Articles

After having a recent look at the MTG Paradise site, I noticed that Yaro was after some new writers, given that the current ones were less than forthcoming in new material, and Minga's "woe is me, I have to work now so I don't have any time to do anything blah blah blah" piece. I had a bit of a look, and it turns out that the last article I wrote for the site was six months ago! It seemed like it had been a while, but that is definitely pushing it (sorry Yaro).

In any case, whilst I will never have the hard-edged (read brutal) sarcasm that Minga was so kind to grace us with, I suppose I can endeavour to make a few biting comments here and there as required.

Now as far as an article goes, I suppose the reason I haven't written anything lately would be similar to Minga's - I don't really have anything useful to say.

Besides, of course, that Rush of Knowledge is infinitely better than Frozen Solid. Seriously.

So, what has happened since I last wrote an article? As near as I can tell, I have played in about 100 tournaments or drafts (in real life) and at least that many online, got my Nationals dreams crushed by a girl named Tiffany, won a disproportionate amount of team events (apparently the only thing I'm good at anymore), and spent an inordinate amount of time at the Sydney Games Centre, or so my wife is led to believe. Cardboard mistress - be damned.

I did have the distinct pleasure of winning a game in the team sealed event at Canberra against Jake Hart. While this is perhaps not an unusual thing in general, I was facing down a Future Sight, an amplified Kilnmouth Dragon and a Rorix. All in play of course. The best part was when Minga looked over at the board, sighed, and then nearly choked when I told him I won. Good times. Thanks Jake. Of course, a hearty thanks also to Lee Copus, who I managed to beat thoroughly in the Side events sealed, and watch while Minga did the same in the Team Sealed. Magic needs more players like him. You know, the kind you can always beat. Jokes.

So I was Q'd for Nationals. Really only because of Limited, with my constructed rating smouldering somewhere around the 1730 mark. I really only play in about 4 or 5 constructed tournaments a year, which generally includes Regionals and States. I was sitting at about 46th or so in Australia, with only one "countable" tournament left to go before the Nationals cut-off. This was of course the Sealed PTQ for, I believe, Yokohama. I, of course, did not want to be one of those guys who did the whole "sit-on-your-rating" thing. I reckon that sucks, and besides I would have gone to Yokohama given a win there. In any case, I rocked up to the event, went 1-3 drop and lost 74 limited points between my 3 losses. Luckily I gained 3 points back for my lone win. This, of course, dropped me from the top 50 and gave me the distinct pleasure of competing in the Grinders for entry into Nationals.

This is generally an OK thing. I don't mind grinding (I had to grind in last year after coming back to Magic after a 3 year break and promptly losing all my points). I put together a R/G net deck that I liked and did well with at the last big Sydney event (The Easter Cup at SGC - one of 3 tournaments a year where first prize is $500 cash), and I like sealed so I thought I'd be ok.

For some reason I decided to go in the first Sealed grinder with the 45-odd others which meant an extra round and less time to qualify. I won a few rounds and I think in the top 16 or so I got paired against Tiffany. I've played Tiffany a number of times before and she's pretty cool. We played their Team "Tiffany's Tigers" last year at the Team PTQ - somewhere around the 3-0 or 4-0 level so not bad at all. I think Tiffany is about 13 or 14 or so, and she basically smashed my head in. I remember going to great lengths to get her board down to a lone Skirk Outrider, only to have her tap 6 mana and cast a Barkhide Mauler and a Fever Charm to completely bash my face. I won the second and had her down to about 4 or so in the third when my deck decided to give me a LOT of land. Anyway, water near a bridge or something. If I do have to lose, I don't mind losing to Tiffany though - she was obviously quite happy to beat me. I think she finished off a couple of other Sydney players before bowing out in the quarters with a box for her efforts - good work.

So I entered and lost 3 constructed grinders within a round or two and watched as Minga lost a tight one to Dave Cornford to also crush 2 of 3 MTG Paradiser's hopes. Luckily Dan and his Beasts gave some solace. While some of us chose to drown our sorrows in alcohol at the pub, I chose to do so in another Rochester draft. As you do.

In any case, it gave us a chance to put together a good team for the Team PTQ - along with Minga and Egidio "I am not a werewolf" DeeGoycee, as he is sometimes known. Don't you just love it when people use a public forum for private jokes? Spectacular. This was mostly covered with Minga's article, but we had quite excellent decks and a pretty good run, beating Andrew Lai's and Jake Harts teams, Tristan (Canberra) and Chris Kwan (Brisbane - though I personally lost this one - I can never beat Chris it would seem).

WHEN we go to Boston (Minga), we will endeavour to keep Minga pen-less for the weekend to avoid any open hostility. We made the finals with Mark Leyba's team and essentially took all the money and the spot and gave them the product and fifty bucks. Seemed like a good split to us.

So that was my Nationals this year. I watched the Sydney players do well in draft (as expected) and get crushed in constructed (as expected), and had some consolation in knowing that between the favourable PTQ split and winning a box at one of the Sealed side events, I took home more than anyone from NSW actually in the Nationals. Yeah I know small solace, but you have to hold onto something right?

With only a small amount of sarcasm, I have to congratulate Ben Seck a.k.a. TBS or TUBS, depending on whom you ask, on a quite successful showing at PT Yokohama. It's been a long time coming, and I believe well deserved. And considering that my lifetime record in sanctioned events against Ben is dead even, I have to thank the Socratic school for proving that I, too, am great. Or something.

Given my recent state of disinformation, I'll make a concerted effort to write some more regular articles for this site (hopefully better than this one). I'd appreciate any questions or suggestions for topics - you know, like "why, sir, do you think Twisted Abomination is better than Dripping Dead" and the like.

For the next article, I'm going to ask some of the more prominent Sydney players to take part in a bit of a survey and see how their responses compare.

Until then,

Scott

[ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]