GenCon

Not really going to get into any details about my experience at Gen-Con. It wasn't a very good one for me. I'd like to go back next year if only to visit Indy and all its nice people, as non-tournament wise, the city and its inhabitants are wonderful. However, I went 0-3 drop at Nats, played in a loot card tournament where you don't register your sealed packs (...wtf?), and got blown out by nuts decks all day at the Darkmoon Faire.

First, Nationals:

Round 1 I play against Derrick Lee, whom I've been playtesting with regularly for the past two months. 450+ people and I play against 1 of 5 people I don't want to get paired up against. Joy. I'm playing the Anchorite Kalinna list from a regionals while he was playing Gorebelly (I moved the shadow word: pains to the side-deck for Tristan Rapidstrikes). It's a coin-flip matchup essentially, and he rolls a 13 to my 11. He had a rough day 1 as well, with his deck consistently crapping out on him which hindered his overall record when he thrashed people during day 2.

Round 2 I play against a Phadalus control deck similar to the one Tim Batow ran, but with Medocs and (shit...) multiple main-deck Alas, Andorhahls. Needless to say I lost to the tech quests.

Round 3 I play against Keebler Powell with a Hootie Elendril deck sporting the Lady Kath/Demia late-game. I consistently couldn't find Brainwashes or Shadow Word: Deaths that would have shut down his 5 and 6 drop synergy or at the very least protect my active Medoc. He also topdecked a Lady Kath the turn he sent one into Magni, whereas if he didn't I'd either keep Magni around for a turn or force him to give up a Demia so I can recover. I just drop to conserve my rating at this point, distraught.

The loot card tournaments had people not registering their sealed pools. So needless to say a lot of people had nutty decks. I was already 1-1, but I felt losing to a deck with Vesh'ral, Karkus, 2 Outrider Zarg, Annihilator, Moko Hunts at Dawn, Intercept, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting was a little...fishy.

Saturday I played 6 rounds out of 7 (conceding round 6 to get some food because I didn't give a rat's ass at that point and because it was a local acquaintance). Out of the 8 games I lost, 5 of them were to turn 6 Norrend plays (the elusive untargetable 6-drop). Three of the opponents that beat me had 3 weapons in their decks, with a common sight being Splinter of the Warp-Tree. My only equipment hate main-deck was Malfunction and Kavai. I can't compete against 3 weapons. Sigh...

So needless to say, pretty awful weekend for me. I should have played Magic or Vs. Or brought some swim trunks so I could hang out by the pool on Saturday. *shrugs*

*ending bad beat story*

Tomorrow I'll start posting thoughts on FoO. And maybe some rough lists I've been working with since the tournament on my laptop.

-Mike

Bonus story: Tidbits of WTF I heard about after dropping at Nationals!

-Round 6, a friend of mine played against Gorebelly combo player who played Rak Skyfury...before playing his Twig. And still won. :///

-Round 5, Derrick played and lost against a hunter deck running Silent Fang...yeah.

-Day 2, friends tried to tell me that people were getting like 4th and 5th pick Chasing A-ME01, which unless you drafted Magni, is an auto-slam. This was all I heard about day 2 since I prepared for drafting a lot and hearing about people screwing up during the draft portion caused me to go, "LALALALALALA I'm not listening LALALA!".

-Tym Bradley made day 2. That guy is like the total stains. I should go /wrists now. (kidding. he's a friend of mine for 9 years, but as someone who day 2'd from our group while I didn't, I am obligated to make fun of him. Due to envy. I guess. Congrats to him...damnit!)