MagicFest Indianapolis 2019

| Io Hughto

This weekend in Indianapolis, we have 6 new judges to Welcome to the Fold!

Alecia Devney

  • Name: Alecia Devney
  • Pronouns She/her/hers
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, United States of America
  • Region: USA – Great Lakes
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2014
  • L1 Certification Date: August 10, 2018
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: My favorite thing is to travel to events.
  • Random fact about yourself: I really enjoy painting minis. I have done classes on how to traditionally paint them.
  • Why did you become a judge?: I became a judge because my parents had opened a card and video game store. They ran events regularly but didn’t have any one to help with rules.
  • What excites you most about this event?: I’m excited most about this event because it is my first Magic Fest!
  • What worries you most about this event?: I am worried the most about traffic.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I am hoping to take home skills that will help me run events more smoothly and efficiently.
  • Who are your mentors?: Matt Karr, and Meg Rickman
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: A challenge I am currently facing is becoming L2. I am studying and working very hard to earn it. One of my biggest challenges I think was my first event. I didn’t know any one in the community so I kinda just hopped in to SCG Winter Concert not really sure what to expect. But even though I made many mistakes I took them and used them as tools to learn from and do better next time.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I take feed back and use it as a tool on where I need to go next. I’m also constantly asking where I need to go next and why. I work better with a purpose.
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: I really enjoy my shop owners personality. He is super open and accommodating to everyone.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: Getting a better understanding of the difference between HCE and LCE. It was something I struggled with so I made it my goal one day to grasp a better understanding of it.

Walter Emmitt

  • Name: Walter Emmitt
  • Pronouns He/him/his
  • Level: Level 2
  • Location: Cookeville, Tennessee, United States of America
  • Region: USA – Southeast
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 05/30/1999
  • L1 Certification Date: September 11, 2012
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Playing obscure cards
  • Occupation: Appliance Technician
  • Random fact about yourself: I was recently able to loop my opponent’s Nexus of Fate with my Chaos Wand in Standard. Understandably, this brought me much joy.
  • Why did you become a judge?: I wanted to enable local Tournament Organizers to host more competitive REL events. I already had a deep interest in the rules, so it seemed like a natural progression.
  • What excites you most about this event?: While I’ve played in Grand Prix before and judged several smaller events, I’ve always wanted to judge a truly huge event.
  • What worries you most about this event?: Keeping track of locations within the event hall.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I’m always looking to learn about team management skills and philosophies as I move toward team leading more often.
  • Who are your mentors?: Jonathan Holland and Derrik Smith
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I always tend to get very anxious before an event, but it fades as the event begins.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I always review my documents in the hours prior to the event and remember that I’ve handled things well so far.
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The Cookeville TN magic community is the most welcoming and family-friendly that I’ve encountered. There is a strict check on acceptable language and behavior.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: During the ride back from my passing my L2 exam I received 3 head judging offers before I even got home. It had been a long time coming, but I always had something come up to stop my advancement process. Having that off my back and immediately getting recognized for it was awesome.

Garrison Fogt

  • Name: Garrison Fogt
  • Pronouns He/him/his
  • Level: Level 2
  • Location: Crossville, Tennessee, United States of America
  • Region: USA – Southeast
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: Fall 2012
  • L1 Certification Date: February 11, 2015
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Jund
  • Occupation: Camp Program Director
  • Random fact about yourself: I used to be a Girl Scout
  • Why did you become a judge?: Initially, because I hated answering rules questions and having to say “I am not a Judge, but…”. Now, to stay active and involved in the Magic community.
  • What excites you most about this event?: Having a chance to see firsthand how large tournament logistics are organized in a Magic Fest.
  • What worries you most about this event?: Early meeting for work on Monday morning after the event.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: How CFBE organizes the tournament logistics for Magic Fests.
  • Who are your mentors?: Matt Karr, Jonathan Holland, Dave Fleig
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Rushing through judge calls and missing details or input from all involved parties.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Reminding myself to slow down, ask questions to all involved parties, and digging beyond surface details.
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Having a close-knit group of judges (and players) that are able to help each other improve and travel to large events together.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: Winning my first team event with two of my good friends.

William Dair Grant

  • Name: William Dair Grant
  • Level: Level 2
  • Location: Martinsville, Indiana, United States of America
  • Region: USA – Great Lakes

Robert Taylor

  • Name: Robert Taylor
  • Pronouns He/him/his
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Knoxville, Iowa, United States of America
  • Region: USA – Central
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: August 2011
  • L1 Certification Date: July 26, 2015
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: The game is a never-ending puzzle, with new cards unraveling previous solved portions.
  • Occupation: The Midwest Tournament Updater guy/Cat Wrangler/”recent” College Graduate
  • Random fact about yourself: Before discovering Magic, I was an avid Rock Band player, with over 1500 songs for it.
  • Why did you become a judge?: I’ve always tried to be involved in the Magic community, and after winning a PPTQ in the first weekend of the season, I couldn’t play any more for two months. That gave me the time to get some experience on staff and test for L1.
  • What excites you most about this event?: I’m usually a competitive player, but I am excited to work ODEs on Friday with a bunch of players just there to have a good time.
  • Who are your mentors?: Josh Schroeder. In Iowa, we don’t have a lot of L2s, so he was head judge of almost all of the PPTQs there. He is always available if a question comes up or I need something.
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I don’t like being mediocre or bad at something, so I have put off testing for L2 for a long time instead of jumping in to see where I’m at.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Josh picked a date for me to test, so it’s gonna happen. (9/21)
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: As part of the Midwest Tournament Updater group on Facebook (nearly 2000 members), I love seeing the support players offer to each other when they are close to achieving their goals or if things haven’t gone so well. Even if people can’t be at an event that is going on, they are there to cheer others on.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: My favorite memory is from watching a fellow Iowa PPTQ grinder named Wyatt Darby take down Pro Tour Dominaria. Things were looking bleak in game 5, but then… “Was that a Glorybringer?!”
    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/268878260?t=06h51m40s

Brandon Young

  • Name: Brandon Young
  • Pronouns He/him/his
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Dayton, Ohio, United States of America
  • Region: USA – Great Lakes
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: May 2013
  • L1 Certification Date: December 13, 2018
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: “Cannot be countered”
  • Occupation: Sales Associate at an LGS
  • Random fact about yourself: I don’t look it, but I’m half Vietnamese!
  • Why did you become a judge?: To further my knowledge of MtG and have a better outlet to apply it and help others with it.
  • What excites you most about this event?: It’s my first MagicFest, so I’m eager to experience a whole new event environment.
  • What worries you most about this event?: While I’ve gotten familiar with other tournament circuits, namely Star City, I’m somewhat daunted by the scale of this one and hope I can keep up with operations from day to day.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I’m hoping to learn what all goes into an event of this scale, having never staffed or even attended one myself previous to this.
  • Who are your mentors?: David Pitstick, Cassandra Leduc-McDaniel, and Matthew Farney
  • What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Challenges I first faced when I became a judge was being able to confidently determine and deliver rulings at larger Competitive REL events, something I wasn’t experienced with at all prior to certifying as an L1. With each event though, I feel myself noticeably becoming more and more confident in any calls or scenarios I’m involved in.
  • How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I’ve become better by always consulting with other more experienced judges at various events with me, always eager for feedback or input on how they would handle all kinds of scenarios and making sure to take their input into consideration moving forward.
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: I’m incredibly lucky in that my local Dayton community is absolutely enormous, and that I happen to judge at the largest store in the area, so I get to see the full spectrum of players come and go and interact with all of them in different, unique ways.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: The first time I opened a Mythic rare in a pack I was on cloud nine. I had just bought the Orzhov starter from Gatecrash and one of the included packs had a Deathpact Angel. It’s an absolute bulk Mythic, but I was so stoked to have just started playing and to already find this (what I thought was) bomb card in my first ever pack, I felt unstoppable.