GP Portland May 2013 Part 1

Into the great northwest, my Magic adventures continues with Grand Prix Portland. The format was Modern. "But dude", you say, "you've never played Modern before." This is very true, mon ami. But what is living life without trying something new?

Let's see the deck I threw together -

THE BURN
4 each of Rift Bolts, Lava Spikes, Lightning Bolts, Skullcracks
1 Devil's Play and 1 Searing Blaze
THE DUDES
4 each of Hellspark Elementals, Keldon Marauders, Goblin Guides, Grim Lavamancers
3 Vexing Devils, 2 Hell's Thunder and 2 Ash Zealots
THE LAND
19 Mountains (I should've played Zen lands since it would help the 'Mancers)
THE SIDEBOARD
4 Molten Rains, 2 Ghost Quarters, 2 Pithing Needles, 2 Tormod's Crypts, 2 Elixirs of Immortality, 2 Searing Blazes and a single Smash to Smithereens

Just what the burn deck needed.

I'm sure you are scratching your head on most of those choices. True be told, I took a netdeck and tried to build it with what I and my buddies had around. The Rains and Quarters were for Tron, Crypts for Living End, Elixirs for the mirror, and Smash for Affinity.

It was 80 degrees sunny in Portland. Wait. Read that sentence again. It might as well say "it was snowing in Equador". Locals were wandering the streets in a daze, looking at the big ball of fire in the sky.

"Put on your sunglasses, you fools!", I pleaded. But alas, they did not own any.

Since the Magic bros weren't arriving until tomorrow, I decided to search about the city. I found Guardian Games was a cool store with lots of bookshelves full of games and lots of tables in back for gaming. They only had two Zealots for $2.50 each. No tax! You heard about that, right? I handed over a $5 and I didn't need to scramble for any change. Oregon, you have a place in my heart. I asked the clerk where to get some food. "Around the back, there's some food trucks..." Oregon, you have a place in my stomach. One Greek gyro later and I was a satisfied man.

This place looked good, but I went for a gyro.

Got our playmats at the con center the next day at 10. They had Progenitor Mimic artwork, if you are into angels with smoky eyes. There was a free mini-master game for entrants and we all got two packs. But I dropped to explore the city some more. OMSI, Powells, breweries and Voodoo Donuts. I freaking love this city!

Digging in the pink box.

Saturday morning was a quick stop at Starbucks, then inside for the 10am players meeting. No pros there of course, since they had the sleep-in special. I guess that's worth it. Greg was playing Melira Pod and Russ had a Jund deck. Off to battle!

Russell practices his victory pose.

My first round opponent was Chris playing I don't know what. I only saw a Glittering Wish for an Abrupt Decay before my red dudes got there. Second game, there was a Magma Jet and two Snapcasters. Burned him out. The guy next to me said my deck was too hot to handle. Chris didn't like that.

Only from sideboards in constructed.

Round two was Alex playing Splinter Twin. Ca-ca-ca-combo. We both mulliganed and I tried burning him up, but he played Remand and Cryptic Command before getting the win. Kind of heartless tapping into 30 million dudes. Game two, he didn't draw counters and his life went from 20 to 16 to 13 to 12 to 9 to 6 then dead. Game 3 was the counters and combo kill again. Unfortunately, I'd needed two burn spells to take out a 4-toughness Exarch. Sigh.

Okay, not so simple. I hope I don't see that deck again! Round 3 was a Tron player named Jeremy. I got him to 12 before the Tron lands went online and a Wurmcoil came out. But I had Skullcracks to prevent him from gaining life twice and got there. Game two I sided in the Molten Rains and Quarters, but I didn't see them and he played Karn and a Spellskite. Brutal. Last game was more like it however, with multiple Rains blowing up Urza's lands. 2-1

This guy wrecked me all weekend!

In the middle of the last round, an announcement was made. "JIMMY, we have your CELL PHONE and your MOM wants to talk to YOU!" Now that's funny.

Round four was vs. Brock in aviator sunglasses. He obviously wasn't from around here. He played Smiter, Aven Mindcensor, Horizon Canopy and Honor of the Pure. Burned him out fast. Game two I had him down to 8 life when he played a Voice of Resurgence. Before it resolved, I emptied my hand of a Bolt and Skullcrack. Then I drew a Lava Spike. 3-1

Thar's a new sheriff in town...

My next opponent was Anand, a sharp dressed guy playing Zoo. Kird Apes, Rampager, Boars and Experiments filled the board, but I went to his face with burn. It was a close race, but I was faster. I sided more Searing Blazes, which I wish I had main decked. Game two was even quicker with 3 Skullcracks, 2 Spikes and a Bolt. 4-1

Shane from Edmonton, Canada was my next round. I asked how his flight was. He said they drove. 18 hours! He was playing Affinity. Arcbound Ravager, Signal Pest, Thopter and Blinkmoths. We went back and forth, but I won the life race at 7 to 1. In went the single Smash! Second game I mulled to 5 and he flew in with Cranal Plating on an Blinkmoth. Game 3 I got mana deprived with just two mountains. This time it was double Platings on a Vault Skirge. Ouch. 4-2

Greg and Russ were also 4-2 at round 6. Whew! For my first Modern event, I was having fun! Forever the limited player, I could see what the lure was for constructed. Know your deck. Know the meta. Know the sideboard. It's like a puzzle you figure out. Limited is more random for sure. But I was digging Modern.

Greg checking the totals.

Round 7 was Nathan. I wrote down the spells (and his life total) I played game one. Spike (17), Marauders (16), Spike (13) attack (10), Rift (9), Bolt (6)(3). Then drew the Blaze (0). Game two was even faster with a Goblin and Devil too. I think he was playing Tron... 5-2

Eryk was my next opponent and he had a huge moustache. Like you could hide a small pistol in that thing. It looked like a RB burn deck with Bump in the Night. We traded Hellsparks and Goblins and Bolts, but I won the close race. Game two he played a Blind Obedience. Whoa, didn't expect that. And he didn't expect to only draw two land. Sorry, moustache man! 6-2

Wow, I could not believe my record. Russ was 6-2 too, but Greg was 5-3. It was x-2 to get to second day for sure. We all high-fived and went to our last round of the day. It was already past dinnertime, but there's no sky in convention centers. Must keep playing!

Sam was from Australia and he got a free ride from winning a local tourney. Congrats Sam! He was playing UW Control with Snapcaster, Sphinx, Mana Leak, Celestial and Dismember. Luckily, I had the burn when he didn't have the counters. I went Devil, Spike, Marauder, Thunder and unearth Thunder. Game two, he sided in Timely Reinforcements, but I still beat him even with 6 extra life. He got stuck on three lands which helped. I never lost a life either game. And I was onto Day Two!

A blast from Alara. So good!

What a ride! The guys were both 6-3 with a small chance to day two, but were stoked for me. We went back to the hotel and then to dinner at some food trucks. We met Rian at the Spirit bar last night and he works at a truck, so we hit him up. Mmm, deep-fried BBQ meatpie! Also, crazy poutine with Satay sauce. And another visit to the other Voodoo place after that. Life is good! Part two coming up next!

Delish poutine! Fun to eat. Fun to say.

Voodoo, you do it well.

Dragon's Maze Pre-release April 27

I will tell you upfront I did very poorly this pre-release going 1-2-1. Some people are going to read the following blog and think, why did I bother? But much like watching a train wreck (see Spielberg's Super 8), sometimes you can not turn away. To prove my point, what's the better story:

1) We arrived at our campsite and pitched the tents. Had a delicious stew dinner and played cards.
or
2) We got lost on the way and stumbled upon a sacred ritual of forest druids. As they danced around in the moonlight, we noticed a grizzly coming up the path. All of a sudden, the biggest bald eagle swooped down and took Joey!

Someone once said you only learn from failure, success teaches you nothing. And boy, did I learn!

This time, to shake things up, we decided to try the pre at GameALot. That store has been around for decades in Santa Cruz and now was running full-on Magic events. $20 for Sealed was the "bestest" deal in town. Spencer and I got mimosas downtown beforehand. Jordan was up from Marina. Greg cruised in and we were set... to wait. And wait. And finally we started 40 mins late waiting for stragglers. Ugh.

I chose Boros since I heard the format was going to be slower and why not take the fastest guild? My partner guild turned out to be Azorious. The 6 packs came in a cool plastic box and we got a guild pin too. The promo was Maze's End alt art.

I made the mistake of trying to force my guild choice. The way you are supposed to do a sealed is to open all the packs, look at all the cards and make your best deck. Don't have preconceived notions! I opened a Martial Law and Spark Trooper and thought, I'm on my way! Yeah, to a losing record.

Playing RWU, I had good higher mana cards, but I tried to force all the 1, 2 & 3ccs. Not good. I also had Lavinia, who's 5 mana. Not really an aggro card. On turn 5, an aggro deck wants to be beating face!

My first round was versus Anan, a nice kid playing RGW. Having Firemane Angel and Tajic in the same deck seems pretty good. Crushed me game 1. They didn't come out in the second game and he did play 3 fog effects before I finally got there. But they came back game 3. I lost 2-1.

My second round was versus Kevin, playing Orzhov with green. He had the Pontiff, which makes all his creatures have extort. There were some wild life swings in that game. Profit and Loss was a deathblow, pumping his guys and killing mine. And he played the Blood Scrivener, which allowed him to draw an extra card each turn. I should have killed that earlier when I had a chance.

0-2 and dejected, my buddy Greg decided to take a look at my mess. He asked, "you forced Boros, didn't you?". That's why he's a pro. He took out red and added black to make a much stronger deck. Sweet! 2-2 still wins some packs. Onward!

My third round was versus Tyler, that slowest frikking player on the planet. I kid you not. I know it's a pre with new cards and all, but come on. He never went into the tank for more than a minute each pause, but those minutes add up. The games took forever and we went to time. I should have prodded him along, but was too nice about it. And got a draw for my trouble. Let this be a lesson to you, kids!

My fourth round was versus Kendra. She's definitely a Magic fan since she wore an Azorious shirt. Her deck seemed big when I was cutting it and she said it was 50 cards. Really? Don't friends tell you if you have too many? Come on, friends! Won easily the first game and mulled with mana problems the second. Last game was another blowout and she was frustrated. I said to try and only play 40, but it went on deaf ears. She was bugging the owner for prizes. He let us grab a card from the promo box (foil Supreme Verdict!) and gave us a foil Plains. Whoop-dee-do! Not sure why WOTC would choose a plain Plains card to give out, even if it was alt art. It's not like you will ever play with it. What a waste of cardboard.

(sound of crickets...)

Before he left, Spencer offered to buy me a Zoccoli's sandwich. I declined and didn't really express my thanks enough for that gesture. He knew I was bumming pretty hard over my performance and his offer was appreciated.

I will regroup and try again next week at the Launch Party. Don't let your guild blind you!

Gatecrash Prerelease part two

When we last left our hero, I had played one pre at Legends and one at Mythic. The choice now was to either complete the trifecta and play in the 6pm one or go home and do laundry. Tough choice!

Gatecrash pre #3
This time I chose Gruul. Having seen a few crushing defeats at the hands of this guild, I decided it'd be fun to be on the other side. Big dudes, pump tricks, red removal - what's not to like? Along for the ride was my day-long companion Ian (lucky #17 last pre), Greg S.(who arrived after being in Vegas on 3 hours sleep), Jordan (up from Marina!), Paul, Greg P., Cartmill, Logan and Nathan. I good showing for the Woodstock gang. Could we all take the top spots and get packs for drafting next week?

Not a bad guild promo. Either a big beefy dude or a huge pump spell? Yes please. What else was there in my pool?

"Bourbon"-Gmos is a bit on the expensive side to play. But if he ever did get there, he'd be a house.
Also:
2x Burst of Strength (a nice combat trick)
3x Mugging (a slow Shock - still good)
Gruul Charm (a must vs. flyers)
Pit Fight (for when your dudes are bigger than theirs)
2x Disciple of the Old Ways
Act of Treason (take their blocker and beat them with it)
2x Ivy Lane Denizen (my all-star!)
Scorchwalker (Scotch-walker? Man, I need a drink)
Crowned Ceratok (so good with the Denizens)
Rust Scarab (a poor man's Acidic Slime)
Adaptive Snapjaw
I also snagged my third dual land of the weekend - Stomping Ground. Running good! Only four rounds this time and about 30 players. Onto the games!

I hadn't played Akemi before and she was shy and quiet. The first game she mulled to 5 and then was stuck on two lands. My Gruul horde reduced her life total quickly. Game two had her playing islands and swamps and then she played this:

If there was ever a target for a mugging, this was it. Hey Ghast, don't go down that dark alleyway!
Unfortunately, she got out some flyers too and then countered all my beefy dudes. Game three, she was stuck on no lands again and I just rolled her. Make sure you mull aggressively, kids!

Round two was against Skylar, a teenage Magic phenom. He felt pretty good about getting this guy out game one:

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CARD?!?
4 point life swing each turn. 5/5 hasted beats. Can't kill it on my turn. Yeah, that game was fun. I had finally gotten a big beast out with Pit Fight in hand but he extorted me for the last few life points. Ugh. All through the game, he was like "So, this card's pretty good, huh?". Um, yah dude.
Game two was much better for me. He was stuck on 4 lands and I played many red/green beaters. My Rubblehulk pumped an unblocked guy in for the win. Game three was more mana trouble for him, since he never found a swamp. My Gruul horde laughed as they crushed him beneath their hooves!

Compare and contrast time! Check out the earlier version of that card from OG Ravnica:

So... one more mana cost gets you double the life swing, better P/T and you don't have to sac a guy to pay for the blink effect. Yah, that's fair. This is evidence number one in the case for showing creatures have greatly improved from past sets. OMG. At least it's mythic, so we won't see it too much in draft!

Ah, two oh. Say it with me. 2-0. What a nice ring to it. Nothing could go wrong, right? Queue the foreboding music.

Round three was versus Stephen and he was playing Dimir. I started off the game kind of slowly without much creature threats to his Vampire Spy and Bird Raptor. The Bane Alley Broker drew him enough gas to then mill me out with Mind Grind. She's a hottie, tho!

Game two saw my green Denizen get there with bloodrush for lethal. But game three, I was always behind for his counters and removal. He was able to keep up counter mana every turn - so frustrating!

Okay, 2-1 now. I looked over at Greg's game and here was the board:

Yes, that's Greg Peterson's Assemble the Legion vs. Greg Smith's Domri Rade, both with many counters. Greg's planeswalker eventually got there, but what a crazy game!

My last opponent was Paul Sperew, who was rocking Boros. Lots of fast guys with flyers and removal.  Game one was close with beatings from both sides. At mid game, lives 12 to 11, my Denizen worked with the trample rhino for the win.

A 4/3 for four ain't too bad by itself. But with the Denizen giving out +1/+1 counters like they were candy? So good. Game two was also a close one, mid game lives at 8 and 10. But I top decked two Muggings at the right time and then Rubblehulked in for the kill. Sorry Paul!

So the final score was 3-1 and 3rd place. Good for 8 packs! My records all weekend got better as I went and I had a blast playing with new cards. If these articles don't get you fired up for the new set, you beta check yo' pulse, man!!

Props:
Mythic, for a great place to play
The Cheesecake Factory, for excellent appetizers
Russell and Ian, for hanging out and crushing noobs!

Slops:
Waiting forever to start - I'm no doctor, so I ain't got patients!
Madcap Skills, you are so heartless!
Time, where did you go? I wanted to play another!

Shameless selfie in display case reflection. Magic girl in the back is unimpressed!

Gatecrash Prerelease part one

What a weekend. Three pre-releases in two days. Was this cowboy ready to crash some gates?
Anticipation was high for this set. Not that I was tired of RtR, but new cards iz new cards!
I planned to meet Russell over at Legends for Saturday and he would come to Mythic on Sunday.
Smoke your kippers, kids and strap in!

Rolled into Vallco (the mall that would not die) for the noon pre at 11am. They said "first come, first served" to pick your guild. I wanted to try Boros because it looked fast and fast was good. Having died many times to Rakdos in the previous set, I wanted at least a fighting chance. They were still taking sign-ups well past noon and we finally started at 12:45pm. Ugh. 150+ players, so they split us up and had tables and chairs in the lower part of the mall.

Opened up two Legionnaires, a Boros Charm and Keyrune, Spark Trooper, Fortress Cyclops, some removal and the Reckoner. So I tried a straight red white deck. Round one was versus another Boros deck, but he had the Helix Angel, which quickly defeated my team since I had no air defense. Game was a bit longer and I got him down to 8 life, but when he played his Champion and made it fly with the Gift of Orzhov, I was signing the loser slip. Gee, that was fast.

Russ checked out my pool and suggested to add green. I had three 5/4 Swines, a Pit Fight and two Disciples of the Old Ways. And you know how I love the Old Ways (tm). But it was now the next round - no time to switch it up! My next opponent was a Simic mage. Game one he played one evolve dude after another until I was sorely outclassed. But I fought back game 2 & 3, winning easily while he stumbled on dudes. Whew!

Round 3 I put in the green from before and played another Boros player. It was the most popular guild by far. Game one I met Aurelia ("how do you do?") and lost in a blaze of double combats. Game two I released the swines (swoons?) and pit-fought for the win. In the rubber game, all green mana played hide and seek with my deck with all the swine in hand. Sigh.

I dropped but Russell was still in it for packs, so he asked his 4th round opponent to split and got 3 three. The goal, as with any pre-release, is to get enough prize packs to be able to draft the following week. 21 more packs to go!

A subpar performance, but not to let it get me down, we agreed to pick up Lindsey, Russ' girlfriend, and get some food and a movie. After numerous suggestions, we decided to just head down to Oakridge and see what looked good. After checking out BJ's, PF Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory, we were sad they all had huge wait times.

Until we heard, "Kurt, party of 3"...

"Why yes, I'm Kurt"...

"Follow me, sir!"
(Don't try this at home, kids.)
We macked out on Avocado Rolls and Moroccan Chicken. So good!

Rearing to go Sunday morning for more Magic, I made my way downtown to meet Ian for coffee before the pre started. We examined my Saturday pool and planned our attacks. He was going Dimir to try and mill people out. "I just want to cast 'Mind Grind' at least once!"

A smaller, but friendly crowd at Mythic that morning. The Boros guild seemed to be just as popular. Plenty of space and we started on time! What a difference a place can make.

I went Orzhov, since extorting is my 4th favorite thing* to do while flopping cards. And have you seen the promo? Opened a Breeding Pool, Legion Loyalist, Mystic Genesis, Rubblehulk and Biomass as my other rares. None to really splash. Oh well. I was happy with my 7 extort cards (counting 1000 Lashes as one too).

Russell pool, on the other hand, was ridiculous. Me Gruul, me SMASH! Clan Defiance indeed.

My first opponent was Nicolas and he was Dimir. All the games went long and he always had a huge Aberration out, but my slow, pinging death went the distance. Luckily, my regeneration Thrull could hold back the monster! I like the life-gain on extort more than the damage dealing since it keeps you in the game. Had 4 extorts out and playing the 1CC Thrull is a huge swing.

Round two was vs. Alex and he was big, green Gruul. We both played dudes and kept swinging. He asked if I was trying to out aggro him with a Orzhov deck. I smited his big Mime Slime and then played Righteous Charge on my 4 dudes for lethal. Game two was won with my 1000 Lashes on his 6/6 Mime Slime - ah, I can hear the whip cracking now...

Feeling invincible (and a whole lot better than yesterday), I looked to my next opponent and saw Paul the Judge at the table smiling.

"You seem confident", I remarked.

"Just wait...", he smirked.

This Gruul beating was different than the last. Removal? Check. Rumblehulk? Check. 9/9 Trample Goliath? Checkmate. Game two he played a Scorcher, madcapped it and then blood-rushed the Rampager on it. Pass the Tylenol.

I wished him continued success and went and got some grub at Woods. Pizza and beer for what ails ya! Round four was against Ian, the miller. Although he said his deck didn't have enough mill cards to go that route. He splashed green and game one, I was greeted by the Sylvan Primordial. I smited it. Then I extorted him down while he was mana flooded. Next game, he played this:

For 7 - I milled 18 cards!!! How I came back from that was a miracle, but I kept extorting for the win. Sorry, Ian!

Last round was versus Zach, the long-haired rocker with patches all over his Levi jacket. Did this kid know Magic? How does a turn 4 kill sound? Oof. The red Denizen, then Madcap, then Spark Trooper. He was high-fiving his friends the rest of the night. Rock and roll, baby! Game 2 he madcapped his Helix Angel. Got skills!

At 3-2, I got 18th place. Much to my chagin, Ian got 17th. How is that possible?!? We each got 2 packs and signed up for the next one. Russell won it out with his Gruulicious deck. I don't think he lost a single game. Nice 10 packs, my bruddah! Next blog will be the 6pm pre - stay tuned!
--
(* 1st - drinking a cool lager, 2nd - munching some tasty eats, 3rd - Turbo Go... that's right!)

Woods RTR Draft Sunday Special

Woods RTR Draft Sunday Special
January 6th, 2013 (first of the year!) 4pm.
Chris, Ian, Sean, Shawn, Paul the Judge and me.

Ian texted me that it had been too long without a draft. Aye, this be true, laddie.
The holiday break was difficult to get guys together since we all had crazy schedules.
The UCSC kids were mostly gone (or playing in GPs!) and some others went skiing.
Where's the Magic dedication, people!

So when he contacted me, I jumped in quick. Getting Paul the Judge for #6 and we were set.
Woods was still selling slices (cheap eats, FTW) and the heat lamps were glowing outside.

My first pack had junk - no good rare or removal - so I went with a Gore-House.

When in doubt, draft speed. That's my new motto. That and "street gum is not free gum"*.
Got another Gore dude and some Glees to make me feel all Rakdos-y. Then a late Teleportal
opened up the Izzet option. I continued to pick both guilds until I got some good counters and a Blustersquall. The Angel of Serenity in pack 3 was a cruel mistress. Whip me, beat me, but at least
be splashable. Sigh.

My deck:
3 Gore-House
Splatter Thug
Skywatch Knight
Electromancer
Voidwielder
Runewing
Frost Weird
Fae Imposter
Judge Familiar
2 Cobblebrutes
Courier Mill-dude
Izzet Stratocaster

2 Backlash
Explosive Impact
Teleportal
Pursuit of Flight
Syncopate
Annilating Fire
Blustersquall

SB
Traitorious Instinct
Courier Mill-dude
Thoughtflare
Blistercoil Weird
Bellow's Lizard
Gob Rally
2 Glee
Thrill Kill
Sewer Shambler
Launch Party
Batterhorn
Dispel

The plan: get out dudes and counter their threats and finish with a Teleportal or 'Squall

First round was versus Paul the Judge. Hey, at least it'd be easy to call a judge!
He was next to me in the draft and he started playing blue. Then white. Then I knew he had the Angel. This was not good. Luckily, I teleported my dudes to his face game one, but the Angel came out game two and crashed me. Game 3 was long since I held counters and he held the Angel until I had whittled away his life and we was forced to play it. Backlash, baby! For exacties. So good!

Second round I was paired down with Ian. He played Sean close, who had a great Selesnia deck. There were some talk about all the Spheres of Safeties that went around -- did Ian have them? Well, he started with a Lobber Crew and then another. And out came the Spheres -- 3 of them! Oof. It made it 9 mana to attack him with one guy! His Lobbers then pinged me to death. Ugh. Game two, I got in some early beats and then when he walled up, I burned him out with the Impact and Fire. Game three, I sided in the other Courier and played that turn two with a Pursuit on it turn three. Ended up milling him that game. Whew!

Finals vs. Sean, master of the Selesnia deck. He was the only GW drafter at the table and his deck was solid. I took the first game even though he had many pump spells that killed my guys. My Familiar countered his Centaur Accord and I was able to burn him out. Game two was in my grasp when I stole his 7/7 slime with Traitorious and then played Teleportal overloaded. He had a fog with Druid's Deliverance however, and came back to stomp me. Game three was all centaurs populated and he took the crown.

Ended up in 3rd place (Chris had a better game record) and got a Deathrite Shaman, Smiter and Chemister for my trouble. It was a great pool with 4 duals and the Angel too. Hopefully, we'll get in some more RTR before the new set, Gatecrash, comes out at the end of the month.

Speaking of which, did you see this?!?

Oh man, I wanna play this with Rite of Replication so bad. How does that Modern combo not feel good? My other fav spoiler right now is:

 

Just thinking of the combos to play with him. Make him indestructible and ping him every turn? Too much fun. They are cheap right now for pre-ordering at $2 and $4 each. Are they constructed playable?

Thanks for reading. See you at the Gatecrash pre-release!
-JL

(* - paraphrasing a line from a classic holiday movie: can you guess which one?)

Fallen Empires draft @Mythic 11-17-12

Fallen Empires Draft
Mythic Games, Santa Cruz
Nov. 17th, 2012

My Saturday was crazy. An old friend talked me into running in the SC Turkey Trot 5K at 8am on West Cliff. In the rain. Then, after much coffee and pumpkin bread, I raced up to UCSC and the KZSC Music sale at 10. Six dollars and 24 CDs later, I stumbled home for a much needed shower. Because at 1pm, Mythic was hosting a FREE Fallen Empires draft!

So if you don't know, Mythic Games is THE gaming destination in Santa Cruz. They recently expanded and now have lots of well-lit, clean gaming room for all players. If you play Magic, or any table-top game like Mech-Warrior, this is the place to play.

One of their regulars, Joe, bought a box of FE and wanted to draft it. So Mythic advertised on FaceBook and I got the 6th spot. Joe would keep the cards, but he would give out prizes to the top 4. Deal!

My buddy Larry Bee was there, but wasn't drafting, so he quietly watched my picks. I had done some FE drafting research on the web, but it mostly said "don't do it". You see drafting wasn't a thing yet in 1994, when FE came out, so it wasn't built with drafting in mind. After looking at the cards, I could see it did at least have a tribal theme: Thrulls, Thallids, Orcs, Drawves, Soldiers, Hominids and some Goblins. Also, the most expensive card in the set is Elvish Farmer ($2.50), which makes Saprolings that can be sac'd to gain 2 life. Really? Oh, and the packs have 8 cards each. So we drafted 5!

My first pick in the draft was Order of Leitbur:

White it was! My second pick was Icatian Town, which let's you play four 1/1 soldiers. Almost as good as Lingering Souls! I then proceeded to pick up 4 Icatian Javelineers, which are some of the only removal in the set.

I ended up in mostly W with some G for 2x Night Soils and a Feral Thallid (6/3, who can regenerate).

Some interesting things about FE - they had some cards with multiple artwork like the Javelineers above. It was a small set (102 cards), but with the extra art, it seemed like more. There's barely any removal and the average size of the creatures is probably power 1.3 and toughness 1.6. This causes for a lot of stalled boards. There's a reason you don't draft this set, but hey, it was a crazy Saturday and the price was right!

My first round opponent was Casey running mono-blue with 2x Deep Spawns and 2x High Tides. Combo anyone? High Tide makes all Islands double their output for a turn. And a bunch of Hominids.

Game one my Javelineers took out some of his dudes and I was able to overrun him with 1/1s before he could stabilize. Game two was a turn 4 Deep Spawn by way of High Tide. Ouch. I had an Elvish Hunter to keep the Spawn tapped, but he played a Merseine on it and I was done. Game three was a board stall, but my Thallids kept making Saprolings and I eventually got in FTW.

Second round was versus Jacob running Brassclaw Orcs (3/2 that can't block creatures with power 2 or more) and Hymn To Tourachs.

This is regarded as one of the best cards in the set. This and High Tide. Two discards at random is harsh! But my army of 1/1 dudes all spilled out onto the battlefield in a few turns and beat Jacob in two games without much resistance. He showed me his deck with Orcs and Thrulls and he just got mana screwed.

Onto the finals vs. Tully, who had called for us to meet there when we started. Tully and I have had many fun Magic battles over the years and this would be no different. We agree to draw and play for the extra pack. (1st was 4, 2nd was 3). He was running GB with Thallids and Thrulls. Lots of counters were needed for our games.

So with Night Soil, you like having guys in the graveyard to make more dudes to fight with. Unfortunately, he had some too, so we were fighting over who could trigger their Soil first. He also had a Druid that could make his forests into 2/3 fighters. Ugh.

I was able to take a game with my army of 1/1s and he stomped me back in game two with forests. Since I had some movie plans with the family, I needed to head out, so I offered the extra pack to him. He was stoked and asked me to sign it. He said he was going to start a collection of all the Magic packs. Good luck on that, Tully! It should make for a fun Chaos draft one day!

Props:
Joe, for a fun blast from the past draft. I'm inspired to buy a box myself!
Mythic, for a cool place to hang out!
Icatian Javelineers, you know to clear a board.
Slops:
Deep Spawn, no fair being a 6/6 trampler in a world of 1/1s!
The rain. Nice to look at, but a drag to run in.

Let me know your Fallen Empire experiences in the comments below!

GP Philly Pt. 2

The continuing adventures of Greg and Spencer into Day Two!

After an exhausting Day One, we all crashed early. The tropical storm was upgraded to a hurricane, which was moving up the coast. Coming right for us! Stores were boarding up their windows. Sandbags around the doors. Starbucks was closed! But the Marriott was connected to the convention center by a skybridge, so we never had to go outside. Up and atom for more Magic!

Day Two means drafts, so G&S got their seats into 8-man pods. Greg drafted a aggro GW pool with the GW Guidemage and Wild Beastmaster and a splash of black. He rolled to a 3-0. Spencer, unfortunately, did not get a good draft pool and bombed out 0-3. He decided to keep playing for the free cards and planeswalker points.

Greg's second draft wasn't as good as his first, but he beat his first round opponent and could draw the next two to get into the Top 8. Wow, what a ride! For more deets, check his webpage: GregsDayTwo

Russell and I did some side drafts and got food for the players. We also checked out some of the local sites.

Philly Mint

Philly Cheesesteak

Hanging with the Bell

Meanwhile, Greg drafted in the Top 8 and got paired up with Yuuya Watanabe, who has two Pro Tour Top 8's and 16 GP Top 8's to his name. Not bad. And Greg beat him. He's in the Top 4!

Some Czech beat Greg the next round, but Greg was in the money for $1500, a travel voucher to PT Quebec and the right to call himself a pro. So proud of our boy! Read the GP coverage at the mothership!

We partied later at the hotel and because of the hurricane, flights were cancelled and we ended up stuck for two extra days. So we played more Magic in the lobby with the other stuck players. LSV, Kibler, Wrapter and even Marshall from Limited Resources were all there. We played on team draft with him and his posse.

Weird format - draft normal then randomly pick 4-man teams. Teammates can help each other build decks. Then everyone randomly picks a player on the other team that they don't play. So now you have your opponents. Best team record gets all the rares. Then they pulled the rares "Italian" style. They put them all face down and each teammate would pick and flip one over. Whichever card had the highest CMC, that player would get them all. If there was a tie, then repeat. Spencer played on Marshall's team and they won in  a tie-breaker round. Best rare? Foil Jace. But Spencer didn't pull it. Oh well, still fun.

Whew, what a trip! Congrats to Greg's BIG win! Philly was fun and I look forward to another trip there.