It was so late by the time we got in last night that I put the blog on hold for a day. So here’s yesterdays grind:
I wasn’t feeling horrible today, but the rain kind of put me in a downer mood. Hot breakfast and coffee at the hotel helped, but I was still bleh by the time we got to the convention center. I knew I was in a touchy mood when an offhand comment made me mad. Eventually I pulled out of it and resolved the issue enough to enjoy the rest of the tournament. I tend to dwell on things, even minor things, and it’s one of the things I’m working to “let go” of as I get older.
The tournament was sealed, which means we opened six packs of cards, sorted and recorded them, then passed them to someone else while we got the cards sorted and recorded by another player. Then we used those cards to build a deck to play with for the rest of the tournament. An important concept in MtG is synergy. With 30 minutes to build a deck, my mind wasn’t ready to build a synergized deck. I went aggro (attack-based) and hoped for the best.
I lost my first match 1-2. In my second match, my opponent dropped late to play in side events, thus conceding and giving me the win. While normally I would be bummed to not get to play, it worked out because it gave me time to grab something to eat. MtG time doesn’t seem to work like regular time. It felt like I’d just eaten breakfast, when it had actually been about six hours.
The rest of the day consisted of two legitimate wins, another win due to my opponent not showing up, and a bunch of losses. I knew I was going to stay in it until the end. We didn’t budget for side events, and I really do like playing the format, even when I’m not winning.
One of the best parts about today was making “tourney” friends (which is my term, not one in some player lexicon to my knowledge). Tourney friends are the people you’ve just met who you then keep seeing and talking to throughout the day. I made a couple tourney friends, including one guy who actually remembered Jon and I from the modern tourney in KC (we remembered him too, but he actually picked us out in the crowd, which was pretty awesome).
The tourney friends were awesome, but I have to be honest: even though I had fun, it wasn’t the same as KC, which was a really good time for me. I thought about dropping early and leaving a few times, but I hung in there, partially because I said I would and partially because Drew and his friend were playing in side events and I couldn’t really leave them. I think a lot of it was the comfort level. When we did the Modern tournament, I had a deck I was comfortable with and had fun playing. With sealed, it was a deck I wasn’t familiar with and because I couldn’t change it, I was stuck with the same thing all day, even though it wasn’t as fun for me to play.
At the end if the day, we were super exhausted and hungry. We left the convention center and grabbed some food from the McD’s next to our hotel, then headed back to the room, showered, and crashed. Everyone else was sleeping by the time I got done showering, so I went lights out instead of updating the blog.
Which is again why you’re getting a bonus today.
A.
The Romance Factor 