This trip, like most trips, started the night before. I got back home from work around 5:30. I had the option of grinding FNM or taking it easy. I don’t know how much Magic our state champ Ty is playing every week to get to 33rd in the world, but it seems like something I could match if I really wanted. Throw in the PTQs, GP, and Worlds, and I should be able to qualify to Hawaii fairly easily. Can you imagine how many points 24 rounds of Magic is worth with a x12 multiplier? Being on a national team at Worlds is almost like cheating as far as Planeswalker Points are concerned. The problem tonight was my ride wanted to meet at 5 am the next morning. I guess I’m not going to FNM.
I decided to stay at home for a quiet night with How I Met Your Mother. I usually hate sitcoms for the simple fact that they’re so poorly written. Alley-oop, punch line, alley-oop, punch line was not my idea of quality television. I watched the first episode of Broke Girl and a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and I just wanted to punch the TV. Don’t get me started on 2.5 Men.
Anyway, a friend let me borrow HIMYM so I gave it a shot. So far it’s pretty good. They developed the characters early on so the viewer cares about them. They also mixed punch lines with situation comedy, which is what made Seinfeld such a great show back in the days. I’m finishing season 1, and I found it funny that we, a local forum Texasmagiczone.com, came up with ‘lawyered” independently. Later on I found out that this isn’t true. Apparently the show has been on for a while, and their memes crossed over. I have used the line “have you met my friend Jeremy” in a slightly different context.
I passed out around 10 pm and woke up at 4 am. I checked my phone and the forum and found that Trey, my ride, figured out that leaving so early was ridiculous. We were meeting at 6 am now. F***. I was fully awake now so I might as well prepare for the tournament. I like doing set reviews from a Limited perspective whenever a new set comes out. This time, I got lazy and streamed it on Justin.tv instead. I looked at cards on my computer screen and told my seven followers how I felt about each. It turned a 4-5 hour process into a 2-hour one. I found out through independent parties that they prefer written analysis of the new set rather than hearing the soothing sound of my voice over a stream. Ridiculous I say. With nothing else to do, I made a quick spreadsheet of my current pick orders and sent it to my car mates. I had an extra hour to burn thanks to waking up so early.
Generally I have no problem doing pick orders and analysis of new sets unless there’s a PTQ season involved. I form an opinion of the new set quickly. Since I’ve been playing forever, I’m usually not too far off. Every set has a Pacifism, Terror, 3cc two-power flyer, bears, bounce, and other tricks. They are essentially the same cards. New sets should not be that hard to evaluate. Sure, Silent Departure is one of the best Limited Unsummons ever printed, but Moon Heron is Snapping Drake, and Dead Weight is close enough to Disfigure. I don’t know why it takes people a while to adjust to a new Limited format. I didn’t do a set review immediately this time around because I don’t want to catch people up and then play them in the PTQ. I could decrease my game win percentage by 5-10% against people who have read my review and thoughts. Over the course of a Limited PTQ season, that could be the difference between an invite or rewardless grinding.
After sending out the pick orders to the people in my car, I headed out. Unfortunately the copy/paste didn’t work as intended. We were going to talk Magic on the way there anyway so it didn’t matter. We talked for about two minutes, and Chris and I fell asleep. I woke up for Buc-ee’s and then passed out again. People not from Texas don’t quite understand our fondness with this place. It’s basically the biggest gas station for miles. Buc-ee’s is well lit and super clean. On top of that, they offer homemade jerky, fudge, and cookies. There is also a deli.Â
On the trip there, Trey joked that since it was an Event Horizon PTQ we probably wouldn’t get cards to register until 10:45. We got there around 9:45 and decided to team draft. Ty and I crushed Chris and Phu. I got stuck on two lands game 1 against Phu and then rolled him the next two. I also walked into an obvious Village Bell-Ringer. I’m glad I got that one out of the way before the PTQ. Ty got the Snapcaster, and I got everything else. The day started well. Sure enough we didn’t get to registration until 10:55. I opened Olivia, Manor Gargoyle, and a few other goodies. The deck was 3-4 cards shy of a solid BR deck, but I would have been happy with it. Hubble registered Olivia and Devil’s Play. I ended up with a very solid, but unspectacular pool.
The deck:
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Disciple of Griselbrand
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Walking Corpse
1 Stitcher’s Apprentice
1 Civilized Scholar
1 Armored Skaab
1 Moon Heron
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Galvanic Juggernaut
1 Manor Gargoyle
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Skaab Ruinator
1 Battleground Geist
1 Silent Departure
1 Blazing Torch
2 Dead Weight
1 Victim of Night
1 Think Twice
1 Claustrophobia
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Butcher’s Cleaver
The deck was good. Disciple of Griselbrand was the only card I was not thrilled with main deck. Bloodline Keeper was a bomb. Gargoyle was really good, but could be dealt with. Skaab Ruinator was great twice and dead twice. I was happy with the removal package. Victim and Claustrophobia could deal with bombs. Dead Weight and Silent Departure offered cheap removal/tempo. I had a few flyers to close out games, and the looter was great at filtering draws.
Cards that missed the cut:
1 Night Terrors
3 Stromkirk Patrol
1 Think Twice
1 Fortress Crab
I didn’t need another Think Twice. It’s good at keeping Werewolves from flipping, but I had nine spells already. Playing with fewer than 14 creatures in Sealed is asking for trouble. Ideally I want 16, but if there were enough removal in this deck, I could justify 14 creatures. That’s the same reason I left Night Terror on the bench. Looking back, Patrol or Crab might be better than Think Twice. Mauler and Ruinator could easily be dead with the wrong draw.
The other colors:
Deck
1 Cobbled Wings
1 Mask of Avacyn
1 Trepanation Blade
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Unruly Mob
1 Elder Cathar
1 Chapel Geist
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Thraben Sentry
1 Gallows Warden
1 Moment of Heroism
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Village Bell-Ringer
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Bloodcrazed Neonate
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Tormented Pariah
1 Night Revelers
1 Rage Thrower
1 Geistflame
1 Harvest Pyre
2 Into the Maw of Hell
1 Darkthicket Wolf
1 Woodland Sleuth
1 Grizzled Outcast
1 Hollowhenge Scavenger
1 Somberwald Spider
2 Spider Spawning
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
1 Ranger’s Guile
1 Travel Preparation
1 Mulch
Before the first round, I found some index cards sitting on a table. I needed life pads, and the index cards provided additional room on the back to take notes. I remembered what happened the last time I took notes (US Nationals) and grabbed eight index cards for the eight rounds. Before walking away, I grabbed three more index cards. I was feeling a little cocky.
Round 1
I was paired against Derek Pendarvis. I’ve driven with him to events before. He grinds Constructed Magic Online for packs, so we’re not talking about the random round 1 and 2 scrub you hope to run into at a 155-person PTQ.
Luckily, I stuck the Invisible Stalker carrying a Butcher’s Cleaver combo game 1. I screwed up one turn when I blocked his 2/1 Bloodcrazed Neonate with Typhoid Rats. I had a four-drop in hand and should have just taken the damage and waited a turn to block. Two of the only non-rare outs to the Stalker/Cleaver combo are Rolling Temblor and Tribute to Hunger. Blocking left me open to Tribute. It’s not like losing two life is going to make a difference in this race. Even if he ripped Geistflame for my Rat, the combo should be able to outrace the Neonate easily. Eight-point net life swing vs. 2-3-4-5 was not really a race.
Game 2 he got stuck on three lands for six turns. I did read him for Spidery Grasp and 2-for-1ed him. Then he had another one and ate a guy. I walked a 3/1 Village Ironsmith into an obvious Bell-Ringer against Chris in the 2v2. I’m kind of glad I did that because it got me to tighten my play up for the PTQ. Well, a little at least.
Round 2
Game 1 I screwed up pretty badly. I don’t even remember how now because there’s only so much room on the damn index card. I wrote “Screwed up 4 times and still won w/ 1 life” on the card. I was beaten down early on by a Geist of Saint Traft. I flashed back a Silent Departure on an Instigator Gang when I could have played two spells. I did finally stabilize with a Bloodline Keeper. I killed him with exact damage by making token #5 and flipping it to turn the three tokens that could attack into three 4/4 flyers. I was pretty sure he could have attacked me with everything and killed me the turn before. I was at one, and he had a six-power trampler. My biggest guy had five toughness, and we had the same number of creatures. I didn’t have enough creatures to double block the trampler and everyone else.
Game 2 I played T2 Walking Corpse. Turn 2 he Think Twiced. Turn 3 he Fiend Huntered my 2/2. Turn 4 I dropped Bloodline. Awkward. The lord became Claustrophobic after making two Vampires. I held on to a ton of spells because I was winning on the board. No need to walk into Divine Reckoning or Blasphemous Act for no reason. It looked like he was heavily flooded this game.
Between round 2-3 I walked by Phu and Honeycutt playing for fun. On the board Phu had a few Forests, Woodland Cemetery, 1 Swamp, 1 Plains, and 1 Mountains. I laughed, and he tried to tell me his pool sucked, and this was the only option. I didn’t want to stay for his justification. According to Phu, he won two matches at a Pro Tour thanks to a splashed Squall Line in a UW flyer deck. Three Forest plus Squall Line equals I really hope I get there. The man started playing during Ravnica and got into the habit of playing many colors. It’s not exactly fair to expect Tarzan to function in New York City.
The biggest mistake I think people are making in Sealed is playing three colors. There’s not that much fixing in this format. All of the colors have removal, so splashing for removal is not as big of a deal this time around. Besides, a lot of the removal in this format is situational like Bonds of Faith or hard to splash like Victim of Night and Claustrophobia.
Phu reminds me a little of Marv from Sin City.
Most people think Marv is crazy
He just had the rotten luck of being born in the wrong century
He’d be right at home on some ancient battlefield, swinging an axe into somebody’s face
Or in a Roman arena taking a sword to other Gladiators like him
They’d have tossed him girls like Nancy back then
Most people think Phu is crazy
He just had the rotten luck of Magic being a rotating format
He’d be right at home with some Karoos and Panoramas slinging Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind followed by Sisters of Stone Death
Or in a feature match playing Recoil and Jilt with kicker
They’d have named the top 8 top Phu.
Round 3
Game 1 showed the power of the Juggernaut. Early removal untapped him. There was one nifty play involving attacking with Galvanic Juggernaut and using Tribute to Hunger to get rid of a dirty deathtouching rat before blocks. Take five, and by the way, my Jugg untapped. He finally dealt with it. I played another creature and traded. Finally a 5/6 flyer Ruined him.
Game 2 he played the 3/3 double strike Werewolf along with Falkenrath Noble backed up by plenty of removal. I died.
Game 3 he played nine lands and did next to nothing. I almost screwed up one turn by attacking with Walking Corpse, Armored Skaab, and Stitcher’s Apprentice. Luckily, before I let go, I untapped my Apprentice. Sure enough, my opponent had a removal spell for my Walking Dead. My Zombie turned into a Homunculus, but remained a 2/2. I had four or five good cards in hand at the end of the game because I didn’t want to overcommit.
Round 4
I found a blank index card in my pocket. The PTQ took place almost a month ago, so I have no idea what happened this round.
Round 5
Game 1 I lost to Olivia. He had seven lands, and I had nothing on my side of the board. I might have screwed up a little early on because I had the Stalker/Cleaver combo once again. Turn 3 I could have played a freshly drawn Rat or the Cleaver. I hated not using my mana efficiently. By playing the Cleaver, I could equip the Stalker and run Typhoid Rats out there the same turn. Doing it backwards left me with three unused mana in the early game. I went with the Cleaver. Sure enough, my opponent passed his turn with three mana open. I played Rat, and my opponent played Tribute. Odds are he wins this game anyway because he has a ton of removal in his deck. Tribute would have gotten the Stalker eventually. I also didn’t draw that many creatures.
I boarded into following game 2.
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Disciple of Griselbrand
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Walking Corpse
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Tormented Pariah
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Galvanic Juggernaut
1 Manor Gargoyle
1 Night Revelers
2 Stromkirk Patrol
1 Rage Thrower
1 Geistflame
1 Blazing Torch
2 Dead Weight
1 Victim of Night
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Night Terrors
1 Harvest Pyre
2 Into the Maw of Hell
Blue offered me zero cards to deal with Olivia. Victim of Night doesn’t kill Vampires, and I needed two out of three Dead Weight/Torch or a lucky Tribute. Red gave me two Into the Maw of Hell and Harvest Pyre. The reason I didn’t start red was because the curve was so high. Blue gave me a much better curve, flyers, and more solid cards. I wasn’t forced to play with multiple Stromkirk Patrols. For the BR mirror, the bigger creatures were fine, and curving out was rarely an issue.
Game 2 went on forever. I killed Olivia and then Bloodgift Demon. Maybe I was remembering wrongly, but I thought he played two different Sever the Bloodline. He definitely had one and flashed it back. There was a Stensia Bloodhall in there as well. Nice deck, bro. Eventually I drew Bloodline after he was out of removal.
Game 3 he got stuck on four lands with two Swamps, a Grotto, and Stensia Bloodhall. Hanweir Watchkeep, Nightbird’s Clutches, and Crossway Vampire (he drew a Mountain eventually) put me to six. Into the Maw of Hell got rid of that Mountain. I set up a situation where if he peeled a land he could flashback Nightbird’s Clutches to play for the win, assuming I had nothing. Given the mana I was leaving up, Harvest Pyre was the only card that could stop him from winning. He drew the land and went for it. I had the Harvest Pyre obviously. There was a tiny chance the game could have gotten out of hand if he played for the long game instead of attacking for the win. He needed to draw into lands to play out the bombs he was most likely holding.
I felt like I stole one round. The guy’s deck was clearly insane. He had Geistflame, Harvest Pyre, and Brimstone Volley in addition to the bombs. For what it’s worth I thought he messed up when he chose to play first game 3. I chose to draw game 2 when I had the option. Too many people autopilot when choosing to play or draw in Limited. As with all choices, different circumstances warrant different decisions. BR generally wants to draw. Two-for-one people with your Severed Bloodlines and Geistflames. If you and your opponent draw the same number of spells and lands, you should be up a card or two because of flashback removal spells. Bomb-heavy decks generally want to draw. Get another shot to draw your bomb and win the game. I’m a fan of drawing first in Sealed anyway. One of the best things Scars block taught us was that playing first in draft is not a given.
Round 6
Alex Fann is a local hero who plays at 3rd Coast. He mulliganed to six and got stuck on lands in game 1. He did have Daybreak Ranger plus another creature with a Torch. I had to sucker him into using the Torch before running out the Bloodline. He only had Forest and Plains so he couldn’t activate a flipped Ranger without ripping a Mountain. That was a chance I was willing to take. Bloodline did the dirty work.
Game 2 I boarded into the red once again. We were in the 5-0 bracket, so my opponent probably had bombs. He flooded. My turn 3 Night Terror revealed Grizzled Outcasts, Geistcatcher’s Rig, and Unburial Rites. I had Bloodline in my hand and couldn’t figure out what to discard. I thought I had to sucker him into playing the Rig somehow. A few seconds later, I realized that Night Terror exiled. Goodbye 4/5. Forever. Bloodline sealed the deal shortly.
Round 7
Potter and I drew. We both wanted to go eat. I pushed for Subway, but Potter had it for lunch. We decided to go our separate ways. I walked into Subway plaza and saw a Chinese food place. Score. I brought the food back, and some guy asked me if it was good. It’s always good. I don’t know why, but it’s hard to screw up Chinese food. I guess they can add too much soy sauce or something along that line. Luckily my mom did what Achilles’ mom didn’t. She always added so much salt in all the dishes she made. I tried explaining to her that making the food without that much salt allowed different people to enjoy it the way they like it. Adding more salt to a dish is easy. Taking it away is a lot harder. She compromised by ignoring me. While I rarely add salt to anything I eat now, I don’t mind super salty food. Thanks, Mom.
While I was eating, I had to listen to the finals of a side draft.
“Man I’m glad we split the prize, you’re crushing me.”
“Don’t worry, I’m going to open up trash, and you’re going to open up Liliana because I’m a sad robot.” Alright, maybe he didn’t call himself a sad robot.
“Nice deck, I couldn’t deal with the flyers.”
“I had 11 flyers, man.”
“No way!!!!”
“Yes I did.” Let me show you all 11 of my flyers.
Grrrr, can’t a man eat his meal in peace?
Luckily the food was good.
Round 8
Drew again.
One of the guys who made top 8 was a friend’s roommate. They only team draft in Austin. Ram asked if we got to keep the cards we drafted in the top 8 (lol). After losing in the first round, Ram wanted to know who he played next. Silly team drafters.
Top 8 draft
I opened Mikaeus and shipped the Skaab Goliath. I took Bonds of Faith next. While doing this, I looked around to see which Werewolves were opened. Third pick, I got a clear signal with Ulvenwald Mystics. I’m a huge fan of taking Werewolves early on. I’ll go into this later. I rounded out the pack with a Silverchase Fox, Darkthicket Wolf, and Orchard Spirit. A late Pilgrim and Caravan Vigil solidified my deck. After the review period, I left the Ulvenwald on top of my deck. Hopefully this was legal. It’s not like the card is something my opponents can play around. I needed to make my intentions known in case anyone wanted to fight.
Pack 2 I opened Rolling Temblor in an otherwise mediocre pack. I had two fixers from the pack before with the Vigil and Clifftop Retreat. Temblor is not bad splash. The rest of the pack was pretty bare. The next pack, Bernie shipped me a Daybreak Ranger. I guess I was splashing red no matter what. I got a Fiend Hunter this pack as well. More green cards rounded out the deck, including a somewhat late Prey Upon.
Pack 3 I opened Bonds of Faith and passed Berni Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Working with your neighbors is by far the best way to win a PTQ. Your goal is to 3-0. By fighting with people next to you, you almost guarantee neither of you will win the PTQ. By sending clear signals early and almost never hating, you highly increase the likelihood that you and your neighbor have the two best decks in the Top 8. Both of you have multiple shots of opening bombs.
I got another Bonds of Faith next. Pick 3 or 4 I screwed up horribly by taking Hanweir Watchkeep over Fiend Hunter. Late last pack, I picked up two Village Ironsmiths and a Tormented Pariah. I thought I could play G/R and splash for the white. Mikaeus, the Lunarch is a late game card. Bonds of Faith are fine late. My curve is better with the red creatures than the white ones. It was like when Ross made that list to compare Julie and Rachel. There’s no need to overthink it. There’s no need to be cute. It’s Rachel. Fiend Hunter is my Rachel. By the way, Julie was not very pretty and slightly annoying. I have no idea why that was even a choice.
Back to the draft. I grabbed more green cards and tabled two Travel Preparations. This card is amazing if you can flash it back, but only marginally playable otherwise. I noticed that there was very little hate drafting with flip cards. If you look at my sideboard, I have a single playable blue card and black card. I did pass Bernie a pretty sick B/U deck. After the Grimgrin, I shipped at least one Silent Departure, a Dead Weight, and Victim of Night.
I was happy with the way the deck turned out. A second Rachel would have pushed it over the top. The curve was a little higher than I liked. I ran Mulch over a second Caravan Vigil because it could provide card advantage. I had a couple of Travel Preparation that I didn’t mind throwing into my graveyard. If I didn’t get the specific land I was looking for, I was at least four cards closer. The very last game, I boarded the second Vigil in for the Mulch because I needed to be able to kill the Mayor with the Ranger immediately.
I really like the double-faced cards. Every few sets, some mechanic or rule change has the masses screaming that the sky is falling. If you look at the popularity of the game, it’s higher than ever. Wizards generally knows what they’re doing. Outside of a handful of overpowered cards, they’ve done a great job promoting the game and strengthening the player base.
Taken early, the double-faced cards allow you, in booster draft, to signal those around you. It also gives you an idea what the people around you are drafting. You have to weigh whether it’s correct to draft a certain color based on what’s happening around you. There are times when fighting over a color is correct. There are times when it’s proper to change colors. Before, you had to process this kind of information based only on what was left in the pack and the rarity of the cards missing from the pack. Now, with double-faced cards, it’s a little easier to know what other people are drafting. There are situations where you take a bomb green rare over a good green common or uncommon. You can take a double-faced green card in the next pack to effectively tell the guy next to you to get out of your color. In the past, if green was pretty deep for two to three packs early on, people sitting next to each other would often end up sharing a color. Now, this shouldn’t happen as often. Of course, the person to the left of someone drafting double-faced green cards still has the option of fighting for green. It might be worth the risk. At least now they know what they are getting into.
Deck
1 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Silverchase Fox
2 Darkthicket Wolf
1 Daybreak Ranger
2 Orchard Spirit
2 Ulvenwald Mystics
2 Grizzled Outcasts
1 Hollowhenge Scavenger
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
1 Prey Upon
1 Caravan Vigil
1 Mulch
2 Travel Preparations
1 Moonmist
2 Bonds of Faith
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Rolling Temblor
10 Forest
5 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Clifftop Retreat
Sideboard
1 Caravan Vigil
1 Make a Wish
2 Village Ironsmith
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Tormented Pariah
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Burning Vengeance
1 Infernal Plunge
1 Vampiric Fury
1 Lost in the Mist
2 Fortress Crab
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Maw of the Mire
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Rotting Fensnake
1 Unburial Rites
Quarterfinals
I played against Potter in the G/W mirror. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but he got stuck on four lands both games. I played cautiously both games because the mass removal in this format is both easy to play around and not very good against me. Ulvenwald Mystics can regenerate after taking 13 damage, and my creature is probably going to be bigger after a Divine Reckoning.
Top Phu
This was the only guy I didn’t recognize from the Top 8. He looked a little nervous. I don’t remember much from this round. After 10 hours, the games started to look the same. All I know is the judge watching the match told me afterwards that I should have lost game 1. I looked at my score pad, and it showed me winning at 20 life. I asked him to explain, but he didn’t want to because the tournament wasn’t over. I could figure out what my opponent in the finals had or didn’t have based on the cards the judge told me. That seemed fair.
Game 2 he was stuck on three lands, and I dropped turn 3 Daybreak Ranger. I did nothing on turn 4 so the Ranger flipped. On turn 5 he attacked with a 1/1 and a 3/3 into my Ranger. I blocked his 3/3 with my 4/4 Ranger, and he tried to Moment of Heroism his creature. I had a Mountain up, so I fought it in response. Winning from that point was just academic. People watching the match told me afterwards that he looked like he lost a piece of his soul from that play.
All the Marbles
In the finals I played against Alex Fann. I offered the product for the slot, but he wanted to go to Hawaii too. Wizards needs to start holding PTs in countries with dictators or under military control. PT Cairo or Pyongyang anyone? I have a free ticket for you? Are you sure?
Game 1 Alex mulliganed to six, played two Mountains before scooping.
Game 2 He kept a four-Forest hand with the Mayor. I had only a handful of ways to deal with the Mayor, and none was in my hand. Nine Wolf tokens later, I packed it in. Good job passing up on Rachel, idiot.
Game 3 took forever. I led off with a Forest and a Vigil for a Mountain. The next turn I dropped the Mountain and attempted to cast Silverchase Fox. Talk about embarrassing. Aaron, one of the judges, caught it immediately, and I put the Fox back into my pants. I wish fewer people were watching the game. I got the early lead with an Outcast and a Mystics. I read him for Rebuke one turn and didn’t attack with my Outcast. Instead I played Fiend Hunter on his 3/3 Champion of the Parish. The next turn, I pumped the Fiend and Fox twice with Travel Preparations and attacked with everyone except for the Outcast again. Sure enough, he had it. Killing Fiend Hunter gave him back a 1/1, and the 4/4 Fox traded for Chapel Geist and Voiceless Spirit. He then dropped a tapper and kept the Mystics in check. He peeled another Rebuke for my Outcast. Then he drew a Smite for another fatty. Luckily, I drew another fatty or two myself while he drew nothing.
There you have it. After not playing in a PT for two years, I’m qualified for two. I’m pretty excited. I hope I have a good showing at GP San Diego and Worlds next month. As much as I love traveling to PTQs week after week, getting on the train would be nice.