Just a quick note to thank Mark Diehr/Basilisk of diehrstraits.com for helping me set up the MTG card tags! The dude is awesome.
I’ll go back through my older posts to add card tags when I can, and of course, I still have more stuff to write about from GP Manila, on a positive note, too. I don’t want to go finishing that one on a down note now, do I?
After Intramuros, it was time to head to the venue check out the Grinders and do some set up work. Half way through the week, there had been some discussion on twitter about how twitter coverage at Pro Tours has much more of an impact than people first imagined. While technically, you can access the live coverage on your phone if you’re prepared to pay what is most likely exorbitant international data rates, accessing twitter is much, much easier, and it’s inherent bite-sized chunks of information makes it very easy to digest quickly and efficiently. The official live coverage is also relatively slow to go up, as it sometimes has to go through an editor and always has to be formatted for publication on the website, and so on. Twitter is about as instantaneous as it gets.
The discussion was around the way Mananation had tweeted about what Brian Kibler was playing at Pro Tour San Juan, and whether they had been giving too much information away. I chimed in saying I would see if I could chat with some of the more twitter-savvy pros this weekend to get their take on the situation, which delighted the discussion participants to no end. My next thought was “ah crap, now I’m going to have to transcribe an interview, I’m terrible at that!” followed quickly by “wait, what if I somehow video’d the interview?” This was an idea I had been toying with for a while, but had been unsure of how to get started. Now with a reason to get off my ass and get on it, I fired off quick messages to Bill Stark and Evan Erwin to ask what I should use. Erwin came back saying he uses relatively high end equipment and software, which isn’t overly surprising, considering how smooth his production of the Magic Show is. Thankfully, I’d seen Stark do some reasonably basic video coverage, and he said someone had given him a Flip HD as a present one time, which was affordable, but not exactly high quality. Australian level 4 judge Mark Brown recommended the Flip as a reasonable option as well.
I figured high quality can come later, and that a Flip might be something I could actually pick up duty free on my way to the event, which is precisely what I did. Once we’d made it to the venue, I dragged it out and fired it up. As soon as we opened the doors, a queue formed almost all the way around the hall to sign up for the main event. Announcements were made that the signups for the GP Trials were actually over the other side of the room, but nobody moved. You see, in 2008, the turnout was higher than anticipated, and there was even talk of having to turn people away. While I don’t think that actually came to pass, a lot of people did miss out on their promo card and event t-shirt. It looked like the locals were uninterested in missing out a second time. I whipped out my Flip and tried to film the enormous queue, and quickly discovered a few limitations. My hand wasn’t nearly as steady as I would like, which I guess wasn’t that unexpected, and that filming while walking was practically impossible, because my footfalls would shake the camera. I tried to shuffle my feet a little, but it looked daft. You know what would look less draft? A skateboard. I’ve been trying to convince my girlfriend I should be allowed a skateboard again, but I’ll save that story for another time. I could force one of the judges to push me around the room on a skateboard. It would be like one of those dolly things they have on professional movie sets, and everything, how sweet would that be?
Aaaanyway, we ended up running six trials, which wasn’t too many lists for me to type up, so I did that while chatting with the Dale Aitken, the APAC Event Marketing Manager, who happened to be on his way to Seattle and was dropping by to see the event get under way. I mean, when you have to sign off on the expense accounts for one of these things, it probably does pay (now and again) to make sure we’re actually running the event and not drafting down at the local pub while I fabricate the coverage, or anything like that. I’d like to go on the record as saying at least 60% (if not more) of the coverage I write that goes up on dailymtg.com is not made up!
As day one got underway, I tried to track down Brian Kibler and Sam Black to film the interview. There are usually no feature matches of note during the first three rounds of any Grand Prix as the pros wait for their byes to expire, so I usually use this time to wander around and ask them the quick questions I end up spacing out through the day. That’s right, I don’t go around asking questions in any round I haven’t done a feature match, I’m usually too busy typing up the round before this one. All of the quick questions are gotten out of the way early. I know – I’m such a cheater when it comes to coverage. I found Sam, but it turned out Brian was getting yet another massage. Apparently he’d planned on getting one every day he could, because they were costing him around $10US. When I finally tracked him down, I could no longer find Sam, who I’d last seen wandering out in search of vegetarian food. Judging by the size of Sam, I’d say he’s been unable to find any vegetarian food for a few months now, and is subsisting entirely on air. Luckily, the air in the Philippines is so thick you can eat it, so that was at least keeping him alive.
It wasn’t until round three was well under way I got them sat down next to each other and the flip pointed in their direction. I was getting worried I’d not actually manage to get the interview filmed, or that maybe it wouldn’t turn out. I figured if it took too long to upload, it wouldn’t have to appear in the coverage, but it would at least be done. I tried to steady it on my knee as I got them started with the topic at hand. Thankfully, they were both willing to chat at length and the interview clocked in at just over seven minutes. At one point, I was worried the Flip wasn’t picking up Sam’s voice over the background noise, because I couldn’t really hear what he was saying myself and I was across the table from him, but it turned out the Flip hasn’t been to nearly as many Heavy Metal concerts as I have, and certainly didn’t play in a band when it was younger, and it picked him up fine. The other problem I noticed was that I had difficulty stopping myself from nodding in agreement with what they were saying, which felt like it was shaking the camera.
However, it turned out fine. I would go as far as to say great! Uploading the file to youtube took ages, and it tried to spit the dummy about me not having processed the file somehow, but it seems like you don’t *have* to do it, it’s just something they like you to do, or something, so that’s okay. All things considered, if I had to review the Flip Mino HD, I’d say it’s an excellent, low-cost video camera. The picture and sound quality were acceptable, and with the addition of a tripod, I could probably produce some reasonably not-quite-professional videos with it, and I’m sure whoever stole it from me later that afternoon would say the same.
The Tournament Organiser David Ong had warned me earlier in the day about leaving things on the stage unattended. Usually the stage has a row of tables along the front, with the scorekeeper and Head Judge sitting alongside me. This time, I had a single table off to left, while the Head Judge had one on the right. The scorekeeper was set up on the floor to the right of the stage while the feature match area was on my side. After David’s warning, instead of leaving my various coverage-related items on the table by my laptop, I put them in my open backpack on the floor behind my table. The last I saw the Flip, I’d put it in my backpack. Now I don’t mean buried it amongst the other camera stuff in that part of the bag, the external flash, the battery charger, the cable, I just sort of put it on top of that in the small fabric carry case it comes with. I didn’t notice it missing at any point because I’m not really used to counting it amongst my coverage gear, and it’s small enough that it could easily have fallen down inside the bag and be floating about the bottom. On the Monday, while repacking my bag to leave Manila, I didn’t click that it wasn’t in there until after I had already checked my luggage in at the airport. Once I was through immigration, I developed a nagging feeling that I hadn’t seen it since Saturday. Sure enough, when I got home, it was nowhere to be found.
What annoys me the most is not that I have to buy another one to replace it. I won’t miss the money a year from now, not really. It’s that the only people who were in that hall were Magic players, so the odds are very high that whoever stole my brand new Flip camera, was a fellow Magic player who was here for the Grand Prix. I was there working my butt off trying to promote the event and Magic in the area, with a camera that I purchased with my own money specifically for the event, and some selfish prick decided they would take it for themselves. How do they justify that? The very worst part about this is that next time I’m in Manila, I’m going to be that much more careful with my belongings. I mean, I’m not so naive as to think that people don’t steal things elsewhere in the World, but I’m not going to be able to help remembering that last time I was in Manila, someone in the tournament I was writing about, stole from me,
And I don’t know who it was. It could have been anyone. Every person I see near the stage or wherever I’m set up from now on, a small voice in the back of my head is going to ask “is that another person about to rip you off?” I’m now subconsciously thinking ill of my fellow Magic players – my friends from all over the Globe – I’m thinking that they could be someone who wants to rip me off. Because some cock-knuckle took it upon themselves to take something that didn’t belong to them. The only thing I really feel about this now is sad, but let’s not let this one person spoil my trip and these rambling stories. Next up, the rest of the event!
Earlier in the week, I posted a note on facebook (tagging anyone I knew in the Philippines) about my wanting to do a touch of sightseeing before the main event. Naturally, there were a few people who wanted to know why I didn’t want to do it after the event, so they wouldn’t have to miss the GP Trials. The Filipino people are nothing if not extraordinarily helpful and accommodating hosts, so finally it was agreed on that I would be up early to sightsee, so the players could then get on with their grinding.
Ceasar Asahan and Raffy Sarto (Top 8 GP Kuala Lumpur earlier this year) were waiting for me in the hotel lobby at 8am, which wasn’t dreadfully early for me – Australian time being 10am. We bundled into a taxi and headed for Rizal Park. I made promises to pay for the cab fare, but once they spied my wad of 500 Peso notes, they laughed and said there was no way I could pay with that.
You see, I hadn’t really paid much attention to what the exchange rate was. Why bother, right? I knew I needed some Philippine Pesos, so I just forked over $200 at Sydney airport and took what they gave me, which was around $6500pp. The arrival documentation, like most countries, asked you to declare if you’re bringing in the equivalent of $10,000.00 US Dollars, which I clearly wasn’t, but it also had a tick box for if you were bringing in $10,000.00 Philippine Pesos, which I was closing in on doing so. I guess that should have been my first warning.
While the trip to Rizal Park wasn’t exactly far, it came in at under 100 Pesos, which was roughly $3 Australian. As soon as we alighted from the taxi, people were trying to sell us bottles of water, which Ceasar and Raffy automatically waved away. I asked if it was the kind of water you should avoid buying, but they replied it was fine, just I should probably not bother because they would have been charging around 10 Pesos, and probably wouldn’t have change for one of my 500s.
Rizal Park was much more colourful than I expected, with stalls selling odds and ends here and there, and various memorials and displays to Jose Rizal. I had no idea who he was, so the guys entertained me with the tale of a man in the late 19th Century, who desired equality in a time of oppression and was executed for his writings, which allegedly incited rebellion. Other than the usual statues up on high, there was a larger than life diorama of a row of Spanish soldiers shooting Jose Rizal in the back at the very spot he was executed. The 8 foot tall figure of Rizal taking Spanish gunfire between the shoulder blades was facing a semi-circle of stone blocks arranged as if an amphitheatre to his execution. I assume there wasn’t an audience for this, or Rizal probably wouldn’t have been the only one shot that day.
Monument to Jose Rizal
It was at this point where I discovered that the new lens I had bought for lower lightning situations and was trying out, forces me to stand quite far back from the subject to try and fit it in. I should have brought my old lens with me as well, but foresight had eluded me that morning, so once again, I was not happy with how my pictures turned out.
Inside the Walls of Intramuros (that's a pun, because Intramuros is "Inside the Walls" in Spanish. Ha ha)
From there we headed on foot into Intramuros. Ceasar asked if I had seen any pictures of the area, which made me realise I had not. The representation I carried around in my head of the oldest part of Manila was entirely from the writings of Neal Stephenson. The walls certainly did not disappoint, being as old and magnificent as described. The old moat that surrounds the district had been an abandoned belt of green turf when Stephenson had written about it, but was now a golf course. Ceasar seemed a little embarrassed about how corny this seemed, but I thought it was a reasonable and practical use of the space. It looked tidier than a random stretch of grass, and could generate revenue for the area.
Raffy and Ceasar looking out over the golf course/moat
The streets and buildings had apparently been decimated during World War II, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Stephenson described barren stretches of scrub and rubbish, but either I missed that, or they’ve built over it in the last ten years. We made our way through Intramuros to Fort Santiago, where I tried to make up for not paying the cab fare by paying the entry fee for the guys. I’m pretty sure I still owe them lunch as well, but it seems like that will have to wait until after the event, at this rate. Inside, I successfully emulated one of the main characters of Cryptonomicon by repeatedly turning down horse-drawn taxis. The gardens were tropical and picturesque, and the overhanging palm fronds afforded me the shade I required to not pass out from heat-related exhaustion and thirst.
After we’d walked around the Fort and checked out the old prison cells that are cut into the stone below the tide-line (yes, apparently long term prisoner retention was not an issue in those days) I realised I might be risking serious sunburn if I stayed outside any longer, so we checked out the Jose Rizal displays inside the Fort before calling it a day.
I’m back in Manila again, and this time I’m going to get to see the parts I wanted to see the first time I was here. In 2008 I had planned on visiting Intramuros, until I discovered I was actually on the far side of the city, and the traffic in Manila is, well, it’s something else. I mean, I don’t think I’ve seen any traffic lights here, so that should give you some idea of what it’s like. When I checked in last night, I was told by the Tournament Organiser that the venue was pretty close by, but I couldn’t walk there. This morning at breakfast (on the top floor, because apparently I had a room on the swanky folks floor) I spied the Mall of Asia out the window through the thick smog. Oh man, the smog. The sky looks like concrete. Anyway, I almost took the not being able to walk there as a challenge, until I saw the major intersection in the way. I’m pretty sure trying to cross that in anything less than an armoured truck (or at least a vehicle piloted by a local) would be suicide.
Intramuros is the oldest part of Manila, and features prominently in my favouritest of books – “Cryptonomicon” by Neal Stephenson. I find Stephenson’s writing to be evocatively detailed, and it seems that he strives to be accurate as much as he can with things (my Dad told me the telecommunications stuff in Cryptonomicon is pretty spot on) so for quite some time, I’ve wanted to see this part of Manila myself. One of the local players has offered to guide me around the area, which is terribly nice of him! I’m kind of curious to see how any photos I might take turn out with the ridiculously high humidity here, but hopefully it I’ll have something I can post in the coverage tomorrow to keep Ted Knutson happy.
My only real life memory of Billy Moreno is standing alongside Brian David-Marshall watching him play at Pro Tour Honolulu 2006. Moreno kept a one land hand on the play with his Zoo deck, leading with an impressive 1/1 Kird Ape. BDM and I both chuckled during his first draw step as he drew the Temple Garden he needed to actually stay in the game (any later and I think he would have been struggling). He turned to us with a grin and said something like “see? I’m totally pro!” and then attacked with the Ape. His opponent picked up his pen and said “take one.” Moreno hung his head in shame, and played his land post combat. Not so much known for his clean play, Moreno arrived on the Magic scene with a finals appearance at Pro Tour Los Angeles 2005, showcasing his homebrew Psychatog/Madness deck, making a name for himself as a Mad Genius deck designer.
After a bit of a hiatus, apparently Moreno is back and has The Fire, which is fine by me! I think the game needs more Conley Woods-like designers to keep things fresh and interesting. Earlier this week, Moreno posted the first draft of his post-Rise Junk deck on tcgplayer.com (Brainburst still breathes? who knew!) and this evening, he posted a revision on his blog. This is his most recent list:
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Kitesail Apprentice
4 Putrid Leech
3 Bloodghast
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Vengevine
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Scute Mob
1 Adventuring Gear
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
4 Swamp
2 Plains
5 Forest
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Sejiri Steppe
The inevitability of Vengevine and Bloodghast in the same deck looks like a recipe for beatings. However, the first thing I that caught my eye was the absence of certain cards. Whether this was an oversight on Moreno’s part, or he just didn’t think they were worth mentioning, I don’t know. Most importantly, the “kiddy combo” people were going crazy over when Vengevine was first spoiled.
This card is playable on its own, so it’s certainly not dead if you don’t draw Vengevine, but it’s the way it fuels the 4/3 that really makes me think it deserves a place in this deck. Summoning the Skyfisher and bouncing itself twice in a turn gives you everlasting Vengevines. Outside of that, you can use it to bounce and replay a land to reanimate Bloodghast, reuse Ranger of Eos or Stoneforge Mystic or even the Sejiri Steppe. Hell, if you wanted to replace one of the Maelstrom Pulses with an Oblivion Ring, you could even Live the Dream of O-Ring’ing a Planeswalker, then returning the O-Ring with Skyfisher to take out the replacement copy via the Legend Rule. I’m pretty sure Skyfisher should be a four-of in this deck, on the strength of its interaction with Vengevinealone.
This card isn’t as obvious as Skyfisher, but the deck does want landfall triggers, and targets for Ranger or Eos. My gut feeling is that the Lynx is better than Putrid Leech here. The mana would probably need to be reworked a little, but if you really wanted to, you could probably forgo black altogether, replacing the Pulses with an O-Ring/Journey to Nowhere/Path to Exile split. The downside to this is cutting Bloodghast. Without a Wild Mongrel variant in the format, you need to be able to spend BB to make use of it (or face Blightning/Cruel Ultimatum every round) meaning Leech is not really a problem on the mana front. There could possibly be an especially aggressive version of this deck that can summon both Lynx and Leech. Vengevine definitely benefits from the lowering of the overall curve of the deck, helping ensure you’ll be able to summon two men in one turn. It’s entirely possible that Moreno’s Kitesail Apprentice is enough, and the Leeches are a better fit.
The potential resilience of this deck suggests that some kind of answer to it may be important in the future. Bojuka Bog is a reasonable late game card that can be fetched by Knight of the Reliquary to neutralize an opponent’s graveyard. Even if mirror matches aren’t commonplace, the hype behind Vengevine in Jund and Naya decks might be of merit, and having the ability to trump Vengevine parity could be useful.
As for the numbers in Moreno’s list, he mentioned on twitter that the second Scute Mob is there because the first one dies too easily. My experience with the card in Boss Naya tells me that you absolutely hate drawing it, and that two is too greedy. I suspect a second (or even a third) Birds of Paradise could help any mana issues more than what Noble Hierarch brings to the table. While exalted is usually pretty ridiculous, I don’t imagine many creatures attacking alone in this deck. I do think you want all four Bloodghasts, but maybe I’m the one being too greedy there. Lastly, the revision of Moreno’s list removed the playset of Stirring Wildwoods, which was possibly a little heavy handed. I think you want at least one – maybe two – to fetch with Knight of the Reliquary.
I don’t have a list of my own for this deck I like yet, but I have been penciling a few up in my spare time, trying to figure out where I can squeeze in those Skyfishers. Once Rise of the Eldrzai hits Modo, I’ll definitely be giving this deck a spin. Does anyone want to sell me some cheap Vengevines? I hear they’re totally overrated (cough).
This post and the comments have been removed at Manaleak TCG Worcester’s request, as stuff has quite the flow-on effect, when you’re not looking.
I had a good day, yesterday. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise, most of my days are pretty good, I think. Sure, there are a few that I could do without, and every now and again, I have a truly fantastic day that I’ll remember for the rest of my life! Wait, now that I think about it, I’m not sure I’ve had too many of those. Not that I haven’t had fantastic days, but more that I can’t remember them.
Anyway, yesterday. Prerelease day. On the grounds that I haven’t missed a Magic prerelease in something like, 12 years, I didn’t accompany Heidi up to Newcastle for the weekend to see her family. This meant that I stayed up too late on Friday night, and had trouble getting up on Saturday morning. After skipping breakfast to do the dishes – there were no clean spoons, Catch-22! – The Tournament Organiser, Lindsay Hemming pulled up with his car loaded with tournament stock and drinks and posters and a sack barrow and a friend of his called Alex, from some European country where it’s cold early and often. I squeezed myself into the back seat, and Lindsay mentioned Alex was going to be visiting New Zealand in May. “Are there any beaches I can swim at around that time?” Alex asked. Considering it will be winter then, and Lindsay and most of his friends are of the social variety known as ‘Goth’ I was somewhat taken aback by this. I advised against swimming in New Zealand in general, especially in May (should really read “between February and November”) but suggested heading over to the Southern Alps, as they’re quite a sight when blanketed with snow. Alex said she wasn’t really very interested in snow. In retrospect, considering her place of origin, I could probably have given better advice here. I guess skipping breakfast will always leave you functioning at half strength.
We got to the venue early, which is generally what a TO needs to do, and the price I pay for liking free rides into the city with said TO. As I helped sort land with the judges – something I find quite relaxing, while most judges seem to find it quite a chore – I chatted with a judge called Craig, who I had seen at other tournaments in the past, and happens to play bass in a hobby rock covers band, or something like that. He was telling me about how he’s learning Tool’s ‘Sober’ and we discussed the interesting dynamics of a band, especially how the limitations of one member can hold back the rest. Eventually the land was sorted, and one good conversation turned to another, as I caught up with Garry Wong. There’s so much I don’t know about the guy, but that’s probably because half the time, he’s having too much fun making it up as he goes along, so it’s kind of difficult to separate fact from (non-malicious, at least) fiction.
Soon enough, it was time to crack packs. With Lindsay’s prereleases, you get two choices; Serious or Casual. The quality of the Serious crowd is generally quite a bit higher than what I’m used to back in New Zealand, which is a good thing. However, when you start to think about the Expected Value of the prerelease, sometimes the better option might be the Casual event, where the prize is a flat payout of 4 packs each, instead of 10 for 3-1 and 24 for 4-0 in the Serious event. Unfortunately, every time I’ve chickened out and gone Casual, I’ve felt like I spent the whole time beating up six year-olds for their lunch money. Not that the opponents in the Casual events are all six year-olds or anything, just that they probably haven’t been playing for as long as I have. Whether or not I come away with packs often in the Serious event shouldn’t really be an issue, although I’ve managed to collect a few times, if I ever want to take myself seriously in Magic circles, I should be in Serious.
Grand Prix Auckland winner 2007 Dom Lo doesn’t seem to share my view on this, though. I met Dom at GP Auckland when we went for dinner on the Friday night with mutual friends. Since then, Dom’s interests in the Magic arena have waned somewhat, possibly because winning a GP is hard to top, but I always seem to manage to get him to come out of hiding for a prerelease or a PTQ. I think this was probably the first time we played in separate prerelease events, and it might even be a sign that Dom will soon start skipping prereleases. I hope not.
My sealed pool was pretty good, I’ve definitely had worse. I ended up building a mostly Green deck, with Black for Hideous End, Butcher of Malakir, Urge to Feed and Nemesis Trap. The Trap was spoiled as “exile target creature” which would have been awesome, but “exile target attacking creature” was good enough. I also splashed Red for Punishing Fire and Burst Lightning. The best card in the deck though, was Seer’s Sundial. When I saw it spoiled, I suspected it would be good in sealed, but too slow for draft. The night before I fell asleep hoping I would open it so I could give it a go, how lucky!
I don’t really remember the names of my opponents. Hell, I hardly remember the names of people I’m introduced to at the best of times. I’m pretty sure I’ve got everyone I work with sorted after a year, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I’ve been calling people by the wrong name and they’re just too polite to tell me. Turn four of game one, round one, my opponent had failed to put any pressure on me and I happily tapped out to play the Sundial. “Oh, I opened one of those, is it actually playable?” he asked. Several turns later, as I continued to cantrip lands, he mused “I guess it kinda is,” before blowing me out with a Wolfbriar Elemental, kicked more times than I cared to count. Okay, it was four times, and that was plenty.
Game two, I got my Sundial again, and eventually, he got his as well, now that he’d sided it in. I was several turns ahead with mine though, and I didn’t miss any land drops. I think the fact that I built my deck to have a low curve, which is pretty important in this format anyway, is what helped the Sundial tick. That and I was playing 19 lands ^_^. Both games took a while, and for some reason we were playing 45 minute rounds. I mentioned that with the prize structure, if we went to time, we should prize split and one of us should scoop. He looked uncertain, so I quickly backtracked, saying we didn’t have to, we could see if we could get the third game played in what I assumed was like, the two minutes left. What I didn’t say was that because I do coverage of the Australian National Champs, I really have no need to worry about my rating any more, so I would definitely have scooped if he had agreed to the split. He mulliganed in the decider, and burnt his Hideous End early, leaving the coast clear for me to summon a Scute Mob, which was 13/13 when time was called during his turn, and killed him during my turn.
My round two opponent was playing White/Blue, which was nice… for my Scute Mob (rimshot). He had a couple of Guardian Zendikon and a Basilisk Collar in both games, which made it hard to get through with anything meaningful, but it gave me enough time to find Punishing Fire, and in the second game even, the Butcher. He had a couple of Whiplash Traps, but that’s only good when you’re tempo’ing someone out, not when you’re stalling.
Round three, Kuan Tian crushed my dreams. I remember Kuan’s name because I’ve met him several times, and he top 32’d Pro Tour Austin last year, making him someone I’m meant to know when doing coverage, and so on. His build was Green/White and appropriately fast. I wasn’t in game one for long, and while game two was very close, but he managed to squeeze exactly enough damage past my Quicksand with two pump spells on his Marsh Threader.
This left me needing to win the last round to get any packs, which admittedly I don’t really need. When I was a student, winning packs was a good thing for my collection, but now it’s more the idea of winning packs that’s desirable. If I really need any cards, I can just buy them, because I have a job, which makes acquiring them seem less important, and therefore something I don’t tend to do as much these days. I wanted to win though, because when you get packs, it feels like you’re really getting value out of your event, you know? So it was a bit unfortunate when my fourth round opponent king-hit me with a Hellkite Charger to take game one. Game two, he mulliganed and I crushed him with the weight of the Sundial. Knowing what his deck was capable of, I carefully traded card for card throughout the early part of game three, until I found the Sundial and started to pull ahead slowly. I sandbagged the Nemesis Trap for as long as I could, but he forced my hand with Archon of Redemption that he hasted up with his own Mark of Mutiny to try and steal the last few points. Another benefit to my low curve was few if any decent Mark targets. The Trap snapped the Archon, and the copy ate the other random small attacker that came with it. This left a window of opportunity for the Hellkite to show up, but he had to draw that off the top at this point, and I was drawing two, sometimes three cards a turn with the Sundial and the help of a Walking Atlas. Eventually I found Scute Mob and that was soon eating all of his men, one at a time. So yay, ten packs!
I went to find Dom to see how he was going, so we could get some lunch before the afternoon events began. Dom had finished playing, but wanted to wait for Zach to finish playing. Zach is someone Dom and I knew from World of Warcraft, something Dom still plays but Zach and I don’t. Zach was part of the playgroup that included the mutual friends I met Dom through, and I had grouped and chatted with him quite a bit in game, because we both played Mages. Over the last year, Dom has frequently mused that he should get Zach to come to a prerelease or something. Curious, I asked Dom to point him out. “He’s over there, with the green striped shirt,” Dom pointed. “The guy with the beard?” I asked, looking at a guy in a green striped shirt with a full, if tidy beard, and not seeing anyone else with a green striped shirt. “No, he hasn’t got a beard,” Dom hazarded uncertainly, which confused me somewhat. Zach finished his match and came over to us, complete with his beard, and Dom introduced me, “this is blisterguy!” Zach stood there, trying to remember the name of his Mage with a grin on his face, so I broke the ice with “it’s cool, I can call you Zach. Dom doesn’t think you have a beard.” It turned out that Dom’s definition of a beard is Grizzly Adams level scruffiness.
We headed off in search of food, and it turned out Zach and I have quite a few shared interests, and he works not far from my office, and he often has lunch in the building next door because he studied at Usyd and still has friends there. We swapped email addresses, because apparently he refuses to facebook “on principal”, which I don’t exactly get, but we’ll see. Somehow, we passed three hours in a food court, missing the afternoon half of the prerelease, but it was all good. What is Magic if not hanging out with your friends?
I then caught the bus home, did my first two ever Zendikar drafts on Magic Online – I know, I know, I’m a slacker – before heading to bed. While I did pretty badly in those drafts (1-2) it was still a good day.
