MagicFest Brisbane 2019

| Laura Ellis

This weekend in Brisbane, we have 8 new judges to Welcome to the Fold!

Andre Abelita

  • Name: Andre Abelita
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Eight mile plains, Australia
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand

Matt Baxter

  • Name: Matt Baxter
  • Pronouns He/him/his
  • Level: Level 0
  • Location: Brisbane, Australia
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2012
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: The amazing mix of games tied together by a remarkable set of rules.
  • Occupation: Lawyer & Policy Analyst
  • Random fact about yourself: MTG Dad to three kids (all showing an interest in MTG, happily)
  • Why did you become a judge?: First and foremost it is really satisfying helping people. I hope people have positive experiences at FNM and pre-release and want to play MTG all their lives. Secondly a deficit in my skill set is giving quick, accurate examples where there are a lot of elements involved, especially conflict. I think becoming a judge will help with this.
  • What excites you most about this event?: Having interactions with so many people playing magic for so many different reasons. Even to say hi and have a chance at making their experience just a bit better with good customer service.
  • What worries you most about this event?: It is all very new. I have a couple of disabilities which I have managed pretty well to continue working Monday to Friday but doing so in a new environment even for three days makes me a bit nervous.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Honestly just spending time with judge and ops staff and learning from them, to see the event from the other side. Its very exciting.
  • Who are your mentors?: Jared Mallett and I share a workplace, I have been speaking to him about becoming a judge for years and he has answered many questions, and travelled out of his way to show me the ropes at my local store.
  • What is your favorite Magic memory?: My first GP. It was Modern and I could only afford a budget deck, Soul Sisters. With a good deal of luck I went 7-1-1 on day one and came back to battle on day two (day two did not go nearly as well, I was a long way out of my depth!). I kept calling my wife after each of the later rounds telling her that I would be home later and later since I had only expected to drop shortly after lunch. I remember sideboarding 11 cards in against my Tron opponents, again more luck than anything else.

Caitlin Butcher

  • Name: Caitlin Butcher
  • Level: Level 0
  • Location: Perth, Australia
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand

Michael Collins

  • Name: Michael Collins
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Auckland, New Zealand
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand

John Eastgate-Brown

  • Name: John Eastgate-Brown
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Wellington, New Zealand
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2006
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: I love that you can travel anywhere in the world and meet people that love the game as much as you do
  • What worries you most about this event?: I’m definitely nervous about taking my Level 2 test, but excited for the opportunity as well.
  • What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Different skills that apply to judging larger or multiple events since all of my experience so far judging has been relatively smaller in scale.
  • Who are your mentors?: Lex and Chips, both awesome judges from Wellington that I’ve learnt a lot from over the years.
  • What is the best part about your local Magic community?: It’s just a very tight-knit community, everyone knows each other really well but are still welcoming to newcomers too.

Elizabeth Knightmare

  • Name: Elizabeth Knightmare
  • Level: Level 0
  • Location: Location Hidden
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand

Swetam Ramanathan

  • Name: Swetam Ramanathan
  • Pronouns He/him/his
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Perth, Australia
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand
  • Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: June 2017
  • L1 Certification Date: August 6, 2019
  • Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Social Aspects of Magic
  • Occupation: Electrical Engineer
  • Random fact about yourself: Big Fitness Nerd
  • Why did you become a judge?: Be involved in the magic community without playing as much magic.
  • What excites you most about this event?: Getting to meet the broader ANZ Judge Community
  • What worries you most about this event?: Making mistakes that affect players negatively at Comp REL events.
  • Who are your mentors?: Denby Adams

Isaac Scherhag

  • Name: Isaac Scherhag
  • Level: Level 1
  • Location: Brisbane, Australia
  • Region: Australia and New Zealand