Once upon a time… from June 14 to 17, the Grand Prix was held in Las Vegas, an event that is part of the celebration of 25 years of Magic: the Gathering.

To this event, more than 2,700 players planeswalked to play the two main events of Modern and Limited, as well as witness the Beta Drafts that made us all throw little cries of excitement every time a booster pack was opened.

With so many attendees from all over the world, with so many things to do, so many decks to play and so many artists to see, it was obvious that some accidents were going to happen.

To tell this beautiful story full of mystery, intrigue and an impressive outcome, we must first meet the protagonist: the super exclusive and super foil playmat of the event which price was 100 US dollars, and limited at 1 per person.

We all agree that the Grand Prix are the best events to meet your friends and enjoy a weekend full of magic, can you remember your first GP?

The GP Las Vegas was the first that Josh attended. On the first day he registered, picked up the super exclusive and super foil playmat and decided to go visit the booth where super Elesaio was working at.

Elesaio and Josh made a great connection talking about Magic artists and the culture magic offered to the world, so they swapped contact info.

After making the sale, Josh left the place and he went around looking at everything, but (and here comes the sad part), he forgot his playmat.

Hours later, another Magic player found the playmat and handed it to Elesaio. He knew immediately who it belonged to… “Josh had forgotten his playmat!”

The playmat was going to return to its owner, Elesaio just had to call the player and wait for him to continue in the venue, but… what if he forgot it again somewhere else? He had to make sure Josh never left his playmat alone, crying in the rain!

Elesaio remembered the conversation with Josh where he said he spent hours in different queues for artist signatures, he wanted all of them but feared he would run out of time since too many people were in line.

The next day, Elesaio arrived to the venue at eight in the morning, so he thought: “Mmm.. the best way for him not to lose it again is… that all the artists would draw on the playmat!”

I had already specially hard time this weekend with my business and personal reasons so I thought I would make someone else day a bit brighter.

– Elesaio Maestas

That’s how the Gatewatch formed by Liz Danforth, Anson Maddocks, Mark Poole, Douglas Shuler, RK Post, Bryon Wackwitz, Ken Meyer JR, Drew Tucker came together to save this Planeswalker in the mission: Do not forget the super foil playmat ever again! (The name committee for the mission is accepting suggestions for names for the mission).

The Gatewatch made their oaths and make some AMAZING doodles, you really need to look closer at them.

After the doodles, there was only one last thing left to do… so both of them meet each other at the venue and this is how te mission was achieved! Nicol Bolas was defeated! I mean … Josh got his playmat back!

Do you remember your first Grand Prix? Josh will never forget his and we can be sure that day, he left the venue knowing that Magic community is worth fighting for.

(I wanna thank Elesaio for giving me all the details for this article and for being such a sweet cutie pie).