What better way to celebrate Earth Day than hanging around in a convention hall with a bunch of nerds. Yeah.
Me, Kelvin, Mike, Ted, Bobby, Ravi, Calvin, and Gordon went to the Future Sight pre-release yesterday, which has been relocated to the Santa Clara Convention Center. (I guess people didn’t like that the convention center in downtown San Jose didn’t have free parking.) The pre-release wasn’t the only event going on there; there was also a veterinary conference, a bird and reptile show, a MySQL seminar, and children’s pop audition. The pre-release room wasn’t too hard to find tho… just look for the room with 200+ nerds ranging from 10ish to 50ish with low hygiene standards :P
I got a pretty good set of cards, with Linessa, Teferi, and (dun-dun-DUN) Akroma. I think Ted and Kelvin got decent cards, and Ravi got a freaking Akroma’s Memorial. Unfortunately, I think Mike and Gordon got crap, as they were the only two with a loss-loss record this time around. Even tho I managed to avoid that, even with my decent cards, I still suck. Though, to be honest, my only goal was to bring out Teferi and flash out Akroma on somebody’s ass :)
First guy I played was, I think, in high school. A very nerdy, but friendly teenager. And somewhat talkative and easily distracted. Both our decks were slow, and our three games were pretty drawn out, with the last one not finishing. During the last game, when we were kind of in a rush, he would hear his friends talking about something behind him, and then during his turn while he was thinking, he’d butt into their conversation with some comment. I’d be like, come on dude, stop listening to them, shut up, and let’s finish this so it’ll be less likely that one of us has to be stuck here longer than we need to. In hindsight, it probably wouldn’t have mattered, because there was no clear leader at the end of the third game anyways. I think for all three games, I’d get him down to 10 or less, and totally lose steam and not be able to bust out anything good. Stupid draws. Also in hindsight, I think both of us weren’t totally clear on some of the rules on our cards and may not have played appropriately. Anyways, I wasn’t the only one with a draw the first game. Ted and Bobby also drew…
… so they ended up being at the same table as me for round 2. Ted was sitting across from the guy to my left, while the Ted’s last opponent was sitting to the left of the guy on my left. And the guy on my left’s opponent was sitting to next to Ted on Ted’s right. Got that? Bobby was sitting three seats down on my left on the same side. Across from me was, of course, my opponent #2. And he turned out to be a kind of jerkhole. Didn’t smile at all, looked pissy, and was anal retentive about everything. At one point, he’s like, “I’m going to cast spell #1, and then because of spell #1’s casting cost requires discarding a card, I’m going to do madness with spell #2.” I’m like, “Okay, well, then I counter spell #1.” And he has to call a judge over to determine if I can do that because he thinks I didn’t do it in time, because somehow saying all your spells really fast means your opponent can’t do anything about them. Jerk. Judge is like, “Whatever, she can counter it.” (For the record, you’re supposed to give your opponents a chance to respond to everything you do.) I’m totally pissed because he’s being stupid, and it’s not like ANY of this affects the second spell he cast (which I think he was originally concerned about) because he still had to discard the card anyways. Also, at another point, I try to bounce back his Firemaw Kavu, and then he asks me if I really want to do that. Rereading it, I’m thinking okay, maybe I don’t want to do this. I was originally okay with it since I figured my creatures were expendable, but whatever. I guess it’s not a good idea, so I’ll bounce back something else. After I do that, he makes five more remarks about how it was a bad idea to bounce back his kavu, like he wants to rub in how stupid I am or something.
Anyways, I lose to him after two games. And I’m fine with this, as I generally have all-out losses at these pre-release events anyway. As long as the people are nice, and I feel like I’ve learned something, I don’t really care. I just go to these things to have fun. I have no expectation to win anything. But apparently this guy wants to help me or something, which is usually okay, but I don’t like him. And people usually ask to look to at my cards and offer their help, and I’m cool with that. Not this guy. He just grabs my deck out of my hands as I’m looking at it. He proceeds to tell me how I have nothing for blue and white except for Akroma, and then he starts looking through all the cards in my box. He talks about how my red, green, and black cards are stronger, and how I should completely rebuild my deck to use those. He says several times phrases like “if I were you” and “that’s what I would do” and “that’s just me”. I’m keep saying very sternly, “I’m fine with my colors.” The only useful information he spouted out was that I should have put my Amrou Seekers in my deck, but I chose to ignore it because I was too busy glaring at him. I know he doesn’t sound that horrible, but you have to understand this is all done in a very condescending manner. I eventually get my cards back and ignore him so I can watch Ted and guy-next-to-me’s game.
I bitched about this to Kelvin later, and he said I should have asked a judge to make him lose the game. Apparently, touching somebody else’s cards without their permission is enough to lose the game… at least that’s what some kid near Kelvin’s seat was having a hissy-fit about. If that’s actually true, to think all those times I could have won when somebody untapped stuff for me or put stuff into play for me because I forgot to take off suspend counters…
So, now I was at draw-loss. And once again, I wasn’t the only one, as I was sitting right between Ted (left) and Bobby (right) for round three. My opponent? Why, it’s the guy who was sitting right of Ted! And Ted’s opponent? Why, it’s my first opponent! I guess he didn’t do too well second round either. Mike was already out with a loss-loss record, so he sat behind the three of us, spectating and going “Go Team Xilinx!” Hehe. Opponent #3 was way nicer than the jerk I played before. Very friendly, normal guy, but I think he was older than me, so he probably got all his teenage nerdy awkwardness out of his system a long time ago. I did pretty poorly against him, mostly because of poor decisions and some mana issues. During my second game, during the last or second-to-last turn before my almost pretty-much guaranteed death, I decided to attack him for kicks with my Looter il-Kor, even though I had nothing in my hand. I figured, I might as well attack him and kill my library for one card, I doubt there’s anything that could save me anyway. Of course, when I do that, what do I mill? My dear, sweet Akroma. I let out an, “Oh fuck” and my opponent’s like “What? What did you lo- Holy crap, you have an Akroma??” In a test of my luck, as my opponent’s friend put it, “You failed.” It wouldn’t have saved me that turn, but in hindsight (so much hindsight), there was a turn or two where I forgot to attack with the Looter. If I had done that, I would have been able to draw her and possibly prolong the game a bit. Oh well. At least the whole table had a good laugh about it. My opponent said I shouldn’t feel too bad about losing, since I at least got a Teferi and Akroma out of this pre-release, which is certainly true. I was still bummed I never got to flash her in… or even put her into play at all.
Ted and Bobby unfortunately failed to achieve victories as well, so Team Xilinx majorly failed. Kelvin was win-loss-loss, so he didn’t get anything either. Ravi and Calvin were both win-win-loss (not in that order… they had to play each other first round!), but for some reason both of their fourth opponents refused to draw. (Each person is guaranteed 3 packs with a 2-1-1 record. Any two losses means no packs.) Ravi’s opponent was at least nice enough to give him one pack, but that still sucks. Despite what losers we were, I was still happy with the pre-release, and I really liked the deck I had. I’ll probably play with it a few more times (even did that today after work!) before I take apart the deck. I will not stop until I flash in Akroma!
Okay, sorry for that ridiculously long rant about MTG. And because Kelvin’s camera is still broken, no random pictures either. However, I did decide to order a red DSC-T100 today. I hope it’s not too bulky, but if it is, I can probably return it. I got it from abtelectronics.com (which I also became an affiliate of today :P). Abtelectronics.com has a 5% off coupon ABT71YEARS right now until 4/30, which is applied on top of their already cheaper price, so the camera came out to a total of ~$360. And there’s free shipping and no tax in CA. Unfortunately, the camera is backordered, so who knows when I’ll get it.
Today I picked up my mom from the airport, who was back from her trip to Taiwan/Japan. She gave me goodies to bring to my boss and coworkers, which was really nice of her… especially considering she works for a competitor. I kind of think she treats me like a kid in school, and I have to go give treats to my teacher and classmates. No complaints about that or anything, just what it reminded me off. So I’ve been munching on sweets all day, so I’m feeling pretty fat today :P
New thing I learned today: A laopo bing (wife cake) is also called a “sweetheart cake” and is made of almond paste and winter melon from China/HK.
