Hello Canadian Judges! Our Sixth judge spotlight is a well known Western judge and mentor to many of the newer judges in the Calgary area. He’s also one of the most recognizable Judges in Canada thanks to his work on the F2F events team!

Name: Sam Tsafalas

Level: JF 3

Location: Calgary

Judge start date: First L1 Cert was August 2015. Huh, 10 years ago. 

Occupation: Events Lead

Favorite card: I’m picking 3! Soulfire Grandmaster, Primeval Titan, Goblin Arsonist

Least favorite card: All is Dust

Favorite format: Chaos Draft Your Commander Sealed

Ok, even I have no idea what this format is, how does it work?: Open a pack of Commander Masters to see what Commander options you have, and then you draft 6 boosters from a wide variety, then you open them and build a sealed commander deck out of them! (Editors Note: Everyone bug Mike about making this happen at every F2F tour stop, this sounds amazing!)

Commander General: Hearthhull, the World Seed 

Favourite non-Magic Game: Flesh and Blood

Best tournament result: MTG: GP Day 2. FAB: Scrubbed out of a PT

Random fact about yourself: I own exactly two Pokémon cards.

Why do you judge? I started judging 48 years ago because my friends were doing it and I thought it was kinda cool. Pretty quickly I fell in love with the program and the opportunities to work with and meet new people. The experiences and people are what keep me invested to this day 

Tell us your favourite Judge story. The first time I ever met BGD (Brook Gardner-Durbin) was a disaster on both of our ends, and really set the tone for our friendship. 

He sent me an email with a couple of (hilarious) typos, and I showed up to the event 30 minutes late. Pretty poor first impression, and we joke about it a lot.

What are some tips you have for other Judges? When the sky is falling, take a step back and ground yourself. Think about where you are, why you’re here, and what resources you have at your disposal to catch it. 

What is your favourite non-judging moment that happened with other Judges (or after-event story)? Not a specific moment, but lately I’ve been making more of an effort to carve out time to do escape rooms in all the different cities across Canada that events are held in

Who have been some of your biggest mentors in the Judge Program, and what did they teach you? This is such a difficult question for me to answer. I have been mentored by so many different people in so many different circumstances. I’m going to list a few, but this is certainly not a comprehensive list.

Darren Gamble – Darren was the first person I reached out to when I wanted to become a judge. Darren has this incredible ability to understand where someone is at and try different methods to get through to them. Darren taught me the importance of professionalism and made me realize that you’re allowed to care (I struggled with this a lot in multiple aspects of my life at that time, but that’s a story for another bullet point).

Abeed Bendall – Abeed got me back into judging after I had quit magic and judging. He is the only person in my life that I feel has always been in my corner 100%. He took multiple leaps of faith on me, and always pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone. I owe a lot to Abeed, and I wish I could put it into words.

BGD – Brook was one of the first judges I got exposed to from outside my local bubble that took me under his wing at a serious level. We always got along as friends, but he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. He has (and continues to) put serious effort into delivering feedback to me. He was a big reason why I was able to continue taking leaps into new roles and experiences. Brook taught me to be okay with not being the best in the room, but to instead take advantage of that fact in order to learn as much as possible.

Michael Hill – Mike is another person with whom I just clicked with once I started being more active on a national scale. He has this ability to just know how to get through to people, and that skill is extremely underrated. I appreciate that Mike is someone who is willing to invest time into people. He is a role model in feedback and self assessment that I admire and look up to.

What positive aspects has the Judge Program contributed to your everyday life? In addition to the other things I’ve mentioned, it’s given me a sense of belonging in a grander community. I didn’t realize how important that was. 

What’s the best part about your local Magic community? The chicken emoji stands the test of time. That’s like 10 years of lore. 

What is your favorite non-Magic hobby? Flesh and Blood, but if you mean non-tcg’s I have played competitive shooters at a (relatively) high level before. 

You’re well known for also doing the “Judge Tower” Podcast. What inspired you to do a podcast and why Judges Tower?

I, a white man in my 20’s, felt the desire to make a podcast about something I was passionate about, and always wanted to do one about Magic. Judgecast already existed and was great, and that space probably wasn’t big enough to support another set of judge podcasters (and Judgecast is great). Jan and I really enjoyed judge’s tower and we floated the idea amongst each other about doing a podcast, and then he made it happen! He did 90% of the work, to be honest. I just showed up and said words into a microphone.”

How did you get involved in Magic in the first place? You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Ok, now you’ve got to tell us!: But the mystery is way more fun! (Editor’s Note: If anyone figures this out let me know, Sam resisted all my interrogation methods)

If you were a Planeswalker what would be your ultimate? It would be an ability that could be activated as an instant and it would say “until end of turn, target creature gets +3/+0 and gains ‘when this deals combat damage to a player, look at their hand and then name a card. Search their hand, library, and graveyard for up to 4 copies of cards with the chosen name, then exile them.’ Shuffle.”

Where would you go if you could take an omenpath vacation on any magic plane? Easy Innistrad. It would basically be Bloodborne 2 

And this is a place you’d want to go for a vacation? Yeah! Can’t be much worse than Toronto, and I vacation there frequently. (Editor’s Note: I don’t condone the view represented in this comment… even if I agree with it…)

If you could have any magic character as your head judge who would it be? You didn’t capitalize the M, so my answer is Penn as the HJ and Teller as the appeals judge. 

Proudest moment of your Judge life? One of the first times I was a main event RC team lead, I went for dinner with one of my mentors and we just reflected on my journey. I will never forget that dinner. 

What character in Magic (real or fictional) represents you the best, and why? https://scryfall.com/card/sld/1147/birds-of-paradise. Just look at it 

Two Truths and a Lie:

• The event I have judged the most for circuit organizers that aren’t F2F is Ravnica Clue 
• I have never played Magic Arena
• I have two university degrees

Last episodes answer:
Kyle has only lost his passport three times! Next time you see him outside of the country don’t forget to ask where he last saw it…