Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #751: Christine Sprankle

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

In this podcast, I talk with Christine Sprankle, one of the best-known Magic cosplayers.

I'm not pulling out of my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so I've been doing really fun interviews and I have a fun one today. So I'd like to introduce Christine Sprenkel. Hello, I'm Christine Sprenkel. You may have heard of me, unfortunately. Okay, so let's, we're going to walk through who is Christine Sprenkel and what has she done? You are the topic of today's podcast. So the question I've been asking everybody to start with is, how did you first come to play Magic?

I first came to play Magic about a year before Scars of Mirrodin came out. It was just a bunch of cards cards extra cards that my friend had and i he helped me throw together a tasa um orazov scion deck because he pretty much had just a bunch of the original ravnica set and it was a hot mess i didn't understand quite how to use uh some of like the Orzhov Bastillica and all that but I thought you just have to go and yeah that was a long time and then I started drafting Scars of Mirrodin which was really

interesting because Mirrodin was just weird to learn a lot of magic more in depth when because it was all of a sudden there's Phyrexian mana and poison and it was just I was like oh this is very different from

the taste of deck that I had and then Cobblade came out and I was like this is a terrible game for a second oh no Cobblade almost drove you from the game yeah because it was just like And I was like, this is a terrible game for a second. Oh, no. Call play it over. Strobe you for the game. Yeah, because it was just like, oh, now these matches are super long.

But Scars Mirrodin was also the reason I started cosplaying Magic, because in my second draft ever, I a uh elspeth curial card and i fell in love with her okay so if i'm correct uh it was at worlds in san francisco do you know what year it was um 2011 2011 okay so the world championship is being held in san Francisco. So let's tell this story. What happened in that world? Okay, so my friends who all play Magic, they were extremely excited about worlds coming to an area near us. And they were like, oh, we're gonna go. We got a hotel room. And I was like, oh, okay, this sounds just like, you know, the conventions that I go to, which were like anime and gaming conventions. And I was like,

I'm going to make a costume because that's what I do at conventions. I dress up and I go for the weekend and have fun. And they're like, you shouldn't do that. That's not exactly what you do here. You just play magic. Nobody will be dressed up. And I was like, no, no, it'll be fine. It'll be really fun. It'll be great. And I've never made an armored costume before, but I'm going to make this Elspeth chick and it's going to be great. And I spent the longest time on that costume. It was such a mess. It was so hard. My chain mail was just a sweater, like a knitted sweater that I had spray painted silver to make it look like chain mail and i actually liked that but it was so hot and uh we went to worlds and i just remember walking up

and there was this huge statue of jace i was like oh this is so cool and then i walked past him and like everybody was just staring like what is this crazy chick doing here? And I was like, oh, no. And nobody wanted to talk to me. Everybody seemed very afraid of me almost. And for the record, I wasn't afraid of you. No. And that was the thing, though, was a man in a Wizard Magic the Gathering, you know, Wizards of the Coast shirt walks up

and my thought was, oh no, they're going to ask me to leave right now because I clearly do not belong here. And I think that was, I believe that was you. Okay, what did I say? This is like, it was something along the lines of, oh my God, this is amazing. And can I get, like, it was something along the lines of, oh my God, this is amazing. And can I get like, ask a few questions about what you're doing?

And then my earring fell apart. I also took a picture. I also took a picture with you. Yeah. Cause I made a comic out of it. Yes. And I, I just remember being horrified because like part of my costume was like, parts of my costume was literally just falling apart as I was walking. And, yeah, once you took a picture with me, it, like, broke the ice.

Everybody saw, like, I wasn't going to eat them or something, or I didn't even have the sword, so I wasn't, I didn't feel like I was that threatening, but. Here's my memory of it. I'll give you my memory of the story. So I'm at Worlds. I'm working at Worlds. And I see you come up. And it's immediately that you're dressed up as Elspeth. The costume was amazing.

And I had been to Comic-Con many, many years. So I had seen cosplay. There's tons of cosplay at Comic-Con. So it wasn't, I wasn't unfamiliar with cosplay. I hadn't seen a lot of magic cosplay, so I just thought that was awesome. So I was very excited. Yeah, it was, uh, Worlds was an amazing experience though. Like I met a ton of people. I, uh, and like I said, once you took a picture, a ton of people started asking for pictures.

And I remember, once you took a picture, a ton of people started asking for pictures. And I remember one of them was just this really tall guy in a nice like jacket suit. And I took a picture with them. And then when I walked back to my friends, they were like, oh, my God, that was do you know who you just took a picture with? And I was like, no, I have absolutely no idea because I'm not into like I'm just casually playing magic I'm just drafting and making night decks and stuff right now with the scars of Mirrodin and uh they're like oh it was it was Brian Kibler it was the Elspeth guy and I was like oh that's cool and so I when I found the picture online I uh actually posted it and said i got a picture with that elspeth guy and that was it because i couldn't remember his name so for a while there

was just a picture of me and brian kibler and i just i was like oh i got a picture with that elspeth guy so i want to back up for a second uh before we get into your magic cosplaying how did you get into cosplaying how did that that start? How did you become a cosplayer? Way back in high school, I was one of those people that was obsessed with anime. And I really wanted to be a character from Sailor Moon. And I went to a thrift store and got a lot of very mismatchy pieces that kind of looked like one of the characters and threw it together back then there was no like wigs or anything you couldn't buy costumes it was very cosplay was extremely new and that was like in 2004, I believe. And I went trick-or-treating that year, actually,

as a Sailor Moon character. And then the next year, me and a couple of friends went to our first convention, and I haven't stopped since. Okay, so you got into cosplaying. Okay, so you come to San Francisco, you do the first magic cosplay that I remember. i mean they're sure other cosplays gone but that's the one that like i just in my mind when i think back like the first time i really remember somebody cosplaying and i remember you that's why i remember

yeah um so okay so what was the next step you what happened after after san francisco um after San Francisco um I was like hmm this was a lot of fun I should try and make another character magic is very hard to make cosplay for because you just have these tiny little pictures like the planeswalkers are a little bit better they get you know more like space like more art of them but you hardly ever see like the backs of like a lot of the characters. So magic is like, it's great. And then it's like kind of hard at the same time because you just get to fill in the spaces with your own creativity. And so I was like, I'm going to make a few more and I'm going to start going to these GPs with my friends. few more and i'm going to start going to these gps with my friends and uh which was really i just met so many people i just started meeting so many people it was so much fun and i just kept on going

to these gps and then uh you guys threw the ignite your spark contest okay well tell people what was the what was that so the ignite ignite your Your Spark contest was a, like, photo and caption contest. And it was pretty much, you know, you dress up as a planeswalker. And it was, like, why would you, like, you were auditioning to be that planeswalker pretty much. And it was just, like, why would you, you know, make, you know, the best Elspeth or a Johnny or Nisa and all that. So I did a whole photo shoot. I rebuilt like a ton of pieces on my Elspeth and I did a huge photo shoot with a friend from school and I entered and I, um, won the fan favorite somehow. What product was it? Do you remember what product it was tied to?

Oh, yeah. So the first place winner, she got a round trip to any of the packs. She or he. I think it was a girl. I don't remember now. I'm pretty positive it was because it was mostly

girls that entered. Entered and you got a round trip to any of the packs, like Australia, Packs East. That's cool. And the fan favorite got a Alienware laptop, which was huge because I didn't have a computer. So it was like a huge thing for me. I didn't have a computer. So it was like a huge thing for me. Okay, so what's the gap between you show up at Worlds and Nightyear Spark?

What was the gap between that? Two years, I think. And so in the meantime, you're just dressing up as different characters and going to... GPs. GPs mostly, right? Yes. So was everyone a

unique character did you reuse characters how are you doing that um mostly it was like i didn't have a huge uh array of costumes for magic at the time so it was just a lot of repetitive a lot of else that got a lot of a huge track run she was at the beginning i wore her pretty much every gp at least one day and what were other early characters you did i i did liliana also her because soon after that it was her um oh i just blanked on the name. That was so funny. You're talking Innistrad? Yeah, like Innistrad came out, so her new look came out, and I was like, oh, I like that one.

I made that, and then I made Eternal Witness because I used that card a lot for a while, and I just loved the art on that, and I wanted to try and make a more even though she's not an elf uh more elf looking creature and then i can't remember what which like i did a couple more uh and i can't remember exactly the timeline because it was just that was a while ago now okay okay so let's get back to the okay Okay, so Ignite Your Spark, you do the fan favorite. So what's the gap between that and you starting to work with Wizards? Because I know you start doing some stuff with us.

Yeah, because soon the first Theros was coming out. And I get a random email from a Wizards of the Coast employee. And they said, you know, would you be interested in going to a pro tour and I was like I guess I might I've never been and I don't play magic at that level or anything they're like yeah we would love to have you there as Elspeth

and that one was in Dublin, Ireland and that was like one of my first that was my first time like over in Europe and stuff. And it was a super long flight. I was so nervous because I wasn't sure if my costumes would make it.

If my, like if one of my suitcases didn't make it, I was like, what's the point of me being there with no costumes? It was absolutely nerve wracking. Yeah. So did you play more than just Elspeth? I brought Elspeth.

I believe, I think I brought Liliana. I'm not sure if I brought Liliana that one. And who else did I bring? I brought somebody else. Let's talk about the event, though. So you go to the event. What happens at the event? I go to the event, and oh, my gosh, that was so cool.

The way that pro tours are set up, it's very different. I actually had a little schedule. I had to be here at a certain time. just like I had to be here at a certain time uh did different interviews for the um broadcast photo ops with all the pros and then just uh yeah it was just a lot of talking and taking photos and stand here now, stand over here. And then just what's your fate, you know, Elspeth, what's, you know, what are we going to expect for you, for you on theorist? I'm like, I have no idea. I'm going to be a knight and kill things, but

I'm killing a hydra. Okay. So let's talk. So, okay. so you do the, you start, we get you for Theros, that's the first time. Yes. If I remember correctly, it becomes an endless number of things, right? Yeah, and then it just like, just tumbled from there, which I just never expected. It was just, I was just trying to, you know, that's what I did. I just cosplayed. I cosplayed with my friends and stuff. I never expected or never wanted cosplay to turn into anything like professional or get paid to do it kind of thing.

It was just, I just want to make stuff. get paid to do it kind of thing it was just i just want to make stuff and magic was really like i said really fun to make stuff from because it was you know you get some references and then it was just fill in the blank kind of cosplay so it was really easy for me to just kind of do whatever i felt like but with this character like i i got asked all the time like what lilliana are you doing specifically? What card? And it was like, well, I took references from all of her cards. All the artists kind of do it a little different.

And I just took little bits and pieces from whatever card I liked and then filled in the blanks where I couldn't find a piece. And that was my Liliana. And I think that's why I like a lot of magic cosplay, because you get to see the different versions of how people do that character. Like, if you see my Nisa, and then you see Nisa cosplays Nisa,

they're similar, but you see what little pieces we liked and took from, and I like that a lot. Okay, so I want to talk real quickly about some of the more famous characters I know you've played. We've talked a little about Elspeth. I know, who's your favorite to play? Oh, that's hard. What's your top three? I don't know. Okay, top three is definitely Elspeth, Liliana, and Chandra.

Okay, let's talk about each of those. Let's talk about each of those. So pick one. Which do we want to talk about first? We can talk about Chandra, because she's, like, everybody's favorite. Okay. What's it like cosplaying Chandra? I get to be very sassy.

But, like, that one's probably the easiest for me me because it's just very me, I guess. I don't know. Like Chandra's just like the easiest. She, I feel the most comfortable. I don't feel like I have to change a whole lot for her. It's just, just be that sassy, fiery redhead. And I kind of just do what I want. Oh, and we should stress something

that many people don't realize is not only do you dress up like the character, but then you're in character when you dress up like the character. Yeah, like at events, like you can see when I drop it. Every once in a while, I drop it. But yeah, for the most part, at like wizard events specifically, I'm trying to be that character. I'm not Christine. I'm trying to be Chandra at that little moment yeah it's always fun when i see you at events because you're usually sort of in your character and i love interacting with you in whatever character you're playing that's always fun for me um like when you're playing you know uh liana you're

always a little more you know making you know being a little more uh i don't know the vibe all the time yeah like most of the time if people come up to me um as lilliana if they're wearing like a blue manna shirt or something they ask for a picture i go i don't know i don't know if i can be seen in pictures with that shirt that's not really part of my brand you know i don't really i don't really go for that and then uh I've even said just straight up no just as like a joke for some people if they're if they have like a Jace shirt on or yeah something in Elspeth pictures I almost never smile because she doesn't ever really smile and people go why you know can you smile and I'm like what is there to smile about like yes life is endless problems yeah um okay so we talked about that you they used chandra is is a costume with chandra was

that hard to make yeah so the first one uh because i've made a couple of her now but like the two main armor ones that I had, they were both pretty hard. It's just, it's weird. She has a bunch of tubes that kind of lead to nowhere, but just sticking out. And a lot of the, a lot of fantasy armor, it just like somehow it's just on your body. A lot of fantasy armor, it just, like, somehow it's just on your body, just, like, either magically floating on your shoulders, or it's skin-tight, but it moves effortlessly, you know, with your body.

So hers was kind of hard. The chainmail's the pain. It gets heavy. Even though I have, like, an aluminum chainmail shirt, after eight hours of wearing it, that five- pound shirt feels like it's a million pounds so you like there's a couple of photos and it's funny you can just see where my shoulders are just slowly like wilting yeah as the day goes on and I just it's like not I'm not even like conscious about it um the Keladesh one was really hard because i had a very short time to make it i had about two weeks to make that one because weren't sure exactly what we were going to do for the packs

keledesh and how we were going to introduce chandra they were like at first they just wanted regular chandra and then they wanted her new art costume. So that was like, okay, I need to get this out. And it was just two weeks of me trying to figure out that costume. And I messed up on a couple of pieces. I started crying. And then. How, so let's talk about this a little bit. So cosplaying something that a lot of people don't realize is some of it is finding things and some of it is making things right yeah um so there's some people who say like cosplay it's just you make everything that's that's if you're very hardcore and you don't have to i'm a huge advocate of because like

i when i started cosplay like i said it was a long time ago and you couldn't buy things like there wasn't even wigs at the time, except like around Halloween time, that was the only time you could get wigs. So back then everybody was just used to kind of piecing it together, just, you know, grabbing random things and trying to just alter them into it. So that's what I'm used to. And,andra was I made most of it like all of the armor the chain mail I got off of Etsy because I can't make chain mails um and like you know I just

bought some pants off of Amazon and all that and I just made the rest out of uh foam and a thermoplastic which is a heat activated plastic called warbler and a lot of hot glue and tears um okay so we talked about uh we talked about chandra so we moved to liliana how hard how hard is it to play liliana how hard is it to make her costume um so the first one I made was it was so hard the Steve Argyle one especially because the corset it's like such a weird corset it doesn't quite do what a corset's supposed to do like it doesn't work in real life really it's just very awkward and I remember actually meeting Steve for the first time at the first uh GP Las Vegas and I actually walked up to him as Liliana and I was like

this was the one of the hardest costumes I've ever had to sew and I hated it and he was like I'm sorry but um I pretty much just sat there and ragged on him for a second just like venting my frustrations of how hard that lilliana costume was um but she she's really fun to play and that's like the one i get to, I feel like I can get away with just saying a few, not like mean things, but way, way sassier. I'm pushing the limit of the wizards Hasbro PG thing as much as possible, just because I feel that's what Liliana would do.

She would just try and push her limits as much as possible. She is a boundary pusher. And then what, what's it like playing Elspeth? Elspeth elspeth um that's the one that's the best one i'm tired because she's so stoic i feel like that's elspeth she's just tired of everything um like i say i try to hardly ever smile in that costume because she there's like no pictures of her ever smiling yeah i don't know if she smiles i don't yeah she's not a very happy character unfortunately she's very stoic i love having a giant sword and then the giant

sword on a stick later on that was like my favorite part was just having this huge sword to just hold um but she was like she's, she's just the hottest though. Armor wise. The costume is the hottest. Yes. Like I just everything with her. She is always the warmest costume I have to wear. But I don't know.

She, I think she's like one of, yeah, she's one of my all-time favorites. There's just something special I have with her now. I don't know exactly. I can't quite put it into words. You always remember your first magic cosplay. Yeah, that kind of thing. She's very special to me. One other one, just because you brought it up, I'm curious, and I've seen you play a bunch of times, is Nyssa.

What's it like to play Nyssa? Nyssa's really fun. She's such a polarizing character, especially because her character was very different there for a while at first and then she kind of had a i don't know reawakening or a redesign pretty much of just how her character interacted with a lot of other you know yeah planeswalkers and stuff she uh she was quite snooty at first and kind of yeah haughty and rude and then she went to i wouldn't say hippie but kind of more hippie-ish

the hippie elf yeah and so she was um really really fun to play because it's just you just be an elf and elves are just so it's relaxing almost you're just very going with the flow and one of my coldest costumes though i will have to say and she requires makeup right a lot and oh and i have uh for because i did the world waker version mostly um so a lot of body paint and face paint and then I got the giant sclera contact lenses they're called where it covers your entire eye green and those are intense to put in if you've never they're like putting in contacts, but like even harder, you have to basically pull your top eyelid up, shove the contact up under that, pull your bottom lid down and then pull it down. So it's completely in your eye. Wow. And there's actually like a warning on it to not wear it over like five hours just because your eyes aren't getting as much oxygen.

You have to use a lot of eye drops to keep it moisturized yeah and then usually the next day i like no matter what my eyes are red and i look like i haven't slept and it's just the contacts okay so one other thing i want to talk about um because we're not we have not too much time left is one of the things that i found really interesting is we go back to you know 2011 uh you know to worlds you show up to now when you showed up in costume that was not a thing you saw at magic events it was very rare to see magic events now you see cosplay at every magic event so what talk a little bit about that transition the scene that transitioned from cosplay not being a thing to being a thing. Yeah, it's weird because like now I have like this, people keep on calling me like the godmother.

I feel like a gangster now. It's just godmother of magic cosplay. But it's really amazing. Honestly, I wish I had that. Like like i wish that it was like that in the beginning for me because now there's such a support system for the cosplayers it's it's because i i do have to say when i first like when pictures started popping up online of me as elspeth it was really positive but there's also you know there's always the negative that's with it and I pretty much had to like kind of deal with

it alone because there's nobody really else that was doing what I was doing there was no like support system of other cosplayers you know understanding what you know we do and all that so I have to say it's really I don't know because I've had a lot of people come up and say you inspired me to do this costume and it's I don't and it's weirdly like inspiring to me to to see just so many more people cosplaying because it's just all it is is just a self-expression of just the love of the game, the character. So it just, it gives me like fuzzy feelings.

I don't know. I feel just, and I, I just want to say, I'm so sorry to all the cosplayers that now you have to spend money on magic cards and magic cosplays. So we wrap up. What do you have to say to somebody out there that's never done cosplay but is interested in the idea?

So you don't have to make it. It's totally okay if you didn't make your costume. Nobody actually cares except the really mean snooty people. Do whatever makes you happy. Especially choose a character that resonates with you because you'll go that extra mile, especially when you're wearing it and making it to just really bring out that character. And the biggest thing is just have fun. Don't take it serious. Like we're just playing dress up. It's, it's really not that serious.

Just have fun. That's all it is. That's like what magic is. Just have fun. Well, I am almost to my desk, so we need to wrap up, but is there any final thoughts you have before we wrap up for the day? I don't know.

I mean, it's... Let me say something and you can respond. One of the things that I've enjoyed with my interaction with you, and you and I have interacted a lot over the years, is it's always a joy to see you cosplaying. Like, the...

I mean, not only are you very good at it, but you clearly enjoy it. And so, it is... It always is... It always brightens my day when i get to see you doing cosplay so like i i've really really enjoyed uh as much interaction i've had with you i've just you've always been like a ray of sunshine for me so i i enjoy that oh i'm not gonna oh i'm getting all emotional um um oh god uh yeah honestly that's the biggest thing i feel like there's people out there who think i have like some weird ulterior motive of

just like i you know i'm doing cosplay for some weird reason and it's just i literally just want to make something or try and make it like these weird fantasy things. I want to just try and make it in real life and then just go and have fun with people. I'm not there for the hardcore magic part. I'm there for the gathering part. And I'm just trying to make that gathering part all the more fun. That's it. And I'm glad like it gets across you know like

it makes me super happy if like you have no idea like that's all I want to do like when I have a little kid come up to me and I've had so many at events come up to me and go oh my god Liliana you're my favorite and just being able to sit there as Liliana and interact with like a little kid or a new player. It sounds so corny, but it is the best feeling ever. It's just, it's indescribable. You get this connection like no other. And that's why I do it. I just want to make stuff and do that.

Just have fun and make people happy and smile. Okay, well, that's a great place to end. That's a great sentiment. And I hope everybody out there who is thinking of, who sort of kind of wants to cosplay, but somehow is afraid or feels that it won't be something that can be a positive experience. I'm hoping your podcast today says, go do it.

Go dress up. It's fun. Enjoy. No matter what size, shape, or color you are, just do it. It's fun. Yes, do it. It's fun. Enjoy. No matter what size, shape, or color you are, just do it. It's fun. That's all it is. Have fun. So anyway, guys, I'm arriving at my desk, so we have to wrap up the show here.

And when I get at my desk, we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. But I want to thank you, Christine, for being with us. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. And to all you, I will see you next time. Bye-bye.