Greetings Judges! This week’s Judge of the Week is Bryan Prillaman, L2 from Florida!

Bryan was nominated by Jeremy Behunin, L3 from Utah. Jeremy had the following to say about Bryan:

“He really tries hard to share his experiences and knowledge with the community. I’ve witnessed him go out of his way to teach someone a lesson he’s learned already. Or chiming in during discussions and presentations to not just fill a gap but maybe prod the speaker toward a missed topic, or just encourage them to keep going. It’s clear he has things to share and just needs a forum.”

Bryan has been judging for a little over 3 years. He certified as an L1 in March 2010. Just under a year later, he joined the L2 ranks in January 2011. He made the leap from being one of the “rules guys” at his local store to L1 due to a gentleman’s wager as to who would become a Judge first. Bryan sealed victory in this rivalry rather quickly and placed an exclamation point on it just over a year ago by certifying his challenger as an L1.

Name: Bryan Prillaman
Level: 3
Location: Orlando, Florida
Judge Start Date:
Occupation: Systems Engineer
Favorite card: Bear Cub. Its just so cute. Wook at da widdle baby bear. It’s the most adorable vanilla creature ever. I have made it a minor crusade to replace it as the generic vanilla creature of choice in rules questions. I’ve even altered a few Judge Booth questions just to sneak it in.
Least favorite card: Purelace. I have a ton of them still. I can’t look at one of them without thinking “You could have been an Underground Sea.”
Favorite format: Legacy. I enjoy the wide variety of cards and situations that are created. I also like the freedom of being able to play practically any card I own.
Commander general: Omnath, Locus of Mana. I like big green stompy critters.
Favorite non-Magic Game: At GP:Charleston Aaron Stickney and Jason Flatford introduced me to ‘Cards Against Humanity’, which can be described as Apples to Apples for horrible people and I am apparently a horrible person… Three expansions worth of horrible person.
Best tournament result: I actually hate playing in tournaments. Having to play the same deck more than twice in a row makes my skin itch. I’ve actually gone 3-0 drop cause I get bored.
Random fact about yourself: There is a room in my house that’s only content is a 7 ft long stuffed pink Shamu.

Tell us an embarrassing story that you’re not afraid of everyone knowing.
Another judge played a prank on me by calling me at 1 AM pretending to be Riccardo Tessitori. At the time he was HJ of GP:Orlando, and I was Judge Manager. He called me and pretended to be angry about room sponsorships. In retrospect, I should have realized the Italian accent was really bad, but he had me going for nearly 10 minutes.

How has being a judge influenced your non-Magic life?
I like to think I have brought a lot of skills from judging into my professional life. I’m better able to assess strengths and areas of improvements in others. Better able to question workplace policy decisions. Better able to realize wasteful efforts. I used to be a guy that would “lose the forest for the trees” and now I feel I am more capable of stepping back and looking at the whole picture.

What motivates you to continue being a judge?
Its the community, easy. I count several judges amongst my best friends, I look forward to events to see old new friends and meet new ones. Seeing friends succeed and advance and grow is also a huge perk.

What is your favorite non-judging moment that happened with other judges?
Whichever Judge Dinner was last. In Florida, at any event with more than 2 judges, its followed by Judge Dinner. Where we go, hang out, tell stories and enjoy each others company until the restaurant starts hinting they would like to close. There is always something memorable about it. It was actually rather shocking when I learned that many other communities did not do this after their events. Its amazing what a simple thing can do to strengthen the bond in a community.

What’s the biggest rule-breaking play you’ve ever made as a player?
In a Commander game, I animated a mountain with Koth of the Hammer, copied it with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, then used Sundial of the Infinite to end my turn with its sacrifice trigger on the stack. I then did this over several turns to make Land Tokens.

If you could chat with one person, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Probably my Grandfather. He died before I was born, and my Dad used to tell me stories about him when I was little.

What would you be doing now if Magic no longer existed?
Probably driving my solid gold car to the marina to go deep sea fishing in my yacht. This hobby is expensive.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
“Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, ‘Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.'”

Two Truths and a Lie
Two of the following statements is true, and one is false. Figure out which!

1. I once had a “collection” of over 40 Fire Hydrant caps.
2. Teller (from Penn and Teller) once took a nap in the passenger seat of my car.
3. I hid a 12 inch Victoria-era style doll in a GP Kit and sent it back to Wizards.