There has certainly been a lack of content on this site in the last few days and to be fair, I've had nothing interesting to write about.  I won't be able to attend GP Oakland due to work and other constraints, but I did get my release event on this week.  Usually what I do during release events is hit up a different one on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and rake in the goodies.  How many gold doubloons did this pirate plunder on the weekend?  Aargh mateys! Step abroad the U.S.S. G Pelly and find out!

Before I recount my weekend expenditures, I have good news.  I just saved hundreds of dollars...  Actually, I took my level 1 judge test at the prerelease as stated in my last article.  I am now a proud new member of the judge family!  If any of you are interested in ever being a judge, let me just give a couple of pieces of advice:

-Don't assume because you are a tournament spike that you will dominate the test.  You won't.  It's hard.  There are so many rules and regulations you need to know as a judge that you almost never see in a tournament setting.

  • Don't read the comprehensive rules front to back.  (at least not for the level 1 test).  Do study the basic rulebook found on the WotC website.  This will break down and spell out things like the phases and steps of a turn, how combat works, and the anatomy of casting a spell.    Not as simple as it sounds, because most games of Magic heavily shortcut these and usually just skip them.  You will need to know these.
  • Do read the tournament rules and penalty guidelines front to back.  You will need to know tournament policy and penalties.

As a reward for passing the test and working the prerelease, I was rewarded with the an amazing box of Worldwake.  I got Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Abyssal Persecutor and 6 manlands, including a foil Celestial Colonnade.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

I felt like Fred Flintstone.  I sat there in my office in a state of general malaise waiting for the clock to strike 5, so I could yell Yabba Dabba Do! and get the H-E-double hockey sticks out of my office.  I love sealed deck.  I love release events and there was one at 7 later that night.
After what seemed like an eternity, I finally got the hell out of there and rode Dino the Dinosaur home to my condo (I can't afford the cars you have to power by running, sorry) and geared up for the release event.  I gathered my proteges, aka junior associates in crime Ian 'ik' Kendall and Mark Jung (or 'Jong' as we always call him) and pedal on over to Comic Book Ink for the first release event.  We get there at 6:55.  It starts at 6:30. -_-
Fortunately, the TO lets us play.  Unfortunately, my pool looked like a steaming pile and I had exactly 20 minutes to salvage it.  I experimented with various 3 color builds to no avail, until I finally came up with the following.  Sadly, I forgot to save my pool from the event:

It looked like a giant pile of poop.  So who did it fair?

I didn't drop a game. The deck was actually completely sick.  Feral Contest was a beating, including a couple of games where I played turn 3 Leatherback Baloth and played the contest on turn 4 to mulch whatever they tried to play.

The curve was ridiculous and the bounce made sure they were never in it. The only game that was close was against Mark Jong's bomb laden u/b deck.  He played Vampire Nighthawk, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Butcher of Malakir and I still took it down.  None of those threats were anywhere near as bad as his Merfolk Seastalkers, which my entire deck can't beat.  He got me to 1 with islandwalk shenanigans, but I finally overwhelmed him with a Wolfbriar Elemental kicked 4 times. After that, I had to attack with it and get it tapped by the Seastalkers.  Then I used Surrakar Banisher to bounce it and in the same turn, kicked it 3 more times.  I then had exactly lethal when I was at 1.  Ugh.

That was fun.
For day 2, the three of us piled into my car for the release event at Proctor Sports Cards.  This time I saved the pool and while it was powerful, it was also VERY hard to build.  Take a peek:

First the pool:

Red and green are both too shallow for me to consider.  I really want to just jam both manlands into the deck along with the Emeria Angel, Vapor Snare and the black removal, but beyond the manlands, the manafixing just isn't there to support it.  I started with u/w first and had about 20 playables and I had to stretch to make it work.   It was the same story with w/b.  That only leaves:

I really hate some of the creatures in this deck.  I'm not happy about running the Lacerator.  But it's either that or the creatures that don't block and that's a losing proposition since this is a fliers/tempo/controlling deck.  I just hope the unmitigated power of this set of 40 will offset the weaker cards I'm running.

The Nemesis Traps were nothing short of insane.  And 'Aether Blowout' as James so eloquently put it at the prerelease more than lived up to its name.  I had to face Mark Jung again in round 1, who's deck was equally bomb laden.  I lost game 1 because I made a mistake and wasted my Hideous End on something non threatening, only to have him drop the Admonition Angel he was sandbagging and take over the game.   I took the other two though.

I made it undefeated to the finals until I ran into a G/w deck.  I got game 1, but lost the other two due to extremely good draws on his part.  I stabilized at 2 both times, only for him to topdeck Razor Boomerang and finish me off.  Also, it's hard to beat back to back Bestial Menaces.  I took 3rd over all.

For day 3, aka Super Bowl Sunday, I well... didn't watch it.  I honestly don't care one lick for football and haven't watched a game all season.  Why start now?  Instead, I found out the usual store that has Sunday releases, has switched to Friday, so that's out now.  I did find that Games and Gizmos in Redmond had their release that day.  This time, I was by my lonesome.  The trip was made easier by the fact that I was already going to a nearby town to run errands and eat Mongolian Grill, the finest dining available to man.  Thoroughly gorged, I made it to the store just in time for the 2PM start, only to find out it was going to be a draft instead, Zendikar-Worldwake-Worldwake.  Alrighty then.  I'd rather do sealed, but I can work with this.
I raredrafted a Scalding Tarn first pick, then got passed a Plated Geopede, Goblin Shortcutter, etc., and quickly settled into red. I also picked up a fairly late disfigure and wound up with a pretty strong r/b aggro deck.  Here's the finished product:

So how did the home team fair this time?  Not so well.  This deck looks ridiculous and I crushed round 1, but round 2, I ran into an insane w/g with Gigantiform, Wolfbriar Elemental, Stirring Wildwood, Trusty Machete and more.  He won game 1 by getting Gigantiform on a Timbermaw Larva when I was tapped out.    Game 3, I drew 6 spells and 10 lands.  Oh well, that's the problem with playing 18 lands in a deck, sometimes you draw them.
Round 3, I played against a w/b deck with tons of guys with high toughness such as Perimeter Captain, Caravan Hurda and Guardian Zendikon coupled with black removal.  Horrible matchup for me.  He got me with a Bloodhusk Ritualist kicked 3 times for my entire hand of removal and the stupid Caravan Hurda took to the air thanks to Kitesail while the rest of his fortress of men held me back.

Game 2, I started out ahead and got him fairly low on life, but the stupid Hurda showed up again and stymied my offense.   It's then that I topdeck Spire Barrage.  With 4 Mountains in play.  So I have a choice: I can either cast it now and hit him or a smaller guy, or I can wait to topdeck a 5th mountain and kill the Hurda, weighed against the risk that he has the Ritualist.

You know how this ends, don't you?

Yeah you do.

I elect to wait.  He topdecks Ritualist, I lose the Spire Barrage and topdeck 3 mountains in a row.  I die to the stupid hurda with a Kitesail on it again.   Ugh.

I drop and head home.  Fail'd.

Not the worst weekend, but far from the best.  Still I had fun and got to play Magic so I can't complain.

As mentioned earlier, I won't be able to attend GP Oakland and I missed the boat (literally).  So Dwayne will hopefully regale us with boat tales and James and Kasey will talk about their GP exploits.  Fortunately, the home front is far from barren, there is an extended tournament for a Mox Ruby this weekend that promises quite a turnout.  If I don't do horrible, I'll have a report to share with you as well.

If I may steal something from buddy Zaiem Beg...

Yours Judgingly,
G Pelly