|
|
|
|
2001
|
h... Sicily. I didn't do any sight seeing, since we worked
long hours. But, I saw enough on the hour long commute to
work (nothing like an hour drive before & after a 12 hour shift).
|
Catania, Sicily - December 12th, 2001
|
|
1. Traffic: Bizarre. I thought England was bad with the queen's shite
roads (road tax well spent), but Italy goes a step further by having
bad roads and very aggresive motorists. Also of interest, as depicted on
the right, are the friendly fellows selling tissue and other junk to
people at stop lights. Now here are some people I wouldn't feel bad
about giving welfare to... at least they get off their asses and
try to make a living.
|
2. Food: Bleh. I'll take American pasta and pizza anyday over the
real deal. Italian pizza is always thin and oily. And the spaghetti
was none too hearty. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. Also, you
might want to learn some of the language. Few people there knew much
English... they didn't exactly have picture menus.
Anyway, the place is pretty ghetto. I wouldn't recommend picking
it as a vacation spot. I haven't seen that much of Europe, but I would
much rather go to Scotland or Germany, or even Iceland for the hotties.
Ipswich, England - November 25th, 2001
|
|
fter the London GP, Bully and I went to Ipswich looking for some
m:tg action. We found Suffolk Sci-Fi & Fantasy, and ran into Sue
Rodwell, who I had seen in the GP trial.
|
|
She was buying packs as prizes for an IBC tourney that was
to be held a few days later. Of course, we decided to drop by.
I threw together a deck that used come into play effect creatures
like Benalish Emissary and Mystic Snake with creature bounce in
the form of Sunken Hope and Repulse. It proved rather effective
and I placed 2nd. Unfortunately, I lost to Bully's domain deck,
even though my sideboard was built solely against it.
|
Anxious to return, we went back for a Standard tournament.
I had so many decks thought up, it was hard to chose from,
but since I was short on cards for most of those deck ideas, I
finally settled on a deck
that wasn't much different from the one I used before
(not at all far from IBC either), the only difference being
the Dueling Grounds/Questing Pheldagrif addition. This made it
a bit busy with 2 combos running, but even with a lack of
cards, it placed 3rd; losing to Bully once again, this time,
in a mirror match.
|
ost major national and world events over the past decade haven't
really elicited much of a reaction from me.
|
|
But, as a tool of the US government,
the recent World Trade Center crash thing has really made life
hell. I had to come back from Hungary early, and my job is
sucking right now. It isn't Osama's (or whoever's) fault
that the people I work for are slave drivers, but the one
thing that does really tick me off is how all of this
drove an already atrophied stock market into the
gutter. How am I supposed to amass the wealth necessary for
global domination with the market like this?
|
London - September 1st, 2001
|
|
decided to drop by London last September for the Magic:TG Grand Prix, and as
an amateur I learned several things, most notably that you can't do well
without preparation. My deed-control deck performed terribly, since I tested
so little before the event.
|
|
I managed 272nd out of 551, only because I played until round 8. Should I
attend another such event, I'll come much more prepared. Fatigue contributed
to very poor playing, like siding out all but 6 creatures (2 being Jungle
Barriers) and nearly decking myself. My opponent must have wondered how I
managed to tie my shoes that morning.
|
My power card turned out to be Lobotomy... but I only had 2 in the
sideboard, which I put in minutes before the main event. My only glory
was sitting at table 1, where I was beat down by Rene Kraft. I found
that Spiritmonger was terrible against blue and/or Trenches, and that
Mystic Snake was just too costly.
Kewlest play: Matt (Bullard) had 20 life and a Rage in hand, having tapped
out to get his opponent to 3 life. Feeling smug, he says "go" only to have
his opponent cast a kicked Rage at the end of his turn and
another kicked Rage with Yawgmoth's Agenda shortly therafter!
That's gotta suck...
My kewlest play: Undermining Rainer Plaumann's Obliterate while he was
at 3 life during the GP trial.
Sideboard coverage
|
|
|
