The Bio of a Nick

My name is Nick (who would have guessed!?!) and I am kind of bored right now. I just got back from a trip to Philadelphia yesterday, and slept in, accidentally missing school today (which was fine because I was (and am) sick, anyways). Hopefully I will not be sick tomorrow. Anyways, today was rather boring, and so I decided that I would start a blog to track my progress. At what exactly? Magic: the Gathering, of course. Overall, I would say it's the greatest TCG, and many would agree with me.

Anyways, I finally got my license and a job and decided to play more Magic, which I originally avoided for the most part due to my limited money and the fact that sets rotate out. While I didn't like the thought of my cards being worthless two years down the road (although I realize that isn't entirely accurate), Magic was everything I wanted in a game: fun to play, lots of players, something to strive for, and high stakes tournaments. I now had the money to spend, and a means of getting there, so I decided that I would start playing more and get better, to the point where I can compete in the Pro Tour, and hopefully win. If all goes well, then you should be hearing about it from this blog.

Anyways, while I've never tried to get competitive, I have been playing Magic on and off for a while. I was very young when I got my first deck. My grandparents got it for me when I was 6 or 7, and it was the Slither deck (http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg_tcg_prophecy_themedeck#deck2). I played with it a little, and then lost interest. Years later, when I was in sixth grade, my parents got me a deck for my birthday, since they thought I needed to outgrow Yugioh. So, I got the 8th edition starter set and my dad got a Mirrodin deck that was called Little Bashers (I think). Sadly, I didn't really have any friends that played, so I lost interest. I didn't pick up my cards again for a year, but when I got into 7th grade, I switched schools, and found more people who played Magic. This was around the time of Ravnica, and I grew very fond of the Izzet guild, particularly Niv-Mizzet. Unfortunately, this quickly crumbled since the Magic Choice Block (a block where magic players met and played) stopped happening, and when someone who was quitting Yugioh offered me a bunch of rare cards for my mostly common magic cards, I happily accepted.

Then in 9th grade, my friend got me 2 white magic decks for my birthday, one of which was from Tenth Edition and had Chao Mano, and the other one was based around knights with Flanking. This was around Lorwyn time, and I quickly discovered Merfolk, which I ended up trading my white cards for (I still have most of them and am debating on making a legacy deck once I'm prepared to buy Aether Vials and Force of Wills). Of course, my Merfolk deck sucked as I thought they were supposed to be based on milling the opponent. At the time I didn't realize they were supposed to attack. Soon after that, I entered my first Magic tournament. Me and my bro went to the Shadowmoor prerelease, where I got all of the dark Merfolk, and where we got destroyed in a two-headed giant sealed. From then on, I played on and off, although I didn't really go to any more tournaments, and rarely got new cards. The next tournaments I went to were the Scars of Mirrodin prerelease and the release event, where I went 1-2 and 2-1-1. I drafted at my friends house some as well, and finally decided to make a Tempered Steel deck, which was pretty awesome. Soon after that, M12 came out and a week or so after that, I started going to more tournaments.

Most of the tournaments I entered were drafts, and I started off, trying to draft a green-black deck. It didn't work very well, as it had no bomb or really any way to win for that matter, and I went 1-2 (got paired up and won my last round thanks to that black mage that gives things death touch). I didn't really like that score, so I started browsing the internet learning more about M12 and looking at articles from Channel Fireball and Star City Games. I still was uncomfortable, so I decided to go with what I knew how to play. I easily made up for my loss with the next draft however, when I got passed a frost titan, after deciding to go blue, needless to say, this turned out very well, since I had 3 merfolk looter and 4 mana leak. Luck was cerainly on my side as I got the color I was most used to. Pulling a Gideon in the second pack made me decide to go blue-white. In my first match I faced a guy who traveled about an hour with his son (I think they were taking a short vacation), and faced a red deck that had Chandra the Fire-Brand. Needless to say, when faced with both Gideon and Frost Titan (as well as Serra Angel) he didn't really stand a chance. In the second match, I ended up facing Inferno Titan, because I stupidly mana leaked two demonic tutors (hey, I was and still am kind of a noob), and didn't have a counter when he actually played the big card. So he beat me with Inferno Titan. Game 2, he didn't get Inferno Titan, and I played and beat him with Frost Titan, and game 3, we both killed each others titans, but I played Gideon and won.

The last match I had was against someone who was supposedly pretty good. He came there clearly expecting to win, and had a rather high rating he needed to hold on to in order to get 3 byes at Grand Prix Pittsburgh. This scared me, because I was not particularly good. Game one, I managed to barely slip by with Gideon, although I was destroyed in Game Two along with Gideon. Game3, I was cornered. He had enough creatures to attack me with to finish me, and I had no chance of winning if I didn't draw Frost Titan right then and there. Unfortunately for him, I did, although since he was a good sport we reported it as his win so he could keep his byes. I still got the first pick in the back draft though, and chose Chandra.

I continued going every monday and I friday, determined to get better. I had mixed results, ranging from second to last to second place at my local game store, and getting completely destroyed in the side events at SCG Boston. But I didn't plan to give up. I was and still am determined to get better. I've been told multiple times now that I'm going to lose a lot before I start winning, although I still dislike losing so much. I had a goal out of this, however. When I started these drafts, I did so with the intention of winning either a GPT or a PTQ at Pro Tour Philadelphia.

School started last week, with me looking forward to Philadelphia all week. Finally the end of the week came and I went to Philadelphia, ready for the PTQ...where I went 0-4 because of misplays, which tends to happen when I'm excited and dropped to enter the Grand Prix. Somehow I managed to play perfectly (which never happens), I didn't regret any moves, and actually didn't get particularly excited either. I ended up going 6-1 with a Green-White deck, and won three byes at a Grand Prix of my own. I loved the progression of the summer, since it had started with me beating a Green-White deck and a guy who was preparing for a Grand Prix with three byes in his possession, and ended with me getting third in a Grand Prix trial with Green-White and getting my own three byes.

Of course, that's not the end of my Magic career. The three byes pretty much force me to enter a Grand Prix in 2012, and with States and the PTQ season coming soon, there's so much I want to achieve. I'm also rather liking the new Planeswalker Points system. Right now, I am a level 18 Adept, continuing my journey to become an Archmage.