(Inkshield | Art by Jarel Threat)

Today we said goodbye to our friend, Sheldon Menery.

I can say "our" friend, confidently. Only a friend would give us a gift like the one he gave us. Sheldon took the parts of Magic we all liked and boiled them down into something that many of us instantly recognized as the experience they wanted more of. It was pure, distilled Gathering. Others took more convincing, but EDH eventually got us hooked. Something about it made you give it a shot, it was different for every person, but eventually, you saw the appeal. Maybe it was the idea of playing with a pod of friends or new friends or strangers (future new friends, more often than not). Maybe you wanted to play spells that cost more than 5 mana. Maybe you just got old and had kids and lost the ability to hit a tournament every week. Whatever it was, you saw the good that EDH did for Magic and you wanted in.

EDHREC owes its literal existence to our friend, Sheldon, and it's a debt we can't ever repay. All we can do is what Sheldon would have wanted - play more Magic, meet new people, have friends over and drink something you were saving for a special occasion. Teach someone to play, pass the gift along to someone else. We can remember him fondly, speak of him kindly, follow his example and give of ourselves; Sheldon was a Magic judge, a veteran of the Armed Forces and an animal rescue volunteer. We can wipe the grin off of an overconfident opponent's face with an Inkshield. We can have fun playing Magic, because, ultimately, that's why we congregated to EDH in the first place.

We said goodbye and all that's left to say is Thank You.

Thank You, Sheldon.

For everything.

Jason Alt

Jason is one of the hardest working writers in the game; he has a weekly column on Coolstuff Inc. and MTGPrice and is a cast member of the Brainstorm Brewery and Film Hooligans podcasts. All that and he still finds time to manage content on EDHREC and struggle as a comedian. No wonder he's been called the Ryan Seacrest of EDH.