Sunday, 8:38pm
I woke up suddenly, disoriented. Everything sounded… muddled. Distant. It sounded like I was deep underwater.
No, that wouldn’t make sense. I had to still be on the plane. We’d taken off from Indianapolis. It was Sunday, 8/16.
As the fog started to lift from my mind, I confirmed I was definitely on a plane, or what U.S. Air considers a reasonable facsimile thereof. I was in seat 5A on the left side, and next to me, an aisle and then two more seats. This was the smallest plane I’d ever been on. Because I’m not Kyle Sanchez, not only was there not a beautiful girl seated next to me, there wasn’t even a SEAT next to me.
Considering that we were coming back from GenCon, however, that definitely beats most of the more likely alternatives.
My bag, which barely fit under the seat (because Ryan Glackin inexplicably refused to pack any Magic cards in his stowaway luggage and obviously valued my future spinal well-being at less than $100), pushed against my feet as I tried to figure out where I was and what was happening.
Gradually, I understood that something was, in fact, wrong with me. Well… more than usual. The row in front of me was occupied by three guys, who were taking turns playing some kind of iPhone game, and being pretty loud about it. At least, that’s what my eyes told me — but it didn’t sound right. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Everything was coming in muted. What I could hear sounded like it was coming from the behind me, even though that was obviously not correct.
Then the pain started to kick in. It started out as a feeling of pressure, constant and uncomfortable, but passed that level quickly and moved directly on to excruciating within a few minutes. I had no idea where we were, relative to our destination (Philadelphia), but the captain made an overhead announcement, stating we were about fifteen minutes from landing. I was pretty sure I could handle fifteen minutes, as long as the pain didn’t continue to get worse.
Two minutes later, I was wondering if it might not be less painful for the plane to just crash. The pain would end, but Ryan Glackin’s M10 draft decks from the weekend, encased in the Steel-within-Steel of his Rook case in my backpack, would survive…
Thursday – Block Champs
Block Champs started out well enough, as I was 3-1 headed into round 5. I had lost to a Green/White deck, but had beaten two Jund decks and a Green/White deck as well. The fifth round I was finally paired against a real deck, facing Nick Becvar playing Five-Color Cascade. The first game was pretty close — for a few turns, we were both playing draw, go off the top, with his Walls of Denial holding off my attackers, including a Master of Etherium that was close to hitting 8/8. For a number of turns, a single Thopter Foundry would have blown the game open, but I didn’t find it until it was too late. In game 2, I took a mulligan to five and made a decent show of it, but being down three cards against a deck already geared to grind out advantage was just too much. I realized in these games that not updating the sideboard of this deck was a mistake. In round 6, I lost again, playing for prize packs, against a Bant deck that had an unbelievable amount of Lifelink (including Battlegrace Angel, War Monk, and Behemoth Sledge).
I found the Esper Stoneblade deck to be pretty enjoyable, and some of the draws felt pretty broken for a Block deck (especially for such a small block), but the sideboard I ran felt all wrong. It wasn’t even remotely prepared for the new-style Green/White decks, needing more spot removal, and there has to be some kind of better plan available for Wall of Denial. It also really wanted a way to destroy or nullify Behemoth Sledge and Qasali Pridemage.
After this tournament was over, we got food and drink from the Ram, which was pretty amusing. We came in with a party of eleven, with five of us getting a booth and six sitting at an adjacent table. From the booth group, our orders all came in fine (except for a supposed medium-well burger that looked like it was mooing no less than a minute earlier), and after a few beers and assorted other drinks, cheese-dip appetizers, and sandwiches, we were feeling pretty good. Our satellite table (a.k.a. the kid’s table, as all the non-drinkers somehow ended up there) was no so lucky, with random errors like Soy Fajitas replacing Steak Fajitas. Apparently some of the pro-vegetarian forum dwellers from Cedric’s article a few weeks back work at the Ram in Indianapolis. Who knew?
Sunday — 10:30pm
U.S. Air being U.S. Air, it took a good twenty minutes for our luggage to come out, and naturally it was spread randomly across two different baggage areas. The entire time I was waiting, I kept thinking that at any moment, my ears would pop, and my hearing would come back, and the agonizing pain would go away.
Imagine that Lou Ferrigno (and I’m talking about 1980s “The Hulk” Lou Ferrigno, not 2009 “I love you, Man” Lou Ferrigno) is standing behind you, and in each meaty, sweaty hand he’s holding a ballpoint pen, which is inserted into your ear canal. Slowly, he is driving the back of the ballpoint pen deeper into your head and crushing your eardrum, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Two hours was about all I could take.
As soon as my girlfriend picked me up at the airport, I asked to go to the ER. Obviously when we got to the hospital, there was some kind of county-wide emergency going on with patients being transferred or something, and I needed to prepare for a “potentially long wait.” After around an hour, a woman called me back to take my blood pressure. She noted that it was high and asked if I was nervous, and I responded by saying that it was probably normal for people who are in excruciating pain to have higher than normal blood pressure. She left for a minute, and calling upon the vast healing resources of the hospital, came back with some… over-the-counter Motrin.
Another hour passed, and an ER doctor finally stopped by and checked out my ears. She informed me that it looked like my left eardrum had ruptured and that my right one was extremely swollen. There was definitely fluid behind both, probably blood. She wanted her boss to take a look, and in the meantime she’d have them send me some stronger painkillers. Shortly, some Percocet showed up.
After another hour, this one not nearly as painful thanks to the magic that is Percocet, another doctor came by. This one told me that my eardrums didn’t look ruptured, but that they were close to it and that I definitely needed to see an Ears, Nose, and Throat doctor the next day. She gave me a prescription for antibiotics and some more Percocet and sent me home. It was now around 2am. I hadn’t eaten anything since Steak N Shake at 4pm.
Friday — Vintage Champs
Of all the tournaments at GenCon, I was most excited for Vintage Champs. It had the most players that I knew, either in person or online, and it was also the format that I had practiced the most. The lead-up to this tournament was pretty interesting. First, the ICBM was dominated not by Tezzeret, but by decks fielding Wasteland. BUG Fish won both days. Then, although the attendance was gutted by the Grand Prix on the same day, there was a small but very talented field both days for the Steel City event in Pittsburgh. A new version of Tezzeret (really just Time Vault combo, without Tezzeret and with “draw 7s” in place of traditional draw engines) was the buzz on day 1, while two Workshop decks drew in the finals on day 2.
I’ve argued in the past in favor of Ichorid as a foil to Tezzeret. One of the things I’ve tried to get across to Vintage players is that as dominant as Tezzeret was over the past nine months, especially in the United States, the metagame hadn’t really adapted nearly as much as it should have — it stayed far more static than what I’ve come to expect from playing Block, Standard, and Extended. Instead of playing decks geared to beat Tezz, the bulk of players just blindly picked up various Tezzeret lists and contributed to the problem. However, some players were able to navigate and take advantage of this field with anti-Tezzeret decks like Ichorid or Five-Color Stax, or by playing Tezzeret decks specifically tuned to win the mirror.
The restriction of Thirst for Knowledge has either accelerated this already existing trend toward anti-Tezzeret decks, or has caused it to develop, depending on your point of view. In either case, there’s no debating that the face of Vintage is completely different today than it was a few months ago, despite the fact that Tezzeret won this year’s Vintage Champs. Wastelands have proliferated throughout the format, being omnipresent in Shop decks, as well as Fish and other “answer” decks like G/W Beats (which placed two players in the top 8 on the strength of its match-up against both Tezzeret and Shops). Many of these anti-Tezzeret decks are vulnerable to Ichorid if they aren’t prepared, but that doesn’t appear to be the case right now. Ichorid hate is relatively widespread. In addition to Wastelands and Strips, a lot of these decks have other elements they can use against Ichorid. Many Shop decks still sideboard Leyline of the Void (and some pilots are wise enough to bring in REBs to counter Ichorid’s Chain of Vapor), and cards like Ensnaring Bridge can be problematic as well. BUG Fish can combine a decent clock and the fact that it runs blockers with Tormod’s Crypts and Jailer out of the board, and can protect its answers well.
Despite all of these changes, I still felt pretty good about Ichorid and I was happy with my list coming in. The fact that I went 0-2 drop doesn’t really change this fact.
In round 1, I was paired up against John Donovan, hot off a top eight with his G/W Beats deck. The first game, I steamrolled him. In game two, he played a turn-one Relic of Progenitus and passed. I played Bazaar of Baghdad and passed back. On turn two, he tapped out to play Qasali Pridemage and passed back. I could hardly believe my luck!
I tapped Bazaar and discarded two Grave-Trolls and a Serum Powder. John tapped Relic and I Exiled the Powder. During my Upkeep, I activated Bazaar and dredged 12, discarding two Grave trolls and a Bridge from Below. I drew for turn and Dredged 6 more, hitting another Grave-Troll and a Narcomoeba, which popped into play. I played the second Bazaar from my hand, and Dredged another 12 cards into my library, hitting one more Narcomoeba. All told, I’d now seen 38 cards in my library (my starting 7, one draw phase, plus Dredging 30 cards). In my graveyard were four Ichorids, three Dread Returns, one Flame-Kin Zealot, one Sadistic Hypnotist, four Grave-Trolls, three Stinkweed Imps, and so on… but only one Bridge from Below, and the two Narcomoebas I had in play. I couldn’t… do anything. I was one Narcomoeba or one Bridge short of winning the game. I couldn’t believe it. John untapped and used his Relic, and a few turns later that was game. I didn’t have enough gas left, having lost all those Ichorids.
My starting hand for game three was fine, having a Bazaar, a Petrified Field, two Dredgers, a City of Brass, a Chain of Vapor, and an Ichorid. I don’t think that’s a hand you can mulligan. John kept his starting seven. I played Bazaar and activated it, looking for an Unmask or Chalice of the Void, but whiffed. I discarded two dredgers and the Ichorid. On his turn, John played Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, Wasteland, and Tormod’s Crypt. He used Wasteland on the Bazaar and then used Tormod’s Crypt, and played a beater. The game was basically over unless I ripped another Bazaar immediately, and I didn’t. A Chalice of the Void would have completely nullified John’s hand; an Unmask would’ve removed his only hate. In the losers bracket, I was paired against Leyline Goblins. I won the first game somehow, but this match-up is awful and I wasn’t really in games two or three.
That quickly, my Champs tournament was over.
Some of my friends who also suffered similar fates gathered me up, in my melancholy and infinite sadness, and we set off for lunch. We settled on a local Cuban place, and although the service was questionable, the pressed-bread steak sandwich I had was terrific, and we had fried plantains and Mojitos as well.
Then it was back to the Exhibition Hall in search of deals. Somehow we ended up playing a “how to play Magic” demo at the Wizards booth instead of waiting in line to update our M10 account for free MTGO packs. I got the Blue deck, which seemed pretty weak to me, at least in a five-player melee. One of the funnier moments of the weekend ensued, when I cast Peek on the guy who got the Black deck, and walked over and asked to see his hand. He said, “No.” I asked again, trying to explain that I had played Peek. Again, he looked at me and forcefully said, “No!” This guy was just ADAMANT that I was not going to see his hand. Finally the demo guy explained that he did, in fact, have to show me his hand, which he did.
In his hand, I found a piece of paper with the location of the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, Megan Fox’s cell phone number, and the formula for a Cold Fusion reactor.
Actually, he had, like, a Mind Rot, an Essence Drain, and some more land.
The demo guy was quite kind to allow us to play the game, seeing as we obviously already knew how to play and he was there to teach new players, but amusingly this was some of the most fun Magic of the weekend. Later, we found that in one-on-one games, the Blue deck was pretty broken, with its card draw and mill effects. Go figure, right?
Friday night we ate at the Weber Grill, a chain of restaurants located in Illinois and Indianapolis. I had the Beer Can Chicken, which we also ate in our triumphant final GenCon meal last year. While not quite in the same celebratory mood, the food was still excellent, despite some inequity in the distribution of pre-dinner rolls. Nick and I also polished off an entire pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea. There are many worse ways to end a day. The disappointment from Champs was already fading.
Monday, 4pm
As I left the ENT doctor, I realized that no one had really explained to me why my ears had gotten so messed up in the first place. Apparently my Eustachian tubes (which drain the fluid from your ears and are supposed to open when you yawn or swallow) were not opening, and the pressure from the flight caused a fluid build-up resulting in swelling in my eardrums, causing the pain and hearing loss. A hearing test showed my right ear was more or less hearing normal, but my left ear was around half of where it should be. Although the pain had lessened somewhat by Monday, it was definitely still there, although I was more or less functioning normally while taking the Percocets. The doctor seemed surprised that I had no history of ear infections, and that I’ve never had any problem with this during flights before, at least nothing that chewing gum doesn’t handle.
Apparently, if you regularly suffer from ear pain or pressure during flights, you should buy a nasal decongestant spray, and use it twenty minutes before takeoff and again at ten minutes before takeoff. Who knew?
So now I’m taking oral steroids, using a steroid spray, taking an antibiotic, and taking pain medication, and apparently at some point the steroids should clear this up, hopefully before I run out of pain pills.
Otherwise, there’s always… Motrin?
Saturday — Legacy Champs
I got paired against Landstill in the first round, and lost a close first game before a mulligan to five mostly took me out of the second game. I wouldn’t say Landstill is a bad match-up for me, as I beat it in round 3 and I’m now 4-2 against it with my Painter list, but it isn’t a “gimme” match-up either. A lot comes down to the opponent’s understanding of my deck and which line of play they attack; generally if they’re able to attack my mana, which is much easier in a mulligan situation, I have a difficult time winning. This is why I’ve considered cutting Daze completely, because hindering my own mana development is problematic with this deck.
From there I ran off three wins in a row, against Zoo (where my updated anti-Zoo board worked out despite my attempts to punt game three), Belcher, and Landstill, before losing to my arch-nemesis, Canadian Thresh. Canadian Thresh has now kept me out of day 2 at GP: Chicago, knocked me out of prize contention at the SCG $5K, and eliminated my chance at Top 8 in this year’s Champs. Despite the fact that I don’t understand how this deck has success against all of the Counterbalance decks in Legacy (and for those who didn’t believe me before, from what I heard 3 Counterbalance decks made the top 8 of Legacy Champs this year — it is the best deck in the format), Thresh is popular and does relatively well. I have a feeling that I’m going to play something different in my next few Legacy tournaments.
M10 side drafts were going on all weekend, so I had fun playing in some of those. Wizards seems to have done a very good job with acquisition with this set, because a lot of the people doing side drafts of M10 had either never drafted before, or hadn’t in years and had just come back with M10. This also meant that I saw some interesting packs passed my way across the three drafts, including:
• A pack one, fourth-pick Fireball
• A pack three, second-pick Platinum Angel (with all three uncommons still in the pack)
• A pack three, fifth-pick Mind Control
• A pack two, seventh-pick Pyroclasm
• A pack three, ninth-pick Terramorphic Expanse
During the three drafts, I tried intentionally to avoid drafting red, as I’ve been told I am red-obsessed in base-set draft. My first draft, I went white/red, but in my defense my final deck had Fireball, Earthquake, two Pyroclasm, and Goblin Artillery supporting an aggressive and powerful white deck. My second deck was blue/white, and had Platinum Angel, Mind Control, Time Warp, two Harm’s Way, Serra Angel, Air Elemental, and lots of other goodies. My third deck was blue/red, and had Merfolk Looter, three Illusionary Servants, Mind Control, Goblin Artillery, Dragon Whelp, Stone Giant, two Fireballs, Harm’s Way, and three Terramorphic Expanse.
I didn’t lose a single game during the side drafts. I realize this isn’t much of an accomplishment considering that one opponent played a second-turn Protean Hydra for X=1, but it should highlight for you that it might be worthwhile to attend GenCon explicitly to side draft for the entire weekend. Keep in mind that the drafts fire all night long; prize payout was 6-4-1-1, so most people wanted to chop the finals and get right back into drafting. Blue and White seem like the colors to base your deck in, splashing into other colors for removal or fat, as needed.
Saturday night we ate at St. Elmo’s Steak House, near the convention center. Slightly less expensive than Morton’s was in Chicago, this was still a pretty pricey dinner. I chose the NY Strip more on the size (14 oz) than anything else, and added a salad and Asparagus with Béarnaise sauce, and washed that down with some cold Stella Artois. It is hard to compare the quality of the steak to that of Morton’s, because I got the Filet Mignon there, but I found the Morton’s steak to be of slightly better quality, but I enjoyed the seasoning of the Elmo’s steak more, and it was cooked to a perfect Medium Well. I would definitely eat there again. On the asparagus itself, it wasn’t even close. Morton’s gave me three giant Asparagus stalks that looked like something from a Roald Dahl novel, just absolutely huge, and at that size I imagine it is very hard to cook to the right consistency; I found them somewhat undercooked. At St Elmo’s I got a bunch of perfectly cooked asparagus stalks (soft but still with a bit of crunch) with a delicious sauce (although the sauce itself wasn’t as good as the one at Morton’s, which was easily the best I’ve ever had). I definitely recommend stopping by for a meal. They have a fixed-price dinner for $30 that included a dessert for those on a tighter budget.
GenCon was a great time, even if I didn’t come anywhere close to the level of success I had last year. I can’t wait for next year. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it back with my hearing intact next time.
Next week, provided that my eardrums heal, I’m hoping to peel back the curtain and take a look at what it’s like to attend a PTQ on the other side of the dealer’s table…
Matt Elias
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Voltron00x on Xbox Live and SCG forums