second MtG tournament

I went to one at Guardian Games in Portland this afternoon (“sealed” I think is what the format is called – 1 tournament pack + 2 boosters) – man did I suck this time! My first two games were straight out losses, and the couple games I played in between were horrid losses too. And it’s not like I was playing against hardcore gamers – again I was surprised by how mellow a lot of (but not all!!!) of these guys were.

I’ll lay at least 40% of the blame on my cards. I didn’t have anything I felt I could build a deck around, while both my opponents got at least 3 rares into their decks. I went white/green/black for kicks, but in retrospect I think black/red +blue splash would have gone over better (this is the other 60% of the blame that should be on me). But hey – I’m just playing for fun & to learn, not to win. So on that level, I think I learned a lot about what not to do next time. Especially land & deck size, mine was just too big with 49 cards & 20-24 lands (I varied it as the rounds went on). Next time I really need to stick closer to 40 and go with less land.

So yeah, I didn’t get any bombs, or even the little tiny common combos that I like (like the untapping->tapping common faerie is awesome…and 3 tournament packs + at least 8 boosters now and I still haven’t gotten one.  Yes I have 3 Kitchen Finks & 2 Leech Bonders.  Go figure).

Unlike the deck from my previous tournament, I will not be keeping it and attempting to tune and reuse it.

But I still had lots of fun, even losing (sometimes very fast!) and met some nice people.  I look forward to the next time.

OH – and weirdness!  I picked up a tournament deck & 3 packs on the way out – the tournament pack had NINE uncommons and NO rares.  Lame!!  Of course, all the uncommons were decent so it wasn’t horrible.  But still, rares are where the “money” is at, so I’m a little frustrated that way.

book review: Woundhealer’s Story

full title: The First Book of Lost Swords: Woundhealer’s Story
by: Fred Saberhagen

You know, I don’t think I ever actually read this book before. I think my childish young self must have assumed that a story about a sword that heals couldn’t be that interesting. At least that’s the only reason I can think of for skipping the first book in a series. Hmm, no wait, as I recall now our local library was only spotty in what it had, so I just read what I could get. That’s probably a better answer.

I love that this book was so fast moving. Written in 1986 at a whopping 278 pages it’s a cool breeze compared to modern sci-fi/fantasy epics. Again, I enjoy these hulking behemoths, but sometimes a speedy wyvern is nice.

It’s a simple enough plot – King’s son is some kind of invalid, so King goes out hunting for the one possibly available method of healing him – chaos & intrigue ensues! We also get the beginning of what will eventually be an 8 book (bite-sized book!) epic in the way of the behind the scenes manipulations of the “Ancient One”. Side note: I forget how the main villain got from where he was in the earlier books (The Empire of the East trilogy) to here. Hopefully that will be mentioned in one of these books – maybe another one I couldn’t find at my childhood library!

Simple plot aside, great fun, easy to read & keeps you going – but nothing spectacular to move you or make you say “awesome” out loud.

THREE AND A HALF STARS