At the Kitchen Table

SF Bay Area local Luis Scott-Vargas (in 25th place) vying with Yuuya Watanabe in round 17

Update: that pic was taken going into game 2 with Watanabe 1-0. Luis took the next two games.

It’s day 3 of Worlds. It’s also Saturday and that means more non-competitors. This place is getting busy.

The US and Japanese go head to head (to head to head to head to head)

One of the cool things at ProTours (and GPs too?) is Gunslinging. This is where Pros and Magic R&D types take on all comers.

I singed up today to play Matt Place and Mark Rosewater. I chose my funky standard Dragon deck. I crushed Matt, with an early Chameleon Colossus (attack for 4), followed by a Crucible of Fire (attack for 7), and a Broodmate Dragon (attack for 21). And the hand is extended.

Mark was a different story… standard elves combo deck.. the only action I saw was a Taurian Mauler. GG.

Fun stuff! I hope to have a chance to play Aaron Forsythe before Worlds is over.

I’m watching a couple interesting matches in the feature area this evening: Mike Turian vs. Pat Chapin at one table and John Finkel vs. Mike Long at another. All are playing decks from protour 1.

Finkel & Long

Turian & Chapin

I just drafted and ended up sitting next to Becker, made (in)famous from the Top8Magic podcasts that BDM and Flores do.

I made a point of meeting people yesterday. The list is long but some of it includes: Brian David-Marshal, Randy Beuhler, Matt Murray, Mark Rosewater, Alan Forsythe, Richard Garfield, Matt Cavotta, Richard Hagon, Bill Stark, and Pat Chapin.

It’s been awesome fun to meet these people after two years I their names being part of my day-to-day life.

And so far everybody have been really nice people.

After wandering around a bit and catching up on the new Hall of Fame members I saw Mike Turian. I ambled up and said “Hi Mike. Congrats on the Hall of Fame”. He was quite distracted… looking for the photographer (I didn’t know at the time, but he got in late… just in time for the ceremony… and was still tying up the loose ends). He didn’t “brush me off”, but rather, graciously thanked me and excused himself to go about his business. That was cool. He was center of attention that day… I have a feel for what that can be like.

It surprised and very much impressed me later in the day when Mike came up to me, apologized for his behavior earlier, and proceeded to treat me to a bit of his time to chat.

A true player and gentleman.

Again, congratulations on being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Mike!

See a video article on Mike by Brian David-Marshall, and his profile.

On my way to the bar to dinner I ran into Toby Elliott who is head judge this year at worlds. I know Toby from Superstars in San Jose where I spend a high percentage of my waking & nonworking hours. He’s judged or played in a variety of events there.

I also caught a glimpse of Randy Buehler and Rich Hagon… and, I think, Bill Stark.

I’m here in Memphis. Forget Elvis, I’m here for the Magic the Gathering World Championships… the culmination of the professional aspect of Magic for the year.

While I’m not taking part in the main events, the are a pletoria of side events open to the general public. Also, being present for the finals will be an experience.

I’ll be blogging here as much as I can as well as tweeting (dastels).