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Sleep for the Win.

Different pre-release experiences in a realm void of sleep, and altered colours.

A Central Coast Planar Chaos Pre-Release Report by a very tired Mal Barsing.

Sunday 21st January 2007, Imperial Shopping Centre Gosford.

It’s the 15th of January, I arrive at work and immediately check my Roster. My eyes Glaze and I stare at the printed excel spreadsheet that notifies me of how I will be wasting my time for the next week.

Saturday Midnight to 6 am

Joy, Dogshift, the land of drunks, stoners, cabbies and pie eating maniacs. It was about this time that I questioned my desire to quit a salary position (hey 60 hour + weeks suck) to return to shift work at a service station to pay for continued University education. (because 2 degrees- one with honors- is not enough)

I was fairly confident I would survive the Dog shift, then umpire Junior Cricket, then Play Cricket, be perky for the in-laws at a Barbeque that evening, and get 8 hours before the pre-release. Unperturbed, I peruse the sheet to find my other shifts.

Sunday Midnight to 6 am.

Weekend Double Dog, Joy of Joys, I’ll just swap my shift,

“Hey boss can I.”

“Don’t you even finish that sentence, no one can cover for you, I don’t care what you have on!”

Obviously my boss does not play Magic! I briefly thought about not playing cricket, but that was not going to happen, and I was not missing the pre-release so I arrived at the following- No sleep for the win.

This plan involved V, Red Bull, a Gloria Jeans sponsorship and favours from new energy drink Mother! It was evident at approximately 9.15 pm Saturday night that no sleep for the win was a ludicrous notion. The problem with no sleep for the win was that Thursday night I ran a Type 2 in Newcastle and finally got shut eye at around 3 am, to wake up for a 9-5 day at Job 2!

So after arriving home on Sunday morning at 6.25 am I had had 9 hours sleep since Thursday morning – a dim bleep on seriously bloodshot eyes almost 70 Hours before.

A new plan was hastily concocted- Sleep for the Win. Delusional, crazy and thinking like someone who is on acid not sleep deprived, I set the alarm for 8.15am. One and a Half hours sleep before I need to get showered and into the venue.

Wake up still feeling bummed, get a triple caffeine hit, Mother, Roibos Tea and Black Coffee, and drive to Wizards of the Central Coast. Get to see the jolly Steve McCracken in pants not shorts! And dimly realize Foggo is here, and well probably start early, Joy.

Do some chores at the shop, and trudge downstairs, set some tables up, and pull up a chair for a quick kip. Five minutes elapse and Chris has me helping with the product handing out. Sitting down to deck construction, my mind is on soft pillows and a bed, even after a tall flat white from Gloria Jeans- the 4th big caffeine hit in the hour, my body is on full sleep mode.

Sleep for the win, was all that I could think about, but how?

I stumbled on the cunning plan of full beat down r/x into quick rounds and a sleep at the back of the event between games. Pure genius, Sleep for the win was only a mediocre crack of product away- I did not want bombs, or lucksack plays. I wanted average tempo beaters with removal back up. And I got them, with some bombs for help.

Having to go 3 colours meant the R/x was out the window, but with Assassinate, Strangling Soot, Avatar of woe, Volcano Hellion, Molten Firebird, 3 x Mire Boa and a Pardic Dragon to build around, I was confidant I could wrap games up fairly quickly.

Game 1 saw a yawn and a lost dice roll. I suspend a Corpulent Corpse Turn 1, Giant Dustwasp on turn 2, and Turn 3 is Search for Tomorrow. Turn 4 sees a suspended Pardic Dragon + fury Charm to send the big bad Dragon through to the head for 5. Turn 5 sees another round of beating of heads as my opponent attempts to axe the Dragon- only to be met by a Stonewood infused Pardic Dragon who smacks the hapless opposition for 10. A quick scoop is in order on realization from across the table that the Dragon is soon to be joined by some suspended friends.

Game 2 sees a Mire Boa, followed by some undying rage on Turn 3, the 5 turn cloak is sped up by a might of Old Krosa Turn 4 and a Stonewood turn 5.

1-0

Awesome, first player finished the round, give Chris the result and retreat to my sleeping quarters. I get a solid 45 minutes sleep as the saltry din of a magic tournament lulls me to sleep.

Semi refreshed I grab my pairings for 2, and find a newer player sitting across the table. I lose another dice roll, and proceed to lay out curve creatures with removal. Again I go second, ripping a consistent drop of creatures in the process, Mire Boa is followed by Sulfur Elemental, cleaning my opponents weenie drops. A Pyromancer follows securing death for any white creature with 2 toughness or less. A second Pyromancer follows with and end of turn Scryb Ranger, allowing for eleven damage per turn, no one lasts very long in that situation, accept that my opponent brings a card in from the suspend window, and plays ignite memories! Normally I’d scoff at this card being played in limited, however I looked at my hand and saw an Avatar of Woe, Sulfurous Blast and Pardic Dragon. My opponent has an unblockable creature that will deal 3 damage, being on 15 I need to hit the sulfurous blast at least once and miss the Avatar. I hit the Blast on both the spell and the storm trigger, phew.

Game 2 saw my opponent lay a steady steam of white mana and no red, of which he had a full hand of, the early beaters went the distance very quickly. Handing the result in again, I retired to my new sleeping quarters and renewed my repose, Sleep for the win looked like a tenable plan.

2-0

Round 3 saw me paired against Josh Thompson, as I lost the coin toss, we chewed the fat a little- I kept a 3 land hand with a Molten Slagheap, with 3 red drops, including the Molten Slagheap- Josh plays Forest, Plains, and I was kinda pleased, Green white is not a limited combination I am overly fond of, although Planar Chaos bought some love to the white removal suite. The bit that sucked was being stuck on those 3 lands while a Calciderm ripped me a new one- that and poor math on one play meant that I went down quickly.

Game 2 sees me finally go first, and rip the tempo straight up. Josh gets screwed for one colour early and like me in the first game could not recover.

Game 3 I keep a 3 land hand forest, swamp and mountain, with 3 drops in red, only one of which with double red in the casting cost being a sulfurous blast+ the stonewood. I never rip the second red, and go down quickly to the Calciderm.

2-1

But thankfully, as all 3 games were dictated more by mana not much time has been wasted, I return to my bed and Sleep for the almost win.

Round 4 sees me go ballistic on mana with a search suspended early + an artifact source, a Citanul Woodreader + pyromancer holds the horde away, while a well placed sulfurous blast cleans the board totally on turn 6 allowing for the Avatar to come into play. My opponent plays a dragon and says done. The fear factor on the Avatar pushes him through to the head, while my opponent incredulously attempts to decipher why he still has a Dragon in play. Boldly, he declares attackers, to which I play the Scryb Ranger untap the Avatar, and kill target Dragon. My opponent looks at the scryb, then the Avatar, and does the right thing and packs up his cards.

Game 2 saw me charge up a slagheap with a Woodreader acting as a horned turtle. Sufficiently charged I pull the Pardic fury charm game, and swing for 4. The turn after I float 6 red into the Pardic and swing with it and the woodreader, here the magic words no blocks and push the Stonewood Invocation onto the Dragon, to end the game.

3-1

The Casual portion of the day is over, and I receive some prizes, finish 5th and proceed to get some food before another nap for the next event. Who would have thought that sleeping would have such an impact on your play!

The Second flight sees a monster card pool with an awesome red pool, that would need a 3 colour build to pull off. Double Pyromancer and Dead//Gone, Pyrohemia, Grapeshot, Sulfurous Blast, Flowstone Channeler and Undying Rage. Nearly everybody who saw the pool looked at me as if I had had no sleep to cut such an awesome red pool. The fact of the matter was simply that red forced a bad 3 colour combination as my green and black were mana intensive. Fortunately Black offered 6 removal options + fat, while green offered fat + pump (another Stonewood!) + mana + Jedit+ double harmonize. Stuffy Doll rounded out the proceedings.

Pairings saw me playing against Scott Baker, a young up and coming player on the local scene. Scott is known by some guys (Adan Weeks and Steve in Particular) as a slow player- though most of the criticism comes from slow players themselves. Adan mutters a few jokes about how how I’ll have to play a full round. No way buddy, Sleep for the win is in full effect.

Game 1 is smash face as Mire Boa and Trespasser il-vec make the journey across the board consistently, joined by an Uktabi Drake.

Game 2 sees me pull into some insanity care of the mana fixers, with a turn 4 Herd Gnarr followed with a turn 5 Jedit. Turn 6 sees Stuffy doll and Jedit get the Herd Gnarr to 6/6 and the bad boys rumble forth. Turn 7 sees Scott with 2 blockers, so Stuffy joins the attacking fray and gets the Stonewood treatment.

1-0

A quick sledge to Adan about fast play as I finish the round first and retire to my new bed., Sleep foe the Win is on song.

Round 2 sees me even more refreshed, and ready to redeem my earlier loss to Josh, who has the bombs, Slivers (including Sedge) Avatar of Woe and Akroma, Angel of Fury to name a few. Game 1 sees a little to and fro action, until Josh attempts to it my boa Uktabi Drake with Dead. The Drake suddenly resembles a Dragon thanks to the magic if Stonewood. The extra beats, plus the lost 2 for 1 means Josh cannot recover. He flips his two morphs and I see the Akroma.

Game 2 I thought I bagged it when the turn 3 Morph I hit with Cradle is Akroma. Unfortunately Josh keeps piling on the juice with a Sedge Sliver and Flamecore Elemental and barges through for the win.

Game 3 sees me follow his Sedge Sliver with a Spitting Sliver, gaining the upper hand. I have semi- control with slightly larger creatures (Spitting Sliver and Magus of the Coffers) until he plays Avatar of Woe. I had drawn lands dead for 4 turns, holding 2 back in my hand, only playing Swamps to fuel the tendrils of corruption. I rip a Harmonize from the top, and pull a stonewood and enslave and tendrils, affording 3 options for the win. The Mire Boa in play means I only need 1, swing and Stonewood for the win.

2-0

Still a reasonably fast round, I have a quick chat to Foggo and powernap again.

Round 3 shows me Matt Coffee- like I need more stimulants eh?! Matt shows up to play with an extremely aggressive BR deck with a stupid amount of burn and removal. The sad part is that after, Sudden death trumps Stuffy Doll, and my drake got hit with soot, and the Coffers got Gone, Gone, Axe treatment, and Jedit got eaten by a meteor, a little 2/1 regenerating swamp walker had accumulated 20 damage!

Game 2 sees similar insanity, accept this time Stuffy gets owned by treacherous link, Jedit gets smacked and coffers gets obliterated. My poor little Uktabi Drake accumulates much love until the Stonewood treatment ends Matts day.

3-0

Alas time is over, we have to leave, I get bumped into second on resistance, receive my prizes (I won Magic bingo as well!!) cracking Extirpate x 2, Damnation in the first 2 packs, sees me put away the boosters for drafting.

Another enjoyable Pre-Release was had by many, and I learned that Sleep is the real Super tech!

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