Mike Long

Michael Long, known as Mike Long, is a former professional Magic: The Gathering player who was a high-profile figure on the Pro Tour in its formative years.

Mike Long
Born	1974 (age 46–47) Albany, New York
Alma mater	James Madison University (Class of '97)
Years active	1995-2004
Known for	Pro Tour (Magic: The Gathering)

Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering career
Pro Tour debut	1996 Pro Tour New York
Winnings	US$ 102,669[1]
Pro Tour wins (Top 8)	1 (4)[2]
Grand Prix wins (Top 8)	1 (4)[3]
Lifetime Pro Points	191[4]
Planeswalker Level	43 (Archmage)

Magic: The Gathering was released in 1993 and a Pro Tour launched the following year. Long proved to be an early celebrity champion.[5] He was known for his charismatic persona, and often presented as a "villain" in the Magic tournaments.[6] Long's first individual tournament win was at the Paris Pro Tour during the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 1996–97.[7] During the Paris tournament, Long debuted a "combination deck" called Prosperous Bloom that was notably the first successful combination deck in tournament-level play. During the last game of the finals, Long was playing against Mark Justice and faced losing when Mark played Coercion to find out Mike was holding the only Drain Life in his deck (and his only way to win). Despite this, Mark pulled Cadaverous Bloom instead, thinking Mike could get the Drain Life back with Elven Cache if allowed to generate the "cadaverous mana" for a large Prosperity. Little did he know Mike had sideboarded them out (as he pointed out before draining Mark's life for a total of 44 points).[8] At the 1998 U.S. Nationals, there was controversy when a key card was found on Long's chair during a game.[9] The head judge issued a match loss to Long, who went on to finish second in the tournament. Long won that year's Magic Invitational. The award was the chance to create a new card and inclusion in the card's art.[10] That card, Rootwater Thief, was printed in the Nemesis set.

By his retirement, Long had won a Pro Tour, a Grand Prix, and an Invitational and held the record for being on the most winning national teams and was in the top lifetime money winners. Long's legacy also included one of the first player teams, created while he was still in college.[11] He was responsible for several technical innovations; he designed a Vintage format combo deck, named "Long.dec" for him, that used Burning Wish to fetch Yawgmoth's Will out of the sideboard and set up a kill with Tendrils of Agony. Subsequent Vintage combo decks that use tutoring to set up a Tendrils kill have retained the name although the original deck was rendered unplayable by restrictions. In 2005, former organizer Mark Rosewater nominated Long for the Hall of Fame. This ignited debates over Long's impact on the game. Rosewater wrote, "He was an early pioneer in deck design and had an influence on how deck building technology evolved. He was a tournament organizer. He wrote about the game."[12] Others felt Long did not qualify his entry due to the playing controversies. During the Pro Tour Los Angeles in 2000, Long had been given a warning for improperly shuffling his deck.[13] Darwin Kastle made a further error when he cut Long's deck instead of shuffling.[13][14] During the US Nationals Draft Challenge held at United States Nationals in 2000, Long was disqualified without prize and given a one-month suspension for presenting a deck that was not sufficiently randomized.[15][16] The controversy over Long's place in game history and Long's response are featured in the documentary I Came to Game (2014).[17]

Magic: The Gathering professional appearances

Season	Event type	Location	Format	Date	Rank
	Worlds	Seattle	National team	4–6 August 1995	1
1996	Worlds	Seattle	National team	1996	1
1996–97	Pro Tour	Atlanta	Sealed Deck	13–15 September 1996	6
1996–97	Invitational	Hong Kong	Special	14–16 February 1997	2
1996–97	Pro Tour	Paris	Block Constructed	11–13 April 1997	1
1996–97	Grand Prix	Washington D.C.	Limited	26–27 April 1997	1
1997–98	Invitational	Rio de Janeiro	Special	29 January–2 February 1998	5
1997–98	Worlds	Seattle	National team	12–16 August 1998	1
1998–99	Invitational	Barcelona	Special	4–7 February 1999	1
1998–99	Pro Tour	Los Angeles	Rochester Draft	26–28 February 1999	8
1999–00	Pro Tour	Los Angeles	Block Constructed	4–6 February 2000	4
1999–00	Invitational	Kuala Lumpur	Special	2–5 March 2000	7
1999–00	Grand Prix	Nagoya	Team Limited	22–23 April 2000	3
1999–00	Nationals	Orlando, Florida	Standard and Booster Draft	8–11 June 2000	5
2001–02	Nationals	Kissimmee, Florida	Standard and Booster Draft	31 May–2 June 2002	5
2002–03	Grand Prix	Pittsburgh	Team Limited	31 May–1 June 2003	4

Last updated: 31 July 2009
Source: Event Coverage at Wizards.com

Early life, education, and career

Long was born in Albany, New York and later lived in Gambrills, Maryland where he attended the Severn School.[18] He attended college at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.[11] At James Madison, he was a varsity wrestler and played on the James Madison Dukes football team.[5][19] He began competing at Magic: The Gathering tournaments in 1995.[20] After graduation, Long owned a game store called "The End" in Charlottesville and wrote strategy articles in addition to working on the professional tour. He began using Internet marketing for both his strategy articles and for card sales, and also started a search engine optimization business.[6]

References

1. "Lifetime Winnings Leaders". Retrieved 2007-02-16.
2. "Lifetime Pro Tour Top 8s". Retrieved 2007-02-16.
3. "Lifetime Grand Prix Top 8s". Retrieved 2007-02-16.
4. "Lifetime Pro Points". Retrieved 2007-02-16.
5. Pearlman, Jeff (November 17, 1997). "Revenge of the Nerds". Sports Illustrated. 87 (20). p. 7. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
6. Henry, Jason (24 April 2016). "COACHELLA 2016: Meet the former 'Magic: The Gathering' champion who brought his Lamborghini to Indio". The Press Enterprise.
7. Buehler, Randy (2006). "Hall of Fame: One Man's Ballot". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
8. Flores, Mike (March 15, 2007). "Master versus Master". Magic: The Gathering Magazine. Wizards of the Coast LLC. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
9. Burn, Seth. "The Rule of Law". Archived from the original on 2000-11-17. Retrieved 2006-12-05.
10. Rosewater, Mark (2005-05-10). "All-Star Studded". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
11. Kushner, David (2006). Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids : how a gang of geeks beat the odds and stormed Las Vegas (Random House trade pbk. ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 0812974387. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
12. Rosewater, Mark (June 27, 2005). "It's a Long Story". Making Magic Magazine. Wizards of the Coast. Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
13. Buehler, Randy. "Pro Tour-Los Angeles 2000 Round 14 Feature Match". Retrieved 2006-12-05.
14. Dougherty, Robert. "The Anatomy of a Cheating Method". Archived from the original on 2003-02-05. Retrieved 2006-12-05.
15. Mindripper OnLine - MAGIC
16. Eikefet, Kim. "The Long Controversy". Archived from the original on 2001-06-25. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
17. Chalk, Titus (July 11, 2011). "The Exiled". Magic: The Gathering. CoolStuffInc.com LLC. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
18. "Football". James Madison Dukes. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
19. Bluestone Yearbook Staff. "Bluestone : 1993 Football". James Madison University. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
20. Rosewater, Mark (16 November 2009). "Around the Worlds in Fifteen Years". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 16 November 2009.

External links

• Official website