Walking up to my fourth and final stop after my two hour drive Sunday morning, I was greeted by a novel sight. Due to several different tournaments that would be running simultaneously today, an overflow area had been set up in the glorious California sunshine. Even though our tournament was seated indoors, that didn't stop some of our players from warming up (geddit? warming up in the sunshine? hilarious) outside.

Props to Greg for running Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big screen during our tournament (still magnificent after all these years) and to Raphael for volunteering his time to judge.

DECK TALK

Despite having posted two 3-1 performances yesterday, my initial impression of this card pool was that it was the best I'd encountered all weekend. Not only did it build itself (I had no hesitation in teaming up with Marlowe Christophers for the second time in a row) but it more or less played itself as well. I just hung on for the ride :) You can see my card pool and the deck I built here.

Round 13 - David Jaques from Santa Clara - running Taheo Skyspeaker

Favorite set = Servants of the Betrayer

Favorite card = Voidfire Wand

I discovered that David's hat was a Christmas present, and that his last name was pronounced "Jacks", despite my clumsy attempts to give it some completely unnecessary (and almost certainly outrageous) European flavor.

This game was all about me setting up an impenetrable barricade of Jav Stonewall, Vindicator Kaldel, Antikron the Unyielding, and Vindicator Agran, and then turning the screws with Nexus Torch.

Round 14 - Norvic Santos from Milpitas - running Fallenstar

Another man with an interesting name, Norvic was named by combining his mother's name NORa with his father's name VICtoriano. I was so impressed with this story that I completely forgot to ask him about his favorite card, but I did at least glean that his favorite set was Servants of the Betrayer :)

Norvic restarted the streak with Falana of the Glen, followed by Xanata the Lightsworn and the super-annoying Waldo the Decoy who proceeded to thoroughly confound me for the rest of the game. He would have been a worthy target for my hero power, but the recently-played Weeble was a more urgent threat when it came online on turn 6. The middle game was about me keeping up the pressure with my allies and Norvic doing an excellent job of keeping them at bay. He almost jumped over the table with excitement when he was able to catch me offguard with a Whirlwind (in combination with a particularly sharp Terokk's Quill), but enough of my party survived to keep the dream alive, and I was able to stagger over the line in extra time.

Round 15 - Andrew Carroll from Novato - running Mythen of the Wild

Favorite set = Fires of Outland

Favorite card = Hellreaver (because it's strong vs. rush, and has nice synergy with Halavar)

Andrew was my round 3 opponent who had taken a break on Saturday, but was back for another shot at an EA Varimathras. He got things off to a similarly impressive start, this time with Miner Harshdin and Vindicator Kaldel, but had no answer for the Warlock Training I attached to my attacking Bizzazz on turn 4. I kept up the pressure with a second Bizzazz and both copies of Breen Toestubber, and the damage totals did this:

2-1

2-7

2-14

2-25

Round 16 - Eric Jonas from Santa Clara - running Crusader Michael Goodchilde

Favorite set = "Servants of the Betrayer is pretty cool"

Favorite card = Voidfire wand

This game had a very dignified opening - "almost like a game of chess" in the wise words of my opponent - as we each missed our 1-drops, and each played Tarwila Gladespring on our second turns, resulting in zero damage on either hero after three full turns each - a big first for the weekend :) I was able to take down his Tarwila with a Soul Inversion, then unleashed my Nexus Torch. However, I chose to delay further discard festivities until I had both copies of Breen Toestubber in play again (I shuffled I promise! :)) When his hand size was sufficiently diminished, I upgraded my wand to Eric's favorite card.

I still had many hours before my flight home, and The Last Crusade was just starting on the big screen, so it didn't take much convincing for me to stick around for a MOTL/MOTL/SOTB draft. I opened a Warlock Training in my first pack, and was passed an early Weeble, so I turned to my increasingly good friend Marlowe Christophers for the third time in a row, and he took me undefeated through another three rounds.

In closing, I'd like to thank everybody for coming out this weekend. Every single opponent I played was a fine ambassador for the game, and I hope we cross paths again. Huge thanks also to the judges, organizers, managers, and owners that made me feel so welcome and kept things running so smoothly. This was a fantastic way to spend a weekend :)