Austin (part 2)

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Hampton Inn lobby. I leave my bag at the front desk because, like a jackass, I forgot to talk to anyone about the rooming situation (the situation is that I didn't have one). Almost everyone is playing or watching extended matches so I waltz over and see what everyone seems to like. Zach Efland and Tim Landale like dredge, but the list Zach had wasn't anywhere as good as the one that (spoiler alert!) Naoki smashed me with in round 1. Everyone else seemed enamoured with a matchup that Gabe Walls and Osyp "my last name is never mentioned because no one can pronounce it" Lebedowicz (LEB-ED-UH-VITCH) were playing. Blue/Black Dark Depths-Hexmage combo by Osyp and Blue/Black Thopter Foundry & Sword of the Meek by Gwalls. Now it could just be that these decks where so interesting to watch that... I can't even finish that line. The truth is that the collision of those two characters in one place leads to moments funnier than than the entire lives of Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen combined. There was once a dream that those two would do the coverage for the top 8 of Pro Tours. With enough support from players, we just might have some coverage that is so awesome that every starts pissing their pants before any sideboarding. Let me be the first to endorse the Osyp/Walls ticket for ANYTHING. All that preaching has gotten way off topic, which was Sushi. We went to the sushi restaurant across the street right after some magic. I was sitting with AJ "Dont tell me your mom has a crush on me" Sacher, Cedric, and Charles "Gindy" Gindy. It felt like a true middle-of-the-country moment when I ordered the Sashimi lunch and the three of the got the teriaki chicken. Guys, way to make me feel more Asian. After slchecking out the unusually hot non-Asian girls working at the sushi place, I sleeved up my weapon of choice for the tournament: Blue/Black Tron with the Thopter Foundry/ Sword of the Meek combo in it. In hindsight, I was a moron, but the Thopter Foundry combo is stll pretty awesome. When we got back, the tron deck was slightly favorable to Gabe's Thopter (I'm going to shorten the combo name each time I use the term) deck and the actual card Thopter Foundry was quite decent at keeping you alive when you're being attacked by a 20/20 indestructible flier. I felt pretty good about those matchups and was content with not having a chance against dredge. At this time, Kitt and Megan showed up and I got swindled into going frosting hunting with Megan. Apparently the douchebags working for the TSA at the airport consider frosting a threat to national security and made her throw it out, while the cupcakes she was carrying with her were allowed to carry on to their intended destination (my stomach). Megan goes through so much trouble to ensure that so many Magic players stay at their ideal physical shape for gaming (roughly 20-100 pounds overweight) by bringing cupcakes, cookies, or brownies to tournaments. But seriously, she's awesome. I get back to the hotel with Megan to find that the hotel has generously offered us free nachos, pretzels, beer, and wine. Naturally, I go for a beer or five. Unfortunately, the dark-looking beer tastes like Miller High Life, so I default to the other random beer before deciding to go to the BBQ player party where Wizards gave us these sweet-looking cowboy hats (don't worry, I'll have a picture up soon). More coming soon.

Dirv

PT: Austin

Austin came and went. I flew down to Austin last Thursday morning after staying up all Wednesday night (it's my normal practice for flying. I'd rather sleep on the flight and enjoy my time on the ground). After stopping over in Memphis for a layover, I found Cedric Phillips and we some chats about decks. I am an absolute zombie at that point but I muddle my way through a conversation before we finally board the plane. I sit down, buckle up, and promptly pass out against a window. Next thing I know, people are standing up and pulling hir bags out of he overhead compartments. Me and my bloodshot eyes stand up and stumble out of the plane with my bags. Cedric gets off the plane and we decide to head to the Hampton Inn to meet up with Osyp, PNaps, and his brother Chris. My 2 minutes of googling paid off as we boarded the $0.75 bus to downtown from the airport. We arrive over on 6th avenue and it is blisteringly hot and humid. I'd say it's roughly equivalent to a Miami summer in the middle of the Everglades, but Wizards has yet to have a GP or a Pro Tour in Miami yet so most people wouldn't know what I'm talking about (no seiously Wizards, we need a tournament there. Winter time is great in he fall. How awesome would Worlds in Miami be? 70 degrees in December must be tempting for a company that freezes it's ass off in the cold, cold Seatle). So we walk over past the Convention Center and we pass a block with a Fogo de Chao and I just start laughing. Cedric had never been and now he had no way to weasel out of going when Zach Efland brings it up (Cedric always managed to get out of going by saying, "oh, 30 minutes away from the site? That's too far away"). We make our way into the hotel and low and behold, there are over a dozen people I know all playing in he lobby.

Gonna have to continue this in a bit. I'll add more throughout the day.

Awake?

What am I doing at a bar at 5:20?

Sent from my iPhone

hung over....bad

Woke up this evening. The sun had already gone down. Wow, wasn't expecting to get that drunk. After all I went to meet a few friends at the bar at 1:30 last night. Its almost 24 hours later and I think I'm still drunk after hibernating for 12 hours. I think I'll be taking a personal day from drinking.

Dave

Writing Exercises

Joe and I have been trying to get some writing done, but we seem to be stuck at a point where we need a little help. Joe remembers an exercise from a creative writing class where everyone was given a picture and had to write a short story based on or inspired by the picture. Naturally, the two of us decide to make it a little competition and do a few of these exercises. The picture would be chosen at random and we would write a story for each picture. Today, we deicide to start.

Joe says, "Alright. Google 'random pictures' and see what comes up." We click on the images search section and we get this picture. Wow. Ok, so we have a day to do one story each. I'll be banging my head against the keyboard until something useful comes out.

Dave

Going out with Wally and Joe

About to head out to Manhattan to go meet up with Wally and Joe. Just wanted to give this mobile posting do-hickey a try. As a little bonus, here's a nice picture. Its from the EMT night. Enjoy.

Dave

Classic Joe

So this is a good one I found from when Zach Efland came to visit us back last Thanksgiving. The three of us were drinking over at Hanley's and after a few hours, we were pretty tipsy. Joe was a little worse off than most. This picture was taken after the EMT tried to take Joe away because he was passed out by the front door of the building and someone had called 911. Zach and I went downstairs to check on him after a few minutes of hanging out in the apartment and found them trying to strap Joe into a wheelchair. I managed to wake him up at the last minute and he bolted upstairs. Then I had to sign something to say that he refused treatment. I walk upstairs and find Joe passed out again in front of the door to our apartment (thats it on the right-hand side). I give him a light kick and he slithers inside only to go into the bathroom and break a glass shelf on himself. There are pictures of that too...

Dave

A picture from a couple years ago

Sooooo.... I found this old picture from Coconut Grove in South Florida. I was out drinking with Jin-Soo and we were walking back to my car when we spotted this bright beacon parked outside a hotel. Saw it, touched it, bam! Checked it off on my life's Things to Do List. "See the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile." Check plus.

Dave

Boston

Just got back from GP Boston. Kept the boozing to a minimum and was riding pretty high after a 9-0 day 1. I managed to 2-1 the first pod with a decent UW deck that featured two Mind Controls and a Sleep. Besides those three cards the deck was pretty mediocre. The second draft went ok and I felt like my deck was stronger than the first, but I had some bad draws and lost the first round of the second pod. Next round I get a feature match where my opponent gets a game loss. awk. I then get paired against Ben Stark for the second time of the day and he crushes me. I wish we could have drawn but with 1500 people it just wasnt possible. I ended up 9th. Ben and Zach Efland made top 8, which was pretty cool. Florida put up a pretty good showing. I'm gonna write a brief tournament report/article on some type 2 ideas tomorrow and try and figure out exactly what I'm gonna do in regards to my upcoming trip to Vegas this month.

David