Mike Turian is one of the most successful Magic players of all time. This past year, he posted multiple Top 8 finishes on the Magic Pro Tour and won a Grand Prix title right here in Columbus, Ohio to boot. Since Mike is living with someone who works for Wizards of the Coast, he is no longer eligible to compete in their tournaments and has retired from the game—but not from gaming. He learned how to play Vs. and is competing today in the 10K tournament.
Mike smiled as he beat down his first round opponent with his Sentinel deck--his opponent conceded on turn 4 of the first game when he stumbled and missed a 3-drop. In the second game, Mike played a first turn Longshot and started naming “Sammy and Sammy Senior.” every turn, his pet names for Wild Sentinels and Sentinel Mark IV. His opponent could not keep up with the overwhelming card advantage—especially when Mike flipped up an Underground Sentinel Base on the fifth turn and began churning out two Sammy Seniors a turn.
Mike had not originally planned to be here and only learned how to play in the past week. He seems to enjoy the game and was excited to participate in a competitive card tournament after being constrained to the sidelines last week at the U.S. National Championships for Magic: The Gathering. “I was at Nats with Gabe Walls and Neil Reeves and they invited me to come here with them. They told me Origins was happening and I changed my flight to come here. I know it is a fascinating tale.”
Mike observed people playing Vs. last weekend and began to pick up the game. He spent the week with Gabe, Neil, and Nick Little, and there he began a one week crash course on competitive Vs. “I was hanging out in Indiana all week and those guys taught me how to play. We did a bunch of two on two drafting which really helped.”
Mike’s experience with collectible card games shortened his learning curve and enabled him to dive right into tournament play. “It is a lot different than other card games but it is close enough that I felt I could jump into a tournament. The first deck they gave me was a Brotherhood deck—the one with TNB, Surprise Attack, and all the little guys.”
“I played it this past Wednesday at a local tournament and I made the finals.” Mike laughed evilly and rubbed his hands together, “I beat Gabe along the way—the student has surpassed the master. The guy I played in the finals was also playing a Brotherhood deck, although a more defensive version. You could tell he was better in the mirror.”
The group decided that they wanted to play a deck that had a good match-up against Brotherhood decks, and Neil returned to his favorite deck. “Neil put together his Sentinel deck that night, and it was destroying the Brotherhood decks. I absolutely love the deck. If you get a first turn Longshot—you mulligan if it is not in your opening hand—your opponent cannot keep up with all your card drawing. You just draw so may Sammys.”
Mike is still unfamiliar with many of the cards, even the ones in his deck. “I don’t actually know the real names of all the cards in my deck, which can be a problem with Longshot. It is just easier to say ‘Sammy and Sammy Senior’ than ‘Wild Sentinel and Sentinel Mark IV,’ but if I need to name other cards I might be in trouble.”
I asked him about his nickname for the two Sentinel cards and he just shrugged, “Sammy the Sentinel just seemed like a cute funny name for the card while were testing in Indiana and it just stuck.” Mike is hopeful that it is going to become commonplace in the Vs. vocabulary. “I had my opponent calling them Sammys by the end of the first round.” Given Mike’s history as a competitive gamer, I would not be surprised if he was doing the same thing come this tournament’s finals.