Fire Suppression System GO!

Funny thing, I don’t remember it saying firefighter anywhere in my job description, but that seems to be what I’ve been doing every day, for the last several weeks (basically since the 1st of the year). Last week was when I got to the tipping point and finally succumb to that thing that’s been going around (we’ve nicknamed it “Team Leader Disease”, as 5 out of 8 team leaders in Brewing were out sick last week), and went home sick on Monday. When I got back on Tuesday, I walked into the eye of the fire storm and have been trying to catch up ever since.

On the bright side, my D&D session last week got cancelled (Conn, hope you are feeling better), so I was able to play cards on Friday. The original plan was to go to CBG’s, drink heavily, & play some EDH. How quickly things change. I go the call from Too Sarcastic that everyone was heading up to a new shop up in Whitefish Bay (Calvary Games, I think, correct me in the comments if I am wrong), for a sealed FNM. Well that was like water to a thirsty man in the desert, as I am most likely the biggest fan of sealed in our play group. I relish the opportunity to play sealed whenever I can, hence my devotion to Old Fart at Game Universe.

So I head up the road just a little further (it’s probably ten miles closer for me that GU) and turn off on Silver Spring and head east towards the lake. From the directions TS gave me it was across the street form the Sendecs. I kind of went right by it the first time but found it quite easily when heading west (Quite note, it’s located on the south side of the street and there is a free parking lot ½ block west ½ block to the north or you can park across the street in the Sendecs lot). Long story short, I find the place and it is packed to the gills. However this statement is misleading, as the whole store is only 12 to 15 feet wide, so if you put 15 people in a narrow space, it’ll seem very full.

But, this is just fine, so I go up to the counter and get my sealed pool (three packs of Lorwyn & two packs of Morningtide for retail, so just over $21). As I am opening up my packs I am listening as the rest of the crew is fawning over the brokenness they have opened (come on CBG, Profane Command again). I am looking over what I’ve opened and am impressed, as it is much easier to play a sealed pool that is skewed versus one that is pretty even.

I basically fall into Black/Green elves/treefolks, which for me is a pretty standard archetype for this format, with the ability to splash for white &/or red removal (Lashout & Crib Swap). With double fertile ground, I decide to splash for both. We end up having 12 people and are told there will be three rounds. I shuffle up and wait for the first round to begin.

My first round opponent is a kid named Ian, I call him a kid because he can’t be much more that 17 or 18 years old (I sound like an old man, yet I am amongst the youngest of our play group). He is piloting a black/blue faerie/rogue/wizards build, of some sort. In the first game he is able to put some early pressure on while I accelerate in big guys and kill him in three short swings. The second game is pretty much more of the same with me being able to do just enough with Earthbrawn and a swarm of guys. Despite how much I dominated Ian, when we finish there are only two matches still going.

About twenty minutes later, round two starts and sit down across from Darren. From what I’ve been able to gather over the previous hour and a half, he is most likely to be the alpha male of this group. He is definitely has the makings of a competent player, but after a few turns it is apparent that limited isn’t his strong suit (quick aside. You don’t realize it until you get out of your comfort zone, but the competition at GU is above average). I proceed as the previous match and hit four out of five times with my Wolf-Skull Shaman, plus Incremental Growth, and Cloudthresher for good measure. The Second game is more of the same with Shriekmaw and Diviner’s Wand showing up too. After round two ends there are two other undefeated’s left, Scoup_phase and The Captain.

For round three I get paired against the Captain and Scoup_phase gets paired against Tabasco. We figure that if Tabasco beats SP, the Captain & I can draw into 1st & 2nd which as it turns out, 1st & 2nd both get the same prize (I’ll go into that later). We shuffle up and slow roll the 1st two games. I take the first game on a timely Crib Swap (1st time I’ve played it all night) and lose the second to a misblock & a timely pump spell. As we are shuffling up for game three Tabasco is dominating the 3rd game of his match and we decide it is safe to draw. So we draw and play a third game for the hell of it.

History repeats itself once more, as the Captain can attest to. He punted an attack, by swinging his 2/2 Smokebraider into an elf warrior token (from Ambassador Oak), when I had Imperious Perfect on the table. It went down hill from there in a hurry as he got stuck on three lands for several turns whilst I continued to commit threats to the board.

All in all it was a good experience. I managed to walk away with the same prize as he, however I am not positive my deck would have won, if he hadn’t made that mistake, but we will never know. I would like to wish the boys up in Whitefish Bay good luck with their store and look forward to going to a release event up there some time soon.