Showing posts with label Magic the Gathering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magic the Gathering. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Moving and Exploring

Hey all!

I moved!  For work.  It's been stressful, but I'm finally settling in to my new apartment in the middle of nowhere Connecticut.

That means exploring!

But first things first, gotta get my apartment in order.

Got the game shelf set up!
    
Game shelf.  Pika and Charmander on the side.

And I set up a space for my gaming PC.  Made a desk out of some sheets of MDF and two IKEA dressers.  It's nice and big!
Computer station

Then Totoro had to get settled in:

And Panda squishable found a happy home in the big closet:


Well, that was pretty much everything important.  I also built a bunch of IKEA furniture.  It's surprisingly nice.  The couch is quite comfy.  It passes the afternoon nap test.

With most things set up, I set out to explore the area!

Games stores!

The first store I visited was called the Citadel Game Cellar.  It is literally in a basement.  It looks like an unfinished basement, has dim lighting, smells a little musty. 

But there are shelves and shelves of board games (and miniatures and RPG books too).  Lots of the modern games as well as some oldies that are out of print. 

If I'm looking for a place to search out a treasure of an out of print game, this would probably be the place.  The environment isn't really for me, but I'll check out what kind of gaming events they have and will probably be back for on of those.  They just got a new owner, let's see what happens with this place.

(I didn't take any pictures.  It was really dark)

The next store I visited was the Toy Vault at the nearby mall.  T

The Toy Vault is mostly a small comic shop.

They also had some action figures!
Really brawny plastic men.
No board games though.  I checked it out as a potential place to play Friday Night Magic.  It's small.  We'll see how it is.

The store I'm most excited about is Ice Imports.  Also in the mall, this place is a weird mix of fantasy weapons and Magic the Gathering.  No board games here either.

But the store is very clean and quite nice.  It is split down the middle.
On the left of the entrance is the fantasy weapon and trinket side.  It has a dark light kind of ambiance, lots of blue feelings.

I saw swords!

I saw knives!

I saw rocks!

The other side of the store is for Magic the Gathering, with tables set and a separate counter for buying and selling cards.  There's even a big screen TV that streams MTG players and tournaments and the like.

They have a solid calendar of events.


And a a convenient buylist.

Overall, this place seems like a great, clean, bright place to play.  I'm going to try this one out for FNM first!

And Zelda!

Finally, I found a legit pizza place, called The Rolling Tomato.  Brick ovens, bubbly cheese, really good.  I will be back there.


Sunday, November 15, 2015

My Version of "Going Out" on a Friday Night: Friday Night Magic

So I've been playing in Friday Night Magic Standard constructed tournaments every Friday night for the past few months.  It's a lot of fun, and I'm getting better at the game.  I feel like updating you on my adventures for those of you who enjoy MTG.

Up until now, I've been doing pretty back, but I've slowly been getting a handle on both deck building and how to actually play this game with all its subtleties.

Two weeks ago, I had a 3-1-1 using a Grixis Dragon Control deck:




















It's pretty fun to play, though control  takes a while to get the hang of.  I like this deck because it gives me lots of decisions to make while I'm trying to survive until the late game when my dragons can take over.
I like dragons.  They are fun.  Fun with fire.  And sometimes ice.

This past week, I went 3-2, which I also am happy with (I'll take a winning record any day), with a mono-black aggro warrior deck.





















This deck is really fast and really fun.  And also pretty consistent and can do well with only a few mana.  Grave Strength is a card no one expects, and sometimes makes people angry.

FNM at my local store is $6 to play, and no matter your record at the end of the night you get a booster pack (a.k.a. a Pity Pack).  But 2 wins gets you 3 packs, 3 gets you 4, etc.  I've finally started winning packs with my winning records!


I even opened some decent cards this week.

Shiny!
Mythic!
Fortunately (or unfortunately?) for me, Jack in the Box is directly on my way home from the game store.  So 12:30 at night I stop by so I can enter a greasy food coma before bedtime.

I like tacos.  These are sort of like tacos.