I don't have a Gavin Verhey-esque allegory to describe how I feel about Magic right now. (On a side note, if you haven't check out some of Gavin's allegories on Star City Games, you should do so right now.) In fact, I'm likely just on game tilt after my *stellar* performance at Nationals:

• Lost the U/W Control mirror
• Lost the U/W Control mirror again
• Lost to Valakut
• Lost to Valakut
• Dropped to get draft sets
• Was only given one draft set, even though there is no day 2 cut
• Asked to speak to the TO about this situation, was refused
• Refused my draft set and left the main TCG hall, never to return that weekend

Pretty sweet, huh? Of the 372 people that registered for Nationals, I finished...

I'm not even bad enough to be worst! So I was done with Magic for the weekend (and probably for a while, until Innistrad sealed PTQs at the very earliest). Instead, I went over to hand with my roommate Dan Hanson over at the World of Warcraft TCG room. I had played the WoWTCG once before, at PAX last year, and I enjoyed the game. And GenCon weekend, they had one of their bigger open tournaments, Darkmoon Faire Indianapolis. Being sealed deck, I figured I'd give it a shot. It actually couldn't go any worse than Nationals, could it?

Reality check - I had never played a sealed deck event of WoWTCG before. I had drafted twice. I didn't have high expectations. I told Dan if I finished above .500, I'd feel like I was successful.

Building a WoW Sealed Pool

There are a lot of differences between Magic and WoWTCG when it comes to limited deck construction. Instead of 5 colors, there are 2 factions and 10 classes. And once you commit to a hero (a card separate from your deck that represents you in the game, with a specific faction and class), you're stuck with that hero for the tournament, no matter how much better a different build of your pool may be. Let's take a look at my sealed pool from the DMF as an example of what sorts of different challenges you have in building a WoW sealed deck.

I know the mouseover tools aren't as robust for WoWTCG as they are for Magic, but you get the idea. You choose an alignment and class, and then immediately disqualify about half of your card pool. It's very different, and it took me the entire deckbuilding period to get my pool together. I chose Alliance Rogue in the end as I felt the blue allies were better and I wanted access to the Axe and Leader of the Pack.

So how did this neophyte do? Well, I got a feature match in the last round of Swiss playing for the Top 8 against Rob Victory. As you can tell from the coverage, it didn't go well for our hero, but I was live going into the last round, and that's really all I can ask for.

I've been bitten by the WoW bug, and I expect to play a lot of events at PAX, a lot more than Magic, especially with no Magic Online Live Series this year.

• The No Foolin' Contest - So turnout kinda blew for this, and I only got three people that sent in their stories. So they all got foils! Including the Squadron Hawk and Praetor's Grasp, I threw in a bunch of other cool foils (Lightning Angel! Wall of Roots!). The three stories I received were from:
  • Chad H. - My very first tournament was Legacy, it was around the release of Lorwyn. I showed up with a 95 card sliver deck, that revolved around Coalition Victory. Turn 1: Tropical Island, into Virulent Sliver. I then Dazed Counterbalance on his turn. Turn 2: Savannah into Gemhide Sliver. Turn 3: Replayed Tropical Island into Heart Sliver, into Crystalline Sliver, into Necrotic Sliver. Turn 4: Badlands, Coalition Victory, with Force of Will back-up. GG's. I didn't realize how demoralizing it was to lose to a rogue brew with Counter-top at that time, but this known whiner threw a fit, and I've been a crazy-combo player ever since. For sure this deck sucked, but man-oh-man, was that the best win of my career.
  • Nick H. - Right when MBS came out, I ended up drafting and playing 4x Concussive Bolt which reads Concussive Bolt deals 4 damage to target player. Naturally I assumed it said "creature or player" and played all 4 in my deck. First game, I attempt to use it as removal on a creature, my opponent corrects me so I deal 4 damage to him instead, on T4, T5, T6, and T7 to win.
  • Ross L. - Playing game 1 in the finals at 8th ed. Release Party- I drop a Rod of Ruin game 1, smile at my opponent and say "20 turn clock!"- 21 turns later I killed him with it, I actually missed a trigger once!

  Enjoy your foils, guys!

• A weekend after getting a set of steak knives at the hands of Greg Peloquin, I sleeved up the big bad wolf that is Caw-Blade again for another National Qualifier. 32 players made for a 5 round event. I beat Valakut in round 1, Valakut again in round 2, lost to a mono-white brew in round 3, and beat a 12 year old playing G/W Vengevine in round 4. I'm such a villain. I got to draw into top 8 where me and Zaiem Beg didn't play Magic in the quarters (his RUG deck stalled on two mana both games) and I beat another RUG player in the semis, leading up to a rematch with the mono-white player in the finals. I dropped a not-particularly close game 1 after mulling to 5, then mulled to 6 in game 2 with a reactive, but powerful hand. Day of Judgment, Sun Titan and lands. I draw a Preordain turn 2 and look at double Gideon Jura. I tank for nearly a minute, since Gideon seems really important in the matchup to control his aggressive draws, but I feel like I need some more immediate threats. I end up putting both cards to the bottom and drawing Into the Roil and passing the turn... without playing a land. Ugh. Inside, I sank a bit. Mental punts like that just aren't acceptable in the finals of a tournament. He played a Mirran Crusader which I bounced, then he played Hero of Bladehold. Now on three lands and staring down his board of two Plains and two Tectonic Edges, I had another decision to make. Play the fourth land and Day away his Hero, get two lands destroyed when I know my opponent has at least one cheap threat in hand, or play a Mortarpod, stem the bleeding for a turn, intentionally miss my land drop and hope my opponent feels like he needs to commit more to the board and get more value out of the Day before my lands get wiped. I sandbagged the land an sure enough, he put down a pair of Squadron Hawks the following turn and my Day got a lot sweeter. He stumbled on mana enough to never have time to activate the Edges after that and I dragged myself back into the game, won it, and closed out the match to qualify for Nationals.
• I also got my first taste of the full Scars block sealed experience playing in a Kansas City GP Trial. My pool was really good, with Myr Battlesphere, Kemba, Kha Regent, good pieces of equipment, a decent removal package in Skinrender, Parasitic Implant and double Grim Affliction, and double Blinding Souleater. 11 people meant 4 rounds and top 8 with the same sealed decks. I beat a random kid in round 1, local limited ringer Brian Wong in round 2, and Zaiem in round 3 before drawing in the last round of Swiss. I got paired against the kid again in the quarters and he would not scoop to me, wanting to try and win more packs. Unfortunately for him, I'm a jerk and crushed his dreamcrushing ways. In the semis, I played against Zaiem again, and unable to scoop to him for fear of losing my second bye, we played out what was essentially the finals, since Zaiem's wife, Hollie was waiting in the finals and would likely scoop to either of us. Kemba made a lot of cats for me, and Zaiem's White Sun's Zenith didn't show up for him, so I got the win and the third bye this coming weekend in Kansas City.
• Coming up, I've got GP Kansas City, a PTQ the following week in Seattle, and then a bit of a break for M12 release events until another PTQ and Nats. My goal this year is to be playing meaningful Magic in December when Worlds comes around to San Francisco. It's so close to Seattle and I'm probably going to go anyways, so why not be playing in the main event? I feel confident, even though the fire went down a little bit after GP Dallas, and Kansas City should be good for me. It's still limited and I could still get a poor pool, but I haven't seen a ton of unplayable pools in this format. I'll try my best to keep you all better updated on what's going on.

Turn one bolt you, go
I will kill you by turn four
I still had all these

Welcome to Still Had All These, where I'll document my theories on life, love, and loss, with some games of Magic thrown in for good measure.  Things are still in flux here, so please excuse the mess.

Things To Look For

• Vampire Nighthawk - Pretty much every report I write on Zendikar limited is going to mention how much better things would have gone for me if I had the little bloodsucker that could.  Even if I have three of 'em, the fourth is just that much better.
• Catch Phrase - I may not be a Pro Tour level Magic player, but even Osyp has respect for my Rainman-esque Catch Phrase skills.  If there's not Catch Phrase happening at a PTQ, something's very wrong.
• Constructed - I need to fish or cut bait on sixty card decks.  My success playing magic has come bringing decks to the site as opposed to draft or sealed (Oh, Mana Tithe.), but I have a lot more fun playing limited.  If I want to get back to the Tour (and I'm pretty sure I do), I'll have to put more time into constructed.  Vampire Nighthawk might make cameos here as well.  He's that good.
• MODO - See James.  See James draft.  See James draft badly.  Tell James how he could have done better.  It's no Drafting With Ruel, kids.

Stay tuned.