For the last seven years, I’ve been writing about another game . . . The other game. As I understand it, my job was to write about the Magic: The Gathering community, give players flesh, make them more than just letters on the page.

Now, I’ve moved on, with a fresh start in a new game with a bright future, but I can’t get away from one inescapable fact: As long as I write about games, gaming, and gamers, no matter how hard I try to get away from it, I’m always going to be writing about Kai Budde.

Most gamers outside permanent Big Brother House confinement have heard the name in whispers—he’s ten feet tall, eats whole cows as meals, breathes fire. He can’t be beaten, is wholly unstoppable, and god forbid you get paired against him on a Sunday . . . As far as professional TCGs go, Kai’s the man. 

These are just a few of Kai’s noteworthy accomplishments:

• Winner, five Individual Pro Tours (no one else has more than two)
• Winner, Magic Invitational
• Winner, two team Pro Tours
• Winner, seven Grand Prix events (The closest thing Magic has to a $10K)
• Winner, seventeen straight Sunday matches (Traditionally, only the top 8 is played on Sunday.)
• Leader, lifetime winnings ($300K or so)
• German National Champion, 2003
• World Champion, 1999
• Four time Pro Player of the Year
• German Ambassador to the UN
• Winner, Marathon, Athens 2004
• Miss Universe 1998-present

I’m exhausted just typing it. What a man. 

And now he’s here. Be afraid.

“It’s kind of nice not to have everyone know who you are,” says the German Juggernaut, “and it’s kind of cool playing against players who are just better than me. Magic’s gotten to the point where the playing field is so level that it has basically reduced itself to luck. Here, you don’t get destroyed by the unwinnable opening hand, and you really have to know your opponent’s deck.”

His newfound anonymity is pretty nice too. “A lot of my opponents don’t know who I am. It’s good to be able to start over again”. Sitting at 5-2 at the end of Day 1 in his first Pro Circuit, given his past reputation, it seems unlikely he’ll go unnoticed for long, but fame hasn’t treated him too badly. If things go according to plan, Vs. System won’t either.