Jumping the Fence

So it didn't take me very long to decide that I will be picking up Magic. I spoke with my friend Mikey from Texas (who I spoke about in my very early posts) and he told me he got top 32 at his States tournament. I am very proud of him. He's topped both a Yugz and MtG regional now, he has come a long way since I first met him and trained him to be the player he is today. He pretty much told me Magic is very good to get in now and Solar Flare (Black-White-Blue) is one of the top decks, if not the top. I also spoke with Butters and I guess he's achieved quite a bit in Magic since I've been gone, beating Luis Scott Vargas at a Starcity Games 5K in the finals, qualifying for Nationals twice (dunno if he went tho), top 8'ing a PTQ and barely missing Day 2 at a Pro Tour. He told me he plays about 4 days a week, I asked him what deck he was playing and he said "eh whatever people have to lend me." Just like old times, borrowing cards from people in order to play lol.

I also asked him where he was playing (Merlyn's and downtown Uncle's) and how the attendance was, he said "pretty good." Pretty good has a large range though so I'm gonna ask him like '20? 30?' When I started up Magic for the 2nd time (when I played seriously) tournaments used to be in the 30-35 range. Right before I left Spokane for boot camp, that figure had dropped to around 16. So is it back to the old days, or just decent enough like 15-20? I asked him about the new ratings system and pretty much my old Constructed rating will be gone very soon, I was sad to hear that. They also don't do the Player Rewards program anymore, very sad to hear that. It was a program where they sent you free full-art/alternate-art cards depending on how many tournaments you played in in like a 6-month period. The more you played, the more you got, and most of the Player Rewards cards were worth good money. I dunno why YGO can't do something similar. The only rewards we get are reprints of year or 2-year-old Ultra/Secret rares that get rarity bumped from the OCG in the first place. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a Fat Pack of Innistrad but pulled crap except for 2 of the dual land things. Makes me pretty much not want to get a box of the set lol. Which I won't, singles all the way.

I asked them both what a Solar Flare deck costs and neither of them replied, so I did the research myself and even if I got 3 Liliana (the most expensive card in Standard I believe), it would be less than the total amount I would get from my Tour Guides. 3 YGO cards for a top-tier Magic deck and some change? That sounds like a good deal to me. I don't know the exact build I would play since the decklists I found all varied a good amount. Basically they all have a similar 45 to 50-card skeleton, then the rest is personal preference I guess. I'll have to learn the other decks and see what is popular in our area and build a side accordingly. Anything with blue has always been strong in Magic so I don't feel like I'm picking the wrong deck to come back with. I've never liked aggro, and I don't like pure control. I've done my best playing mid-range control decks and I used to play Solar Flare back in the day (with Angel of Despair) so the colors are nothing I'm unfamiliar with.

Unlike others, transitioning into Magic for me isn't a farewell to Yugz, it's more like a "hey long time no see" to Magic. Like I said in the previous post, I want to dominate in both games at the local level. This way we have at least 1 Team O member that is playing Magic which only helps our team presence. If Danny joins me we have a better presence and we can test with each other and whatnot. I will probably make the blog a mix of MtG and Yugioh content, at the very least it gives me more to write about. I will stick with my original plan of waiting till YCS Columbus in hopes that Tour Guide goes up. Actually I may wait till right after the Sneak so I have the best chance of winning it (we do regular tourneys rather than that sealed crap) and getting a lot of the new set. I don't know what it will mean for me in regards to playing Darkworld; I probably won't. I may switch my main to Pure Agents, TG Agents, or TG. I really like Plants but I probably wouldn't play the deck without Tour Guides. I will wait and see what happens in Columbus to see what my best options may be.

On a side note, I already got paid from my sale to ARG but still waiting on Troll and Toad. As advertised, they pretty much pay on the day that they receive (1 day after in my case). That is incredible service and I highly recommend selling to them. My only gripe I have is that when I was making my sell list their site listed Forbidden Lance at $7.75 and TU Sangan at 10.50 but when I sent my list they e-mailed me back saying they changed their prices to $4.75 and $6.50 respectively. I was like eh whatever that's fine, since I haven't had anyone be interested in either locally.