Grand Prix New Jersey 2017

| Io Hughto

On the last GP weekend of 2017, we have five new judges to Welcome to the Fold!

Harry Appler

  • Name: Harry Appler
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: New York, New York
  • Region: USA – Northeast
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: October 25, 2001
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Bottle Gnomes
  • Occupation: Barista
  • Random fact about yourself: I’ve gone to an average of 1 concert a week for the last 3 years
  • Why did you become a judge?: A well run, consistent tournament is better for everyone, and becoming a judge has allowed me to provide that for my players
  • What excites you most about this event?: Getting to see how large groups of players/judges/staff come together to create wonderful large scale events.
  • What worries you most about this event?: That I’ll make a wrong call that negatively impact a player’s experience.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I just want the opportunity to see how other judges do their thing, and see if there are any best practices that I can incorporate into my Judging.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: A very recent one. A player in an Unstable draft was way behind, but they paid 8 life to activate Spike, to grab a Sol Ring, so they had the mana to cast Summon the Pack. They cracked Battle for Zendikar hoping for a big eldrazi, and completely whiffed… until they hit the rare slot and got an ulamog. And the next turn, their opponent cast GO TO JAIL on the Ulamog. This great, horrific, awful being, summoned from a pact with a tournament grinder…and it was just sent to jail.

Matt Cooper

  • Name: Matt Cooper
  • Level: Level 2
  • Location: Levittown, New York
  • Region: USA – Northeast
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: November 2012
  • L1 Certification Date: October 24, 2015
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: It’s probably a tie between judges and Snapcaster Mage
  • Occupation: Pre-service high school physics teacher
  • Random fact about yourself: In college, I built a computer program and machine for people to play blackjack with.
  • Why did you become a judge?: I wanted to be a positive influence in my community and help make players’ Magic experiences great.
  • What excites you most about this event?: Having the chance to work with so many judges and players to create a great GP experience.
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I struggle with anxiety and depression, and low self-esteem, impacting my performance at events.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I have been attending therapy sessions, and I have been building a fantastic support network of friends and judges.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: Getting to play my favorite Modern deck (Blue-Red Splinter Twin) at the main event in Grand Prix Pittsburgh in 2015.

Jonah Gray

  • Name: Jonah Gray
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: New York, New York
  • Region: USA – Northeast
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: Early 1998
  • L1 Certification Date: June 20, 2014
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: I love how many ways there are to play magic — I’m building my first cube!
  • Occupation: Attorney
  • Random fact about yourself: I am mildly obsessed with penguins.
  • Why did you become a judge?: I wanted to understand the rules better and to help run local events. At the time I was playing at a weekly draft that didn’t have a regular judge, and I wanted to pitch in.
  • What excites you most about this event?: I am a New Jersey native and the first GP I attended was here, so it’s especially exciting to judge my first GP here as well.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Since the scale of a GP is so different from other events, I am hoping to learn some of the tools GP judges use to navigate the event and to keep the trains (or, in Ixalan, the ships) running on time.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: A friend of mine collected packs from throughout Magic’s history and held a Chaos Grand Melee sealed event where 25 players opened random packs and played in one huge game (with some modified rules to keep things going). It was the biggest and most memorable game I’ve played, proving that things only get better when you make room for more people at the table!

James M

  • Name: James M
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Woodside, New York
  • Region: USA – Northeast
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: Summer 1995
  • L1 Certification Date: July 22, 2017
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: It’s all about community for me, I’ve met some lifelong buddies through magic, you can learn a lot about a person through how they play.
  • Occupation: NYC cabbie
  • Random fact about yourself: I hate cheaters and that drove my desire to master the rules and keep everyone playing fair (Azorius by birth)
  • Why did you become a judge?: Hours arguing with my buddy who’s a super spike over every game action and choice from land placement to pronunciation. Since we’re evenly matched games came down to who messed up first so naturally every game was a legal proceeding resulting in 30% magic playing and 70% research and debate.
  • What excites you most about this event?: It’s my first time at an event of this size and an opportunity to gather experience from a wide variety of other judges and players.
  • What worries you most about this event?: Being new to the large player environment unforeseen complications can arise that only experience can prepare you for.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: How to organize large crowds of players and host/judge major events.
  • Who is your mentor?: Chase Culpin, Tate Prodigalidad
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Handling clashing personalities of players and getting them to enjoy playing together despite their differences has been a challenge for me personally.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I do what I can but it’s a work in progress
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Diversity, we have young children and mature adults and everything in between in our group and people from all backgrounds and walks of life coming together for the fun of magic, it’s really beautiful and very reflective of the city we live in. Now if only we could appeal a bit more to female gamers and others.. Another protect of mine.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: Playing a game of magic with my buddy that came down to top decking back and forth till both our libraries where empty and it concluded by draw death. Both decks were tuned powerful control decks not aggressively drawing it was turn after turn of threat and answer back and forth on the edge of disaster. A glorious battle never to be recreated truly a one of a kind moment of magic. That and every friend I’ve made and the memories yet to be made together slinging spells 😀