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.