Welcome back to another exciting episode of Exemplar Highlights! I’m your host, Sal Cortez, and today I’m gonna Show and Tell y’all a mighty fine article, this time written by David Delgado about John O’Donnell! Let’s take a look-see:

John you are one of the most organized judges I have worked with. Recently at a GP you where in charge of an event that I come on near the end and I was impressed that you where able to complete such a smooth handoff for the event. You had everything (breaks, notes, event space in the room) written down and made sure not to miss a beat. You also made sure I was aware of everything that was going on so I would not be confused. You are a great example of organizational skills and I learn something I could be doing better whenever we work together. Gee, isn’t that swell? What with the comraderie, and the Pedantic Learning and stuff?

David started playing in the crisp green days of 1997, all the way back in Tempest. Everything was going great until someone built a blue deck with Force of Wills causing him and his friends to quit and Withdraw, on to Greener Pastures. His favorite card is Stifle because of it’s versatility and, well, who doesn’t love stifle? He loves how the game can be both casual and competitive, depending on what each player prefers. Eventually a group of his co-workers got him into the game again with EDH. His Curiosity over how all those wacky interactions worked on a more in depth level and desire to learn more about them in turn spurred his interest in becoming a judge.

John also hails from the wee years of Magic, a long time ago in a year far far away; 1994. His favorite card would probably be either Cryptic Command or Mindstone because, and I quote, ‘as far as I am concerned, it is perfectly designed’. Drawing cards, Counterspells and Spell Counters, everything a blue mage needs to succeed. I wonder if he was the one to build the blue deck that made David and his friends quit? Perhaps we’ll never know. Anyway, after joining the military John’s magic time was Stifled and reduced to zero, and by the time he returned all of his friends had moved on. He had always had a Natural Affinity for being the rules guy in his group so becoming a Judge seemed to be the next step, Pure // Simple.