Everyday I'm Shufflin': The end of the Seaon

So, the last PTQ of the season for me is now over, although I didn’t even stick around for the whole thing, so this will be a quick report. Round one, I was up against a player using red/black. Game one, they got out Olivia and started pinging my creatures. I held off on playing Stromkirk and Voiceless Spirit, but next turn, when I drew Rally the Peasants, I realized that I would have won had I played them. Game two, I forgot Nightbird’s Clutches had flashback and played a creature instead of saving mana for my Victim of Night. My next opponent was red/black/white (same as me) and thanks to his rolling tremor, we ended up with no creatures on the board. When he was at one and I was seven, I played Doomed Traveler, and since he couldn’t stop it, I won. Game two, Olivia (yes, he had one two). He was smarter than to attack, so I couldn’t rebuke it, and he soon won. He had been going on the draw, so game three, I decided to take the draw. He got mana-screwed, so I hit him five times with Doomed Traveler, at the end of his turn played Midnight Hauntings, and Rallied the Peasants twice, swinging for game.

My third opponent was using blue/white with a lot of humans, and fliers. He eventually killed my fliers and beat me with Murder of Crows. Game two, I stupidly sided out Slayer of the Wicked, and ended up against Skaab Goliath. I killed it with three creatures and Rally, but eventually, he overwhelmed me. By this point, I was pretty much done and game four was kind of a joke. I even wanted to lose, so I could leave without worry about if I could get prizes. Game one, Stromkirk and Voiceless destroyed him, but two and three, he was able to stop Stromkirk and won completely, as I had stopped caring and misplayed a lot. The head (I think) judge’s son, Josh had the same record and dropped, so we played for awhile. This is the guy I faced at the last Charlestown PTQ, and our game was rather fun, even though I lost. Game five, I just gave the guy the win before the match started and dropped. Kind of a lame last PTQ.

Playing against Josh was more fun, and we kept making jokes back and forth. This line stuck with me. “Two can play at that game, and one of them is me.” I said this when I made the same move as him and we found it hilarious for some reason. We won back and forth for a while (neither won two in a row) while waiting for our rides. His ride came and my dad arrived soon after. I rarely buy cards, but I have a thing for Merfolk and decided to get Lord of Atlantis, since they were four a piece. While that’s not really much cheaper than usual (five), it was enough to make me finally cave. I also agonized the whole tournament over whether to buy a Force of Will, which was fairly cheap (for a Force of Will). I knew I had to do it, and now that it was finally time to go, I went to get them. I ended up getting three. They shall come in handy later. I didn’t have enough on me to get a fourth, although I’m hoping to see the Vender again and that he doesn’t raise the price.

So basically, my target is Grand Prix Baltimore, which is Standard, the next PTQ season is Modern, and I’ve made some headway on my Legacy deck. Oh well, I guess I can work on my decks, since I no longer am going to weekly tournaments, except for FMN, which I am running. The store didn’t add it to their calendar, so there was a pretty lame turn out. I’m hoping more people will start going. Harrison’s Comics, in Nashua, NH, if anyone’s interested. The four people who showed up were pretty cool, but I’m hoping more will start coming. It just seems unsatisfying not being able to sanction it. It’s in a prime location, so I’m sure that more people would go, if more people knew about it. Anyways, I’ve got decks to make and an essay to write…

Everyday I'm Shufflin': Final Draft

Well, this may be it for drafts for a while. I have to work on Friday and I’m kind of busy the Monday after, plus my weekly improv class may start to be on Mondays. The biggest factor however is that I will be running FNM at a store nearby. I am a little bit nervous, as I have never run a tournament before, but I feel that this will be a great experience. I was planning to enter the PTQ in Connecticut this weekend, but I agreed to go in so the person who runs tournaments on Saturdays at the store could show me how everything works. Unlike the tournament’s that I’ve been going to however, this is going to be Standard, so I may need to learn a little bit about popular cards and how they interact so that I can be a more effective judge. That said, I do feel rather confident in my rulings knowledge due to all the time I spent drafting and witnessing judge calls, as well as learning from my own mistakes. I am definitely looking forward to this. I plan to attend the PTQ in Charlestown and then shift focus to Modern to prepare for the next PTQ format. I will still draft from time to time, but with the sealed PTQ going away and my availability changing to not give me time for my weekly tournaments, I will have a lot less tournament reports than I’ve been. I will try post more based on what I learn in the time being. It also seems that I will have to stop procrastinating on choosing a deck.

I also feel the need to mention that a certain game I’ve been following for a while is coming out in English. Check out http://www.cf-vanguard.com/en for Cardfight!! Vanguard. It’s very different from most TCGs, but it’s still incredibly fun. It’s by the creator of Duel Masters and a Japanese TCG company called Bushiroad. It’s also got an anime is (in my opinion) the only CGA that is actually good. Anyways, it won’t be able to satisfy my need for tournament’s and the competition that Magic offers, but it is a great game, nonetheless, and has a pretty good metagame as well. It’s become very popular in Japan and the trial decks and the first booster will come out in English in a couple of days.

11/28: Discount Draft

Anyways, on to the draft. They ran out of Innistrad, so it was back to M12. Odd ending to my weekly drafts and no, I didn’t win. I got third. I got an Oblivion Ring and decided to go white, and naturally I ended up falling into Blue. I ended up with two Oblivion Rings and three Mana Leaks. Of course, the star of the deck was none other than Jace, Memory Adept, which finally found his way to me…for the tournament anyways. Of course, this made a lot of games fairly uneventful.

My first opponent was someone who was apparently new to store as well as the person who passed me Jace (second pack), and he was also named Nick. He was running a Red/Green deck with Birds of Paradise and those boars that I can’t remember the name of. You can sacrifice them to gain four life. He also had a Goblin Fireslinger. Game one, he damaged me with a Lanowar Elves and I played timely reinforcements. From there, we both started playing out creatures. He got out a Goblin Fireslinger and started dealing damage to me. This guy wasn’t the most experienced player as he was doing it on his turn. Eventually I Oblivion Ringed it and he decided to attack. This pretty much wiped out all of our creatures, except for his Birds of Paradise and maybe a couple of others. I accumulated a larger hand size however, since I had been able to use my Timely Reinforcements to gain an advantage through combat and had been taking damage and holding more cards in hand. Eventually, I got out Belltower Sphinx, and since we were low on cards, he couldn’t really attack without losing (I had Frost Breath just in case he did get strong enough). He used Rampant Growth which made him run out first in the long run, although I did have Jace in my hand. Anyways, my mill deck won without milling him via effect.

Game two, he got early damage on me with a Firebreathing Birds of Paradise. I mind controlled it, but he just naturalized my Mind Control, and I eventually was able to hold it off with a flyer of my own, putting us right back in a stalemate. Unfortunately, we had taken so long on our first game that time was called at this point. As things were now, I would win 1-0. Since we were running so late, there was a crowd gathered around the table. He said that he didn’t think we had time to finish, but I felt like showing off a little and got kind of cocky. I smiled and told him that we did and played out Jace, milling him for ten. He tried to kill Jace, but I had Frost Breath ready, and 2-0’d him. Of course, this alerted everyone to the fact that I had Jace, which probably wasn’t worth it. Of course my next opponent would have figured this out soon enough.

On a totally random side note, I’m surprised by how many My Little Pony fans there are. See, there was a Black Friday sale at Hot Topic, and I ended up getting two t-shirts. They were the same and I was wearing one of them today. They are black and say “This shirt just got twenty percent cooler” and have a silhouette of Rainbow Dash created by her mane, which is in color. Anyways, this got a few people to call me Rainbow Dash (particularly one guy with a beard). On to the match, I was up against Matt again. I got out Jace fairly quickly and milled him. Then he used an artifact to gain five life and shuffle his graveyard into his library. I milled him again and won. I thought it was funny how in my third draft , he beat me in the final round with Jace, and that he would now be losing to mine. But he didn’t. Game two, I got out Jace, and he used a burn spell on it. Then he beat me. Game three, I almost got Jace out, but he had a Red/Black beatdown deck, and my lack of creatures caused me to lose.

My final opponent was the bearded guy who kept calling me Rainbow Dash. Naturally, I didn’t mind, since Rainbow Dash is awesome, and that is pretty much the greatest thing that someone could be called. He was running Blue/White as well and played out two Merfolk Mesmerist and started milling me. I played out my Merfolk Mesmerist and we had a mill off of sorts, until I mind controlled his and played out Jace. Game two, he was attacking and got out a Rusted Sentinel (3/4 that comes in tapped, if that’s its name). I Master Thiefed it. No one runs that in their main deck, and he was surprised as I didn’t sideboard. I proceeded to play out Jace and mill him again. Of course, this win was full of sadness, as I knew that I would be losing Jace.

I ended up getting third place. Matt won and his last opponent got second. The three people he beat were 2-1s. I got a Phantasmal Image, which is pretty good. And this concludes my tournament spamming. Winning would have been a better finish though… >_<

Everyday I'm Shufflin': JAM (Just Another Monday)

I am feeling that this blog may be a little to plain and that I may need to find a way to change it up a bit. Right now it is just my tournament reports, which I do enjoy having a record of. Of course, any popular blog would probably need more. Maybe I could write strategy articles, although I don’t feel that I would be very good at it, as I have so much I still have to learn. I mean, I don’t want to be a news site, as anypony who’s interested in Magic would probably check mtgsalvation, DailyMTG, or numerous other sites before mine (how many people have even seen this?). Anyways, on to the report >_<

11/21: Discount Draft

Relentless Dragon again, and this time I decided to not go red/white, which annoyed me, as I know those colors best. I ended up with a Black/Blue deck with two Undead Alchemist and a Cellar Door, as well as four Think Twice. I also got two of the spell that lets you look at the top four cards of your library and add one to your hand (and mill the rest). I didn’t end up using them, as I felt the Think Twice was enough draw power, although maybe I should have.

My first opponent was using a Black/Red deck and I kept a hand with one island and two Delver of Secrets. I’m not sure if it was a good hand to keep, but I quickly got him to seven and then got out Undead Alchemist and milled him with Zombie tokens. Game two he was prepared and used Fiend Hunter to exile it, but then I just played out my second one. He managed to kill that one eventually, but I got the first one back with corpse lunge. He used Unburial Rites to get back Fiend Hunter and exiled Undead Alchemist again, but I soon managed to destroy Fiend Hunter and with an attack from a Mauler, which he blocked with his Rat, allowing me to corpse lunge Fiend Hunter (I had already exiled my other Alchemist). Finally, I was able to use my army of tokens to mill him.

My second opponent was Aaron, who was Black/Green/Blue. Game one, I had to fight without ever getting access to blue mana, due to not drawing it. My deck was mainly blue, so I lost without being able to put up much of a fight. Game two, I got out my two Undead Alchemist and got out a few zombies, but he had enough creatures to block mine, so I didn’t get a chance to attack, while he swung with his flier. I was able to pull off cellar door once, but unfortunately, he got out Grimgrin and killed my Alchemists. I didn’t have enough to win, so I lost to the flier.

My final opponent was Nathan, who I beat last time with Dungrove Elder, who is playing Black/White Game one, I explode and mill him, with my exponentially increasing zombies. Game two, I keep an interesting hand. 5 islands and two Think Twice. It works pretty well, but his deck is pretty good and he gets out his creatures to beat me down this time. Game three, I see that his bomb is Mikaeus the Lunarch, and he begins to power up his creatures, I don’t have a way to kill it, and while I get out an Alchemist, I don’t have anything to get rid of it. It goes to time and I try to stall, but he has a flier which is ultimately able to finish me as my only fliers are Delvers, which are now gone.

Notes: I don’t think my deck was too bad, but I didn’t want to play white/red this time, so I sort of avoided white, when I really should have picked it. I don’t think it was a good move to pick a Think Twice over a Mausoleum Guard and later passed Bonds of Faiths and things that made me really regret not going white, including Mikaeus, pack two. I still make misplays, but I believe right now my biggest problem is colors.

Everyday I'm Shufflin': Last Friday Night

11/18: FNM

This week I learned about Bronies and, needless to say, I was interested in seeing what the big fuss was. So you can probably imagine my parents’ response when they came back from the library to find me and my bro(ny) watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which I have realized is a great show (I’m up to episode 11 now). I am still surprised by all of the hype it has and its gigantic fandom, but I guess that’s the way the internet works. While I do not see myself making fanart, writing fan fiction, or creating a blog for it, I do plan to keep watching. I think my favorite character would have to be Rainbow Dash, but Pinky Pie may be more hilarious. Anyway, I said I wouldn’t have a My Little Pony blog, so…

I got to Larry’s as usual, except this time it was one 17 man tournament as opposed to two pods. We still drafted in pods, but we got paired up against people who weren’t from our pod. This greatly bothered me, as part of the point of a draft is the deck building aspect and having control over what the other players draft, as well as getting a feel for the decks in the pod. I am still working on getting practice drafting, which is definitely hurt by being paired up against people from a different pod and I hope I don’t have to do this again. That said, the reason I lost may or may not be that. I believe it is more about how red/white has become my new blue/white. I have been doing well recently with red/white and when looking at the pack, I only paid attention to the rare and the red/white cards. I ignored blatantly obvious signs to go blue or black in the first pack, which was reinforced by my pull of a Grim Grin in pack two, while I stupidly rare drafted it, I still continued to take red/white cards, until I created a very mediocre beat down deck. And through this whole process, it never occurred to me to even think about trying other colors.

My first opponent was named Ryan (I think) and he was using a green/white deck with Trepanation Blade. Game one was pretty back and forth, but he got out a creature with Trepanation Blade and a Galvanic Juggernaut, which was enough to finish me. Game two we got to a stalemate, until I realized that if I just attacked with everything, I had enough to finish him. I swung out, and it was exact game. Game three was similar to the first game and he got out trepanation blade, but I kept us both pretty much creatureless. I got out Pitchburn Devils and gave it a Butcher’s Cleaver, but he used Bonds of Faith on it (which reminds me that I probably shouldn’t have picked Grim Grin over that), as this guy was from my pod. He got out a Mausoleum Guard, and I got out a Voiceless Spirit. He attacked with his guard and I blocked. He played out Elder of Laurels and gave his blade to a token. I am quite proud of my plan. I played out Day of Reckoning, and I chose to keep Voiceless Spirit, while he kept the token with the blade. My Pitchburn Devils died, killing his token and I equipped Voiceless Spirit with Butcher’s Cleaver for game.

My second opponent was Marcus, again, who was in the other pod and had a red/black/green deck with Daybreak Ranger and Olivia Voldaren. Game one, he got out a couple of Darkthicket Wolves, and I got out a couple Ironsmiths, but he played Daybreak Ranger and slowly killed all of my guys. Eventually, I was able to kill it, but by then, it was too late. He played out Olivia and I lost, regardless. Game two, I was able to deal damage to him early game, but he eventually got out stronger creatures than I could handle and I lost fairly quickly. My third opponent was using green/white, and I was able to beat him down quickly the first game and could barely finish him off because he thought he had enough blockers and didn’t account for a Crossway Vampire/Traitorous Blood combo of awesomeness. Games two and three, though, I ended up against an army of creatures that kept getting powered up by his Gavony Township, and I didn’t really stand a chance.

There was a fourth round, but I doubted that I’d win anything, plus I was fed up with the tournament style, so I dropped. My losses were my own fault, as I’ve somehow reverted back to making the same mistakes I did when I started, even though I have definitely become a better player, I am still missing something with drafting. Despite this, drafts are separated into pods for a reason and should remain that way. If I want practice drafting, it is beneficial for me to only play against members of my own pod.

Everyday I'm Shufflin': JAM (Just Another Monday)

11/14: Discount Draft

I left a little bit early to pop by an ATM so I could get money for the new Yu-Gi-Oh tins that came out. I needed two Solemn Warnings and had been meaning to try using Fossil Dyna, so I went to Target and got three Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon tins. I must admit that Galaxy Eyes looks pretty cool, even though it’s not very good and the tin looks stunning. Also, Monday’s episode of ZeXal had Yugioh’s first kiss scene and the return of card games on top of moving trains. Anyways, I arrived to the tournament early and had time to open up the tins. While I didn’t get anything too rare, I did get a Tech Genus Wonder Magician, a Junk Berserker and an Aero Shark along with some other lame foils. Regardless, I believe the Warnings should definitely help out my deck and Fossil Dyna’s should combo well with Bambooshoot. I’ll have to try it out next Regionals.

Anyways, on to the draft. This Draft has left me the most bummed out of every tournament that I’ve done. Perhaps karma does exist. They ran out of Innistrad, so we were drafting two Scars of Mirrodin packs and one pack of New Phyrexia. I drafted mono-black as I got a Phyrexian Obliterator. Second pack, I opened a foil Koth, but as it was Backdraft and I typically play fair (along with the fact that the winner from last time watched me open it), I passed it and vowed to win it, seriously declaring my victory before the whole thing started. I had a good feeling about my deck.

My first opponent was using a blue/white deck and we passed the first few turns. I played out Phyrexian Obliterator and expected to win right there, but he arrested it. I was disappointed and we continued to play out creatrues. I got seven poison counters on him, but he got me down pretty low and played a blue Mythic that became a 7/7 copy of my Obliterator, winning him the game. Game two, though, I was able to use an Exarch to check his hand and wipe out his only removal spell in hand and bring out Obliterator. He had been consistently dealing damage to me and had out a hover myr, a 1/2 artifact creature that became unblockable for one blue phyrexian mana and an Etched Champion. He blocked my attack with the myr and started his turn. He forgot that he no longer had metalcraft and swung. I Grasp of Darknessed the unblockable and blocked his Champion with my Obliterator. I won game two, and game three, I used my Exarch to wipe out his only removal again, allowing me to get out Carnifex Demon, winning me game three without much trouble. I felt rather cocky. Not a good sign, but I feel that I’m getting better, nonetheless.

My second opponent was someone the owner had commented on being good. Game one basically went like this: equipment to give +3/+0, Bloodshot Trainee, equip. No removal on my part equals good game. Game two, I quickly got out infect creatures and wiped out his creatures with removal while I beat him down with infect. On to game three. He gets out a Golem that can give creatures flying and +1/+1 for two mana and gets out a couple of other creatures, but I am able to play out both Phyrexian Obliterator and Carnifex Demon and take the game. It is a six man pod and I am the only person with 2-0, so I am pretty much sure of my victory. If you couldn’t guess, though, it doesn’t happen.

Opponent number three is using white/green and has a lot of infect along with Nim Deathmantle. He got to play first, which screwed me over in the end. I played out some creatures with infect and got him to five, but he was able to get out creatures to defend with along with Nim Deathmantle and he could block my attacks before I could finish him. This lead to him playing more and more creatures so that any attacks I made would only hurt me. Additionally, we drew nothing but land and when he got two cards in his hand, I used Dimentia Bat. When this happened again, I used Necrotic Ooze, and I got back Ooze with my Exarch to do the same. I got out Carnifex Demon which saved me from a creature that put 1/1s into play equal to my poison counters every turn, until I could kill it, but eventually I ran out of cards and lost. We also ran out of time and I couldn’t kill him in the next game, so I lost. On top of that, both of my previous opponents lost and since there were four 2-1s, I got screwed on tie-breakers and came in fourth, just out of money card range. From first to basically last…I was very annoyed. To add to my frustration, there was a large container truck preventing me from leaving my parking spot…this sucks >_<

Everyday I'm Shufflin': PTQ Providence and more

I was kind of annoyed with last week. On Halloween, I dressed up as Ruby (pokespe) and got prepared to go to the draft, just to find out that the car wouldn’t start. Despite the snowstorm and the fact that Trick or Treating had been delayed, my brother and his friend decided to go anyways and since I was staying home, I offered to hand out the candy. I ate most of it, while I was bothered that I had accomplished nothing during that day. Since the car wouldn’t start, my mom had to drive me and my brother to school and me to work, and when my dad got home on Friday, we tried starting the car a few times, and eventually got it going. We brought it into to Toyota to get it checked out, and we left it there overnight. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to drive the rental car and it was getting late, so we went home and I missed FNM…I watched Vanguard, though, which was awesome (as usual).

11/5: PTQ Providence

Finally, I was able to go to a tournament. I got up around 5:20 AM and got dressed and ready to go, quickly. I had pre-purchased the ticket and my dad drove me to South Station (as I couldn’t drive the rental car) and was really tired the whole ride. When I got there, I found a machine that exchanged the bar code they emailed me for tickets. I went to the center of the station and found a big list of train schedules. To Provide - 6:45 AM. This looked like mine and so I waited until the train arrived and boarded it. It came time to show out tickets and I gave mine to the ticket collector, who asked me if I knew that I was on the wrong train. I thought he was just joking. He wasn’t. I had purchased tickets for the Amtrak and this was the MBTA. Luckily, he didn’t make me pay for the ride, and told me that he would get me there, but that I would be a little late. Since I had planned to get there at 7:20, when the tournament started at 10:00, this wasn’t really a problem, and I arrived at 7:50 and saw a magic player I recognized from Pandemonium with his friend. I followed them to the convention center and went in to find that they were still setting up. I really wanted a coffee and a doughnut and there was a place connected to the convention center, called the Dunkin Donuts Center, which I soon found out didn’t have a Dunkin Donuts in it. I headed over to a mall called Providence Place, where I found a Dunkin Donuts and got my large iced coffee, a donut (chocolate frosted as they were out of Boston crème) and some sort of grilled sandwich with turkey and bacon.

After my breakfast, I headed over to the convention center to sign up and register my pool and a while later the tournament started. I was playing a red/green deck that was splashing black for a dead weight and Olivia Voldaren. It had some awesome cards like Kessig Cagebreakers and Mayor of Avabruck as well as five other werewolves. My first opponent was named Tyler Kilgore and he was using a deck that was mostly white, but also had red and black. I took him first game without much trouble by attacking quickly and getting out my cage breaker and my grizzled outcasts, and the second game seemed like it was going to go the same way until he pulled out Olivia Voldaren. I had no way to get it rid of it as I was not drawing mine and I lost. Earlier I had thought I would win for sure as I had equipped a creature with Butcher’s Cleaver and tried to pump it, but when I did that, he killed it in response. Because he was running white, he had a lot of fliers and I ended up losing game three, despite him mulliganing to five. I couldn’t pull off my own creatures fast enough due to a lack of low cost creatures in hand and he got out a couple of Chapel Geist and I was unable to block them. When I did get creatures out, he was able to kill them or block them and I did no damage to him game three, losing the match.

Match two, my opponent was Patrick Lynn and he was using a blue/white deck splashing black with cards like Champion of the Parish and Chapel Geist. This match showed me that I have a great weakness to fliers. Game one, he got out Champion of the Parish and hit me with it. I was luckily enough to be able to kill it (I believe it was dead weight) but he got out and hit me twice with fox, while I wasn’t able to hit him due to lack of creatures/ he would kill them. The creatures I did get out would quickly end up dying and he won. Game two, I quickly played creatures out, but this time I got them out quicker and beat him down until he decided to just go to game three. While it didn’t get the chance to flip, I made a note that he had a Ludavic’s Test Subject. Game three went very similar to last game three. He got out fliers and hit me. I was able to almost make a comeback thanks to Olivia Voldaren, which was slowly killing his fliers, but I got her to late, and he got Unburial Rites allowing him to revive one of his fliers. He had three fliers and I only had enough mana to kill one of them. I was at one life and had to let one through. I didn’t have enough creatures to deal fourteen (his life) to him, sadly, and he won. Olivia was at 11, though thanks to her effect and Mask of Avacyn. But I lacked the creatures I needed to do the rest.

This next game was quite sad. I was against another guy named Nick (Durso) and this could have gone well for me, except I got cocky and made stupid mistakes like using Prey Upon when my creature had first strike (this is ignored when fighting) and just being stupid. I got rid of all of my advantage, and while I got him to 5, he won. He won game two as well and I was frustrated at my misplays. He used cards like Bloodcrazed Neonate, Wolfrun, Blasphemous Act, and Ashmouth Hound. My fourth opponent was Alan Alguinaldo and I won 2-0 without much trouble. I believe he was using a red/green deck similar to mine, but I may have been wrong. The games were total beat down on my part and won very quickly by attacking all out. On top of that, this is the first (and only) person to face the full terror of Mayor of Avabruck and his wolf token army. After this, I played a game for fun with David Milgate who seemed surprised that I didn’t take the play and wasn’t going all out with attacks when I clearly had an aggro deck. I think this is because I was used to playing control and therefore, without noticing, played every deck I used as I would a control deck. We played again and I went on the play and went all out with attacking for the win. It’s kind of annoying to find that you’ve been playing your deck the wrong way, but maybe I should take into consideration that more cards aren’t everything.

My fifth opponent was a guy I’ve seen a lot, but never actually played against or talked to. His name was Mitchell Prudhomme. He was playing a blue/white deck. He used Sensory Deprivation on my creatures and used cards like Think Twice and Chapel Geist. I was up against fliers again and wasn’t able to get him down very far game one before I got swarmed by his creatures and was unable to block. Game two, though, I got out Olivia Voldaren allowing me to steal a creature of his, which I believe I used on a Galvanic Juggernaut. I won this one easily, but game three, he equipped one of his fliers with a Butcher’s Cleaver and I couldn’t block. I lost again. While fliers were deadly, he also had a lot of humans and it was a pretty good deck. I came close, but ultimately couldn’t win, although I didn’t misplay much, which was nice.

My sixth opponent was Brian Hulse, who was apparently a staff member at Anime Boston. He was using a red/blue deck and used Bloodcrazed Neonate and Instigator Gang. I quickly killed the Neonate and proceeded to beat him down with my creatures. While not very detailed, that’s basically how game one went. Game two was simple as well. He got out Ludavic’s Test Subject and since my creatures were higher cost, he was able to flip it. My only destruction cards were Dead Weight and damage spells and I had no way of making a comeback in time, so I surrendered. Game three was back and forth with him getting me down to seven. We both had creatures and were at a stand-off, but he didn’t notice my Wolfrun and attacked, which allowed me to kill his creature. Unfortunately, he got out a flier and had out the equipment that gave +4/+2, but equipped by sacrificing a creature. I hit him and it literally came down to whether or not he drew a creature. If he drew one, he could equip his murder of crows and I would die, but if not, I would be able to attack for game since he was at four and I could pump my creature and give it trample. He didn’t and I won.

Round seven, my opponent was a girl named Mariah Pagliocco, who was running a white/blue deck. She got out lantern spirit and used moment of heroism on it, putting her to twenty-four. She managed to get out a few other creatures, and I got out my Kessig Cagebreakers. She used Sensory Deprivation on it, but it could still attack and make creatures. She managed to get me down to three, and I blocked with some of my creatures, so that my breakers could make more wolf tokens (and so I didn’t die), and eventually was able to swing for game. Luckily she didn’t have many fliers, so she skipped a lot of attacks as I could just block them and stuck to swinging with the lantern spirit. Game two, she took me down a little, but I was able to quickly get out Olivia Voldaren and start killing and taking her creatures. Game two was pretty easy. Olivia is awesome!!!

My eights opponent was Joel Paradee, who was running a blue/black zombie deck with murder of crows. I only got him to eighteen, and had a standoff with him at the beginning, but I now know the true terror of endless ranks of the dead. I was able to kill his undead alchemist, but overall, he was able to overwhelm me with his zombies, and murder of crows, which I could not block. Game two, was more even and I was able to gain the advantage, but a little after I did that, he decided he wanted to just go to game three, where he was able to beat me down with his zombies and fliers (crows and bats) again. I also kept a hand I probably shouldn’t have, which caused me to lose quickly as I couldn’t defend.

My final opponent was Daniel Villamizar, who was using a white/blue/black deck. Game one, he secures his mana base quickly with his two Traveler’s Amulet and gets out a Silverchase Fox and doomed traveler. We are both hitting each other back and forth, but ultimately I am able to win game one. Game two, isn’t quite the same, though. He has a bat and Falkenrath Noble and I am unable to get him below twenty, while he pummels away at me with fliers. Game three is the final game and guess who shows up again. I get out Olivia Voldaren and am able to slowly wipe his board with it, but he still has an Invisible Stalker, which is at 4/2 thanks to an equipment. I get him to five, and he gets me to seven and he finally draws a black spell to kill Olivia. My only other creature is a Reckless Waif, but I pump it with Kessig Wolfrun and attack for game. Olivia made the victory possible, though, but I’m a bit surprised that Reckless Waif took the game. She didn’t even transform. 4-5, overall. Not too bad.

11/7: Discount Draft

Back to the Relentless Dragon and this time, I went red/white, which is basically my new blue/white. I got a Stromkirk Noble and a Champion of the Parish and while I didn’t have any bombs, I had creatures that could build up to be bombs. My first opponent seemed fairly new as he started by drawing and saying “I wonder what this card could be,” as he wasn’t using cases or checklist cards. The person next to him gave him a checklist card and told him to use it. He was playing blue and red (I think, he mostly used blue) and for the first time in my magic career, Bloodcrazed Neonate was useful. Game one, I got a turn one Champion of the Parish and powered it up, beating him down with humans. Game two, I played my neonate and he was unable to block her at first because I had Crossway Vampires, and eventually it got pretty strong. That combined with a few of my flip cards, beat him pretty quickly.

My second opponent was Matt, who I’ve faced quite a bit and is pretty good. He’s the guy who beat me in my third draft last round, although I’ve beaten him as well. He is playing a green/white deck that is pretty good. He quickly got out creatures quickly and everytime we traded, his Lumberknot would power up. Eventually, I couldn’t block and lost. Game two, though, I was on the play, as I had been doing more often, and was able to quickly play out my creatures and beat him down with a Champion of the Parish with seven counters, and made good use of Bellringer for a surprise power up that saved Champion early on and took out his creature. Game three went similar to game two, and I was able to secure my creatures first and had him on the defensive. It went into turns, but as he had been blocking, he no longer had enough creatures to block with to survive (not that he shouldn’t have blocked earlier). He was a good opponent nonetheless.

My third opponent was another person that I regret losing to. He reminded me of Sheldon from the big bang theory, except more annoying and a bad sport. He was a good player, nonetheless, but I believe that acting ones age means not being a bad sport in a Monday night draft with no prize support. He was using blue/white. I took him game one because he kept a bad hand and couldn’t play anything. Game two, I stupidly kept a hand with one mana because I had a Stromkirk Noble. He used claustrophobia on it and I was done. Game three, I chose to draw because I was hoping for something like the first game. This was the best game of the three, but I unfortunately couldn’t win. I got a Thraben Sentry and transformed it, but he claustrophoia’d it. Luckily I drew into Silverchase Fox (my one that I sided in), but he was able to kill it and ultimately win. I managed to Harvest Pyre his Makeshift Mauler, but he had enough other creatures, when I was cardless. I should also note that he made good use of Stitcher's Apprentice, by sacrificing creatures targeted by one of my burn spells. Oh well, I got second, and got a Stromkirk Noble and a Champion of the Parish…

11/11/11: FNM

I WON!!!

I drafted a red/white deck like usual, again with no bombs, but this time with nothing to build up to bombs either. It was basically a beat down deck with Tormented Pariah as my strongest potential hitter. My first opponent was Steven Brunelle who was using a red/white deck like mine, but not like mine. I won the dice roll and was on the play. He had to mulligan and I kept. I quickly got out creatures and when he would play creatures, I would stop them from blocking with Crossway Vampires. Eventually he blocked to save himself from losing, but at that point it was too late. I had out Juggernaut and a couple other creatures and beat him very quickly. Game two, I was on the draw, but it was basically a repeat of this.

My second opponent was Micheal Gorlin. He was playing green/white and got out a Darkthicket Wolf and hit me with it. I began my assault then. I started to get out my creatures and was able to start hitting him. He managed to hold me off awhile and his wolf and 5/5 regenerating vampire could do some damage, so I had to use my Avacynian Priest to hold them one off, while taking some damage. In the end, I could do more damage and I won. Game two, started the same why, except he ended up playing out Essence of the Wild. Not too big a problem as I used Fiend Hunter on it. I said Final Turn and swung out, but unfortunately, he flashed an Ambush Viper. Luckily he didn’t have many creatures yet, but he had Mentor of the Meek out, which caused him to to gain a creature advantage quickly. It ended up as a big stand-off where I had out my Hanweir Watchkeep to defend with as well as Avacynian Priest and some reasonably strong creatures. Soon, he was at six and took me down to three. I attacked with Voiceless Spirit and played Moment of Heroism on it, taking him to two and me to seven. He had no fliers and swung out, but I blocked and survived it. I underestimated him big time, still. He was definitely a good player.

My final opponent was Marcus MDonald, who I’ve faced once before and lost to. It’s weird; I want the packs and want to win, but I don’t really object too much losing to him as he is a good player and a good sport, too. Of course, that didn’t mean that I would just let him win. Game one, I kept a hand with two plains, but no mountains and although I did get some later and build up my own forces, he already two fliers that were hitting me. I was almost able to beat him with my Tormented Pariah (transformed), but he had already done too much damage for me to survive the next turn and I couldn’t finish him off. I went first game two and played a creature and got it equipped with Trepanation Blade, which took out quite a few of his good cards without flashback, while Trepanation Blade didn’t do much damage, since he blocked, I played out other creatures and eventually he couldn’t block, as Trepanation Blade took away so many good cards and I was able to make full use of my cards. Game three went similar, except the creature I equipped was Voiceless Spirit, which had first strike and flying and he couldn’t block it most of the time. On top of that, both of the other games, he got out Deranged Assistant, and this time he was short on mana, giving me some free hits. While he was able to block a few once he drew land and did use Feelings of Dread a couple of times, it only delayed my attack, and since he didn’t have something to hit me with, my victory came soon after.

Everyday I'm Shufflin': Last Friday Night

10/28: FNM

A typical Friday. I got home from school and waited around until five-thirty or so and then drove down to Larry’s. I had to wait a while as one guy kept saying that he was nearly there and ended up getting there over half an hour late. We were all surprised that the store owner waited considering how many annoyed drafters there were. At 7:00, he called and the store owner said he’s give him three minutes. Anyways, when he arrived at 7:04, we got started and were all kinda pissed at him. Being the Halloween FNM, we all got deck boxes and awesome M&Ms with the symbol of Avacyn on them. The deck boxes were pretty awesome, but no one could figure out how to put them together, except for Arianna and a few other people, mine is holding together pretty well, except hers was better. One kid seemed happy and declared his victory over the deck box, when it popped apart right back in to its original flat shape. We all burst out laughing.

I drafted a green/black deck with a lot of werewolves in it. I feel that this was good as I put thought into it and made sure to have both creatures and removal. My first opponent was a kid who I’ve seen there often. I’m pretty sure his name was Robert. He was playing a red/green deck. Game one, he was on the play and had to mulligan. This wasn’t much of a game, as I pretty much just summoned creatures (Elder of Laurels as one of them) and destroyed him with my werewolves, before he could fight back. Game two, he was on the play again, and this one was more challenging for me. He got a couple of hits on me and I was a little short on mana, but I luckily draw the land I needed in time. I got out a green wolf (the one that gets +2/+2, when I pay the mana), and equipped it with two blazing torch. Stupid move. He used Traitorous Blood and I responded by tapping it to kill one of his creatures. He untapped it and killed it. Eventually, he had out an Instigator Gang, which I didn’t want to stick around, so I swung out with three creatures (two of which were my Gatstaf Howler and my Krallenhorde Wantons), and my third was a creature he could block and kill with his Gang. He blocked my Wantons with one of his creatures and my weak creature with his gang, and didn’t have any green creatures out to block the howler. We both started this turn with three creatures, now we both had two. I played my Morkrut Banshee to kill his Instigator Gang and block on the next turn. He played a Crossway Vampire and swung with his last creature. I drew Prey Upon. Game.

My second match was against Richard. He had a black/white deck with a lot of humans and some equipments. He gained the advantage via speed, as I tend to be on the draw and was both times. Game one, he quickly gets out a doomed traveler followed by a couple of other weak creatures, as well as a sharpened pitchfork. I am able to block, but have less creatures than him. I get down to low life, but my removal and strong creatures allowed me to win game one barely. Next game, he shows his speed once again and I soon find myself up against a Geist-honored Monk and an Alabaster Angel. I hardly have any fliers, so I lose quickly. Game three, he got out a vampire interloper and hit hitting me with it a few times. This was the first game he couldn’t play something first turn. Luckliy, my Howler was hitting him back, and my creatures were stronger so he was pretty hesitant to attack, of course, I also had removal, such as dead weight, so I ended up killing his fliers to make up for my lack of them. I ended up at thirteen when I was finally able to gain control of the game by attacking where I would lose a creature, but setting me up for a Morkrut Banshee, which left him with only the interloper. Throughout the game, we have been killing each other creatures off with spells, as he has Rebuke and Smite the Monstrous (which got rid of my Stalking Vampire this game), and I have Dead Weight, Tribute to Hunger, Prey Upon, and Victim of Night. I had more, but he had more creatures, so it kind of evened out. He was a very tough opponent, but when it came to his last draw, he just drew and placed a plains on the table.

My third opponent was Robert’s brother, Andrew (or maybe I have them mixed up). I offered to draw, but he refused and so we played. He was playing a deck that was almost entirely removal, with Geistflames, Harvest’s Pyre, Claustrophobia, Tribute to Hunger and probably more. I realized this when I played Night Terrors game one to hit Claustrophobia and saw his hand full of removal. He got out a Delver of Secrets, which I played Dead Weight on. He wasn’t playing anything as my creatures were higher in cost and therefore he had to wait to. I assumed I won as he didn’t seem to have any creatures. I played out my Grizzled Outcasts, forgetting that he could play his Tribute during my upkeep. He did and gained seven. I played my Shamans (turns into a regenerating werewolf) and he killed them soon as well. He responded to pretty much everything by killing it until I found myself up against a Skaab Goliath with only weaker creatures. I didn’t draw anything to stop it as it was a Zombie and Victim of Night wouldn’t work on it, and ended up dying quickly. Game two, he was on the play with a lack of mana and a mulligan and I beat him down quickly before he could retaliate. That’s why I like the draw. Despite getting the draw for all three games, though, I still ended up losing. I tried to beat him down game three, but in the end, it ended up like a repeat of Game one. I tried to Night Terrors again, but he didn’t have a Goliath in hand. He played out Murder of Crows, which I promptly used Victim of Night on. That set the last creature in his grave yard, though, and He played Skaab Goliath. He won without much trouble as I didn’t draw my Tribute to Hunger in time to save me. I still got five packs for second, so all was good.

Everyday I'm Shufflin': Familiar Faces

10/22: PTQ Charlestown

I woke up around six (which is really early for me) and got ready for another PTQ. While I love entering tournaments, I was also missing an in person source for my senior project. Rob Dougherty wouldn’t be there, which was fine for now, as I need more time to come up with questions. My plan was something that my teacher had been wondering, which was about the magic community and what specifically about magic appeals to people, and what kinds of people it attracts. I’ve met a lot of different kinds of people throughout my tournaments so far, so I’m still rather interested in this. For today, I decided I would ask each of my opponents how they started playing magic and why. Unfortunately, I am at a lack of full names, but that may be for the best. Although, personally, I would like to start keeping track of full names so I could look for repeats, as I don’t always remember everyone upon seeing them again.

I took the train down from Ayer to North Station and walked from there. It was a decent walk, but the weather was nice. I also brought a note pad for the first time, as I needed to interview people. When I arrived, I immediately signed up and then noticed a few people that I recognized. The first person I recognized was the person running FNM at Larry’s the night before. We talked for a few minutes, and then I walked around some more and saw that the Pandemonium crew was there, including Flez (Flezz? I’ll ask him how to spell that…). Then I noticed David Milgate from Anime Boston. He was in the Crash Space room with me and had his Magic deck on him, but the only cards I had on me were my Vanguard trial decks.

After a while, the tournament started and I made a red/white deck with Dearly Departed and Kruin Outlaw, along with Devils play. I had quite a few humans, including Avacynian Priest, and it was a decent deck, but, unfortunately, it didn’t really have ways to gain advantage. For my first round, I was up against a pretty cool guy named Ross, who was playing a white/blue deck with cards like Avacynian Priest, Silent Departure, and Manor Gargoyle. He won the dice roll and chose to be on the draw, which annoyed me as I preferred the draw. I played out Selfless Cathar, soon followed by a Butcher’s Cleaver and hit him for four, while I gained four. I had taken one from his Avacynian Priest, so I was at 23. I tried to hit him again, but he blocked with a creature that he had played out. I played Village Ironsmith, but he got out a Gargoyle and I stupidly attacked, forgetting it was indestructible. Bye bye Cathar. My Ironsmith transformed, allowing him to keep it tapped, and he played out Geist-Honored Monk and I Divine Recknoninged, which left him with his Priest and Gargoyle, and me with my werewolf. I dropped quickly thanks to the Gargoyle and he got out a Mausoleum Guard and hit me more. I was able to transform the Werewolf Back, by wasting Rally the Peasants, but it was too late and I died soon anyway.

Game two, I was on the draw and played my amulet which later allowed me to get my last color. I got out Ironsmith and he played his Priest. He got more creatures, but I used Bonds of Faith on his Gargoyle, this time. Unfortunately, I only got him to 18 before dying to his other creatures. I asked him why he plays Magic and how he got started, and he said that he started since his brother played back in Ice Age and they played casually until his brother stopped. He picked it up again in eighth grade and learned about competition. He enjoyed strategy games, so he continued playing. He was probably in his early 20’s.

My next opponent was named Stephen and had curly red hair that was almost an afro. I was on the draw and we both got out our amulets. I played Avacynian Priest and he played Lilliana. I hit him for one, which was dumb since I could have hit Lilliana. I played out my Unruly Mob and sacrificed my priest. I attacked, but he blocked with his flashed Village Bellringers. He passed and played out my snake. During my turn, I attacked with the snake and he traded, I then played Blazing Torch (foil) and killed Lilliana. He got out his Invisible Stalker and I played Thraben Sentry and hit him with my mob. He played a delver and I hit him again and got out my Voiceless Spirit. He copied his Delver and I played Dearly Departed. He was unable to flip his Delvers, before my Dearly Departed killed him.

Game two, I’m on the draw again and have a flood of land. He has switched from blue to red and gets out two Heinwar Watchkeep. I get out a Thraben Sentry, Unruly Mob, and an Avacynian Priest and Voiceless Spirit, and I block one Bane with and sacrifice my newly played Cathar in order to flip my Sentry, which is powered up with Bonds of Faith. I blocked his Bane with my (now) Militia, and he Moment of Heroismed, so they traded and he got a lot of life. I play out Kruin Outlaw and say “She puts the win in Kruin.” He kills it. He plays Dearly Departed and I play Divine Reckoning. I now have a pretty strong Unruly Mob. He playes Falkenrath Noble and I go to three. I equip my Cleaver to my 6/6 mob and give it Bonds of Faith. I attack for 11. He blocks, but I gain a lot of life. He has to block with Dearly Departed on the next turn, and I win the turn after. I ask him my questions and found that he started in fourth grade (I want to say he’s about my age) with his neighbors who played and that he likes strategy and that Magic is “fun to think about”. Very true.

My third opponent is named Joe. He is in his late 20’s and is playing a blue/white deck. He started playing ten years ago in High School and quit until after college. He enjoys the competitive aspect of the game. Game one, I get out amulet, soon followed by Mob, but when I attack he rebukes it. I get our a Cleaver and he played Cloistered youth. I play Thraben Sentry and he swings. I take it. He plays creepy doll. I play my Ironsmith, but he plays out Slayer of the Wicked. I get a Bonds of Faith on his doll and end up Divine Reckoning. He gets out more creatures and I flash it back. From there he gets out his Goliath and I play out my Mayor, but he returns it with Spiritual Departure. Soon after, I can no longer block and lose. Game two is basically the same, except I use Bonds of Faith on his Goliath (which he gets earlier), and he uses Silverchase Fox to kill the Bonds of Faith and kills me soon after.

Opponent number four is Edrick, who is probably in his 30’s. He said that he plays because the game is fun, he enjoys the competition, and he likes to collect. He is from Canada and started playing because he had been playing a Settlers of Catan card game with his wife and really enjoyed it. He knew of Magic and decided to try it, and played since. He is running blue/white. He is using cards like Thraben Sentry and Slayer of the Wicked and I end up on the defensive the whole first game until he is able to beat me. Game two, I play out a werewolf quickly and he uses his Moment of Heroism on his attack in order to stop the transformation. I am more on par with him this game, except I forget that he can attack immediately after flipping Ludavic’s Test Subject, and he does. I am defending the majority of this game as well. I barely do any damage to him either game.

My fifth opponent is named Matt and is running a red/black/white deck. Game one, he double bumps me (bump in the night) and I get out a hound and my mob and hit him. He rebukes the hound and plays one of his own, but I put a Bonds of Faith on it. He gets out Stromkirk Noble and we hit each other back and forth until I eventually win. Game two, we quickly trade our creatures, and then I realize that I am out. He starts hitting me, and I can’t make a comeback, so I lose. Game three, he gets a hit with his Noble. I pass my turn and when he attacks, I do a surprise block with my Ambush Viper. He is not happy and I proceed to get out creatures and attack, he can’t come back and loses. He was a Warhammer player and because of that, he was around game stores a lot. He had a friend who taught him to play and he picked it up because he liked it.

My sixth opponent was Jason. I feel like I’m ready to fall asleep. The first game is pretty one sided, and he gets out Grizzly Outcasts and when I eventually manage to kill it, he Unburial Rites it. I kill it again. It comes back again. While I’m blocking it, he’s getting out more creatures, and I eventually can no longer block and die. Game two, he is making use of his unblockable Orchard Spirit to hit me, but I am also able to hit him. He has an empty graveyard and we both have quite a few creatures. I hit him with my devils play and I finish him with it on the next turn. Game three, I am on the play and keep a two land hand and don’t get a third until it was too late. Maybe I shouldn’t have sided out out that plains. He’s been playing since he learned about it in The Dark and had friends who played. He thinks it’s a cool game.

My seventh opponent is a 14 year old named Joshua who is a nice change of pace from my other opponents. He is the son of the head judge and learned to play when his dad introduced him, six years ago. He finds it fun, as do most people. We sit down and he asks me if I have any comedic value. I tell him that I usually do, but am rather tired right now. Nonetheless, I find myself joking with him soon in the time spent waiting for the game, and when he starts singing the Jeopardy song, I join him. We’re at the last table as everyone below us had already dropped. Luckily, while everyone else is cramped, we’ve got the whole table to ourselves. Game one, he plays, but has to mulligan and has one land. He gets out a creature (or maybe two), but it isn’t enough and I hold nothing back. By the time he gets more land it is two late. Game two is more in his favor as he gets me all the way to nine with his Stromkirk Noble and a couple of other creatures, but I can eventually keep it tapped with my Avacynian Priest and turn things around for the win.

My final opponent is also named Nick, but at this time, I am barely awake enough to play. He has a red/black deck and he plays out his corpse, but I play out my Voiceless Spirit. He gets out a Pariah and I kill it with my Blazing Torch. I play out my Avacynian Priest and Ironsmith and hit him twice with my spirit. He plays his Crossway Vampire, but when he attacks, I ambush it with my snake. I trade my Silverchase Fox with his corpse. He gets out Olivia and I lose. Game two, I go all out, hitting him with my humans, including my double Bonds of Faithed Unruly Mob. I am tired and want to end the game quickly. I know this was a bad move, but it was worth it to take a chance at a quick victory. Of course, he gets out a Gargoyle, after using other creatures to kill some of my humans. My mob is very strong, but it can’t attack. I get out more creatures, but he has a Rage Thrower. I attempt to hit him for enough that I can finish him with Devils Play, but he blocks and I die from Rage Thrower. Oh well, games over. I really should get more sleep or maybe more coffee, as playing to finish the game is not the playing to win I was aiming for. Anyways, Nick played since his brother taught him at age five and plays for the competition.

Oh well, day over. Time to get some rest. At least I got my sources.

10/24: Discount Draft

After going on a field trip to Mass MoCA, I went to the Relentless Dragon again for another Discount Draft. I get there and see the usual crew. This is getting repetitive, but it’s still fun. I get my usual Vanilla Fudge Drumstick and waited around for a while until it was time for the draft. 14 people: one pod of eight, one of six. They were calling the pod of eight first, naturally. We gather around. “Bryan Spellman.” My heart stops for a minute. That’s the guy from my second draft who I was barely able to beat by risking it all on the possibility of drawing Frost Titan. My whole attitude completely changes. I haven’t seen him since that tournament and I want to show him how much I’ve advanced since then. Weird that I really want to beat him or at least face him. Beating him is ideal, but either way, I don’t think he’s been to the store since July and I couldn’t stand not being paired up with him. At that point, I’m hoping more than anything to be in pod one, and boy do they make me wait. Anyways, I’m in the pod. First pack, I get a Bloodline Keeper, then I get passed a high priest. I end up going black/white and build my deck all by myself, without asking for any advice (I usually ask people not in my pod for suggestions, as I am still kind of a newbie). My past two tournaments here have more or less been to test certain kinds of decks, which I have learned from. This time, I have to win though. I know Bryan won’t lose, so that means that I can’t lose either.

I spend about twenty minutes agonizing over my deck before finally deciding to stick with it. I only have 16 lands, which is rare for me, but my mana curve is on the lower side with many two and three drops. After sleeving and shuffling my cards, they start the tournament and Ryan (employee) tells me that I'm up against Aaron. Jay (the store owner) says "Good luck, you'll need it." I say, "I know," and groan. Not that I've never beaten him before, but Aaron usually beats me. But this is different, I have to win or else I won’t get to face Bryan again. I’m on the draw and Aaron has to mulligan, I quickly get out my priest and my high priest, as well as another creature. He hasn’t played a creature yet, which is what I am waiting for (no pun intended). When he plays one, I play my Dead Weight on it and get out a 5/5 demon. I begin my assault and when he gets out a couple more creatures, he manages to block one of and kill one of my attackers, but as I have left the high priest and two others untapped, I make a second Demon and take the first game. I’m on the draw again game two, except am really nervous now and start making mistakes (I also make some mistakes on my notepad in marking damage in the wrong place. Luckily he is keeping track as well). He manages to get out Riot Devils and two Thraben Purebloods and my life is slowly decreasing. I can stop one per turn with my Avacynian Priest, but he is still hitting me. He has a Rally the Peasants in his grave, since he took out one of my creatures with it earlier and I know that I can’t let more than two attacks through, or I’ll be in a bad position. I get out Bloodline Keeper and start making 2/2s to block with, while I play more creatures to block normally with. Finally, he stops attacking and I am able to make enough Vampires to transform Bloodline Keeper. I pass the turn because I forget that my Vampires have flying, but he gets kind of annoyed and surprised at my not attacking. I wouldn’t have been able to finish him off, so I wanted to wait until Lord of Lineage untapped and I could OTK him, as opposed to take him down a lot and risk him getting a Nightbird’s Clutches or something that could hurt me. He gives up.

I wait around awhile wondering who I’ll have to beat next in order to face Bryan, who had just 2-0’d his opponent as well. I believe this is the reason that I find myself up against him in round. I relax a bit and get out of my have to win mode as it is too stressful. “You haven’t been here for a while,” I say. Turns out he’s from Denver. Now everything makes more sense. We talk for a minute and I realize that I have left my notepad, which is stressing me out. He is playing red/green/white with a splash of blue and is using a lot of werewolves, which he gets out quickly. I get out Avacynian Priest which lets me hold him off for a while, but I don’t expect him to play Angelic Overseer, which I can’t do anything about and can’t hold it off very long with the few fliers I have. I lose game one and the same starts to happen in game two, except I manage to get him down to just one human with my destruction spells. He has out an Avacyn’s Pilgrim and I am left with a few weak creatures. I launch an attack with my four creatures and he trades with one of them. I think he thought I had something up my sleeve, but to be honest, my only chance of winning was to get rid of the pilgrim and I had used my spells on his werewolves. Thanks to this move, I was back in the game and while he put up a fight, I was able to get out Bloodline Keeper and make enough creatures to transform him. I attacked with a few of my creatures, forcing him to block. I beat him next turn. Game three, I keep a two land hand, and while I get a third mana, I don’t get a fourth until I am faced with werewolves and an Angelic Overseer (indestructible with hexproof of course). I trade with one of the werewolves and Smite his Geist Honored Monk, but the Overseer kills me. We talk a little after the match and play again. Unfortunately, in the middle of the game, the next round starts.

I’m up against Chase, who is running white/blue. I’m in a good mood despite losing. Chase has quite a few fliers. He gets out his Chapel Geist, but I get one out too, unfortunately, he has cards like Claustrophobia to take care of mine while he hits me. I get out Creepy doll, but it can’t fly and with only a few fliers in my deck and none in my hand or on the field, I lose pretty easily. I side out my Creepy Doll for the white spell that kills a spirit or an enchantment, but unfortunately I don’t draw it. He gets out the spirit that gives other spirits +1/+1 and I use Bonds of Faith on it, but he keeps hitting me with his Voiceless Spirit. I get down pretty low and draw Avacynian Priest. I play it, but he plays Claustrophobia. I take more damage and when I play a creature to block with, he uses Silent Departure. I lose pretty quickly and easily. If nothing else, this game really shows the importance of fliers. Bryan wins the tournament and we do the backdraft. Despite getting 5^th, I still end up with a Skaab Ruinator and Gavony Township, so I suppose all is well. I ask Bryan when he plans to come back and he says whenever his work sends him up here again. He asks why and I smile and say that I intend to beat him.

Everyday I'm Shufflin': Last Friday Night

I find this kind of interesting. I couldn’t remember this game to well, but this makes me feel that I have improved. I found a blog post by my first opponent at the PTQ in Philadelphia.

“Round 1 NICK HATTWICK
He's GR with garruks horde and burn spells. i win game 1 because i was dead on board and attacked with everyone, but he didn't block correctly and just died. game 2 i curve out with griffin riders and griffins with stave off protection.
1-0”

While I don’t’ appreciate that he had to call me out with my full name to report that I sucked, I have to admit that that was a disaster. Well now I kind of remember what he was playing and would like to point out that my grammar is better than his. If we face again I will beat him. I haven’t been that bad since that tournament.

I also remember that one of my red opponents at the PTQ at TJ’s won one of his games with his Charmbreaker Devils, while I was at 14, and was able to stop me from blocking and power them to 14. It was one of my earlier games, but I forget who and if I mentioned that. I feel it important to note as I would like to have record of that. By the way, until now, I’ve remembered everything I wrote without anything to go off of other than the Planeswalker Points site, but I brought a notebook to the PTQ this weekend, and found that it’s a lot better than having to remember every tournament.

10/21: FNM

After school, I went to Larry’s again for another FNM and got an Undead Alchemist in my first pack and proceeded to go black/blue for zombies and removal and all the wonders of blue. Second pack, I opened a Garruk, and the guy next to me thought I was crazy for passing him a Stromkirk Noble. Despite Garruk not being my colors, my deck ended up being pretty sweet. My first opponent was Juan Mesa (ok, so I have to admit, I’m getting too many repeat names. While I don’t like the idea, I think I will start to help keep track of other players.) from Larry’s and the PTQ at TJ’s. I tell him that it’s time for our rematch, but he has gone with three colors and can’t really play anything, while I beat him up. Game two, he has quite a bit of land, but not too many creatures and my night terrors made that worse for him. I beat him to death again without a fight and went upstairs to report. I’ve stopped saying “good game” if it isn’t a good game, and I am sure Juan would agree with me that it was a pretty lame match. This is also the second time I’ve gone up to report and the shopkeeper has been shocked and “You beat Juan!?!” Just last time, I think it was a different Juan and a different shopkeep…

My second opponent was Marcus McDonald and he was running a black/white deck. He was a pretty cool guy and a good player. I lost game one fairly easily because he got out Bloodline Keeper (he never flipped it) and kept made some tokens to gain advantage. Eventually he equipped it and killed me in a few turns as I had no fliers. Game two, I’m winning and get him to six with Moan of the Undead and my Cellar Door, I get a lot of tokens. I have Murder of Crows and my transforming bat out and have a silent departure in my graveyard. He has just played an Avacynian Priest, and I have one chance to return his flier and have enough to overrun him provided he doesn’t have anything to stop it in his hand as he has mana open. I don’t notice this (ok, so I still kind of suck) and strengthen my own board position and pass the turn. Avancynian Priest can use its effect now, I don’t get another chance to win and he eventually kills me. Note to self. If you have a chance to win; TAKE IT!!!

My final opponent is Jim McLaughlin, who got his loss from the guy facing Marcus. To make things awesomer, me and Marcus are sitting next to each other across from Jim and the guy who beat him. This makes it even more intense as the only way for me to have a chance at second is for Marcus to win. Both of our matchers are important for me (along with Juan’s, but he is over across the room and his match isn’t as important. My opponent gets out two Vampire Interlopers and did some damage before I traded my bat with one of them. I got out a couple of Ghoulraisers and started to catch up. After a couple turns, we were both at ten. He hits me for two with his Interloper and uses Unburial Rites to revive a witch (the one with Morbid). I Silent Departure the witch and hit him for four. He plays his witch and hits me for two again. I draw a Blazing Torch, Silent Departure and hit him for four again. He plays Bonds of Faith on one of my zombies and plays his Witch again. I draw and play and equip Blazing Torch, tapping a Ghoulraiser for game. Game two, he gets out an interloper, and I play a creature, which he Bonds of Faiths. I play and equip my Blazing Torch to kill his creature after taking a little damage. I have out a Cellar Door and he plays Lantern Spirit. I play a bat and he taps out and attacks, but I don’t trade. I get out my Undead Alchemist and take a hit. I hit him with my Undead Alchemist and get a token. He hits me again and plays an Interloper, but I am able to kill it and hit him for six getting two more. He plays Dead Weight on my Undead Alchemist, but I respond with Cellar Door and get another two tokens. I swing with everything and he goes to twelve, blocking one with Lantern Spirit and returning it to his hand. The same happens on the next turn, and the turn after that, he loses. Naturally, I proceed to watch Juan and Malcomn lose, meaning that I won’t even come in the top three, so I leave. Oh well, I got a Garruk.

I’ll update with this weekend’s PTQ report within a couple of days

Everyday I'm Shufflin': JAM (Just Another Monday)

10/17: Discount Draft

I got home from school and once again found out that the place where I get my haircuts was closed, so I hung out at home for a while and then headed off. I went to the bank as I was running low on money and also since I wanted to get the Yu-Gi-Oh tins I had been putting off on getting. While I mainly play Magic, a friend of mine made Nationals with a Jurrac deck, which reminded me that I need to keep my Naturia deck up to date so I could meet him there. I figured since I hadn’t bought Yu-Gi-Oh cards for a while, I might as well just get the tins, so I could get some packs as well. The card I wanted three of (Pot of Duality) goes for about 12 a piece, and tins are twenty, so it made sense just to buy the tins. I plan to make Nationals this year, although I’ll worry about that later, as I just found out that the Regional I had planned on attending in November has been cancelled.

Anyways, I arrived at the Dragon a little bit early, signed up, and watched a Yu-gi-oh game going on between a guy I see there a lot using his Ojama deck. He appeared to be destroying a player using Fairies. There was also another guy with a Yubel based deck and I found another Naturia player, who I had met a couple weeks ago (although his was more based around swarming weaker Naturia and synchroing). After a little more waiting, the tournament started and I was in a seven man pod. We started to draft and when I got a Trepanation Blade, I thought it would be cool to try a mill-based deck. It wasn’t particularly mill-based, as its only mill were the blade and two of those blue 2/3s that mill one whenever a creature dies. I also had Kessig Cagebreakers, two Delver of Secrets, and a Civilized Scholor, along with one of each counter.

My first opponent was running a white green deck with a large amount of fliers. Game one, I was able to play out a few creatures quickly and got him down to six life left. I had an Outcast out, but I was milling myself since he had low life and I didn’t want to risk getting a card with Flashback. Unfortunately, he got out an Avacynian Priest, a doomed traveler, and an Angelic Overseer. I was able to kill the traveler and return the Priest to his hand, but unfortunately, I was down to six life as well and had no fliers. He attacked and give it +1/+1 and hexproof. Game one, lost. Game two, I was on the draw and had quite a bit of land, unfortunately, I couldn’t play anything until turn three and that something was a Civilized Scholar. Turn two, he played out Silverchase Fox. Turn two for me, nothing. I take two and he gets out a Voiceless Spirit. I play out my Scholar and he attacks. I’m at fourteen. I draw. I don’t want to use the scholar’s effect since all I have to discard is my cage breakers, but I do when he attacks and trade with his Fox. I play Forbidden Alchemy during his end step and get and play my Somberwald Spider. He Bonds of Faiths it and I lose soon after.

Round two, I have a bye and go to Target to get my tins. I get two Leviathan Dragon tins and one Wind-Up Zenmeister tin. I got an ultimate rare Tech Genus Halberd Cannon, which was pretty cool, but I don’t really see myself using it. I got back and challenged Trevor to a game, which I lost. We had a rematch, which was close, but then round three started. My opponent was playing a deck that was primarily Werewolves, and when I couldn’t play anything on turn two, his Shepard transformed and I found myself taking damage. I quickly went to eleven, as I couldn’t block his Shepard, but I managed to hold him off a while by casting two spells. Unfortunately, my ability to do so ran out, and he managed to get me to five with a trampler. I blocked what I could, and got him down to one with my Homicidal Brute. He had two creatures and so did I. I was at two with a Delver of Secrets. He had no fliers. Upkeep. Come on…nope. He plays Crossway Vampire. Game. Game two, I quickly got out all three of my flip cards and took him to ten. He played out some werewolves, and hit me a little before wiping the board with a Blasphemous Act. I played my Invisible stalker, which his him to 9, while I countered his cards, but unfortunately, he had an equipment that gave lifelink, and as soon as I could no longer counter, I knew I had lost. Sure enough, I lost. Not the best day, but my games could have been worse. Oh well, next time.

Everyday I'm Shufflin': FNM and States (side draft)

10/14: FNM

No school today due to PLPs, so I finally got to sleep in. I got up around noon, got on the computer for a little bit before I left and then left for PLPs. On the way back, I was going to get a haircut, but the place I go to was closed and I don’t like the barber because he always gives me a crew cut. My brother wanted a haircut, too, but was fine with the barber, so I got a doughnut and a large white hot chocolate (liking those lately) at Dunkin Donuts, while I waited for my brother. Got home, ate dinner (breaded pork, yum ^ ^) and headed to Larry’s again for FNM.

I arrived a few minutes before the tournament began and the organizer said that shipment of Innistrad hadn’t come in yet, so we were going to use one pack of Scars, one of Besieged, and one of New Phyrexia. I had been assuming that it would be M12, so I liked this a bit better. With Innistrad, I’m starting to see why people don’t like drafting Core Sets. Unfortunately, I had only done one draft with Scars and it was at Joe’s house, and didn’t know much about Besieged or New Phyrexia, so I was scared, yet excited.

I ended up drafting a red/black deck, with a Spellskyte and a Hex Parasite. My first opponent was the girl who I mentioned from last FNM. Her name is Arianna (although I’m not sure I spelled that right) and she was playing an artifact heavy black deck. She used a one-drop artifact that gave the equipped creature +2/+2, but made it so it couldn’t block. Game 1, we went back and forth playing creatures, until I used Life’s Finale and made use of the hand advantage I had thanks to my Phyrexian Rage I had in order to win. Game two didn’t go so well, and I ended up mulliganing and keeping a hand full of lands. I got creatures, so it wasn’t too bad, but I had underestimated her equips and ended up getting destroyed. Game three went more like the first game. She would play creatures and I would use spells like Grasp of Darkness or Shatter to kill them. Eventually, I played Scourge Servant and was able to get a few hits with it (which she got a -1/-1 counter on). She let herself get 6 poison counters, so she could do damage to me, but at that point, when she played a creature to block with, I killed it with Gut Shot and pumped the Scourge Servant with Mutagenic Growth for the win.

Game two, I was against someone whose name I can’t remember, he was tall and was a pretty cool guy. He was playing a red/black deck with those artifact Gideon’s Avengers. He got me down pretty far game one, but I was able to Exsanguinate for 13, and managed to kill his creatures. Despite this major blow to his life, I ended up killing him with my Ichor Rats. He was able to hold me off for a while, but it was ultimately not enough. Game two was a lot closer, he got out two artifact Gideon’s Avengers and was able to hold me off for a while. He also had a card that gave him one life for each creature and then one for each artifact. Despite the fact that I had been hitting him, he managed to gain fifteen and go back up to twenty-five, which was annoying as I was holding Exsanguinate, so I used my creatures to beat him back down a bit. I realized that my life was getting low as well, but also realized that he had more than one life gain card. Regardless, I had to use it, which took him down to one. I was holding gut shot, although I realized that it would likely only hurt me, so I saved it. Sure enough, he had the life card, and brought himself back up to seven. I couldn’t get my attacks by him, as he had too many creatures, so I had to Life’s Finale, but unfortunately we were running low on cards and I had less than him. To make matters worse he played Red Sun’s Zenith and took me down to one. I figured I had no chance as he now had four cards in his deck and we both had no creatures (apparently none in our hands either). I drew Mortis Dogs and played it, passing the turn. He drew and played a mountain. 3 cards left. Again, I felt nervousness for every draw. I attacked, taking him to three and passed the turn. He drew. Mountain. Game.

My final opponent was Adam, again, who was my final opponent last time as well. He was running green/black/blue infect and it was really fast. Games one and two were basically the same, he’d play creatures and I’d be unable to trade with them. I’d have a plan and then he’d play made me discard two cards, while he drew two (that card is really annoying). Finally, once I had a sufficient number of poison counters, he’d play a card that gave me three more. I lost 0-2. I came in third, as one of his other opponents had better tie breakers than me. I believe I have a rival of sorts. I actually did pretty well for not having played two of the three sets before, and, according to one of the people there, States should have side events. I plan to go tomorrow. Speaking of which, it is tomorrow. I’m finishing writing this at 1:57 AM. Well, off to bed.

10/15: States side draft

My main reason I wanted to was to see if Rob Dougherty had any advice for my senior project. Since my mom was going down there anyways, I spent more than enough time at States. I don’t actually have a standard deck, so I couldn’t enter the tournament, but I did sign up for a side draft that took about four rounds to start. I saw quite a few familiar faces there and when I was talking to a regular from Pandemonium named (I don’t think by his parents though) Flez (or maybe two zs), another guy walked up (I want to say his name is Sam, but I don’t know why, so I may be entirely wrong) and asked us “why did the hipster burn his tongue?” This joke made me laugh for some reason, “because he ate his dinner before it was cool.” I sent myself a text with this joke, and wondered who texted me a minute later >_<. Pandemonium had a booth there as well and a lot of people were playing their dice. I saw Rob there but didn’t ask at first as I didn’t know what specifically I would ask.

The side draft started and I really wasn’t on my game today as I decided to try and get as many werewolves as I could. I won the get the most werewolves game, but I think I must have tired myself out from all of the drafting that I’ve been doing, but I made a deck of twenty creatures and four combat tricks. My first opponent, on the other hand, had werewolves, wolves, burn, and equipment. With all creatures on my side, an equipment that gives first strike and power kind of hurt me. He went down to five, mulliganing first game, and he still beat me. I had too many creatures, but he got out first strikers. To make matters worse, his creatures were mostly wolves or werewolves, so my Moonmist didn’t help much. Game two, he went down to five again, but this time he was on the play. I was able to overwhelm him and hoped that he would be unlucky again. He was on the play again but he wasn’t. On the other hand, I only got one land and mulliganed to six. This was like the first game, but I got destroyed more. My creatures didn’t do too much against his equipped creatures. Oh well. I didn’t enter a second draft and hung around a while longer. I talked to Rob, who mentioned that other people had written papers before on the economics of Magic before, but he seemed surprised that mine was actually about winning and getting better at the game. Then again it’s not really going to paper either. It’s a research project in which I plan to learn what it takes to win and then win. I just wish it was as easy as I make it sound. On a side note, frozen custard milkshakes are freaking awesome :D

Everyday I'm Shufflin': PTQ Milford

Ok, so I wasn’t able to get around to it earlier due to getting home late and work, but I attended FNM at Larry’s Comics on Friday and I attended the PTQ at TJ’s on Saturday.

10/7: FNM

I drafted a red/white deck again, with some differences. I had four Ironsmith and a Dearly Departed, as well as my awesome first pick, Devil’s Play. My first opponent gave me the toughest match. His name was Juan and he was playing a blue/black deck. I felt really secure in my first game, but he ended up playing out Undead Alchemist, which I couldn’t get rid of. Soon after, he played cellar door. I got him down pretty low, but ultimately, his zombies were too much for me. Game two, it was time for him to fear the wrath of Village Ironsmith, as I quickly had multiple out, followed by Tormented Pariah. He was low on creatures, and I took the second game fairly easily. Game three, I had a pretty good hand, except that I was short one mana. If I didn’t draw the land I needed, I would be destroyed. I was on the draw and luckily I did. He quickly played out cellar door and kept trying to mill me, but it ended up being one land after another. Soon we had a standoff of creatures (he had one zombie token), and he had his Alchemist once again. In the end I was able to overpower him and take the game, but the whole result would have changed if he’d gotten more than one creature. On a side note, every time he used cellar door’s effect, I felt terrified. This was good, as I’m not usually on my game, immediately.

Round two, I was up against a guy named Kevin who played a deck that was red/white and had quite a few humans in it. This was a problem as Spare from Evil was not very useful against him, but I was still able to take him down quite low, before I found one of my creatures bound and my Dearly Departed exiled by Fiend Hunter. I played Devil’s Play to get back Dearly Departed, but soon realized that I could have just killed him. Good thing it had flashback. Game two, I kept a bad hand and ended up losing without much fight from my end. Game three, I quickly played out my wolves and swung at him, using my Crossway Vampires to prevent his creatures from blocking (he was slower at getting out creatures and mine were better). I won pretty easily.

I went upstairs and asked who the other 2-0 was, and found out that it was someone named Adam G. So I found him, and saw that he was playing a girl whose name I cannot remember, but I remember that she was pretty good from watching her play a game last time. It ended up being a draw due to time, but I was scared that I might have to face one of them. Anyways, she was up against an onslaught of creatures, including a Thraban Militia with two Skeletal Grimaces on it. He grinned and showed me that he had a grimace in hand. The girl, whose name I can’t check, as I haven’t played her, blocked with everything to stay alive, but had nothing left to survive the next turn. Round three, I was up against Humans. I have two Bonds of Faith and two Spare from Evil, and not enough humans to make the bonds worth it. I had both Spare from Evils in hand and he had a creature with two skeletal grimaces. I lost. Game two, I sided out the Spares and the Bonds, and added some burn spells. However, this time, I was faster as I had two Village Ironsmith in hand and was ready with a Tormented Pariah. My creatures were just too fast and strong. I knew four Ironsmith would come in handy. They become 3/1s with first strike, when flipped. I won easily and my Ironsmiths were ready for me once again in game three, which went basically the same way. I won the tournament and got eight packs.

10/8: PTQ

My dad opened my door and said “it’s time to go,” and I got up quickly. I brushed my teeth and ran downstairs to get my clothes out of the dryer. Unfortunately, I forgot to switch them and they were still soaking wet, so I went to my room to scrounge around, when I saw the purple dress shirt that I had needed for a play a year back. I put that on, along with some black dress pants, and then realized that I probably looked kind of silly, so I threw on my black trench coat and headed off to PTQ. My dad went with, since my parents didn’t want me to drive that far on my own yet. Once down, I registered and then went with my dad to a Brazilian bakery across the street, where I got something that I refer to as a “chicken thing.” It has a name, but I never really learned it, as “chicken thing” was easier to remember. Anyways, I went back over to TJ’s Collectables (the venue and runners of the tournament) and browsed their store, seeing things that brought back memories, like the Southern Islands collection that I had wanted for a while when I was little. I had some of the Japanese cards from it, but the only English one I ended up getting was a Slowking that I traded for with another kid on a plane ride to Florida.

The tournament started and I ended up with a rather interesting pool. It had a ton of black, but sadly a lot of it was cards that seemed like they would be useless. Considering I didn’t have much good in red, my three bump in the night didn’t seem likely to be a wise choice, and Maw of the Mires didn’t seem very helpful either. Despite about half the pile seeming unhelpful, I did still have some good creatures, including two bats and a Bloodgift demon. The other color that seemed to be strong was white, which had a Dearly Departed and an Angelic Overseer. Sadly, I was very short when it came to humans, but nonetheless, strong fliers were good in sealed. I also had two Voiceless spirit and ended up playing black/white. When I think about it more, it might have been good to try running green as well, since I had two pilgrims and a couple other humans/werewolves, but I didn’t want to take any more chances with mana screw. Sealed is slower, however, so I will try not to be afraid of splashing a color should the opportunity present itself.

My first opponent was playing a white/blue spirit deck. The problem with this was that almost all of his creatures had flying, and I had too much mana, and was unable to draw enough creatures to hold off him off. He kept returning my Bloodgift Demon to my hand and had Alabster, getting him back any dead spirits. Eventually, I didn’t have enough to block with and fell to Rally the Peasants. On a side note, I noticed something interesting. Not that this is some sort of incredible feat or anything, but it is a step up for me. When calculating my turns and how much damage I could do, I accounted for Moment of Heroism, which I suspected that he had due to leaving his mana open, and Rally the Peasants, which I was expecting as he had a mountain. I noticed this throughout the tournament as well, I’m finally getting the hang of reading people. The only problem was that I didn’t really avoid these and sort of just fell into them as if I hadn’t expected them. Game two, we both got out a lot of creatures, however, he had lantern spirit and the ability to return cards to my hand. Once he played out a couple of stronger fliers, I was forced to block, leaving me with a creature shortage. I lost, 2-0. His name was Carl, by the way, and he was a pretty nice guy. Still, this put me at a disadvantage.

Round two was sort of the opposite of this. My opponent was named Matt, and was a pretty nice guy, but the games went fairly quickly. He was playing black/green, and had Screaming Banshee, which hit me a couple of times, before I killed it with Victim of Night and started using my fliers to kill him. This won me game one, and game two started out the same way, except he got out a bat and we both got out Falkenrath Vampires (funny how that works ^ ^). I ended up killing the bat in combat, and he played Somberwald Spider. I played Victim of Night, and game two was secured. He dropped after this, and told his friend (boyfriend? I’m not sure to be honest, but it seemed like it) that there was someone who was tormenting him and that they needed to go set him straight. Shame bullying happens at Magic tournaments, and I was kind of wondering what the deal was, but at the same time, it wasn’t really my business, so I walked around for a little bit, arousing suspicion in my black trench coat.

My third opponent was named Jesse and was playing red/black/blue if I remember correctly. He quickly played out Village Ironsmith, which I did my best to stop from transforming before finally Dead Weighting it, he also had the 1/5 defender that becomes a 5/5 that must attack. He got me down quite far before I could block and, at that point, he started using his Stensia Bloodhall in order to kill me a couple turns later. Game two went similarly, with me falling once again to the Bloodhall. No chance at top eight anymore, but I’m not dropping as I want Planeswalker Points, and there is prize support for top eighty.

Round four, I was up against a guy named Sean who showed up late and got a game loss. He was playing red and I forget the other color, but I believe it was white. Anyways, he had his fair share of wolves as well, and I couldn’t stop his onslaught of creatures, causing me to lose game two. Game three, he was mana screwed and found himself up against a Stalking Vampire and a Bloodgift Demon. But he went out with a bang and played Curse of the Nightly Hunt on my Vampire. Match set. He left and I still have the Curse of the Nightly Hunt…

People were dropping and I was winning, so I moving up the tables. My next opponent was named Josh and he gave me a rather tough time. I regret not taking small notes after each game, so as to remember what happened, but I’ll do my best. He asked how many rares I was using and I said, “two,” I think. I can’t remember his deck too well, except that I believe that it was black. He took game one, as I couldn’t get the mana to play my big creatures before I had obviously lost. I gave up and didn’t play my Bloodgift Demon. Game two, I was able to play out my creatures fast enough, and while he had bats, they weren’t enough to take Voiceless Spirit. Game three, he was manaflooded, while I only had three mana along with two of my bombs. I hit him slowly with my spirits until I finally drew the mana to play Bloodgift. He didn’t have enough options and lost fairly easily.

Opponent number six was a tough one. He was red and white and had a deadly combo going with his spirit tokens and Rage Thrower. Game one, I wasn’t so scared of this, but I underestimated red’s burn ability, forgetting about volley’s morbid form. I blocked when at five life and that was game. Game two, he got out Rage Thrower, and despite my attempts to survive, it ended with me either taking four points of damage by letting his attacks through or taking more by blocking. Damn, this was going a lot worse than I had hoped for.

My seventh opponent was a different Juan from Larry’s and was playing red yet again. Red seems to be a common theme with my opponents. I didn’t really get to see the extent of his deck as he ended up getting manascrewed twice and losing within 10 minutes. Speaking of red, my eighth opponent was a girl with a red/white deck focused around humans. She had Reckless Waif, Village Ironsmith, and the defender for werewolves, but she kept forgetting to transform them. While I technically should have, I didn’t remind her, as I was having enough trouble dealing with her other humans that would create spirit tokens if I killed them. She finally realized that her werewolves transformed, and I held out a while longer before getting overwhelmed. Game two was similar, except that this time I was able to hold her off a while longer thanks to my Village Bellringer and my Ghostly Possession. Unfortunately, these just prolonged my defeat and I died more slowly. I was now 4-4.

My last opponent was named Sean. I felt like I was going to fall asleep right then and there. I didn’t though, but that was not a fun match. I don’t know how I would have survived if I had made it to the top eight. Sean was playing a blue/green deck that had a lot of spirits. It seemed similar to the first guy I faced, and it went similar. I couldn’t handle his fliers, which were strong compared to mine, and he took the first game fairly easily. I was able to make a comeback game two, as I was able to play out my creatures fairly quickly, and had the removal I needed to handle his, as he was sort of manascrewed, he didn’t have many cards to play. I forced my way through as fast as possible and took game two. Game three, I also had a good enough hand, except I may have kept a hand with too many lands. Regardless, I was able to get good board presence and killed his Garruk shortly after he played it, by attacking. Unfortunately, like game one, I was unable to handle his fliers and other creatures, especially since he was able to return my creatures with blue. I ended up losing and getting 77^th place. I got my three packs, waited for my ride and left. That could have gone better.