Prepping for School and PTQ

Well did not expect where today went, but hey whatever. woke up and watched some Star Trek (totally binging before law school). Once I caught up on email and chatted with Dad on AIM, I checked the mail and had an interesting situation. Our power company did not shift the account into my name in time, so I get a bill for my old roommate's account for 30 cents for 2 days of electric. 30 cents....I have to put a stamp on that and send in a check, totally not worth it. And they also wanted me to drive all the way across town to pay a security deposit of 120 dollars on my new account because I have no credit history. What? So I call them up and sort it out so that I can send in one check for both and save the drive across town and the hassle of writing a check for 30 cents. Called Shep and working with him to see if he wants to come up this weekend to hang out before we go to the Pro Tour qualifier in Cleveland on Sunday. Totally the next to last PTQ this season for me...there's at least one local every other weekend till the end of August, but I'm only going to the Columbus one after this because I really don't care as much. they moved the date of the Pro Tour off my fall break from law school, so it would be really hard to go now. I'm totally playing a new deck that is good but I;ve never really played...let's go luck! Got ahold of Heather and arranged to go over there and pick up my cards that Tom forgot to give back before he left for Germany again this week.
Went book shopping, found out 2 of the 4 bookstores OSU recommends for law don't carry law textbooks. Thanks OSU. Another one is in the middle of moving and will not be open again for a week, so that leaves one store. Wow, what choices. If I buy all the guide/outlines as well as the books it will be a pretty penny, but I figure I might as well try to start right. They did not have all the books in (still getting boxes of used books today through the end of the week for us), so I'll go book shopping for real Friday. I went to Goodwill and Target looking for a coffee table, no luck. Then Burton calls and invites me out to Guardtower to playtest with Mike and another guy. I decide to go because it is free fun and socializing and I can always rearrange my room tomorrow. So that's been pushed back. Fun times tonight, much better than sitting at home being lonely. considering Kelley has not called or messaged me for 3 days I am indeed feeling a bit lonely. I cannot wait until next year when she can hopefully move in with me and we can finally not be apart for a whole year anymore.
Well gotta eat dinner. At midnight...so healthy! Probably outta get used to it.

Random Nothingness

See my last two entries for some real stuff, but just thought I'd update on this wonderful day. Started re-doing my room and will be organizing everything from CD's to game systems to clothes. I really did not do much today because I just planned it out for real and figured out if everything will work where it is. Kelley expressed doubt when I first mentioned it to her, but I think she will like it. If she realy hates it I will be able to move a couple of big items to get the bed back where it was and everything would be OK I am certain. But it's no big deal...like I said, I think we'll both like the change. I'm the only person who has to live in it...and I just want to feel a little different.
OK so went over to Pastor Jeff's house tonight after his kids went to bed (like 8 PM so early) and played cards with Adam and ESM and him. ESM and I have really hit it off and I seem to have another friend now who could be a really good friend. He's not a Jesus freak either, which some people in Chi Alpha are. Sorry to put it that way, but that's what it is. Anyways, we played poker (some dealer's choice then switched to all HoldEm) and I got second to a guy who absolutely killed me despite my good play. Some nights the cards don't like you lol. The first time the flop came up 4-4-Q and I have 4-J. Yay for the three of a kind with a high kicker...I bet heavy, Adam calls. Two rags come up and I'm still betting somewhat heavy, almost putting him all in and me 60-65% in...he beat me with 4-A. OK fine. Then the final hand he has me outnumbered in chips about 8-1 still, and I have 7-K. Flop comes up K-J-2. I go all in to protect my high pair, he calls and has K-J. Whatever....beginner's luck. He folded A-K suited against me pre-flop when I bet heavy with pocket 6-6...I'm sure he will learn but he definitely had the unbeatable cards tonight. We played some Euchre and Jeff and I smoked Adam and ESM, then it was time to go home. Which brings me to now. So maybe I go shower and watch some TNG and have a snack or two before I pass out. Tomorrow, I change my room. Talk to you later!

Upcoming Moritz Stuff

Interesting day as far as school year is going. Final Orientation schedule and social events posted last week. We have been discussing everything under the sun (first year OSU students) at a yahoo group, so at least some of us are networking already. Today they posted our class schedule...let's see if we cant get it...
Well since I cannot figure out pictures on here, guess we will have to settle for this:
All classes are 50 minutes long except Torts which is 1:10 long
MONDAY: Legal Research at 10, Civil Procedure at 1, Torts at 2
TUESDAY: Contracts at 9, Criminal Law at 11, Civ Procedure at 1, Torts at 2
WEDNESDAY: Contracts at 9, Criminal Law at 11, Civil Procedure at 1, Torts at 2
THURSDAY: Contracts at 9, Criminal Law at 11, Civil Procedure at 1, Legal Research at 2
FRIDAY: Criminal Law at 11
Not too bad, but 4 classes on 3 straight days is pretty killer. At least there are sanity breaks (or lunch breaks) there on every day. And no BS of classes before 9 or after 5 either...very nice. The class is split into 6 equal sections (guessing 35-40 ppl per section) which take classes together. For our section 1, Torts and Legal Research is just our section, but we take Civ Pro, Crim Law, and Contracts with Section 2 in a bigger class setting. Shouldn't be too far off what I was used to in mechanical engineering, so I'm happy to hear that. Also got fees squared away (no overpriced OSU insurance thanks...got my own) and hopefully my loan money shows up soon so they are not billing me late fees for not paying on time. Everything else is pretty mundane, but this is a start. Also got a book list, so maybe I'll go check those out tomorrow. Today, I think I'm going to rearrange my room. Kind of like re-moving in but this also motivates me to reorganize a lot of stuff like clothes which never get reorganized. Please leave a note...let me know you're all still alive out there.
As always, looking forward to that first awkward moment of being called on in law school,

What Happened in July

Good question...let's see if I can remember...
Came back to Columbus after Florida trip. Origins was OK, but a fight with Kelley (1. I was inconsiderate during an event at Origins...wow what a shocker AND 2. we are over it and so don't worry about it) and a terrible set of exhibitors this year made it less satisfying than usual. Highlights included making Dealer's Choice poker tournament semifinals for the fourth consecutive year and top-4 in a 2 Headed Giant event with Shep. Found a great new game called Palabra, and if you like Scrabble or poker at all (or not really) you should go check out this game. Also bought Settlers of Catan which I am now addicted to, if only I could find others to play with lol.
Next up was the Iowa trip. Not much to speak of here as overall it was an OK trip. Having Yvonne there this summer while she waits to go home to Malaysia in August was great, as more people our age is always a good thing. We founnd the only adult shops in CR and there are only 2 small ones owned by the same family. I hear it is something about the "not in our backyard" people. C'mon, it's just porn. Get a grip people. Anyways, biggest news from the family was my new cousin Lucas Nelson. I am so happy for my closest aunt and uncle as they have been waiting a long time on the adoption list for this opportunity, and it is nice to have another boy in the family (the grand total is now 6 girls and 3 boys...much improved from the 5-1 ratio from 5 years ago). The second biggest news was my only older cousin Jackie going back to college, serving up her husband with divorce papers, and moving on with life. This is really good news for everyone who knows her. Got to go out on the boat with Kelley and my grandparents one day as well. I caught my first fish since early high school, but I haven't been trying all that much to be honest. And just when the trip seemed to be coming to an acceptable close, there comes the last two days which ruin the whole trip. Let's start with the family talk. My Dad and stepmom want to sit down and discuss co-signing a loan for next year at law school (they are the only relatives who have the credit and can do it for me). Let's just say I got grilled not only on the loan, but also on life insurance, our life plan (including kids and careers and retirement), the wedding (why did you pick the date? 2007 doesn't make sense. The wedding is too big. Don't expect help from your grandfather, etc.), and everything else which came to mind. They are so psycho, they are taking out a life insurance policy on me for the amount of loan they are co-signing on. We are only talking 18,000 total over the next 3 years. The life plan and wedding was the worst though, because Kelley is sitting on the couch not 15 feet from this discussion and is apparently not welcome to join in. Well sorry Dad, but you have to come to terms with the fact that Kelley and I are a unit now. A package deal. He did not say it to me, but I figured this all out after Kelley and I talked to my Mom about the situation the next week. My Dad is like the rest of my family in that they are really adept at alienating in-laws. I mean there is a serious pattern of this. But anyways, the discussion did not go well as I felt lambasted for things I should not be criticized for and Kelley was just cast aside in a discussion that obviosuly should involve her. PARENTS ARGH! But they did agree to co-sign the loan, so I guess there's one plus.
The next day my Dad went over the top as well. Before the kids had swimming I decided to play a game with them as I really had not done a lot with them over the two weeks due to busy schedules of theirs (not my fault). We decide to play Horseopoly and the kids ask Kelley to come play as well. My Dad says, "No this is sibling time, Kelley is going to play a game with us (meaning Yvonne and him)." Ummm thanks for asking her opinion there champ. So we play the games. Then off to Rick and Mary's for one final game night before we leave town. We play Rage. Then Dad insists on playing communal deck Magic, which would be fun for 4 of us but hell for Yvonne and Kelley. To put it shortly, my Dad completely steamrolled Yvonne and Kelley into playing this game instead of listening to the fact that they both hated the game and had no interest in playing. Anyways, I decide to help Kelley and she ends up winning the table over my Dad once it gets down to 2, so I took a little vindictive pleasure in that. Did not make Kelley feel any better of course but how could she feel good about that situation. Well, Dad is just totally going to have to accept that we come as a package now and my life doesn't revolve around spending time with my siblings playing games anymore. I had more fun going to CR bars for the first time with Yvonne and Kelley than I did with my siblings. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with them but I don't want it forced on me with a guilt trip if I don't.
So came back to my Mom's for a week and spent half my time there, half my time at Kelley's grandparents. Nice relaxing week. Kelley is really enjoying tennis and so we finally have a lifetime sport (bowling doesn't count) we can play together. It is a lot of fun even though she gets angry about not playing well. It took me 2 years of dedicated playing to just get decent, so I understand her frsutrations but tell her to be patient all the same. Kelley also got junior standing in school and will graduate this upcoming year, so that is great news for us. Don't know if she will be living with me next year but I hope so. We had a gaming night at Shep's when Kelley had band practice and I got the guys hooked on Settlers lol. Came back up to Columbus for a PTQ that weekend. Started 4-0 and choked, finishing 4-1-2. Third straight PTQ I missed top 8 despite being in contention in the final round...very frsutrating. I also got disqualified from the event for bribery/cheating in the last round, but it did not matter as we both got knocked out by our draw anyways. Rib fesitval in Columbus made me feel a lot better afterwards, and two nights of gaming at Villa's house was cool that weekend too. A couple guys in the group bought me a couple beers to get over the DQ and everything at the PTQ...thanks for your consideration guys. Kelley came up after church on Sunday and we spent the whole last week of July relaxing in C-Bus. Wednesday we went out to 4 Kegs with Tom and we all got trashed on Liquid Dope. This stuff comes by the personal pitcher (I'm guessing 60-80 ounces) and contains Gin, Vodka, Clear Rum, Cherry Brandy, Blueberry Brandy, Peach Brandy, 2 other kinds of liqour, topped with a little bit or Grenadine and a slightly larger amount of OJ. One makes you drunk, two makes you sick. Well we all had 2. I hold liquor pretty well so I did not get sick but I know Kelley did. I unfortunately caught a fever the next day and have been sick (mostly just stuffy sinuses since Friday) ever since. Lucky me. Kelley went home Friday and is at band camp this week. Which means I am all by myself. Hello Xbox...missed your time-wasting goodness. Well that's July.

Endings and Beginnings

Well to get on with the important news now since PT Philly. The most important news was solidifying where I will be next year. I will be attending OSU for Law School after finally getting no's from Chicago and Northwestern near graduation week. I signed the lease to stay at my apartment with Tom and Heather next year and Jon and Berens will be moving out. Yay for more Patrice (but the apartment is so nice and such a good deal you cannot pass it up)! Kelley came up and spent most of finals week with me and that was awesome. Got a 4.0 for first time in a couple years so that was cool too, but really does not matter as Latin honors and everything were determined by winter quarter standing. Survived a Hitler/Freud paper and lots of Essehigh exams graded, and finally we come to graduation. My Mom, Dad, stepmom, 3 siblings, cousin, and Grandparents from Iowa came along with Kelley. We met Friday night late at their hotel and then Saturday we played mini-golf and go0karts all day at Magic Mountain at Polaris. It was a lot of fun and Dad beat me at golf as usual because I have a mental block against him lol. Went out to Olive Garden once my stepmom and grandparents were done shopping and once Mom made it in after work. Graduation the next day was long and huge, but it is kind of cool to graduate from Ohio Stadium and all that. Damn hot day and rained on us three times, but we got the pieces of paper after 2.5-3 hours and went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse after we all went back and showered or cleaned up. Iowa family went to Niagara Falls and Cedar Point and Chicago the following week but I already had plans so I missed out on that. Of course come Tuesday our plans were rendered useless by the cameraman's vehicle breaking down causing a second rescheduling of our church directory photo appointment...will we ever get this picture done? Yeesh...we finally figured out THE DAY WE WERE LEAVING for Florida on Thursday that Kayleigh was not allowed to go and would not be paying her part of the house (which is complete bullshit because even my mom paid her part when she did not go). Kaylegh was completely irresponsible and I am not going to forget this inicident for a while. Of course this stressed out Kelley even more on top of finding out she got a D in theory which may set her back in school. I do not think it will but if it does who knows what she will do. Future uncertain of course, but that's life and we will work it all out in the end. Anyways...
Florida vacation was awesome. Very relaxing and the house we rented was perfect. We could fit 8 or more easily into this house and be comfortable, so it was very spacious for 4. Kelley and I had our own master bedroom and bathroom with a tub which we used to take plenty of bubble baths over the week. Thursday we drove to just inside South Carolina and stopped for the night. Did the other half on Friday and could not find a Bojangles for Kelley to eat at and she was insistent we get Bojangles so we promise on the way back to get some. Friday we went to WalMart and got food. Saturday Angela (Kelley's cousin) and her husband Jim came down for the day and we grilled out and played a memorable game of Uno. Sunday we went to Flagler Beach which was a 10 minute drive from the apartment and swam in the Ocean..OK but the beach was more broken up shells than sand so it kind of sucked. We also played tennis on Sunday and that was fun. Then Monday we went down to Daytona Beach and shopped in lots of little stores looking for a shell for my mom's friend (we eventually found something close) and Kelley and I picked up bodyboards. We walked along the sandy beach at Daytona and saw the Ponce de Leon lighthouse but not much more to talk about. Tuesday we went up to St. Augustine and saw the lighthouse there and walked around all the little shops like we did last September with Angela. Then Wednesday we went up to Jacksonville in the morning and met Jim who took us on base and on his boat the JFK. So big and cool to actually get to walk around the flight deck and all other areas of the ship. Then we met with Angela and went out to eat before heading back down the coast to find a sandy beach about 25 minutes from our house to go swim until after sunset. The next day we went back to the beach during the early afternoon and swam some more. Laying on my bodyboard all day without a T-shirt...not a good idea. I felt burn all over my back on the way back form the beach and got it worse than everyone else who also got burnt. The drive back on Friday was pretty excruciating for all of us as we hit bumpy roads from FL to OH. Spent the weekend at home before coming back up here Sunday. Which leads us to this week. Kelley and I have been relaxing and watching TV and etc yesterday and today. Tonight the boys (Shep, Joey, Blocker, and Tatties) came up to stay for the rest of the week for Origins so we have a full house tonight. Word is Jon is coming up for the weekend to pay rent and hang out as well, so if Berens comes back we really will have a full house lol. I look forward to Origins every year and hope to game all weekend to my heart's content before heading to Iowa on July 4-16. Going to take a side trip to Wisconsin Dells to get away once more before Kelley has to start doing band stuff and before I get into law school and busy-ness hits a record high. Decided that Tom, Heather, Kelley, and I are going out to Los Angeles for the next construted pro tour in October whether or not we are qualified this summer...so it will be a vacation to look forward to either way. Well that's my last two months in a nutshell (mostly focusing on June but oh well). So have a good one and I will see you sometime on here!

From Pro Tour to PTQ Circuit

From Pro Tour to PTQ Circuit
David Fitzgerald II

Today I would like to present a two-part article that will hopefully help in your preparations for block constructed season this summer and the current London sealed PTQ season. I am far better in constructed than limited, but I want to share the hardest deck build I have seen all year after going over my pro tour experience at Philadelphia.

Three guys from our Columbus Ohio shop The Guardtower qualified for PT Philadelphia, so we had almost three full months to work on the format. We started with a fast R/G spiritcraft deck but quickly realized it did not hold up against any other aggro or control deck in the format. We broke the gauntlet down to Snakes splashing all colors, white weenie (tallowisp and legendary), and Gifts Ungiven based control decks. We also investigated the Sway of the Stars control deck, a nice 4-5 color Honden deck, and mono-black control. Although I felt like control was the best path to victory, I ignored my better instincts and decided to run the deck I had the most practice with, G/B/r Snakes. I will not debate our team’s card choices, as that is not the scope of this article. I also think we did not build the best color combination for future tournaments (see Meloku) and leaving out Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro was unintelligent. Here is the deck we used for the Pro Tour:

The 888 Collective Philly Snakes
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Orochi Sustainer
2 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
2 Seshiro the Anointed
3 Kodama of the North Tree
3 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

3 Hero’s Demise
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Sosuke’s Summons
3 Time of Need
4 Umezawa’s Jitte

13 Forest
6 Swamp
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse


Round 1 vs. Tim Aten (GBUw Gifts Control)
I do not know if it was lack of sleep or pro tour jitters, but I end up keeping some lands and Seshiro on the draw hoping to find better cards. I drew Ink-Eyes, Kokusho, and some land and Tim responded by only playing Cranial Extraction on Kokusho the Evening Star. Despite my superb start of turn 6 Seshiro the Anointed, I actually drew well enough to put pressure on Tim’s slow hand. On the turn before lethal damage would come across, Tim resolved Gifts Ungiven to find his infinite Ethereal Haze combo. Game two started with turn 3 Kodama’s Reach against a turn two Sakura-Tribe Elder from Tim. I decided to run Cranial Extraction on my fourth turn and debated between Gifts Ungiven and Soulless Revival. I hoped he would still be relying on the combo, so I named Soulless Revival and saw a hand of two land, Kodama of the North Tree, Gifts Ungiven, and Kokusho the Evening Star and a deck with no combo. Apparently Columbus did not agree with TOGIT on sideboarding strategy. His Gifts Ungiven on my end step found some legendary creatures and I could not keep up for the rest of the game. Our team has been disagreeing about what to name, but I am beginning to think Gifts Ungiven is not a bad choice.

Round 2 vs. Mattias Jorstedt (Snakes)
This mirror match was not all that exciting, but we had a great conversation over the slaughter on the table. Game 1 he accelerated with Orochi Sustainer and Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro. Two Sosuke’s Summons and a Seshiro the Anointed later, I was easily knocked off. Game two was pretty similar though I killed his Sachi with a Hero’s Demise to try and slow him down. I had Seshiro in my hand but it came down one turn too late as his Snake tokens were allowed to attack once with his Seshiro on the table. Then as I remember he had Time of Need that became legendary snake lord number two. Not having acceleration stinks, but his hands were so good it would be hard to keep up. This match seemed to prove Sachi’s worth in the deck, so keep that in mind if you choose to run Snakes in the PTQ season.

Round 3 vs. Conrad Duncker (GBru Control)
Another type of mirror match; however, I have the advantage because the Snake engine is simply quicker than the extra removal and legends. Game 1 was won by the creature advantage I had with Sosuke’s Summons. Game two we drew many of the same legends or Time of Needed for the appropriate answers until he had an extra legend on the table called Godo, Bandit Warlord. That was plenty to win the game and send us to a single elimination game. I sped out Kodama of the North Tree and Kokusho the Evening Star. He dropped Kodama as well to remove mine and followed it with Godo who found Tatsumasa the Dragon’s Fang to play with. I played Sosuke’s Summons and Umezawa’s Jitte on the next turn, holding back mana for Hero’s Demise and swinging with Kokusho. The race was on as he lost Godo on his attack step to my Hero’s Demise and he followed that up by making a blue 5/5 dragon token out of the equipment. I found a timely Orochi Sustainer to return Sosuke’s Summons and swing with a Jitte-equipped snake token. Not having an immediate answer to Jitte, Conrad joined the poor group of players who walked away from Philadelphia with no money. I felt a little bad for him in reality because I know how I would feel at 0-3, but I also felt like he (like myself) was running a slightly sub-par version of his deck.

Round 4 vs. Shuuhei Nakamura (GUR Frat Paddle)
I was feeling fine, one Benjamin in my pocket and still alive in the 1-2 bracket. Then I read my pairing for round 4 and said, “what the heck is Nakamura doing in the 1-2 bracket…didn’t I watch him in the finals of the last constructed pro tour?” I knew he was playing the Paddle deck but still had not quite figured out how it worked having only seen strange things like Konda’s Banner on Meloku the Clouded Mirror beside me in previous rounds. Game one I had a quick start with turn four Kodama, but it did not hold up against his Meloku and Jitte. The game was very close despite me not finding an answer to his Jitte, so I felt confident bringing in more removal for the next two games. Game two I had played turn four Kokusho, turn five Nezumi Graverobber and Sosuke’s Summons, turn six Kokusho number two for the win. Shuuhei returned the favor in game three though. I thought I had a great opening hand with turn four Kokusho and Rend Flesh and Hero’s Demise backup. He played turn four Keiga the Tide Star which I blocked with my Kokusho on his fifth turn hoping to bait out more legends to kill with my removal. Well he had more than a few legends. Turn 5 Meloku found Rend Flesh, turn 6 Meloku found Hero’s Demise, but there were no answers for turn 7 Meloku, turn 8 Jugan the Rising Star, and turn 9 Jugan the Rising Star (making a lot of 3/3 flying illusions to combat). Realizing I am completely outclassed by the Japanese master, I wish him luck and remove myself from the game and tournament. As most of you already know, I was just the first victim on Nakamura’s eight match winning streak and race into ninth place. I do not think I will ever find a harder opponent in the 1-2 bracket of any tournament, but I felt good because I came pretty close to knocking him out. Well until I realize he won about $3400 more dollars than me on the weekend, but I’m not going to complain too much. Getting $100 for a 1-3 finish and playing against three well-known pro tour players was a good experience and I look forward to qualifying again. Which of course leads us to the second half of this article: trying to qualify for London!

The following day, I played in a PTQ for London. This was essentially a Grand Prix with only one invite, as 260 players (over half of them pro) found their way into this sealed deck event. I opened a very hard build I would like to share with the community to spark discussion and perhaps help you qualify for future pro tours. Here was the set of cards I opened split by color with more playable cards at the top of the list (in my opinion):

WHITE
Waxmane Baku
Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens
Innocence Kami
Blessed Breath
Kami of Tattered Shoji
Kami of Ancient Law
Split-Tail Miko
Devoted Retainer
Terashi’s Grasp
Kami of the Honored Dead
Kitsune Palliator
Takeno’s Cavalry
Quiet Purity
Vigilance
BLUE
Mistblade Shinobi
Soratami Rainshaper
Callous Deceiver
Gifts Ungiven
Hinder
Hisoka’s Defiance
Teardrop Kami
Graceful Adept
Wandering Ones
Hisoka’s Guard
Phantom Wings
Minamo’s Meddling
Lifted By Clouds
BLACK
Pull Under
Throat Slitter
Soulless Revival
Stir the Grave
Kami of the Waning Moon
Nezumi Ronin
Wicked Akuba
Kami of Lunacy
Hired Muscle
Blessing of Leeches
Waking Nightmare
Yukora the Prisoner
2 Psychic Spear
RED
Devouring Rage
Frost Ogre
Soul of Magma
Ember-Fist Zubera
First Volley
Glacial Ray
Genju of the Spires
Akki Blizzard-Herder
Goblin Cohort
Desperate Ritual
Sokenzan Bruiser
GREEN
Kodama of the North Tree
Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
Strength of Cedars
Gnarled Mass
Orochi Ranger
Orochi Sustainer
Kodama’s Might
Humble Budoka
Serpent Skin
Honden of Life’s Web
Dripping-Tongue Zubera
2 Moss Kami
2 Harbringer of Spring
Joyous Respite
Uproot
Vital Surge
Feast of Worms
ARTIFACTS/LANDS
General’s Kabuto
Hankyu
Gods’ Eye, Gate to the Reikai

Before you take a look at the deck I built, seriously consider how you would build this set of cards. I was forced into green because I had seemingly twice as many playable cards in that color than any other. I saw a lot of synergy in the white cards and decided two solid colors with a small removal splash would work the best. Well here is the deck.

The Deck I Built – G/W/b – May 7, 2005.
1 Kodama’s Might
1 Orochi Sustainer
1 Orochi Ranger
1 Humble Budoka
1 Dripping-Tongue Zubera
1 Serpent Skin
1 Gnarled Mass
1 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
1 Kodama of the North Tree
1 Strength of Cedars
1 Honden of Life’s Web
2 Moss Kami
1 Blessed Breath
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Split-Tail Miko
1 Waxmane Baku
1 Kami of Tattered Shoji
1 Innocence Kami
1 Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens
1 Throat Slitter
1 Pull Under
8 Forest
6 Plains
3 Swamp

I did awfully with this deck, finding myself a tourist in Philadelphia after a 0-1-2 finish. My only complaint with the deck was how slowly it played. I dropped by the Pro Player’s Lounge on the way out, which was the best part of my pro tour experience (not counting the payout structure). A couple teammates agreed with my build during the PTQ, but I still do not know if it was correct. If I built the deck again, I think I would run G/r/b to add more removal and allow time for my green beatsticks to come out and play. What mistakes did I make? How would you build the deck? I hope the discussion following this article will help, as I am no limited mastermind to say the least. Until next time, good luck in Regionals and PTQ’s.

David Fitzgerald
The 888 Collective

Sick but not awful

So I think I am finally starting to feel better after getting a 24 or 36 hour bug, which of course intersected with Kelley coming up for a surprise visit. We had a good time Tuesday as I cleared my schedule pretty much to spend time with her. I still got all my schoolwork done on time, just a matter of grading work now. Realizing this, I had an interesting Wednesday too. Despite being sick and not preparing a very good small group for Tuesday night, we had a lot of good discussion. Our small group could be growing from 6 to 9 regular members in the next couple weeks, and that would be the first ever small group to ever grow so much that we have to break apart (probably not until next school year). Much different from just Ken, Kevin, and I meeting on a random night fall quarter. But got through that, slept beside my princess and woke up with her on Wednesday (nothing brightens up the middle of the week like that as it felt nothing like a Wednesday). Then after class I graded all the HW for the week and at 5 I went to go get the exas from the two Essenhigh classes. It took about 1:15 to get through all of that and finally waitied over by Smith Hall before going to dinner and a 1-on-1 with Glenn. Right after that I get a call from my campus pastor inviting me to a poker party at 8:30. So over to the GFZ [Girl Free Zone, large house where a bunch of XA guys live but I would never lve there with those regulations they impose like no girls staying overnight EVER, no alcohol, etc] I go, and we played a couple games of 5 dollar buy in. The first hand of the first game I chased an A-9 suited for about half my stack against another guy and he had A-J to beat me when only another Ace came up in the 5 community cards. So I was shortstacked all that game. I finally get a decent 7-7 and I go all in which elicts two calls. One guy has a 8-3 offsuit (what the hell?) and the other had J-J. Let's just say no 7's came up to save me from the Jacks and out I went. The guy who took half my stack on hand 1 defeated the guy who knocked me out with Jacks in the final two, but I had a good read on everyone but the runner-up at the table when we started again. I again played some hands to the flop and became short stacked when no winners came up for over an hour. Then all of a sudden it was ridiculous cards every hand. I double paired the board on the flop about 3-4 straight hands and finally got someone to call my all-in and doubled up. At this point I had breathing room and my cards were so good I started bullying the table a little and buying blinds. My three opponents were Ian (the guy I had no read on), Munn (second best poker player there behind me), and Michelle (ultra-conservative player) and this was a surprisingly tough field. I finally got Munn out of the game and then worked on bullying Ian because he was short stacked. After a long hard battle where not many hands were played out, Ian goes all in after a flop of A-5-6. I have A-K so I go all-in, and to my surprise Michelle has the first good hand she has had in a while and goes all-in as well. She had A-7 and Ian had J-10. No straights of sevens came up in the last two cards and I took the pot. Won 20 bucks on the night, and had a lot of fun. These random mid-week activities. So now what am I doing today? I have to go see Katsube and pick up some Quizzes to grade and start working on Essenhigh's exams. I also have some reading for history and I just remembered I have a stupid one page paper for my ethics class tomorrow. Oh well not too bad. So off to my life.
Oh we are finally decided upon G/b/r Snakes for the Pro Tour. It is a fun deck to play, so we'l; see if I cannot win some money with it now. Weekend plans to go home and see Title IX. Good stuff.

Busy Week, Random Monday

GP Detroit was fun, but I did no work over the weekend on the history paper. I had the worst sealed deck of the 8 guys from our shop who went and was happy to salvage a 2-1-2 record, staying in contention for Day 2 for 5 of the 8 rounds. Akil snores loudly like Darth Vader, so it was hard to get sleep over the weekend. He can be OK but he can be really irritating. We threw trash on him Saturday night to get a little revenge for fun, and overall the weekend was ok. It did snow all over Michigan and Ohio this weekend, but it was nice again today. Could not enjoy it though because I worked on my history paper all day. I got it done and hopefully it will get an A or a B as it is worth 30 percent of my grade in the class. Writing on the industrial revolution is so exciting! This week is kind of busy for me with all kinds of grading, more than I've ever had to do in one week. Oh well more money for me I guess. Kelley might come up tomorrow, but I had planned to attend a free poker seminar and teach small group tomorrow night. I hope she comes up but I will be away for 4 of the 10 waking hours we would spend together. Well either way I'll get work done tomorrow and have a little fun in this hectic set of two weeks. One other thing of note is I got my rejection letter from U Chicago. So now unless the highly unexpected call off the waitlist at Northwestern happens, I will be going to Ohio State as planned.
They also announced our commencement speaker today. Good guy from OSU but I was kind of hoping for someone more famous like Bill Cosby, George W Bush, or Christopher Reeves (2001-2003 speakers). Next year they are going for Tony Blair, yes that one. Oh well.
Well it is off to bed. Got a long day tomorrow and must pay close attention in class or else I will not know my stuff for our midterm coming up next week (I am taking it Wednesday, rest of the classon Friday when I am in Philadelphia). Somewhere in all this work and fun I'll practice some more for the PT....don't want to be embarassed and walk away with nothing you know. So talk to you all whenever I get another chance to update!

Taking the world over in clipper ships

Well the past three days have been pretty good. Kelley came up and spent Sunday with me just for the heck of it. I love that! I cannot wait to be able to wake up next to her every morning. She subscribed to a mp3 service this week, so maybe I can get some new songs for my player which I cannot get normally. I don't remember the last time I downloaded a song.
Monday was relatively unmemorable. I actually went to Stats on a Monday since we had homework to turn in. I finished my novel for history and now should start working on the paper due next Tuesday. When I left stats I ran into Tom and went out to lunch with him. We decided to playtest for the PT at his apartment later that night, and we did after my one-on-one with Kenny. Gameplanning for Chi Alpha is for this quarter and beyond. Ken and I are co-leading next year's big outreach theme with Dronen and Paula. I think we are calling it Come Home, this year's was Read the Red. I also decided to lead 2-3 small groups in the next 5 weeks (Ken and I are splitting leadership for the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign. After I get my paper turned in Tuesday I will prep up to lead a shorter than usual small group. Fun fun fun.
Tuesday I went to class, had a group meeting with the mechanical guys and we split up writing tasks for the proposal. I swear Abhi (finally figured out his name) fully lives up to his last name which is Shitti. He likes to show up extraordinarily late and then insist on leaving as quick as he can. Oh well that's what group evaluations are for. At least when we asked him to do some work on the proposal he did deliver decent stuff (not much but it was good stuff). Playtested online (expect a lot of this in the next 2.5 weeks as the last dash to prepare for the PT continues) for a couple hours and then off to small group.
Today I went to class and then took my opportunity to go to the noontime Clippers game I had a free ticket to. Unlike Saturday night when I went, Columbus lost 10-3 this time. At least it was free and it was an absolutely beautiful day to sit in the sun at a ballgame. I also got some grading done that I neglected to do last night. Then I went back to campus, dropped off the papers and had a 2 hour group meeting to prepare our proposal and presentation for tomorrow. It is so bad, but the professor seems to have low expectations at least. Well its off to some playtesting and maybe work on my paper.
If you want to follow how we do at Grand Prix Detroit, go to www.magicthegathering.com and look for the link on Saturday to live coverage (middle left of the page under tournaments heading). Erik Schoeppner, Akil Steele, Tom Wood, and of course myself Dave Fitzgerald will be there. Hopefully one of us will make day 2 on sunday, but this is not a format any of us are all that good at.

Song of the week

This song has been stuck in my head since I heard it. The video is ridiculous, and if you have not seen it watch for the insrumental bridge where a playboy playmate is playing the lead singer's guitar as he watches on. The look on his face is absolutely golden. Anyways, here are the lyrics to the silliest song I've heard in a while.
Beverly Hills by Weezer
Where I come from isn't all that great My automobile is a piece of crap My fashion sense is a little whack And my friends are just as screwy as me I didn't go to boarding schools Preppie girls never looked at me Why should they? I ain't nobody Got nothing in my pocket Beverly Hills That's where I want to be Livin' in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills Rolling like a celebrity Livin' in Beverly Hills Look at all those movie stars They're all so beautiful and clean When the housemaids scrub the floors They get the spaces in between I wanna live a life like that I wanna be just like a king Take my picture by the pool 'cause I'm the next big thing Beverly Hills That's where I want to be Livin' in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills Rolling like a celebrity Livin' in Beverly Hills The truth is I don't stand a chance It's something that you're born into And I just don't belong No I don't I'm just a no-class beat down fool And I will always be that way I might as well enjoy my life And watch the stars play Beverly Hills That's where I want to be Livin' in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills Rolling like a celebrity Livin' in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills

Garbage

My roommate is watching a Garbage music video marathon on Fuse. Why do I dislike this band? I mean I like Nine Inch Nails and they are a lot alike, but whatever. Something about Garbage rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I'll like them eventually. I gave in to rap music and like some of it now, anything is possible. But for now, the only Manson I want to listen to is named Marilyn.
The yoga commercials on MTV Hits and MTV 2 have got to stop. I put it on for background noise, and they play that commercial every 2nd break. Only one way to fix it, tackle my roommate and take the remote away from him! Man today is an inactive day. I'm writing about MTV, so you know I'm bored. Can we sue MTV for not playing music? I mean ESPN might have 4 networks but at least they play SPORTS. If you tuned into Animal Planet and saw a special movie about DDR players, wouldn't you be offended? Well MTV...have it your way.

Watching a movie

Dawg. Interesting movie about a guy going and apologizing to 12 one night stands to get his 1 million dollar inheritance. Very funny. Anyways, today is kind of boring. Chi Alpha is tonight. Oh here's an interesting note from today's Lantern, the school newspaper.
Definition of the word CHOCH, the word of the day: The guy who wears pooka shell necklaces, has frosted tips, goes to tanning salons and believes that he is God's gift to women. He usually ends up gay.
Wow, the world could certianly do without a lot of those. But anyways, if you want to avoid them don't go to campus bars around here. Whatever, I just hate the fashion world. Anyone stuck on appearance that badly needs to get a life. Well the article was really funny because they were trying to get OSU students to admit this is a big party school and this guy who was interviewed just would not do it. Oh well. At least we don't burn couches every time we win a game (yes I'm referring to you Morgantown). Well I'm back to my movie. What a wonderful afternoon.

An Update

You know some days I question everything. Like today I've been sort of working all day but not really getting much done. Oh well. Heard what happened to Kelley's diary with some guys leaving awful notes and stuff? How awful, some days I am glad nobody reads my diary. Of course if you do, feel obliged to speak up.
Update on the law schools. I do not know what I said last time, but anyways I sent in my seat deposit this week and am continuing to plan as if I am staying in Columbus. That would make everybody in this neck of the woods happy. If Chicago comes knocking (or Northwestern) I will go but everywhere else I am rejecting even if I get in.
Pleasant surprise today. Ants. My nastiest roommate moves out, and then after that we get an ant problem. It could be much worse because I can handle ants, but if the situation does not get any better in the next couple days a trip to target for some traps and poison will be in order. The funny thing is where they are showing up (and since we don't usually get bugs I'll call this an infestation but seeing 1-3 ants and killing them when you go to the kitchen is not really a huge issue yet). They are around the sink and dishwasher. It's as if they like the clean areas of the room, and no there are not a bunch of dirty dishes there. I looked in the drawers trying to find if there is a bunch of them somewhere but no. And our kitchen is poisitioned so that it is a SECOND FLOOR room. So anyways, nice surprise on a random wednesday. In a way I am glad I did not find a source of why the ants are here, but I wish I knew so that they could go away. Maybe this will just be a couple day problem. I've been keeping things clean to help in that regard.
I just realized I get paid for a lot of the work I did today. So no matter how ineffective I was, I will get paid eventually for it. Which is good because I am running short on the old provident fund. I just need to buy tires and then I'll be set.
Well that's all for today. Have a good one!

An Interesting Monday

So I just watched UNC smoke their third straight Big Ten opponent and they now join Ohio State as the only teams to beat Illinois this year. Damn you Illinois I wanted to lay claim to being the only team to beat the champs! Oh well.
So today was interesting. No law school news of note, just a letter from Notre Dame asking my current interest. Screw them...I still want to know so I'm telling them I'm still interested. I want them to make a decision I paid them to make. No the news today was much better...
So I leave Athens with plenty of time to beat rush hour traffic or fight it to get to the class I needed to pick up HW from thisafternoon. 5 minutes away from Athens I hear a loud clunk from my truck and all of a sudden the gas will not make the engine drive...so I'm slowly coming to a stop. I pull it over to the side of the road and turn it off to check under the hood. I do not see anyting really obvious so I try to start it up again and it would not start despite having a good battery and starter. So get Kelley's AAA to tow me to Marietta and tomorrow I will know whatis wrong with it. If it costs a lot (AKA transmission) then it is probably in my best interest to buy a new car and ditch the Ranger. I'm sad about it but gas mileage improvement would help if I get a small car for now. Well we shall see tomorrow. More details to follow...certiainly been an interesting weekend. Time to get to work and see if I can get it all together.

Kelley's Birthday Weekend

Well if you know Kelley's diary then you can read about her birthday. Very nice until the end when we were the only eyewitnesses to a nasty car wreck. Fortunately the guy in the truck which flipped 3 times only had bumps and bruises, while we found out the guy in the car that ran the red light broke his ankle and tore a lot of leg ligaments. They should consider themselves very lucky given the circumstances. But regardless, still was an unforgettable capper to Kelley's birthday. I don't think she would get into Chi Alpha much but she was ok with it and took some notes for her services at our church. I was doing research tonight for fun in differences between Catholicism, Lutheran, and Chi Alpha...well they are all Christian we'll leave it there.
What a good quarter this should be. My design project class looks easy and has low expectations except for the weekly 2 page paper HW that will stink. My history class has 2 papers and 1 test (which I have to take early...of course our ONE TEST is on the Friday I'll be playing in the Pro Tour). My stats class looks super easy. The only thing keeping me busy will be preparing for the pro tour and grading for 3 classes...I need the money for summer and the future. Well the class work will be busy at times too but it is not bad.
Law school situation has cleared up significantly. Basically it comes down to this. Michigan is my only rejection, Northwestern and Notre Dame waitlisted me, Ohio State and Cincinnati accepted me, and still waiting on Chicago (anxiously). I have narrowed the choice to the two Chicago schools and OSU. I will send in my deposit to reserve my OSU seat assuming I hear no good news from UChicago in the next two weeks. Then I will make plans to stay in Columbus, and will only change those plans if Northwestern or Chicago offer me admission.
Went to Title IX recording this weekend and looking forward to seeing them live in a few weeks. Unfortunately that will be the next time I'll see Kelley at this rate. Anyways, Chi Alpha and magic have me busy while solo ensemble and Title IX have her busy. Also went to Lisa and Tom's wedding, and it was nice despite every attempt by the mother of the bride to be a hinderance. Well time to go as we started a movie and Kelley needs lotion on her dry back. As a loving future husband, this is what I will gladly do :-) Things are going well, talk to you later!

Trip

Hey I'm in Niagara Falls NY! I'm going to Canada for the first time ever tomorrow. I loved Boston and saw NYC for the first time. Fun times. I am in the shadiest motel room now...well back to vacation. See you all in my life update later! Peace and love.
PS - Poo on Hard Rock Cafe for shutting down completely by 11:03 with nobody around to hear me knock...I wanted a bear from Niagara but I guess I'll just have to come back. I did get a Boston bear though :-)

Spring Break

Well it has been relaxing if nothing else. The only things of note to report on are Ohio State accepted me for their law school and I am still waiting to hear back from Chicago and Michigan. Jon L has found a girlfrend in Marietta and says if he cannot find a job in 2 weeks he wil permanently move back home. With Berens doing the same after graduation in June, it appears yours truly will be the only resident on the premises over the summer. Great. More bills when I'm not working. Well guess I'll just have to be careful...as in no more buying laptops this quarter. In other words, this should not be a problem. Got my Origins pre-reg book today. Looking forward to it as usual but this year it is sandwiched between our family Florida vacation (looks like we are renting a house near the beach...I'm very excited about that) and Iowa trip. Speaking of, it would be really nice if my dad ever got back to me about the July dates...argh he is so forgetful.
(Note to Kelley: Probably dont want to read this paragraph...I'm open with my journal access to everyone, but just thought I would let you know this would be my favs only section if I had people who actually read my stuff)
Well the only other thing of note is that things between Kelley and I have been on and off the past week or so. It seems like things are good and then I say something and ruin it again. Stressful times switching over to relaxing times has not helped as she is in her time of the month and well, she's got every damn right to be moody over that. I'm glad I don't have to go through that...oh well enough said there. Like the magic comments from last week's fight never really got resolved. It bothers me that I talk to her for over an hour about it and I got maybe 3 sentences back. And every time she gets mad at me she gives me the silent treatment. Some days I wish she would say something. We fought a little bit over me being tired the other night, and I find that to be ridiculous. I was not that tired and then she puts in a movie I was not really into so I started drifting, then she starts picking on me for going to sleep. Then when I finally find out she was being serious about all the little comments that night, I go and put my fucking foot right up my throat by insinuating it was a sex thing. How could I possibly be dumber? It just blurts out and then I knew no matter what I did from there it was an uphill battle. And she eventually says it was because with me falling asleep she feels like an intruder on our house. WTF? She's as close to my mother as I am now basically and to say she's intruding, well I just do not understand it. Unless it was all BS to get us off the subject, but then why's it gotta be like that? And her grandparents give her the damn guilt trip for not staying for one night. Seriously, she's only there because Bruce is a big asshole. Why must they make her even more unhappy? Well enough ranting, it does not get anything done but blow hot air and make me feel better to get stuff off my chest.
So back to reality, I find out this week that Wyatt (a close friend) met a girl and a month later got engaged to be married this month. I am so sick of people like this who just up and marry while I have to wait. I mean I could have waited on the engagement, but God only knows what would've happened if I waited. At the very least Kelley would be upset and impatient for a ring and a committment, but these are the toils of a long engagement I guess. I'm just jealous of Wyatt in that way, but not jealous as I think in the long run Kelley and I will be a lot better off. Just did not expect such a person to get married before me.
Going to Boston area tomorrow to visit one of Kelley's close friends at her school. About as long a drive as it is to Iowa, so no worries there. Just hope a snowstorm doesn't hurt the travel. Should be a fun getaway either way.
Oh a sort of funny story. So we go to Applebee's last night for dinner. Many of our old high school friends work or have worked at this local restaurant since we graduated, so you almost always see a friendly face. Well surprise the hostess on a busy Friday night is none other than Sarah Wittekind, my senior prom date (which was at the time not only because I was interested in her but I also was spiting Kel for breaking up with me...ahhh the petty high school days). So being as the first time I had seen her in a couple years I was nice and asked how she was doing while she took down my name for a table in 15-20 minutes. Nothing more than that, friendly banter. And so we get a table and Kelley sits on one side and I sit on the other which happens to be at the front corner of the restaurant facing right where the hostess and host do their work in the lobby. So during the meal I notice that Sarah is spending an exorbitant amount of time looking at me when she is not helping a customer. Is someone jealous? In a way made me feel awkward but in a way made me feel good as well. Guess it just feels nice having a fiancee and a steady future and others being seemingly jealous of it. Maybe I read too much into things, but I just found the situation funny enough to mention. (In retrospect, I wonder what would have happened had I went to senior prom with Kelley? Could be a whole different story now...but I cannot ponder it. After all, butterflies are causing Tsunamis or something like that all over the world according to this type of thinking).
Well it is off to bed. Short night of sleep, then off to church and Boston. Have a good week everyone!

Thrown for a loop

And just like that...the crappy week gets worse.
I knew last week was too good to be true. Right now I am writing to vent a little bit and then hopefully that will open my brain to writing so I can finish these damn patent search and codes write-ups. Did our presentation today for our senior design project. Totally do not have the report written, but we will all work it out tomorrow hopefully. I don't really want to be working on it when Kelley comes up. Of course sometime I have to study for my final tomorrow. I could just go in cold, because in this class it is just as well. Oh well hopefully things will go better...I have done everything on time so far this week but the work is far from done. I cannot wait until Monday.
And then last night Kelley finally tells me off for talking about Magic. I had it coming, but of course my hobby and my fiancee cannot get along. I just keep checking on the vacation plans because I want to know if I can go to Regionals this year. Now it looks like we will be driving back Saturday on that day. If it were that big of a deal I would make more of an issue, but it is not. I just want to try and go if I can. And of course this is all exacerbated by Extended season which has run for the last month and ends in 2 weeks (but it is over for me due to winning last weekend, besides my last one would have been this weekend). Basically I tried my hardest with this extended season to go visit on Thursday night and come back Friday night so I could go with the guys on Saturday. I have made school weeks awful sometimes this quarter work-wise because I get behind. It is my choice to go spend time with the guys and spend time with Kelley. I want to do those things so that I have a life. I just hate these fights over Magic. I limit myself because of Magic on weekends and she is limited by her church job. I would not want her to give up her job because it is cool and good money, but it puts so much pressure on Saturday then. I'm sorry I was an ass over bringing up Regionals and the Columbus PTQ (the day we leave for Boston) a few times, but I just cannot help but shove my foot in my mouth. Considering I will probably miss the next two weeks, I want to drop by the Guardtower and discuss the Pro Tour format with Mike the other Q'd guy from the shop. I will be back in time for Emily to arrive (I did not know she was arriving so late) and no big deal. And then when we are fighting (Kelley and I), she just goes absolutely quiet. I talk to a wall for a half hour, putting my side of the story and my view and my apology out there and I get silence. Then she says she has toruble expressing herself and she feels guilty over me missing tournaments and quitting the game in the future. What can I do? I stop going to torunaments and then she feels guilty....I keep going and she misses me. I cannot win. I just cannot win. And I know it's not a game to be won or lost, you just put up with life. Whatever, I'm just not dealing with it well right now. I'm going to go write about some useless damn patent search and make something up which will hopefully get us a decent grade.
I just cannot get my head off of it though. I've been thinking about her all day...I hope she comes up tomorrow night. I just need to have her here....to work this out, to be together. I give her the impression sometimes I value MAgic over her, and I just cannot accept myself for doing that. I am just so angry at the world and myself now. Sorry for the bad spelling, I probably messed some stuff up because I typed quickly.
-DF
-> 2 years, 3 months, and 29 days left...it cannot pass by soon enough

Trinity Green Article

Green Deck Wins: Trinity 1st Place at Detroit PTQ
David Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald.89@osu.edu

Hello to everyone out there. While extended season is winding down in the wake of this weekend’s grand prix and PTQ’s, I still wanted to present the deck and story behind how Trinity Green took over the Detroit PTQ. A little background here is probably a good idea. I am a senior in mechanical engineering at The Ohio State University and will be moving on to grad school next year. Regardless I have played the game since 1995 and competitively in the Columbus and Midwest area since 2001. Last extended season when the banning of Tinker changed the format, I had to change my deck to something new and I tried Trinity Green. I picked up the deck the night before a PTQ and proceeded to 7-0 the swiss the next day before losing in the quarterfinals. I had more success with the deck last season, but nothing more than top 8. My roommate Thomas Wood qualified for the Columbus PT, so we worked on Red Deck Wins and Trinity for a long time leading up to the pro tour. Despite my urgings to play Trinity, Tom switched decks the week of the tournament to RDW and then proceeded to go 1-4 or something horrible like that. Then in comes Extended season. We have made small changes throughout the season, but the core has been the same since Grand Prix Boston. Tom won another PTQ with Trinity in Boston after just missing day two of the Grand Prix, so I have continued to persevere through some bad weeks and some bad play mistakes until this weekend. Despite making the worst mistake I have made in over a year of constructed Magic, I still found a way to win with my favorite old deck. Without any further ado, let me present my winning decklist:

Maindeck:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
4 Living Wish
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Viridian Zealot
3 Call of the Herd
1 Eternal Witness
3 Masticore
4 Skyshroud Poacher
3 Deranged Hermit
3 Plow Under
17 Forest
3 Rishadan Port
2 Gaea’s Cradle

Sideboard:
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Naturalize
1 Gaea’s Cradle
1 Dust Bowl
1 Masticore
1 Genesis
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Eternal Witness
1 Silklash Spider
1 Biorhythm


OK so now a little more on how the deck has developed and the results. I know what a lot of people say, oh this deck has no chance against Desire or Aluren. Well that assumption is completely wrong, and it is all due to Chalice of the Void mostly. This single card has win more games since we put it in the main deck than anything but Hermit and Squirrel tokens. We started with Tangle Wire in the deck, but we found that Chalice of the Void was just better for the local varied metagame. The only matchup we were afraid of was goblins, but even that matchup is winnable if they do not have the nuts draw. Well I already told you that Tom Wood made a top 4 of a PTQ and then two weeks later won a PTQ with the deck, but here is how I have fared to give you a better example of how the deck does against the field:

1/29/05 PTQ in Columbus 2-3
L to RDW 0-2, W vs. WW 2-0, L to Affinity 1-2, L vs. Goblins 1-2, W vs. RDW 2-0.

2/13/05 PTQ in Cleveland 4-1-2
L vs. G/W Cataclysm 1-2, W vs. Rock 2-0, W vs. Affinity 2-0, W vs. Reanimator 2-0, D vs. Rock 1-1-1, W vs. Enchantress 2-1, D vs. Tog (mistake) 1-1-0.

2/19/05 PTQ in Detroit 4-3
W vs. Desire 2-1, L vs. Aluren 1-2 (mistake), L vs. R/G Goblins 0-2, L vs. Rock 1-2, W vs. Life 2-0, W vs. RDW 2-0, W vs. Fecundity Saprolings 2-0.

2/26/05 PTQ in Indianapolis 4-3
W vs. Life 1-0, W vs. Gro-A-Tog 2-1, Desire 1-2 L, Aluren 2-1 W, RDW 0-2 L, Opposition 2-0 W, and Desire 1-2 L.

Overall I was not impressed after the good results the deck had put up last extended season and this year early with my teammates. In Cleveland and Detroit I made critical mistakes which cost me Top 8 berths, so I was determined to play the deck better this time around. One more thing of note was that I found a funny looking St. Patrick’s Day hat the night before the tournament at Wal-Mart, so I decked myself out in full leprechaun style: green sunglasses, silly hat, green shirt and hoodie, green deck box, green sleeves…you name it, it was green. My poor opponents had to stare at some goofball like me in that all day, but the comedic value alone was well worth what I paid at Wal-Mart. So now let’s get on to the actual tournament results. I apologize in advance as my notes are sketchy at the very best, so I will not be able to give too many details of the play-by-play, but I hope to show some helpful facts about playing the deck.

Round 1 vs. Nigel H. playing Aluren
I had played against this same crazy guy two weeks ago in Detroit, and my horrible mistake which cost me that match was not playing Chalice of the Void at the first opportunity, choosing to play Living Wish instead. We joked about the last time and then we began the day. Game 1 I did not have the nuts fast draw, but I did get Viridian Zealot on the table with mana open to stop an Aluren at least once. I play some guys and I finally have enough mana to drop Deranged Hermit while my opponent keeps setting up slowly. He plays Aluren on his turn and passes. I have more than enough to kill him, so on my turn I swing with my whole team. Then I had the worst turn in my last year of tournaments, but I will share the embarrassment. Before blockers he is at 4 life and he drops a Wirewood Savage. I could have responded right then and there and made him go off without the Savage, but I let it resolve and he blocks my Zealot. Remember I have lethal damage ON THE STACK. Anybody with any experience at all knows what fatal mistake I made then: I sacrifice the Zealot. He goes off in response, which I completely deserve. I was so angry I wanted to drop out of the tournament right then and there, but I knew I would be looking out for mistakes better after this obvious one. Game 2 had no real excitement as Nigel drew all four Alurens and no real business. Game 3 he was just a turn quicker than me, so I’m off to the best possible start. Nigel apologizes for winning again, but I know he deserved it more than I did. 0-1, 1-2
SB: -4 Living Wish, -1 Skyshroud Poacher, -3 Call of the Herd, +3 Wall of Blossoms, +3 Naturalize, +1 Nantuko Vigilante, +1 Eternal Witness

Round 2 vs. Jacob G. playing Desire
Jacob is a very good local player, and I did not know what he was playing. It became very apparent after a turn two Sapphire Medallion. I already have Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary on line at this point and I begin disrupting him with a Plow Under. The next turn I play Viridian Zealot and Eternal Witness while keeping one of his lands tapped with a Rishadan Port. The next two turns I Plow Under twice more and that was enough to win. Game 2 I lay the ridiculous Chalice of the Void for two with another Plow Under the next turn which is enough for Jacob to scoop up the cards. 1-1, 3-2
SB: -4 Living Wish, -1 Deranged Hermit, -3 Call of the Herd, +3 Wall of Blossoms, +1 Eternal Witness, +1 Masticore, +3 Naturalize

Round 3 vs. Samuel J. playing Teen Titans
This deck was launched from my home shop The Guardtower in Columbus Ohio, so there have been plenty of local players trying this deck in recent weeks. Game 1 he plays turn 1 Careful Study discarding two lands after a mulligan. Turn two he plays Careful Study discarding Reanimate and another land. I sit amazed at my good fortune and proceed to play Skyshroud Poacher which I use to go get Viridian Zealot and Deranged Hermit for the win. Game 2 went a little better for my opponent as he Reanimated a Bosh Iron Golem into play on turn two. I already have Naturalize and Eternal Witness in my hand, but I decide to play Chalice of the Void for one and pass the turn. Samuel swings me down to 14 life with the Bosh and then passes the turn. I play Naturalize and Eternal Witness. He responds on his turn by playing nothing, so I play Deranged Hermit and proceed to win the match. 2-1, 5-2
SB: -3 Plow Under, -3 Call of the Herd, +3 Naturalize, +3 Wall of Blossoms

Round 4 vs. Di Shi playing Aluren
He watched my loss to Nigel in round 1, but he did not know exactly what my deck did I think. Game 1 I double mulligan and never recover as Aluren does exactly what it is supposed to do. Game two involves some serious shenanigans, but he gets Aluren on the table and tries to combo out. I respond to the announcement of Cavern Harpy with a Naturalize and Di’s subsequent Raven Familiar does not find another Cavern Harpy. Now around the time of middle of my next turn, we realize he did not return a creature when Cavern Harpy finally made it into play. The judge was called and a warning handed out, but Di was allowed to return Raven Familiar to his hand. At this point I did not care as I had a Viridian Zealot on the table thanks to Skyshroud Poacher and Deranged Hermits followed for the win. Game 3 I kept a one land hand with 3 mana accelerators, Wall of Blossoms, and Chalice of the Void. Thankfully Di cannot go off on turn 3, so I am allowed to drop all my creatures followed by Chalice of the Void for two. He Vampiric Tutored up a Pernicious Deed a couple turns later, but I forced him to sacrifice it the turn he played it with Viridian Zealot which left my hand of Deranged Hermit and Eternal Witness in good shape to win the game. 3-1, 7-3
SB: see round 1

Round 5 vs. EDT playing Gro-A-Tog
This was a very interesting match. My first turn was Forest and Birds of Paradise, which incited a Meddling Mage to name Pernicious Deed on his second turn. I agree to ban the card from this game and he groans the next turn when I drop Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary. He goes have a quick draw with Psychatog and Quirion Dryad joining the battle. He also played Fire/Ice to kill my mana creatures. At this point he has no cards in hand but 3 Islands and a Mox Diamond in play. I have a choice between playing a sacrificing Viridian Zealot to stop his Mox or a Skyshroud Poacher and Llanowar Elves. I choose the Poacher and regret it as he topdecks Gush into an Armageddon on the next turn. The mistake did not cost me though as I had a Gaea’s Cradle left in my hand which allowed Poacher to find a Deranged Hermit which turned the game around just enough to stabilize. I win the game sitting at 1 life. Game two was less exciting, but EDT had turn 1 Meddling Mage followed by Psychatog on turns 2, 3, and 4. He named Rofellos with the Mage and I punished the decision with a Skyshroud Poacher. He topdecks Engineered Plague and makes another mistake by calling Squirrel. I poach out a Deranged Hermit which leads to a judge call that affirms the squirrels survive as long as one Hermit is in play. I proceed to poach out two more Hermits to make 3/3 Squirrels and that is enough for the victory. PS – Against Trinity, always call Elf first with Engineered Plague. 4-1, 9-3
SB: -3 Plow Under, +3 Naturalize

Round 6 vs. Paul N. playing White Weenie
Looking around the top tables, Paul could not have drawn a worse matchup. He does get Mother of Runes and Meddling Mages into play both games, but even naming Masticore was not enough to stop me from victory. His only other loss on the day was to another Trinity player, so he is just very unlucky. 5-1, 11-3
SB: -4 Chalice of the Void, -3 Call of the Herd, +4 Wall of Blossoms, +3 Naturalize

Round 7 vs. Brian B. playing U/G Madness
My opponent shows up two and a half minutes late and then tries to get a draw out of me for another 5 minutes before starting to shuffle. I have to play as a draw will knock me out of the top 8 due to my tiebreakers, while Brian has great tiebreakers and can draw in. We play a long and drawn out first game where the only notable play was swinging a Masticore right into a fresh Roar of the Wurm token I had neglected to realize was untapped (slips of paper for tokens stink as a sidenote). I proceed to lose the Masticore due to running out of mana, and the game falls to him with 20 minutes left on the clock. A judge decided to start watching our match at this point and we play the second game that I win easily in front of the judge. Brian begins to ask for a draw again, but I tell him again I cannot afford a draw and that I have come here to make top 8 and play for the win, not settle for Amateur Prizes. He laments that the loser will not win anything and then shuffles up. He mulligans and pile shuffles. He thinks again and then mulligans, to which the judge watching responds “you do not need to pile shuffle.” Brian is obviously irked at this comment, but shuffles up and we finally get going with 7 minutes left. We play at a considerable pace and he scoops once I get superior board position over his lackluster hand. I did keep a remarkable 1 land hand on the draw again this match, and for the second time I won with that hand. He was lucky to almost pull a draw, but I moved on into the Top 8. On a sidenote, he ended up with amateur prizes anyways.
6-1, 13-4
SB: -4 Chalice of the Void, -1 Viridian Zealot, +1 Eternal Witness, +4 Wall of Blossoms

Quarterfinals vs. Lloyd playing U/R Welder
Game one he double mulligans and proceeds to play two Sun Droplets. That is all though as I have turn 3 Plow Under which I proceed to repeat 2 more times for the victory. Game 2 he Careful Studies a Duplicant into the graveyard on turn one with Goblin Welder on turn two. I cannot get to six mana to play Masticore and shoot Goblin Welder before he sets up a Crucible of Worlds and Mindslaver lock with Tangle Wire and Sundering Titan for backup. Game 3 he plays turn 1 Goblin Welder but I play turn two Chalice of the Void for one. This was the third time I had kept a one land hand game 3 and won with it. He never recovers and I easily move to the semifinals. 7-1, 15-5
SB: +3 Naturalize, +3 Wall of Blossoms, -3 Plow Under, -3 Call of the Herd
(The other quarterfinals saw Trinity Green defeating another U/R Welder deck, Kiki-Jiki Control defeating RDW, and Temporary Solution defeating something unknown)

Semifinals vs. Steven playing 5-color Tradewind Kiki-Jiki Control
Steven is a great local player, so I knew we were in for a good match. I will sum up game 1 by saying an hour and a half later, I finally drew my Gaea’s Cradle to shoot down his 8-counter Spike Weaver. He had 25 turns to draw Armageddon or Tradewind Rider and I had just as long to draw Gaea’s Cradle, but in the meantime I set up the Genesis and Masticore and Eternal Witness lockdown to keep going while disrupting his Kiki Jiki and Eternal Witness silliness whenever it popped up. I do not know if he played the game perfectly, but Masticore was good enough to win. I probably activated his shooting ability 40 times this game. Game 2 was much more uneventful as I played meaningful cards before turn 4 this time and won easily. 8-1, 17-5
SB: +3 Naturalize (for Aether Vial), +4 Wall of Blossoms, -3 Plow Under, -4 Chalice of the Void

Finals vs. Jesse playing Trinity Green
I had been talking to Jesse and so knew he ran Sword of Fire and Ice. In the mirror match this card is amazing, so I offered him the travel award and he offered me the slot and we both walked away happy. This was his first ever PTQ so I probably could have outplayed him, but I chose to take the guaranteed slot and move on to my first Pro-Tour.

In retrospect on this season, I am very happy that I chose to stick with the deck I knew all season. I really think knowing a deck and playing well is rewarded fully in this format. I definitely saw some luck in not playing Goblins all day, but Trinity can beat anything in this format. I would like to mention a couple more things before finishing this long article and report for those who want to play Trinity in the last couple PTQ’s of the season. I know my finals opponent and another Trinity Green player who made top 8 in Denver last weekend played Tangle Wire and Sword of Fire and Ice in their decks, but they cut the consistency of the deck down by removing one of every other good card in the maindeck or Wall of Blossoms from the sideboard. I would rather run a more consistent deck and having 12 mana-producing creatures is an absolute must-have since hands without a mana producer are nearly always mulligans. Tangle Wire used to be in our deck, but Chalice of the Void is necessary in the maindeck since it makes the matchups against Desire, RDW, and Aluren much more winnable. The only card I would consider cutting for Sword of Fire and Ice would be Plow Under, but that card is a last defense against Rock and is almost never a dead draw (late game it stalls the opponent from topdecking a useful card). The sideboard is very well tuned and even Dust Bowl carries its own weight when Living Wishes come into play. If you are looking for a really fun deck to play for the remainder of the extended season while staying very competitive, I recommend tapping the Elves and poaching out Hermits. Best of luck in all your PTQ’s!

-Dave Fitzgerald, The 888 CollectiveFitzgerald.89@osu.edu

PTQ WIN!

My dream has finally come true. I won the PTQ this past weekend in Detroit and will be headed to Pro Tour Philadelphia in May. I cannot dwell on this success too long as this week of school is hell. Probably two finals, final report and final presentation for Senior Design Project among the usual tons of grading and homework. Oh and OSU beating Illinois and runing their perfect basketball season capped off the perfect weekend. Well it's back to the grind or else it will not get done. Have a good week everyone!
-DF

I'm So Bad

am sorry folks. I do not update much, especially this quarter. School is heating up for a big finish this week and I stay busy on weekend between Magic and Athens, so it's all good. Just have to make it to Friday night next week alive and then I'll be good. I wrote down a to-do list for the rest of the quarter (basically next week) and I was shocked to see just how much I'll be getting done. Here's the list...
ME 571: HW 8 (HW 7 took 10 hours), Lab 8 Report all this week. Final Exam Monday next week 7:30 AM
ME 564: Final Report (50-80 pgs), Final Oral Presentation Wednesday, Patent Search Writeup (5-7 page paper), Codes and Standards Writeup (2 pg paper), Meyer-Briggs writeup (1 pg paper)
Grading Job: Grade HW 6, Quiz 6, CAI Project 3, and HW 7 over next week or so
NE 708: HW 4 due Tuesday, Final Exam in class Thursday (or take home because I have all kinds of time next week to do that!)
NE 735: Update slideset I presented when I taught class last month (let's just say this is more than a few tweaks), HW 6 due tuesday, in class Final Exam Thursday.
And I'm in Athens now and in Detroit tomorrow. Well, guess you make your own week bad :-)
So this week was good and bad. I was really busy working 16 hour days Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday went better but I got a waitlist letter from my dream school, so you can expect that did not make me very happy. I mentioned how much I hate waitlisting, so I will not rant more. I really want to pull a 4.0 or 3.9 this quarter so that I can send my new grades to these schools and show them I've been working my ass off. Oh well guess we will wait and see. Any recommendations on how I should go about expressing more interest to these schools so that I have a shot at getting off the waitlist? They say more recommendations and maybe a statement about why I want to go there, but I don't know what to say.
Trinity failed miserably again this week in Indianapolis. I played flawlessly but had bad luck all day. Record was 4-3 and I played Life (1-0 W so lucky no Sanctuary or Biorhythm in my board due to stupidity), Gro-A-Tog (2-1 W despite bad hands), Desire (1-2 L he got lucky), Aluren (2-1 W should have lost with my bad luck but I outplayed my opponent), RDW (0-2 L five Firecats beats Chalice), Opposition (2-0 W), and Desire (1-2 L). I cannot believe I went 0-3 against RDW and Desire. That is so unlikely. Tom's Trinity article hit the web yesterday which means everybody knows my deck and the surprise factor is probably gone completely. So one or two more PTQ's and the run will be over one way or another. I want at least one chance at a top 8...gotta keep playing well and the luck will hopefully turn around this weekend in Detroit. Season record is now 14-10-2.
Well it is time to run. Doubt I'll talk to you again before all my finals and final presentation of our crane project...so wish me luck! Have a great week!
-DF

Waitlisting...WTF?

OK so let me start by describing the Detroit trip. For the record from my previous entry, I am currently 6-4-2 on the PTQ season with Trinity. (Skip this section if you don't want to hear about Magic...but it's my journal lol). I "Improved" that to 10-7-2 with a 4-3 finish in Detroit. Tom barely missed top 8, but I was never in it after my only mistake on the day. How crappy. Here were the results: W vs. Desire 2-1, L vs. Aluren 1-2 (mistake), L vs. R/G Goblins 0-2, L vs. Rock 1-2, W vs. Life 2-0, W vs. RDW 2-0, W vs. Fecundity Saprolings? 2-0. Woo-ee what a great showing. Of course if I want to make top 8's and ever make a pro tour, the time to stop making mistakes would be THE NEXT TWO WEEKS! Next week is the Indy trip. Speaking of, there might be a jaunt across town tonight to drop off 1 DAMN WALL OF BLOSSOMS because apparently Mike's collection which he is selling to Star City Games has to have this card and a few others I wanted to buy from him. I do not understand the problem, but whatever he can be an ass sometimes. So on to not-so-better things...
Actually let me start with the good news. Midterms came back and as usual my classmates were stunningly bad in ME. The Controls midterm average was 67 (the one I was 0 minutes late to and nobody in the class finished when time was called) and I got 88. Top grade was 90. Only 2 A-'s, 7 B's out of 55 students. Guess I will put that class on the backburner. Oh wait we have a long HW and lab report due every week in there, guess not blowing it off. Then today we get back the tough nuclear power plant operations midterm. He was really unfair in what he tested us on and I made a couple stupid mistakes which probably cost me 10-12 percent. But I digress there are 5 people in the class and the grades were 84.5, 83, 83, 66, 58. I got an 83. Well can't be too mad then. Have not got the take home one back yet, what a shocker considering that professor cannot seem to have HW's returned in a timely fashion. That one should go well, but watch it go poorly. Darn karma.
Now the bad news. So Sunday night and all day seemingly Monday I worked on the design of the rotational base of the crane for our senior design project. My design is very simple because I cannot spend any more time on it and I have to get something down that will theoretically work (even if I could use more detailed analysis or better bearings etc). My professor keeps telling me not to kill myself because we only have a limited amount of time left to complete this project...but I cannot help thinking I'm bringing the group down. Of course if Samples had not taken 5 weeks of the quarter to design the boom (which I was waiting on) then maybe I could not be so rushed. And I still have the patent search and codes and standards write ups to do as well as the final report. This sucks, but I'm still confident we will get something of decent quality for design and we should get a decent grade in the class because our project is the hardest in the class by far. But I'm totally stressed out on that...which makes spending time on my lab report and tonight my controls class HW (for 5 hours damn professor...we keep telling him to make the HW shorter and he keeps making it longer) seem like it is taking away design project time. Oh well you dig your own grave and school is not really that bad. I'm just bitching to relieve the stress...I feel so much better now.
And then today, I got my letter from Notre Dame. It did not look good as it was thin. Acceptance forms and papers don't come in thin letters. I open it up to find I got put on the provisional list. Calling it what it is, I am on the waitlist. Which means if I had applied say a month earlier, they probably would have made a decision one way or another but now I am an unknown. I pay these Catholic bastards (sorry for the religious slam) 65 dollars to tell me whether I am in or out, and they say "We Don't Know." So now I have to contact them, let them know I'm still interested (duh) and wait for another decision in April. Just for reference, I am supposed to let Cincinnati know by April 1 if I want to go there by submitting a deposit. This is bullshit. Waitlisting or provisional listing or whatever you call it, it's bullshit. I understand I was probably good enough to make the incoming class, but now they are kind of full and I am borderline. But still...they don't realize how bad this messes up your plans. What if I get waitlisted on my other good schools or not get in at all? What do I do then? Mumble Grumble Grumble Rabble Rabble Rabble!
So the update for those not paying so close attention:
ACCEPTED: Cincinnati
STILL PENDING: Michigan, Chicago, Northwestern, Ohio State
WAITLISTED: Notre Dame
DENIED: none yet (I'd like it to stay that way, but it probably will not)
So it's back to the grind. At least after some well deserved relaxing. I'm looking forward to our plant simulator tour this week as we get to actually do some cool stuff in school for the first time in a while. Well I hope it is cool. Our professor today told us the classes we are teaching and the slidesets we make have been sent to Cincinnati University where they have a similar class which uses our notesets about a week after we make them. This is funny because they are going on the tour with us...will have to apologize for the crappy powerpoint slides lol.
Have a good week everyone. Don't know when I'll be back again.
-DF

Middle of February, Long Update Time

Well it has been a hell of a week. Let’s see where to begin? How bout I go all the way back to Sunday, that seems appropriate since that’s where my week went downhill. Well it was bound to happen this week, but my sleep deprivation and crappy work did not start until Sunday. So Sunday our Tuesday afternoon midterm becomes a take-home assigned Monday afternoon and due in class on Thursday. It looked like a harder HW set with just as many problems and the same type, but the turned out to be pretty hard (well one of them)…but that’s getting ahead of myself.
In retrospect, let’s go back to Saturday. Kelley and I had a disagreement (it was not really a fight) over how I might not be able to come down tonight (Thursday) and Friday due to volunteering and work. So I was not in the best of spirits when Mom showed up, but it was cool for her to finally see the apartment I’ve been living in since AUGUST! She was astounded at how large my room was…it really is huge. And it’s the biggest room I will ever have for sure. But that’s OK because I have a lot of crap to fill space. Wow I cannot stay on track. Anyways, Mom came up and we went out to BD’s Mongolian BBQ but they were very busy so we decided to grab some Wendy’s before the hockey game and eat out afterwards. We won the game and swept BGSU, so that was cool. It was a very good game though, perhaps the best one I’ve seen at least for edge of your seat finish. We came back and Mom slept on the futon. I offered the bed, she refused. Oh well. While I’m thinking of it, I want to mention how awesome the sports teams are for winter quarter at OSU. Our women’s basketball team has been #2 in the nation for a long time and is one LSU loss away from the top for the first time ever. Our men’s basketball team has taken a disappointing season (postseason ban, thanks Jim O’Brien) and turned it into a proving grounds that Thad Matta our new coach can turn the team around. It is the same guys as last year but we are playing so much better. We are 7-5 after beating Indiana on Tuesday and we have 4th in the conference currently…a far cry from last season’s horrible 9th place finish and embarrassing losing record. I will see my first basketball game of the year hopefully in our last game of the season against #1 national powerhouse Illinois. I hope we ruin their undefeated season, that would be so sweet. Our hockey team is one point back or tied for the conference lead with Michigan, and that is amazing. We will be getting at worst the second seed in our 12 team conference tournament so we have a great shot to play Michigan for the title which we wrested from them last year. Go Bucks!
Sunday Sunday Sunday! I woke up very early thanks to a call from my irritating friend, the man, the legend, back in black, Akil Romeo Steele. Yes his name is real. Yes his first name rhymes with his last. And yes he goes by Romeo. Anyways, he calls me at 5:50, an hour before I intend to leave to tell me he will be meeting us at Cleveland instead of riding with us. Thanks. So we all get to Cleveland. It was fun, but none of us made top 8 and Chris and I should have. (This next sentence is for me and can be ignored my non-Magic dorks out there). So after going to the Columbus PTQ and having the following results (L to RDW 0-2, W vs. WW 2-0, L to Affinity 1-2, L vs. Goblins 1-2, W vs. RDW 2-0) and the Friday Night Magic this week where I met some good new friends (W vs. Goblins 2-1, W vs. RDW 2-1, L vs. Teen Titans 0-2, L vs. Teen Titans 0-2, W vs. Enchantress 2-0)…I was feeling pretty confident about my old Elf deck. Here’s how it went in a nutshell: (L vs. G/W Aggro-Cataclysm 1-2, W vs. Rock 2-0, W vs. Affinity 2-0, W vs. Reanimator 2-0, D vs. Rock 1-1-1, W vs. Enchantress 2-1, D vs. Tog 1-1-0). The last round I was up a game and had the match until the opponent won in extra turns to make it a draw. A similar thing happened to Chris in a win and get into top 8 match. In my case it was a mistake of not tapping down a swamp. Me and my opponent came in 13th and 14th which was not top 12 where the prizes were. How lucky. He was a real jerk at the end of the meatch and is badmouthing me on the Magic websites for slow playing him which I did not really do. Oh well. (End Magic Rant…sorry much more than one sentence!)
So off to the week. It all starts with a Monday I do not remember much. But I know there was a lot of wank wank going on at the last minute to throw together another progress report and presentation for our senior design project. Berens gave this one and it was ok. I should do better the next two weeks, but we’ll see. Then it was off to Lancaster to Valentine’s Day dinner with Kelley at Olive Garden. We had a 2 hour wait, but I showed up a lot sooner than Kelley so I got to start studying for my NE power plant midterm then. The dinner was fantastic and I got a bunch of new DVD’s, so I cannot complain. It was a nice break from the hustle bustle that was only beginning. I got back and studied until 1 AM then passed out. I wake up and take the midterm at 8 AM. It did not go very well, at least by my standards. I really could have messed up this flow diagram or I might have gotten it all right. I do know a few things I did miss and those add up quickly on this test. After that test I did some more work and started working on my take home midterm. I got the first three problems done and started working on the fourth one but could not figure it out. This took many hours. Then I had to start studying for my ME midterm Wednesday morning. I did as much as I could, but I really did not spend much time on this one. So I wake up the next day at 7:22 AM. Class is 7:30 and is about a 12 minute trip from leaving the apartment to walking into class. I run upstairs, wake up my roommate and tell him to move his butt. Then we get out and rush to class. 10 minutes late, but the professor did not start the test until 3 minutes before we walked in. Nobody in the class got done with the test. Again this test did not go well as I rushed through the last problem and will lose around 10 points for dropping one term out of an equation at one step of the long problem, I skipped an 8 point problem, and 12 more points were guesses on a hard problem (looks like 70-80…which is only disappointing because I know I am above average in this class and might lose that on this exam). So then it was off to lab which is useless every week and then we had a project team meeting. If we get this stuff together it will be a miracle. Then I worked on the take home midterm for another 5 hours. I was not working hard at this point because I was sleep-deprived, sitting in front of the TV with the guys, and just not feeling great, so 1 hour of work took 5. Then it was off to small group where we talked about prayer. Yay! Berens had to wake me up the following morning to go to our 7:30 AM class late…I really need to catch up on sleep.
So finally Thursday has arrived, and our morning class sucked. After class we worked on doing the lab report calculations and graphs for next week. 4 grueling hours later, we are off to Moe’s in a blizzard. Absolute white-out. 20 minutes later we are going back to class and it is sunny and beautiful. God, that irony has got to stop this quarter in Ohio. We sat through the first hour of class and then left during the break, leaving our midterms on his desk. A couple other people were doing the same thing so I do not feel so bad. He knows he bores us, so oh well. Then back to the apartment where I get everything packed and start my journey to Athens. I get there about 5:30 through crappy traffic and Kelley and I head out for Marietta. While she did choir practice I did schoolwork and graded papers. We finally leave Marietta, dropping by a local shop for a bachelorette party Kelley is attending this weekend (gifts for the future wedded lady) and Wendy’s because we were starving. We laid down to bed around 10 PM. Let’s just say we were sleeping or watching movies or being lazy until 6 PM tonight. Heh I needed that and it was great to spend time with her. Then we had to rush off to dinner (yummy sex on the beach in large sizes J) and I left town. I almost cried on the drive back because I did not want to leave. It’s only going to get worse, but at least in 2 years and 5 months we will never have to say goodbye again like this hopefully. So I rush up to Columbus, making it to my professor’s house on the north side at 9:20 which was just in time to pick up the papers I wanted to work on tomorrow (as opposed to not getting them until Sunday). Of course this was before I realized I was driving to Detroit tomorrow for the PTQ. So much for doing work on the way up. Hopefully Tom Lapille and I have plenty to talk about, as we have over 6 hours facing us on the way up and back tomorrow. I hope I win the whole darn thing, especially after getting screwed last weekend. I’ll write another entry at some point, but you never know when so just leave messages if you got a minute. I love reading them. Have a good week! I know mine has to be better than this one.Oh BTW, I got into Cincinnati Law School this week. Still have not heard from the other 5 schools, will keep updated.

What a week it was and will be

This week we have 3 midterms in two days fitting around going to Lancaster to see my sweeite on V-Day and Tuesday's basketball game (if I go but I'd been planning on i for a couple months). When I left you I was in Athens....I now feel a million miles removed from there. And that blows. The guys did well in Boston, Chris took 32nd in the grand prix (250 bucks) and Tom Wood took my damn elf deck I designed and won the sunday PTQ. So he's qualified for Pro Tour Philly in May and I get to be shit on again. I swear I am just as good a player as him (and he says so too) but I just cannot seem to even make the finals of a PTQ. Guess my dream of making one pro tour was just a joke, but I'm still pursuing it for a while yet.
The week was ok. maybe more details later but Kelley called. She's getting shitted on at school and I made her even more mad today by saying I might not be able to come down next weekend. Argh to my job....well I gotta go or else I will fail miseably at the PTQ tomorrow. Maybe more of an update later...sorry so short.
-DF

Kent State sucks

Well at least their hockey team. OU beat them again tonight 7-1 for the weekend sweep and that means OU wins the regular season conference crown. Now they just have the conference tournament and national playoffs left. My Buckeyes also completed a sweep of Lake Superior State tonight and with MSU tieing UM twice this weekend, OSU is within 1 point of the conference lead. It really does not matter, we just want to stay top 2 and we will lock that up if we sweep Bowling Green at home next weekend. Sorry Em, I hope we kick your butts.
Two straight nights of dinner at Skipper's, and two straight nights of 42-ouncer Sex on the Beach. Yummy...wish I could get drunk off it but I'll save that for Halloween or something. Mom came to watch hockey with us tonight, and she'll get another dose of hockey when we go to the OSU-BG game next Saturday. The boys in Boston are doing pretty well, Shep 4-3 out, Akil 6-1-2 out, Wood 6-2-1 out (6-0 against everything but our worst matchup go figure), and Prochak made it in at 8-1 and Lapille made it in at 7-1-1. On the day the record was 31-8-4, very impressive team outing. Too bad one more player (Wood) should have made day 2, but we'll see if Prochak or Lapille can bring home some Boston cash tomorrow. So I gotta get off here and go to bed soon, early wake up call for church. Tomorrow I have a bunch of work to do on the senior design project...I'll probably be grading papers during the Super Bowl. Oh well I've had a good weekend so I'll accept grading papers for one last football game. Have a good one.

The Next Weekend

So I'm back. I don't know if anoyone out there is reading, but I'm back. Back to Athens and since dork over there has been writing in her diary for a half hour, I figured I would join the fun :-) Of course she put up some cute pictures...except the ones of senior prom. It's ok because I could have been there, but I spitefully got another date and I have an albumful of senior prom pictures back in my house somewhere. Oh well...the days before I realized what I had. Well you may not be able to tell, but I am in a pretty chipper mood.
So I survived the hell week. Here's how it all went down. So I told myself to get over being pissed at school work and professors, and just put up with it like always. Monday and Tuesday were long days, but I got all the HW and lab reports done. Wednesday was also busy as I had to lead my first small group for Chi Alpha. Ken was out of town due to a death in his family. Anyways, I lead the matter on The Lord's Prayer (so easy you could spend a month-long set of sermons on it alone, but I just linked it to prayer in over an hour of discussion) and a follow up on purity. Heh, me leading a discussion on purity. Almost as funny as me leading the prayer discussion into spirit-filled prayer territory. Or leading a small group funny. But it was a good time and we went out for smoothies afterwards. We'e going to start a revolution...either Ken takes us out for smoothies or we revolt and I become leader. OK just kidding but we were talking about laying the ultimatum down for him...just to give him a hard time.
Just over 7 hours later...an a little bit of sleep...I taught a 2 hour class at 7:30 in the morning on electrical systems of nuclear power plants. Hajek (the prof) did not correct me but twice I think and added to the discussion a few times but it was ok. He said I set a pretty good precedent for the others in the class to follow since everyone else has to teach on another topic through the rest of the quarter. It was worth 30 percent of my grade, but the prof seemed to like what I did...hopefully an A/B. I would be ok getting a B in his class as it is very hard but very interesting. senioritis has definitely set in...as my grades will not affect my law school entry anymore. So that's a good thing. But I survived the week, and next week should not be as bad. Over the weekend I have to grade a HW and a quiz for work, but I get paid for that. I also need to find time to research this weekend since our midterm report is due Monday with an oral presentation on our senior design project. Yuck...our crane has so many problems it hurts. It is like the professor gave us very hard specs to meet on purpose to challenge us. Well we are officially challenged lol. Of course I don't really care...but I have to do my part or else John Samples (our third teammate) will shaft me in team evaluations. I don't think he respects the work I do like all the bullshit reporting. I'm writing over half the report which is what I have always done on these engineering projects. I'll put in a fair share of the work, but my strength is writing technical reports so I put a lot of effort into those tasks and menial tasks like the patent search and code and regulations search we have to do. Oh well I would rather have him because he is a good guy and he cares about these projects.
So life is good overall. I'm in Athens like I said and that makes all things better. Especially considering I had to miss the trip to Grand Prix Boston because of earlier mentioned midterm report. If you want to follow the guys, their names are Wood, Steele, Schoeppner, Lapille, and Prochak and the coverage is on the magicthegathering.com webpage all weekend. Prochak and Shep are borrowing my favorite two decks, so I hope they do well. I actually listened to the Ludacris song with the video where he has popeye arms today. I love that background music...it actually gets me bumpin. Metallica is still better, but I gotta have my occassional rap song. So I think I'm going to wrap it up here. Have a good weekend everyone. I get to see the OU hockey game tomorrow night and then go home for the Super Bowl. Then back up to Columbus for the new week. I'm thirsty so I'm going to go have a drink. Of Water you dirty minds :-)