Hello Magic: The Gathering players and whoever else finds their way here. My name is Luka. Before we get into it, I want to offer a content warning for… Well pretty much everything. Edit: A lot of new details have come out since I first created this document. In order to preserve the document and keep my integrity unquestioned, I won’t be changing anything but information I learn to be false. With that in mind, updates will be added as new information arrives, and I highly suggest you read through the updates.

CW: Antisemitism, racism, misogyny, transphobia, fatphobia, neo nazi ideology, and more. If any of those things make you unhappy, you should consider stopping here and you definitely shouldn’t click any links to the twitter accounts I’ll be linking later on.

Zain, also known as Zrob0, or just Zrob, (but not Zain Naghmi from the Smash scene) is the self-professed creator of Topdeck.gg, which has an app available through the play store and apple store. Topdeck.gg is a pretty important part of the Commander community, especially the cEDH community. After all, they are arguably the most impactful tournament organizers in the scene, hosting events with hundreds of players in attendance, where thousands of dollars in prize support are handed out.

This makes it all the more disappointing that Zain, in my opinion, is a nazi.
I want to clear up one thing: I’m not trying to dehumanize Zain. Zain is a person like anyone else, but I don’t think everyone deserves a spot at this metaphorical table. I think that certain beliefs, like believing that the West is secretly controlled by Jews, should probably disqualify you from being a major figurehead in certain organizations. Zain has family, friends, coworkers, and peer groups that I’m sure he’s absolutely wonderful with. I’m sure when he’s not posting about Jews he’s probably not the worst human alive and chances are him and I share quite a few interests. The thing is though… I don’t care. Imo, he’s a nazi, and that is a big deal to me.

You might be saying to yourself that that’s a pretty big accusation, and you’d be right. I intend to substantiate this claim, offer a brief rebuttal to the criticisms I expect for the evidence I’m presenting, and I plan on finishing with a recommendation for Zain and the other people at Topdeck. While you’re reading, try to keep in mind that all of this transpired over the course of less than 4 hours. Oh, and please don’t go harass Zain. If you go harass ANYONE based on what you read in this document, you are one of the baddies and you will not pass through the gates of heaven. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.

Zain, why do you follow so many nazis?

That’s a question I don’t feel like any of us should have to ask the people within our community, especially not people at the forefront of an organization that is apparently committed to the safety and inclusion of marginalized people. It’s certainly not a question I thought I’d be asking anyone today, but here we are.

The short version of this is that I compiled a thread of outright nazis, holocaust deniers, and fascists that Zain voluntarily followed, and you can find that thread here. I also made sure to take video of Zain’s list of followers so I could highlight some of these people in real time, and you can find that thread here.

The slightly longer version is that there’s recently been a bit of controversy surrounding the new cEDH Rules Committee, a group of community figureheads and players devoted to making the competitive Commander scene more organized and distinct from casual Commander via a list of format-specific rules that would likely apply to all of their tournaments. When some members of the community spoke up to ask why no women were included in the Rules Committee, Zain had the following to say in a now-deleted tweet:

Tweet by Zain: "Ngl, caving to a non-merit standard is not something I can willingly back."

That’s a weird way of saying you don’t think any women have done anything to merit being included on the rules committee. But wait, he did delete the tweet, so maybe he didn’t mean-


Tweet by random commentator: "wonder why (zain) deleted this tweet that implied there aren't women qualified for the role!"

Reply by zain: "Well now that we are posting screenshots, I'll stand by it."

Oh. Well, okay then.

This little interaction got some discourse happening in the replies and someone mentioned his list of follows, so I checked them out and… It’s not good. I found all sorts of horrible things when I looked at the sorts of people Zain wants to have consistently featured while he scrolls through twitter. Like…

Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes

You know, the famous holocaust denier white nationalist Nick Fuentes? When I looked to see if Nick had switched to posting cat videos and pictures of his dinner, this is literally the most recent tweet he had posted:

tweet by Nick Fuentes: "World War 2 was 80 years ago, yet people are still afraid to question the big narrative regarding Hitler because they know they will be punished with a vengeance by the Jews.

Nobody is afraid to talk about the Pacific or Italy LOL. Just Hitler and the Holocaust."

Sure he follows someone that literally can’t stop tweeting about how the holocaust was a hoax, but maybe he accidentally followed Nick Fuentes after seeing a random meme about something innocuous. After all, Nick’s name on twitter is just like… His name. At first glance, you might even be fooled into thinking Nick is just a normal guy that happens to be a patriotic Christian.

Aryan, 1488, etc.

If you take like five seconds to look further, however, Zain is also following people with usernames like Hayasaka_Aryan and GemmyChise1488. (Secondary Content Warning: All of these accounts contain some of the most despicable shit on twitter. You have been warned) It’s a bit harder to accidentally follow people whose usernames are intentional references to nazi ideology. If you had any doubt as to the sorts of things these people are routinely posting for followers like Zain to enjoy, here are just two very recent examples. Keep in mind that I only had to scroll like 15 seconds to find this stuff.

Speaking of nazi ideology, Jake Shields (a retired MMA fighter, anti-semite, bigot, and generally terrible person) is also represented in his follows! You might be wondering why I’m mentioning Jake Shields, a veritable nobody with a literal history of being paid to endure repeated brain trauma. That’s because (and I can’t make this up) he recently did a podcast with the previously mentioned Nick Fuentes.

The pinned tweet of Jake Shields: "New episode drops at 7pmEST with @NickJFuentes

We will see if they Nuke my YouTube or if they are allowing Nick back on"

The “Jew” tweets

Also, there’s the times that Zain posted these.

FactsForPeace twitter account: "The son of a founder of Hamas"

Video showing a supposed son of a Hamas leader discussing the ongoing conflict.

Reply by Zain: "Jew"
and
Unknown twitter account: "Yep, this is real. Disgusting."

Image shows post from an account called jewbelong: "Trust me. If Israel wanted to commit genocide in Gaza, it could. jewbelong.org"

Reply from Zain: "I thought Jews were supposed to be media savvy"

I have no context for these. They’re just weird, and there are apparently many more than just these. Up to and including use of the phrase “ZOG” which stands for Zionist Occupied Government, the idea that the Western world is secretly controlled by Jews. You know. Normal nazi talking points. From this guy. Who is a nazi. In my opinion.

Addressing “Guilt by association”

I could spend a few paragraphs trying to convince you that Zain following a bunch of nazis and racists, people who spend their days posting heinous comments describing Black, fat, and/or trans people as degenerate subumans, says something about Zain. But I’m not gonna.
Fact is, if you don’t think that volunteering to have that kind of slop delivered to his feed makes him (at least) a nazi sympathizer, you’re probably just being an obtuse asshole. Clearly I’m not gonna change your mind on that, so you can go ahead and fuck right off.

Zain’s response

I presented this info to Zain and asked why he followed so many nazis. The response was… Lackluster.

(The image shows that Zain deactivated his account. Wouldn’t you know it, so did Mikey!)
He deactivated his account. Let’s be real. That’s not the response of someone that knows they can wait out the outrage and just block a bunch of people. That’s the response of someone that knows they got caught with their hand in the fascism-cookie jar with little neo-nazi crumbs all over their shirt.

When it comes to Mikey, I don’t know for sure what was in his follows, but based on the reflexive disabling of his account, I can imagine. To me, and this is just my opinion, it seems like Mikey might have had similar skeletons in his proverbial closet and preemptively cleaned them before someone could take a peek inside. If you managed to sneak a peak, maybe you can send me an email at robotrallis@gmail.com or a twitter DM at HonestlyUnusual about that.

Naturally, I wanted to know if the other people involved with Topdeck.gg know about this, so I headed to the discord server.

Topdeck.gg response

The first thing I did was post this question in the “feedback” channel within the official Topdeck.gg Discord server. The message includes a screenshot of the most recent rule added to their “rules” channel, which specifically references things outside of the server affecting the safety of the members inside the server.

Question from me to the moderators of the Topdeck.gg Discord in their feedback channel: "Hello, out of curiosity, if a member of the group was following a bunch of holocaust denying neo nazis, racists, and transphobes, would that be considered objectionable enough to warrant an investigation per the most recent rule?"

Image included under the quote reads: "(Moderator post) SERVER UPDATE: The community rules have changed. We've added a clause pertaining to outside actions and keeping this Discord community safe:

• Keep our community safe from abuse, harassment, and hatred: From time to time, things outside of this server will affect the safety of members inside the server. At the discretion of the admins, we will selectively remove members after an internal investigation into their actions outside of this server in order to maintain our community's safety."

For a while, the Topdeck.gg response was nothing. Responsen’t, if you will. Actually, it was worse than nothing. My question was deleted from the channel entirely, so I messaged several of the mods with it instead. I ended up getting this response.

One of the mods from the Topdeck.gg Discord server: "We are talking about things internally and trying to come to the best decision. I appreciate your concern and reaching out to me about it. I ask for time and respect to address it correctly."

I don’t have a goddamn clue what this really means, and to be honest, I’m not fully confident that it’s going to result in much of anything. For starters, if one of my staff members was shown to be a nazi, I would at least remove them from any positions of authority while I deliberated upon how to handle their removal from the organization entirely, because I don’t like nazis. That has not yet happened. As of right now, Zain is still a moderator within the Topdeck.gg Discord server.

(Edit: This is no longer the case. See: Update #2)

List of Topdeck.gg staff. Notable names include Mikey and Zain.

Topdeck.gg & the cEDH RC

Speaking of the Topdeck.gg Discord server, I noticed something interesting about the staff. In that image above, you’ll see Mikeyjh72. Wouldn’t you know it, I’ve seen that name before.

(Disclaimer: I don’t know anything at all about Michael Baldy Arrowsmith. I’m not attempting to portray him as a nazi, and do not harass him based on the things that Zain likes to surround himself with. Baldy is not actually an employee of Topdeck in the traditional sense. He is contracted by them in order to judge for or staff events, but is otherwise not involved with Topdeck. I had his name underlined because the Topdeck.gg Discord server had him listed as Topdeck Staff, which is apparently not the case.

However, several people, including at least one fully anonymous person, have reached out to tell me that Arrowsmith has been accused of sexual harassment, and several have mentioned that many women within the judge community refuse to work with him. As this is a developing story largely based on unverified conjecture, I cannot say more. Yet.

Tweet from @cedh_rc: "Who (will be on the RC)?

Mikey Holohan (Topdeck Founder/Head TO)...

...Michael Baldy Arrowsmith (L3 Judge, cEDH judging expert) ...

Follow up tweet from @cedh_rc: "Who, Part 2. We are NOT affiliated with any tournament organization, LGS, or any other group. We're a fully independent entity..."

Wouldn’t you know it, two of the people in this new Rules Committee (which is not in any way affiliated with any tournament organizer) happen to be heavily involved with Topdeck.gg, which is inarguably the largest cEDH tournament organizer. This just strikes me as a weird and contradictory statement, but if I’m crazy, feel free to let me know! After all, if this document has taught you anything, it’s that Topdeck.gg has no dishonest bad apples or issues that need solving. Speaking of which.

Topdeck is not a monolith, but…

I’m not going to assert that everyone involved with Topdeck.gg knows Zain was like this, although I’m pretty sure at least a few people knew. I don’t want to name names, because they might try and slap me with a toothless cease and desist (a tactic that several of them have allegedly tried on others before).

In fact, I can’t even tell you about some of the controversies that several of the Topdeck.gg staff have been involved in, because I’m legitimately worried for the people that have been harassed and hurt because of the actions of certain members of Topdeck.gg staff. But this document isn’t about all that, it’s about the apparent nazi problem at the highest levels of the organization. If that doesn’t get solved within Topdeck.gg, the stench will transfer to the cEDH Rules Committee fast, if it hasn’t already. (Spoiler alert, Update #3 will make you laugh)

Topdeck has stepped in shit a few times, or at least some of its members have. This is one of the first times that I think it’ll really stick. If you find what I’ve said convincing, I hope you’ll accept with a bit of generous faith that there’s a long pattern of people in Zain’s circle trying to cover up peculiar controversies. Unfortunately for Zain and MikeyJH, they can’t claim that these are “fake screenshots” or that I’m taking anything at all out of context.

What I want out of this

You might be wondering what I want out of this. Well, it isn’t clout, because all the Magic clout in the world sure as fuck isn’t going to pay my rent. It isn’t any kind of feeling of moral superiority either, because I already know I’m morally superior to literal fascists (the bar isn’t that high).

No, what I want is for nazis to not occupy positions of authority in my hobby. I want community figureheads to actually be good people. And if Zain won’t get removed, if the idea of a nazi in their midst isn’t a dealbreaker, I want every single person even considering interacting with Topdeck to know that.

I have spent literally thousands of hours of my time trying to enrich this community, I have authored a triple digit number of articles about Magic, and I don’t like when nazis try to fly under the radar and present themselves as anything but what they are: A clear and present danger to any marginalized person in the community.

To Zain

Go away. You are not wanted here, and if any part of you wants what’s best for the community, you’ll just leave. Our spaces are not safe with you in them, and everything Magic-related that you touch will be marked by the stain of bigotry and hate. The few times we’ve interacted one on one, you’ve seemed confrontational, defensive, and cowardly, and I’m not surprised that this pattern has repeated itself today.

Update: Additional reading!

This thread outlines some other stuff that I think you might want to look at if the stuff in this doc worries you. While I can’t fully speak to the factual accuracy of everything linked and included in the above thread (for legal reasons, we know Mikey and Zain love their C&Ds), I can confirm that it’s a pretty interesting read!

Additionally, if you’re just looking for the original story, being discussed in that thread, you can find it here.

Update #2: Re, Topdeck.gg

The official Topdeck.gg twitter account released some information, stating that Zain is no longer involved with Topdeck.gg at the leadership level. While it’s not fully clear whether or not he’ll still have a place in the organization in any capacity, I’m inclined to think not based on the following bits of info:

• Zain does not own the software used for Topdeck.gg, according to the org.
• Topdeck.gg has brought on a different software expert to help the transition.
• Mikey seems pissed off.
• 
  Message from Mikey in the general channel of the Topdeck.gg Discord server: "Going to be honest, find someone else that wants to TO"
  

The fact remains that Zain was part of this organization and this behavior went either unchecked or unnoticed up until now. Which do you think is worse, the idea that they knew and did nothing, or the idea that they didn’t even bother to check at all?

Rather, that’s what I would be saying… If TopDeck didn’t hire him right back again. See Update #5.

Update #3: The cEDH Rules Committee

Hello friends. I have just the most interesting tidbit of news for all of you. Remember how there are 2 members of Topdeck in the Rules Committee? Well, guess who was offered a position in the committee? I’ll give you a hint, this person turned down the role and was just ousted from Topdeck.gg.

Why is this concerning? If the vetting process for Rules Committee members is so lax that a nazi can get offered a position without being found out, why should I have any confidence in the ability of the committee to keep the community even slightly safe?

Alleged message from Zain: "For sure. I'm not involved with the new RC. Interested to see what happens. I actually rejected a seat to be on lol"

I cannot stress this enough. Whoever was responsible for choosing the members of the Rules Committee (See update #4), ensuring that the community is represented by people who could be trusted to keep us safe and welcome, could not do literally 15 seconds of work to make sure that the person they offer a role to isn’t a nazi. This is almost beyond parody.

Update #4: Seriously wtf

I don’t know if I can emotionally handle more updates to this story, but apparently Mikey hand-selected the entirety of the RC without anyone else’s input, save for Baldy, who was voted on by the group.

CEDH RC Member: "Mikey picked all the initial members of the committee. Mikey has also stepped down from the committee. We will be making an announcement shortly to discuss the next steps."

My reply: "To be clear, 1 single person was responsible for picking the entire RC?"

That Committee member's reply: "Correct. This will not be the case moving forward."

That committee member's follow-up: "Actually, Baldy was chosen by the committee collectively. But everyone else was picked by Mikey."

I don’t think I need to explain how letting one single person decide the entire RC with zero checks and balances, especially someone so involved with Topdeck, is a bad idea.

Update #5: SNAFU

TopDeck is working with Zain again. It’s clear that TopDeck was just waiting for the initial outrage to dissipate before bringing him right back again. I’m only making this update because I feel like someone needs to at least acknowledge this.

Zain via twitter: Received some insane news today. Extremely motivated to work on TopDeck again

Later yall

Writer’s note: I expect to update this a bit over time to fit a better understanding of the facts. Thank you for your patience, and if you think I got something wrong, feel free to reach out to me about it at robotrallis@gmail.com
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