{T}: Marry Target Player
Super loud up-front disclaimer: I’m #wotcstaff, but I’m saying that only because this is a post about Magic and company policy is that we need to put the hashtag in when we talk about our products on social media, even on personal accounts like this one. There is literally nothing here that is remotely official or relevant to Magic as a whole.
I’m marrying this woman next weekend.
My soon-to-be wife and I are Magic nerds. In fact, we met because of Magic. We matched on OKCupid, but that wasn’t a big deal. I had a lot of matches. What set her apart was that she said in her profile, in the “What I’m Doing On Friday Night” section, was that she played FNM.
Now I was an editor in R&D at the time. I had designed cards and I was definitely a Magic celebrity in my own mind. C-list, maybe D. I’m no Rosewater or Verhey. But my job gave me a certain amount of cachet all the same and I decided to use it. I messaged her, telling her that it was cool she played Magic because I helped make the game. I reasoned that it would get me a first date, and from there I could see if I wanted to keep seeing her.
Our second date, we played in a Conspiracy 1 & 2 two-headed giant draft event. This was years before Battlebond and in fact led directly to that set. The people running it were Shawn Main and Mel Li, the former of whom was the originator of the idea that became that product. Christine and I spent our draft building mono-black control(ish) and WU fliers. The draft itself took hours, and then we started our four-team game very far behind. We got safely ignored by the other three teams for a while... then Christine drew her ninth land. She played it and cast Expropriate. As we were so far behind, everyone decided to let us take bonus turns, so when that was over, we had four more to go. On the second bonus turn, I drew and cast Phage the Untouchable. On the third bonus turn, I activated Rogue’s Passage and one-shotted one of our enemy teams. On the last bonus turn, we one-shotted another. Then we died, but who cares because that was awesome.
We took a vacation together after two months of dating and Winston drafted a dozen times on the trip.
I can’t play in prereleases with the public, but she loves opening brand-new sets at midnight. So I usually bring her coffee for her midnight prerelease, look over her deck, then take off.
A few weeks after I proposed to her, just after handing her coffee at the Ixalan prerelease, she grabbed my hand and slid my engagement ring on the finger it’s stayed on for most of the last year.
And of the five people in my bridal party, I met all four women playing or working on Magic. (My bridesman plays Magic too, it’s just that I met him in college instead of through Magic.)
Magic is a huge part of our life and it’s brought us a ton of joy. So when it came time for my bridal shower, one of my bridesmaids made this small series of cards for me. I loved them so much that I just had to share.
Really she’s Gruul and not Jeskai, but this is fine. The card is great.
I’m probably mono-White or Selesnya. But Bant isn’t too far off.
