Battle For Zendikar, Magic the Gathering Pre-release

Last Saturday morning, basking in the newness of my newest obsession with Magic the Gathering, I went to my local game shop at 8:00 am for the pre-release event for the newest Magic set coming out.  I was completely new to playing for real, though a pre-release seems to be more about fun and playing with new cards than getting competitive.

I was greeted at the game shop by a very friendly gentleman who helped me get registered and set up for my first official Magic event.

That's not the friendly gentleman.  The friendly guy was wearing a polo shirt and jeans. And his eyes weren't that scary.

After registration, I had a donut and some coffee while I waited for things to start.  It was free, so that was nice.  But it was Dunkin' Donuts, which, it turns out, has not very good donuts.

Too dense and not very sweet, but makes for a nice picture.

For those of you new to Magic (like myself), the "Sealed" Pre-release event I attended goes something like this:  For $25 I got a special event deck box containing 6 booster packs from the new set containing 15 cards each.  Using those, we had 50 minutes to construct a 40 card deck to use over 4 matches throughout the morning.  More booster packs were given out as prizes to those who did well (not me).

Shiny promo deck box, and D20

We also got these sweet promo tokens that one of the store workers' friend made.  Pretty cool.

The play area was set up with long tables with full table sized playmats.  A lot of the players put their own playmats on top of these playmats.  Extra protection I guess.

Giant playmat!

So sitting down at my dragon art table, with my bunch of cards, I realized I had no idea what I was doing.  I ended up playing a blue/green deck.  Those are the two colors I like to play the least, but my blue cards all worked together and with my strong colorless cards nicely and my green cards had abilities and creature sizes that balanced out my weaknesses, so I went with them.  In hindsight, I could've used some different colors but time pressure got to me.  Actually, most of the players played tri-color decks, but with my inexperience I figured that would be too much to handle.

I even brought card sleeves so I didn't look like a noob.

My cards.

I didn't take any pictures once the tournament started, because I didn't want to look like some kind of wide-eyed tourist.  And it would probably annoy people. 

Anyway, I didn't do too awful.  I won my first match and drew my second.  I got crushed in my third and had a close loss in my fourth.  I didn't win any extra prizes.  Except extra fun.
There was even a really nice guy who sleeved his cards with sleeves with pictures of kitties on them who, after our match, gave me some pointers.  Nice people.

Oh, I did get a free deck box in the attendance raffle.

It's a deck box.   It says so.

Overall, I had a TON of fun.  It was long and exhausting, but worth it.  I will do it again next time.  In fact, I'm even thinking about occasionally going to Friday night events at my store to play some more.  I'm excited.

I'm getting obsessed.

After the event, I ate a burrito.  Because my favorite taco shop is down the street from my favorite game store. And I was very hungry.

It was a good burrito

Dark Link for Gen Con 2016!

Gen Con 2016 is fast approaching! (not really, but I wish it was).  

I didn't go this year.  Though I found out a friend went and never told me.  If I had known I would've asked to tag along.  But I didn't know.  It was quite upsetting.

Anyway, can't wait for next Gen Con.  Gotta prepare.

Next year, my gaming group and I are planning to take a day to dress based on a Legend of Zelda theme.

I thought Link was too typical, so Dark Link was suggested instead.  I like it.  He Link, but dark.  Edgy, even.

I got excited, because Gen Con gets me excited.  So I've basically put my costume together already.

Now, of course, I don't make my own costumes or go all out or anything.  So I opted for a modern, sleek, night on the town style for my take on Dark Link.

First off, the dark shirt.  I went with a simple slim fitting black button down shirt. 

Now, the idea of wearing tights just seems unpleasant to me.  As homage to the link undertights, however, I've paired the dress shirt with its sleeves rolled with a tight sportswear compression shirt.  

Keeps Link cool and shows off the killer abs when the shirt comes off at the end of the day.

Dark Link would wear this if he were as sleek as myself.

Next is the pants.  Again, no tights.  Constricting.  Don't like.  Modern Dark Link would wear slim fitting jeans.  In black, of course. Levi's.  A modern classic.

Pants.  Very exciting.

And then, shoes.  I love shoes.  Let that be known.
I saw these Clark's boots on sale, on a shopping trip where I said to myself "I wonder if I can make it through this without buying shoes..."
They're rugged and classy at the same time.

With the main outfit assembled, I began seeking accessories.

Number one accessory for a Dark Link is, of course, the cap.
Found a really nice felt cap on Etsy.  It fits my head perfectly.

Mozzie loves hats, so he wanted to model it for you.  It doesn't quite fit him.

MY NAME'S MOZZIE AND I LOVE HATS!

Finally, I wanted the iconic shield.  Last Gen Con I attended, I carried around a nylon shoulder bag which was small and uncomfortable, so I thought a shield backpack would be great.  But where do you find one of those?

Here is where.

MINE!

The very nice people there informed me that they just moved some of their operation to the US, and I was the recipient of their first backpack made here!!  I had to wait a few extra weeks for them to get their materials in, but they were very responsive and still shipped it out pretty quickly.  Nice.

They also put a ton of love into the shipping and packing:

Pink box wrapping and butterfly!

That's wear I cut to open the box!  Lavender tape!

Inside the box.  Lots of pink frillies!

And a cute handmade card.

The backpack is awesome, soft, well made, and comfy.  It is simply excellent.

Time to put it all together.  Mozzie volunteered to model for you yet again.

By the way, I totally didn't come home from a hard productive day at work and dress up a teddy bear in my clothes.  That...that would be ridiculous.  I'm a grown man.
Sure, it is kind of adorable.  I mean, if I was cute girl I would date a guy who did adorable things like that.  Especially if he was kinda nerdy and liked boardgames.
But like I said, I didn't do that.  Come on.

No judging.  I can smell your judgment.  And it smells like pumpkin ale (Happy Autumn everyone!)

Anyway, here's Mozzie!

He's super tall!  And maybe dead.

Hi!

What?  Mozzie, no!  The Dark Master Sword is not a toy!  That's how you hurt yourself!

Aw man.

And yeah, when the time comes, I'm going to get all sinister looking and make my eyes pop with some eye liner.  And maybe die the hair white.  Yeah.  I'm cool.

And after a solid day of boardgaming and other activities, I'll kick back and absorb and enjoy the wonderful day I had.  Looking forward to Gen Con 2016!!!

Magic: The Obsession of the Gathering

Magic the Gathering is really the epitome of collectible card games.  In the past, I've bought intro packs just to play for fun with my brother or friends, but have never taken the game seriously.  The result is that I've accumulated a fair amount of crappy cards over the years that get very little use.

Last week, some friends invited me over to play some Magic.  I quickly threw together a pretty disjointed Red/Black deck just to have something to play with.  There were 4 of us playing at once.  It was pretty wild.

But hey, I won a game!  It was way too much fun.  We also were drinking.  That helped too.

The real problem here is now I'm hooked and want better cards.  I already have a boardgame problem.  I don't need another hobby to eat my money.  Though I guess Magic counts into my boardgame hobby, so it's really the same thing.  But even more expensive.

In this past week, I've spent over $200 on singles to help me make a couple new decks.  I know maybe this isn't a lot of money at all for cards, but it's like 4 boardgames for me.  That's pretty significant.

Luckily, my CoolStuffInc discount on card singles is up to 6% so I saved like 5 bucks!

Anyway, this is a super addicting hobby.  I've been spending a lot of time looking at cards and deck ideas online (and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of what I'm doing!), which is a great way to spend that downtime at work when you're done eating but still "at lunch."

I may keep you updated on my Magic shenanigans as I begin this fun and addictive journey.