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.

Everyday I'm Shufflin: The End of M12

Return from Philadelphia.

9/5: Discount Draft

We got back just in time for me to turn around and go to the Relentless Dragon for a discount draft. My parents say I’ve got a problem, I say I’m getting a head start on my senior project. I’m not going to let up on the tournaments as I’ve been told many times that the best way to get better. I go green/black, which is a color combination that I have only used once. That was my first M12 draft. I face Nathan again and he takes game one with his red/black deck. Combining Grave Diggers with Goblin Arsonists and Fireslingers is a pretty awesome combo, and I go down fairly easily. Game two starts, and I manage to gain the upperhand by being able to play stronger creatures to make up for a lack of speed, damaging him more than he can damage me. I forget if I ended up using Overrun or not, but I ended up winning. Game 3, turn 3: Dungrove Elder. His burn spells won’t work on it. 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, I was playing other creatures as well, and soon Dungrove Elder had Trollhide on it. I also had a Vastwood Gorger with Trollhide. He managed to hold me off for a while, but, eventually, he wasn’t able to hold me off anymore and lost.

Match two, I was up against a guy with a blue/white deck with named Joshua, who I had never faced before, but know now that he is pretty good, and is likely better than I am, although I haven’t faced him since then, so I may have improved enough. Anyways, he wins game one with his fliers. His whole deck is pretty much fliers and I only have a couple of spiders, so he eventually finds a way to deal with them and win. My second game, I am able to get out creatures quickly and eventually lead up to a Sengir Vampire (foil), which leads to a standstill between his fliers and my Sengir and couple of other creatures. I am able to slowly hit him, because I have an Onyx Mage which basically makes him not want to block or attack with too many creatures. He doesn’t have too many fliers yet, and I eventually win. Game 3, excellent, I have Sengir Vampire, a bunch of lands, and maybe a Greater Basilisk. I figure I’ll keep it and draw the rest of the creatures I need later. Since I can’t play a creature until Sengir, and he just returns that to my hand, I lose without even being able to put up a fight. Keeping a hand with nothing you can cast for less than five is a bad idea.

Match three, I’m up against another new guy named Robert. I remember that Joshua had walked over to him last round and was really surprised that he lost a round. At this point, I was kind of worried. Joshua was better than I was, so for him to be surprised that someone took a loss was kind of surprising, especially since I had built a very slow deck. We started. He was playing a black/white deck, and immediately thought back to my black/white deck from my first sealed tournament at Pandemonium. I hoped that maybe all white/black decks were bad, but this was a stupid thought and I knew it. I didn’t get to see the full extent of his deck, but it Child of Night and various other cheap creatures, which he was able to pull out quicker than I could get my five drops. When I finally did manage to get something out, he would kill it with a removal spell, and I got destroyed twice in a row. I’m facing new people, which is cool, and I did manage to beat Nathan, who I hadn’t previously beaten, which was also pretty awesome. Still, I would have preferred a higher score. Of course, this was my fault for building such a slow deck in a fast format…

9/9: FNM

My brother, Matt, decided to come with me to this one. It was his second magic tournament, with the first one being a two-headed giant sealed tournament at the Shadowmoor prerelease. We got destroyed there. Anyways, we ended up in different pods, and I ended up going green/black again, but then I got an Oblivion Ring in third pack, when I had already taken an Aegis Angel early on. I had two Rampant Growths and a Birds of Paradise, so when I proceeded to get an Oblivion Ring passed to me, I knew that I would be splashing white. Green/black with a Splash of white, I chose to go against the suggestions I was getting from people, and splashed white, even though it seemed risky. Having those Oblivion Rings saved me from situations that I would have lost otherwise, and since I lacked bombs, having Aegis Angel was very useful at times. The other bomb I had was a Pentavus.

I was up against someone named James. He was wearing white and had a white baseball cap. Anyways, my first game went horribly, with me drawing all three of my plains quickly and having no black, with a hand full of black. I don’t know why I kept that hand, but I did. Anyways, I couldn’t play many of my cards, and so I got destroyed first game. Game two, I had a lot of mana, but as usual with green/black, a lot of my creatures cost more, so he was able to get out creatures faster, and again, he was an opponent with fliers. I know he had red, and I’m pretty sure that his other color was blue. He had fairly strong creatures and fliers, and my only defense was a Birds of Paradise, which I wanted to keep for mana. I took damage. I was able to play out Aegis Angel, but that would probably die to Chandra’s Outrage, a mana leak, or another removal spell. Additionally, I was at low life, and he had Stormblood Berserkers out. Playing out Aegis Angel would require tapping my bird for mana, which would means that I wouldn’t have enough to block both attacks and would probably lose. I played out a basilisk instead, and lost, but at least I survived the turn. I played a few games with my bro, who hadn’t played the set before, and so it was his first time seeing Pentavus in action. Afterwards, I took on Trevor, who I believe was going black/green. I cannot remember for sure, though, but I recall him having a vampire with lifelink, which I trumped by making Child of Night invincible with Aegis Angel. I won 2-0, this time, and did so fairly quickly. Both games were pretty much stalemates, or with me in a slight lead until I played a bombs. Poor guy had to face Aegis Angel and Pentavus.

My last game was against a guy named Mark, who I had never played before, but had won against my first opponent. It was an eleven man pod, so he was kind of bothered that he had no chance at getting first place (since the winner of the other two 2-0’s would have better tie-breakers. He had a godly deck, supposedly, with an Inferno Titan and a Jace. It was a red/blue deck, but it was mostly red and was very fast. He took me down pretty far the first game, and when I was finally prepared to try and turn things around, he powered up one of his creatures and gave it flying so that I failed to block it and lost. The second game started, and I was able to get some creatures out, so I didn’t lose as much life (and also so I could take some of his). He started to get the upper hand, but then I played Pentavus, which allowed me to stop his attacks and deal more damage with the tokens. Unfortunately, he managed to take control of it, so I created four tokens before it left. Then I realized that he could just remove the last counter and kill it, giving him a token. I didn’t think about this beforehand, and should have just removed the last counter when I had it. It was still sort of a stalemate, but we were both low on life. Finally, I played Aegis Angel, I was able to gain the upperhand. He couldn’t get rid of it next turn, and I could block his attacks. Since I had more creatures then he did, I was able to use one or two to attack, while keeping the rest open for blocks. Soon after, I was able to swing out for games, since he wasn’t drawing any burn. I was amazed I had actually made it to game three, and was happy to get an Oblivion Ring, hoping to save it for Jace or Inferno Titan when they came. I was quick to get out creatures, and was dealing damage faster than he was. I got out Aegis Angel and eventually used the Oblivion Ring to get rid of one of his possible blockers, to take him down really low. Since he wasn’t able to get rid of my creatures, they killed him a couple turns later. It was kind of interesting. The only person to beat me was James, who only lost to Mark, who only lost to me. It’s a circle. On a side note, I am very glad he didn’t get his bombs in any of those three games. ^ ^

9/12: Discount Draft

I found myself with a blue/white deck, once again. I believe it was a pretty good deck, although I was up against Brian once again. Time to get him payback, for all of the times he beat me (well, I won once, but still…). Anyway, he has a godly deck that is mono-white, and makes great use of guardian’s pledge. He has a lot of fliers, and I am pretty much screwed. He 2-0’s me. The games start off fairly even, but the moment we get into combat, he guardian’s pledges and I am at a large disadvantage. Oh well. With my typical blue/white deck, I am able to win. Azure Mage definitely helps. I win the next two matches, but to be honest, I can’t really remember them in detail. Nothing particularly interesting happens and there are no intense moments, just me kicking ass with blue/white. Brian goes 3-0 as expected, and he has amazing tiebreakers even though that isn’t really necessary. Everyone who was 2-1 got their 1 from Brian, so that was pretty awesome. Only one person actually got a win on Brian, and he was the guy who came in second. I got third. Not too bad. I wish I could go more into detail on my two wins, but there was nothing that stuck with me from this tournament regarding those games. Blue/white just feels so natural.

9/16: FNM

Friday rolls around, and I’m back for another day of FNM. I’m up against Aaron once again and I have a blue/green deck. We start, and I get a hand that I’m having trouble deciding whether or not to keep. I have lands of both colors and two Azure Mages. I decide to keep it, and I do not regret it. I play out my first one and use it to block his Goblin Arsonist. He is playing red and another color that I cannot remember. I probably shouldn’t have done that, but oh well. I play my second one, and it stays. It allows me to draw cards when I don’t have anything else to play, and I eventually win. The second game goes similarly and I 2-0 him, thanks to Azure Mage and Overrun. My second match, I’m up against Chase once again. I forget how this match goes, but I know I lose. My final match, I’m up against a kid who is probably in his early teens or maybe a little younger. Aaron just beat him, and I felt kind of bad. He had a blue/white deck and wasn’t too bad. I was kind of surprised that he actually managed to get off Griffin Rider with a griffin, but it didn’t really matter since I had my crown of empires. Thanks to my Azure Mage (and I believe I had a Jade Mage as well), and I then used Overrun (I think I used it both games) and won. It was sadly pretty one sided and I felt bad 2-0ing him, but a win is a win I guess.

9/19: Discount Draft

I went blue and white again as usual and ended up against Chase first round. Chase was playing a mill deck, which was definitely good for him this round, since my deck was fairly control based and couldn’t do very much to fight him once he got his mesmerists out. I had quite a few counters, but at first I didn’t think it would be worth mana-leaking a mesmerist, instead of playing a creature. It turned out, that most of his cards were low cost, and by the time I could play a mana leak, he could pay three. Game one was close, and I was just a couple damage off lethal, but I got milled. Game two, he didn’t get erasures, I ended up forcing him to block with his mesmerist, and soon after killed him. Game three, I got out Gideon’s Lawkeeper, Grand Abolisher, and Crown of Empires, thinking he was screwed. He mind controlled the Abolisher, forcing me to double block it next turn, which cost me my lawkeeper and I basically had no chance of fighting back. He started playing creatures, and quickly won.

I got a bye for round two and ended up against a guy who was playing a red/white deck. I thought I had the game for sure. Game one, I was playing out creatures like crazy and using Jace’s Archivist to keep gaining advantage. He played Day of Judgement, but I quickly made up the difference. I was at 14 or so and attacked him with all of my creatures including a Gideon’s Avenger that I had +7/+7 or so, taking him to one. I figured there was nothing he could do. He took control of it with act of treason and swung for game. Had I left even one creature untapped, I would have won, but I got cocky and left myself wide open. I really need to stop doing that and I am pissed at myself. I regain my careful attitude and take game two easily, but am unprepared for a Volcanic Dragon with swiftfoot boots on game three. I had already used the counters I drew and now I had no way to counter it or even target it. I was low on creatures and he also had a Bonebreaker Giant, so I lost soon after. I was pissed at myself for getting so cocky. I assumed that I would win and even felt bad that I was going to destroy him. I let my guard down at the wrong time and I couldn’t make up for it. I have never felt worse after a tournament. I didn’t lose because he was a good player, I lost because I wasn’t.

9/23: FNM

I drafted blue/green once again and ended up playing against someone who I had been talking to alot, but hadn’t actually played named Anthony. While we were drafting, he told me that he had had godly luck with getting Grave Titans during drafts, and sure enough, I found myself up against a Grave Titan. We start playing, and after a little bit, he taps 6. Grave Titan. I lose soon after. The advantage Grave Titan gives is especially deadly in limited, and the best thing I can do is to return it to his hand. Game two, however I am prepared and copy it with my Phantasmal Image. Unfortunately, he still has a bunch of other creatures and more life. Then he plays Stonehorn Diginitary (he is black and white) preventing me from getting more tokens. He also has a Rune-scarred Demon, which gave him easier access to Grave Titan. Anyways, I didn’t have a chance. His creatures flew more, were faster, and I didn’t really have any bombs of my own (well, Phantasmal Image in a way). I had a couple of ways to tap them, but in the end, there were just too many. I lost.

Game two, I was up against Mark (the guy with the Inferno Titan and the Jace from a couple weeks ago). He is playing a red/white deck. He gets out a couple of creatures and I’m worried at first, but soon enough I play out my Stampeding Rhino. A little bit later, I have used Divination and two Hunter’s Insights on my rhino, plus seven overall. He puts up a good fight, but thanks to my immense card advantage, I end up winning. He plays out Pentavus, but I unsummon it and finish him off. Game two, he plays out an Arbalest Elite. Anyways, I played Aether Adept and returned it to his hand. He played it again, so I played Phantasmal Image copying Aether Adept (I almost copied his card, but then realized it required white) and returned it again. I was able to take him down quite far, but soon after I found myself relatively low as well. He got out more creatures, and was able to hit me some as well, but I had more creatures. Eventually, he played out Pentavus, which I just tapped with my Crown. I tapped another one of his creatures, and had enough to swing out for a win. Really bad move on his part. I then played my last game against Aaron whose deck I cannot remember for sure. It was fairly quick and I got 2-0’d. I believe he was playing black or maybe it was red, along with another color. It was quick at getting out creatures, and I couldn’t keep up, and didn’t have a chance. Oh well, I didn’t feel too badly, though. Despite going 1-2, I still felt fairly successful, as I knew all of my opponents were good.

9/24: Innistrad Prerelease

I got off work and headed down to Pandemonium ready for the prerelease, ready to play Innistrad for my first time. I’d been playing M12 since I started playing in tournaments this summer, and wasn’t sure what it would be like to switch sets. Anyways, there was no back draft, so I couldn’t resist taking a few of the rares that were passed my way, since I wanted them, and it ultimately cost me. I was playing a red/green/black deck, and drew Olivia Voldaren in all but two of my opening hands of the tournament, but rarely got any of my three black mana (black was more of a splash). My first game, I was up against a black/blue deck, and he hit me with his rats (1/1, deathtouch) for a while, while I held off his other creatures with a few creatures of my own, and a tree of redemption, until I finally drew a swamp and killed him with Olivia, game two was another stalemate, but this time, he had the blue/black land that milled me. He milled two of my swamps and my third was the last card of my deck. By the time I drew it, it was too late. We were nearly out of time, but that didn’t stop me from keeping a horrible hand game three. I couldn’t play anything due to a mana shortage, and lost. Damn. The next match, I was up against a girl with a green/something (I think blue deck). I got 2-0’d losing the first game because I kept a hand which only had two swamps in it for mana, hoping to draw the other colors. Mulliganing is another thing I need to work on. Anyways, game two was pretty close until she got out Essence of the wild, and I couldn’t stop it. I stayed in the game for a couple more turns, because of my tree, but I ultimately lost.

Game three, I was up against a boy with kind of long hair and a face that could go either way. I noted that he was quite cute, and I would seriously want to go out with him if he were female. Then I realized that it was kind of weird for me to be thinking this about my opponents, considering I didn’t really think anything of my last opponent, who was a girl and was fairly good looking. He sat down and I got kind of embarrassed. I’m glad people can’t read my thoughts (well, I suppose if you’re reading this…), particularly if I’m thinking about what they’d be like as a girl (don’t worry, this is the first time I’ve thought of that). Flirting is something I do naturally when I find someone attractive, except that person usually is not male. This was the first time I had to keep my flirting in check and it was more difficult that I thought it would be, although I managed. It was kind of a weird experience. Anyways, he was playing a blue white deck with a lot of fliers and humans. During the first game, he was able to do some damage to me, but then I got our Wall of Redemption and Daybreak Ranger, which could hit his fliers, and was even more deadly once it transformed. I finally got out Olivia Voldaren and took game one, but by that time, there were only fifteen minutes left in the round. In round two, things started off very similar, except he had creepy doll. Time ran out, and I played Olivia Voldaren, wiping him out of creatures. I was about to attack for game, but he flashbacked Feelings of Dread, causing the game to become a draw. He had nothing left except for his doll. Oh well. He got paired down against me, so I gave him the win to give him a shot at a prize. What a weird day, I think I’ll get some sleep. Needless to say, I was very entertained by this, the next day.

9/26: Discount Draft

This makes me feel kind of sad. It’s my last M12 draft. All of the cards I’ve gotten used to are going to be replaced with new cards (except for naturalize). Oh well, I have to make sure to shine today. I draft blue/green and have both mages, two Mind Controls, and a bunch of other blue/green cards. I’m up against my first opponent, Robert (the guy who beat me with black/white on 9/5) who is using a red/black deck this time. The first game is fairly close, with him hitting me slowly with small cards like Goblin Arsonist and Tormented Soul. I play my creatures but he kills some of them. In the end, I get him down quite a ways, but in the end, he outnumbers me and wins. Game two, I have to mulligan a couple of times, and don’t stand a chance.

My next match is against Dave, who I’ve never faced in a draft before. He either works at the store or is just there a lot. Anyway, he says he was bored and thought he’d draft. This was the most intense face off I’ve had in a bad game. He takes game one fairly easily, when I let myself go down far enough to get killed by a burn spell, but I’m able to overpower him game two, leaving it at the most intense of the games, game 3. He plays out Fiery Hellhound and gives it Angelic Destiny, but I tap it with Crown of Empires, until I manage to take control of it. I also give it Swiftfoot boots, which helps me out greatly. Anyway, it ends with me making a mistake that should have cost me the game, but didn’t because so did he. He had Crimson Mage out, and I used Ice Cage on his Serra Angel, and immediately point out my mistake. He tells me he noticed that, but I shouldn’t say anything as the opponent may not always notice. I attacked, nearly finishing him, and during his turn, he played a Goblin Tunneler and then played act of treason. I mana leaked it, using up my mana, but he couldn’t pay the cost. If he had simply kept the tunneler, I would have lost. Of course, if I hadn’t played the Ice Cage, I would have been able to use my Crown, and all would be well. Anyways, it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who makes mistakes.

For my last game, I’m up against a guy whose name I recognize, but I don’t remember facing him. I guess he hadn’t been coming for the last couple of weeks due to other plans. He is playing monoblue, and plays out Phantasmal Bear and deals me some damage while get out both of my mages and him back. He doesn’t get any creatures for a while, and when he finally gets out his Djinn of Wishes, I mind control it. Game one, won. Game two is similar. He gets out Phantasmal Bear again and plays out swiftfoot boots, which he doesn’t equip or course. He plays out Aether Adept, returning one of my creatures to my hand. I am getting out creatures at a decent rate, and he is slowly feeling the wrath of a Lurking Crocodile, which I sided in after remembering my game a long time back with Alex. He plays out Thran Golem and gives it flight. He equips his boots…to Aether Adept. I play my own Aether Adept returning Thran Golem, and he realizes his mistake. I would have been in big trouble if he had equipped his Thran Golem, but since he didn’t, I have nothing to worry about as flight is now in the graveyard, and he is nearly out of cards in hand, while I have a few creatures left to play, and he is already at low life from the crocodile. I take game two as well, causing me to go 2-1 on my last day of M12 drafts. I got third and got a Sun Titan. Now then, on to Innistrad. ^ ^

9/30: Innistrad Launch Party

I had to work on Saturday and Sunday, but, luckily, Larry’s Comics in Lowell was doing one on Friday night instead of the draft. There was no backdraft, again, but this time I told myself to focus and not take all of the rares. I didn’t take all of the rares and ended up with a pretty sweet red/white deck, that made use of Rally the Peasants as well as some werewolves, such as Kruin Outlaw. My first opponent was playing a blue/black deck that could make zombie tokens thanks to that card with flashback that puts two zombies into play. He also used that bat/vampire card and Invisible stalker. If I remember correctly, I took game one by having quite a few werewolves out, against an opponent who was helpless after I took his Vampire with traitorous blood. I believe he beat me game two, but even with four Zombie tokens, game three, as well as a few other cards, I was able to beat him thanks to Terror of Kruin Pass, after tapping down a couple of his guys with my Avacynian Priest (combat and then during my turn). I won.

My second opponent was playing a blue/white deck that had a lot of spirits. I didn’t have many fliers, and I couldn’t stop them with my aura’s (white aura that prevents damage dealt to and by enchanted creature and gives it flying), as he had cards like Silverchase Fox. I lost game one, since his spirits powered each other and I couldn’t fight back. Game two, I managed to deal damage to him, and was nearly dead until he played out a Geistcatcher Rig, which I gained control of and attacked giving me the win. Game one was similar to this, and ended up in a situation where he had a tapped spirit, a fiend hunter exiling my priest, and Mikaeus. I only had out a Werewolf with 3 or so power. I had 8 mana untapped and had Rally the Peasants, Traitorous Blood, and Smite the Monstrous in hand. I played Traitorous Blood followed by Rally and realized that I couldn’t win. He was forced to block, giving me back my priest, but leaving him with four life. I forgot he would get Mikaeus back and I lost. I thought a while, and came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do to win.

My third opponent was playing red/white, and chose to keep a one land hand. He played Reckless Waif, and I took some damage, before getting out creatures of my own and killing his Werewolf, and getting out my own Tormented Pariah. I won game one quickly, and we started game two. He started and had more lands this time, and played the waif again. He powered it up with an enchantment that also forced it to attack, so when it changed back, he lost it. He didn’t have much else to play and found himself up against my Pariah once again. I won 2-0. He swore a lot. I went to check on my previous opponent who asked if I got a bye. XD

On my way home I was thinking back to the game I lost, and realized that I may have been able to win. It was basic, Rally was an instant. First off, I would gain control of his Lunarch, and attack with both acting like I’d given up. If he blocked either, I would get back my priest back which he may probably would try and stop by not blocking, which would let my creatures go through and I would Rally for the win. Given our interactions, I think that may have worked, but I’m not sure. Regardless, it would have worked better than what I did or at least the same. In short there would be no downside to it. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?

10/3: Discount draft

Being new to Innistrad, I figured I should ask someone who seemed more experienced with drafts for help on what to do with my card pool. I was planning on going blue/green, but the guy suggested that I go blue/white because of my three Feeling of Dread. The deck had only seven creatures, two of which required another creature to be exiled. I didn’t really think of this, and ultimately ended up playing a horrible deck and realizing that maybe I should trust myself more. Anyways, the deck was really good at stalling, it just couldn’t win. I took on my first opponent, who ended up winning the tournament. He was playing a red/black deck and seemed to anticipate my counters, which made them almost useless since he only had to pay an additional 1. I stalled him for a while with my six uses of Feelings of Dread and my three claustrophobia and two sensory deprivation, but since he had black, he killed the few creatures I played out and won 2-0 the same way. I probably should have sided to green, but to be honest, I enjoyed this deck very much despite the fact that it kind of sucked.

My second opponent was using a blue/green deck and I was controlling it pretty well. I took him down a lot with my Moon Herons, and thought I had the game won, until he played Essence of the Wild and returned my remaining Heron to the top of my deck. I was able to claustrophobia one of the Essences, but I was unable to stop the rest of them, since he played a few creatures afterwards. Even with my Feelings of Dread, I was one essence short. Game two, he had to mulligan, making my job even easier. I controlled his creatures and played out Ludivic’s Test Subject. Once I pulled off its transformation, I won, making us 1-1. The third game, I kept a hand with too much land on the draw. Unfortunately, I drew more land and didn’t have enough control cards to stall him long enough. I lost without putting up much of a fight.

My last opponent started playing in tournaments at the Relentless Dragon a little bit after I did, and was playing a red/white deck. He was a pretty cool dude, named Evan. He didn’t seem to have a lot of creatures to play, however, so controlling them was a simple matter. I also got out Ludivic’s Test Subject, and it once again made it to its final form, causing me to win. Game two, I decided to see how blue/green would work, and it worked a lot better with more creatures, so I won 2-0. Despite going 1-2, overall, I still got a Grim-Grin, which was pretty cool. On the way out, Ryan (an employee) told me that I’d be better off asking him for advice (he usually tells me he’s not good at drafting, so you can imagine) and I say that I’ll make sure not to make a mistake like that again. I’ll trust myself next time, I will make sure to have a win condition. While I’d like to blame it on the guy who gave me the advice, I was the one who took it and didn’t switch to green until the very end.

This marks the end of my catching up, and I will now give reports as they happen. Also, there’s a PTQ this Saturday…I hope I’m prepared…

Everyday I'm Shufflin': Pro Tour Philadelphia

Pro Tour Philadelphia

9/2: No shufflin’ today…
I drove down with my parents on Friday, however, by the time we arrived it was already nighttime. We got to the hotel room, I took a shower and got ready for bed, and then discovered that I could access the internet on my dad’s cellphone, which I used to watch the new episode of Vanguard, which put me even more in the mood for the tournament tomorrow. I set my alarm to get me up at seven, so I could leave at seven-thirty and get there by eight. Between the two rooms, there were three beds, so everyone had a bed to themselves (my dad snores loudly, so I was in the room with him). I can usually sleep through snoring, but it annoys me if I’m still awake. Luckily, my bed came with a lot of pillows to throw…

9/3: Believe in My Existence

I got up a little after 7, got dressed and found that my hair was really greasy, either due to the shampoo or a difference in the water, and that I lost my newest comb. The bristles on my dad’s hairbrush are kind of widely spread, so I had to use my mom’s hairbrush. Unfortunately, my hair was still greasy, but now it was neater at least. For those of you who don’t know me, I greatly dislike having greasy hair. This bothered me for the entirety of the day. My parents also had greasy hair, and since that was not a typical thing, I knew I would to be ready to cry by end of the weekend.

The convention center was only a short walk from the Westin (where we were staying), and there was an awesome marketplace across the street from it that my parents wanted to have breakfast at. It was a little before eight, and when it hit eight and the market opened, I decided to go in with them to get food before going to the tournament. The marketplace was kind of like Quincy Market in Boston, only the vendors seemed to be more family run and unique. I got something called a Po’ Boy. I think that’s how you spell it. Anyways, it had ham, egg, and cheese on hard sub-shaped piece of bread. I kept it in its bag and headed across the street to the convention center.

Now then, how do I get in? Where do I go? Ah! Big open room, I can see it from the street. That’s got to be the Pro Tour. I walk in, smiling, looking around at all of my opponents for the day. I was psyched! Look at all of these people here for the magic tournament. I have a tendency to talk to myself or say things out loud to everyone, so I made my usual declaration of how I was going to beat everyone before realizing that no one had any cards on them. I had walked into the ICS: The International Cat Show. Now, I know this may seem a bit hypocritical coming from a Magic player, here for a giant magic tournament, but doesn’t an “International Cat Show” seem a bit weird and nerdy. I mean, there were a ton of people there, who I presume were from around the world considering it was “International”. That seems really weird. Although, I don’t know if I have a right to say that as I was now the weird guy who declared that he was going to beat everyone and “Kattobingu da ze ore!” Yes, I do watch ZeXal and yes, there is a person who uses that phrase in real life (me). This was just the wrong place for it. I left quickly.

After talking to a receptionist in the main building, I ran up to the second floor, took a left, and saw the big sign that said “Welcome to Magic Weekend Philadelphia” or something along those lines with a picture of a few Innistrad cards on it. I walked in and was even more psyched than I was walking into The International Cat Show, which means that I had a lot of psych. I immediately ran over to the Main and registered for the Pro Tour Qualifier. The lady registering people gave me an Ajani Goldmane. Pro Tour Ajani Goldmane! This made me even happier than I already was, as I thought you only got them for entering the Pro Tour itself. Then I walked around and was amazed at the feature match area, the artist booth, the trophy case, the live broadcast room, and pretty much everything. I hadn’t eaten my Po’ Boy yet, so I did that, except I realized it was spicy, so I needed a drink, and I went next door to get an iced mocha. Sadly, I forgot to check the price in my excitement and paid five dollars for it. It was pretty good, though.

PTQ Honolulu: Sealed

After wandering some more, the tournament started. I sat down at the same table as Tristan Gregson, which I’m pretty sure is the guy from Channel Fireball. We open our sealed pools. Nothing good in mine, but I’m just recording for now. They tell us to pass once. Oh my god! Inferno Titan and Jace!!!! “Pass one more time.” DAMN IT ALL!!!!! I ended up building a red/green deck with 3 or 4 Goblin Fireslinger. It wasn’t particularly good, although I don’t think it was bad. To be honest, I don’t remember the games themselves very well, seeing as my excitement caused me to suck. Game one, and I’m against this red haired guy who just sort of annoys me. He’s like a really wimpy jerk. I end up putting up a good fight game one, and screw up due to forgetting that his Archdruid gives his Lanowar +1/+1 and taking an attack. I lose game 2 fairly quickly and I hate the fact that I lost to this guy, although I know that it’s totally my fault due to all of my stupid misplays. I didn’t see this guy’s other games, but from my game, I would assume that he had no chance of winning. Excitement makes things fun, but I really need to stop misplaying. But hey, what’s one match? I’ll just win the rest of them. Kattobingu!

Then I notice a guy across the room (well, the side event part of it anyway). He has bleach blond hair and basically looks like a blond Yusei (although at the time, my first thought was Flock of Seagulls). Huh, interesting. Anyways, I went over to the feature match area where Luis Scott-Vargas was playing against someone, but there was a crowd, so I couldn’t really see. I walked around a little more, and so I walked around some more before round two started. I found myself against an opponent that I actually like this time. He still defeats me fairly easily. I cannot remember his deck sadly, but I do ask him to take a look at mine afterwards. He asks me why I am not maindecking my Vastwood Gorger. I don’t really have a good reason for not doing so, except that it is rather costly (expensive creatures are generally fine in sealed). So not only am I misplaying, but I also built my deck to less than its maximum potential. He is very friendly and helpful, I like this guy.

If I have good enough tie breakers and win all the rest of my games, I may still win. I’m not done yet, kattobingu da ze ore. So I walk over to the feature match table to see who is playing. Yuuya Watanabe versus Jon Finkel. But I walk in right at the end, and see Yuuya 2-0 Finkel. I am shocked. I’d been reading about Yuuya and his Grand Prix success, but to watch him destroy Finkel, Yuuya’s something else! I am now inspired and when the next round comes, I head back ready to win. But where’s my opponent? Am I gonna get a free win? I wait a few minutes, and the judge comes over and says if my opponent doesn’t show up in next couple of minutes, then I win. Anyway, right when I’m about to get the win, a person with a different name than my opponent walks over. Turns out, they got the match slip wrong, and the winner accidentally was dropped. So here was my opponent, and we did have to play. A few misplays later, and I was done. He was a pretty nice guy and I wished him good luck. Then I headed back over towards the feature match area and bumped into the Flock of Seagulls guy. I knew that he was in the PTQ and I asked how he was doing. He replied in a British accent, “3-0, how are you doing?” I grinned, “0-3, you still have a good shot at winning though.” Then we started talked some more about magic and stuff, before he went to meet up with his friends and I walked around for a little while before the next round.

At this point, I had no chance of topping, but I wanted to play anyways, so I went to the table. Most players with my score had already dropped, so I was at one of the last tables. I faced my opponent. I figured I may have a shot against this guy, but as usual, I don’t. I get beaten without too much trouble and then I find out that there is a Grand Prix Trial today. Another guy with a low score challenges me to a practice match, and I succeed in winning one of the games, but losing the other two. This is no good. I turn in a drop slip, and am done with the tournament.

Grand Prix Trial: Generic

I am pretty bummed out at this point. I came here with the goal to win, and I went 0-4. It was all my fault as well, I misplayed so much it wasn’t even funny. I still misplay too much, and I can’t seem to stop. Regardless, I’m here to play magic and get better, so I might as well sign up for another tournament. I had planned to do well and not have time for today’s Grand Prix Trial, but since I suck so much, I guess I have time. Magic is the reason I’m here and even if I just keep losing, I’m going to play as much as I can this weekend. I’m exhausted at this point and am not really looking forward to getting creamed any more. I know M12, I’ve been playing it all summer, so why the hell do I suck so much. Whatever, freaking out about it isn’t going to help me.

I run into Nitin’s little brother, who I saw at the SCG Open, and ask if Nitin is here. He is, so I say hi and ask if he’s planning on entering the Grand Prix Trial. He is not. I am now hungry and there is time before the Grand Prix Trial so I go across the street to the marketplace. I’ve never felt so depressed over a tournament. It’s not like I actually expected to win, but still, 0-4 sucks. It wasn’t even like I got unlucky or anything. This sucks. Crap, my bag of cards from the day is beginning to rip. I go to a vendor serving Chinese food, order a house fried rice and ask for a spare bag. He gives me one, and I put my other bag in it. I head back over and eat my fried rice. I wander around the convention center some, still feeling bad. Seems that my positive attitude has completely disappeared and I enjoy the silence of a large empty room, I find right outside of the ballrooms. I climb the staircase leading up to the ballrooms and just stand for a while overlooking the giant room I’m in.

It’s nearly time for the tournament, so I head over just in time. The format is sealed again. I open my packs, and get a Jace and an Inferno Titan! Too bad I’ll have to pass them...AGAIN!!! The actual pool I end up with is weird and I’m sure I’m going to go white as I have Angelic Destiny, Archon of Justice, and some other good cards. The only problem is that I’m not sure on my other color. I have some good red cards to fill in the extra spaces and I also have green. In the end I go with green, as it had spiders, Hunter’s Insight, and other cards that will overall make my deck more consistent, as opposed to the goblins and couple of decent creatures red offered. Hunter’s Insight has become one of my favorite M12 cards, as it can give lead to great card advantage, which is even better when combo’d with titanic growth. My deck is complete, and it is time for the first round. I built the deck that I believed was the best I could make with my pool, and headed off for the first game.

I was not emotional during my games. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t smile or anything, I just wasn’t particularly excited, like I was before, and I forgot about my previous state of depression. I played my games to the best of my ability at the time. My first opponent was playing a red/white deck if I remember correctly. I pull out my deck and we begin the first game. He plays out some of his creatures before I can get any out, but while my creatures are slower, they are stronger and able to slow down his attacks, and I eventually manage to finish him off. The second game is a bit more difficult, he starts out with his fast creatures, but this time my creatures all have really high costs, and I feel that I may be at a disadvantage before I can even draw one. Luckily, I draw Timely Reinforcements, which saves the day, giving me three tokens and a whopping six life, which more than makes up for the damage I took from his attacks earlier. He is able to deal some damage to me, but when I use angelic destiny on a token, he doesn’t really have anything to stop it, and then I start getting more creatures, which stop him from attacking, while I can finish him off with my angel. This works, and I take game one.

That went well, and I think that’s the first time I didn’t misplay. I wasn’t excited going in, and I wasn’t coming out. Usually my misplays are because I just get into the flow of the game as opposed to really thinking about the game. Being tired and unhappy allowed me to actually think things through, and I do not believe that I misplayed even once in this tournament. I’ve noticed this pattern before as well. I do better when I’m tired, and do really stupid things when I’m not. I need to get into the habit of not misplaying even when I’m excited, although that may be my hardest task. My next opponent was a guy who I later learned was from Japan and traveled here for the Pro Tour. I didn’t know this at the time, and I’m glad I didn’t, as I could just view him as my opponent. He was using a deck that was mainly black (I don’t remember for sure, but I believe the second color was green). Game 1 is close, with his bats flying at me and dealing me damage before I can play spider and Griffin Sentinel. Like in my last match, I am able to slowly stop his attacking force, and eventually finish him off. Primarily black? I side in Celestial Purge, of course, and get it quickly. The second game is going similar, except I am holding Celestial Purge unsure of when to use it. Since I want to wait for something big, I hold it and fight normally. Then when he pays the six that he needs to get out Sorin Markov, I am glad I hung on to Celestial Purge. I take out Sorin and finish him off soon after. There is something extremely satisfying about Celestial Purging a Planeswalker, and about winning. I am happier, but even more tired than before.

I walk around some, and then it is time for round three. My opponent is using blue and another color. He manages to gain more creatures than me and I’m unable to block his fliers (blue/white, maybe), winning him game one. Game two, I’m able to hit him faster with my creatures and gain the victory with some help from Pacifism. On to game three. I have like four lands, a couple other cards, and a Pentavus. Excellent, if I should be able to hold in there long enough to finally play Pentavus, which should give me the win. Turn 3: Jace. Mill you for ten. Mill you for ten. Mill you for ten. I’m done. I did not expect that at all, but I guess a loss was bound to happen. At this moment, I want to get some kind of snack, so I head over to a convenience store called Wawa. It has an instant frappe machine. WHAT!?!? I get a chocolate flavored block of ice in a cup from the freezer underneath, take the lid off, insert it into the machine, wait a few minutes, and I have a frappe. It was like $2.30, so not bad. It tasted pretty good, too. I tell myself if I make top four, then I will get another one.

Round four: I’m up against someone who kind of annoys me. He is running white and a color I unfortunately cannot remember, although I believe it was black. I win one game, he wins one game, and we’re on to the last game. I can’t remember much from this match other than this final scenario (which I still can’t remember perfectly). He has two archon of Justice and a couple other creatures. I have an amount that is almost the same, plus three soldier tokens from timely reinforcements. I also have an Archon of Justice of my own out, and I cast overrun. He blocks, and goes down to two, exiling two of my creatures, while I can get rid of one. The rest trade and am left with my soldiers and he has a griffin sentinel. He draws and says go. He has a lot of mana open, and decent amount of cards in his hand. I attack and know that I will win if he can’t do anything. He can’t and I win. I was very surprised by this, considering his hand, and also that I wasn’t drawing anything but lands and could only fight with my tokens. Two Archon of Justice… Unfortunately, this guy is one of those obnoxious guys who can’t stand to lose and starts complaining when they lose. I tell him it happens and that in all fairness I got my other wins 2-0 and he did give me a run for my money (or in this case byes), which was true. He was a good player in all fairness, I just tend to be annoyed by people like that. I go tell Andy (the guy with the Flock of Seagulls hair...oddly, I’m listening to I Ran as I writing this) as he and his friends have pretty much finished up at tournaments for the day. I talk to them for a while and find out that all but one of them travelled here from England and had invites to the Pro Tour. I was in awe as that was like my dream. Well one of them.

Competing on the Pro Tour is one of the first steps of my goal which is to be the best magic player ever and getting in the Hall of Fame and become more of a Magic god than Finkel. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy, and I may be, but I tend to believe in a saying that goes “if you shoot for the sun, even if you miss, you’ll wind up among the stars.” It’s something like that anyways. If the Pro Tour was my end result, then I suppose I could feel like I’m a lot closer to completing my goal (since it’s a lot smaller). Anyways, the best thing I can do for now is to get to the Pro Tour or win a Grand Prix, which I will get three byes for by winning today. Anyways, the point is that I have high goals and that I fully intend to reach them or at least become a star. I believe I will write out a list of my planned steps later.

Anyways, on to round 5. I’m feeling better about all of my losses earlier, but I’m still tired and will not let my guard. I up against a girl named Elizabeth from New York, who I 2-0. As I get more tired, I remember less about what I’m doing. I’ve got a very good memory of everything outside of the game, but when it comes to the games themselves, I am remembering less and less. She did put up a pretty good fight, but in the end wasn’t able to overcome Pentavus, which isn’t too surprising. She had a lot of creature, but I had enough mana to block the ones my other creatures couldn’t. She didn’t have flying creatures, so when she didn’t attack. This is also the first time that I made a misplay this tournament. I forgot that tokens had summoning sickness and called the tokens out during my turn, which in the end didn’t change anything, but still. I remembered this. I won game two as well, although I didn’t need to play Pentavus, and kept it in my hand. We talked for a few minutes after and wished each other good luck. She was a good sport and a good player: a nice change of pace from my previous opponent.

I go talk to Andy and his friends, who were named Mark and Matt (if I remember correctly). There was also a girl in their group that I talked to, but she had left a little sooner and I asked their names at the end, so I don’t know hers. I’m pretty sure Matt was the one who had topped multiple PTQs but had not yet made the Pro Tour (of course, that is still really good compared to me right now). I went back for the sixth round and the rest of the tournament sort of became a blur. Matt told me that if I won the rest of my games, I would still have a shot at the top four, so I continued playing. Even if I lost, I still got like 9 packs. I don’t remember anything from the game except that I 2-0’d him and told him that he’s guaranteed packs. He was a nice guy from what I can remember.

After this, I talked to Andy and his friends for a little more, they wish me luck and then they leave. I feel kinda lonely without them but continue on to the last game. I can’t remember details on the last game either, although I recall having a lot of trouble and I had a hard time understanding him and thinking that he might be from Japan, which was further backed up by his name being Kazuo. In the end, that didn’t really matter, since we understood each other’s plays fairly well after a while. There was a little trouble communicating during game one, but by game two we had gotten used to it and adjusted. He was playing green/black if I remember correctly. It was like 10:30 or so at night, and I’d been there since 8 in the morning. This was probably the most intense game I have ever played, so it’s a shame I can’t remember anything. I know that feeling you get from a really tough game. I remember having a super escalated version of that. At the same, when you have this sort of feeling, the flavor and specifics of the cards almost seem to fade from memory and instead the feeling is just one player versus another. I felt a similar feeling the game before this as well, although this was much stronger. I hate and love this feeling, and I can’t really explain it, although I’m sure many know what I’m talking about. I ended up winning 2-0, barely winning each game.

My dad took a couple of pictures, when he came to pick me up, since it was late and there was supposedly a lot of crime in Philadelphia. Since I have them, I might as well post them. This is me versus Kazuo. There aren't many people left at this point, since they closed everything else and this tournament was the last thing happening on Saturday.

and

I waited around and found that I had gotten third place. Since the top four all got a box and three byes, I had accomplished one of my goals for the weekend. I was exhausted and very happy at the same time. I also found out later that the reason that I had trouble communicating with my last opponent was because he had come here from Japan since he had an invite to the Pro Tour. I did searches on the rest of my opponents and found that was also true for my second opponent. Wow. I didn’t know this at the time, so I didn’t think much of it, got my box. Got my promised instant frappe from Wawa’s (although I got cookies n’ cream this time), called Ben to tell him of my victory, and got ready for another day of Magic: The Gathering.

9/4: And the winner is!?!

The final day of the Pro Tour, unfortunately, I don’t really have any goals for the day. I figure I might as well enter the 3,000 dollar draft challenge. I get up a little around 7:30 and get ready as quickly as possible. My hair is even greasier despite the fact that I washed it last night. I head down to the convention center and get in line to sign up for the draft. I sign up and get Ajani number three. I still have an hour so my dad (who walked down with me) and I go to Chinatown and I get a curry bun and another instant frappe on the way there. I love curry buns.

$3,000 dollar draft challenge

The tournament starts and our seating order has been posted. I’m watching the names scroll down the screen and I realize something. This is what many of the big name players chose to do if they didn’t make day three, meaning I was in a tournament with players like Luis Scott Vargas and Paolo Vitor Damo da Rosa, meaning that, if I do well, I may be able to play against one of them and see what playing against a champion is like. I take my seat and packs are passed out soon after. I start drafting and realize that, without thinking, I have ended up with blue/white. Dammit, I’m supposed to think about these things first. It’s funny how often I end up blue/white because I’m used to it. On the plus side, I’m used to it, but on the down side, I don’t really have any particularly good blue/white cards.

First round, I’m up against a French player named Cedric, except I mishear him and call him something different that isn’t even close to a name. I can’t remember his deck colors, except that he had fliers (either black or white). There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary that happened, basically, he played his creatures and I played my control cards, except that in the end, his creatures outnumbered my control cards, and he had fliers, so I couldn’t block. I got destroyed. I really need to think what colors will do best for drafting and stop hoping I get good blue/white. Drafting is still a skill I don’t have, and at the time, I don’t know about draft signals or anything except that I like blue, especially when it goes with white. In fairness, at the time, I do know I’m missing something big.

My second opponent is Pedro Quintero who seems to be infamous for being a magic thief. Apparently, he is a pretty good player, however is well known for topping a TCG Player tournament. I had gotten one of my cards signed by an artist there and told this to my opponent. I brought it up because I was carrying around a signed Grand Abolisher, and I figured that it was only fair to tell my opponents that it was not a part of my deck or sideboard. I did, however, get a card signed that was part of my deck, and said informed him that the signed card in my deck is something I got. He asked which card the guy drew, and I told him trollhide. He smiled, “nice to know you’re going green.” He plays a plains and so do I. Then turn two, I play an island, and get out my signed Benalish Veteran turn three. He is playing red/white, and his red cards outpower all of mine. I’m not getting much control this game and I lose. The next one basically goes the same way. In fairness, despite what I found out about him he did seem like a pretty nice guy and was a pretty good player. Also, it had just been one incident, where he was supposedly bringing what he thought was his friends deck, and returned it when he found out it wasn’t. I don’t know the truth of what happened. Back to the tournament though, I’ve learned a valuable lesson, that I already knew, but needed to actually start applying to my tournaments. When drafting, don’t choose your colors beforehand. Thinking back, at the beginning, I took cards because they were blue, over cards that focusing around would have been a lot better.

It was now time for the third round, and I got a bye, so I headed across the street to the marketplace so I could get a dessert that I saw yesterday. It was like éclair filling, except without the éclair, and looked delicious. Unfortunately, the booth was gone today, so I walked around, before heading back for the fourth round. I started the fourth round, and ended up against a player who didn’t seem to have anything interesting about them. This guy was playing red and a color I cannot remember, and seemed to have less creatures, so my control was able to work better against him. He was still able to outnumber me game one, except I was a little bit closer. I won game two, as he had started getting dead draws, and game three was really close. It was basically a back and forth match with each of us slowly hitting each other and him playing creatures, while I rendered them usely. Unfortunatley,by the time he played his bomb, I was out of counters. I didn’t have anything to If I could stop his Flameblast Dragon, even for a turn, I would be able to win on the next turn. Oh well, thanks to its ability, it was game over for me. I can remember that game sort of, but the rest were pretty much just me getting destroyed thanks to my stupid drafting and misplays. Since it was two draft sessions, and I didn’t have a chance of topping at this point, I decided to drop and get my three packs (they told anyone who was only sticking in it for the extra cards that they would still be given three packs if they dropped). So I lost again, but in all fairness, I still didn’t know about draft signals, and I was still kind of a newbie. “You’re gonna lose a lot before you start winning.” Huh, despite yesterday’s success, I guess I still have a long ways to go.

SideDraft

After going to Chinatown once more and finding out that the bakery was all out of curry buns, I went to Wawa’s and got a frozen cappuccino. The main event seemed to be nearing its end, and they had a much bigger coverage team. I wanted to keep playing myself, so I headed over to the main event stage and signed up for a sidedraft. I still went blue, despite what I kept telling myself, although in all fairness, I did get a Frost Titan this time. Then a Garruk’s horde and 2 Sphinx of Uthuun. Bombs are good, but not when your deck is full of them. Green is already high cost, with cards like Giant Spider and Greater Basilisk and Overrun, but I wasn’t really thinking about anything other than all of the strong cards I had. This was a stupid way to think, as I got 2-0’d by my first opponent, who I believe was playing red. Regardless, it took so long to play anything, that I was nearly dead before I could get anything big, and at that point, it was too late. A deck with too many bombs, is not a good deck, it needs a good balance.

SideDraft 2

I entered another side draft, and, this time, I didn’t get any bombs, except maybe for Skinshifter. Skinshifter is a very good card, and it greatly helped me. My deck was green/white, this time with white for control, and basic green cards like spiders, basilisks, and a Hunter’s Insight and a Jade Mage. I also got a Solemn. The deck was very consistent, and I won my first game by hitting him with Skinshifter: rhino mode and then slowly expanding my army to kill him. I had two Gideon’s Lawkeepers, so any chance he had was pretty much shut down once I had them both out. He hadn’t played for a while, and I took both games fairly easily, and in pretty much the same way. Both games, he ended up against the lawkeepers and the Skinshifter, and he didn’t really have anything to fight with. I believe he was playing white, but I forget his other color. Game two, I was up against another guy named Nick, with a black deck (I believe red was the second color). He put up a fairly good fight, and it was a close match. I’m pretty sure, he got a win, but I won the match thanks to celestial purge and the fact that most of my cards could stop his attacks, while eventually going in for the win with (I’m pretty sure) Overrun. I ended up against a guy named Niko, with a blue white deck, in the finals, and got 2-0’d since I didn’t get the lawkeepers, and he basically destroyed me, as I couldn’t get out enough creatures to hold him off with his fliers and Sun Titan. I got six packs still, so all was good, and I didn’t do too badly. The Pro Tour had also just ended, and there was a lot of cheering. Splinter Twin won against Counter Cat in the finals, and I got a bbq pork bun from Chinatown and another frappe, and headed back to the hotel room. After that last draft, I had five Pro Tour Ajanis. Two full days of playing Magic equals a great weekend. Surprisingly, on my walk back, I was already looking forward to the discount draft at the Relentless Dragon tomorrow and finally having clean hair. Kattobingu da ze ore! ^ ^