Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1189: Game Knights Live with Josh Lee Kwai, Jimmy Wong, and Becca Scott

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

At MagicCon: Las Vegas, I was honored to participate in Game Knights Live. I have my three fellow players, Josh Lee Kwai, Jimmy Wong, and Becca Scott, on the podcast to talk through all that went into putting it on and share a bunch of the behind-the-scenes stories.

I'm not pulling in my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work at home edition. Okay guys, today we're talking about something that was really exciting that I got a chance to do in Vegas. Game Nights Live. So I have not one, not two, but three special guests. So Josh Lee Kuy, Jimmy Wong, and Becca Scott. Welcome. Yay. Hello. Thanks for Becca Scott, welcome. Yay. Hello. Thanks for having us, Mark. OK, so Josh, why don't we start with you?

What exactly is Game Nights Live? Where did this whole idea come from in the first place? Explain to the audience what it is. Game Nights Live is live Magic Commander gameplay on stage in front of an audience of I believe at Vegas we had somewhere between 12 and 1400 maybe 1500 people. Cheering, it is big there's a lot of pageantry and we you know it involves the audience we call people on stage we roll a huge dice it really is just a giant live spectacle, you know, a cross between live theatrical

performance and magic gameplay. Okay, so one of the things I want to explain today is a lot of work goes into this. This was the actual gameplay on stage was about three, four hours, I assume, something like that. But... Around three. Yeah, so we actually all got into Vegas. So the event was on Friday, and we actually all got into Vegas. So the event was on Friday and we all got

there on Tuesday. So I just want to walk through sort of all the prep we did to get ready for the show. So, Jimmy, we'll throw to you. So what, walk us through the prep. Yeah, so this has been our ninth show now, right, Josh, of Game Nights Live. We've been, we started at Magic 30 and we've attended every Magic Con since, as well as one special Gen Con. And so we've gotten the rehearsal process down to a pretty good science here. So we all arrive on Tuesday, the show is on Friday like you said Mark. Wednesday is day one of rehearsal. So this is in a usually like a conference room or even sometimes a hotel nearby.

And the goal is in this rehearsal to just get comfortable with the run of show, making sure that we have also we also have two presenters that are alongside with us. And this shows case, it was Gavin Verhae and Rachel Weeks. And so there's a lot of just small little bits and pieces to go through. We get to hear our player intros for the first time. We get to sort of sit there and play through the game, play through our decks, and just make sure we know what each deck does.

And just come up also sometimes on the spot, hey, this would be a fun area to bring in an audience member or like this card, how are we gonna make this work in a live setting? And so we start early in the morning and we just go through the whole day, basically playing the game over and over again, just to get the decks in,

get ourselves more familiar with our decks, get ourselves familiar with the settings, and nothing having to do with rehearsing like the walk-ups or anything, but just sort of getting the small bits and pieces out of the way. And then also, I think later on in the afternoon, the players leave and then Josh, at that point, the announcers take over to do some rehearsing of like the trivia show and stuff right before that right? Yeah that's right. Okay that's yeah and then Thursday is like the big rehearsal day but you have something to ask in between there aren't? No no I'm just saying that's just Wednesday. Yeah when you see the live show I don't think we'll let people realize how much rehearsal goes into it because we even have rehearsals back here in Los Angeles prior to even going out to Las Vegas to make sure the decks that we built are functioning,

are balanced with each other, and that's usually done by our in-house office staff. But yeah, that's just the Wednesday rehearsal. Thursday we actually get on stage, and this is closer to like a dress rehearsal or a tech rehearsal for those that are familiar with theater, where we have Jake and Jamie working with the backstage crew to make sure that all the light cues are on correctly,

all the camera people know what to do when certain parts of the game happen, to position all the tables in the right places, make sure the focus is right, the cards aren't glaring, the sound cues are on, the microphones are working, and then we're rehearsing our walk-ups that day, which is what happens right before we get on stage,

where there's a big player intro, we're walking all throughout the crowd with a host of Bannerman people behind us, hoisting giant flags and stuff. So it's a really complicated process, but Thursday is really all about getting on our feet and doing that for real. And we do much less gameplay rehearsal that day, but also getting on stage and also learning how to say the card names when we say them so that James backstage can pull them up and getting through that more specific technical process. And then once that day is over, we just show up on Friday and then we're basically there backstage,

sweating it out, getting ready, and then the show goes on. The one other thing goes on Thursday. We all have costumes. Everybody who, all the players have costumes. And so Olivia does all our costumes and we have to try them on. And if there's fit changes, you know, that can happen So that also goes on Thursday Yeah, and mark this time around you had probably the most outside of my I didn't know drossy costume in Europe But you have probably the most complex costume out of all What it was an incredible incredible cardboard car, right? You got the car, right?

I think so the car is incredible So real quickly for the people that might not have seen this. By the way, this will either, I'm not sure it's up yet, but it will be up soon and you guys will, you can watch it online. So Duskmore had just come out, so we had a horror theme to this set. And I was the creepy clown, Josh was a zombie, Becca was a ghost, and then Jimmy was the creepy clown. Josh was a zombie. Becca was a ghost. And then Jimmy was the Lord of Pain.

What is the Lord of Pain? Yeah, a madhouse basically. Yeah, the House of Pain. A lot of screaming and yelling. Yes. Rockstar slash murder or something like that. There you go. Also, something you brought up, I just wanted to make sure the audience understands.

The decks are built by your team ahead of time. We don't build our individual decks. Yeah. And the reason behind that is that we are playing for a live experience and we get one shot at it. We're playing for real, we are drawing off the top, and we want to make sure that there's not a single deck that is so overpowered compared to the other ones that it would throw the live show off.

And we also want to make sure that the decks have components in it that could be fun for a live audience. When we get to roll a giant dice that we call a cube consequence, or when we get to pull people up on stage, those moments are really exciting for the audience. And that's what makes the live experience that much more fun too.

So that's why we pre-built the decks to make sure that in the same pod, they're all essentially rule zeroed against each other. Okay, so real quickly, I'll give each person one minute to explain what your commander was and what your deck did. So Becca, why don't you go first? I would love to.

Thank you, Mark. All right, so the least reverent medium, this is an Orzhov card and each instep she makes a bunch of spirits that have flying that are equal to the number of tokens created that turn. That have flying that are equal to the number of tokens created that turn so I make a bunch of treasure Because that counts that'll make me a spirit just a bunch of spells that come in with creatures and Tokens and really just go wide. That's it. Go wide. Okay, Josh. What's your deck? I Was playing so DC brood tyrants

Okay, Josh, what's your deck? I was playing Sedice Brood Tyrant, which is a card that when you self mill, if you mill a creature, then you get a zombie, and it also mills on attack. So my deck was a zombie deck, trying to mill itself to create a bunch of zombies. I was also go wide, but the difference is that I was making two two zombies on the ground And Becca was making one one flyers in the air and we're making the tokens in sort of different ways But we kind of had a similar strategy as far as like just get a lot of stuff out there and then try and figure out how to crash in with it Okay, Jimmy, I was playing the Lord of Pain, which was a new commander from dusk morin And this deck was all about basically getting out a lot of different ways to deal damage around the table. Some of it was equal to all opponents, and some of it was specifically to one or two. And then I had a lot of huge spells in my deck that had ways to have their mana reduced.

So I had like a 15 drop and a 12 drop that had their mana costs reduced, but if I cast it with the Lord of the Pain out, then I'd be able to swing 13 damage or 12 damage at someone. And the idea was just to sort of make everyone take a bunch of damage over and over again and get to the point where they're all within one hit of the Lord of Pain. Did you mention goading? So much goading. Oh yeah, there's a lot of goad in the deck as well. It really is just about dishing out pain, and that was the primary strategy, and it

did a pretty good job of it. And also it keeps your opponents from gaining life too, which is important. Yes, that is a very important factoid, especially as it pertains to this game. Mark, what did your deck do? I had the Jolly Balloon Man, he's also from Dusk Mourn. Basically what he does is he copies a creature,

but they become a one-one flying red balloon that have all the abilities, and they have haste so you can attack right away but then they pop at the end of turn and so the idea is my deck had enterers and attack and death triggers and I'm just trying to constantly do that and there was all sorts of shenanigans to try to just make things happen a lot so. That card is so wonderfully beautifully thematic the the fact that it's a balloon, the fact that it pops, brings me so much joy.

When I first read that card, I immediately wanted to build a commander deck around it. It's so funny. It is one of the creepiest arts of the whole set. And your deck had something special too, Mark. We got the first time ever on Game Night's Live, a couple of rule zero din cards, specifically ones that you designed, right?

Yeah, so what happened was when Josh and I had originally talked about it, he said, anything you'd like any requests? And I said, yeah, I'd like some uncards. They don't have to be crazy uncards, although maybe we argue one was crazy. And so there were two cards that ended up in my deck. One was, give me five, where you have 30 seconds

and you get one life for every high five. We'll get back to that one in a second. And then the other one was- Frankie Peanuts. Oh, Frankie Peanuts, which is you get to ask a question. You make people answer yes or no questions and they have to follow through on what the yes or no questions were.

And I came up with all these yes or no questions and then never drew them, so. But, but I did, I did draw Gimme Five. So one of the tricks about Gimme Five was, Jimmy's Commander keeps you from gaining life. And so what I realized was, if either I had to cast it before Jimmy got his Laura Payne out, or I had to get rid of Jimmy's Laura Payne in order to cast it.

So one of the things that happens in our rehearsal day is we pick like maybe 10 card, like things that are like, okay, what happens if you draw this card? And so we actually, we walk through that. One of the things that Jimmy talked about earlier is we really want to involve the audience too. And so we tag all the cards we think might be a good opportunity to pull the audience up or

involve the audience and stuff and so but anyway in the actual game I did get my gimme five and in response to Jimmy Casting Lord of the Bane because I knew that I couldn't guess life I cast it and then I gained 78 life so that was uh that was quite fun does everyone know what that card does yes you gain one life for every high five you do in 30 seconds. In a 30 second timer, yes. Did you write that card expecting an audience of 1,500? I did not. When I made the card, the intent of the card was, hey, some games we played at game stores,

and okay, maybe you can actually gain 15 life or something. That was the idea. It's like, oh, I'm at a local game store and, you know, that was the dream. The dream is you get 15 life. I did not, it was not designed to be played in front of an audience of 1500 where you, by the way, my absolute, my favorite part of the whole thing is we each have sections that are for us, right? So I ran out of high-fiving my section because it's my section.

But I finished, I did like a loop, and I had like five seconds left. So I'm like, okay, so I go to Josh's section, like, well, let's see if they'll give me high fives. And they were more than willing to give me high fives. Josh, you really didn't prepare your section. They weren't even on your side. I literally stood up and was like,

hey, my section, put your hands in your pockets. Do not give them high five. And some people, even like the next day, apologize to me. They're like, sorry, I gave Mark a high five. And I was like, you know what? I would give Mark a high five in that situation too. It's hard to blame him. Yeah, I would too.

The way we determine the sections is there's four sort of aisles that you see in front of us, usually at Game Night's Live. So there's two in the middle and then two off to the side of the wings. And so each of the sections is assigned to one of the players. So also, no one knew they were on Josh's team until the show got started.

So I would say their affiliation in the Alliance, too, wasn't terribly high either. They were very into it. I disagree. They were very into it. I mean, we're tribal as a species. And you tell us what tribe we're in and we lean in hard. We're going.

Yeah, we've patterned it off of medieval times, you know, so if you're with the Green Knight, you are with, you know, that is your champion. Yeah. Gimme Five is really interesting and one of the things we talked about is deck construction and the fact that our team creates the decks, Rachel and Jamie and Jake and a lot of our team are involved. And Becca was in LA, so got to come to some rehearsals and be involved in that process.

And of course, they're building the decks with the idea that they're going to be played in front of an audience. So we try and choose cards that are good for audience participation. And that can mean a lot of different things. It can mean like, oh, this will be an opportunity to call somebody on stage to make some decisions for us. We play things like Wheel of Misfortune and things that require like the bidding of life so that each player can call up an

audience member to do the bidding for them to come up with the numbers that they're being and give me five was a Really interesting one because undoubtedly like a very Fun card as far as the audience participation is very clear of what's gonna happen But the tough part about that card was trying to gauge very clear of what's going to happen. But the tough part about that card was trying to gauge exactly how much life might Mark gain and how game warping will that be and in like, you know, in testing, I'm putting that in

quotes, that's and by testing, I mean, just us imagining the space counting down from 30 and kind of imagining Mark running around. We thought around a hundred life might be possible. And then we were arguing like, is that okay for one mana for Mark to be able to do that? And what will that do to the game? And you know, those are the kind of discussions we have, we have and have to have to try and make the game, you know, as fun and exciting. But also like you want the game to matter, you don't want Mark to cast this one card. And it totally means that like he can't lose

because it just wasn't meant for the situation with an audience of 1,000 people. So those are the fun parts of the show, and I think that moment is one of the classic moments of Game Night Slider, probably always will be, and I'm just glad that we were able to team up in that moment and keep your life game under control so you didn't just run away with the game too.

Yeah, I ended up at 12 so like I definitely at one point I got to 109 or something I think so I definitely uh okay so something okay I'm now going to reveal something you guys do not know but this is the fun of live podcasting so um so you guys give us the decks ahead of time so I involved all all of R&D. I'm like, I want to make sure that I'm doing the best that I can. So there's a lunchtime commander game that I don't normally play in. But I mocked up my deck. I played every day at lunch. And I then asked the casual play team to give me tips on like, I looked at all the decks. And so I'm going to read you something I got from one of them. They go,

Mark, I think your seed is actually the hardest by far to play in this pod. Lol. Your deck has a ton of both value and interactive pieces, which means you kind of have to be playing all sides at once. The main way I try to maneuver in this pod is that everyone else's deck is scarier than yours. Becca and Josh have a lot of scaling potential and Jimmy will just let kill everyone is left unchecked. I would kind of try to remain innocent as long as possible. Hey, I'm not doing anything crazy. I'm just drawing like one card returner. Hey, I can blink my removal spell creature,

but I'm gonna point out the most problematic permanent. What do you guys think I should hit? Keep everyone afraid of each other long enough for you to accrue resources and threats. And that is the strategy I followed. It worked. It worked. Did you practice this? I followed. It worked. It worked. It worked. I actually knew about your practice because I met Chris. Oh did Chris? And they spilled your secret about me. No. So yes. You had a lot of very

brilliant magic minds on this that we don't usually have to deal with in and somebody was guessing on the show. So That's impressive One other point I should make did you tell did you tell the audience? Tell the audience yet that you had never won a game of commander. Yes Well, let me right that's good to say that I don't play a lot of coming. I don't play a lot of any constructed format Mostly I play magic on my job. I don't play, I play with my son a little bit, but I don't play a lot outside of work. And my job is playing limited because I'm doing early Magic before the cards are balanced. So like I just don't do a lot of Constructed play. So the only time I play Commander mostly is when we have guests that come to Wizards. And part of the fun of playing Mark

Rosewater is beating him at Commander. So I'm always the first one taken out. So like I yeah I had never won a game of commander so I we said that up front I said I told the audience that look I've never won a game commander and what I've learned is when you win a game of commander you get a belt so that seems very exciting to play commander every time. I think it was brilliant strategy to say to let everybody know that you'd never won a game of commander because oh yeah it made you the underdog and your section was so fervently for you more than we've ever seen before to the point where like any action that Becca, Jimmy or I would take against you, your section was just loudly booing it. Anything we did that seemed to be against you, it was just a chorus of boos. A single creature

swung. Boo. One damage in the air. Boo. Like crazy to a crazy degree. And I was like, it was so smart early on to just let them know you ever want to get them to come in because they're just all so on your side. That was my that was amazing. My takeaway, what my takeaway from from all the practice I did at a time was I'm like, this is all this is all going to be on Char charm in politics because, uh, like for example, one thing they point out is, um, they gave me some strategies about what to do against each deck and against your deck, Josh, they

said, pray you have no answer. That sounds about right. Yeah, I mean both. You gotta exile his graveyard. You both had bajuga bogs, but I had no way to excel the graveyard. Right, right. Wow, that's incredible. You used the politics very well. Just for the audience out there, so they know, like,

Mark was politicking at every possible chance, including, like, bringing donuts to the Wednesday rehearsal and very pointedly letting us know that he brought donuts to brought donuts. They were some of the best donuts I've ever tasted. They were very good donuts. Yeah the other favorite moment was yeah Mark literally asked a player that came up on stage that was sitting in Josh's seat I believe was that if there was any card they ever wished they saw in magic and perhaps just perhaps he could make that card a possibility and that to me is something that none of us could ever conceivably do in a game we don't have that type of power you don't know about ever yeah ever yeah ever is a strong word i'm sorry but but but certainly not conceivably

in the next recent months the other thing thing that was fun for me is, I used to do it like in college, I started an improv troupe and I have a lot of skills that I do not get to use very often, so it was fun. It was super fun just having a live audience, again, bouncing off the audience, all that stuff was super fun. Yeah, one thing Josh actually talked about

was that this was one of the best groups I think we've ever had for Game Nights Live, and I too often forget that you have a huge history with entertainment and Becca obviously is in LA with us and is just a born-and-bred entertainer as well but all four players having a background in improv comedy and entertainment and writing and all that I think really made for an amazing show so I'm excited for people to see when we put on the channel. I just want to say I'm so grateful for this opportunity

because I perform a lot on camera, but I haven't performed on stage since pre-pandemic times. And it was just really great to get to interact with a live audience in that way. And it's one of those things that you realize you really miss when you get to do it. So I was delighted the whole time. So Becca, let's have the story. How did you get on Game Night Live? I don't know.

Just kidding. Well, let me start with my whole magic career. My very first event, Jimmy was there. It was PAX East in Boston in 2018 for War of the Spark. There was a mythic invitational. They don't think they've had one since. And months earlier, someone at Wizards had said, hey, Becca Scott, you are a board game person on the internet. I was working for Geek and Sundry at the time, and I did a lot of board game videos. And they were like, learn magic, we'll do magic.

And so Geek and Sundry did a couple of videos, and I had played like with a unsleeved standard deck once. It was atrocious. I showed up to this event and I knew nothing. And ever since then, I've just played magic. And so I was on game nights for the D&D crossover set because I also do a lot of role playing games. And that was delightful.

And I did a bunch of, going back to live events, I did a bunch of coverage up into the World Championship 2020 before everything shut down. And then now I'm doing my own Commander show and took some time off to make a baby. And then, yeah, so I'm getting back into the world and talking to Josh and Jimmy, seeing them at game nights without Akai, and just grateful that they invited me

to game nights with Ake. Well, yeah, I mean, I can try to little light from behind the scenes too. Like, Beck has been in, you know, on our radar for a while for Game Nights Live and somebody who we've worked with a number of times over the years in various capacities, been on our shows, been on her stuff.

She's come in for a lot of the skit stuff we did. We know that Beck has got a performance background and she's, you know, got that theater background and so we knew she would be great on stage and so we were looking for a spot and I believe we wanted her to come on Gen Con but she had other obligations because she's so involved and you know that one. You didn't book me before I booked my own show. Yeah exactly. Theater only stuff going on. I wouldn't have booked around. So then there was like then you know so it's kind of like well the next one comes up and we're like how about this one one? Can you do this one? And she was available. So we were super lucky to get her. And yeah, so

this was what Jimmy said is like, this really is an improv comedy show. When you break it all down, we do a bunch of rehearsal, but it's not scripted rehearsal. It's scenario rehearsal, similar to how improv rehearsal goes, right, where you're like, here's some little tools that can be in your toolbox, but we don't know exactly what's going to happen. So it's more about philosophy than it is about specifics.

And so I believe this show was probably our best show as far as audience interaction and all the performance, just, you know, everything sort of being really smooth. And I think it speaks to the fact that like the two of you have such an improv background and a theater background. And to piggyback off of what Becca said, I've told everybody that, you know, we've been doing magic content for 10 years, but the most fun I ever have is when we're on stage and we start to play the game in the audience

is cheering or booing or just interacting with the audience because there's just, you don't get that with the camera, right, you don't get a thousand people either booing or cheering you. You don't get that kind of reaction immediately. And in YouTube comments, you only get the booing. Yeah. And it doesn't feel so exciting.

Really. So one of my favorite moments was I had a very tough turn. And I was trying to figure out what to do. And then I'm like, OK, I'm just going to get an audience member to do this. I have no idea what to do. And so I asked. I go, OK, I need somebody in the audience who's really good.

Somebody, a guy raised his hand and he was like, can I do this? Yeah, can I do this? Yeah, they go fine. He did an amazing turn for me. Yeah, he took, went through combat, went through everything. It was incredible.

He was hilarious because if I were in his shoes, I would have assumed you just wanted me to do the one thing you asked, which I think was like declare attacks. But then he asked to see your hands. And he was like, oh, play this. Yeah, no, I'll tap. Well, we'll tap like this.

And just took over and like, hey, you're driving? No, actually give me the wheel. In a way that I was really impressed by, like, the audacity. I thought it was awesome. I was impressed by the calmness. He didn't was awesome. I was impressed by the calmness. He didn't seem to be thrown by the audience at all. He just saw the lines.

And I forget what the plays were exactly, but he was like, we should do this. And I looked at the board and was like, oh, you should do that. Yeah, he was very insightful. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, I had the name of the card. It's the one where it enters and it exiles a creature with power four or less.

Or is that, man value four or less. And I can copy it like two or three times. So like, I can, it was a very complicated turn, so. Yeah. Yeah, there are people come on stage, it's a mix of, oh, they are, this is overwhelming for them. There's a microphone shoved in their face. There's thousands of people now yelling at them.

And then this particular patron was cool as a cucumber. Okay, so- Yeah, he was truly awesome. I want each of you, we're gonna go in order. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, um, and you're gonna tell me your favorite memory of, of the Game Night Live. Or I, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll remember you enjoy. It doesn't have to be your favorite again, but. So I will start with Becca.

What was your favorite memory of the game? Or of, of, of popular, popular memory you really like from the game? Oh gosh, uh, look, there's so many gameplay moments. Like I kept being able to rebuild my board after things were taken out, and that's the power of this deck. But my favorite thing about the show was my House of Spirits section of the crowd. And just from the beginning of the game to the first four turns, every time I drew a card, they cheered.

Every time I tapped a mana, they cheered. And I just felt like we were connecting on a really beautiful level. It felt really nice. OK, Josh, a memory from the game for you. I think I'm wired a little bit weird. So one of the things I really like to do is to be a little antagonistic with not my section,

but the other sections. So I really had a good time early noticing that like, your, the fun house,house mark section was so you know They were booing every play against you and everything and I was like this is gonna be fun I'm gonna go right at him Yeah, so I was like calling him out and be like this is for you fun house and then do something against mark Yeah, you know and I get them to really feel like I'm taking a sick towards me I I enjoy being able to play with the audience in that way and

You know, I like to say there's only two ways that you can root for the outcome of something. You can root for something, you can root against it. And if you only have one of those, you're not getting the full experience. So I like to give the other half sometimes. And that was really fun to just be able to really, in a friendly way, get into it with the Funhaus.

Wrestling taught us you need a heel. You need the villain. Josh is a fine heel. Okay, Jimmy. I hope I'm not stealing yours, Mark. But we've done this nine times, like I said earlier. And that means that is a combined 36 walkouts. So the walkouts being when the announcer comes on the person goes through the audience. And I thought we had peaked earlier in Chicago, I believe, when we had the press on. Because he had never been to a Magic Con up until then, and we knew the anticipation for him was massive.

And we were doing the, he was, is it? So we had all the all the Ravnican houses, and that was something really easy for people to cheer for. But I think your walkout, Mark, single-handedly crushed every other one in history as being the most amusing and fun and just heartwarming to watch because everyone in this room has had different contributions to players' enjoyments of the game, but yours is on a different level entirely. And so for Josh and I to sit there, I just remember we looked at each other a couple

of times and being like, are you seeing what I'm seeing? Are you seeing the reaction? Are you seeing just how it's playing out? And that to me was just like chef's kiss. It was incredible. So can I tell us can I tell a story about your walk up? Mark? Sure, sure. Yeah. Okay. We so Jimmy and I, like you said, there's 36 of these. So we've been on stage watching a lot of these walk ups happen for other people. And, you know, people do a lot of interesting things when they do their walk-ups. And we can usually hear them in our ear because we have an in-ear microphone so we can hear people and most people are like, yeah, woo.

And they're like, house of whatever, cheer for me. Or they're like woohoo. And Mark was just making a car noise the entire time We have to explain to the audience something that we sort of hinted at So when I got introduced you guys made this little like cardboard card that I was inside of and so I Right on suspenders. I suspenders that the car on suspenders and then there's lights on the car and there's a little spin wheel and I have a horn I can honk. The license plate says drive to WRK work and the license plate as well. Yeah. So here's my story involves this because you guys don't know about pieces of this. So anyway, we practice with the car so that I could get... because it definitely has a little sort of substance to it. So anyway, the way the car works is,

I don't wanna give away behind the scenes, but it's held together with tape and stuff. It's not, I'm not talking high-tech or anything. So I start in my car and the steering wheel's held by three or four pieces of rubber or something, and I just start and one of them snaps. And I'm like, okay, well, it's held up like by four. And as I'm going along, they keep snapping.

And so I had in my hand, because it wasn't complete enough having the car, I had three balloons that represent the three of you. So anyway, I can't hear what's going on. We had all these, like we had all these, make sure that this line or this place, but I can't hear what's going on. We had all these, like, we had all these, make sure that this line or this place, but I can't hear anything because the crowd is going crazy. The car is breaking literally, it keeps popping as I'm driving it.

I'm like, I didn't want it to fall off me. And then I'm supposed to hand off these balloons before I do the final thing. But I forgot because I'm so worried about the car breaking. I'm trying to like keep the car from falling that I didn't hand off the balloons. So when they take the car off me, because before I do my entrance, they take the car off, but the balloons aren't supposed to be there. And we hadn't used the balloons in practice. The very last one, we did one balloon.

So I forget to hand the balloons off. So as they take the car, the balloons are still there. So the balloons start wrapping around my neck. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait wait wait like I'm trying to like not I didn't want to like be the first person not make it to stage um A lie A lie yes Luckily we got everything off I sort of I even got to stage before my name got said which I was shocked that happened so

Yeah yeah we got kind of lucky because the so we had two people stationed and they were supposed to lift the car over your head like lift it up and then you From from underneath it and we got kind of lucky as far as they they went to lift the car up because they couldn't hear The cues either. Yeah, they couldn't hear the music. I mean, yeah, they went way early Yeah, so that yeah, and Jimmy and I were like what's going on and then we saw your head time I was like, oh no the balloon the the strings holding the balloons have wrapped around his neck So as they pull the car up, it's pulling the balloons and that's pulling your neck

Yeah, then they noticed that and they put it down and then you're trying to unwrap and then they're like we got to get This thing off of them though. So there's this little song and dance that happens But luckily because they started early, yeah, and also luckily you didn't like, you know strangle But because they started early you were able to get to the stage on time Yeah, that was a pretty I mean that's live theater right like that kind of stuff yes yes you know comes up and it's the show must go on kind of stuff but you know most people probably didn't notice but yeah Mark almost died yeah that was a very scary moment because that's why we were hurt yes we had only

rehearsed with one balloon and then now you had three and then the car I didn't realize the car was breaking apart oh yeah yeah, I don't know if you guys actually looked at the car. All the different pieces snapped off. Oh wow. I think I was hanging on by one piece when I finished, I think, so. None of that ever happens in rehearsal. It only happens in the show.

Exactly. That's how theater works. All the three of us could hear the entire time, though, was just, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Okay, so real quickly to recap so the way the game played out is Somewhat early in the game. I did my gimme five Turn four I guess because turn five you could play a little pain And I gained a hundred or seventy against 78 life And then you guys kept attacking me because I had all the life And then it looked like

Becca was going to win. I have had played an angelic aberration, turning all my one-one flyers into four fours with vigilance. Yep. And then Jimmy, she was at seven life. Jimmy did six damage to her and she died to her bitter blossom. To my own freaking bitter blossom.

I forgot you had the bitter blossom. If I had had enchantment removal in hand, I was holding a piece of removal that was only for attacking or blocking creatures. Ugh, rough. And had I had the right removal, I would have used it on my bitter blossom, and untapped, and killed Jimmy,

and then Mark would have killed me. I think you might have been able to kill everyone actually. No, I think you had set like eight, nine, four fours or something. It was, your board was ready to win. Yeah, I think you were gonna kill us to kill everyone actually. No, I think you... You were like eight, nine, four, fours or something. Your board was ready to win. Yeah, I think you were going to kill us all if you didn't die. Jimmy? It was close. But you know what? It's a better story for Mark 2-1. And, you know, and we played fantastically.

To recap the game, so then Becca gets knocked out. Josh is at three at this point, and so not really in a position to win that. I mean well because Jimmy had Bajookabogged me early. Yes yes. After looking at 18 cards he picked Bajookabog which I was so happy about. Oh yeah. Yeah with his Florian he's looking at 18 cards and he chooses Bajookabog to get rid of my graveyard and I was set up by an Archfiend of Sorrow in there, which is a board wipe on a recurval creature from the graveyard that I was going to play out, give everything negative 2, negative 2, basically wipe everybody else's boards and be able to maybe not swing for the win, but like put it in hand.

And when he got rid of my graveyard, that was just it for me. I was like, oh, all this stuff I've been setting up with, it's done. And then it comes to me. So Jimmy's going to win on the next turn. Oh, and so behind the scenes to win on the next turn. Oh and so behind the scenes, this is a funny story, the people who wear the outfits have to get dressed up whoever wins because they come out at the end. And so everybody, they know Jimmy's winning on the next turn so everybody's dressing up in the Lord of Pain outfits. And then I realized that I have,

what's the name of the card? I have the thing The class where whenever you play a creature a token you draw a card. Oh, yeah Yeah caretakers talent caretakers talent But the the final version of it it makes all your tokens plus two plus two and I just been making how much of mercenaries Because the card I drew was the when it enters the leaves it makes mercenaries So I just was making balloons and popping them and making a lot of mercenaries So I figured out that if I attack Josh in the air for three and attack everything else at Jimmy I could get him low enough that his Lord of Pain trigger would kill him. Yeah because once Josh is out Lord of Pain doesn't care

about two-player games so much as multiplayer so yeah I had to direct the damage at myself yeah so it was not Hellwn or Possebust because it gave all of your Outlaws pace. Yes. Gosh, I was so ready. I was ready to counter something. Yeah. Because I was holding up some mana, but you just used the activated ability and I couldn't do anything about it. I was like, oh, it's over. The other thing is the card I had to play next, like last card I played that I won with, did damage equal to red mana symbol, devotion to red? So like, at first I'm like, okay, am I supposed

to leave back the things with two red mana symbols? Like, I'm trying to do the math. And finally, like, we have a timer because it was near the end. Like, oh, okay, I'll just tap with everything. Like, math is for blockers, as they say. So I, uh. Yep. It was the right decision. Bullsend. Yep. It was a very exciting ending. And I think up until the very last moment it could have gone either way. I think the realizing that the Lord of Pain would be forced, Jimmy would be forced to hit himself with it and therefore you had to kill me before casting a spell to get a damage to players was kind of like the big unlock there. Jimmy was the second player who did the final damage to themselves.

Yep. Oh right, right. In that game because of your uh your better blossom. I will say, did the play design team prepare you for that specific interaction? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. All they, mostly what they did is they're like here are how they're going to win so you know and mostly the number one strategy I got from just playing all the games was I'm only dangerous late in the game. I just have to be as innocent as I can and don't be threatening and don't attack people

and just play as nice as I could. And so I'm like, lean on charm, baby. I just gotta... Ha ha ha. Luckily you have plenty of it. And well deserved victory for sure. Yeah, so that was, I want to say, I mean, I've, like last week was my, or this week,

was my 29th anniversary working at Wizards. Wow. Congratulations. In all that time, this isn't my top 10, like of all time, just really, this was an amazing experience of super fun. Originally, I didn't even know if I was gonna do a podcast on, I did a podcast on all of Las Vegas in general,

and they're like, no, no, I'm doing a podcast just on this, cause this was so much fun. So I wanna thank you all. I'm glad we all got to participate in this. We had talked about me being on this show since like Magic 30, and I'm glad it finally all worked out.

I mean, we picked the perfect spot, right? Like there was a clown, it was a really exciting game. We had the perfect theme for like you and the fact that like you haven't won a game of Commander and it was so exciting and it comes down to everyone's that single digit life total at the end. Like boy, we really got lucky on a lot of levels there but I think a lot of it is, as usual,

luck is when opportunity meets preparation. And so I think it's such a testament to the game and to you guys and to everybody involved, how that turned out. What a home run. So a final thought, we have to wrap up here, because I'm almost to work. So a final thought from each of you. So Becca, final thoughts.

I am just so grateful to have gotten to participate to just see the beauty of this community and really be embedded in it at MagicCon. And to say one more favorite moment was just being on stage with the three of you and watching each of your walk-ups. And just all three of you are absolutely epic players and people, and I'm just grateful to know you. And thanks to all your listeners for listening. Josh. Yeah, I mean, I hope that everybody can hear how fun and exciting it was for us.

I like to think it was that much for the audience. I think, you know, if you're on the fence about attending a live event or something, hopefully we can be another reason that kind of brings you over the top because I think it is a really unique experience. It's definitely unique in content creation. And you know, just Mark saying that it was one of his top 10 moments when we know he's had a lot of magic moments over the years. You know, I'm proud that we can deliver that kind of experience, you know, to both the

people involved in it and the people watching it. So it's just so much fun and I hope more people get to check it out. Jimmy. Yeah, I love Magic Con. I think in the 10 years that Josh and I have been doing this podcast now, Magic Con has been like this incredible new, refreshing thing for us to attend and be a part of. And so I'm very, very grateful to everyone that's able to make it out to the conventions.

And I hope to see more and more people at them every single year. I, you know, in my heart, I hope they never end. So hopefully everyone gets a chance and opportunity to come out to one. And yeah, the Vegas is always is always very special as well, because most creators come out to this one. So it's always great to have that big reunion. Before I would be like I'd see the Lilling, Redding, Run people like once every two years maybe but now I get to see them three to four times a year so that is in and of itself an incredible blessing.

Well, I want to thank all of you for joining us today. I said this is the first one with three guests, so this is a first here. But I really honestly, from my heart, I had a great time. It was super fun. I think winning was a little, you know, cheering on top of the Sunday, but it was the experience itself really that was awesome. And not an event I will soon forget. So thank you so much, guys. Thank you. I want to know mark mark

Where are you gonna put the belt? Oh, yeah I'm still figuring out so by the way when I won, I actually won the belt I have the belt. I'm trying to figure out where to put the belt So it's there's much debate my wife and I have been talking about the belt So we're trying to figure out what to do with the belt. So Right above the mantelpiece in the bedroom. Yeah. I want to see a picture of whatever it ends up. Yeah. The lead of contender is my den where I'm recording right now is where I have all like I have original magic art and stuff up

here. So most of my magic stuff is here. So that's my guess is we'll end up it'll be in good company if that's the case. It will be very good. The original Maros right here on the shelf behind you would be good so that everybody on a zoom call with you. See my belt. I'll have to think about that. It's not a bad idea. Anyway, thank you all. Thank you for joining us today. And I want to thank all the audience for being here.

But I can see my desk. So we all know what that means. This is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you all next time. And thanks to you all for being here. Bye bye.