My very first Open Series event was back in May in Orlando, and it was a complete blast! I was very excited about hitting up another one in the future, and when I found out Atlanta was having one... I jumped on the chance to go! If you have an Open Series event near where you live, I strongly suggest going. Large tournaments are a great place to meet people, learn A LOT about MTG, and to have a good time. These tournaments might seem a bit daunting at first, but the people are generally super friendly and just as excited as you are to sling some spells. 

The Journey

Compared to my trip to GP Dallas, the trip to Atlanta was rather short. It was a simple 6 hour drive (Still painful, trust me!) but it was also pretty fun. There is something epic about sitting in a car with a bunch of friends, getting pumped up for a weekend of MTG. This was also a great time to decide what formats I wanted to play in, and what decks I wanted to use! The week before the event, I had a pretty epic cold, and I was unable to get any playtesting in. I was rather nervous about participating in the Standard Open, and I was soon trying to force one of my friends (Shoutouts to Eric, Brandon, and Chris B!) into playing in the 2-Headed Giant Sealed event (One of the nice things about the StarCityGames.Com Open Series is the large array of side events: Drafts, Standard Win-a-Boxes, etc. Something for everyone!). Even though some of them seem interested, they decided to only participate with me if they scrubbed out. I didn't want to waste my morning while everyone was in the Standard Open, so I ended up just going with the flow.

The drive was pretty uneventful (but super fun), and I soon found myself digging the idea of playing Mountains all weekend! Red Deck Wins ended up being chosen deck, and I couldn't have been happier with the choice! Here is the list I ended up running:

Lands (23):

4x Scalding Tarn 4x Arid Mesa 4x Teetering Peaks 11x Mountain

Creatures (18):

3x Hero of Oxid Ridge 3x Chandra's Phoenix 4x Ember Hauler 4x Goblin Guide 4x Grim Lavamancer

Spells (19):

4x Searing Blaze 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Burst Lightning 4x Forked Bolt 3x Shrine of Burning Rage

Sideboard (15):

3x Dismember 3x Manic Vandal 2x Combust 2x Mark of Mutiny 1x Act of Aggression 4x Vulshok Refugee 

A little MTG Interuption and Side Nom Photos:

Whenever I go to a tournament, I always try to find some sort of awesome place to eat. Everyone was telling me about this amazing place called The Vortex in Atlanta, and lemme tell you... IF YOU LIKE BURGERS, OH MY GOSH... SO GOOD! It was the best way to start the weekend off, and man... it really set the mood! There was a wide array of burger choices, including some that contained ingrediants like bananas, peanut butter, and a lot of other strange toppings. I went with a much safer choice, and went with the guacamole burger. YUM!

Back to MTG and Tournament Day Extravaganza!

I'm a morning person. I can also be the bane of existence for anyone that I room with, especially non morning folk. For some reason, as soon as that alarm goes off, I'm absolutely bouncing off the walls - super excited to start the day. It's even worse when I'm at a gaming convention, or at a tournament (ADRENALINE). I don't think my roommates were prepared for such spirits that early in the morning. We somehow managed to squeeze 6 people in one hotel room, and air mattresses reigned supreme! I'll just say that a no hyper rule was soon set. :( 

Registration started at 9AM, and I was awake my 6AM. I feel that it's very important to -wake- up before a tournament, and I believe breakfast is integral to that! After getting ready, I went and purchased a large number of snacks for the day. I was even more excited about my deck choice because matches went by pretty quickly. I had more then enough time to snack between rounds, when normally I don't eat for the whole day (I love food too! :(). The hotel was also a nice short walk to the convention center, and I was soon registered for the tournament.

If you haven't been to a large tournament like this before, they start the day off with a Player's Meeting. This is the time when you can do a very last minute deck check, and maybe check out some of your possible competition! This is also when Judge's gather up your decklists! (Please be sure to check deck lists a couple times before this point, haha. If you get randomly deck checked before a match, nothing is more embarrassing then taking a loss because of a typo!)

I'm not going to go into specifics about each round, but I'll just say I managed to play against Caw Blade 5 times! I will be forever thankful to the Hero of Oxid Ridge, who did some complete work this weekend. YOU ARE MY HERO! <3 I think overall, I went 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, 2-1, and 0-2 vs. the Caw! Two of my Caw experiences were against pretty notable players, and I was definitely stressed before those matches. I managed to win against one of those players... then get completely smashed by the other, haha. There was a total of 10 rounds, and trust me... It gets really tiring after 6-7! (I played the mirror twice (Nice meeting you, Kenny!), a UB deck being played by a super awesome guy, a GW infect deck, and I'm completely blanking on the final deck! There was a decent amount of variety.)

Learning Stuff: I think one of the hardest lessons I've learned this weekend is that it shouldn't matter who you're playing against! It can be a bit difficult to stifle that small scream of horror when you realize you're going up a very notable player, but the important thing is WINNING. Your mind should only be on the game, the cards on the battlefield, and the cards in your hand. And... I guess the cards in your opponents hand, ha! Don't let whoever your opponent might be tilt you. Pros lose games too!

FEATURE MATCH OF PAIN AND DESPAIR! 

I don't think there is any other way to title this part of the blog! I've been to my share of tournaments, but I haven't done well enough to be featured. My round 1 matches were very fun, but I was still really nervous about playing the deck. I managed to squeak out a win, and I was pretty jubilant... My world soon came crashing down when the loudspeaker announced the last thing I was expecting to hear...

"Michelle Roberson to the Jace table!" 

(This is what the feature match area looked like! This is Todd Anderson vs. Charles Gindy) 

StarCityGames.com has some amazing coverage, and they also stream a match during every tournament round... I was one of the lucky people chosen to experience this. As I was walking through the rows of people playing, I managed to see a couple of friends on this journey. They knew I was pretty horrified, and I think they found it difficult to stifle laughs as I walked by. 

This is when stuff got sassy!

I sat down to my opponent (Wesley Wise), who seemed like he's had the experience before. I managed to babble some incoherent mess about being nervous, and having this be my first feature match. He was extremely polite, and I was thankful he was so nice! I don't consider myself the type of person that gets super nervous being in front of cameras... but when it comes to me playing, I get nervous.

(You put a lot of yourself in a game of MTG, especially when it's a competitive match. I don't want to make mistakes, and even though I shouldn't care if people are judging me about how I play... I still care. I didn't have much playtesting, and I was really worried I was going to let people down with my playing. I still feel a bit embarrassed about how I did during the match, but I'm a hardcore perfectionist. Also, as a female player... I feel there is this unnecessary pressure to do really well, or I'm going to let down the whole female playing MTG population. I feel that some people automatically assume that because I'm a female, I'm going to be terrible/bad/theworst at MTG. This is something I want to change, and after this experience... I want to make sure this doesn't happen again!)

Game 1: I was nervous... I'm not denying that. When I'm nervous, I have a tendency to giggle uncontrollable, and non-stop talk. It's not something I'm proud of! Because of this... I somehow managed to start choking uncontrollably on my saliva. This was not going the way I wanted. I'll just say that this might or might not have insta put me on tilt. Nothing like coughing uncontrollably on camera! I kept a sketchy hand, and I regretted it once I started topdecking nothing but spells. As soon as he played that mountain, and that lone Goblin Guide... I knew I was in trouble! I kept a hand that was the type to be super explosive if I would have topdecked another land. I was extremely greedy, and I got punished for it. The game was over rather quickly.

Game 2: Sideboarding, eh? OH NO, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO SIDEBOARD IN OR OUT! Yep.. That basically explains this match, haha. I can't stress how important it is to playtest. PLEASE PLAYTEST! I will never make this mistake again! Even though I was sick, I really regret not testing. This game was pretty similar to game 1, and it was over pretty quick. I started the game off with pretty decent hand, but Wes managed to draw into a majority of his sideboard. Thank you Wes, for making the killing blows swift!

(This is almost like having your name in lights... right?!)

Learning Stuff x2: This was another tough learning experience for me. It's so important to be relaxed (I guess this is similar to lesson 1!). Try not to concentrate on the stuff going on around you! I should have been shouting to myself... "MICHELLE CONCENTRATE ON THE GAME, NOT THE STUFF GOING ON AROUND YOU!" There are no excuses I can use about my performance in this feature match, I can only learn from this experience. Next time will go better!

This is one of my favorite things about Magic: The Gathering. With playtesting and experience, you'll notice things you've done in the past, and you're given the opportunity to not make the same mistakes! 

End of the Day... Recap recap recap!

After this feature match, I was pretty tilted. I couldn't stop blushing from the embarrassment, and I was extremely driven to do better in my next rounds! Oh.. and trust me... I believe I did! My final score for the day was 6-3-1, and that has been my best overall result at a large tournament. There was over 600 participants in the Standard Open, and I managed to place an overall 71st! I'm not content by any means, and I have already been planning on how to improve my game. I really think I could have done a lot better with playtesting, and after going to this tournament... I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO MORE! There are a couple more StarCityGames.com Opens in the next year, and I'm sure I'll see you there.

(I also participated in a Draft Open, and I'll be saving that story for another blog! I know this one has already gotten a bit long, but the Draft Open experience deserves its own space! I'll also give you some more stories about some of the people I got to hang out with, information about some of the epic card alterers there, and some more info on what I learned! Hopefully, I'll be able to entice you into going to a major event like this in the future!) 

Precursor...

If you already didn't know, I currently reside in North Florida (really far from Seattle, trust me)! I just started going back to school (much to my dismay) and classes started last week. It also happened to be the same week I was going to be away for PAX Prime! I got to start my week by pretty much begging my professors to not drop me from classes! I wanted them to let me enjoy my weekend of nerdism without worry. It all worked out, and I was soon on a plane to Seattle! Most of my flight was spent playing Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, and trying not to pass out on the person next to me. I've always found it awkward when someone I didn't know falls asleep on me... (I'll get back to that later in my pt 2. of this blog, ha)! 

Where was I?!

PAX Prime was a working event for me, and I was given the opportunity to spend some more quality time working my butt off for the Frag Dolls and Ubisoft. It's always a pretty fun experience, and this time was no different! If you were at PAX, you could find me demoing Rayman Origins, and lurking the MTGO gaming area!

Another awesome area that I tended to creepily lurk was the Card Kingdom booth. While I was there, I managed to win a CK shirt after playing an intense round of MTG against @agstrauss. I also managed to get my hands on a really awesome custom playmat featuring the art of Joe Vollan, Anson Maddocks, and Mark Tedin! Oh... and some cool tokens too! Thanks for taking care of me, Card Kingdom and Dan! :D

Almost to the juicy stuff!

One of the major highlights of the weekend was the Innistrad Party! After going to the Scars of Mirrodin party last year at PAX, I was extremely excited about this party! I'm happy to say that it extremely surpassed all of my expectations, and I was completely blown away. This party really made PAX special for me, and I was very excited to find out that I was invited. 

I've been very interested in Innistrad ever since they showed the art of Liliana Vess lounging on her throne, sitting seductively... as a man seems to wither away on the ground next to her. The look on her face is perfect, secrets secrets! Everything I want in life, clearly! I'm a huge fan of anything horror genre related, and this set is very very very tempting, yummy, want want want! I was extremely giddy about any info I could get on Innistrad, and I couldn't wait to get out of work on Saturday to make my way over to the party. 

With the party starting at 6PM, and the expo hall closing at 6PM... I pretty much made a mad dash with my MTG cohort Jamie back to the hotel. We quickly changed into our party dresses, and hopped into a cab. In my rush, I completely forgot my camera, but Jamie (thankfully) managed to snap some shots (I'll be posting them soon, sorry!). One of the first things that you noticed about the party was the HUGE LINE OF PEOPLE WAITING TO GET IN... this line also went down a very steep hill. I was dressed for partying, and with that... comes great difficulty walking with high heels. I managed to gracefully stumble (not fall, ahem) in front of the large line and my friend Rob managed to rescue me! He escorted me down the hill, and I managed to not eat any gravel. THANK YOU ROB! 

Jamie and I stood in line, and we were finally rewarded with our badge! This one will hang out next to my MTGO Community Cup badge. I don't normally keep my event badges, but these two have a very special place in my heart. 

Oh my, excite!

The entrance was lined with vibrant red roses, and as you walked up the stairs... the roses faded away into dying, cadaverous versions of what once was. It was a great way to enter the party, and we were soon surrounded by hard hitting beats, delicious food and drink (mini grilled cheese sandwiches!), and MTG fans everywhere! People were dancing (some not so well) and we quickly went around and tried to find people we knew! It was awesome walking around the party floor, because there was oversized versions of cards coming out in Innistrad! One completely stuck out to me, and I really can't wait to get my hands on Olivia Voldaren! 

The center of the room also included 3 gigantic cards from Innistrad! I'm sure you've read the news about them, but I'll link you just in case! After Jamie and I found a comfortable seat at the party, we were soon rushed to our feet to witness an overwhelmingly awesome video featuring a little bit of everything you could ever want. I don't want to give anything away... but I'll just say - HOLY MY GARRUK WOW UGH LILIANA AWESOME! It was literally one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and I can still remember the feeling of the crowd as they realized what they just saw. As soon as the video ended, the three cards in the center of the room rotated - Transformation! 

I'm extremely excited about this mechanic, and at one point... a bunch of us were sitting down at some tables, and Mark Rosewater himself comes over and asks us what we think. I'm sure I babbled something completely nonsensical, but man... I can't even express to you how awesome the party was! I also can't wait to see how Innistrad affects the game, and prerelease events can't come soon enough!

One of the major highlights of the party was hanging out and meeting some really awesome people. I got the chance to hang out with my fellow Community Cup teammate, and overall super awesome person Marshall from the Limited Resources podcast! I also got to see another one of my CC teammates... Graham from Loading Ready Run. The rest of the Loading Ready Run crew was there as well (All super awesome people)! <3 Shoutouts also to: Daniel Tack, Zac Hill (Who I only run into when going in the opposite direction!), Jon Rosebaugh, Nightelyn (Who had the cutest dress ever!), Michael Robles, MTG Color Pie, and a TON OF OTHER PEOPLE! I need a whole other blog post to write down all the thank yous, and awesome meeting yous! 

Also... I FINALLY HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET PATRICK JARRETT! I won't go into detail, but I'm pretty sure I squealed pretty loud, haha. We both actually live in the same state, have gone to a couple events together, but I guess it takes a trip to Seattle, and a gigantic party for us to meet!  

Oh.. P.S! I totally fangirled over finally getting to meet Brian David-Marshall at the Innistrad party! I also got the chance to draft with him on Sunday night, but I'll save those details for PT. 2! :D All you need to know was that it was triple Rise of Eldrazi... 0_o

(PT. 2 will include stories from Karaoke on Thursday night with a lot of very interesting and amazing folk, drafting on Sunday with some more awesome folk... and maybe a couple awkward and embarrasing stories!)

And yes, you read that right.. it was a midnight prerelease! I ended up taking a nap right before the event, because from past experiences.. we normally didn't get out of there till 6-7-8AM. I was sad about missing FNM, but I really wanted to be on my game for some new M12 action. I've always been a fan of core sets, and I rather enjoy limited play. The format was sealed, and I really couldn't wait to crack open some packs! I managed to make it in time to watch the rest of FNM, and I was really excited about the variations in decks. Once we were all seated, I was pretty happy to find out that I was sitting next to a couple good friends of mine.. and it was very nice to see what they opened as well. I think one of my favorite parts of prereleases is the fact that it is a little bit more laid back. Usually.. I see a lot of new players, older players, and it's normally just a great mix! If you're new to MtG, I strongly suggest going to prereleases, and even release events. People still really want to win, but players seem a bit more excited about having a great time.

Here is the pool of cards I opened.. Organized by color! :D

White:

1x Pride Guardian 3x Auramancer 1x Demystify 1x Stave Off 1x Elite Vanguard 1x Armored Warhorse 1x Lifelink 3x Griffan Sentinel 1x Divine Favor 1x Guardians' Pledge 1x Pacifism 1x Day of Judgement

Black:

2x Brink of Disaster 1x Taste of Blood 1x Tormented Soul 1x Blood Seeker 1x Royal Assassin 1x Diablic Tutor 2x Doom Blade 1x Grave Digger 1x Dark Favor 1x Warpath Ghoul 1x Child of Night 1x Sorin's Vengeance

Blue:

1x Jace's Erasure 1x Flashfreeze 1x Unsummon 1x Aven Fleetwing 2x Divination 1x Skywinder Drake 1x Sphinx of Uthuun 1x Merfolk Mesmerist 1x Phantasmal Bear 1x Cancel 1x Mana Leak 1x Amphin Cutthroat 1x Merfolk Looter 1x Mind Control

Green:

1x Skinshifter 1x Lurking Crocodile 1x Carnage Wurm 2x Reclaim 1x Plummet 1x Lure 1x Hunter's Insight 2x Vastwood Gorger 2x Gladecover Scout 1x Rampant Growth 1x Acidic Slime 1x Trollhide 1x Cudgel Troll 1x Sacred Wolf

Red:

3x Chandra's Outrage 1x Incinerate 1x Shock 1x Manic Vandal 1x Wall of Torches 1x Tectonic Rift 1x Goblin War Paint 1x Goblin Piker 1x Volcanic Dragon 1x Fireball

Artifacts:

1x Quicksilver Amulet 1x Dragon's Claw 1x Wurm Tooth 1x Thran Golem 1x Crumbling Colossus 1x Crown of Empires 2x Manalith

So before you continue reading.. what would you use to make your sealed deck? I thought I had a decent spread of good cards in each colors, but two really stood out to me. I was really excited about the 2 Doomblades, and the Mind Control. I always try to draft removal.. so I instantly wanted the Doomblades. I know the set also has some crazy bombs, so I thought... MINDCONTROL YES! Other cards that stood out to me in UB were: Show and Tell Sphinx!! (Sphinx of Uthuun), 2x Divination (Card draw always good!), Royal Assassin (More removal), and Sorin's Vengeance (10 life, eh?)! Green also really looked appealing to me, especially all the Hexproof creatures. I actually have a tendency to draft or make really strong beats decks, so I decided on trying something new. I'm happy to say that it was a good choice! Here is the deck I ended up using:

8x Swamp
9x Island

1x Manalith
1x Crown of Empires

1x Amphin Cutthroat
1x Mana leak
2x Divination
1x Phantasmal Bear
1x Merfolk Looter
1x Sphinx of Uthuun
1x Cancel
1x Mind Control (Does Work, BTW)
1x Skywinder Drake
1x Aven Fleetwing
1x Merfolk Mesmerist

1x Diabloic Tutor
1x Sorin’s Vengeance
2x Doom Blade
1x Child of Night
1x Dark Favor
1x Warpath Ghoul
1x Royal Assassin
1x Grave Digger

I ended up with a lovely 5-1-1.. and it was an overall blast! I think I actually had one of my best games of MtG also! I was playing against a very strong RUG deck, and I was down to 3 life. I was totally expecting a Fireball to the face, but I managed to get a pretty fun combo down (Royal Assassin + Crown of Empires)! I managed to wipe out his board, and finished with a couple flyers. I have a tendency to scoop when I feel like I have no chance of winning, but topdecking Crown of Empires definitely saved my butt! I think I really have MTGO to thank for this as well. Lately, I've been really striving to finish games completely, and try to figure out what options I have.. even when it seems like I'm losing. Be sure to play out games completely! I feel that MTGO really takes the pressure of having someone stare at you when you're taking a little longer on a turn. It has a timer, but having someone stare at you, and getting frustrated can be annoying, haha. You'd be really surprised at what you can do, and how you can win games.

Day 1 + Some of Day 2!

Night before flight:

I'm not going to lie to you guys, but I'm absolutely terrible at packing. Did I really need 5 pairs of shoes for a couple days? Probably not.. did I end up wearing a majority of them? Nope! Did I feel absolutely over-prepared with the mass amount of extra crap that I brought? YES! (BTW: It's totally freezing in WA, and I loved having the extra clothes as well!) So, I ended up getting dropped off at the airport about 4 hours before my flight. It was the only ride that I had available at 6AM, so I ended up watching a ton of South Park and eating junk food. It was actually a really nice relaxing way to spend my morning, and I was soon on my flight! The flight was also pretty uneventful, and I found myself napping most of the way. When I ended up at the airport, I was soon whisked away by the ever so awesome Chris Kiritz (WotC_K) to the hotel where we were all staying! This is where I ended up meeting a lot of my teammates!

((A little sideline story.. but before my trip I was a little nervous about meeting my teammates! Even though I playtested with a majority of them online, I really didn't know what to expect. You'd be very surprised how awkward some people can be when they first meet me, haha. I can be a little loud and sassy sometimes! Also, the MtG community can be a bit mixed when it comes to meeting female players. Some look at females with scorn, some with creepy-lusty-bloodshot-scary-eyes (the worst!), and the normal ones.. well yeah, they look at female players normally, nothing special! I was happy to find that everyone that I met this weekend was very socially adjusted. There was no creepiness to be found anywhere, huzzah!

Also, there was going to be a couple big names there (LSV OMG).. and I was worried that they would be conceited jerks, ha! It's nice to know that they were WAY NICER THAN EXPECTED! It made me respect them so much more as players/people/mtg superstars, and I feel like I'm a bigger fan than ever!))

After a majority of us met up at the hotel, we were soon on our way to this really interesting restaurant. I really wish I wrote the name down (EDIT: Name of the resturant was Claim Jumpers, yum!), but everyone just mostly spoke of the MASSIVE PORTIONS OF FOOD ONE WOULD RECEIVE! I was not let down, and I was soon chomping down on some deliciousness! (BTW: Throughout the week, it was pretty much like Christmas! Everywhere you turned there was pretty much some sort of sick promo card being shoved in your face, IT WAS AWESOME!) In this case, it was the promo card that you got when you purchased the original Duels of the Planeswalkers on PS3! Seeing as Liliana Vess is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PLANESWALKER, I WAS SOOOOO EXCITED! :D Even now.. whenever I look at the card, I smile uncontrollably. Here is a photo with my meal, plus the lovely foil alternative art Liliana Vess:

During dinner, we ended up having a lot of introductions. We got the chance to stand up and talk about ourselves a bit, and it was a really nice way to start the week! At the dinner, I was lucky enough to sit across from my teammate, Enigma256. He was the member that came from Vienna, and this week was filled with a lot of firsts for him.. INCLUDING MT. DEW! :D

Dinner went by pretty quickly, and we then decided to do a little practice draft (SoM) in the hotel lobby! Our first event against WotC was drafting, and we were wanting to be prepared. I ended up drafting a lovely little RW deck, filled with Pith Drillers, Galvanic Blast, Divine Offerings, Turn to Slags, and a plethora of other removal. For my kill, I ended up just drafting a ton of Leonin Skyhunters, a Porcelain Legionnaire, Oxiddia Scrapmelter, and an ever so vigilant Glimmerpoint Stag! It was a pretty fun draft deck, and I ended up going 2-1. My only loss was to my fellow Community Cup teammate, and Loading Ready Run member, Graham! There is some video floating around on the internet.. where I'm giving a pretty nasty beating to another teammate. I don't want to give away names, BUT MAN IT WAS SWEET! A little friendly competition was a great ice breaker, and I could tell that I was already falling for a lot of my teammates (in a friendly way, mind you!). All of them were super nice guys, and I'm so glad that I had the chance to hang with them this week!

Since there is quite a time difference from Florida and Washington.. I soon found myself super drowsy, and I ended up heading to bed earlyish!  The next morning was definitely going to be filled with excitement.. SINCE IT WAS DUCK TOUR TIME! Ever since I saw the schedule of events, the Duck Tour was easily one of the more exciting slots. I REALLY COULDN'T WAIT! All during dinner and draft, I pretty much talked about how awesome the Duck Tour was going to be! (Also.. how much I love Food.. I SERIOUSLY LOVE FOOD!)

As soon as we were all ready, bright and early.. We were soon picked up in a really nice bus, and the photo taking began! The ride to Seattle was 30 or so minutes, and it was a fun way to get pumped up for the Duck Tour. I'm sure I was one of the more excited about the chance to ride on a Duck Car/Boat thing, but it was SO FUN! I was actually born in Seattle, and never really had the opportunity to see it. This was my first opportunity to do so, and I really wanted to go into it with high spirits!

And if you don't know what a Duck Tour is, basically it's this CAR/BOAT Hybrid thing that owns hard. The weather was beautiful, and a little chilly that morning.. and we were soon on our way to the Duck Tour meeting spot. Since we were there a little early, we ended up walking around a bit.. and taking photos.

Here is a group shot for your enjoyment (I bet you can't guess which is me!):

I totally stole this photo from the Daily MtG coverage of the Community Cup.. and if you want to see more photos, be sure to go check it out here!

In my next blog, I'll go over all the Community Cup members a little bit more specifically, but if you want to go check out the bios that we had done, go here!

Okay, back to story time! No more interruptions, I promise! We were soon all on the Duck Boat, and our Captain.. Captain Bob La Blah, was a very interesting fellow. He definitely lived up to the name! Overall, the tour was a lot of fun.. and we got to see a lot of Seattle! Instead of filling this up with a lot of text, I thought I would just show you guys some of the photos I took. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and Seattle is a very clean city! 

We were also lucky enough to hang out with some of the members of Loading Ready Run! They sure did love to pose for photos! :D

A side of one of the beautiful Museums that Seattle has to offer! Lovely!

BIG DUCK IS BIG

Seagull flying!

The water looked very cold, and beautiful.

It was really a wonderful and beautiful experience! I was very happy for the chance to see Seattle, and to share the experience with my Community Cup Teammates!

Also, I know I spoke a little bit about Engima never trying Mt. Dew.. I did manage to get photographic proof of how awesome it is! Here is a little before and after!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little introduction to my MTGO Community Cup experience! I should have the next blog up in a little while.. and it'll be about the other half of the day, and maybe some of the next! It will be about my first experience facing off against the evil WotC staff in SOM Block Draft, and Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 Archenemy!

One of the formats that I've been most afraid of was definitely Modern. There is such a vast amount of cards.. it was a little daunting! Luckily, a lot of the MTGO Community forum members have been posting a lot of really awesome deck lists. I can't even say thanks enough for all the people who've been posting lists. After some extensive testing.. I've definitely fallen for the format. There is so much variety, it's hard not to enjoy it! I've played a lot of Standard in the last couple months, and after dealing with SO MUCH CAW ACTION, seeing something completely new is invigorating!

I don't want to specifically post which deck(s) I'll be playing, since you NEVER KNOW WHO'S READING (WotC better not be reading this >_<)! I don't want to give away any of our super secret tech.. but I'll just say I've been messing around with Boros, Scapeshift, and some Hypergenesis. All three are pretty fun, and I've also really had some fun testing them. If you have any good ideas to maybe make any of these more unique.. feel free to tell me! Any help is appreciated. :D

In order to prepare, I've also been drafting pretty extensively! I've always been a huge fan of drafting, so it really wasn't "practice" as much as "super awesome fun-time!" Usually when it comes to draft, I make it to the top 2, or top 4.. and then I scrub out, haha. I think it's because I want to WIN SO BAD, that it kind of puts me on tilt whenever something even small happens.. So lately, I've just been concentrating on the game more, instead of winning or losing! And I've noticed a huge change in my ability to play.. I actually won my very first draft! I know a lot of people have won 302948209839058 drafts, but for me.. this was really exciting! And tbh.. I won the draft by 2-0ing, 2-0ing, and 2-0ing! IT FELT AWESOME! It still makes me smile when I think about it! I ruined some days! :D I ended up opening a Phyrexian Obliterator in the NPH pack, and I instantly knew I was going to go Mono Black.. luckily, I also managed to get my hands on some really awesome black removal. I was really pondering splashing another color in there, but I'm very happy I ended up really forcing mono black.

When it comes to the Standard format, I'm really not as worried, haha. Since the pool is shared, I'm not really concerned with just facing 50 matches against Caw Blade! And tbh, with my luck.. I'm sure I'll be the one person who ends up facing it! I'm really excited to see the decks that come out of this shared pool, and I'm hoping to see some really interesting tech from WotC. Well.. not that interesting, hopefully it's interesting and bad! ;)

Even though my main concern is MtG and playing it.. another part of the preparation that I'm going through, is PACKING! I HATE PACKING! Even though the trip is only a couple days.. I always over-pack, and I bring like 93849839 pairs of shoes. Am I really going to need that many shoes, probably not.. but I like to look nice, haha. I'm also planning on bringing a couple extra sleeve packs, just in case of draft! I always find myself bringing an extra draft pack - wherever I go, and it feels very nice to be prepared! 

Sorry for the semi-short, semi-rambly blog post! I've been trying to put as much time into MtG as I can, and if you have MTGO - you should come and /join CCC and sit and chat! Also.. homework! Since I'll be missing a week of class, I've been trying to make sure I don't mess anything up! That means.. GRINDING OUT THE HOMEWORK TOO! It's very hard to not write about MtG for my class grades, but oh well.. Hopefully my teachers won't mind!

We are also always looking for playtesting partners as well. :3 I plan on updating a lot during the CC.. WHICH MEANS SO MANY PHOTOS! I hope you guys are excited as I am! :)