Thud
Ah, right, I'm not 16 any more and the vague organizational structure of "playing Magic cards" offers less in-and-out interesting scenarios than... interacting with human beings in other contexts. Right.
I've played a bunch during the "free tournament entry" stretch over the holidays, even stringing together a nice little streak of store credit winning finishes. Eat enough hot dogs, get some free hot dogs. Basically?
Today I packed a mediocre Stone IPA into a stainless water bottle and headed to Modern with this shitty blog's namesake, Lantern Control. The beer system worked just fine; a few others there have a just-subtle-enough koozy system that I like. My deck and play weren't particularly great, but it was a nice three ish hours of ostensibly social time.
R1: Storm. Japanese foil signed Storm. I chuckle at my own retelling of the story of stomping my last storm opponent with maindeck Grafdigger's Cage and even feel a little bit better when I found out that the previous Storm opponent is apparently some reactionary misogynist asshole. Justice. This time I lose neatly, but get some extra time to chat about MTG artists and signatures. My opponent (jokingly?) berates his friend (?) nearby for playing Burn, then goes on to lose twice to Burn.
R2: 4C Shadow. I'd seen this guy ~15 months ago at the very shitty but slightly closer to me shop for a Modern night or two. He somehow remembers that I was (and am) on Lantern and a prior small-chat detail that I lived downtown. I strategically hide behind an Ensnaring Bridge in two games and win easily.
R3: Green Tron. Despite some deckbuilding clunkers -- hello, Mistcutter Hydra -- and five mulligans in two games from my opponent, I get stomped. I'm jealous of his can-koozy thing, too. His daughter arrives just as he's doing very lethal Karn stuff G2 and apparently is his carpool home so I'm a little optimistic about getting a concession, but none is offered and I can't bring myself to spit the words out of my mouth to ask for it.
R4: UW Spirits. "Guy A" is my opponent. "Guy B" is his nearby friend. Guy A has no idea what Lantern does; Guy B is very hyped about seeing the joy of Lantern in action. Somehow this Two Guys scenario has played out maybe a dozen times with different people in different cities and states. Today, in the prestigious three-point bracket, we're the last ones going during the "when modern's done, we go home" announcement. I think about giving up and saving ten mostly meaningless minutes, decide to keep playing, then die stupidly after my Bridge is bounced and I decide to simply... not recast it. So it goes.
I've played a bunch during the "free tournament entry" stretch over the holidays, even stringing together a nice little streak of store credit winning finishes. Eat enough hot dogs, get some free hot dogs. Basically?
Today I packed a mediocre Stone IPA into a stainless water bottle and headed to Modern with this shitty blog's namesake, Lantern Control. The beer system worked just fine; a few others there have a just-subtle-enough koozy system that I like. My deck and play weren't particularly great, but it was a nice three ish hours of ostensibly social time.
R1: Storm. Japanese foil signed Storm. I chuckle at my own retelling of the story of stomping my last storm opponent with maindeck Grafdigger's Cage and even feel a little bit better when I found out that the previous Storm opponent is apparently some reactionary misogynist asshole. Justice. This time I lose neatly, but get some extra time to chat about MTG artists and signatures. My opponent (jokingly?) berates his friend (?) nearby for playing Burn, then goes on to lose twice to Burn.
R2: 4C Shadow. I'd seen this guy ~15 months ago at the very shitty but slightly closer to me shop for a Modern night or two. He somehow remembers that I was (and am) on Lantern and a prior small-chat detail that I lived downtown. I strategically hide behind an Ensnaring Bridge in two games and win easily.
R3: Green Tron. Despite some deckbuilding clunkers -- hello, Mistcutter Hydra -- and five mulligans in two games from my opponent, I get stomped. I'm jealous of his can-koozy thing, too. His daughter arrives just as he's doing very lethal Karn stuff G2 and apparently is his carpool home so I'm a little optimistic about getting a concession, but none is offered and I can't bring myself to spit the words out of my mouth to ask for it.
R4: UW Spirits. "Guy A" is my opponent. "Guy B" is his nearby friend. Guy A has no idea what Lantern does; Guy B is very hyped about seeing the joy of Lantern in action. Somehow this Two Guys scenario has played out maybe a dozen times with different people in different cities and states. Today, in the prestigious three-point bracket, we're the last ones going during the "when modern's done, we go home" announcement. I think about giving up and saving ten mostly meaningless minutes, decide to keep playing, then die stupidly after my Bridge is bounced and I decide to simply... not recast it. So it goes.
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