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