Woe, Woe, Woe!

So I gather from the buzz at the Dungeon on Saturday, that I’m pretty much obligated to write this blog. Sorry I couldn’t get to it earlier. It’s been a busy time at work and home. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some writing done tonight and maybe even this weekend.

Anyway, so I had a Magic night last Saturday. I went to the Hero Zone and bought some cards (namely Meddling Mage, Coiling Oracle, and Trygon Predator) to hopefully be able to construct some form of Uwg Fish. I think it will be pretty strong, especially since it will use Aether Vial to its fullest extent unlike my UB build in which Null Rod has proven to be the champion.

I like buying cards at the Hero Zone and other stores that I live near because I think it’s good to support local businesses and small-business owners. Also small business-owners; they need all the help they can get.

After dropping thirty bucks at the Hero Zone, I drove almost an hour from Sandusky to Elyria to play in their Saturday Night Standard tournament with the guys from out that way. At this point I didn’t even have a deck yet, but I was assured I would be able to play.

When I got there I went through the bulk commons and uncommons looking to get some cards for Jeff’s Vintage Friggorid deck. He needed Stinkweed Imps and Brainstorms and wanted to try Mystic Remora (Check it out! It’s hot!), and I wanted to pick up some Repeals for myself. I found everything except the Brainstorms, but I think I now have three or four playsets myself, so I’m sure he can borrow some from me. They’ll just have to be Fifth Edition.

Nah, I’m sure he doesn’t care about the “pimpness” of his decks. I don’t. If I did, I’d be trying to get Mercadian Masques Dark Rituals and Brainstorms so I could get them all foily and shiny. I’ll stick with Ice Age, thanks.

The picture’s better on IA Brainstorm anyway.

So I’m doing that when my deck shows up, borne on the wings of the Blystones. It turns out I’ll be playing Enduring Ideal, which is cool because I have trouble thinking beyond playing one enchantment at a time. Plus, I get to use a whole bunch of absolutely random stuff to try to win.

Good deal.

Right before the tourney starts, I notice four foam-rubber six-sided dice and Al sells them to me as a set for a dollar. These are my new red, purple, and pink life dice.

In the first round of the tournament, I play against Gruul Beats and win 2-0. My first game was saved by Faiths Fetters and Honden of Cleansing Fire, which allowed me to stabilize at five life with a Honden of Infinite Rage on the board and the ability to cast Ideal on my next turn. In fact, when I cast it, I didn’t even search for an enchantment because I thought the Ideal itself was an enchantment that I had to wait until my next upkeep to use. Oh well. I got Meishin, the Mind Cage; Dovescape; Honden of Life’s Web; Form of the Dragon; and Honden of Night’s Reach to pretty much lock that one up. I’m not sure why that one took so long since once I started using Enduring Ideal, I pretty much had that game locked away.

The second game was more ridiculous since my opponent started out with first, second, and third turn Kird Apes but never found the Forest to make them a threat. I built my mana to play Night of Souls’ Betrayal to wipe out the opposing forces then dropped Ideal soon after for the eventual win.

After that, everything went downhill. I won one other game out of the next seven. It was bad. There wasn’t one single problem that happened, so I either got the wrong colors of mana or no spells or beats to the face or countered out of the game. It was very frustrating.

I did have a couple of misplays to not help my cause as well. In one game I miscounted my mana and did not play a Honden of Night’s Reach when I could have. In another game, I played Zur’s Weirding to check for counterspells instead of making a last-ditch effort to play Enduring Ideal for the win.

Oh well. Either Magic is bad for me, or I am bad for it.

To make myself feel better I bought a Volcanic Island, which I later traded back to the store for a Tundra. It’s a nice Tundra, and it has reindeer on it.

I did some trading at the Dungeon as well, but I definitely should have done it better. I needed to get two more Meddling Mages to complete my playset. The guy who had Meddling Mages wanted shocklands, and the guy who had shocklands wanted Birds, and I had Birds.

Unfortunately, I was too shortsighted to see that I probably could have traded four birds for two shocklands and two shocklands for two Mages and been perfectly happy. As it was I traded three birds for a shockland and a Simic Skyswallower and a shockland for a Mage, which by my calculations leaves me with one Bird and still in need of a Mage.

Hopefully I will remedy that soon. Adam said he’d try to set that deal up for me.

Anyway that was it.

I got to play a whole bunch of Magic (which is fun), but I lost a lot (unfun), and I didn’t trade intelligently (also unfun). Also, when Justin told me he had a Meddling Mage at home he was wrong (not cool), but he did let me borrow his Taiga for Belcher (very cool). It really does pay to have a good support network.

All in all I’d say it was a successful night.

(With seven more words, I’ll have 1,000).