So, we tried to go to the Magic Game Day event a week ago, and failed. Two of the prodigal sorcerers had soccer activities in the morning, and by the time we finished all that up and had gotten to the shop, Game Day was underway and there were no spots left. The other nearby stores that were hosting the event were already finished, so it was a bit of a bust.

So, we did our own Mini-Masters tournament! I went and bought some packs and we cracked them, shuffled in land, and got going. My oldest daughter decided she’d rather go hang out with the girl next door, so it was just myself, Kanaan, Chloe and Aiden. First round I played against Aiden and Chloe played Kanaan. Both matches went to three games (mana-screw is a very real thing in Mini-Masters), but I beat the boy and Kanaan beat Chloe, so Kanaan and I each got a pack to add to our deck. The winner would get another pack. I also let Chloe and Aiden play a third-place game for the final pack.

I cut the white out of my deck (the only thing I remember opening was a Serra Angel, which is a decent bomb in the format but I only had two other white cards, none of which I wanted to play, which made white totally not worth keeping. I’m not sure Kanaan put quite as much thought into his deck, but our match went to three games before I won.

I enjoy these type of little tournaments with the kids, but they can be hard at the end. There’s always a loser, and if there are packs or other prizes on the line at all, whoever winds up with the least amount of stuff (compared to all their siblings) starts pouting and acting hurt. I see this kind of thing in our D&D games, too, and I have yet to figure out just how best to handle these situations. I’ve always made it very clear that I won’t take it easy on them when we play any game (it’s just not in my personality, and I don’t think it helps them become better Magic players).

We have been making a regular thing of casual night at the Florissant Fantasy Shop, although this past Saturday the kids all missed it on account of being in trouble (failure to complete chores at home during the week, and other behavioral issues, have caused Saturday Night Magic to become something that has to be “earned” as opposed to something that can just be “lost”).

It is rather ironic that almost as soon as I started this blog, the amount of time we spent playing Magic plummeted, but I will try to update this blog once a week or so with some stories about lessons learned while teaching my little Prodigal Sorcerers to sling spells.