Situation Aware! Rush for a change of atmosphere!
Vegas has been all I’ve been talking about over the last 5 months. I’ve been mentally preparing for this event since they showed the Grand Prix line up last year. When it switched to Modern Masters, I yelled ,”I’m all in!” And started making plans.
A skeleton in a suit and tie, tells us what we oughta buy!
Now here it is. I’m days away and you’re reading this. If you’re reading this on Saturday that means you probably aren’t there. Bummer. Would have been killer to meet you! Anyhow, I spent the two months hard prepping for this event. The first part was playing in EVERY SINGLE Tuesday night Magic that Twenty Sided Store ran in the 6 weeks coming up on its release. Everyone that entered got a free voucher for a pack. I received my packs and cracked them so fast! “This is a sealed pool?” I said out loud, sort of underwhelmed. I wanted to see what it would look like. Nothing amazing, really. So I set it aside for a day, played in a draft the next day (2-1 with giants) and I looked again. I was able to make a couple of quick observations. Obviously, draft is a lot more synergistic than sealed. I saw a couple combos in my pool, like Executioner’s Capsule and Academy Ruins. It looked like Faeries was pretty strong, and there where some goblins in black that seemed fine. But, I still wasn’t impressed with my pool.
What the world needs now is a new kind of tension cuz the old one just bores me to death. What the world needs now is another folk singer like I need a hole in my head.
The next Tuesday I saw just how good Faeries was. 3-0 no problem. Learned some rules glitches and got hungry for another. Wednesday night another draft, another 3-0! This time with arcane. As a rule I try to make sure in limited that I rock at least 17-19 creatures, that’s just me it’s where I feel comfortable, and if I have less then you can bet its because I drafted so much removal that I’d rather play that than mediocre creatures. Well this deck ran 4 creatures. Wild! Right? So this is a really immersive format and I have barely scraped the surface of it.
Oh again, it seems we meet in the spaces inbetween. You always say “it won’t be long” but something’s always wrong.
So, I’m wary, but pretty pumped. I won a GPT, two out of three of my MM drafts and I’m going to Vegas with 3 byes and a host of good friends. Things look quite positive for me right now. And while I know as well as anyone that it can all change, I feel good. Not cocky, good. I still have to open my pool and win 4 matches to day 2 so that’s ahead of me. But for now practice is over. It’s time to focus on the real thing. And that really means I need to relax, that’s when I play my best magic. Confident relaxed, Zac Clark, doesn’t miss triggers or kill himself with thoughts of the next unknown card that my opponent will play.
Show your ID card to the border guard! Are you ready? It says you’re Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Untied Federation of Planets cuz he won’t speak English anyways!
That means I need a playlist. Something for the plane ride and something to chillin out to I between rounds. So I built on one Spotify that pretty much reminds me of when I started playing the game. When things were more about casting monsters and playing burn spells. A call back to the days of Ernhamgeddon.
Leave me, Laying here! Cuz I don’t wanna Goooooo!
Here’s my playlist:
You can listen to it if you have a Spotify account.
Here’s the breakdown though incase you’re not up on the Spotify. Magic isn’t cheap you have to cut corners somewhere.
So there’s a lot of 90’s classics here. There’s some calm stuff like Frank Sinatra by Cake. I’ve got some stuff to pump me up like Smilin’ by Operation Ivy and Sucked Out by Superdrag. And plenty of weird stuff like Here and Now by Letters to Cleo and Female of the Species by Space. It’s got a bit of everything. Ill prolly cloister myself away between rounds to listen to a few songs and recharge. Hell I might try to start a sing-a-long to Rush by Big Audio Dynamite.
Anyhow, if you’re in Vegas come say hi to us HOTC cats. You’ll get a sweet business card from me that doubles as a token!
Good luck this weekend!
Who wants that Honey?
Zac