TerribleTim68
07-10-2012, 01:44 PM
So, at the prompting of my friends I decided to go ahead and write this tournament report. Understand that a lot of it will be more of an opinion piece and less of a tournament report, so you've been warned. :tongue:
This story starts about 3 weeks before the SCG Seattle Open. I had planned on playing Hive Mind, my deck of choice. So I began running it through every local Legacy tournament I could get to. Luckily for me I have a Sunday night and a Wednesday night tournament within easy reach of my house. I tend to see a lot of the same players at both of those, and the same decks as well, so it's a good gauntlet for testing. I typically do well with this deck and have been playing it for almost a year now with decent success, so I felt pretty good about it and I enjoy playing.
What came out of my testing was that while my matchups were VERY solid against pretty much everything, I could not seem to get around the RUG Delver / Canadian Threshold matchup. No matter what I tried, that matchup was a loss every time. I often stole game 1 from them but after boarding I just didn't stand a chance. I also wasn't getting a lot of help from these forums as it seemed like the Hive Mind forum had just gone dormant and I was the only one left there. So after 6 events and not a single match win against that matchup I started to panic. Having followed the SCG tournament posts for a long time now (mostly to see what decks are solid) I expected Delver decks to make up a large portion of the field. When I say "large portion", I mean I expected to see Delver decks make up roughly 45% of the field. Don't ask me why, I just did.
So the Friday before the SCG Seattle Open I decided to switch decks. I had run across Hypergenesis the last week of testing leading up to this event. That was the first time I had ever seen the deck in action and was totally impressed and somewhat fascinated. So after looking over the internet for a bit for a decklist I could come up with, I threw it together. Here is what I registered :
Hypergenesis:
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Shardless Agent
4 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
4 Grizzlebrand
4 Progenitus
2 Maelstrom Wanderer
4 Force Of Will
4 Misdirection
4 Show And Tell
4 Violent Outburst
2 Hypergenesis
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
SB:
4 Leyline Of The Void
4 ViolenLeyLine Of Sanctity
4 Dismember
3 Terastodon
Mostly a very stock decklist, so let me explain a few things. The oddities in the fetches were due to the fact that I don't own a single Zendicar fetchland, but I do have all my Onslaught fetches from back when I played Standard. Also, as far as the very stock decklist, this decklist was easier to aquire and slightly cheaper since the key cards such as Maelstrom Wanderer are in the box set that Shardless Agent comes in. So since I had the Wanderes it didn't make sense to go hunt down Akroma's Memorial or something else. Plus, I'm cheap. I'll buy the "played" cards over the "near mint/mint" stuffany day. I have a couple moxes that went through a guys dryer. They look like hell, but they still work the same on the board. Sleeve 'em up, they all play the same! And in my casual games at the house, no one cared. :tongue:
Since I was new to this deck I decided to go up on Saturday night and run it through the Legacy Challenge as a warmup/introduction. I don't live that far from the tournament site so why not? I talked my wife into going with me. Our daughter came along too to give her someone to talk to. They dropped me off at the event site and then took my truck and headed to the outlet mall a little farther up the freeway. Score! I get time to geek out, she gets to spend time with the kid. This is going well. :cool: I got there about 2+ hours early so I could catch a few of my friends who were playing in the Standard portion in action. Plus, some times I just want to hang out.
A couple of the guys were doing quite well and I got to watch the whole Standard show go down fora bit. Yup, that's a boatload of Delver decks! That started to make me feel better about my last minute deck switch. If there are this many Delver decks in the Standards portion, the Legacy portion should be no different. WRONG! I got all signed up for the Legacy Challenge and joined the action around 5pm. One of my friends from the Standard portion had scrubbed out and joined as well. Cool, now I have someone in my event that I know to chat with.
SCG Legacy Challenge :
Round 1 vs Joe playing Affinity:
Game 1 - I watch Joe puke his hand out all over the table while I'm on the draw and think " Oh man, this gonna be a long night." I can't seem to get moving and Joe drops Cranial Plating on one of his dudes and proceeds to show me the error of my ways.
Wow, those Dismembers should come in handy here!
Game 2 - I mull to 5 before I find something that resembles a hand and think "Well, I do need to learn how this deck mulls." I flop around a bit trying to get what I need to look impressive and Joe proceeds to do the same thing he did in game 1. Somewhere along the way he tries to drop Cranial Plating, I answer with Force Of Will, but Joe has one of his own.
(0-1)
Round 2 vs Jordan playing a funky Counter-Top deck:
Game 1 - Oddly enough, this deck was giving me fits early on until I finally went off pretty big. I had that magical turn where I cascaded Hypergenesis dropping Grizzlebrand, drew a pile of cards and cascaded again inot a ton of big scary stuff with haste.
Ok, this is what this deck should be doing! I have faith now!
Game 2 - I mull, Joe takes a long time to do anything of note and I puke my hand all over the table again, with haste and smash him in one turn.
(1-1)
Round 3 vs Nate playing Maverick?:
I remember thinking "Man, there is a ton of Dredge players here, how have I not seen one yet?" Seriously, Dredge was everywhere during this little show.
Game 1 - I keep what looks promising, Nate decides to Wasteland me into oblivion and then ride a Knight Of The Reliquary to a victory.
Game 2 - This one looked a lot like the first one. In the end I just couldn't get there.
(1-2)
I dropped from this one so I could go do some trading with Star City Games since I had this huge binder of crap rares I was toting around everywhere. Somehow I turned it into $240 of store credit that quickly became a Tropical Island and an Underground Sea. My wife freaked that I just traded a huge binder for two cards, and lands at that, but I walked away stoked!
After heading home for some sleep, I got up bright and early the next morning to drive back to the event site (roughly an hour away from home with the way I drive, not bad). I got to the event site at 8am, I hate being late. So I had a couple hours to mill around. When I registered for the event I was listed as player 4, so at least 3 people beat me there. :tongue: My friends all started showing up a little after that and we sort of took over a table and started finalizing everyone's lists. Charles and I chatted a lot since we were both playing the same deck (sort of, see his report here - Cascading to 51st at SCG Seattle (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24163-Cascading-to-51st-at-SCG-Seattle) ). I have a lot of respect for Charles, he is a great player and really stretches my skills every time I sit down across from him. He is often a huge teacher and a great mentor, so I tend to listen to what he says.
Now came show time!
Round 1 vs John playing Reanimator:
Game 1 - We both durdled around for a bit, playing fetches and trying to get something going. If I learned anything from Charles it's that you don't "go off" until you have to. There is nothing wrong with a turn 3 Hypergenesis if that's what it takes, so I was being as patient as I could. John was off to a slow start and at this point I didn't know what he was playing yet. It became painfully aware when I cascaded into a Hypergenesis and John dropped Grizzlebrand and Karakus off of it. My Emrakul, The Aeons Torn quickly found his way back to my hand and John went on to smash my face with a big ugly black demon. My notes said "Grizzlebrand is good :cry: ".
So I'm definately bringing in those Leyline Of The Voids!
Game 2 - I opened with a turn 0 Leyline Of The Void and spent some time setting up. John did the same thing evidently. I cast a Shardless Agent, which John countered. I grinned because I thought I had the upper hand. WRONG! John then Force Of Willed my Hypergenesis. I tried to Force Of Will back only to be Dazed. So no Hypergenesis for me, and at the end of my turn John Reanimated my Shardless Agent and rode it to victory. The worst part was looking at that stupid upside down picture on it that was now facing me while it beat me down. TRAITOR!!!!
(0-1)
Round 2 vs Aaron playing Maverick:
So I sat down thinking "Man, I know I can beat Reanimator with Hive Mind."
Game 1 - I mull to 5 trying to put something together that might get me there. Aaron is loving that. I lead with some fetches, he Wastelends my duals. Smart guy keeping the Wastelands in his hand until after I fetch out a good target for them. I finally load up enough to go off and Aaron drops Karakus off my Hypergenesis. Again with the "put that back in your hand" routine? Aaron rides his stuff he dropped off my Hypergenesis to a victory. I'm starting to think Hypergenesis is more beneficial to my opponent than me.
Ok, so let's get those Terastodons to see about blowing up that Karakus crap!
Game 2 - Aaron Force Of Wills my turn 2 Hypergenesis, plays some bears, then Force Of Wills my next Hypergenesis. I lose to lots of angry little dudes with no way to get my key card out of the yard and no Show And Tell in sight.
(0-2)
Round 3 vs Matt playing Goblins:
Again I find myself sitting down thinking "Man, Maverick is a cakewalk for Hive Mind."
Game 1 - I pull off a quality turn 2 Hypergenesis dropping Progenitus into play. Matt proceeds to empty his entire hand of what seemed to be a billion goblins from his one-land opener he kept. When he untaps, he has enough damage on the board to kill me in a single Alpha-Strike. He comments on how much he likes that Hypergenesis card. I weep a little. :cry:
Hmm, seems like those Dismembers could come in handy here.
Game 2 - I cam't seem to get anything going while Matt proceeds to spit out goblin after goblin. And when he runs out of them he tutors up more with some other goblin that I'm pretty sure said "When you play this card, go get every goblin card in the building and put them in your hand". I lose to the biggest army of goblins I've seen since the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
(0-3) Oh yea, I have yet to win a single game too. :cry:
Round 4 vs Dave playing Dark Zoo:
Dave is a close friend of mine. We play at the same tourneys each week, chat a lot, all that. This time I sit down thinking "I don't recall ever losing to Goblins with Hive Mind. And hey look, it's Dave! I know Hive Mind can beat him, I do it a lot!" I hate playing my friends in these big events. It isn't what I came her to do. I never feel good about beating one of them here. So I already have a sour taste in my mouth for this match. Either way, I feel like I lose.
Game 1 - My notes are plretty simple, "Turn 2 Spaghetti Monster FTW!!!!" Yea, it's tough to beat that. Dave scooped pretty quick.
I chose not to board and just try to do what it does. I may have shuffled some stuff in and then pulled it back out just to psych him out. :wink:
Game 2 - Dave gets moving pretty good while I have to set up a bit more. When I Hypergenesis Dave drops Karakus. "OMG, that again!" I scoop and move on to game 3.
Game 3 - This time with the golden hand! On the play I turn 1 Hypergenesis. I drop a Progenitus and Dave drops his Karakus, then comments about Progenitus having "Protection From Dave, or something like that".
The good thing about quick matches is you have time to go eat. :wink:
(1-3) And yup, I feel like shit for beating my good friend like that. That wasn't any fun at all.
Round 5 vs Ryan playing Sneak Attack:
Hmm, I think if I lose this match I'll go spend some time with my wife.
Game 1 - I open with a fetch, Ryan opens with Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Show And Tell. I think "sweet, I'll just put this Progenitus into play. Ryan proceeds to put Sneak Attack into play and then plays another Lotus Petal and cheats in a hasted Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, all on turn 1!!! Holy crap, that was fun!
I have no idea what to board, so I leave well enough alone.
Game 2 - I mulligan and then take a minute to set up while Ryan decided to do exactly what he did in game 1, only with small modifications. He turn 2 Show And Tells and I don't have jack worth putting into play yet. So Ryan drops Grizzlebrand, then proceeds to go all Yawgmoth's Bargain for about 8 billion cards, drop a Sneak Attack and then toss another hasted Emrakul, The Aeons Torn at me. "Why did I trade off my Sneak Attacks again?"
(1-4)
At this point I don't really see any reason to continue on and I'm kind of missing my wife a bit so I scrub out and head home. I really wish I would have stuck with Hive Mind since it is my dekc of choice, I tend to do better with it and I didn't see a single Delver Of Secrets all day! It's easy to say in hind sight, but I think my deck switch was wrong and in the end it cost me everything.
Honestly, I had a good time hanging out with my friends. I've been to a couple big events in the past; a PTQ back in Mirroden block Standard where I played what was the early versions of Affinity (back when Broodstar use to win things), a PTQ way back in Masques block Standard where I played U/W Rebels (back when Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero was a thing) and a PTQ waaaay back in Urza Block Standard where I played Wildfire after watching Kai Budde lay down the smack on ESPN 2. Thats right, I said ESPN 2! There was a day that the big Pro Tour events were on ESPN2 and I watched them. Now that's geeky!
None of those events were much fun as I went there alone. When you spend this many hours at a big event and have virtually no one to talk to or hang out with between rounds it can be very unsatisfying, more so when your day isn't going well. So I thank my friends a ton for just being around for me to chat with and welcoming me into their lives in the first place. I know that sounds goofy as hell, but it's a real thing. Try getting through life with no friends. No thanks!
If you noticed, the big events I went to were a long time ago. I played Standard and attended Friday Night Magic for a long time at my local Wizards Of The Coast retail store (per-Hasro era) where my wife also worked for a while as one of the retail sales members. I stopped playing when Mirroden came out because it was getting increasingly difficult to make it to Friday Night Magic on time (Let's face it, 5pm start on a workday only caters to school kids. Some of us work for a living!) and the constant set rotation was becoming expensive. At that time there was no local Legacy tournament. So I just shelved my cards and stopped playing. Occasionally I would pull them out and play against my kid or something (he played FNM with me and stopped when I stopped, since I was his ride at the time). So it's bene a truly awesome thing for me to stumble upon 2 local Legacy tournaments AND a great group of people to join with. My wife still complains about the money I spend on cards, but hey, we all need a hobby right? And at least it isn't a booster box a month like I use to do. :tongue:
Well, there you have it. My story. I guess when I get going I really get going, huh? But hey, you asked for it! And at least those college writing classes are getting used for something, right? :laugh:
This story starts about 3 weeks before the SCG Seattle Open. I had planned on playing Hive Mind, my deck of choice. So I began running it through every local Legacy tournament I could get to. Luckily for me I have a Sunday night and a Wednesday night tournament within easy reach of my house. I tend to see a lot of the same players at both of those, and the same decks as well, so it's a good gauntlet for testing. I typically do well with this deck and have been playing it for almost a year now with decent success, so I felt pretty good about it and I enjoy playing.
What came out of my testing was that while my matchups were VERY solid against pretty much everything, I could not seem to get around the RUG Delver / Canadian Threshold matchup. No matter what I tried, that matchup was a loss every time. I often stole game 1 from them but after boarding I just didn't stand a chance. I also wasn't getting a lot of help from these forums as it seemed like the Hive Mind forum had just gone dormant and I was the only one left there. So after 6 events and not a single match win against that matchup I started to panic. Having followed the SCG tournament posts for a long time now (mostly to see what decks are solid) I expected Delver decks to make up a large portion of the field. When I say "large portion", I mean I expected to see Delver decks make up roughly 45% of the field. Don't ask me why, I just did.
So the Friday before the SCG Seattle Open I decided to switch decks. I had run across Hypergenesis the last week of testing leading up to this event. That was the first time I had ever seen the deck in action and was totally impressed and somewhat fascinated. So after looking over the internet for a bit for a decklist I could come up with, I threw it together. Here is what I registered :
Hypergenesis:
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Shardless Agent
4 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
4 Grizzlebrand
4 Progenitus
2 Maelstrom Wanderer
4 Force Of Will
4 Misdirection
4 Show And Tell
4 Violent Outburst
2 Hypergenesis
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
SB:
4 Leyline Of The Void
4 ViolenLeyLine Of Sanctity
4 Dismember
3 Terastodon
Mostly a very stock decklist, so let me explain a few things. The oddities in the fetches were due to the fact that I don't own a single Zendicar fetchland, but I do have all my Onslaught fetches from back when I played Standard. Also, as far as the very stock decklist, this decklist was easier to aquire and slightly cheaper since the key cards such as Maelstrom Wanderer are in the box set that Shardless Agent comes in. So since I had the Wanderes it didn't make sense to go hunt down Akroma's Memorial or something else. Plus, I'm cheap. I'll buy the "played" cards over the "near mint/mint" stuffany day. I have a couple moxes that went through a guys dryer. They look like hell, but they still work the same on the board. Sleeve 'em up, they all play the same! And in my casual games at the house, no one cared. :tongue:
Since I was new to this deck I decided to go up on Saturday night and run it through the Legacy Challenge as a warmup/introduction. I don't live that far from the tournament site so why not? I talked my wife into going with me. Our daughter came along too to give her someone to talk to. They dropped me off at the event site and then took my truck and headed to the outlet mall a little farther up the freeway. Score! I get time to geek out, she gets to spend time with the kid. This is going well. :cool: I got there about 2+ hours early so I could catch a few of my friends who were playing in the Standard portion in action. Plus, some times I just want to hang out.
A couple of the guys were doing quite well and I got to watch the whole Standard show go down fora bit. Yup, that's a boatload of Delver decks! That started to make me feel better about my last minute deck switch. If there are this many Delver decks in the Standards portion, the Legacy portion should be no different. WRONG! I got all signed up for the Legacy Challenge and joined the action around 5pm. One of my friends from the Standard portion had scrubbed out and joined as well. Cool, now I have someone in my event that I know to chat with.
SCG Legacy Challenge :
Round 1 vs Joe playing Affinity:
Game 1 - I watch Joe puke his hand out all over the table while I'm on the draw and think " Oh man, this gonna be a long night." I can't seem to get moving and Joe drops Cranial Plating on one of his dudes and proceeds to show me the error of my ways.
Wow, those Dismembers should come in handy here!
Game 2 - I mull to 5 before I find something that resembles a hand and think "Well, I do need to learn how this deck mulls." I flop around a bit trying to get what I need to look impressive and Joe proceeds to do the same thing he did in game 1. Somewhere along the way he tries to drop Cranial Plating, I answer with Force Of Will, but Joe has one of his own.
(0-1)
Round 2 vs Jordan playing a funky Counter-Top deck:
Game 1 - Oddly enough, this deck was giving me fits early on until I finally went off pretty big. I had that magical turn where I cascaded Hypergenesis dropping Grizzlebrand, drew a pile of cards and cascaded again inot a ton of big scary stuff with haste.
Ok, this is what this deck should be doing! I have faith now!
Game 2 - I mull, Joe takes a long time to do anything of note and I puke my hand all over the table again, with haste and smash him in one turn.
(1-1)
Round 3 vs Nate playing Maverick?:
I remember thinking "Man, there is a ton of Dredge players here, how have I not seen one yet?" Seriously, Dredge was everywhere during this little show.
Game 1 - I keep what looks promising, Nate decides to Wasteland me into oblivion and then ride a Knight Of The Reliquary to a victory.
Game 2 - This one looked a lot like the first one. In the end I just couldn't get there.
(1-2)
I dropped from this one so I could go do some trading with Star City Games since I had this huge binder of crap rares I was toting around everywhere. Somehow I turned it into $240 of store credit that quickly became a Tropical Island and an Underground Sea. My wife freaked that I just traded a huge binder for two cards, and lands at that, but I walked away stoked!
After heading home for some sleep, I got up bright and early the next morning to drive back to the event site (roughly an hour away from home with the way I drive, not bad). I got to the event site at 8am, I hate being late. So I had a couple hours to mill around. When I registered for the event I was listed as player 4, so at least 3 people beat me there. :tongue: My friends all started showing up a little after that and we sort of took over a table and started finalizing everyone's lists. Charles and I chatted a lot since we were both playing the same deck (sort of, see his report here - Cascading to 51st at SCG Seattle (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24163-Cascading-to-51st-at-SCG-Seattle) ). I have a lot of respect for Charles, he is a great player and really stretches my skills every time I sit down across from him. He is often a huge teacher and a great mentor, so I tend to listen to what he says.
Now came show time!
Round 1 vs John playing Reanimator:
Game 1 - We both durdled around for a bit, playing fetches and trying to get something going. If I learned anything from Charles it's that you don't "go off" until you have to. There is nothing wrong with a turn 3 Hypergenesis if that's what it takes, so I was being as patient as I could. John was off to a slow start and at this point I didn't know what he was playing yet. It became painfully aware when I cascaded into a Hypergenesis and John dropped Grizzlebrand and Karakus off of it. My Emrakul, The Aeons Torn quickly found his way back to my hand and John went on to smash my face with a big ugly black demon. My notes said "Grizzlebrand is good :cry: ".
So I'm definately bringing in those Leyline Of The Voids!
Game 2 - I opened with a turn 0 Leyline Of The Void and spent some time setting up. John did the same thing evidently. I cast a Shardless Agent, which John countered. I grinned because I thought I had the upper hand. WRONG! John then Force Of Willed my Hypergenesis. I tried to Force Of Will back only to be Dazed. So no Hypergenesis for me, and at the end of my turn John Reanimated my Shardless Agent and rode it to victory. The worst part was looking at that stupid upside down picture on it that was now facing me while it beat me down. TRAITOR!!!!
(0-1)
Round 2 vs Aaron playing Maverick:
So I sat down thinking "Man, I know I can beat Reanimator with Hive Mind."
Game 1 - I mull to 5 trying to put something together that might get me there. Aaron is loving that. I lead with some fetches, he Wastelends my duals. Smart guy keeping the Wastelands in his hand until after I fetch out a good target for them. I finally load up enough to go off and Aaron drops Karakus off my Hypergenesis. Again with the "put that back in your hand" routine? Aaron rides his stuff he dropped off my Hypergenesis to a victory. I'm starting to think Hypergenesis is more beneficial to my opponent than me.
Ok, so let's get those Terastodons to see about blowing up that Karakus crap!
Game 2 - Aaron Force Of Wills my turn 2 Hypergenesis, plays some bears, then Force Of Wills my next Hypergenesis. I lose to lots of angry little dudes with no way to get my key card out of the yard and no Show And Tell in sight.
(0-2)
Round 3 vs Matt playing Goblins:
Again I find myself sitting down thinking "Man, Maverick is a cakewalk for Hive Mind."
Game 1 - I pull off a quality turn 2 Hypergenesis dropping Progenitus into play. Matt proceeds to empty his entire hand of what seemed to be a billion goblins from his one-land opener he kept. When he untaps, he has enough damage on the board to kill me in a single Alpha-Strike. He comments on how much he likes that Hypergenesis card. I weep a little. :cry:
Hmm, seems like those Dismembers could come in handy here.
Game 2 - I cam't seem to get anything going while Matt proceeds to spit out goblin after goblin. And when he runs out of them he tutors up more with some other goblin that I'm pretty sure said "When you play this card, go get every goblin card in the building and put them in your hand". I lose to the biggest army of goblins I've seen since the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
(0-3) Oh yea, I have yet to win a single game too. :cry:
Round 4 vs Dave playing Dark Zoo:
Dave is a close friend of mine. We play at the same tourneys each week, chat a lot, all that. This time I sit down thinking "I don't recall ever losing to Goblins with Hive Mind. And hey look, it's Dave! I know Hive Mind can beat him, I do it a lot!" I hate playing my friends in these big events. It isn't what I came her to do. I never feel good about beating one of them here. So I already have a sour taste in my mouth for this match. Either way, I feel like I lose.
Game 1 - My notes are plretty simple, "Turn 2 Spaghetti Monster FTW!!!!" Yea, it's tough to beat that. Dave scooped pretty quick.
I chose not to board and just try to do what it does. I may have shuffled some stuff in and then pulled it back out just to psych him out. :wink:
Game 2 - Dave gets moving pretty good while I have to set up a bit more. When I Hypergenesis Dave drops Karakus. "OMG, that again!" I scoop and move on to game 3.
Game 3 - This time with the golden hand! On the play I turn 1 Hypergenesis. I drop a Progenitus and Dave drops his Karakus, then comments about Progenitus having "Protection From Dave, or something like that".
The good thing about quick matches is you have time to go eat. :wink:
(1-3) And yup, I feel like shit for beating my good friend like that. That wasn't any fun at all.
Round 5 vs Ryan playing Sneak Attack:
Hmm, I think if I lose this match I'll go spend some time with my wife.
Game 1 - I open with a fetch, Ryan opens with Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Show And Tell. I think "sweet, I'll just put this Progenitus into play. Ryan proceeds to put Sneak Attack into play and then plays another Lotus Petal and cheats in a hasted Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, all on turn 1!!! Holy crap, that was fun!
I have no idea what to board, so I leave well enough alone.
Game 2 - I mulligan and then take a minute to set up while Ryan decided to do exactly what he did in game 1, only with small modifications. He turn 2 Show And Tells and I don't have jack worth putting into play yet. So Ryan drops Grizzlebrand, then proceeds to go all Yawgmoth's Bargain for about 8 billion cards, drop a Sneak Attack and then toss another hasted Emrakul, The Aeons Torn at me. "Why did I trade off my Sneak Attacks again?"
(1-4)
At this point I don't really see any reason to continue on and I'm kind of missing my wife a bit so I scrub out and head home. I really wish I would have stuck with Hive Mind since it is my dekc of choice, I tend to do better with it and I didn't see a single Delver Of Secrets all day! It's easy to say in hind sight, but I think my deck switch was wrong and in the end it cost me everything.
Honestly, I had a good time hanging out with my friends. I've been to a couple big events in the past; a PTQ back in Mirroden block Standard where I played what was the early versions of Affinity (back when Broodstar use to win things), a PTQ way back in Masques block Standard where I played U/W Rebels (back when Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero was a thing) and a PTQ waaaay back in Urza Block Standard where I played Wildfire after watching Kai Budde lay down the smack on ESPN 2. Thats right, I said ESPN 2! There was a day that the big Pro Tour events were on ESPN2 and I watched them. Now that's geeky!
None of those events were much fun as I went there alone. When you spend this many hours at a big event and have virtually no one to talk to or hang out with between rounds it can be very unsatisfying, more so when your day isn't going well. So I thank my friends a ton for just being around for me to chat with and welcoming me into their lives in the first place. I know that sounds goofy as hell, but it's a real thing. Try getting through life with no friends. No thanks!
If you noticed, the big events I went to were a long time ago. I played Standard and attended Friday Night Magic for a long time at my local Wizards Of The Coast retail store (per-Hasro era) where my wife also worked for a while as one of the retail sales members. I stopped playing when Mirroden came out because it was getting increasingly difficult to make it to Friday Night Magic on time (Let's face it, 5pm start on a workday only caters to school kids. Some of us work for a living!) and the constant set rotation was becoming expensive. At that time there was no local Legacy tournament. So I just shelved my cards and stopped playing. Occasionally I would pull them out and play against my kid or something (he played FNM with me and stopped when I stopped, since I was his ride at the time). So it's bene a truly awesome thing for me to stumble upon 2 local Legacy tournaments AND a great group of people to join with. My wife still complains about the money I spend on cards, but hey, we all need a hobby right? And at least it isn't a booster box a month like I use to do. :tongue:
Well, there you have it. My story. I guess when I get going I really get going, huh? But hey, you asked for it! And at least those college writing classes are getting used for something, right? :laugh: