Some of the newer players may not have heard of this phenomenon, but the Hammer invite was created to try to keep one of the most unique individuals on the Pro Tour.

Shawn "Hammer" Reginer is a native of New Hampshire. He is a former professional arm wrestler, and magician. For the first PT season he was one of the dominant players. He won the second Pro Tour in history deafeating his would-be test partner Tom Guevin in the finals, berating his Royal Tightness to the point of vomitting.

One of the first instances of the Hammer Invite wasn't towards Hammer at all. It dates back to Grand Prix Toronto, an event won by dracophile Brian Kibler playing a deck that would have his fans in an uproar, mono-blue. In this event, team deadguy member David Bartholow missed qualifying by one spot. Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz was poised to qualify on rating, but as those invitations were not handed out yet he stole a slot from Bartholow. Steve tried to renounce his invite, but to no avail. Later, Bartholow received an invitation in the mail. Was this a clerical error, or the beginning of a new tradition?

Later that same season, Hammer fell off the gravy train. The train was set up differently back then as there were no points, just a set number of invites depending on your finish. Despite having run out of invites, not winning any PTQs and not having quite the rating to warrant an invite, Hammer was still attending and competing in PTs.

His run eventually ended as mediocre performance after mediocre performance led to his falling out of the public eye. Perhaps Randy Buehler's wife put it best in a teams sealed match against the former great, "That's Hammer, he used to be good." Wizards could no longer simply invite this has-been without looking suspicious.

The Hammer invite appeared to be dead.

Fast forward to the 1999 Invitational. The DCI had a special place for the Deadguys in their hearts as we have established, so when Chris Pikula won the Invitational, it was decided the Hammer invite needed to be dragged out of mothballs.

There was a solid justification for this one. Just make a new rule that the winner of the invitational gets invited for a year. This allowed Pikula to make a comeback to the game. The following season, despite not racking up enough points to stay on the train, Pikula took 32nd in New Orleans thanks to a timely ejection of Trey Van Cleave.

So as you can see the Hammer invite has a storied past. It is nice to know that if Kai should have a bad year, the DCI will certainly find a way to keep our favorite German since Colonel Klink on the tour.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

Some of the newer players may not have heard of this phenomenon, but the Hammer invite was created to try to keep one of the most unique individuals on the Pro Tour.

Shawn "Hammer" Reginer is a native of New Hampshire. He is a former professional arm wrestler, and magician. For the first PT season he was one of the dominant players. He won the second Pro Tour in history deafeating his would-be test partner Tom Guevin in the finals, berating his Royal Tightness to the point of vomitting.

One of the first instances of the Hammer Invite wasn't towards Hammer at all. It dates back to Grand Prix Toronto, an event won by dracophile Brian Kibler playing a deck that would have his fans in an uproar, mono-blue. In this event, team deadguy member David Bartholow missed qualifying by one spot. Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz was poised to qualify on rating, but as those invitations were not handed out yet he stole a slot from Bartholow. Steve tried to renounce his invite, but to no avail. Later, Bartholow received an invitation in the mail. Was this a clerical error, or the beginning of a new tradition?

Later that same season, Hammer fell off the gravy train. The train was set up differently back then as there were no points, just a set number of invites depending on your finish. Despite having run out of invites, not winning any PTQs and not having quite the rating to warrant an invite, Hammer was still attending and competing in PTs.

His run eventually ended as mediocre performance after mediocre performance led to his falling out of the public eye. Perhaps Randy Buehler's wife put it best in a teams sealed match against the former great, "That's Hammer, he used to be good." Wizards could no longer simply invite this has-been without looking suspicious.

The Hammer invite appeared to be dead.

Fast forward to the 1999 Invitational. The DCI had a special place for the Deadguys in their hearts as we have established, so when Chris Pikula won the Invitational, it was decided the Hammer invite needed to be dragged out of mothballs.

There was a solid justification for this one. Just make a new rule that the winner of the invitational gets invited for a year. This allowed Pikula to make a comeback to the game. The following season, despite not racking up enough points to stay on the train, Pikula took 32nd in New Orleans thanks to a timely ejection of Trey Van Cleave.

So as you can see the Hammer invite has a storied past. It is nice to know that if Kai should have a bad year, the DCI will certainly find a way to keep our favorite German since Colonel Klink on the tour.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!