The Shaman is a four-part serial. For the rest of the series, click here.

Part Four: The Shaman’s Return (Grand Prix New Jersey, Day Two)

I awoke in an alley somewhere near the Arena. I did not try to remember how I got there, but I did immediately search for my weapon. I found it tucked safely in the bag beneath my head, so I rose, brushed off the dust, and shook the chill from my bones. I staggered from the alley, holding my head, wondering what sort of toxin could linger and cause so much throbbing.

I found the Arena by way of the sun and was aided by catching sight of the parade of warriors heading in the same direction. As I shuffled into the building, I was greeted by some of my new friends whom I vaguely remembered from the night before, and they assisted me in the acquisition of food and ritual supplies as I made proper use of the hour I had before battle.

When the time came I was ready. With my weapon in hand and my head full of the Ways of the Universe, I was sure that nothing could stop me. I recited the name of the fiend inside Squee silently to myself, knowing that it would be my trump against the vile thing that possessed my enemy as it gloated in its possession of the Necronomicon.

Round Ten: Boris Devilboon

The fiends present today were overt with their evil, and I was aware that I stood out amongst them. I was the last beacon of hope for the fearful masses, and I knew it would take a valiant effort to triumph in their name. Boris was the first of many who would try to stop me, and I did not make the mistake of doubting his prowess as we met on the field of battle.

He won the die roll and settled on a hand of six as I did the same. He led with a Mountain and summoned a [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] to draw first blood. I proceeded to my turn and cast a [card]Gitaxian Probe[/card], looking up on his hand of two [card]Fireblast[/card]s, a [card]Price of Progress[/card], a [card]Skullcrack[/card], and a Mountain. There was nothing to fear. I added 16 goblins to the board and let him take his next turn. It was the only other one he took. Whatever it was that he drew, he understood the situation and accepted it for what it was.

We moved to game two and he began the play again. He attacked me with a [card]Goblin Guide[/card], which revealed a [card]Land Grant[/card] on the top of my library. I drew it for my turn, played through my spells, and shot him for 52. I showed him no mercy, and the fiend accepted defeat as he drew back into the shadows from where he came, preparing to fare better against his next victim.

9-1

Round Eleven: Hazezon Tamar

I found my opponent waiting for me when I made my way to our field of battle. He sat quietly, a smirk on his lips, looking at me in a way that implied that he knew something I didn’t. I met his gaze with a viciousness that I feel only in the face of the greatest evil, and after staring into the Abyss as long as I have, I found nothing unsettling as I stared into his blackened soul. He possessed no knowledge. His posturing was intended to rattle me, to get me to give away my position, and I was not interested in such mind games.
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I won the die roll and demonstrated my power to the monster. I played my hand, activated my Charbelcher, and began revealing cards with my Taiga still tucked somewhere inside my library. We both gazed upon it 27 cards later, and my opponent fell to a sum of damage that would have killed him twice over.

He was furious inside, but remained calm and composed outside. He never took a turn so I had no information. This made preparing for being on the draw much more difficult, but I was ready. He opened with a [card]Mox Diamond[/card], [card]Grove of the Burnwillows[/card], and a Sphere of resistance. He established a safety net with his harsh device, and he quickly began setting up his kill. It was my turn not to play a spell this game, and I shook it off as we moved on to our final duel.

This time I was going to help him understand the error of his ways. He would be baptized with fire. I was forced to take five cards and felt the pressure as the fiend smiled behind his seven. I kept, played my [card]Land Grant[/card], found and played my Taiga, cast my [card]Rite of Flame[/card], played my [card]Lotus Petal[/card] and [card]Lion’s Eye Diamond[/card], and finished with my final card: Burning wish, making blue mana with my Diamond and going for [card]Diminishing Returns[/card]. If I was going to lose, I would do it on my accord, but I was far too driven to settle. Once all was said and done I held a new hand of seven cards, of which I needed only five to kill him. I played my [card]Lotus Petal[/card], cast two [card]Rite of Flame[/card]s, played my Charbelcher, and followed with a [card]Lion’s Eye Diamond[/card]. My opponent was dead, and he wouldn’t wait for grand display to resign to his fate. Another villain slain, another step closer to my true purpose. I was alive with the hunger for victory.

10-1

Round Twelve: The Return of Squee

Earlier than I even hoped for, I had fought my way back to face my nemesis. I was much better prepared this time, and I would not be driven down the same way as I had before. When I sat across the table and we began, I uttered the fiend’s True Name with confidence. The glassy eyed fool across the table just stared back blankly. I wondered if somehow Squee himself had returned, as the creature clearly showed no recognition to my utterance.

But it was not Squee. He had no knowledge of who I was, and no recognition of me from our past encounter. This was a new fiend, an empty fiend, and nothing I had done in preparation would help. I would have to battle an unknown enemy, and I knew that I could not afford to fail. I tried once more to reach my enemy, to draw any sign of recognition, but when I was met only by a callous stare and the buzzing of flies about his neck, I relented and shuffled up my cards.

He won the die roll without a word. He kept seven without looking at them, drawing great frustration from me as I once again took a hand of five. I did little before I cast a Charbelcher into a [card]Force of Will[/card], and our first game came to a lackluster close as the fiend defeated me with a pair of Mishra’s Factories.

The next game did not show him the same favor. I set to work immediately, and after a series of rituals I presented the Cannon. He had nothing in response, and this he died a fiery death and we moved quickly to our game three.

This time we both mulled to six. I kept a hand with a [card]Xantid Swarm[/card] and a Charbelcher; if all went well I would be able to slay my opponent after my first few draws. He led with an Island, and when my turn came I cast the Insect. He Brainstormed, looking for something, and let the creature resolve. This was followed up by the playing of a [card]Wasteland[/card] on his turn, giving me hope that I would close quickly. But such was not to be. Fate is a cruel master, and I drew dead for a few turns before he finally killed my protection. By the time I was able to attempt to kill him, he was armed with a [card]Force of Will[/card] and attacking me with his lands. The fire I had was smothered, and I died a grisly death at the hands of my enemy.

Squee growled in mockery, and the voice of the Necronomicon mocked me through his lips. It warned me that I was foolish to try and stop it and bragged of the chaos it had already spread while promising a rather grand finale in the climax of the event. The tone implied that I had lost and life in this world would soon be a stain of the past. I had failed to save the world; as a result I would be forced to watch it burn.

10-2

Round Thirteen: Sol’kanar the Swamp King

Though my heart was no longer in the fight, there were still villains to slay and a desperate plan to concoct. I was down but not out, so I arrived to face the next fiend despite my distraction and despair. I felt like an empty vessel, but I performed my task anyway. I won the die roll, kept a hand of seven, and awaited my opponent. He dropped to five, settled, and I began by making an army of 16 goblins. He was in a bit of a panic, and the pressure I put on him was immense. But he was rescued by his draw step, and he opened with a [card]Mana Confluence[/card] and a [card]Lion’s Eye Diamond[/card]. He cast a [card]Faithless Looting[/card], breaking his Diamond in response and discarding a [card]Stinkweed Imp[/card] and [card]Golgari Thug[/card] accordingly. In the process of resolving the Looting and flashing it back, he had four [card]Narcomoeba[/card]s, four Bridges, a [card]Dread Return[/card] and a [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]. It didn’t take long for him to add 16 zombies and a large Golgari Grave Troll to the table. I had done what I came to do, and he managed to do more. I was defeated.

Game two was a far uglier atrocity. I had to drop to four cards, as I saw nothing I could play in my first three hands. For my efforts I had two of those cards taken from me with a session of [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]. Within a few turns I was being crushed by zombies, and none of my weapons could save me. In a state of despondency I fell to a ruthless creature of the night, and any hope of facing Squee once more was long lost.

10-3

Round Fourteen: Tetsuo Umezawa

Given over fully to my defeat, I hardly noticed when the samurai showed up for our fight. He was a caricature of something out of better times, but the darker side of those times, full of the same evil plaguing the world around me. He maintained a high level of formality as I hardly managed to acknowledge his presence. It did not matter to him. Even if the fight was gone from me, he was still bent on victory. He started with the die roll, and continued through a game one where I kept a hand of seven that did nothing. I never drew a win condition, and he beat me to death with an Insect Aberration and a chain of [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s. It startled me back to reality, though perhaps too late, and I picked up my weapon and tried to recuperate.

Game two I started with some spells and Emptied the Warrens, placing 16 goblins on the battlefield. He did his best to stop me, but he was behind from the start and was unable to stave off the horde. The game was over in a few turns, as I lamented my lack of effort in the previous test. There was still one battle left against this monster of a man, and I began to devise a plan that might let me save the world just yet.

Winning this match was not meant to be. I threw away the first game and mulliganed to five and met a [card]Force of Will[/card] on turn one of the third game. It was not a particularly exciting defeat; there was no suspense in it. I just died to the natural development of the Delver menace. Tetsuo was a lesser villain as things go, and I wished him well in the hopes that he would go on to crush some other monster of a more vulgar nature.

10-4

Round Fifteen: Rasputin Dreamweaver

Rasputin and I were set to face off, but there was nothing on the line for either of us. We conversed lightly, and I persuaded him to take on a life of fighting against evil instead of in its name. Once I was certain of his conversion, we agreed to a draw and parted ways. I wished him well and set about my final task, hoping against all odds that I would succeed.

10-4-1

I slipped up upon Squee’s final battle and watched him swallow the soul of his enemy without chewing. It was a vulgar display of power fueled by the Necronomicon, but it was clear that the demon had grown so confident in his newfound power that he was becoming careless. As he finished off the minion opposing him he launched into celebration, surrounded by an army of lackeys eager to be part of whatever it was that was driving Squee. As they celebrated around him, unaware that in less than an hour’s time he planned to sacrifice them all to open the gate that would secure his final victory and doom the world to non-existence, I inhaled my last taste of [card]Serum Powder[/card] and slipped discreetly through their ranks.

I was standing just beside the body of Squee when they hoisted him into the air. It separated him from his satchel just long enough for me to grab the still intact copy of the Necronomicon and make my way back into the sea of bodies beyond. I escaped to the sanctity of the V.I.P. lounge, which was rather quiet at this time, and quickly flipped through the aged pages to the one passage that could set things right.

There, in the security of the quiet room away from the chaos, I began the ritual. I started with the low chant and let the vapors roll in from beyond, and as they did I could see Squee begin to writhe in torment. He looked around frantically and spotted me through the door. He desperately pushed through the crowd, but it was too late. I was through the first and second verses, and security stopped him at the door as I began the final one. Even if he had somehow broken through, I concluded my chanting and watched the mists roll out to consume him. They swallowed the demon inside him and dragged it back into the book. I closed it firmly and let the demon perish from everywhere but my memory. Squee was jolted back into his own body in the arms of security and instantly apologized before slipping back into crowd.

The world was safe again, and Squee went on to play in the top eight of the Grand Prix anyway. I did not stick around to find out how it went, as I was too exhausted from saving the world, but I did hear that I finished somewhere in the top 200 and had some money coming my way. I was happy and hungry, so I parted from the main crowd and found my legion of gnomes. We made our way to a dining establishment of ill repute and drank until the weekend was only a fuzzy memory. I quietly celebrated the accomplishment that I alone knew about.

I heard afterwards that Squee was felled in the first round that he was forced to play on his own and that after his defeat he was seen hitchhiking on the New Jersey Turnpike. I myself made my way to the airport early the following morning and was happy to have lunch in Detroit. I eventually made my way home and, once back in the confines of my ritual chamber, I decided it was time to place the Necronomicon into the safety of the Mysterious Cabinet that housed the Charbelcher. As soon as it was placed inside, it vanished from the world, never again to be seen by mortal eyes. Perhaps it was for the better, as the human race is clearly too bent on destruction to ever make use of such knowledge.

And here ends the tale of my journey to Grand Prix New Jersey, where I played [card]Goblin Charbelcher[/card] to a top-200 finish in a field of more than 4,000, and in the process saved the world from complete annihilation.