{"id":5991,"date":"2017-12-27T13:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T19:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/?p=5991"},"modified":"2017-12-27T10:20:50","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T16:20:50","slug":"thomas-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/thomas-wells\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to another edition of Judge of the Week! This week’s rock star is known for keeping cool under pressure. Say hello to the United Kingdom’s own Thomas Wells!<\/p>\n

Name:<\/strong>\u00a0Thomas Wells<\/a><\/span><\/span>\"Tom
\nLevel:<\/strong> 1
\nLocation:<\/strong> Sheffield<\/a>, United Kingdom
\nJudge start date<\/strong>: 02\/29\/2016
\nOccupation:<\/strong> Student
\nFavourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Eye of the Storm<\/a>
\nLeast favourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Bronze Sable<\/a>
\nFavourite format:<\/strong> Commander
\nCommander General:<\/strong> Zurgo Helmsmasher<\/a>
\nFavourite non-Magic Game:<\/strong> Werewolves of Miller\u2019s Hollow<\/a>
\nBest tournament result:<\/strong> 1st at small events during FNM.
\nRandom fact about yourself:<\/strong> I spend far too much time looking at how games are designed and looking for the points where the rules stop working.<\/p>\n

How did you get involved in Magic in the first place?<\/strong>
\nAs a university student, I became a member of some societies. One of which, that I still meet up with regularly, plays card games and board games one night every week. I wandered over from the board games to have a look at the game lots of people were playing. The group immediately offered to teach me and soon I was armed with my wits and a green ramp hydra deck. I played a fair few games with that before getting my own cards. I still have the terrible deck I built in those first few weeks tucked away where no one can find it.<\/p>\n

Why did you become a Judge?<\/strong>
\nI had been playing Magic for a couple of years and found myself often being the one to answer rules questions or teach new people the game. One day the topic of competitive Magic was being discussed and I figured “Judging sounds fairly interesting.” As it happened, I was right and I\u2019ve enjoyed it since.<\/p>\n

How has being a Judge influenced your non-Magic life?<\/strong>
\nJudging has had quite an impact on me. It has caused me to be a lot more comfortable meeting new people, due to the number of people you end up working with. In addition, it has given me plenty of excuse to travel around the country and visit new places I otherwise wouldn\u2019t have thought about. I\u2019m hoping to head abroad at some point to judge to see how it is elsewhere.<\/p>\n

What motivates you to continue being a Judge?<\/strong>
\nI know that without local judges many stores wouldn\u2019t be able to run events. As much as I enjoy playing, I like knowing that I\u2019m doing something to help support my local Magic community and make sure everyone can enjoy the game. As an extra for myself, I really enjoy seeing all of the strange combos and brews players come up with.<\/p>\n

What is one tip you have for other Judges?<\/strong>
\nIf you stay positive and get to know your players, they will give you so much back. They might not always show it, but plenty of them appreciate the work we do and will have a good time with you afterwards.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best part about your local Magic community?<\/strong>
\nMy local Magic\u00a0community has a lot of choice. It doesn\u2019t matter what day of the week it is or the format you want to play you can usually find someone to fit in a few games. There are plenty of different small groups that vary from casual play to extremely competitive so usually you can fit in somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"CosplayWhat is your favourite non-Magic hobby?<\/strong>
\nI quite enjoy hiking\/camping. I just pack a bag, grab a tent and\u00a0walk out to the peak district to\u00a0explore for a few days. There are some really amazing views and it’s good to get away from everything.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the biggest rule-breaking play you\u2019ve ever made as a player?<\/strong>
\nWhen I was first learning, a few of my group got confused and thought keywords on creatures were owned by the player much in the same way as the creatures themselves. This led to a memorable game where I won because I gave my opponent\u2019s creature hexproof to counter his pump spell. I mean, it was my hexproof and it said that my opponents couldn\u2019t target the creature with spells. I have since learned my lesson.<\/p>\n

If you could chat with one person, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?<\/strong>
\nTerry Pratchett<\/a>.\u00a0I love his books and would have loved to know how his mind worked. He also had quite an interesting life.<\/p>\n

What would you be doing now if Magic no longer existed?<\/strong>
\nI would probably be spending more time playing board games, or I would be more serious about one of the other TCGs I play. I would almost certainly find something to fill the suddenly free time with.<\/p>\n

How do you have fun during events?<\/strong>
\nI enjoy seeing odd Magic interactions occurring at the tables. As much as I enjoy playing, you can see some very interesting matches by wandering around and spectating.<\/p>\n

If you were a Planeswalker, what would be your ultimate?<\/strong>
\nWell, from some of my friends\u2019 complaints about my draws: \u201cIf you would draw a card, instead search your library for a card and put it into your hand then give a sigh of relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fox<\/p>\n

If you were a creature what would be your creature type?
\n<\/strong>I\u2019d like to say fox, mostly so I\u2019d have an extra card for the Fox tribal deck I am working on. One day there will be enough of them…<\/p>\n

What hobbies do you have outside of Magic?<\/strong>
\nMostly board games, Pokemon TCG, Hiking and playing video games, LARP. I am easily entertained.<\/p>\n

Proudest moment of your Judge life?<\/strong>
\nWhile judging at a WMCQ, I had a player who I had earlier given a game loss to in a side event for deck\/deck list error come up to me and thanked me for doing such a great job. He understood he\u2019d made a silly mistake, but was really happy with how I\u2019d treated him and how I was running the side events.<\/p>\n

Two Truths and a Lie<\/strong>
\nTwo of the following statements are true and one is false. Figure out which!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I spend a lot of time designing and planning out how to make random objects with very narrow use.<\/li>\n
  2. One of my close friends has earned the nickname Magic Santa due to excessive generosity.<\/li>\n
  3. I am very bad at the board game Avalon.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [expand title=”The answer to the last Two Truths and a Lie…”]Those who know Mike Gyssels also know how he loves to eat in somewhat absurd quantities. However, the truth is that he avoids all types of seafood like the plague. Shellfish, regular fish, sushi. Can\u2019t do it, won\u2019t do it.[\/expand]<\/p>\n

    If there is a judge who is also doing something exemplary, please nominate a judge\u00a0TODAY!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Welcome back to another edition of Judge of the Week. This week’s rock star is known for keeping cool under pressure. Say hello to the United Kingdom’s own Thomas Wells!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":6108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"language":[],"class_list":["post-5991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judge-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5991"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8059,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions\/8059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5991"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=5991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}