Greetings,

I want to chat a bit about the 2015 events that Legion Events has, and the awesome things that can happen if you attend multiple Legion events in 2015.  We are calling our 2015 events the Legion Tour.

First up on the Tour is GP Omaha, a Modern event on January 9-11.  You’ve seen me mention it here, but this GP is going to be great.  We have seven artists, a sweet VIP package that includes a GP Omaha messenger bag, a Prize Market, and an awesome side events lineup that includes GP Omaha deckboxes just for playing in some of the side events.  (The deckboxes will be important in a bit.)

Second up on the Tour is GP Oklahoma City, a Modern event on September 11-13.  We can’t tell you a ton about this event yet – however, we CAN tell you that the playmat will be done by Dan Scott.  We have a great sketch in, and are waiting on final art and approval.  The playmat art for GP Oklahoma City is also going to be featured on deckboxes at select side events and for VIPs, like at GP Omaha.

The third and final stop on the Tour is GP Madison, a “Blood” Sealed Deck event on October 9-11.  (“Blood” is the codename for the fall set.)  GP Madison I can say a few things about.

• Dan Scott is also doing the playmat for GP Madison.  Yes, we have Dan doing all three playmats for 2015.  Yes, they are going to follow a theme.  More on that in a second.
• At GP Madison the playmat art is also going to go on a deckbox for VIPs and for select side events…and it is also being used to hold your limited pool at the start of the event.  That’s right, you will get the deckbox for GP Madison in side events and also in the main event.

You know that theme for our mats and boxes I mentioned?  There is a fourth piece of art we have coming from Dan.  This piece will be on a tin that holds three deckboxes.  (Like the three deckboxes on the Tour.  Coincidental, huh?)  This tin will have the art for each of the Legion Tour deckboxes on the back, and the front will have this new fourth piece, completing the story told by the art.

So how do you get this tin?  In one of three different ways (while supplies last):

• By attending GPs in the Legion Tour.  If you attend all three stops on the Legion Tour in 2015 and play in the main event, you get the tin for free.
• If you only attend some of the GPs, you will be able to buy the tin from the Legion Supplies booth at GP Madison, discounted for each GP you attended in 2015.
• The tin, with one of each deckbox in it, will be on our Prize Market at GP Madison.

I’ll keep you updated on what the deckboxes and tin look like as we go on and get art locked in for these events.

I’m very excited for our 2015 GPs, and I’m excited to see all of you at the Legion Tour in 2015.

Greetings,

I’ve put up a full side events listing for GP Omaha. You should check it out.

If you want the TL;DR and want to just have a few sweet events called out for you, I’ve got you covered too.  I’m going to pick my favorite events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and tell you why they are so awesome.

What is my favorite on Friday?

No questions, the VIP Dinner “Standard” Sealed at 5pm.  It’s $30 for a Sealed where you get to use one booster of every  set in Standard with a bonus Khans of Tarkir booster to make 6.  Just for entering into this event, you get a GP Omaha deckbox.

The very best part of this event is the prize, though.  The winner gets an invitation for them and a buddy to go to a Omaha steakhouse dinner at The Drover, a local steakhouse known for its whiskey marinaded steaks.  Who else will be at that dinner?  The GP artists (all seven of them), Steve Port the tournament organizer, and Chris Richter the head judge.  The dinner is on Saturday night after the GP is done with swiss rounds.  Oh, and you and that buddy get VIP upgrades for the GP, too.

What is my favorite on Saturday?

Besides the GP main event, the Rebound Modern at 3pm is amazing.

The price and prizes are super sweet.  It is a $20 event, but you get $5 off if you played in the GP main event.  Basically, if you get a little unlucky you get a cheaper shot at this event.

So what are the awesome prizes?  Well, you play five rounds of swiss, and if you are undefeated you get a complete set of Khans of Tarkir, plus free entry into the Super Sunday Series event of your choice on Sunday.  (Yeah, that’s one of each fetchland, Sorin, Sarkhan, the whole deal.)  If you lose once, you still get 18 prize tickets, enough for half a box of Khans of Tarkir on our Prize Market.  In fact, everyone down to 2 wins gets prizes.

What is my favorite on Sunday?

I’m gonna hedge a bit here, because on Sunday we really stacked our side events.

We have the two Super Sunday Series events, where you play for the chance to win an invitation to the yearly Super Sunday Series Championship held in Renton, Washington.  That event has a $20,000 prize pool, and the winner of our Super Sunday Series gets a flight to that, hotel for that weekend, and prize tickets on top of that.  You can get there either in Standard or in Khans of Tarkir Sealed Deck.

Those take all day, though.  I’m a busy guy, Rob!  I want something that only takes an afternoon.  Well, we have you covered. If you don’t want to play in an all-day event, there are two events I’d be playing in if I were playing on Sunday.

We have an event we are calling Landlord Legacy at 11am.  It’s a 4-round Swiss event that costs just $15, and for every 10th player in the event, we are giving away an awesome Legacy land at the start of round 1 of the event.  You could get a Revised dual land, a Wasteland, a City of Traitors, or another land of similar awesomeness.  (We like to keep you guessing.)  This is one of those events where everyone wins – every player in this event will get a GP Omaha deckbox just for signing up.  If we get 100 players for Legacy, you might win the jackpot – our awesomeness stakes go up with a foil fetchland as our 10th awesome land.  (And yes, it can fetch an Island.)

If you have two friends who like sealed deck, we are running a Khans of Tarkir Trios Sealed event at 3pm.  Team Trios is my favorite tournament format, and I like to spread the love to it.  To encourage you to play, this event is giving away 24 prize tickets per player to undefeated teams after 4 rounds of swiss.  That’s enough tickets for two boxes of Khans of Tarkir on our Prize Market.  What happens if you don’t quite get there, and lose one round?  You still get 12 tickets per player, which means your team gets enough to get a full box of Khans of Tarkir.  Like our Landlord event, every player that plays in this event gets a sweet GP Omaha deckbox.

All of these events sound like the kind of event you might want to travel for…but they are all happening the weekend of GP Omaha, January 9-11, along with a ton of other side events.  You should join us for the weekend.

Greetings,

I’ve had a few people ask me about VIP details, and I figured it was time to make those a little more clear for GP Omaha.

So, lets talk about VIP.

VIP service has a cost of $60 at GP Omaha above the normal registration price, but includes a suite of great benefits to make your

• Sleep-in Special
  • The Sleep-in Special is included in the price of the VIP package.  If you have byes, just make a decklist on our decklist generator, and email it to deck@legionevents.com prior to the player meeting on Saturday to take advantage of this.
• Access to the VIP Lounge, which includes:
  • A bag check area, guarded by our VIP Concierge
  • Water service
  • A special VIP parings board, technology permitting.  We will do our best to get you your pairings, but we are in the process of rolling out new GP software that may cause problems with all special pairings, including our scrolling pairings software and online pairings.
    • Note that this does NOT include a special VIP seating area.
  • A charging station for your mobile devices
• A VIP kit:
  • An awesome VIP messenger bag, featuring the GP Omaha art.  Only 100 will be made.
  • A VIP GP Omaha playmat
  • A GP Omaha deckbox
  • 100 Legion sleeves
  • A Legion water bottle
  • Snacks
  • A lifepad and pen
• Artist access
  • From 12pm-1pm on Sunday you will have time to chat and get things signed by Winona Nelson, Anthony Palumbo, and Jim Pavelec.
  • From 1pm-2pm on Sunday you will have time to chat and get things signed by Dan Scott, Jeff Miracola, Aaron Miller, and Marco Nelor.

If you are looking at VIP, slots are limited, and the best value is to purchase it before early bird registration ends.  You can get your GP for just $50, and VIP for $60 above that until December 19th.

Greetings all,

You can now register for GP Omaha, at this shiny button:

And you should ddefinitelypreregister now, before the price goes up.

There are three timeframes for preregistration, each with their own cost:

• From December 5th through December 19th, preregistration has a $10 discount, making the cost $50.
• From December 20th through January 2nd, preregistration has a $5 discount, making the cost $55.
• From January 3rd and on, preregistration (and on-site registration) is not discounted, making the cost $60.

I’ll be posting more about some of the awesome things we are doing at this GP, but to whet your appetite a bit, lets take a look at the artist roll:

And our latest addition, our seventh artist:

See you at GP Omaha!

I would like to extend another heart felt thank you to the players at GP San Antonio this past weekend. We 1167 players in the main event and another couple hundred just hanging out and enjoying the side events, 4 artists and our sponsored cos player. We did some good work over those first few rounds in advancing the next version of GP tournament software. There were some long rounds early and you all showed incredible patience as we worked hard to get that program the stress test it needed.

I thank you, and I’m sure that wizards and the dev team thank you as well!

I’m looking forward to #GPOmaha in just 5 short weeks. We’ve got 6 artists coming for the first ever GP in Omaha. The playmat for Omaha was done by Dan Scott and I’m happy to announce Dan has agreed to do mats for all of the Legion GPs in 2015! We’ve got a special surprise in the works for the Legion 2015 GP series with a special bonus for you if you attend all 3 (Omaha in January, Oklahoma City in September, and Madison in October). We’ll be officially announcing this one of a kind bonus item in the weeks leading up to Omaha!

Our venue is attached to the block hotel so you can jump easily between the hotel and venue! Registration will open for Omaha very soon!

See you all very soon!

Steve

GP San Antonio’s Friday events are tomorrow and the tables and chairs are lined up for competition.

You ready for some Standard?  I know I am.

If you want to come down and play with us, registration is open and running – we have over 700 players registered in already, and a small handful of VIP slots left.

Greetings all,

As you may know, we have a top-quality cosplayer coming for GP San Antonio, Christine Sprankle.  Christine has been cosplaying Magic events for three years, and cosplaying in general for longer than that.

At GP San Antonio, Christine will be wearing three costumes this weekend: Nissa, Worldwaker; Teysa Envoy of Ghosts; and Liliana Vess.  If you want to catch her and Peter Mohrbacher, the illustrator of Nissa, Worldwaker together, you are in luck, because they will both be on site.

I caught Christine for some interview questions, so if you are interested in her cosplay, or cosplay in general, keep reading.

Rob: Christine, you are the cosplayer that we have at GP San Antonio, and you’ve been cosplaying for a while at conventions and other events. How did you get started going to events as a cosplayer?

Christine: It all started in 2011 when I made my very first Magic cosplay, Elspeth! She was my first big armor cosplay and I was so excited to wear her. That year Magic Worlds was conveniently being held in San Francisco which is a short drive from home. The way my friends described it It almost sounded like a Magic convention so I decided to bust out my newest cosplay. Needless to say when I got there it wasn’t what I expected at all, and I thought I would quickly be asked to leave. After a few minutes though (when the shock wore off maybe) a lot of people started coming up and asking for pictures! A few handshakes, questions and a rather infamous picture with Brian Kibler later, I was known at Christine Sprankle Knight Errant! I have been making Magic cosplays (including three more Elspeth cosplays) and going to GP’s and PT’s ever since!

Rob: What is the most exciting thing about cosplaying at a Magic event for you? Is there anything different from a Magic event than a non-Magic event?

Christine: I would have to say the absolute best part about cosplaying at a Magic event is the connection you automatically have with everybody else in the room! We are all there to play Magic and have a good time. You can always feel the camaraderie and for the most part friendly rivalry at an event. I’ve gone to a lot of conventions but Magic GP’s and PT’s have a really unique atmosphere and I really love it!

Rob: You have a wide variety of costumes you use at different events. Are there any you are exceptionally proud of, or think are unappreciated?

Christine: I really love making armor. Sewing is always rather stressful for me and I am still very much learning so I always lean towards costumes I feel more comfortable with making and honestly you feel so badass in armor! Liliana Vess was a perfect blend of armor and cloth and I am really happy with how she turned out, she is also quite the crowd favorite! I feel my most under appreciated has to be my Emmara Tandris. I got her art before they released her and wasn’t able to see her card. Sadly the card didn’t turn out the best and a lot of people forgot her quickly. I feel with each cosplay I make I really improve and learn a lot of new things and It just makes me want to keep going and going!

Rob: Your costumes are incredibly well constructed and detailed. What kind of work and time goes into a costume like your Nissa costume?

Christine: Thank you so much! How long it takes to make a costume really depends on the costume! Nissa took me about a month or so to make. It’s a little hard to give exact time since I really just go with the flow and don’t exactly clock in and out as I work on it. I start with gathering as many pictures of the character as I can. If the character doesn’t have that much reference (the usual with magic cards sadly) I just contact the artist and ask them some questions. The artists always seem eager to help! Then I break the costume down visually from head to toe into separate pieces. Looking at it as a whole can overwhelm you, so breaking it down can make it easier. Then I collect material from anywhere and everywhere I can to start making it piece by piece! There is always contacts, wigs, elf ears, and other miscellaneous accessories to top it all off too!

Rob: When you are doing your work building out a costume, do you use any special references or images? Do you ever contact the artist of a piece to get a high-resolution version to work from to match details better?

Christine: ALL THE TIME! Sadly Magic cards, especially the older cards, have to fit in a small frame and don’t show half the character. And you almost NEVER see the backside of a Magic character which can be a little bit of a problem when you are trying to bring the character to life. At the same time it also allows you to take a little artistic liberty and put a little piece of yourself in the costume and character! I never hesitate to ask the artist questions and they are always super helpful and rather eager to answer any and all questions!

Rob: Are there “dos and don’ts” that fans should know about you when you are cosplaying an event versus just attending normally?

Christine: I am always down to take pictures! That’s what I’m there for! I appreciate it VERY much when you ask. I may be dressed as Liliana, but believe me you will not have to sign a demon contract to get a picture! But please if I am eating or have part of the costume off and resting up come back in a little bit so I can give you the full effect and not a picture of Liliana with pizza all over her face!

Rob: Is there a good way for fans to contact you if they want to try to arrange getting you to an event? We have you on GP San Antonio because of a contact like this, so I would love to hear your preferred contact path for fans to connect you up with organizers.

Christine: Facebook is a fantastic way to get ahold of me! I always try to help out with cosplay if I can! People can also get a hold of me at Cspranklerun@hotmail.com for booking me for a show or general questions/fan mail. Sadly costumes cost a LOT of money to make and while I would really love to make it to more GP’s and meet more people (and play a lot more Magic!) I just cannot afford the travel. So please if you want to see me at a GP near you email that GP and let them know! If enough people are interested hopefully they will extend a helping hand!

Christine, thank you tons, and I am as excited as you for this weekend.  GP San Antonio is going to be a great show, and you are going to be one of the stars.

If you want to see Christine, you can just stop by the hall – entrance is free to come check out our artists, vendors, and Christine.

You can also sign up to play in the GP, which is going to be a great time.

And finally, the artist interview of our featured artist, Daarken.  Daarken does not need a lot of introduction, but I do have a few things that might interest you.  Daarken worked on the style guide for Khans of Tarkir, and has illustrated Sarkhan on cards three times.  (Sarkan Vol, Form of the Dragon, and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker.)  Daarken is also our playmat artist, and did a really great writeup of his process on the playmat art here.

Rob: You’ve done quite a bit of Magic art (readers, you can see those cards here). Are there any pieces that have a really interesting story or history behind them?

Daarken: Sarkhan Vol probably has the longest history behind him. I originally concepted and painted Sarkhan back in either 2007 or 2008. I know Shards of Alara came out in 2008, but usually we do the paintings up to a year before the release date.

In 2012 I was approached to redesign Sarkhan for Khans of Tarkir. It was fun to revist an old painting and give him a bit more attention. It is pretty interesting to see how my painting style had changed between the two paintings.

I actually wrote a blog post about the design process of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker if you want to check it out.

Rob: Is there anything that has surprised you about doing Magic illustration? Is there anything you have been excited about in Magic illustration you don’t get from other illustrations?

Daarken: I’m pretty surprised by the amount of press and recognition you get from being a Magic artist. I always knew it was a huge IP and that it was played around the world, but I guess I never really considered how many people would recognize me after creating art for the game.

No other game flies you around the world to sign autographs. I have been incredibly grateful for the opportunity to visit other countries. In fact, aside from the one time I went to London with my parents when I was a little kid, the only time I have ever been able to visit another country was because I was flown there as a guest artist. It is pretty awesome.

Rob: Are there any alters or signings you have done at events that are significant or memorable for you?

Daarken: I think Boba Ghast is always a memorable one. Lately I haven’t been doing very many, but that is probably because most people tend to alter more recent cards.

Rob: Do you work traditionally, digitally, or both?

Daarken: I was trained traditionally in school, but all of my professional work is digital. I haven’t really painted traditionally since school. I would love to get back into it, but I really don’t have the time. I did a few acrylic border extensions, but I don’t know if that really counts.

Rob: What kind of modeling or references do you use when creating fantastic art? Are they any different than models you have used in non-fantastic pieces?

Daarken: I don’t use reference very often. Sometimes I’ll shoot reference of my hands or of myself holding a sword, or maybe of some folds if I can’t get the clothing to look right, but usually I just paint from my imagination.

Rob: Do you have anything non-Magic related you want to talk about? Any interesting other projects you have done or are working on?

Daarken: For the past year or so I’ve been teaching an online mentorship. I just started the advanced class and the intro class is on its third term. I love seeing everyone’s progress over the course of the class and I feel that I have made some new friends.

It is also amazing that I have students from all over the world. I think my current advanced class has students from the US, England, Argentina, Chile, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

Rob: Is there any way for players to get in touch with you outside of events to order alters or prints if they miss you at the Grand Prix?

Daarken: Yeah, I have an online store located at www.daarken.com/shop.

Daarken, thanks tons, and I know I’ve said it before, but this playmat art is amazing.

If you want to get your hands on the playmat for GP San Antonio, with Daarken’s incredible art, all you need to do is sign up.  Everyone that plays in the main event at GP San Antonio this weekend gets a copy of the playmat.

You can also meet Daarken and get your Sarkhans and playmats signed by coming by the hall this Friday through Sunday.

See you at the GP!

Greetings all,

Peter mentioned during his GP San Antonio artist interview recently that he does occasional kickstarters, and he is doing one right now. The Binding of Tibalt is a last hurrah for Tibalt prints, including sweet custom playmats. This closes in 4 days, and includes a sweet custom playmat from Peter.

You should check it out at The Binding of Tibalt.

You can meet Peter at GP San Antonio next weekend, if you want to chat with him about the kickstarter, or get some awesome prints.

Greetings all,

We just got in our VIP messenger bags, and they look super sweet.  Check them out:

We still have a little over 20 VIP slots remaining in GP San Antonio, so if you want one of these bags you should hop in now before we run out of VIP slots.