MagicCon 2023

Since joining Old School, I have not followed the SCG, Channel Fireball, or MagicCon events around the West Coast much anymore. But on the occasion (Once a year), it happens to land right in my backyard. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, so it seems like a normal place to me. I can only imagine what Vegas is like to see it for the first time. That allure draws in the big boys of Magic The Gathering, and with that group usually comes one thing for sure, “OLD-SCHOOL MAGIC CARDS AND THE PLAYERS ALIKE!”

Friday morning, my phone pinged with a Message from Nick Aiello from the SoCal Deep Spawners asking if I wanted to meet him and the SoCal group at the Palm Resort. After dropping my son off at school, I drove to the Palms and met Nick in the check-in lobby. Nick gave me one of those big Aiello hugs, and we grabbed a coffee before heading up to Urbano’s suite (You know, the kind of room with Its security checkpoint before you get on the elevator). In the room, I was met by a large group from the SoCal club, and we discussed the weekend logistics. The ordinary things, like food, rolling dice to decide what alcohol you were drinking that day, and if everyone wanted to go to Joel Mick’s room at the Encore, the former brand manager for Magic in the 90s and original Gamma play testers from 1992. I’ve met Joel at a few events and wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to see the collection he brought with him and play some games.

MagicCon LV ran much better than Magic30 the prior year, possibly due to no COVID restrictions at this event. But even with that, I heard some distaste for the 2-floor layout as people had trouble finding it. I enjoyed it being two stories and found that the second floor had more to offer with vendors and artists. After shopping the floor and commissioning Anson Maddocks to work on “The Playmat,” as my wife calls it. We jumped on a tram and walked to the hotel where Joel was staying. Once getting cleared by another hotel security checkpoint, we headed up to Joel’s room, and as I expected, it was packed with only the finest collection of slabbed and loose cards. Joel knows how to display these rarities beautifully every time, which will catch the eye of all collectors, big and small. With his collection taking up every playable space, everyone honed in on their inner 93/94 player and went to what we know best: “the original playmat, the original battleground, THE FLOOR!” there were games of Alpha 40, 93/94, and Sorcery as we flooded the floor to jam games. After a couple of hours at the Encore Hotel playing games, we caught a ride back to the Las Vegas Convention Center and met with some artists to get a few alters and a bunch of signatures.

Around 6 p.m., we headed to one of our local Old School meetup spots, Nevada Brew Works, where we were surprised to see the entire bar filled to the brim with Pittsburg Stealer fans. One inconvenience with having professional sports teams now is dealing with crowds that wouldn’t usually be at the spot you frequent. We made do with our space and expanded throughout the night as tables opened to get more games in. After calling it a night, I went home and reviewed my Modern deck for the Team Trios Vintage, Legacy, and Modern tournament the following day.

Saturday started with playing a Jurassic Park board game with my son and a few rounds of Mario Cart before heading out to the convention hall to play in my first competitive R.E.L. Magic the Gathering tournament in years. My sideboard was mainly obsolete for this current meta, so I played the deck as it was. The seats were as followed: Brian Vegso would play Vintage, Jason Hughes was Legacy, and I would be playing the format I thought I left in the rearview mirror on the doorstep of that fire station years ago, MODERN! I was dreading this tournament leading up to it, to be honest. I had left the competitive scene for a quieter life playing 93/94, where I didn’t care about winning as much and focused on fun games and catching up with friends. But I knew if I were going to play it, I would have to go all in, harness my inner spike, and go for the throat. My first match was rusty, to put it at best. I made a few mistakes, forgot a crucial fetch land crack at the opponent’s end step to bring in a shock land tapped, and didn’t cycle when needed. Regardless, Living End does Living End things, and killing your opponent’s entire board to reanimate a cycled-away army in two to three turns is what it does best.

I won 2-1. Vegso and Hughes also won their games, so we were on to the next round. In match two, I was ready; my opponent wasn’t, and I ripped through him to a quick 2-0 victory. My two teammates also won quickly. Match three started with Biran Vegso crushing his opponent before I could even win game one. And halfway through round two, Jason lost game three, leaving it all on me if we took it down. I cast Living End early, but my opponent got a stable board state back. So, we put up creatures one by one for what seemed like an eternity until I could get a couple of Street Wraiths on the field and chip in with Swampwalk for the W! Brian and I took a celebratory photo on the way out. I headed home while he went back out to meet with the SoCal guys. I will admit, it did feel good to knock the rust off and play some real competitive Magic again. But I think I’ll save it for the occasion a big event like this comes around and stick to 93/94 as this is where my heart is. But who knows, maybe I will resurface to shark an FNM once in a while to keep the teeth sharp.

It was another great weekend hanging out with friends, and coming right off the heels of the Desert Twisters Showdown meant there wasn’t much to catch up on, as just telling the funny stories that happened the week prior. Like, the almost bar fight at the saloon with the old crazy miner who thought we were a band and was pissed that we hadn’t started playing music. (I did not write about it in last week’s article because some stories are better in person). We also made plans for Chaice. If I publish this on time, I’ll be seeing some of you very, very soon!

ROLL PHOTOS!!