Zombie FNM - Who's the Lucky Winner??

I was either a young Kingpin with hair, or House MD.

Pretty slick costume huh?

On Friday 10/28, SoCal games in Temecula held their Zombie FNM. Entrance to the tournament was free with a costume. They also held a raffle - every $10 you spent in the store earned you a raffle ticket, plus if you showed up in costume that was another one. The prize for this raffle: five of the zombie planeswalker cards from Comic-con this year. That's quite a prize if you ask me. I wanted to win one of those suckers. I was filled with determination.

Monday Night Draft at Ryan's Comics

Too bad it never did anything...

Look Ma Another Gearhulk!!

A long time ago, in a lifetime away, there was just one hobby shop in the inland Empire. It was called Fun 'N' Games. I worked there in high school, but before I became a hobby shop employee it was pretty lonely when it came to gaming. Then, another shop moved to town, and another, and another. Pretty soon, we had 3 comic/hobby shops in the area; there were also a fair number of little shops selling trading cards, baseball memorabilia and the like. All of these shops held CCG tournaments on the weekends. Most of them were for MTG, but some held Yu-Gi-Oh as well. Eventually, the card shops closed up. Honestly, they went out of business pretty fast. This shouldn't come as a surprise to any students of hobby history over the last 10 years. Trading cards are on the way out.

When the promenade mall was built we got an anime shop - they held CCG tournaments for Yu-Gi-Oh on Mondays after school. I used to play every week. I won occasionally too. I played a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh back in the day, but my good friends dwarfed me in skill and the amount of money they could invest. I played Magic in HIgh School for a while, but I was always a filthy casual. I never had enough money to play Standard or ever hope to win, which is why I started playing Draft. I have never won a tournament for MTG, but I've always held my head high and tried my darndest to place.

LAST NIGHT I TOOK SECOND IN DRAFT!!!!! It's a miracle. A bloody halloween miracle. Read on for the full report, but fyi... I pulled another Gearhulk!!!

Kaladesh Draft Report - SoCal Games and Comics 10/18/2016

I drafted mono-green. Maybe not such a great idea.

So, tuesday night came again this week. Hopefully it comes again next week too. I'd be thrilled. Tuesday means MTG drafts down at the FLGS. In my first draft this month I went 2-1 with a B/W fabricate all-in deck. This week, my draft went considerably different. I didn't draft into one of the archetypes that is predominant in Kaladesh. However, I did draft into some sick, sick green cards.

This was my first pick. Good draft.

The above would be one my sick, sick green cards. Good lord. In the very first pack I open I find this beast. $16 card. Instantly paid for my draft. Thanks. I'll be back again. Once I pulled the money card for my draft I wasn't so concerned with winning and losing the tournament. I hoped for victory ,but didn't really care so much.

Kaladesh Draft Report - SoCal Games and Comics - 10/11/2016

Draft Report for 10/11/2016 2W/1L

On the 11th, last week, I went to a Kaladesh draft at SoCal Games and Comics, my preferred FLGS. They've got great employees and I really love the crowd that hangs there. We started drafting at 7 with 12 people drafting together. I never really got any big-time WOW cards passed to me. It was a little bit underwhelming; I didn't pull anything super stand out either, so I was left drafting value cards. Fortunately, I was getting pretty clear tells from the people around me. Black and White were getting passed over and over so I was pulling black and white over and over. I think I only pulled 3 non B/W cards during the entire draft.