I’ve been a closet nerd since I was 13 years old. Back in 1994, I discovered a collectable card game called Magic the Gathering and I’ve been obsessed ever since. If you aren’t familiar, imagine baseball cards that you can play a card game with. Except, instead of hitters and pitchers, the cards feature elves and goblins (and dragons, angels, merfolk, orcs, demons, wizards – well, you get the idea). Almost every day, I play Magic the Gathering (MTG) after my family goes to sleep. Usually I play online, but whenever possible I like to play with paper cards. Angie is not even a little bit interested in MTG but Alex and Asher are starting to get into it!

Carpe Nerdy Diem

The first thing I did after we decided we would be in the United States for winter, was to check the convention schedule. Fortunately, there was a MagicCon (MTG convention) in Chicago the last weekend in February. I took the year off of work and the boys are in home school so it was a perfect opportunity for a side trip. We been planning travel non-stop for eight months so it was nothing to buy our MagicCon badges, book a hotel, and rent a car. Next stop – Nerd Nirvana!

Travel Logistics

I had not been to Chicago since Angie and I took a weekend trip there before we had kids. At the time there was a long running production of “Wicked” at the Ford theater. Besides the show we saw some landmarks and tried the local cuisine (i.e. deep dish pizza).

This time around the plan was three intense days at McCormick Place (the convention center). We still managed to check out some landmarks and of course we had the local cuisine.

After driving 6.5 hours from St. Paul, we arrived at the park and ride near O’Hare airport around 5:00 pm. It cost $44.00 to leave our car there for 4 days but that was much cheaper than the $69.00 per night that our hotel charged. We took the blue line train to the Chicago loop and then walked six blocks to our hotel. Our hotel was a block away from the House of Blues and across the street from Harry Caray’s.

Everyday we walked eight blocks to Millennium station and took the train to the convention center. A few times we missed the train and took a cab back to the hotel – rather than wait for the next train. I was surprised to learn that the cab was only $15 while Uber was $24 – sometimes it pays to be old school.

Chicago Tourism

Our primary form of tourism, was sampling classic Chicago cuisine. We had deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s our first night. I thought it was great but the boys thought there was too much cheese. Saturday and Sunday were all about Chicago style hotdogs. We tried them anywhere we could get them but are favorite was at Portillo’s four blocks from out hotel.

In addition to food, we also went to Millennium Park to see the mirrored bean. It is about forty feet across and shows a really cool reflection of the Chicago city skyline. At least… it used to. When Angie and I visited in 2008 you could walk up and touch it. Now there is a fence keeping people 30 feet away.

Also we got off the train at the wrong stop one morning and walked by Soldier Field where the Bears play. To be honest we weren’t really in Chicago for tourism, we were there to play cards!

Convention Report

If you don’t care about Magic the Gathering feel free to stop reading here… I believe MagicCon Chicago was the largest MagicCon to date (at least post COVID). The latest MTG set is always prominently featured at MagicCon. This time the set was Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM). The set had a strong murder mystery theme and was set on the Magic Plane of Ravnica. There was also an ancillary product that released on Saturday of MagicCon – an MTG Clue crossover.

We started the convention Friday morning by waiting in line to by convention T-shirts. This was, by far, the most disappointing part of the weekend. We waited an hour and a half and had to leave the line to play in our first event before we were half way through. Later on Saturday we waited another hour and 45 minutes to buy the last two sweatshirts they had and then rushed off to our Saturday event 20 minutes late. While we took turns waiting in line we solved the murder mystery at the immersive experience and won pins!

I had registered us for five total events. Three events for a marathon first day and then one event each on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday

Our first event was a round of MTG Clue which the boys really liked. Asher and I played in a pod of four and Alex was in the pod at the next table. In my game, Asher and I were beat by someone guessing who dunnit (Commander mustard in the Library with the candlestick). Alex’s game was decided by good old fashion magic (i.e. creature combat).

Next we played a box sealed team trio where we lost two matches on won one. In team trio, you build three decks as a team and play another team of three in three one on one best of three matches. I won two of my three matches and Asher won of his three matches (with our team’s best deck). Alex didn’t win a match but he went to game three twice and made things close.

To cap off Friday, we played a Friday night Magic (FNM) two headed giant (2HG). We opened 12 booster packs, made two decks and played three team matches of two on two. Once again we only won one match but all three were close.

but that’s not all

Before we left on Friday, we stopped by a vendor booth were I tried selling some of my expensive cards from the past few years. After going through my binder the vender bought two or three dozen cards from me for a total of $390. I used the credit to buy a revised Plateau for $249. Plateau is one of the original dual lands and on the reserved list. It is one of the ten best lands in MTG and can’t be reprinted. My favorite deck is a red white Angel deck and the Plateau is now the most expensive card in the deck. Fun side note, Alex really likes the Angel deck and played it twice on Saturday and Sunday. The Plateau was played in both games and other nerds were very impressed by the 11 year old playing the bling!

Saturday

After the marathon on Friday we all needed some rest on Saturday. Sleeping in and getting a good breakfast were the first orders of business. Then we did a bit of tourism at Millennium Park (see above). Finally, we arrived at the convention by 12:30. First we, played a game of Commander and then we waited in line for 100 minutes to get our sweatshirts and the MagicCon Chicago promotional card.

Our only event of the day was a Ravnica Remastered two headed giant at 3:00 pm. Despite not seeing the set before, we won two out of three matches and made a rune at three – zero. Every pack of MTG cards says “ages 13 +” so the fact that my 8 and 11 year old sons are learning to be competitive makes me proud.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the vendor to use up my remaining credit. We bought a beautiful foil Resplendent Angel for $45 and a blingy dragon for $50. Asher likes playing a Dragon deck and we thoroughly upgraded it before during and after the convention.

Sunday

Two late nights in a row (somehow we were up until 11:30 on Saturday) meant the alarm was painfully early on Sunday. We just barely made it to 9:00 am Mass at Assumption Catholic Church which was four blocks from our hotel. Then we packed our bags and checked out of the hotel by 10:45 and caught a cab to the convention center.

The boys played another round of Magic Clue while I played the “Unknown Event with Gavin Verhey”. Gavin is a principal designer at Wizards of the Coast and has been working on MTG since 2011. The unknown event is always a unique sealed format with new exclusive Magic cards that are super cool. For this event we got seven packs plus the play test cards and played 60 card limited secret commander.

I made a spicey red green deck with two commanders, “Krenko” – a goblin lord from MKM – and Bear Force Pilot which was a play test card. My deck had a surprising amount of synergy and I went 2 and 1 with a very narrow loos in match three. My only complaint about the event is that the matches are meaningless so it doesn’t matter whether you win.

Extra Toppings

The coolest part were the play test cards. I got an artifact called “Deep Dish Pizza” that is my new favorite artifact and is perfectly flavorful (pun intended). I also got a card honoring MTG head Designer MArk Rosewater or “Maro”. just after my third match I saw Mark Rosewater walking by and got him to sign the card which was awesome!

After our events wrapped up we watched the Pro tour final match for a while and then made our way back to our car for the long drive home. We had a few good road trip conversations between sessions of Nintendo Switch for the boys before they fell asleep. We arrived back at Grandma’s house about 1:45 am Monday morning. I am already dreaming about my next opportunity to go to a MagicCon!