So, many of you have heard me talk miles about how great the community of type one players is, and how this is the reason I am still playing magic instead of having just quit after getting out of semi-professional magic.
I witnessed something amazing this past weekend at GenCon.
The weekend started on a great note. After losing the first tound of the Legacy Champs, I won the next 6 in a row. What do you do at that point when you find out that you can't draw in. Simple, you win the last round as well of course. My top 8 match was SOOOOOOO close and a single change in blockers determined the whole match. I decided since it was 40 mins away from midnight I would stay up and play in the $500 midnight Vintage event. The top did not start at 7:00 am like it should have though...we were all so exhausted, we all split $60(the extra going to the kind soul who took out $500 from the bank and split it up for us since Wizards mails the $500 check after the event).
I woke up Friday and bombed the prelim hard core...another fun night including watching a Whose Line Is It Anyway Seminar with Eric and Sarah(the already mentioned girl on these boards whose breast, Roland signed after winning)...and hanging out at the hotel and Saturday morning came.
During the third round of the Vintage Champs, I played the best game ever right outside the hall. Rules: simple, pick up a 3ft x 3ft x 3ft foam dice, heave it above your head, and while giving your best klingon yell, heave it as far as you can. I had to drop out after making top 5 cause round 4 was starting.
I was at 2-2 when it happened. Andy informed me that the deck containing about $3250 worth of cards (a full set of power minus a sapphire) that I had loaned out was missing. I FLIPPED OUT. I went to the vendor room and futiley attempted to plead with the vendors to keep an eye out for it. Now, I normally don't place much faith in the kindness and compassion of Magic vendors, and was not surprised when many of them gave me a very fleeting and unbelievable, "yeah I'll keep an eye out for it," without the desire to actual collect any of my personal info(which in other words meant they would not have done anything even if they did see it).
I went back to the Magic room. That is where I lost it. I took my bag with all my other magic cards, kicked the shit out of it, started swearing and threw a shirt I was holding at Jeff Anand(an act which I feel bad about). I was so mad at the integrity of people in general. I consider myself a pretty moral person, so it is so frustrating to think that someone could do something so dastardly as stealing something of such value(or any value, for that matter). At that moment, I hated humanity, and wondered if there was a good decent person left in the world. I decided I just wanted to go back to the hotel room and sleep. I was so depressed.
I waited for the shuttle for like 25 minutes. While I was waiting, an angel in disguise named Mary Jane(and if you are out there Mary Jane, you are an amazing person) asked me if I had a light.
10 seconds of small talk and I told her about my loss. Then, silence followed. Now normally, that would have been the end of it, but, at this point I really felt like a dick. "I'm sorry," I said, "I'm an ass. I didn't mean to be a downer. So, are you having fun at the con?"
We talked for the next 20 minutes while I waited. Mary Jane really helped put things in perspective. She told me about her neighborhood, and the work she does to make an impact in the lives of the neglected children who live around her. She had taken one to the con whose life story nearly made me cry. She told me of her aunt who would rather let her sister die than donate a kidney to her mom who desperately needed one, and how she agreed to go through with the operation. She told me about how some of the children she would be a sort-of surrogate mother for, would ask to stay at her house, knowing that they would be beat if the went home. Mary Jane was so selfless and it made me realize, and this is going to sound weird, how lucky I am to even be able to afford power that could be lost.Â
It also made me think of a match I had with Steve M. the previous day in the Prelim. Steve had a lot of stuff on his plate unrelated to magic, and as such wasn't his normal self in our match. He was really freaking out simply fromd rawing multiple lands in a mtch he was already up a game in. It was scary, he was turning red, and I really felt worried for him. One thing I told him, and this is true, is that whenever something small isn't going my way in life(I'm losing a magic game, I stub my toe, I bounce a check, etc.) I just think of a homeless person. That's it....a homeless person. Would a homeless person trade with me. Would he want to trade his life state with mine. Would he put up with a stubbed toe or manascrew if it meant food and shelter. YOU BET YOUR ASS HE WOULD. That always makes me soooooo thankful for the things I do have and puts stuff in perspective. Its crazy how much we lose sight of how lucky we all are.
On the bus, I think about the important things in life. Mary Jane talking about her sick relatives made me realize, I need to show my mother I care about her more often, before one day I wake up, and just like the power cards, she is gone. Also, I realize that as a teacher I have already really impacted some kids and they have touched my heart in return. I know I need to continue to do everything I can to understand where these kids are coming from(broken homes, abusive parents, etc) and do everything in my power to be there for them and help them, just as Mary Jane was a mentor and surrogate parent for alot of the kids in her neighborhood. I even think about possessions in general, and how it is very scary how much I acquire, and then wonder how it can sometimes be so fleeting.
I get back to the hotel and my head is swimming. Even though I know I shouldn't be upset about losing my cards as I said above, I still am, and furthermore, I have been wrestling in my mind with alot of deep thinking about what a life lesson this is. I fall asleep during the first 10 minutes of Lord of the Rings on TV.
RRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNN
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
The phone woke me up. I looked at my watch as I picked it up and realized I had been sleeping for about 3 and a half hours. "We found your deck!", Andy said. I FLIPPED OUT AGAIN.
"Are you serious," I asked.
He confirmed yes, and I almost hung up the phone since obviously this was a dream.
"Oh, and I'm in the finals!" Andy continued.
Now I knew I was dreaming. I expected at this point for Andy to tell me happily to check the lotto ticket in my pocket, but he did not. This was no dream. This was the real deal.
I don't really get the details then since Andy had to go. I was just amazed that I had the cards again. The first thing I thought when I hung up the phone.Â
-  "Just because you have the cards back, don't lose sight about what you thought about and promised yourself. More so than ever, be thankful for everything you have in life, and don't miss an opportunity to do something you may regret not doing later. Life is so fleeting and anything can change in an instant."
I turn on the tv. Lord of the Rings is just ending. Holy crap that is a long movie when comercial breaks are added in.
Andy and co.(Kyle L and Scott M) get back to the hotel around 11:30 pm. They proceed to tell me something that, literally, would have had me in tears if they were not around. Apparently, everyone and anyone was looking for the missing box and informing others of the situation. Also, there was a huge collection of people organized together to collect donations and such to help make up for the huge loss. Jeff Anand was even going to donate a whole piece of power! To quote Steve M.:
Smmenen: like it was like
Smmenen: the vintage champs simply werent' as important
Smmenen: as finding your cards
Smmenen: and i'm not exaggerating
I also found out the story of the deck. Although, I heard alot of variants, I just recently got the full story straight from the horses mouth. This is a quote from Brian Demars:
What actually happened was that Josh found the case on a table inbetween rounds. He opened up some of the cases and thought it was just Yu-gi-oh cards and put it away. Sometime within the next hour people started flipping out about the fact that some power had been stolen or lost. Sometime later we put two and two together and opened all of the deck boxes and discovered all of the power was in it. However, we didn't know who to give it to Josh held onto it until we could figure out exactly whose it was. Eventually, we decided after talking to a lot of people that it was yours, but by this time you had already left to go back to your hotel. When it was clear you were not returning to the tournament Josh, Mark, and myself had a discussion about whether or not to take the power back to Michigan and PM you for your address, or to tell someone else that we had it. What we didn't want to happen was for someone else to take the power and end up not returning it and for it to become 'lost' in the transfering process. Eventually, we all decided that it would probably be safe to tell the Meandeck crew, Steve and Kevin that we had the power and that we needed to get it back to you. We assumed that since they are so well connected in the community that at least one of them would be able to find you. and as you know the Method took it back to your hotel. In short I just don't want you to have the wrong idea about Josh; there was no debate about whether or not your cards should be returned, but rather how was the safest and most sure way to return them. If anybody is the hero it is Josh Franklin, because he could have jsut as easily stashed that box in his bag and not told anybody about it. I think that he would really appreciate it if you let him know how much you appreciated his gesture of basically pure selflessness. I know I was both proud and impressed by it myself.
So, Josh, if you are reading this right now, God Bless You Dude! I firmly believe that good things happen to good people. May all the things you desire in life happen for you. I have Brian's home address and I'm going to send a token of my appreciation for You, Brian, and Mark to split up and enjoy as a way of saying thanks. Once again, thank you for everything.
The best part of all this was that I knew I was wrong. The world isn't filled with only horrible people. There are very many selfless, kind, caring people, and those people, they play type 1. It was simply further eveidence of the true greatness of the type 1 community. There are nice people in this world. Mary Jane is one of the greatest of these wonderful people. Josh Franklin is one of those people. All those who helped start a collection for me(when none of you should have felt obligated to donate anything, since you had nothing to do with the card being misplaced) are those people.
I guess what I'm saying is this:
Fuckin A, man. I love Type 1 Magic and just like all those other things I mentioned above, I hope I never take it or its community for granted.
