Of all the things I've lost, I miss the Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel the most.
What is a Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel? What is a Serra Angel, let alone a Wa-Hoo Beta one? Serra Angel is a card from Magic: The Gathering. It's been around since the first edition of the game and for a time was one of the most popular cards that players would put into their white-based decks. The "Beta" portion of the name comes from the fact that the specific Serra Angel in question came from the second release of the M:TG game, known as "beta". But, what makes it Wa-Hoo?
In 1998, I worked for a company called TNC Universe. They were one of the largest collectibles dealers in the world, and our shelves were stuffed with all kinds of Beanie Babies, action figures, figurines, movie props, porcelain shoes, and.....trading card games. The man in charge of our trading card games department was a guy named Mark Justice. Mark was a great guy, he was really good at his job, and lots of fun to be around (even though he was originally from Utah). Mark was also the 1995 Magic: The Gathering National Champion.
One day I was helping Mark sort through a couple of boxes of M:TG commons and uncommons that he brought from home and sold to the company. As I was going through the box and sorting things by set and rarity, I noticed a beta Serra Angel that someone had written "Wa-HOOOO!!" on with a black ball point pen. I set the card aside knowing that we couldn't sell it, and planned to hang it from my computer monitor because I thought it was funny.
When Mark came over to check on my progress, he saw the card that I had set aside and asked me where I found it. I told him it was just jammed in the box with all of the others that I had been sorting through. He then proceeded to tell me the story of the Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel.
After winning the Magic Nationals in 1995, Mark became one of the most well-known Magic players in the world. He traveled around the world with other players as part of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. Then in 1996, he went on to compete in the Magic World Championship (which was held in the far-off land of Seattle, WA). He finished in second place that year, losing out to an Australian named Tom Chanpheng. In the final duel of the tournament, the killing blow against Mark's deck was struck using a beta Serra Angel. Tom then picked up the card that he had just used to win the World Championship, wrote "Wa-HOOOO!!" on the front of it with a black ball point pen, and handed it to Mark as a souvenir. Mark, not being the most gracious loser in the world, just tossed the card in a box of random Magic stuff he had at home and never thought about it again until it ended up on the table at TNC two years later.
With Mark's permission, I kept the Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel attached to the side of my monitor. It was my favorite thing about my desk, followed closely by the only two Beanie Babies that I ever owned (Mooch the spider monkey and Goatee the mountain goat). When I left the company in 1999, the card had already become famous around the office, and I felt wrong about taking it with me. I left it with another employee there as long as he promised me that if he ever left that job that he would give the Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel to someone else in the office and force them to make the same promise.
The Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel has been around at that company (and the offshoot company that spawned when TNC went under) for the last 7 years. Now, the company is going out of business. There won't be a home for the Wa-Hoo Beta Serra Angel any longer. Even worse, though, in the recent confusion that's been taking taking place in their offices...the card has been lost. No one knows where it is. Perhaps they'll find it when they're cleaning out the building, or perhaps it made its way into someone's singles order and now it's gone forever. All I know is that it's out there somewhere and no one knows where it will turn up.
So, if you ever happen to find a black-bordered Serra Angel with "Wa-HOOOO!!" written across the front with a black ball point pen, you just might be holding a piece of gaming history in your hands.
