SATURDAY

SATURDAY:
I spent most of Saturday looking forward to the Magic The Gathering Scars of Mirrodin party I had scavenged an invite to the previous day. You had to find these magic areas and complete cryptic challenges to arrive at a keyword which, along with the stamped card, would grant you access.
First thing I did was line up for another two hours for the first major event of the day which was Mike and Jerry making a comic live. It ended up being another Q&A with comic being done in the background, I thought we might get input but it seemed like they'd already figured it out ahead of time. Gabe drew a Dickwolf and Jerry called PAX East the 'bitch PAX' which was all met with roaring laughter. They are highly entertaining which I suspect is the real secret of the comic's success.
After that I tried to find a boutique shoe store [I found out where it was on Sunday just as it was closing and Monday was a labor day. Fail...] to get my brother some sweet kicks but after wasting an hour of precious PAX, gave up my search. By this point I was sorely missing the internet.
At this stage I realised that we would have to leave to line up for the Magic Party around 4:30 and I wasn't going to get to any more panels that day. So I entered a Magic draft with Andy and Zack. I won that one too (even though Andy didn't pass me the Baneslayer he busted) and the adrenalin was running high. I think Child of the Night is my favourite card in M11.

The Magic party was EPIC. I'll write about it tomorrow. Right now I have to play some games with Mitch's friends from Rockstar!

The Magic Party itself played host to an even more insidious grammatical treasure hunt with $1000 and a replica Opal Mox up for grabs. It was based on divining information from the oversized preview cards from Scars of Mirrodin scattered about the room. Between this and the complimentary Mirrodin themed cocktails most people were well entertained. But I was greedy and wanted to try and get some face time with some industry people I really admired. At one point Brady Dommermuth and Mark Rosewater made themselves available. Maro gave me a hug but then sent me on my way. Fortunately I had spoken with Brady's brother and he made the connection. We chatted a bit and with his help (and Mon's, the man behind Mon's Goblin Raiders and lifetime mtg playtester) I met Aaron Forsythe and much to my delight, Jeremy Jarvis the Art Director of MTG. I gave him my email and he said he'd be in touch and was willing to look at some of my work. Brady said to me quite fairly 'We don't mess with our artists, you're either good enough for Magic or you aren't'. I am killing myself a bit for not bringing a whole box of business cards to America. If it is my downfall I'm not sure how I will continue. But I am reassured nonetheless; when I get home I have some good leads for a career as a professional artist.