Community Cup Nominations

I have entered Jack in the Community Cup. 

I think you can nominate him as well.

Here is what I submitted:

13 year old Jack Schwarm does not have a Magic the Gathering Online account.
Jack started playing Magic in 2013 and brings a fantastic youthful enthusiasm to the game while playing at four game shops in Southern California, a weekly home game for 12 Seventh Graders, or doctor’s offices waiting rooms. Jack has brought friends & family to events & created a lot of new magic players.
When diagnosed with Uveitis, Jack was forced to drop Water Polo, Fencing, and most of his social activities. He has missed a lot of school due to his illness— appointments with three Eye specialists at UCLA,  Rheumatologists, Pain Management, & General Medicine doctors in Irvine, Infusions at CHOC, etc. Through all of this, he has been able to use build a community of support around Magic the Gathering which has greatly added to his recovery.

Here is the automatic response:

Thank you for submitting a nomination for the Community Cup. All submissions will be read and considered.
Have a great day and enjoy Magic Online!
The Magic Online Community Cup Team

Duel Decks at CHOC

Jack & I picked up the Jace vs Vraska Duel Deck on the way to his infusion at CHOC. 

Infusion is another way to say Chemo which freaks people out so we try to be mellow about it...unless it is Jace vs Vraska and then the entire Multiverse will hear our battle!

First a little documentation on picking up the decks...Brian was not able to find them at the local Target....the are near the cash registers in the front...on the bottom...there are a lot of them...

and very few are this fuzzy...

The battle ground at the Children's Hospital is perfect! 

And Jack was clearly ready to get his game on!

we had a great set of nurses today & the playing  surface was perfect!

The first game I got out my Vraska, but I could not get anything else going--I got mana flooded and Jack owned me. He had a lot of removal.

The second game was better, but he scooped in the end because I was able to get some card advantage rolling & kept some creature on the table. He also got his Jace out, but I removed it immediately.

After the second game, Jack passed out.

CHOC Infusion Center

Jack had his infusion at CHOC--we used to play video games while he was hooked up but lately we have been playing magic & watching youtube videos.

 

He has moved up a weight class for Benadryl and now he often falls asleep while getting his medicine--this is good because time goes by quickly.

 

we will be back at CHOC in 8 weeks.

Single Shot Gruul Key Rune

Another great week of Tuesday Morning with Magic--Evan's mom sent over tangerines & Lisa made banana chocolate chip muffins.

The Boys all rolled in right around 8:00 AM--at this point they all have their own decks & we are looking to create a tournament pool going foreword.

Andrew, Evan, and Dylan all had winning records.

Derek [who cracked a fantastic Planeswalker], Matt, and Jack did not fair as well--actually, I think Jack was undefeated--but Derek struggled and Matt got crushed.

We had more questions on Double Strike and blocking--still something that confuses the boys--we think Double Strike deals damage two times [once during first strike, once during normal combat], even when it is blocking.

The First Strike vs Deathtouch also came up again--we think First Strike damage is applied before Deathtouch & if the creature dies during First Strike Phase Deathtouch does not come into play.

And finally we had a question about the Grull Keyrune

can the Rug Cutter be summoned and turned into a creature in one turn for 3RG? We voted that it could--Artifacts do not have summoning sickness.

Ender's Game Game

We are going to play Numenera in Line to see Ender's Game at the Irvine Spectrum IMAX at 8:00 PM on Friday 11/01/13.

Team Lower Table, one of my favorite Gamer Groups, has a tradition of playing D&D in front of movie theaters that goes back to the Harry Potter films--recently we have had huge games at Avengers, Hobbit, and even Clash of the Titans!

This one will be amazing, not just because Numenera is an amazing system basically designed for public play, but also because we are going to raise money for CHOC as part of Extra Life. 

As many of you know my son Jack has been receiving infusions for the last two years and this is a great chance to give back to an organization that has given our family so much.

I will be posting updates here.

Matt joins the Crew, Slivers Dominate, Two Head Giant Blow out

Another great week of Tuesday Morning with Magic at Much. My brother-in-law gave us some home grown pumpkins which of course were required to play some Theros!

Lisa made some amazing Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.

which were served with some fantastic Peet's coffee.

 

Seventh graders need a note from their moms to drink coffee in our house...oh, well! more for me!

Alexander, Jack, Dylan, Andrew, and Matt all came this morning.

It was Matt's first time so he got to play my amazing Schwarming Sliver deck which continues to dominate.

First round was Jack vs. Andrew while Alexander got his deck fixed up.

Dylan was watching--he has not played the much Magic, but he is smart and picked it up quickly.

Once Alexander was ready with his deck, he battled my Sliver deck with Matt at the helm.

Matt crushed him in five turns.

I am still amazed that we are not seeing more Slivers at Friday Night Magic.

When that game was over, Andrew scooped against Jack so that Two Headed Giant could get started--the boys only have one hour before school starts.

While the boys were playing, Kate was going head to head with Matt with her white red deck that is still a mess--needs a lot of work.

As you can imagine, Slivers were victorious again. 

We put the leaves in the table to have more room for players, but it was still a little crowded. Next week I am not sure what we are going to do--maybe bring a table in from the other room--we shall see.

Hive Stirrings x 2 + blur sliver + predator sliver = trouble.

Everyone had a very good time.

Children's Hospital Orange County

Jack had his infusion at CHOC today. He has uveitis & has to have infusions every 8 weeks.

 

 

 We set up cards in the room--one of the nurses had a brother who played and knew what we were up to. Jack was very excited.

While Nurse Uma was setting up the initial medications and taking vitals and stuff we were able to get in two quick games--I won the first and he won the second. Before we could finish the match it was time for the infusion. 

 

Jack is super brave during this part and really likes to watch the entire process.

 

Also, note the pizza--Friday is pizza day at Pediatric Infusion Center which is one of the main reasons we go on Fridays. Also, we had heard that it is generally not that busy of a day--this Friday however was massively busy with just about every room occupied and a lot of kids running around.

 

 

Jack, however, was not running around--or able to finish our match.

 

He has gotten bigger and now receives 50mg of Benedryl which makes him extremely tired. The infusion went well without any major issues--some leg 'itching' and 'numbness' which was new, but not alarming.

 

Entire process took four hours.

 

Having Magic cards with us, definitely made the early part of the procedure a lot easier.