Unlucky Thirteen (13)

That was just a clever title, i'm not gonna complain about anything (except maybe not having quite enough money...) don't worry!

Also, i've not updated in too long - if some of you would be more vigilant and remind me, that would be awesome, cheers!

So, news...

No, you can just have some bullet points. Shut up.


- Poison The Well are an awesome band. How did i not realise this for like the 6 years they have made good music? Ridiculous. Go and buy "The Tropic Rot" as soon as you can or be a terrible person.

- Like i predicted, Brokencyde are THE band of 2009. If you don't get the fact that they are Meta-music, in-fucking-credible marketing, and appreciate the genius, then *shakes head*

- List of people i miss from Bedford: Ryan, Tom, Matt, Morgan, Whatley + co, Becky, Jenni, various other women. Oh, and my family, i guess... :P

- List of people i miss from Oxford: Ben, Widget, Joe, Beth, Emma, Jen, Her. *sigh*

- My biggest problem with stripping to just my pants for work the other day (see: here )? Not having enough tattoos. Ash (@ashgazal) had the same issue. That's because we're both awesome.

- Price of a haircut = £15 to 30. Price of getting your haircut by co-workers = £0. Looks like i win that game!

- Needing to lie down and just listen to tunes when you get home fromwork = less time for reading, which is sad. Still not finished the new Palahniuk.

- Looking forward to Tom's birthday shindig a week on Sat. Moreso, hoping he follows through with his promise of going to uni.


More soon, kids!

xx

Gravesend Magic Weekender - Qualified for Nationals! (12)

Yea, kinda not updated in ages - work is hectic, but always enjoyable, right now, with some absolutely incredible stuff coming up i am itching to tell everyone about... but can't quite yet. Rest of my time is spent with domestic shiz and doing some going out/recovering from going out. Sucks a little i haven't managed to see my friends from back home or Oxford, despite really wanting to, but i guess that will just have to be amended in time.

Oh, and i'm fine by the way! Before we get to the bulk of this post, a report on the epic and awesome Magic weekender in Gravesend (great time and a nice venue, but a shit town), a few quick thoughts before those of you that aren't M:tG players switch off:

- According to the Jesus College newsletter i received, the college needs donations, as they only have £136 million. LOL. Also, someone who was in my year wrote a novel. Well, i wrote 3 novels while i was there, so suck it. (Of course, i wasn't a French-speaking arts student, so no-one gives a shit about my achievement, but the point still stands i feel).

- Why the hell did nearly 1 in 3 people in this country watch the Britain's Got Talent final? It's all staged, obviously. Simon Cowell must be riding that smug grin all the way to the bank...

- I'm really glad that woman on the Northern line a week last Friday had her bag nicked. Allow me to explain - I'm on my way to Magic from work, on a packed tube around 6pm. At King's Cross, a snooty-looking upper-middle-class woman gets up from sitting aloof in a seat (which she certainly didn't give up to the fragile-looking guy of about 90 who got on at the same time as me), gets off, then starts swearing in far too posh a voice to swear in. She quickly jumps back on, saying someone has taken her bag, while waving around another (Louis Vuitton, no less) bag - and then turns to me, and says "It was you, wasn't it!" I look at her in disbelief, "err... excuse me?" And then she gets off while shaking her head and muttering under her breath. After the train pulls away, and i wish i'd said something a lot more offensive to her, i look to the strangers i'm standing with - "Did she seriously think it was me?!" This open question is met with lots of comments along the lines of "What a bitch" and "She deserves it", as they all saw how shocked i was by her accusation, and how clearly innocent i am and ridiculous this claim was. It was at this point i knew i had officially transitioned into being a Londoner, and realised what this city is all about - having an allegiance with strangers over some silly twat that deserved to have her stuff nicked. :D


And now on with a report on the Gravesend Magic Weekender - 3 days of Magic in a sunny (well, the weather was nice...) town i'd never heard of. To be frank, the town itself is a bit of a hole, though the venue we were in and the people who ran it were nice enough, even if the locals were a bit... simple (At one point i heard a guy in a football shirt ask his mate, "So what's with all them card game queers then?").

Anyways, 3 days of non-stop Magic, drinking, camping, and hanging out with friends was gonna be good wherever it was. Day 1 there was a sealed event, which (as is tradition) i went 0-2 drop in, losing r1 to the guy with 2 wraths (Martial Coup + Lavalanche. Must be nice) who obv top 8'd, and then got a game loss at the start of r2 for only registering 29 cards in my deck, like a total noob, before losing to Tom Brown's nuts aggro draw in his mis-built deck after mulliganing down to 5. It was worth it though, as seeing the results slip gave me the inspired nickname for him, "Brown Tom", which we have been making him cry with ever since. Bonus!

After that, i started drinking early in the afternoon, along with the others including Millsy, who hadn't touched alcohol in about a month. We all knew this, which meant we knew it was going to be funny. A couple of old-set drafts later, and it was late and we were all a bit drunk, except Millsy, who was utterly wrecked, and causing havoc all over the place. His offences included, but are not limited to:

- Stealing other people's takeaway, and spilling it all over the floor
- Stealing a bottle of champagne from the venue
- Losing his glasses outside
- Falling asleep behind the judge station
- Mooning a draft table
- Repeatedly ringing up and harassing his girlfriend
- Streaking
- Shouting at Gary for wanting to play a 72 card deck
- Shouting at everyone else, for various other things
- Pissing himself (allegedly...)

The following morning, after a few hours sleep in my tent outside, it was time for a standard PTQ. In the abscence of time to put anything else together, i played a deck i knew well, W/b Kithkin. Given time to build and test something else it wouldn't have been my choice most likely, but experience has to count for something, right? 5 of 6 rounds, and i was on 4-1, amazingly, having done about 3 wins better than i expected to. Ifi won the next one i made top 8, and got to play off for a trip to Austin, Texas! However, the 6th round turned out to be against an experienced Faeries player, a match-up i had totally not anticipated or prepared for, and as such went a bit on tilt, kept hands i probably should have mulliganed, and lost 0-2 fairly quickly. Lame. Worst still was that by7 coming 10th, i ended up with 7 packs worth of prizes, whereas 1st through 9th got 24 packs each. WEAK!

The rest of the day i spent having a few more drinks, and doing a little drafting, and generally just hanging out with everyone. Haing done much better than expected in the PTQ, my confidence was boosted, and i felt good about playing the deck in the following day's Nationals Qualifier, the event i really cared about. Over the evening of course, the GP Barcelona results came in, and everyone was talkign about the breakout deck there, Cascade Swans - even after tweaking my sideboard a bit, it wasn't a match i'd want to play, and i knew several people were building it for the next day...

After a full 7 hours sleep in my tent (this time joined by Stanj, who despite managing to convince Matteo Orsini-Jones to buy hyim a tent, couldn't be arsed to put it up), i got up, had a bacon and egg sarnie, and was ready to try and qualify for Nationals, on my 4th attempt this season at doing so (if you want the decklist, just ask, though it should be up on deckcheck soon, i hope):


Round 1 - Sean, playing Faeries:

Revenge! I'm not sure whether it was me playing better, him not being as good as yesterday's round 6 opponent, or what, but this seemed a hell of a lot easier than when i played the deck a day earlier, and i won 2-0 fairly quickly.

Round 2 - Jon, playing BW Tokens:

A good guy and fun opponent, i provedhow much faster my deck was in game 1, but hdidn't manage the same in either of games 2 or 3. Lost 1-2

Round 3 - Ed, playing R/B:

A good match-up for me, especially post-board. Won game 1 fairly easily, in game 2 he had a nigh-on unstoppable draw of Tattermunge Maniac, Jund Hackblade, Boggart Ram-Gang, but i won out in game 3. 2-1.

Round 4 - Graham, playing Dark Bant:

I wasn't sureho this match-up would be, but it turns out it's not so bad, especially after i board in my 2 terrors and Reveillarks. Won 2-0.

Round 5 - Jack, playing Finest Hour:

Not a match-up i was too confident about, but i did manage to get the t2 Zealous Persecution to kill his accelerant, which gave me a lot of tempo in game 1. Lost game 2, then won a tight game 3 after getting Runed Halo down on hsi multiple Rhox War Monks, meaning i could swing with my 8/8 Figure of Destiny without fear of being swarmed back the next turn.

At this point i was 4-1 with 2 round to go - a win in the next round meant i could ID into a qualifying slot!

Round 6 - Elijah, playing BW Tokens:

I won game 1, he won game 2, then game 3 was very interesting. At first i thought he was choking and was going to totally punt it, after in 2 consecutive turns he traded his 2 Mutavaults for 2 of my Goldmeadow Stalwarts. I then was a turn away from winning not long after, but he had Wrath of God to clear the board. We began rebuilding again, and after a while it was very close, and time was called. It was on the second last turn of extra time that a problem arose, a discrepancy in life totals. I had him on 8, he had himself on 10. It was the difference between a win for me, and a draw, as i could hit him for 8 with a pumped-up Figure of Destiny on the final turn. We called a judge over, and then when he ruledin my opponents favour, i appealed to the head judge, because, hey, there is no penalty for doing so, right, and it was possible he could rule in my favour, giving me the win i needed. In the end, he upheld the first ruling, and we drew. I'm 90% sure he was on 8 and not 10, as the turn his Kitchen Finks persisted and gained him 2 i dealt him 2 as well - thus no net change in life total, so i didn't mark it - however this was apparently the reason the judges hadn't ruled in my favour, sigh. Still, no hard feelings, Elijah! :)

As it was - had to win the next round to qualify.

Round 7 - Gianfran, playing 5 Colour Blood:

Not exactly a good match-up for me, however... i was on fire this round. I knew i had to win, and i wasn't preparedto lose. Brown Tom was watching this game, and afterwards told me i played perfectly. I'm not going to argue with that, as i pretty much ahd to in order to win this, and i know this is probably the best Magic i've ever played. I was playing around every possible card i knew he could have, never overextending, protecting my team from his cheap sweepers with Forge-Tender when i had to, etc. Game 1 i held a Zealous Persecution close to my chest from my opening hand all the way through, and eventually made a very high-risk play, which paid off - he attacked with a few guys, i declared no blocks and went down to 2, as he wa tapped out. I then activated 2 Mutavaults, swung with everything, and played Zealosu Persecution, alpha-striking him for 21, when he was on 20. Game 2 was also very tight, but my sideboard and him gettign stuck for land for a turn or two helped, and i eventually got into a situation where he was on 8, i had an 8/8 Figure of Destiny, but even if he had his one out for that (Maelstrom Pulse), i could swing with everything else and play Zealous Persecution to hit for 9. He passed the turn, i declared intention to attack, he said okay. I turned my Figure sideways, he declared no blocks... had a long pause... and then smiled and extended his hand. I'd qualified for Nationals!

A great end to a great weekend, and i guess serves as proof that in fact, i'm alright at this game! I went 9-1-3 over the weekend with the W/b Kithkin deck, which when they are updated tomorrow, will probably increase my rating by a LOT.

Of course, now i have another long road ahead of me, testing draft and standard (which will include M10 by then) before i head down to Brighton with 250-odd other players to try and earn one of 4 slots on the National team which will play at the World Championships in Rome in November. Of course, it's an exceptionally long shot, but... i guess it isn't completely impossible, right? :P

Alara Reborn Pre-release weekend highlights (11)

(Warning: if you don't follow Magic, this post is probably a "skip" for you)

Pre-release weekends are fun as. Playing with new cards for the first time is obviously awesome, as is getting to play for 10+ hours without it being super serious or there being wait times between events. And these are especially sweet now that i have the biggest event in the country just a few tube stops away - as well as a smaller event on the sunday as well.

Of course, i played/hung out both days, about 20 hours total. 14 games, i went 8-6 overall. A positive record i'm always happy with, but it was a much better-sounding 8-4 until tha last draft...

No stupid-long (6k words) tournament report this time around, just some highlights (note this does not necessarily mean they are all good, perhaps i mean more 'brief moments to reca and reflect on'. But that's not nearly as immediate a description now, is it?)

(sat)
- The inevitable 0-2 drop in the sealed flight. Despite an okay pool/deck, i still can't win at sealed. I don't know what it is aout this format, but it's really starting to annoy me, i just don't ever feel like i can win. I need to 4-0 a flight at the next pre-re, and end this stigma i have about it.

- Opening 2 Maelstrom Pulse in 2 drafts. I hear opening money chase rares is a good thing ;)

- Awesomely fun and close game against Mustafa. Even when it got very tight and techy, a fun opponent (i find some people stop talking when the game starts getting techy), and i won g3 off a mull to 5 on the play, sweet!

- One of the best technical games i've ever played. After my first draft and discussions with some of the other London guys, we decide that Bloodbraid Elf + Jund Hackblade is in fact RETARDED GOOD, especially in multiples, and with a t1 borderpost, and also playing Violent Outburst. Anyways, 3rd draft of the day, i get exactly this deck, plus Dragon Broodmother + Kresh the Bloodbraided to make it even more OTT. I'm playing a guy called Richard round 1. g1 i mull to 4 on the play. And then win without taking a single point of damage. And he wasn't mana-screwed either! g2, he plays 2x Mind Funeral, getting rid of all but 7 cards in my library. He's at 16, and can probably kill me if he attacks with at least 1 dude a turn. However, by continually counting the number of cards i have left and making a fuss about it, i trick him into trying to just wait and mill me out. Which gives me enough time to play 3 more dudes, then draw another land, s.t. when i have just 2 more turns left, i can play all the combat tricks in my hand and swing for exactly 16 after he blocks what he can.

- Buy my own copy of Dominion. This is pretty much the most fun card game i've played other than

- Decide to take a gamble and buy £10 of raffle tickets as the day draws to a close. Win 5 boosters and a t-shirt, open them to see 2 Meddling Mage + Thought Haemorrage (£26 worth of cards)

- Then go on to drink heavily and play poker until about 6am, after hitting the hotel bar, and then a bunch of people come back to my flat.

(sun)
- Roll in a bit after lunchtime muchly worse for wear, straight into another SAA draft. Despite being a little creature-light, Spellbreaker Behemoth + Predator Dragon + 2 double-strikers and 4 pump effects seems pretty win. Win r1, and win again r2 against Charlie Grover, a player i really have no business beating (he is ~300 rating points higher than me). And he says he likes my deck, which is nice. Then in the final, my opponent doesn't want to split, which actually i don't mind, because as Charlie points out "with your deck, you want to play, you're probably going to win". g3, i mulligan to 4 on the play... and again, manage to win. This time it wasn't nearly as easy, as i somehow manage to catch up from 3 cards down, and get myself into the game, if a little behind. I have Dragon in hand, needing 1 more red source to cast it, and he's on about 18. A few turns and 3 activations of his Rockcaster Platoon later, he's on 12, and i draw mountain - of course, i go for the totally balls-out play, saccing my entire board to the Dragon and swinging for 12, win.

- Got Nandos. Nandos chicken is really, really nice.

- Another draft, this time our first of shards-conflux-reborn. It doesn't go nearly as well, end up with a mediocre RGb deck. Lose to that stupid Lorescale Coatl (such a douchebag card in limited) on t3 of g2+3 r1, and then to Nick Lovett (he came 3rd at Worlds a few years back!) r2 when i mulligan to 5 both games, him with a hand of removal. Lame.

All in all, a great weekend, although that last draft was a bit of a bummer, as was redshirting the sealed, yet again. Better do better next time around!

A whole bunch of random thoughts (10)

- Arrested Development is pretty much the funniest tv show i've ever seen, and like every other tv show actually worth watching, it got cancelled. Meanwhile tripe such as Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girl continues to run riot. Ugh.

- 1 million followers on Twitter doesn't mean anything. Ashton Kutcher says Twitter "breaks down the barriers" between celebrities and the general public". The fuck it does. Whil i love using the service and find it a very useful service, until everyone's beloved @aplusk can respond to every single @ reply he gets, it's bullshit. Fun fact - if every one of his 1.2 million followers sent him an @ reply right now, at 15 seconds per reply, it would take him aproximately 1.7 years working 8 hours a day to reply to all of them. It's an impossible task.

- I saw a girl with the worst item of clothing i've seen this year so far on the tube home today. It was a dress, that from shoulders to waist was a red strappy top, then was 4 inches of a denim skirt, then the rest was one of those "gypsy" flower-patterned skirts that for some reason women think are cute despite the fact that they look like they were bought from a branch of Oxfam. In the sale. I think she probably made it herself though, thankfully. I'm not sure i could bear to see such an abomination catch on. Which means it probably will.

- I saw a girl with the world's second nicest arse last week. Note it was not the same girl as in the last bullet, which should have been evident from the difference in time, but i just thought i'd make that clear.

- New Zealand accents are absolutely hilarious. No, really. "Do you wanna chup broo?" "Ahh thet's fentistuck!" etc *howls with laughter* Also sorta cute.

- I can be too damn nice when playing competitive Magic. While i by no means want to be one of those no-fun asshole players who rules-lawyer the hell out of you until you either go on tilt or get game-loss'd, at a Nats Qualifier in Oxford i beat a player 200 ratings points bettr than me and felt the need to apologise profusely. Despite the fact that he made a misplay involving a well-known card. Fortunately, i then punted the next round for not being a good enough player to notice i could win the game with the cards in my hand. Lame...

- Speaking of Magic, Legacy is awesome. An exceptionally kind guy i've met literally twice, "Geechy", lent out a whole box of Legacy-decks for people to play on Saturday, after i recovered from my killer hangover (got ut of bed at 4pm) and went down to the Games Club. Angel Stax is fun because you don't actually win, just get your opponent to concede. Enchantress is fun because it feels like it shouldn't work, but it really does when you play Solitary Confinement with 3 Enchantress effects down. Countertop Goyf is amazing but hard as hell to play, from even before your first turn (do i Force that?) And Dragon Stompy is fragile as hell due to being several dozen eggs placed precariously in a not-nearly-big-enough basket. It's a shame i don't have all the expensive duals and staple cards to play it, because it really is such a fun format!

- I CANNOT WAIT TO WEAR SHORTS! ROLL ON SUMMER!


More soon kids...

The boat race, G20 protests, and other fun! (10)

You know those rare people, those few very lucky people who genuinely enjoy going to work and doing their job? And that absolutely revel in telling you all about it given even the smallest opportunity?

Well, i know what you're thinking right now, and it's probably something a lot like: "Man i hate those people. What a bunch of dicks." And in the past i would have totally agreed with you. But i can no longer hold such a view, and must apologise:

I have become one of them. :P

Seriously, working for bragster is pretty much the best thing ever, and despite the fact i work slightly longer hours than most people (til 6.30 usually, but i get in at half-9), it doesn't really feel like that at all. No stupid dress-code, everyone i work wih is fun and i get on great with, my two "bosses" ( i use the term fairly loosely) give me plenty of freedom and responsibility, and all this for a company i can realy believe in. Sweet! Plus, the actual stuff i do on a day-to-day basis frequently has me thinking, "i can't believe i'm getting paid to do this", fo example:

Britain's Chev Chelios - In anticipation of the upcoming release of the film "Crank 2", we paid a friend of mine a thousand dollars (~700 quid) to change his name by deed poll to that of the main charcter, 'Chev Chelios'. My afternoon consisted of putting together a 9-foot tall cardboard cut-out, having a load of people from Lionsgate and a PA photogrpaher come to the office to take pictures of our new Chev being given a giant cheque by two girls in bikinis.

The boat race - A couple of users on the site had a bet between them about racing in dinghys... So we at HQ decided to help them out a little bit by putting them in the Thames at the mid-way point of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race. While it did mean i worked a Sunday, being a getaway driver in a transit van around the streets of London = good times!

G20 protest march - One of our two co-founders, Wim, decided on Wednesday it would be a good idea if we all took the mid-part of the day off, to go and join the G20 protests. Dressed as a chicken, a gorilla, a sumo wrestler, and Santa, with a huge bragster banner. It was a... strange day, to be sure.


Oh, and as of Thursday this week, i am a "proper" adult. I didn't turn 18, or 21 (long ago!). It wasn't that i got my first pay cheque, or paid the rent for my flat. It was this - i got my own business cards, check 'em out! :D




So yea, altogether another great week, absolutely loving everything down here! Especially now i've gotten settled into a routine a bit more, have been finding more time for fun things, such as Magic, and also have been very good today - i tidied and hoovered my room, and did a load of ironing - i am sure there will be a tear in my mother's eye when she reads that! :P

As always, the best way to see what i'm up to at all times is via my Twitter, @dangerawesome - but check back here for more soon, when i will try to talk about someting other than how awesome bragster is - i promise!