Early this month, I spent a week in Michigan with the rest of the family. I was hoping to go kayaking, but it rained each of the mornings I wanted to go later in the week. Of course, I also wanted to ride my bike, but the tires were flat. The day after fixing that, the rain started… Oh, well. It was still a fun time.

This weekend, I went to GenCon Indy with two friends of mine. It is a gaming convention, one of the largest in the country. I’ll have to type up an entry dedicated to that, but the Con was a great time, depsite a number of odd circumstances.

On top of all of my travels this summer, I finally bought a real cell phone. The LG VX4400 with a color screen and a decent calling plan for just $40 per month. No, I won’t be posting the number here on the website anytime soon… So far, I’ve been very happy with it, although I’ve used a large number of minutes talking to one particular person…..

That person with whom I have spent most of this month’s minutes on is Jen. While I never spoke about her here before, she and I dated for about 2 months last year. She had one relationship and one potential relationship, neither of which went swimmingly. So, on July 1st, she and I began dating again. It wasn’t really a concious, predetermined decision. It just happened. But is has been worth it. Jen is amazing. There just aren’t words to describe how I feel. Every minute seems like an hour when we are apart… So, after nearly a month, we have hung out a lot, with the exceptions of my two trips this summer.

Overall, it’s been a good summer. There are a few not-so-great-details that I reserve the right to not share at the moment, but everything else has been “SO GOOD!”

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.

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.

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.

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.