This weekend is the first ever Magic Weekend. It’s amazing, exciting and chock full of Magic. Aside from the obvious Pro Tour, Grand Prix and Player of the Year Showdown, there’s Two-Headed Giant, Legacy Tournaments, Super FNMs, just about everything the mind can fathom. But I still think we’re shooting low. I can imagine so much more for the perfect, the optimal, the Platonic ideal of a Magic Weekend. Ready for my first idea? SPACE. That’s right; Magic in space. Totally awesome, right? Want another one? An entire weekend of Magic while a zombified Billie Holliday sings me Magic-themed versions of old jazz standards. Bam. Count it. Awesome.
So I was thinking about this idea, and wondered what other people thought of when they imagined “the perfect Magic Weekend”. So I decided to find out.
Things started simply. Bill Senneway simply said winning a Pro Tour would be the perfect Magic Weekend. Unimaginative, yes, but certainly on the tongue tips of many a competitor this weekend. Along the same lines, his traveling cohort, Harry Corvese said his perfect Magic Weekend was already coming up. “I’m from Philly; I’ve got a Pro Tour in my hometown right after a Grand Prix in Pittsburgh!” It might be a little longer than a weekend, but in his defense, so is this current Magic Weekend.
Chicagoan Lee Cody started the imagination gears going when I asked him. I caught him and his friend Zach Jesse while Winston drafting their Cube. His idea: Two bikini-clad girls standing behind him all weekend. When I asked if perhaps he wanted a shoulder rub from them, he seemed against it – much too distracting. “But they should have a vested interest in what I’m doing.” There’s that ridiculous spirit I was looking for!
“A Grand Prix weekend where there are no appeals and no rounds go to time,” said Australian judge James MacKay. A touch pragmatic for my tastes, but just as unreasonable as Space-Magic, so I’m on board. And plus, I expect nothing less from a man who had this nightmare before he judged his first major event: James dreamt that every player intentionally drew each round, then he had to figure out the top 8. With such logical nightmares, I guess I have to expect logical dreams.
Conley Woods, always on-hand for a good quote, told me he’d already had the perfect Magic Weekend last week. He was staying at a beach house in San Diego with a bunch of pros hot-tubbing it up and drafting. “And I said every time I finished 1-2 or 0-3, I’d go outside and jump in the pool.” Wintertime in San Diego is still winter, Conley. He also added while walking away, “Oh, or an 18-person Grand Prix with triple payout.” How pro of him.
Magic Weekend is amazing and going strong, even with judge appeals and no zombies in sight (except for Grave Titan tokens, of course). And for you Magic couples out there, can there be something better than Valentine's Day in Paris?
What’s your perfect Magic Weekend?
