Interview with Bus49 The winner of The Super Spiffy Tournament II

Interview TeamAether

andreliverod July 19, 2019 8 min

Bus49mtg recently won AliasV's big Super Spiffy Tournament II using his own brew with Bant Ramp! Part of the Team Aether streaming team we got to sit down and talk to him about the deck, mtg, and life in general. Bus whose real name is David streams on Twitch.tv on a regular basis as part of Team Aether and wants to connect with you as a fellow streamer or twitch viewer. You can find him and the rest of our team on our discord server discord.aetherhub.com

Twitch - Twitter - Facebook - Discord
Country of residence: USA

Introduction

My name is David Buskirk (probably better known as Bus49) and I am 24 years old. I was born, raised and still live in Sheridan, WY, USA. Sheridan is a small town of only about 18,000 people. Since I was 13 I have dealt with anxiety and depression, I struggled in school and often missed class. I eventually became a high school dropout at age 16, getting my GED shortly after. Despite getting my GED I decided to go back to High School in hopes to have
some notable experiences such as go to school activities like the prom and play in sports (football, basketball, wrestling). I was a very competitive person growing up. The first card games I ever played were Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, starting as young as age 7. Other hobbies I have include playing the popular football game title Madden and watching films.

When did you start playing Magic the Gathering?

Growing up in a town of 18,000 people the magic scene was relatively small. When a local group of great people decided to start running Magic tournaments at our local library a close friend of mine convinced me to buy a deck and show up to one of the tournaments. I was 12 years old at the time. Much to my surprise, the premade commander deck I got at Walmart was not legal in the standard format. I played casually until I was about 15 which is when I started taking Magic more seriously, I watched Magics premier events and learned almost everything I know from watching players like Reid Duke, Brian Kibler, Eric Froehlich, Paul Rietzl, among many others. While watching those events I would imagine myself at the event and would often dream of an opportunity to showcase my skills to the world.

A couple of local friends noticed how much I was improving and wanted to go out of there way to teach me to play even better. So they sat me down and held me accountable for every play. Before too long I was the local person who had won almost a full years worth of FNMs consecutively. When I felt comfortable enough I gathered some friends with similar aspirations of making it big in MTG and traveled all around Wyoming, Montana, and even Colorado. I made my first PTQ Top 8 at age 16 and made it to the finals before losing. Out of the 4 PTQs I played that year I placed top eight in three of them. I was discouraged after making it so close to being able to realize the dream of being on the pro tour.

At age 17 I went to my first Grand Prix which was in Denver, CO. I didn't have any friends going or money for a hotel but I had managed to get enough money to be able to pay for the entry and my deck. So off I went to Denver with the intent of sleeping in my car for the weekend, when I got there I had realized that sleeping in my car at -15F wasn't a good idea. But I had blankets. I had lied to my parents and said I was going with friends and had a hotel room. So for the weekend at the Grand Prix, I slept in -15F weather and missed out on day 2. Which I blame on only 2 hours of sleep the previous night. After that, I stopped traveling until I was 21. In the meantime, I started playing the Modern Format on Magic Online and was consistently winning games. Often getting 5-0 trophies.

I found Jund Deaths Shadow before it was popular and brought it to nine 5-0 trophies on Magic Online. That year Sam Black, one of my magic idols, mentioned me in an article and chose Deaths Shadow for a Grand Prix where he Top 8d. So in a way, you could say I brought Deaths Shadow to relevance. My close friend convinced me to go to Grand Prix Vegas when I was 21. I tested harder for that event than any other, playing around 400 games with Deaths Shadow variants.

I missed out on day 2 again misplaying multiple times and having severe anxiety issues. I decided to quit magic after that event as it was making me depressed and I was always falling short. Shortly after I quit I became very isolated and lost most of my friends in the process. When the friend who had convinced me to play magic as a 12-year-old told me that he would lend me a deck and to play at an event locally, I couldn't turn it down. I went and didn't do good but in the tournament, I realized that Magic was still fun and that it makes me happy. I went back to work on getting myself better than I was before. Determined that this time I am going to get on the Mythic Championship. Strategizing in ways I hadn't before paid off when this past weekend I won the Super Spiffy Tournament II.

What are some hobbies you like to do when you’re not live on Twitch?

When I'm not live on Twitch I usually am strategizing, building decks, watching films and occasionally playing Madden on Xbox.

Bant Ramp Super Spiffy Tournament II

Main 60 cards (20 distinct)

Lands - 25

Side 15 cards (8 distinct)