Header image: UnsummonUnsummon | Douglas Shuler

UnsummonedSkull, also known as Coach JRo, is a writer for EDHREC, but he's also a streamer, a master of creature types, a teacher, and a podcaster. He's also an excellent philanthropist, with charitable donations following many of his live-streamed Commander play events. We got a chance to interview JRo about these events and contributions, and here's what he had to say!

The Interview With UnsummonedSkull

You’ve been conducting charity events for a while now. What drives you to do it?

The first money I made from winning a tournament was donated to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) in the name of a friend of mine from high school who was killed by a drunk driver. I still have his Cleric Typal Commander deck, evolved from his original kitchen table en-Kor combo deck. The first webcam Commander game I played was a feature match at the First Online Commandfest, whose spot I won by submitting a 2-minute deck tech to Channel Fireball, which started my online presence. That was part of a fundraiser for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 

Even when I was teaching in person, I would write grants and work with companies to get prize support for the events I’d run for my students, who were from a poor suburb of Detroit and didn’t have a local gaming store. I would also donate any prize packs or boxes I’d win to the games club I ran, giving the students a chance to draft them. This was part of what kept me going between my competitive and casual phases. Essentially, as long as I’ve been good at Magic, I’ve been trying to use it to help people.

Currently, I’m using my microcelebrity status in the Magic community to create events that stretch thinking and comfort zones, inspire creative builds, and help out a variety of different charities. Before I stopped posting on the platform, I had over 4K followers on Twitter, which I described as “having a superpower”. The following was built over a couple of years, but it was jump-started by the aforementioned First Online Commandfest. I’ve tried to use the following to uplift members of the community, and that sort of noblesse oblige is a big reason why I started making charity events. 

On Theme Deck Throwdown

Your current tournament, the Theme Deck Throwdown (TDT), donates to charities every year. What charity seems to get the most attention from your event’s competitors? Why do you think that is?

Unlike my other events, and unlike most charity events in general, the TDT doesn’t serve any one charity. Instead, the winners of each semifinal pod get to choose a charity to receive a $25 donation in their name. This was my attempt at offering a different kind of prize, one where the players had agency over who and what they support, which is something I’ve seen on TV competitions with celebrity competitors. I loved how it gave the competitors ownership over the donation, as opposed to the typical charity stream, with a donation link in chat, sometimes with chat redemptions for donations.

There have been a variety of charities supported over the 4 years of the TDT, but the most frequently chosen has to be Trans Lifeline. Trans Lifeline is a peer support and crisis hotline, and a 501 (c) nonprofit organization offering phone support to transgender people. It is the first transgender crisis hotline in the United States and Canada. It is also the only suicide hotline whose operators are all transgender. With the rights of transgender people in peril around the country, it’s a particularly important time to support this historically disadvantaged population and the wonderful community members who identify that way.

What is the gist of TDT, and why did you decide on that concept for your main charity tournament?

The general conceit of the TDT was to make a Magic March Madness analog, such that people who were new to Magic or Commander could still have something to follow and root for. My Quote of Arms podcast, which features community members sharing stories about their favorite creature types, precedes the TDT, which, in turn, precedes my moniker as the “Resident Typal Expert of EDHREC”. I’ve run tournaments before, including sanctioned events as a Judge and Tournament Organizer for my games club, but the TDT was a bit of a different animal. Sanctioned events have a Rule Enforcement Level (REL), as well as prize payouts, entry fees, and certain expectations for competitive play and decorum. 

I wanted to make a casual event that still had some stakes but had a reason for people to care without a prize pool, as I couldn’t afford to put a lot up… teaching doesn’t pay nearly enough. I initially offered a Cavern of SoulsCavern of Souls from my former Modern Humans deck to the winner, but it was actually declined two years in a row because just being able to say your type was the best turned out to be enough of a top prize. But this year, now that I’m an ambassador for Girudo, Nerd Gear, Pinfinity, and Jank Mats, there’s a substantial prize pool for both players and viewers!

On WIP Wednesdays and Event Planning

During your streams, such as your WIP Wednesdays, you often encounter some positively wild Commander decks. Besides your own, which deck stood out most to you and why?

I described the conceit of my WIP Wednesday streams back when I was writing for Commander’s Herald, in my article about my Top Lessons Learned About Deckbuilding. One of my biggest flaws as a player is that I tend to be impetuous, playing the new deck because it’s fresh on my mind and exciting, regardless of whether it’s appropriate for the event. In particular, the inciting event was when I brought a Selenia, Dark AngelSelenia, Dark Angel life loss combo deck to a game I knew was being recorded. I'd never played the deck before.

I managed to put together the combo of Near-Death ExperienceNear-Death Experience and Mischievous PoltergeistMischievous Poltergeist, but I was caught completely off-guard when the host, playing a Dimir Zombie deck, countered the Near-Death ExperienceNear-Death Experience with a free counter while tapped out. Unfortunately, I proceeded to tilt and threw the game, visibly upset, even over webcam. As a result, I resolved to make a regular stream where players could bring decks they wanted to test, completely agnostic of power level. Why agnostic of power level? Because that’s one of the things a player might want to figure out!

The deck that made the biggest effect on me from my WIP Wednesdays was the Dimir Siren Typal deck that MTG in Quarantine brought. It used effects in blue and black that forced combats and punished players for attacking. It really felt like our creatures were being lured into dangerous combat situations, falling victim to a perfectly-flavorful Siren's CallSiren's Call. That deck changed a fundamental paradigm for me, in that it taught me that typal decks that haven’t had official support can still be flavorful. It appealed to my inner Melvin, a psychographic that has become increasingly dominant in me since I decided to become competitive. 

How much effort goes into planning an online tournament? How long before these events do you typically start preparing them?

Making an online tournament is a bit of a complicated process, but my clinically diagnosed OCD brain helped me break it down into manageable pieces. The first step was to gauge interest. I’m in a few different Looking For Games (LFG) servers, including my own Skull Symbol and WUBRG Sky. Before my Skull Symbol existed, I would put out posts with a skull-shaped Bat Signal, captioned “Looking for a VEDH (Virtual EDH) Game” on Twitter, which now serves as the icon for the server. I would put this call out well in advance of the event, sometimes as many as three months ahead of time; basically, whenever I was thinking about it. I would then bookmark that post, and any future calls I would put out.

The next step would be, once I had at least 20 responses, to make a Google Form. The questions on the Google Forms include: multiple dates (some week days, some weekends, and mornings, afternoons, and evenings), which is not mandatory, a yes or no question on whether any dates work, which is mandatory, name/handle, which is mandatory, discord name, which is mandatory, and themes that are or will be built, which is mandatory. From here, I have the data to make a spreadsheet of this information.

The spreadsheet has columns for Name, Type Options, Type Running, and each of the dates and times. For each player, I select a unique creature type from their Type Options and put it in the Type Running column. I then go through the dates and put an X in the row of each player who can accommodate that date and time. I color the dates that work yellow at first, and then red when there are five or more unique players that can accommodate that date and time. The goal is to find four pods of five people, so each pod has a backup and me as an emergency. I leave the Xs in, even for dates the player is not scheduled for, so I remember what worked.

Then, I friend all of the players on Discord and make group chats for each pod. I do this so that the audio can be streamed from a voice call (VC) in the group chat. I separate the audio from the visuals (like Spelltable or Girudo) so that we can work through technical difficulties, such as if someone accidentally gets kicked out of the game. If everything were through the same client, then we could lose contact with a player.

The trickiest part is using spectator mode to capture the pod. Since I am not playing in most pods (or preferably any of them), I need to be able to capture the visuals of the game. Spelltable hasn’t fixed spectator mode, so I would have to do a screen grab of someone else’s screen share on Discord. With Girudo, Spectator Mode is available and usable, but some bugs are being worked out regarding making a game and then leaving it and returning in Spectator Mode. My most recent workaround was to make group chats in Girudo and add all of the players in a given pod. Then, the players could add each other, and one of them could make the game and invite me as a spectator. That way, I wouldn’t have to play around with admin privileges.

The turn order for each pod is determined by the popularity of the creature type, per EDHREC data. This is determined by going to Tags, then Typal, and then typing in the search bar. This is done to slightly favor the more recognizable types, the same way teams with better records host playoff games in most sports. After all, the TDT is designed to be a bridge between Magic and sports!

On the Future of JRo's Events

What is one thing you hope for your events to achieve so they can excel further in the future?

The biggest hopes I have for my events are that the participants have fun and that the content they create is entertaining. I want people to want to participate in my events; I want them to be things that people get excited about. I want people to look forward to March; to get to the point that people approach me, asking to be part of it, rather than me trying to gauge interest. And, one day, I hope to expand the event to a full 64 players, with other streamers helping as well. My biggest fear is that I find these events cool and fun, but no one else does. Still, it’s a labor of love.

This year, I added prizes from my sponsors, worked with Dork4Short to make wrestling-style introductions, moved the event from Spelltable to Girudo, and even made an Exhibition pod to accommodate even more players. It was a major undertaking; I do the organization, graphic design, and streaming, among other things, for the events. It’s a lot of work, in addition to my four jobs and out-of-work responsibilities, but this is what gives me joy, and I want to see these endeavors succeed.

What are your next steps? Which of your events are you most looking forward to?

I have five events I plan to run annually: TDT in spring, Pride Month Rainbow Games in summer, Boros Bashes Breast Cancer and Angel Suicide Prevention in fall, and Holiday Horde in winter.

Ideas for future events: Everyone brings decks with 50 or fewer decks built on EDHREC. Turn order is determined by uniqueness. Maybe fundraise for fighting homelessness, as we're finding homes for these commanders and giving them the love they deserve. Everyone brings Food-themed decks, and we raise money for local food banks in November.

Conclusion

A huge thank-you to UnsummonedSkull for allowing us to conduct this interview with him!

And now, we'd like to open the floor to you, dear readers! What charity events of UnsummonedSkull's would you most like to take part in? What charities would you want to represent? And are there any charities that UnsummonedSkull should represent in future events? Sound off in the comments below!

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