I want to tell you the true story behind the founding of “The Four Horsemen” Old School Magic the Gathering Players group came to be, why we chose to do good with magic, and our long term goals of working towards the ability to support online mental health and Children's Hospitals. This story also explains:
How Magic is Meaningful and Why The Community Around Magic Matters
How We Found Renewed Hope, Love, and New Friends in the Magic Old School Community
And How Magic and Visiting the Shores of Imagination Can Actually Save Your Life
“The Chadster” & Brook
I am an old school Magic Player and also a longtime admirer of Ken Meyer Jr.’s art and life’s work for several decades. I played Magic the Gathering as a young kid growing up in North Texas starting in 1995. Although I missed all the most amazing sets of Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, and all of the Four original Expansions, Arabian nights, Antiquities, Legends & The dark. They were all long gone by the time I discovered Magic. Morte about me a`nd my discovery and love of Magic below.
Flash forward.
Brook grew up in San Diego and moved to Texas for her work in 2019. She is now not only a new Magic the Gathering player, but also my fiancé, the mother of my first child, Audrey Lené, and the inspiration and source of our family. She is the love of my life. We met on Match.com about 12 months before COVID-19 hit the USA. We have been together ever since we met on our very first date and she changed my life for the better in ways I cannot put into words.
Just this past year, I received for Christmas a present from Brook, a card I have always wanted thanks to the very cool Jeremiah Mohr, I FINALLY go ahold of a one of my all time favorites, Guardian Beast, which I could never afford nor get my hands on as a kiddo! Thank you Brook & Jeremiah!
We are one of the most fortunate couples I know today, but this did not seem to be the case almost 2.5 years ago.
This story will tell you why and also explain why today, I know for certain that I am the luckiest guy I can think of.
How We Got Back into Magic as an Adult & New Parent
When COVID-19 hit in late 2019, I had forgotten about Magic for almost two decades. One fortunate aspect of this story, however, is that I had also forgotten that I still had about 95% of all of my original Magic collection, and I had traded newer cards for older cards in the mid to late 1990s. I specifically remember trading away: a Crimped Beta Wrath of God, a massively heavily played almost unrecognizable Unlimited Mox Sapphire, an Unlimited Gauntlet of Might, Time Vault, Cyclopean Tomb, and Lich.
With COVID, Brook and I found we were pregnant for the first time. I am a late bloomer on starting a family, but Brook is young and family-oriented, so it works out!
Brook was laid off of work due to cutbacks due to COVID-19 in March of 2020. I was laid off due to the same in May. We were pregnant, and both unemployed, and scared as to what COVID might do, as I am older and have several health conditions, which I have to keep an eye on.
Magic Became a Wonderful Salvation for us at this Point
Brook and I dug out my Magic collection in late 2020 during the months we were all isolating at home. I happen to have a set of the 1996 Championship edition decks with the gold border cards and taught Brook to play Magic while trapped at home.
We started watching YouTube Old School Magic videos and found there were Vloggers, web sites, Facebook groups Discord groups, etc.; an entire community had sprung up to play Old School "1993-1994" Magic the Gathering online!
What Went Wrong
When our daughter, Audrey Lené, was born in August 19, 2020, she was sadly born at a mere 4 pounds. The doctors knew all along Brook’s pregnancy that something was wrong, but after every test known to mankind, they could not determine why she was undersized in the womb.
Audrey was born with a rare condition known as "esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula" where her stomach was not connected to her throat, and instead, her esophagus had connected to her bronchial tube on her lungs. She could not swallow and her throat was sealed off into a pouch. Before 1950, every baby born in the history of mankind with this condition had a rapid death sentence, as no baby born before the invention of a surgical treatment could swallow, breast feed, or have any nourishment.
The NICU was on lock down due to COVID. We could not see Audrey together as a couple as parents together, and we could only visit with Audrey for limited time amounts. We were discharged and sent home. Audrey was in the NICU for almost 4 months after that. We watched from a NICU baby monitor camera from home over the internet. She was intubated so she could breathe properly, and a suction tube was placed down her throat to drain her saliva because her throat was sealed off into a pouch and not connected to her stomach. She could not breastfeed nor swallow.
Although we could not hold her at this time due to the intubation and suction tubes and monitors, we could hold her little hand wrapped around one of our fingers.
The baby monitor in the NICU, which is normally a blessing for all family members far and wide to view a newborn in fact, quickly became a curse for us; a source of tremendous stress, anxiety, and pain for Brook and me as every time we gazed into the screen, we witnessed the suffering and constant struggling of our little baby girl fighting for her life. We watched as Audrey gagged on the tubes 24 hours a day. She was literally choking and struggling every moment she was not asleep. It was literally a living hell for us, as were all of the first several months of Audrey's life.
We were both still unemployed as COVID got worse and the death tolls skyrocketed. We lived in fear, worry, anxiety, stress, and every other way you do not want to live life for months and months as my life's savings vanished more and more each month. The medical bills mounted as much as the worry.
A Glimpse of Hope
The only good news at that time was, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Audrey had several treatment options, but this would require 7 surgeries over the first 18 months of her life. But there was a chance we wouldn't lose her. So we proceeded with everything the doctor's recommended.
We realized we could not spend all day and all-night staring anxiously at Audrey's suffering on the NICU cameras (which we did for the first 4 weeks and almost drove ourselves mad). We visited the NICU each day in person instead and saw Audrey one parent at a time for about 15 minutes per day.
In an attempt to distract ourselves from the stress and anxiety, when we would come home from the NICU, Brook and I played more Magic to take our mind off the horrible facts of the situation we were in. We started watching more YouTube videos of Old School Magic players and Vloggers playing amazingly competitive Old School decks and cards.
Salvation at the Shores of Imagination
In a very real way, playing Magic & the community around magic, became a form of salvation for us amidst the nightmare we were living in. Since I was unemployed due to COVID-19 and could not find a job after 9 solid months of looking, when we were not at the Hospital NICU, Brook and I started also playing much more magic in person in our living room! We started engaging more and more in the Old School Magic the Gathering online community via Facebook Groups, Discord, & Instagram. I also started buying new Magic cards, as well as started purchasing some of the old Magic cards I always wanted, but was never able to collect when I was young. I then started competing in a few online casual formats and tournaments.
Brook also would join in and play in the evenings whenever we needed a welcomed distraction from the pain and suffering we were feeling constantly. She would sit with me, and watch matches over my shoulder, and cheer me on in my online virtual matches. Everyone who knew me, also knew Brook, and knew the story of Audrey and what we were going through. They became our extended virtual friends.
Turning A Corner
We found that, although we were so isolated being alone at home due to COVID and had been for many months, we found a Magic Community, many of whom (but sadly not all) welcomed us and helped us. I played tournaments each week and on Tuesday nights with the "Paladin Magic" group who had a regular rapid 3 Swiss Round Tuesday night Tournament hosted on Discord. I started playing in the "Sprites" Group, and stared winning a few casual Tournaments.
Brook and I both discovered how much we needed a reprieve from the stress of real life, and for a bit each day we could set aside the stresses, the worries, the feeling of anxiety in your stomach and exchange all of this for the Magical Experience of Playing Magic the Gathering with the Old School original cards as the game was designed and meant to be played "Virtually in-person over the Internet". It was amazing!
What Happened Next
After Audrey finally made it to 5 pounds at 4 months in the NICU, with being grown only on Intravenous solution (remember, she couldn't eat or breast feed), our amazing Surgeon performed a surgery on Audrey that in of itself is the modern-day equivalent of Magic.
He utilized a special set of surgical tools that look like Chopsticks with bendable joints and levers, one with clamps and one with surgical scissors smaller than your thumb. Audrey weighed a mere 5 pounds and she was so tiny that she fit into one palm of your hand if you could hold her. He went in through Audrey’s ribs (two of them broke during the surgery), severed the esophagus connection from the Bronchial tubes, sutured up the hole in the Bronchial Tubes, and then sutured the esophagus to her throat which had been previously sealed of in a closed pouch. He connected her throat and esophagus the first time she was born. He saved her little life.
Audrey had to spend several more months in the Hospital NICU. After her throat healed from the surgery a few weeks later, Audrey was able to finally have Breast Milk pumped into her stomach. She still could not have a baby bottle nor drink breast milk because her body was so tiny and underdeveloped, the chances of Pneumonia and Acid Reflux common in infants were too great. Only a small amount of Brook's breast milk could be pumped in at a time. But Audrey could finally have nourishment. She started growing.
A Beautiful Coming Home Surprise
Audrey grew so rapidly after these first surgical procedures that Brook actually supposed me one Tuesday night! The doctors, unbeknownst to me, had allowed Audrey to come home almost 3 weeks earlier than expected and Right Before Thanksgiving!! I, of course, was playing the Paladin Magic Tuesday Night Gauntlet Tournament, when suddenly, after her nightly NICU visit, Brook burst through the door of my office and she had little baby Audrey in her arms! I was on Discord in a Group video with all the regular guys I had made friends with. By this time, everyone in the Paladin Magic group knew the story, knew Brook, and knew about Audrey.
Both I and the entire Paladin Magic Discord group saw precisely what I saw together amidst our Tuesday night virtual gathering:
Brook walking through the door with little baby Audrey in her arms coming home for the first time in months from the Hospital NICU as the most welcome pre-Thanksgiving surprise ever!
We all erupted in cheer in unison!
I cried and the guys roared as I apologized that I had to go be with my family together for the first time. I cry every time I reflect on this moment with tears of pure joy and the most heartfelt gratefulness one can feel.
I did not realize it fully at that time, but The Old School Magic Community was there helping me all along to keep me from succumbing to the very real depression of the situation at hand. They encouraged me and Brook every time we were playing together online.
I made friends in this group I would have never known otherwise from all over the world. This Magic Community and newfound friends shared in the suffering of our young family, as well as the joy of our first reunion. I cannot tell you how appreciative I am of the group of folks who supported me during this extremely difficult time, as this Old School Magic Community was a strong source of mental health support, encouragement, friendship, empathy, and welcomed distraction from the intense stress, pain, and suffering Brook and I were experiencing. The group was our reprieve, and for me in particular, was a salvation within Magic “The Shores of Imagination”.
Not Out of the Woods Yet
At that time, although her esophagus had been repaired and connected to her stomach, Audrey was not yet out of the woods. Audrey had 4 holes in her heart due to her condition in utero, and was in the midst of congestive heart failure. She has serious blood flow and blood oxygen irregularities which caused “wet lungs”; lungs over saturated with under oxygenated blood, causing rapid heart rate, overworking her infant heart, and overworking her lungs with constant rapid heavy breathing.
Audrey was expending more energy each day that she was able to take in. Her body was overworked and overheating and as a result she vomited constantly, similar to effects of heat stroke. She was unable to keep down much baby formula and she would puke up much of it each time we pumped formula into her stomach multiple times a day. She still was unable to eat, as she had not developed the needed swallowing muscles in her throat, neck and chest. As a result, she was not growing, and had no growth over a 3.5-month period.
Audrey had open heart surgery, the seventh surgery of her life, at a mere 8-months-old, to plug 4 holes in her heart. Her pediatric heart surgeon was a miracle-worker and performed the surgery perfectly. Audrey recovered rapidly and was home within 2.5 weeks.
Today, Audrey has finally grown to just over 20 pounds and will turn 2-years-old on August 19, 2022.
Wishing You All the Best of Magic Matches & Fun Playing The Four Horsemen Old School Magic Format!
~ Chadster
The Chief Horsemen
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