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The MTGParadise Coverage of the Australian Nationals 2002 (part 1)

Day 0 - The Day of the Grinders

"Every Wizard, no matter the colour of his robe, vows his primary allegiance to magic. All wizards are brothers in their order. All orders are brothers in the power. Though we may disagree on method, particularly during important conclaves, the places of High Wizardry, such as this tower, are held in common among us. No sorcery will be suffered here in anger against fellow wizards." - V Par-Salian, Head of the Wizards Conclave (From 'Night of the Eye' by Mary Kirchoff)

Like the wizards in the world of Dragonlance, we have all gathered at the Australian Nationals for the love of Magic. Even though we were all different in age, race and surprisingly gender (yes, there were actually females at the Nationals!) we can all relate to each other by competing, playing and trash talking through this expensive hobby of ours. After attending the Australian Nationals last year, I ending up failing my exam on the following Wednesday because my mind was so packed with magical knowledge that it was impossible to remember how to do statistics on SPSS. Well this year my exam has moved up from Wednesday to Monday giving me even less time to study, so by logic, one would imagine that I would have learned my lesson from last year and stay home studying instead of playing cards in Canberra. However, studying psychology has taught me enough mental defences to ignore my responsibilities and go on doing whatever the heck I want. Therefore, instead of feeling guilty for not studying for my exam, I distract myself by thinking about the things I would like to do in Canberra like getting a feature match, get drunk in a Canberra club and make day 2 at the Nationals.

This year I went down to Canberra via getting a lift from Scott Hunstad and stayed with him, Sab the French guy, Matt Dickinson and Paul Ross at the backpacker's hostel. Before I went down to Canberra, my so-called friends tried to discourage me from going by brainwashing me with horrible stories about backpacker's hostels. Such stories include woeful tales about unfortunate backpackers being burned alive, disgusting stories featuring people who urinate in the basin and lively accounts of sleeping in a room with 30 plus people with bad body odour. Fortunately, it turns out that the back packer's hostel in Canberra is anything but bad. For around $22 a night, we get a 5 people bed room with our own shower, a spa for all the residents that Ben Seck went down to enjoy with a bunch of boys every morning and a swimming pool. Most importantly though, they have a bar down stairs for anyone who wants a little nightcap before going to bed.

We arrived the day before the grinders and Scott and Sab got up early on Friday to grind for an invite. I slept a while longer but felt cheated that I am paying $22 a night doing something that I could do for free in Sydney. So I got up and contemplated if I should be doing some study before I went over to the convention centre. That thought was short lived since I was all bubbled up with excitement and reading about the glory of doing research was probably the last thing I wanted to do. It is highly likely that I would be put straight back to sleep just by looking at the title.

I arrived at the convention centre at about 11:00 am and it was packed with people who trying to grind in the Nationals at the last minute. Emotions were high as people's dreams were being crushed in the grinders and I once again thank my lucky stars for having an invite in hand already. While my fellow Sydney players were grinding away I spent my time checking out the scene to get a feel of what kind of constructed deck were to be expected on day 2. Psychatog has once again become a huge favourite after the addition of Standstill and which was a damn shame because I hate playing against that deck. The calculation you have to do playing against a Psychatog deck is the equivalent to playing against 3 control decks at the same time and if I wanted to do math on a weekend, I would have went back to high school instead of coming to Canberra.

On the limited side of the event, a fellow Sydney player Sam Kissajukian has opened one of the most broken sealed decks I have ever seen in my life. Not only does his deck spot rares such as the mighty Aboshan, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Chainer, Dementia Master and Ambassador Laquatas but he also opened 2 Hydromorph Gulls for his deck. Sam probably would have had a great time playing his deck to victory if it was not for his final round opponent. This person, who I should dub as random guy B (too old to be a kid) was giving Sam a really hard time for handing him his ass. Whenever Sam plays one of his bombs, random guy B will make some crude remarks in a voice so loud that everyone living in Canberra could probably hear it. Sam was clearly under pressure under these verbal assaults and when random guy B was finally defeated which didn't take long (think I went to get a pie and by the time I finished eating it, random guy B was scooping), he actually said, and I quote:

"I can't believe that I lost to you, you are such a shit player!"

Wow, that is the rudest thing I have heard anyone say in a long time and I work in customer service!

Personally, I question the reasoning behind saying something like that to your opponent. Certainly there were no women around the proximity for him to impress and if he wished to salvage what remained of his pride and dignity he sure had a weird way of going about it. I mean, screaming at a 15 year old when you are 20 something or above does NOT make you look good in anyone's eyes. The only thing I could think of that comes from saying something like that is if you say it enough, you might be able to believe it yourself. Sam is certainly not a bad player if he could make top 8 in the nationals.

After the grinders have finished, Scott, Sab and I went to eat at an Italian restaurant in the city. Sab was kind of down since he was the only person in our room who didn't qualify for the Nationals (Scott grinded in) but his spirits immediately improved when we saw a large number of hot chicks with skanky tops roaming around the place. I always admire the girls' "spirits" when I see something like this because they are willing to dress in a fashion that will freeze their butt off for the benefit of men. Since they went into all the effort to make such sacrifice I thought it would be rude if I do not look to show how much I appreciate their "spirit". At one stage I was so distracted that it took Scott twice to get through to me when asking me what I was getting and even then, the only response I was capable at the time was "Huh? Come again?" If you ever happen to be in Canberra, forget going to the parliament house and the War Memorial since the city is definitely the hottest spot in Canberra and is much better for sight seeing.

I do not know if it is because I hanged around Magic players all day or I am just a geek, but when the bill came around, I told Scott that I will put my payment on the stack and pass priority to him in an attempt for a little Magic humour and not paying. The joke was so bad that I regretted saying it immediately and I can hear Scott and Sab gave one of those tolerant laughs that says "Please shut up and stop embarrassing yourself.!" Now I know how Zvi would have felt when team academy made fun of him for telling bad Magic jokes in his articles.

Though the bill did cost a fair bit but fortunately my whole trip was covered by my recent PTQ success. After we got back to the backpackers, I was totally worn out from all the perving due to too much neck movements. So instead of checking out the bar, I decided to go straight to bed. As I drift blissfully into sleep, I thought about how much better my accommodation was compared to last year until someone began to snore loudly.

Doh!

Oh well, I guess you can't win all the time.

End of Day 0

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