Well, tomorrow is it. While I have been to a couple of pre-release tournaments before, the Magic: The Gathering Regionals tournament is tomorrow at about 10AM. I am excited, but I need to know what is up with Dan and Mike. The three of us are going, but I have had no contact with them to let me know who is driving, when we leave, or any other details.

And just so people know, I am taking a blue/green Madness deck, designed to get as many large creatures out as possible. Of course, I highly doubt anyone is reading this blog…. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle. I never post because no one ever read it, while no one ever reads it because I
never post….

Anyway, I digress. The tournament is a big one, up to 600 players or more. My personal goal is to break even, at the very least. We’ll see. This tournament will be different than others simply due to the fact that it’s my first Constructed tournament. All my previous outings have been Limited format, so I could not really tweak my deck appropriately ahead of time.

I’ll be sure to report my results here in a couple of days.

Regionals were fun, although disappointing from a win/loss standpoint. My overall record was 1-4. Yes, that’s one win and four losses. I had a decent deck built, but it just wasn’t enough. I faced 5 different decks, including a near mirror of my own, and each of them had their unique challenges. It was both unlucky draws and a couple of mistakes on my part. The only deck I won against was a Burning Bridges deck, with a lucky top-deck of Naturalize to remove his Ensaring Bridge. That was just before an ugly Haunting Echoes raped my deck of anything good. I finally beat him with a Roar of the Wurm, once Naturalize kicked in. About half the time, I acutally made a decent effort, but my opponent just had too much resistance.

After the tournament, Dan, Mike, and I ate at Spaghetti Warehouse, less than a block from the tournament and had a good time. After the drive home, longer because of the rain, we stopped at Mike’s house and spent the rest of the evening watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Yesterday was a rather busy day for me. I met Dan for lunch and then went over to Mike’s house to play MtG. The major purpose for Dan and Mike was to test their Odyssey Block Constructed decks against other similarly built decks.

On the way, I stopped and bought some packs of Judgement and Torment cards, getting some interesting choices. Of the cards that were of any use, I pulled two Soulcatcher’s Aeries. These are very good enchantments that make for some really huge birds on the late game. For each Bird that goes into my graveyard from play, a counter goes on the Aerie and each of my birds in play get +1/+1 for each of those counters. Just a few dead birds, and I have a nearly unstoppable horde of flyers to stomp on my opponent.

I was also mildly inspired by Mike to try my hand at a mono-black deck. A couple of Laquatus’s Champions, a Devouring Stroussus, and a Nantuko Shade form the main kill conditions, with several black weenies (Ravenous Rats and Crypt CREEPERS) to be fodder to my Stroussus. Of course, I have included plenty of creature destruction, land destruction, and discarding effects. And, a supply of cards, like Gravedigger, that let me get back some creatures, such as the Nantuko Shade and the Champions. This deck is totally untested, but I might try it out this weekend.

Tomorrow (or wait, later today…) is the Torment Prerelease in Columbus. I am very excited. It is sealed deck, so there is a chance that I might get some good rare cards. I don’t expect to be any sort of competition to most people, but I hope to win at least two games against other people.

The trip ought to be really awesone with Dan, Mike, and Matt. We are leaving between 8 and 8:30AM, and I have no clue when we will get home.

I had better get to bed sometime soon so that I can be at my best for the main event.