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Yesterday was a very long day of Magic that ended beautifully.

The day started around 9:15 when I arrived at the hotel and signed up for the second flight of the day. Looking around, I saw many familiar faces, but none of them Steve. He was stuck doing some inventory the night before, so him not being able to show up was expected. Not seeing Rodney though, I didn’t see coming.

In the Coldsnap flight, I got some very nice rares. My favorites being a flying white creature with vigilance that saves a creature from dying, a black creature that has cumulative upkeep – gain control of an opponents land and grows bigger the more land of the opponents you have, and my favorite rare, a giant red dragon that can tap creatures that can no longer untap during the untap step. The packs had a bunch of cool spells, but no small creatures. My strategy was to keep myself alive with a life gain spell, and swat down early creatures with a ripple shock, until I got my rares out.

Round 1

The first round was against Daniel, a self-proclaimed bigger guy with crazy hair. He was in the midnight flight, and didn’t sleep since. Our first battle was a close one that began with me scraping away at him, then him charging back for the win. His ending life total was 6. The second battle was a shutout. I had plenty of land, but was only able to cast two spells the entire match. His ending life total was 20.

After such a commanding victory the second match, he offered to look through my deck to see if any modifications could be made. He only thought I should swap out 4 or 5 cards, and they really did need to be removed. What he thought I should put in, namely, a black spell that can kill a white or green creature, really did help out in every match going forward. More than anything, him thinking I should make so few changes really validated my deck design.

Round 2

Round 2 was against Jake, a soft-spoken guy who apparently has been playing for about a month. He was here with three or four of his friends who had all been playing much longer. He took the early lead with a small guy, but I battled back with my white flying rare for the victory. My ending life total was 11. The second battle was nearly a repeat of my second match in Round 1. I had nothing to cast, and Jake rolled over me. His ending life total was 14. The third match is my favorite of the day, one which I thanked him three or four times afterward for. Jake started off with little guy hitting me, then he gained himself four life putting him at 24. The creatures kept coming at me, until I got a guy with snow land walk, Hit Jake for 2 the next turn, and cast my rare dragon. He brought me to 2, but during my turn I was able to use the dragon to keep his creatures tapped, and charge back for my match victory. My ending life total was 6. His friends came by and told him to put blue cards into his deck. He reluctantly did, but I’m not sure it helped him out.

Round 3

I then faced off against Jake’s friend Tim, the one who told Jake to put the blue cards into his deck. The first match was another shutout, his ending life total was 20. The second match was closer, but still not very memorable. The only play of note was that I was able to ripple successfully. I was still destroyed, with his ending life total at 11.

Round 4

To see if I could pull off a .500 average, and to kill time before the Ice Age flight, I entered round 4 to square off against Mark, a very soft-spoken guy who hadn’t gotten the taste of victory all day. Two pretty good fights was all it took to change that for Mark. The first match didn’t go well for me, but not horrible either. He had more guys than me, and I was only able to bring him down to 14 before my death. Match two went about the same, a good back and forth followed by his victory at an ending life total of 12. The upside was my deck worked both matches for the first time that day. I talked with Mark for a bit, but wanted to check in on the Ice Age flight. White flight record: 1-3.

Ice Age Flight

It started out annoyingly. I signed up between flights 3 and 4, assuming the Ice Age flight was to happen fairly soon after we were done, as that was what I took away from the organizers email. When I asked when it was going to start after the 4th round was over, I was still the 8th person on the list, and they understandably didn’t want to run it with so few people, but they tried to figure out if it was even possible. While they debated the possibility of an 8 man flight, I checked if I had enough time to get some food. One of the judges said I did, and, still assuming it was to start fairly soon, I raced over to McDonalds for “food.” I slammed down a double cheeseburger and fries and hurried back into the building. I asked again when it would start, and got the unfortunate answer of 1700 hours. Looking at the clock, it was almost 1400. What this meant was I was going to have three hours to sit around, my day was going to be completely devoted to Magic, and I really didn’t have to eat at McDonalds.
There were four or five instances where I debated dropping myself from the event. Still have the afternoon to do with what I pleased, and make use of the new cards. The prospect of Ice Age kept me there. Playing with the complete block on which I started this game was too much to pass up. I hung out in my car and worked on a CM story, and listened to Cold’s entire A Different Kind of Pain CD. Bored and hot, I grabbed my Zen with 20 minutes of TWiM remaining, and set up shop inside the hotel.

Matt was there now, who told me about some combos he was trying to put together, and how he was figuring out how to “break” the cards he had. Matt, it seemed, was mostly there to trade, and I traded away the flying angel, Zur the Enchanter, and some uncommons for flying black and white knights, another black creature that takes the opponents land as an upkeep cost, and a fixed drain life spell where the casting cost can be paid by discarding. Soon after the trade, Matt was off again for more trading and card talk.

A bit later, while the TWiM’s were discussing the PS3, a guy asked if I’d like to have a quick match. I agreed, and he proceeded to trounce me. I did put up a bit of a fight, but I don’t think it was very much of one. I kept track of life totals mentally, so I don’t have his exact ending life, but I believe it was around 15. After one match, he was off again, and I was back to the podcast.

Shortly after the podcast was over, the Ice Age flight was underway with 12 participants. Everyone in it was great, the all seemed to be in it for the right reasons. The guy who always wears the leprechaun top hat, Dan, pulled a Force of Will and a ton of counterspells. The old cards were discussed with those around me, and they all decided their decks were horrible. I don’t know why, but I thought mine was decent.

I scrimmaged the guy across from me for a match, and I destroyed him. We stopped keeping track of life after the second or third Balduvian horde attack, and just played to see what else the decks could do. Afterward, he asked to look through my deck and what I decided not to play. He really wanted me to put in a Tarpan and a Yavimaya Gnats. Though I could see their uses, I really couldn’t find anything to sub them out for. With decks made, it was time for the fighting.

Round 1

Tom was to be my first opponent. I think Sven played against him at the Guildpact pre-release, maybe? Whether or not I was right was never to be found out, as he didn’t show. Round 1 victory for me. I watched the game next to me and got to see a Zur’s Weirding be played, and a lady who looked like she just ate a really good cookie. As it was getting late, the remaining judge started to lose interest in judging and was talking with Matt. We were well over time before the last match finished up, and the judge found he’d better judge a bit more. Oddly, the judge didn’t know banding rules.

Round 2

Dan, the top hat wearing, Force of Will pulling, snow cone machine bringing opponent. He was a great guy, and we had three good fights. The first was very close. He hit pretty hard with a fleet of creatures protected by counterspells of all different types. Luckily, I was able to squeeze through a Balduvian horde, and enchant it with Fear. Running past his blue and green defenders, I scored a first round victory. My ending life total was 1.

Not much happened on my side for the second round. I was able to get in a few hits, but he overwhelmed me to score a second round victory in spite of my Taste of Paradise. Dan’s ending life total was 12.
Round three was a good battle. He hit me frequently with smaller guys, and I whacked him for 4 a few times with a Stone Spirit. We closed out with his victory, and his life total at 8. He told me I was a stressful opponent, in that he really thought I had something up my sleeve to stop the final attack, and that I had an excellent poker face. It made me wish I had something besides a swamp in my hand.

Round 3

My opponent this time was Ray. An older guy who also had himself an excellent deck from what I had heard. Two turns into the match, the judge ordered everyone to stop play. It seemed someone dropped after round two, and checked the wrong box to cause the winner to drop instead of the loser. Pairings were redone, and I scored a bye. At this point, it was nearly 9 and really wanted to play as I had already missed out on a round. I had an itch to get my second loss out of the way as well, so heading home could become an option again. I watched a few battles and saw the woman who enjoyed a cookie again before the round was over.

Round 4

There was a lot of talk before the round of insuring the outcome of matches to assure packs. The guys who were 3-0 agreed to tie, and some of the other guys had hopes of doing the same. My opponent was disappointed when he came up against me at 2-1. I needed a victory for packs, and so did he.

Chad and I had two great matches because our decks were very even, but the exact details of the first match are lost to me. It was late, and I was exhausted, but I came ahead with a victory against him. My ending life total was 12.

The second match was even more evenly split than the first. I was able to put in a few early hits with a Foul Familiar. The early damage I took was from letting it hit, then taking it out of combat to avoid death. We had a good back and forth eventually putting me at 9, him at 8. I attacked with the Foul and a Folk of the Pines with him only having one blocker. In my hand was a howl from beyond for the kill. He must have seen something coming, because he Fire Covenanted them to death to put him at 2, and I pulled the Foul from combat to put me at 8. We stood at a stalemate for a bit, until he Soul Kissed one of his 3/3’s, and put a green Coldsnap enchantment on one of his guys to give it 6 +1/+1 counters, and decided to see what would happen in an attack. My Pit Trap made short work of the Soul Kissed guy, and the Shield Sphere stood in the way of the guy with counters. In retrospect, I should have done it the other way. Not that it mattered much. On my next turn, I drew a Lightning Serpent, who has haste, trample, and comes into play with X +1/+0 counters that dies at the end of the turn. With only a Fyndhorn Elf and a Brine Shaman in the way, 12 damage was more than enough to win. My ending life total was 8, and record was 3-1 though I only played two matches. 6 packs were won, plus 2 for entering the event.

Spoils of War

In my packs, I was able to pick up another big dragon that taps creatures, another Lightning Serpent, and Dark Depths, a land that creates Marit Lage, an indestructible flying 20/20 token after being thawed out. Even if I had lost, the Ice Age fights were excellent against great opponents. And apparently, Steve knew of only one other organizer who was running an official block flight, and he figures there were only about 20 people total who participated in one yesterday.