards), Chase (manacurves), and Logan (seraph_six)), two with other folks sitting in the area (Andy hopped into a game Mike Carrozza (mikecarrozza) and two other folks, and Chris (geekbeardly) and Avery (averusfinch) started the third pod with metalupis and Casurrito234), and there would be another creator pod featuring Mike, Alan, Chris your Commander Mechanic™, and Carlo (CFavretto_Jr), with a second set of ancillary pods until the event ended at 2. Anyone could walk up to roll a D20 to influence all 3 games at the same time. It was wild to watch. Anything could happen, from free permanents, to life loss, to reversing the turn order, to playing with your decks upside down. And because anyone could walk up, you'd sometimes get like 5 or more of these effects happening in a row. Meaghan (infinitokens) was also there supporting Bevers, which was so amazing of her. She helped get him drinks and snacks and helped manage the line while he was running the games.

While Andy was in the event, Claybee went to go meet up with a friend and so Cy and I walked around the con a bit. I grabbed a Heavy Play (HeavyPlayLLC) folding playmat for myself, Andy, and Cy because we all forgot ours and didn't want to wait in the bag redemption line (which was huge). I ran into Anna Margaret (itsannamargaret), Corey, and Kat who were all at the party on Thursday. We chatted for a minute and they mentioned they were going to check out Taalia's (TaliaVess) Fashion Show. After dropping the playmats off, Cy and Claybee went to find a table downstairs with Schmandrew to play a game. I walked around a bit more and said hi to Airbubbles (Airbubbles), who I had met at last night's party, and Zabracus (Zabracus) who was on our Lost Caverns of Ixalan Roundtable. Both are absolute delights to chat with in person. I ran into Eric (numberknower) and we caught up a bit after having met in Philadelphia. Afterwards, I went to check out the fashion show. This was a super neat way to highlight both creators and available merch and I hope it becomes a regular thing. Ran into Logan there for a bit and then I went back to help Bevers tear down a little, Andy went to find Clay and Cy. I ran into Chris, your Commander Mechanic™, and invited him and Bevers to Lou Malnatti's. Bevers and Chris went to their hotel room to drop off Bevers' stuff so I went downstairs to meet up with the others.

After chatting with Schmandrew for a bit, Clay, Cy, Andy, and I grabbed an Uber to Lou Malnatti's. Chris and Bevers were going to ride together, but Bevers was (rightfully) exhausted from running his event so Chris got a ride on his own. We had a great time at Lou's; the pizza's presentation was good but I have to admit it wasn't anything to write home about. Weirdly, the calamari was the best thing we got there; perfectly light but still crispy batter and the squid wasn't too chewy. Big fan.

Clay, Cy, and Chris went back to the con while Andy and I went to go relax at the AirBnB. We had some dinner plans and I had a feeling we'd be up late so I needed to lie down. Afterwards we met up with Beky (bekybear), Sam (Strat_Sam), Mikaela (mikaela), Brendan (whose handle I do not have), Maeve, Andrew Baird, Clay, and Cy at Community Tavern (CommunityTavern [if you're in Chicago, check them out!]). I was a bit stressed about this one because we had various delays and the automated texts and emails from the restaurant were pretty aggressive about how we should be on time, but thankfully the staff were not only understanding about our various delays getting the full parties together, they combined our two parties into one big one (originally Beky, Sam, Mikaela, and Brendan were going to have their own table), sat us early, and gave us plenty of recommendations. The drinks there were a highlight, but if you ever go, you NEED to get the mushroom dumplings, the duck, and the dan-dan noodles. Thanks to Karen and Nick for taking care of us while we were there.

After dinner, Clay, Cy, Andy, and I went back to the AirBnB to play some Doctor Who Precon Planechase. This was legitimately my only Magic-playing goal for the weekend. I am a MASSIVE Doctor Who fan and don't get to play often, so getting to play all of these decks together, in person, with my friends, and playing Planechase was a highlight of the game. Even if I died first.

During the game, Crim and Lava arrived. I got to chat with them a bit about the House of Blues party; they were there for a while but weren't feeling it so left to get dinner with the Bens (BengineeringTV and BWheelerMTG). Word is the party picked up but my first-hand accounts from Crim and Lava was that Thursday's party was better and I will accept zero other comparisons.

After the game wrapped up, we all went to bed. I think I fell asleep around 2:30.

SATURDAY

Woke up later than the others because my only plans for Saturday were the 2 pm LoadingReadyRun Chaos Event and an 8 pm Conspiracy 2 draft organized by Mishotem (Daved414). Got lunch from Cafe Press and got something to go for Andy, who was in the Will Call area playing a 5 player Commander game with folks from work who happened to live nearby. I met all the work friends and booked it to the Main Phase One booth, where Crim's friend Ash was holding a Ravnica: Clue Edition for me. This was for a Roundtable prize winner who was also attending MC Chicago and I'm really lucky that Ash managed to hold it because I couldn't find another one at any of the vendors. I headed back to the creator area and saw this AMAZING Nico Aris cosplayer. I got some photos with them but never did get their name.

While walking around, I briefly ran into Lynn (CheckYourBulk), who is one of the most deliberate and thoughtful people in the community. It had been ages since we'd spoken online and years since our last remote EDH game, so it was real nice to say hi but unfortunately that was all I got to do. I caught up a little with Callahan (callahanishere and congratulated them on their pending move. I got to see Kuro (kurohitsuki) in his fantastic Aragorn cosplay, really wish I had gotten a photo with him. I ran into Mikaela in her awesome Queen Marchesa cosplay, which I ALSO wish I had gotten a photo of. Then I ran into Andrew Baird who was talking to Tyler, Airbubbles' husband. I had met Tyler at Thursday's party so we chatted for a bit. He needed to go find Z (ZMainCharacter) because he had their baseball bat for their Massacre Girl cosplay, so we walked around the con looking for them while we chatted about various things. We both needed to stop by the bag pickup line to grab our badge swag, and then walked around the other side of the con. Still no sign of Z, we split up. I believe Tyler found Z eventually, but they both lost the bat and it ended up in a Lost and Found at some point on Sunday.

I took a short break to stop at a table and consolidate my swag stuff into my backpack. While there, I got to chatting with a couple of folks who were sharing the table but didn't know each other. They were each excitedly listing off all the creators they had met this weekend, and it was so cool seeing people excited about meeting my friends. Which they should be! My friends fucking rule! (These nice people also showed me that there is a Starburst flavor line of ICE Sparkling Water? Which, like, has nothing to do with the con but is vital information for me so thank you, strangers.)

From there I went to get a utility hotdog. It was not a hotdog I wanted, but it was one I needed because I wouldn't have a chance to eat after the 2 pm LRR event. To eat I sat down at a table that happened to have a couple of WotC social media folks and as they left, they passed out packs to everyone there. Yet another to add to The Box.

Finally, I went to go find where the LRR event would take place. On my way I ran into James (James_LRR), who was also trying to find where the event would be. I went to keep looking after he got stopped by some folks for a signing something. Speaking of which, I know a lot of folks couldn't go two feet without being asked to sign something. I'm impressed with how gracefully they handled that, even as they were on their way to scheduled events. Truly a lot of lovely folk in the community.

Eventually after looking around a bit I asked a Judge (Lasse, I believe) who pointed me in the right direction. I ran into Andy there and we waited for the event to start. Minh (Pharmacistjudge) was running the event and graciously corralled everyone over to the purple tables and informed us that we would be drafting there but may need to build and play somewhere else as there were other events going on. Thankfully that did not need to happen, and even though the event ran really smoothly, we were all given a Murders at Karlov Manor Collector Booster to add to our pools. While waiting for more details, Andy and I ran into Mr. Bevers; we all decided we'd split up and sit in other places before the event started to just meet some folks, since I'd spent all weekend long just seeing people I knew. I met another Andy, another Logan, and a fellow named Encore. We all chatted for a bit and then eventually got our placements. If you want to know how this event works, this was the structure:

Each player would be given 6 packs. Each player would choose 3 packs to draft and 3 packs to set aside for the Sealed portion. We would then draft those packs in a pod of 16 people, which had 1 LRR member in the pod. This means that packs would not wheel (unless they had more than 16 cards in them, which was possible with the mix of packs). Once the draft was done, we would open the other 3 packs and play build a deck with the cards we had drafted and the sealed deck. This is a format that I was VERY familiar with, as it was my preferred way of drafting with 4 people so it's what we would do when we regularly streamed (though we'd switch the draft and sealed portions, sometimes doing sealed first); I could get into the math about why I like to do it this way but basically it lets you see the same number of cards as an 8 player draft with 4 people and in less time than it would take to draft 6 packs a person. I hope more people adopt it if they ever want to do limited with their Commander playgroup.

Anyway, we got sat down at our pods. Mine had Ben (BengineeringTV), though he was at the other end of the pod so I didn't get to chat with him. Instead, on my end of the pod was Kyle (Kyle_McQ), a retired judge who I had met at Thursday's party. We chatted for a while and then the draft began. I drafted a neat Red/White Equipments deck, as the colors seemed to be open and my second pick was a Stitcher's Graft, which I had not seen at all because I played very little EMN. I opened a Reinforced Ronin, which is a super cute synergy with the Stitcher's Graft, and a full art Gamble. Went through Round 1 super fast by curving Skynight Legionnaire into Hammer Dropper and following that up with a Thundering Raiju. I lost Round 2 to a neat sultai toxic deck piloted by a Brendan (but not the one I met at dinner on Friday), and won Round 3 against Logan's pretty cool Bloodchief's Ascension deck by equipping a creature with Team Pennant and Stitcher's Graft, which got around the Graft's untap clause. This was a lot of fun and it's something I recommend people attend if it's offered at any future MagicCons.

Once the event wrapped, Encore (who had been playing my Andy in the last round) had lost his phone. I helped him look for it, then went over to Lost and Found where Seth happened to be and it turns out someone had dropped off Encore's phone there. Bevers, Andy, and I went to go say hi to Joel (LeojPies), who was working Aaron Miller's booth, where we also ran into Meaghan again. I had to figure out dinner so I stepped away; I had my heart set on this Venezuelan place, Rica Arepa, but because of rush hour and surge pricing it would have cost $50 to uber there. I was pretty set on getting food from there because it is very rare that I get to have Venezuelan food and I also had already gotten Mishotem's order because he would be coming straight from Gavin's Unknown event and going to his draft. We settled on getting it delivered from the restaurant to Bevers' hotel since he needed to drop his stuff off anyway. Bevers and I walked to his room and Andy went downstairs to the Quiet Room to decompress a bit. I never needed to use it but I am really glad it was there; I feel like I first saw it at MC Philadelphia but it really should be a staple of events going forward.

We eventually got the food, uber'd back to the con (sometimes the price of a 5 minute ride is worth avoiding a 25 minute walk when you're pressed for time), then tried to find a table to play at. Bevers and I secured a spot in the Creator Area, but Andy managed to find a round table in the much quieter and, importantly, colder Will Call area so Bevers went to meet Andy with the food while I met up with Mishotem and JJ Mickey, who was also in our draft (and was the winner of the Clue prize I picked up from Ash). We were looking for an 8th from folks who were nearby, and thankfully Steph (SteelCitySteph) and Brad (SteelCityBrad) ran into Benwa (THEBENWA) who was down to draft. Mishotem, JJ, and I went downstairs where I finally got to eat. The arepa I had hit the spot but would have been leagues better if it hadn't been ~2 hours from ordering to consuming. After eating we got to drafting. And I ADORE Conspiracy: Take the Crown. When Andy, Claybee, and I were REALLY getting into Magic, I was working at a small law firm that had a huge round conference room table. They let me use the office once a week to draft, and I'd draft Conspiracy every chance I could. Lots of laughs and fun memories made during those drafts. There's something unique about a draft format that forces you to interact with the folks at your table (asking them to draft cards for you at random, getting to see their draft picks, or choose colors for things like Regicide), and it was a great way for me to get acquainted with Steph, Brad, Benwa, and JJ, none of whom I had met in person before (and I had only briefly interacted with JJ over text). After some fun drafting and building, we split into two pods: Steph, Benwa, Mishotem, and Bevers were in one pod, Andy, Brad, JJ, and I were in the other. I managed to draft a fun Blue/Red deck built around the Weight Advantage conspiracy and Melee, very quickly bringing everyone's life totals down to a weirdly stable 9 with a Grenzo's Ruffians and a Volatile Chimera copying Fang of the Pack. After some careful goading and interesting plays from Brad's deck built around Wild Pair, JJ's Jund deck, and Andy's RG deck, I eventually won the game.

I cannot thank Mishotem enough for not only putting the draft together by coordinating scheduling, providing lands, providing packs for the draft AND prize support, but also for thinking to include me and Andy. Mishotem puts a lot of effort supporting creators through Twitch and on Twitter, and our community could not thrive without folks like him. That we were asked to be part of such a curated group of community members is an honor. This ended up being my favorite Magic gameplay experience of the con and nothing comes close. Great company goes a long way at events like these.

Once the draft wrapped up, Andy and I met up with Claybee and Cy at the Hilton Garden Inn where Magic folks were taking over the lobby. I ran into Andrew Baird and Schmandrew there, as well as Kess and Carson. It was less of a lobby con where folks were playing Magic and more of one where people were just hanging out. There were a solid dozen people there I didn't have a chance to say hi to (and at least one person I had to turn down their kind offer of a shot of Malört). If that was what we were going to do, I'd need some food, so we walked over to Fatpour Tapworks again but their kitchen was closed. We decided to head back to the AirBnB since we still had leftovers from Lou Malnati's there. I chatted with Lava and Crim who were already there when we got back; they were wrapping up to go to bed. While I was chatting with them, Andy heated up the leftover pizza because he's the best, and then he, Cy, and Clay got into a 3 player game. I made plans with Crim and Lava to make sure we could get dinner with the whole AirBnB crew, then let them get to sleep while I hung out with the others. After a bit of catching up, since I hadn't seen Cy and Clay for basically the whole day, we all went to bed around 3 am.

SUNDAY

The final day of the con. Crim had to be at the con early so he and Lava left before I woke up. Andy went to get breakfast form the cafe while I got ready, so we ate in the AirBnB and then got an Uber to the con. Today was noticeably less packed than Saturday, and the con closed early so this would likely be my last chance to say hi or bye to people. After stopping by Chris, your Commander Mechanic™'s meet and greet, I had two missions: get something (anything) from Serena Malyon (SerenaMalyon) and find Anna Margaret to wish her a happy birthday.

Mission #1 was easy enough. Serena had a small line that early which was good because it gave my indecisive self some time to figure out what to get. I eventually settled on a playmat of her Bitterblossom art from the Wilds of Eldraine Enchanting Tales and headed back over to the creator area, where I got roped into a Chaos game Bevers was running because he needed a couple of bodies to fill pods. I ended up playing a game with Schmandrew, Graham (hocks42), and Llachlan (Llachlan). This was a good humored group and we had a lot of fun. Chaos games, more than any other format, are about taking things in stride because plans will get wrecked immediately by outside intervention or you'll have what happened to us where we'd all scry cards to the bottom then end up having to play with our decks upside down so we were seeing the cards we tried to get rid of. Definitely a bit rough, but the right group will make it a good time and I enjoyed our game. Bevers eventually put a prize pack on the line and Schmandrew managed to target himself with his own infinite damage loop, so he immediately won the pack. A Wilds of Eldraine Collector's Booster was put in the pod to draft for one of the Chaos effects; I grabbed a Goose Mother that I gave to Llachlan after the game as they wanted one for Beth to sign, and Graham eventually managed to knock us all out with his bird typal deck.

Afterwards I went to go on Mission #2, which had a sub-mission of "say hi and bye to as many people as possible". I ran into so many people. Eliot (TSF_Eliot", Bill (BillTSF), and Maddy (cloveralters) from The Spike Feeders, who I met on Thursday. I got to catch up with Shannibal (Shannibal___) who I hadn't seen since MC Philadelphia. It was really nice catching up with her, even though all we had done in the past was play a game together before the con. I finally met Ryan (tronisbad) after seeing his Better Days MTG stuff over Twitter. I ran into Peachy (peachypop_cos), Cody (cobertmtg), and their friend Zoe, all of whom I had met at Thursday's party. I ran into Jess (InklinCustoms) and her partner Chad and I managed to snag one of her Secret Lairs. I ran into EK and finally got the Food token he showed me a preview of weeks ago. I went over to the Birds of Paradise (birdsofMTG) where I ran into Haiyue (niphette), who I had met on Thursday, and Jordan Lablond (jordanlablond_) who had done the gorgeous artwork for the Birds of Paradise banner. Andy found me there and we met Dan (BearlyLupe) who was a genuine joy to meet; he's very focused on promoting inclusive efforts and making sure the people making those efforts know how valued they are. Andy had his own mission but it aligned with mine so we kept wandering around the con. Got to see Misha (Magic_Mishamigo) in her Space Jace cosplay (complete with bubble blowing gun). Ran into Encore again and we chatted for a bit. Saw Chris/Kelzam (kelzamgaming), who I'm glad we got to chat with. We ran into Kuro again who was chatting with Light (epsech), who was extremely pleasant to chat with; he's been doing a weekly TCG news show that I'm a fan of so it was neat to catch him in person. We ran into MTGNerdGirl (MTGNerdGirl), who was one of the only people who knew our channel before the pandemic, and is one of the busiest people I talked to the entire con. We ran into Beth and Nat (giraffanat) at the MagiKids booth and got to chat there for a bit. Andy and I took a small break to sit down for a second and eventually split up as we continued on our own missions. I stopped by the Ultimate Guard booth to chat with Sam (RhysticStudies) for a second while I could. Can't say enough nice things about Sam; we've interacted a bit on his Patreon discord but nothing particularly memorable, but he still recognized my username and had a nice but brief conversation about his recent Patreon podcast. Ran into Jay Annelli (jay13x) who was gracious enough to stop and give me a token even though he was on his way to find someone before his flight. Found Ian (ComedIanMTG) and Lua (luastardust) and gave Lua my prize tickets from the LRR event since she was saving up for a giant card. Ran into Joel again passing by Aaron Miller's artist booth, who gave us some recommendations on food. FINALLY tracked down Anna Margaret and got to wish her a happy birthday.

Right after seeing Anna Margaret, I ran into Lava and we went to go collect Crim to go to the AirBnB dinner. Crim misjudged time and got himself deep into a Commander game and also lent one of his decks out to someone else who had just started another Commander game, so he decided to meet us at dinner if he could and otherwise would meet Lava at the Neck Deep concert they were going to later with Gerry Thompson (G3RRYT) and Crim's friend Gino. Andy, Lava, and I headed to 5 Rabanitos, this fantastic Mexican place, where Cy and Clay soon joined us. The food was FANTASTIC. Easily the best spot we had eaten at all weekend, and that's saying something. Lava left to go meet Crim at the venue and the rest of us went back to the AirBnB. I took a nap while the others went over to the Hyatt to see if there were any post-con shenanigans going on. I woke up about two hours later and went there to join them.

The Hyatt lobby was a sweet spot for playing Magic. Lots of tables down the entrance hallway and an open bar area with dozens more tables. Lots of games going on with tons of folks. I said hi to Shannibal, who was sitting with Clay, Cy, and Andy, and then I went to look around to see who all was there. I got to say hi to some people I hadn't seen all weekend, like Princess Weekes (WeekesPrincess) and Rachel Weeks (wachelreeks), both of who have been on our charity Roundtables and I had met in person; Princess I hadn't seen since Richmond and Rachel I hadn't seen since Philadelphia so it was real nice to catch up. I got to check in with Amber (moxamber24) who I met at the party and kept seeing at various points throughout the weekend. I got to properly reintroduce myself to Jimmy Wong (jfwong) and Ben Bateman (benbatemanmedia) after briefly meeting them both in Philadelphia in different situations where I was very distracted. I ran into Carmen (Carmparens) at the bar and chatted with her about how amazing a musician and performer Yvette Young (youyve) is and how I owe my love for Yvette's band Covet to Carmen randomly sharing her own enjoyment of Yvette on Twitter a few years back. This was by pure coincidence, by the way; I hadn't planned on talking to her as Clay and I had ~just~ talked about how certain people, including Carmen, are a little unapproachable from our perspective; however, we were both waiting on checks from very patient but very overwhelmed barstaff right next to each other so I had to say something.

After going back to the table and chatting with Clay ("Carmen's pretty cool," I said; "Love that for you," they replied), I went to say a few more his and byes with folks. Saw VeggieWagon, who I hadn't really seen since Thursday's party, and MTGNerdGirl again, along with Dev (manateeRx). Veggie saw an old friend of his, goaded MTGNerdGirl into a harmless prank (which started out not-so-harmless but we got there), and while they were all chatting I got to say bye to Matt (SouthernmostDM). I haven't talked about Matt yet but I don't have the words; he is such a genuine, caring presence. Despite meeting twice in person before Chicago, I feel like I've only really known him through Twitter where he can often be found highlighting community members or gassing people up, and I really wish I got to spend more time with him, but I don't think I saw him after Thursday's party and before Sunday night except in passing. I still owe him a game I promised back in Philadelphia.

Anyway, I met a nice guy named Mike who mostly plays cEDH and came up to chat. After chatting and opening a pack with Alan, Andy, Cy, and Clay left to go to the Marriott where the bar was still open. I stayed behind a bit to very quickly introduce myself in person to Kathleen (Kathleen_LRR), we had emailed each other recently about the last Roundtable so I figured I should say hi while I could. I made my way out of the hotel and ran into Minh, where we chatted about how the whole weekend went form his perspective as a Judge. Also ran into Derik again, which was great because he was no longer in Atlanta so I'd only really get to see him at these events. Continuing my way out the door I said bye to CGB (covertgoblue), who I had seen throughout the con all weekend. Walked over to the Marriott where I ran into Wheeler; turns out he DID remember me from Philadelphia but didn't want to bring it up and make it awkward, but because I asked him about it he was honest. We laughed about it a bit and he headed to bed while I went to join up with the gang. I set my stuff down and went to say hi to folks I saw when I walked in, except they weren't in the lobby anymore. Instead I ran into Peachy, Cody, and Zoe one last time and got to talk to them again. Peachy handed me a Mystery Booster Convention Edition pack, which Claybee immediately opened:

We got to chat and decompress a bit, which was nice; outside of a few moments in or to/from the AirBnB, it hadn't been just the four of us chatting with each other. It was brief but refreshing, as these are some of my favorite people who I love. Eventually Clay and I went to grab some more drinks, where the bartender immediately asked us "so do all of you play Magic?". Turns out he plays Commander and there's a whiskey place that does a huge Commander night the first Thursday of the month. After we got back to our table, Misha and Tyler showed up and we all started chatting about their night at Three Dots and a Dash, a tropical-themed speakeasy. Antonio (ThisIsSurreal_) came by and dropped Clay on the ground, something that doesn't happen often enough. After some quality time with everyone, Tyler and company had to go get Antonio's stuff out of his room, we congratulated Airbubbles on her cosplay contest win, then walked Misha back to her hotel.

We dropped Misha off and called an uber. While we were waiting, we talked about how Lava had bought out all the con's Lava Spikes, and one of the two other guys waiting out front (who turned out to be Brewtalpants) asked if we had a line on some Lava Spikes because he needed to "pay someone back for dinner with Lava Spikes". This gave us a good laugh because Lava told us his side of this story earlier, but what are the odds of us running into this exact person in the last possible minute of the con?

Once we got back to the AirBnB, we figured out plans for breakfast on Monday as Andy, Cy, and Clay had to leave in the morning. The others all went to bed but Lava and I stayed up chatting for a bit.

"What was your favorite part of the con?" asked Lava.

I had to think about it for a bit. Eventually, I had an answer.

"Multiple times this weekend I got some feedback about how the ways I connect with people really make them feel seen and valued. It's not something that I feel like I do deliberately, but it's something I want to cultivate.

So I guess hearing that, or the Conspiracy 2 draft. Hard to say."

MONDAY

I woke up early to grab breakfast for the gang. Clay was originally going to join me but they slept through their alarm; thankfully, said alarm woke Cyrus up so we left to get some breakfast sandwiches from Cafe Press. Right after breakfast, Clay, Cy, and Andy had to leave but I realized we hadn't gotten a picture with the whole AirBnB together. Crim was asleep but that didn't stop us.

A bit after the others left, Crim, Lava, and I went to grab a quick lunch from Cafe Press. We ate on the sidewalk, laughing at some stupid jokes and enjoying each others' company, then went back to grab Crim's stuff so he could leave for the airport. Lava chilled on the couch watching Dungeon Meshi, and I laid down for a bit to decompress. Finally said goodbye to Lava as he went to catch his own flight and then there was just me. I got the AirBnB for an extra night in case anyone left late on Monday or early on Tuesday, which is totally worth it if you can afford it because it takes out so much stress. I hate having to carry luggage around town or hanging out at the airport for hours just because check-out time is 11 am.

Took a nap and went on a solo outing to Au Cheval for dinner. This place was super busy, even on a Monday night, but going solo I was seated immediately. Had the best burger and fries I've ever had and topped it off with some gelato. Pricey but worth it; if I am ever in Chicago again I'm not leaving the city without stopping here.

The rest of my trip was uneventful. Got back to the AirBnB and cleaned up as much as I could, did a last check-up to make sure no one left anything they didn't mean to, and packed so I could quickly leave in the morning.

Tuesday similarly had nothing much of note. Got in and out of Midway without too much trouble (though that airport is weirdly warm), drove home from Atlanta and picked up Pluto. Once I got home I did some laundry and unpacked, which is out of character for me, but I needed something to do while laundry was going. I started to reflect on my weekend and how much fun it had been.

CON THOUGHTS

I don't feel like I'm the target audience for cons. I hit product fatigue a long, long time ago and I'm not in a position to play the game often. I'm really just there to see people. To that end, it was great! I made new friends and saw old ones, some for the first time in person.

But there are some glaring issues with the event. Some of the areas weren't defined well enough because they were so close together. Speaker and crowd noise from the main event stage easily bled over into the ticketed play area, impacting players' performance and enjoyment. On Friday and Saturday it was nearly impossible to find a table to play at; Saturday there were people playing on the floor outside of the main show room.

The event staff and judges did their best, though. Security lines moved at a great pace, judges were always available, and though there were some issues coordinating where events would play, judges did handle moving players well. I really hope that Wizards' event coordinators take all of the information learned this weekend into account for future events. Especially if there's going to be only one non-Vegas MC in the lower 48 States a year, as that becomes a big destination for people who can't make Vegas or travel out of the country (even moreso if Commandfests aren't announced at the time of the MC), which means it will be packed.

Emotionally, I had such a fun time. It was amazing to see my friends again, especially having the original CnC Power Hour crew together. Clay got me some little gifts, Andy and I covered each others' meals or snack runs, and Cy was always willing to go on an adventure around the con. Seeing Andy, Clay, and Cy, not to mention Chris and Bevers or anyone else I spent time with, was enough on its own. These events are elevated by having someone to experience them with. There are people I met for the first time who I hope to see again, and people who I kept running into (like the Joses) that I wish I had gotten to spend more time with. I've said what I've done but I can never talk enough about who I've met; everyone I've mentioned here has been a delight and if I spent a weekend with each of them individually it still wouldn't be enough time. I've spent thousands of words talking about it, and will spend more after this, but Sam manages to capture all the sentiment of the con in this amazing video better than I ever will:

THURSDAY (REDUX)

You can stop at the above and consider this write-up concluded. The rest of this is mostly for me; I don't really use social media as an outlet and I often don't have enough going on that I need to anyway, but this was a big thing and I need to write my thoughts down somewhere.

Thursday night was one of the best nights of my life.

There are a lot of reasons for this. A huge part of it was the relief I felt when I realized "oh, people are actually having fun." I had spent months agonizing over this thing. And I can't take all the credit for it, but I will take a lot of it. I pitched the idea to Commander Mechanic in November. Chris has been a constant collaborator and this event was originally going to be focused on our Roundtable guests as a thank you, so of course he was the first person I asked. He found Fatpour Tapworks and offered to help with costs (well, more demanded that I let him help). While it wasn't my first choice, Fatpour was the closest to the con and the first to respond so I worked with their event coordinator, Julie, who was extremely gracious. She held my hand through the whole process since this was my first time coordinating anything larger than a 10 person dinner reservation.

But finding a spot was the easy part. There was so much after that. Who do we invite, how wide do we cast the net, do we just keep it to Roundtable guests or can we open it up for friends, do we make this just a content creator thing, what happens if no one shows up, what happens if too many people show up, what happens if word gets out and people we didn't invite show up, how do we cover all the costs, how do we make sure we get enough food for everyone (pro tip: order twice as much as you think you'll need), how long do we make the event so that people don't feel rushed but have time to socialize but also don't get bored, what if no one has a good time. All of this was running through my head as we got closer to the event, to the point that as far as I was concerned, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday didn't exist. Thursday was all I cared about and I'd figure out the other days after.

Looking back, I'm still not sure if I didn't need to worry or if I somehow did the exact right amount of worrying, but everyone had a great time. I mentioned above that great company makes all the difference, and that's exactly the case here. There were all sorts of people there: cosplayers, streamers, youtubers, mods, editors, spouses, friends.

Right.

Friends.

I almost lost sight of it in everything leading up to the event, but that was what I was trying to facilitate. I want my friends to have a good time, and it's so rare for so many of them to be in the same spot. There are friends that couldn't make it, friends I forgot to invite, friends I couldn't invite because the guest list filled up earlier than I thought. We were all here to enjoy each other and I got to make sure that happened, before the craziness of the con. Before we were all tired, frazzled, pulled in dozens of different directions for all hours of the day. I made sure that my friends could spend time with each other and they all had a great time and god fucking damn it, that's an amazing feeling.

Once we stepped inside after hanging out on the sidewalk for half an hour, all my worries melted away. I was hanging out with people I know and love, and people who I did not know and now love, and people who I still do not know who somehow managed to show up as soon as we opened the bar. I learned more names than I could remember to the point that I started writing them down in my phone, chatted about important things that I've forgotten and unimportant things I will cherish. Meaghan and Schmandrew both separately asked if I had eaten; "I had a celery stick, it was great! Just kidding, yes, I am an adult, I promise I will eat." I met Haiyue and her partner Alex, both of who have very fantastic things they're working on in different areas of the Magic community. It's where I met Peachy, who I previously told on Twitter I would talk to this con because I needed someone to yell about Persona 3: Reload with; she, Cody, and Zoe had been trying to get into Fatpour but saw how long the wait was when Chris recognized them and invited them upstairs, which was very serendipitous. I met Airbubbles and Tyler because they were friends of Misha and Scott. Finally got to meet Steph (quad_9s) and her partner James in person. I met Amber and got to finally put a face to the name of the person flooding my Twitter timeline with hilarious nonsense. I met Kyle, whose name I admit I did not remember but instead was written down in my phone as "Retired Judge". I met Zeb and Mike from Playing with Power, got to hang out for a bit with Cal, chat with Veggie, catch up with all the One More Mana guys, hang out with Chase, Logan, EK, and Gene (RokstarGene), saw Beth for a brief minute. I chatted with Geekbeardly about the proper order to do shots and the salt/fruit in, which I promptly ignored. Got to say hi to Elliot (raff_sputin), who I met at dinner in Philadelphia, before he had to leave to rest up since he was judging the Pro Tour for the first time this weekend. I saw Andy (AndyFloury) and his husband Nick for the first time since 2022 and somehow never ran into them the rest of the weekend. I got to see Minh, who I didn't think would come because we only chatted briefly at CF Indy 2022, but not only did he show up, he stayed for almost the entire time. I got to chat with Alan, the loudest person in any room he's in (both visually and vocally), who brings joy anywhere he goes. I spoke with Matt about how good it is to see everyone and how I still wish we had more time together. I got to meet Antonio (again), which was great because he got to meet Claybee (again). Shivam and his wife stopped by, Gavin Duggan was there for a few minutes at the start to say hello to everyone, the Spike Feeders all rolled in unexpectedly. Crim invited CGB, Ben, and Wheeler over to watch the Kings game. Chris Mooney and I briefly chatted basketball, something I barely understand only through osmosis from knowing Claybee for so long. Cyrus and Andy said they counted 52 individual people at the same time and like 60 over the course of the night. We booked the place for 3 hours and 40 people and stayed there for 4 and a half with 50-60. The staff were all gems, the food was fantastic, the drinks were great, and the company was the best.

I am in a weird position in this community. I'm not recognizable to players because I don't make regular videos anymore (and honestly I can't say I would be if I did), but I do work with content creators for our Roundtables; even though I'm behind the scenes for the stream, we all get to chat together for about an hour ahead of each show and outside of the agenda and the actual images, I manage all the prep work. I get to know all of these fantastic, kind, and hardworking people. But like, who am I in this ever-growing space?

It's a tough question. When asked this weekend all I'd say was "well, I produce a charity stream together each set featuring rotating people from around the community to raise money for The Trevor Project or Extra Life while raffling off prizes." Which is true! And it is very important work and I never want to stop doing it! But that's 4 days out of the year. Who am I the rest of the time? I sort of fade into obscurity until it's time to schedule a roundtable because my overnight work schedule means I can't play on most folks' streams, and I live too far from my friends to be able to do anything with them anymore. Content creators recognize me but even then, sometimes, it feels like I'm on the outside looking in. My social media interactions are limited and I'm likely to never be at events as an official creator. It often feels like I got here on accident; impostor syndrome makes it feel like I'm in a house of cards that will come down at any moment, or that there are some other creators who can tell I'm not supposed to be in the same room as them.

It's something I try not to focus on, but I know there are other people who worry about their own position. People I admire, people who I see putting their actual blood, sweat, and tears into the art they make. I don't make videos or podcasts anymore, I never had the patience to cosplay, and I can legitimately go a year without playing Magic and not miss it, but Thursday night was extremely validating. I am where I am because of what I have done, and I am friends with who I am with because they like me, and I need to recognize that. If I have earned my spot here, everyone I know has as well. We are all where we're supposed to be, and I am lucky and blessed to know so many fantastic people.

So who am I in the community? I still don't have a concrete answer. But I'd like to think that I am a friend, and maybe that is all I need to be.

Towards the end of the night when the staff brought out shots for everyone, Tyler cheered "To The Gathering!" It was cheesy, and nerdy, but sentimental. The kind of shit I live for. The perfect summary of the night. I realized a while back that if no one puts dinners or parties together for these events, then they often just won't happen at all. If I could, I'd put together another Thursday night party every chance I get.

So I will.

See you next year.

Commandfest Richmond 2022

I’m writing as much of this down so that I don’t forget it all. I fear I have already forgotten some things, but I wrote what I could down anyway.

I finished the Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate roundtable event, packed, took a 3 hour nap, showered, then left at 4:30 am to ride a train down to the airport. Got through TSA faster than I ever have, played through the entirety of Sayonara Wild Hearts on the plane, and landed in Richmond around 8:30 without any issues.

My Airbnb wasn’t available until noon but thankfully, my host had already cleared the room so she said I could come in early. When I got there we chatted for a few minutes and I dropped my stuff off and walked around the neighborhood. Because of how little I slept, no matter how many times I looked at the clock my brain thought it was like 6 or 7 pm (at this point, it was 11 am). I decided to go get breakfast around the corner at the Brewer’s Cafe.

Had a perfectly decent cup of coffee and fantastic avocado toast. The chef even came out and had me try something he’s been working on (bacon, egg, and pepperjack on a piece of fried bagel). It was delicious.

Afterwards, I went to a corner store to find a hair brush because I forgot mine. I would not find a hairbrush the rest of the trip. Truly a travesty.

Once back from walking around (and narrowly avoiding getting sunburned somehow), I took a nap around 1 pm. Woke up at like 6 or so and holy crap did I see that everyone had flight problems. It was so bad that I kind of felt guilty for having such a smooth ride.

No time for guilt though, I had to go see Crim (TheAsianAvenger) and Jay (Lava_Spike3) for Boba, dinner, and possibly mini golf. Jay and I got Boba and dinner; it was our first time meeting or really talking except for a few chats over discord or Twitch, but Crim attracts good people so we hit it off quickly. Crim showed up right before the mini golf place closed so instead we went back to the Hilton to hang out for a bit.

Chris and Crim hanging out watching anime

Crim presented me with three deck boxes. “Which Grixis deck would you like to play?” he asked before cackling like a gremlin. Crim and I had never met in person; I reached out to him in 2020 asking him to help with a charity event, and to my surprise he enthusiastically replied. We’ve played EDH and chatted anime frequently since (ironically, of course; Crim doesn’t watch anime) and it was refreshing to find that the Crim I’ve seen and played with on camera is the same person off.

I went with Xander, by the way. With our decks in hand, we walked down to the Hilton lobby to play at this huge table right by the check-in desk. Literally turn one, who should walk in but Gerry Thompson (G3RRYT) and Oliva Gobert-Hicks (goberthics). Olivia finally made it in after flight delays and baggage problems, and after dropping stuff off in her room, came down to play a game with us once we finished the first. Halfway through game two, the clerks had turned off the lobby lights in an attempt to get us to leave, but Commander players don’t actually read cards anyway so it was fine.

Chris and Olivia

People checking in, seeing us and then hanging out for a while was a theme for the rest of the night. Kat (tarmokat) was there briefly after her own flight issues, and she was just super nice. I will say that multiple times about a lot of people, but there are no better words to describe her. Next up were Jake Browne (fakejakebrowne), who came in clutch with not only a late-night pizza order but wooed the front desk into turning the lobby lights back on for us and, and Dequan Watson (powrdragn), followed shortly by a cavalcade of Canadians: Jim and Eliot of The Spike Feeders (JimTSF, TSF_Eliot, TheSpikeFeeders), and Chris, your Commander Mechanic (CmdrMechanic.

Night 1 hanging out in the hotel

I don’t think I’ve ever moved to hug someone as fast as I did with Chris. Chris has been a friend and constant collaborator essentially since the day we met. I cannot say enough good things about them and I won’t because I can’t let it get to their head. But I wouldn’t have had half an amazing experience in Richmond without Chris and I can’t thank them enough for it.

Chris and Chris

We all hung around and eventually the crowd dwindled as people went to bed and the pizza ran out. Eventually, myself, Jay, and Dequan were the only ones there sharing personal and content stories until about 3 am, at which point I ubered back to the airbnb.

This trip is already worth it and the con hadn’t even started yet.

Friday, I woke up, grabbed some iced coffee and a chicken salad sandwich from Brewer’s Cafe and then rode to the convention center. In line to register, who should I see but fellow Atlien Joseph (itsvoh). I eventually found him near the vendors with his friend Alex (fivecolorgoodstuff); turns out Joseph had driven up from Atlanta yesterday, which was a shame because we totally could have road tripped if we knew the other was going to be here. They were looking for Rob (the_commander_guru) so they left. I walked around a bit more and ran into Nathan (TheHermitDruid), Chase (ManaCurves), Alex (SpikeFeederAlex), Jeremy (jeremynoell), Logan (seraph_six), Curtis (mtg_og_va) who drew the “Never Punished Gang” Vialsmasher/Woodlanddeckhouse shirt that I was wearing, which was a gift from Claybee (mtg_claybee), and the winner of the Chris-a-Bowl of Worlds, Thromoking himself. After chatting a bit, taking some quick photos with (and for) Kat, I ran into Joseph again. They had found Rob and invited me to play. I borrowed Joseph’s GB Nadler/Numa Elves deck. I got stuck on 3 lands, but I had a blast.

Chris and ChaseChris and Alex

Creepin on JoePlayin with Joe

Halfway through our game, who should walk over but another Atlien, Ken from One More Mana (manasquad), who had flown in with his cohost Derik (DjMadorma). We all chatted and caught up a bit and then I went around the convention center floor. Ran into Joey, Dana, and Angelo from EDHrec (JosephMSchultz, danaroach, thejesguy, edhrec), Shivam (ghirapurigears), who was easy to spot in his Casual Magic shirt, Cal from Playing with Power (MTGCal, PWPMtG), Daniel Holt from Wizards of the Coast (imdanielholt), and Tomer from MTGGoldfish (BudgetCommander, MTGGoldfish). Angelo and Tomer had both been on our stream before, but the others I was meeting for essentially the first time (the other EDHRec folks had raided our stream a few times but that was it). Everyone was really gracious and super nice, even as I chatted with them mid game.

One More ManaChris and Dana

Chris and JoeyChris and Daniel

Around 2 or 3, Crim finally walked in. Apparently he had left his phone at Target before hopping into his uber and had to track it down. Thankfully he was able to recover it, but no one knew where he was until he showed up.

After meeting Sydney (TappyToeClaws) and Alan (MisplayMental), who are both impossible to miss in the best ways, Hobbes of the Goblin Lore Podcast (HobbesQ, GoblinLorePod), and Seth-Probably-Better-Known-As-Saffron-Olive (SaffronOlive), The Chrises all played a game together with Cayleigh (MadameJund). Cayleigh did a massive amount of dredging, Thromochris berserked Commander Mechanchris’s Nissa equipped with Luxior to get rid of it, and Mechanchris ended up dying eventually; Thromochris tried to kill Cayleigh and I but I was able to cycle through some madness cards with my [oversized] Anje Falkenrath to hit a Shadow of the Grave and drain the table with Faith of the Devoted. After grabbing another quick game with Alan and Derik (where Derik obliterated the table by flinging Kresh and Yahenni), I went to get dinner at this ramen place up the street that was only open 3 days a week for 3 hours at a time. Any place that can do that and still afford commercial rent has to be good, right?

Chris and TappyChris and Alan

Chris and HobbesChris and SaffronOlive

I arrived at the restaurant to see that it was take-out only. No food allowed in the convention center, nowhere to sit nearby, I decided to forego it and grab dinner from the Secret Sandwich Society. I ordered a kennedy with pimento cheese fries and a Moscow mule in Claybee’s honor. I would end up eating there every day for the rest of the trip.

The SandwichThe Mule

After dinner, I went back to the airbnb. I saw Hobbes again from across the street while waiting for my Uber, snapped a quick picture of him and sent it to him over twitter. Which he saw immediately and we shouted at each other from across the street for a bit. Turns out that Chris and a few others were sitting right behind him, just out of view of me, and had no idea what he was yelling about.

Chris creepin on Hobbes

I went back to the airbnb to relax for a bit, then went back to the Hilton. Thromochris had brought a cooler full of a carefully curated local beer selection. I had Adroit Theory’s Evangelion VIII: Sandalphon. Hell of a name for a hell of a triple IPA. Because of Thromochris’s generosity and because everyone seemed to be in town now, “LobbyCon” had spilled out from this one small table of 12 to about 30 people in the convention center lobby. I couldn’t name everyone if I tried (and only got photos of half the area we were all in), but holy wow it was a blast.

Around 11:30, Crim and Jay whisked me off to a bar/club with Lua (luastardust), Beck (mtggirl_), Ron (AGirlNamedRon), another Chris, Charles (Ilvaldi), Rebell (SonRebell), Ian (ComedIanMTG), and Alan. After some giant jenga, we all danced until 2 (which, if any details of my dancing are released, they are all absolutely false and should not be trusted). Crim, Jay, and I went back to the Hilton to play more Commander and the others went back to where they were staying. I finally got to bed at like, 5 am. This was a mistake.

Night 2 out on the town

Playing Jenga

Saturday I woke up a little late, got an “are you still alive?” message from Chris, then went to Crim’s to watch the new Spy x Family and eat breakfast with him and Jay. At the convention, I met Matt Morgan (mathimus55), and then spoke with Christine Sprankle (cspranklerun) and Vanesa (VanessaLeighCos) after getting a photo with all the cosplayers. We only briefly chatted but they were both very sweet. I ran into Princess Weekes (WeekesPrincess) and spoke with her about her Stephen King video and a few other things. She’s extremely bright and passionate in person and was so much fun to chat with.

Chris and the Cosplayers

Chris and MattChris and Princess

I decided to burn through my on-demand event tickets that day. I played 3 pods with people I had never met; one pod of a bunch of regular players, one with another content creator (Jared of DeadNextTurn), and the last with a person named Christian (Chris count: 5). Each time I played my Sun Quan deck that Jordynne (s1ck1y) gifted me on the condition I never put Cyclonic Rift in. The tables loved it. I lost every game. I loved it.

Afterwards, I met Beth (QueenoCardboard). She was so sweet and we chatted about a few things; she’s another Georgian and had put together the Official Unofficial Afterparty that was happening that night at a gaming cafe about 20 minutes away. I promised to be there, but first, dinner. Thromochris, Chris, Erik (ekplayscards), Alex, Eliot, Josue, Will, and Dan (JosueOfSantana, Arcticblast324, ankerdudeman), Cayleigh, and some others went out to Maya. Absolutely fantastic tacos and drinks there. After we sat down, Rebell, Charles, Shivam, and a few others walked in. “The thing about Casual Magic,” Alex yelled as they entered the restaurant, “is that it’s completely uninteresting.” Shivam was not pleased.

Josue & the gang
Photo credit to JosueOfSantana

Once dinner was done, Chris, EK, and I went to the after party at Unplugged Games Cafe (unpluggedrva), where we met Beth, Ron, Ron’s Chris, Alan, Joseph, Rob, Alex, Curtis, Logan, Hobbes, Dev (DoodlesDevs), Travis (Travis_L_M), and the one, the only, Bennie Smith (blairwitchgreen). I didn’t think I would see Bennie this weekend; he announced that he wasn’t going to make the convention due to understandable COVID concerns. But here he was, masked, distanced, but still willing to give out the best hugs. We got to chat for about 10 minutes but I honestly wish I had spent more time with him. He is such a genuine person and his love for the game and its players is so apparent when you talk with him.

The AfterpartyChris and Bennie

Outside of the folks I named, there were a solid 15 other people there playing Magic and chatting over drinks. Once the bar began closing down, we went back to the Hilton to see what sort of mess would be happening in the lobby. Except no one was there.

Turns out, the Hilton staff moved everyone into the conference room and lounge as far away from the door as possible. There was a solid 50 people there drinking, aggressively playing flip uno, and playing Commander. Again, I can’t name everyone that was there, but it was loud, and fun, and super chill (even with all the yelling, I promise it was all friendly yelling). A few I’d like to mention that were there, Kat, Princess, Matt (ScrapperFerret), Gin (ScratchKitty), Veronica (whose social handle I did not get), and Zach (iamzachdobbs). Every time I saw Kat that night she was wearing or wielding another cosplay item and/or drink. Princess let me borrow her sweet Oloro deck when she needed a 4th for a pod with her, Matt, and Veronica. Zach is yet another Georgian who came to Richmond and we had a fantastic chat about audio gear, studio spaces, and content. Matt and Gin chatted about conventions that they’ve been to. And that was literally one corner of the room. So much love for the game and love for each other was shared there. Absolutely one of the best nights of the convention.

Hanging out in the lobby

More hanging out in the lobbyFlip Uno

To wind down, Crim, Jay, and I went back to Crim’s room where they tried to convince me that Shikimori’s Not a Cutie is a good show. You could say they half-succeeded. After hanging out for a bit more I decided to head back to my room at about 3:30 am.

Playing Alan's Cube

Sunday was another late morning. After a solo brunch, I hit up the convention center. Alan had brought his cube with him to Richmond and we wanted to fire it at 1, but not enough folks were available. Instead, I went around to get more photos of cosplayers, say hi to people (especially because a lot of folks were flying out that day), met a few more people like Matt (SouthernmostDM), said bye to Crim, and did my first Baldur’s Gate prerelease. I’m not the first person to comment on the event structure, but 1 draft and 2 games was way too long once you factor in the draft time, build period, and how often the format went to turns, and for how low the prize payout was. It would have taken my entire afternoon to do the one event, and honestly my brain was so absolutely fried halfway through the first game that I dropped from my second.

Instead, I went back to the free play area to chat with a few folks and figure out dinner plans. Ron, Ron’s Chris, and a fourth whose name I do not remember (sorry!) played one game together before Ron and Ron’s Chris had to drive home. Ron’s Yoshimaru got off to a terrifying start with lots of legendary enchantments and a Helm of the Host, Ron’s Chris drew tons of cards and made tons of treasures with his Prosper deck, Ron let me borrow her Eleven/Jim Hopper deck, and our fourth was playing a real neat O-Kagachi spirit tribal build. It came down to Ron and I where I stabilized with a Medomai protected by Hinata and won on the extra turn. It was such a fun deck to play and I’m glad Ron let me pilot it.

The convention center closed at 6, but that wouldn’t stop us. A few folks agreed to meet up at the Hilton around 9 or so. Chris, Logan, and I went to get burgers and had some absolutely fascinating chats about city layouts (no, that is not sarcasm, and yes, it is way more involved than you think). We made it back to the Hilton around 9:30, where Alan had prepped his cube and Rebell and Ian were playing pack wars on the floor while a few others were playing EDH at another table. Now that there were about 15 people there, we convinced the front desk to let us back into the conference rooms, and fired off Alan’s Conspiracy Cube.

Lobbycon
Photo credit to Alan

I say Conspiracy Cube, but it’s not a cube of one or both Conspiracy sets, more of a cube that has Conspiracies in it. Well, Conspiracies and cEDH staples, a Black Lotus, un-cards, at least one fake card. Anything you think is powerful, weird, and fun, it’s in this cube. The collective response from everyone who was playing (Chris, myself, Bryce and another lad from Sad Naus [sadnausmtg], Will, Dan, and Alana [who does not have socials]) upon seeing Pack 1 of 3 was “What the fuck, Alan???” The way the man’s face lit up at that means it’s the exact reaction he was hoping for.

Playing Alan's Cube

The draft experience was absolutely bonkers. I went with an extremely fair Boros Aggro deck. Everyone else at the table was doing something lovingly ridiculous; Bryce died trying to go Thoracle/Consult using Richard Garfield, PhD’s ability, Will was trying to take infinite turns, and Chris yeeted me out of existence after Massacre Wurming my tokens off of a Defense of the Heart. I absolutely, positively cannot wait to get to do that again. We said our final goodbyes to everyone there and left around midnight.

I went to the airbnb to get more than 3-4 hours of sleep for the first time since Tuesday. Monday morning I met with Derik for breakfast; we had the same flight to Atlanta so we figured we may as well hang out. Ended up running into Chris again at the airport (after seeing him leave our restaurant to catch an Uber) along with a different Charles (Elevarius) who we had met a few times throughout the weekend. We were able to chat for like an hour before our flight boarded. Turned out that Olivia was also on that flight so we got to chat for a bit; the flight ended up getting delayed due to some thunderstorms but we eventually made it to Atlanta safely. I rode the train home and got some fried pickles at a local fast food chain, who had just brought them back. I came home to my dog who was very excited to see me, and I wrote this to make sure I didn’t forget anything.

Unfortunately, I probably did. There was just so, so much. I learned so many other people’s names that I’d have forgotten my own if Claybee hadn’t made a nametag for me. I signed 4 playmats and 1 GameCube, which is a solid 6 more things than I expected to sign. I gave all my prize tickets away so Chase could grab themselves an oversized Elminster. I saw some sweet plays and cool decks and met so many lovely people. It was hands down one of the best weekends of my life. Seeing all of the people I'd met or learned about over the past couple of years since the remote Magic scene exploded, meeting with internet friends, real friends, and people who I didn't know but are now friends, all filled my heart so much.

Here's to the first of many events.

- C.Gonz

C dot Gonz

 

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