.:Magic!!!:.

Friday night was spent mostly playing Magic, and I am currently fairly confident about my chances in the Sunday tournament. At the very least, I could make it past the eliminations if we're getting a Top 8. The deck is very consistent, and this version of 7/10 Split has almost all the bases covered. I figure I'd be doing fairly well with this deck. Of course, the fact remains that I was up against Powered decks for the most part last Sunday. That explains the dismal 2-4 record... still, not bad for an unpowered deck.

In any case: a tournament recap from my point of view...

Round 1: My opponent was Mondu. He was using a Landstill deck that I've played against so many times before. Unfortunately for me, I was unfamiliar with how the Chalice worked, so I thought that a Chalice for 0 would mean that people can't use Force of Will. Unfortunately, I was wrong on that count. Still, that wasn't a factor in the match at all. He won the first game via standard Man-land beatdown.

Second game saw me pull away with a victory via welded Sundering Titan on the second or third turn. He couldn't do anything about the Titan anymore, so the death of the Goblin Welder was moot to me.

Third game saw him win against me with the same beatdown. I couldn't do much at that point, as I was really slowed down. The lack of Mishra's Workshops was underscored by this one...

The Chalice for 0 kept him from using his Black Lotus, which was always in his opening hand. It was funny how I accidentally hit him with the Chalice every single time...

Round 2: My opponent was a cleric deck who gains infinite life via a Shaman En-Kor and then a Cleric target that gains toughness every time it gets targeted. Ergo, it would be very simple for him to do the infinite life combo in virtually no time at all. The first game was a walk in the park for me. I let him have infinite life, and he even had Serra Avatar out. However, I had a blocker all the time, and all I had to do was block the Avatar and then weld out the blocker so that I'd stay alive. Soon enough, Memnarch gained control of all his permanents.

Unfortunately, I didn't know that the Champions of Kamigawa expansion was not yet legal. Ergo, I ended up getting a game loss for that disqualification. It was a bad call of a technicality.

Second game was something I should've won, but I got too greedy. Thing is, I was alive in the game simply because the Platinum Angel was still alive. However, I was rushing the game too much, and ended up playing a Memory Jar, and forgot to take into account the possibility that my opponent could play an Oxidize. I was confident about Naturalize and the like because of Chalice for 2, but then, the Angel got Oxidized... gak. I lost shortly afterwards.

Round 3: I was up against a Fish deck. Classic mismatch for me, plus I never got my hands on a Welder or mana acceleration throughout the match. I was beaten down and I never stood a chance. I'd blame it on bad shuffling, but two losses are two losses, regardless of circumstance.

Round 4: Finally, my chance to not go home with a 0-6 record. I went up against an unpowered Trinistax deck. First game was sheer luck for me. He had artifacts here and there, but I had a Gorilla Shaman to ruin his artifact lands, and a Welder as my first drop. Every time he played a key artifact, I'd promptly weld it out into the artifact land and wreck that land with the mox monkey. Needless to say, all I was waiting for was a big creature, and the moment I got one, he scooped.

Second game was bad for me. Not only was I slowed down heavily, but my opponent managed to Tinker into a Masticore way too early in the game. Because that meant my Welders were defenseless, I ended up losing soon enough. I didn't have any means of dealing with the Masticore at that point, as he kept on destroying my lands here and there.

Third game was close. I had two Welders, and he was protecting his lone copy, as he kept on welding back the Lightning Greaves to keep himself alive. Unfortunately for him, two Welders and a Triskelion would ruin his day the moment the Greaves left the table. It wasn't long before that happened, as the first time around, I killed his Metalworker before being active because of the Triskelion. Soon enough, the Titan arrived, and it was academic from there.

Round 5: I was up against a classic Sliver deck. First game, my opponent had a bunch of Slivers out, but I managed to over come them by welding in a Sundering Titan five or so turns into the game. The moment Crystal Sliver died, the Triskelion then went to town with the other Slivers. It was easy to know what was going to happen next from then on.

Second game, he swamped me with Slivers, and I never got a chance to see a Welder throughout the match. I think all it took were a Crystal Sliver and a Muscle Sliver to do me in.

Third game was exciting. First turn, land, Sol Ring, go. Second turn, land, Chalice of the Void for two. He then looked aghast at me from across the table, as he realized that a good chunk of his Slivers were 2CC. I eventually got a Welder in play and even had a Duplicant and Sundering Titan taking care of business for me.

Round 6: I wasn't really into the game by this round, as I was a bit annoyed during the supposed re-pairing that happened. As I thought it was going to be a re-pairing, I ended up not playing decently during the first game. My opponent was a red Sligh deck. I managed to Weld in a Sundering Titan by around fourth turn, but I was down to four life at that point. He sacked two Mountains to Fireblast me, which I responded to with a Force of Will. And then he bolted me. I was down to three life because of the Force.

Second game was worse. This time, he got me with the Ankh of Mishra and picked on the Welder this time. Needless to say, I got killed by a Forked Fireblast around turn five or six. Sligh can actually get away with stuff like that in our metagame... hmmm...

.:Weekend Recap:.

In any case, the orals during Friday were interesting for the most part. There weren't too many people who just stood out as extremely noteworthy, but even then, it was still just fine. I guess the last day of orals just whizzed by me for the most part, although I particularly enjoyed Paul Ignacio's orals, and was fairly surprised about the accident Ken Tan got into. It kind of became quite an interesting development of sorts.

Apparently, both Mr. Callassanz and Mr. Bulaong are finally leaving abroad soon. As such, I will be going with the Philosophy department for dinner on Thursday night. This ought to be interesting, to say the least...

Had a long conversation with April last Sunday before going to the Magic tournament. It was about her Philosophy orals, and life experiences in general. Can’t help but feel a bit down about the whole deal, though… the conscience factor was kicking in again, thanks to what April had to say about my current curious status… oh, well. Can’t do anything about that…

.:Saturday Mayhem:.

After all this time, I finally got to meet up with JayBee from LS again. It was extremely gratifying to run into her again. I met up with John Hendrix and Jimmy Jam, among other people, and then a whole slew of Campus Radio Air Checkers, from Gene the Machine, to atypical Assumption girl Cathy, to fellow Comm Atenean Lizette. The whole place was packed for the most part, and we were just exchanging stories. Cathy stood out as the girl who was into CCG's and wrestling, which really surprised me. Atypical Assumptionista is really an apt description for her.

In any case, I had fun that day. We had pizza after a while, but the conversations really revolved around simple things like my not watching too much MTV, the songs I don't hear on our playlist, and so forth. JayBee was introducing me as “Marcelle” on the air, but thankfully didn't bother mentioning that I was from WAVE. It was fun, really. When I started talking to Lizette about grades, though, it felt like the Friday conversation I had with Greggy Panga and another student of mine. I was talking about who to take, and hearing about Mr. Dy-Liaco's strange turnaround, and then Lizette was actually in the same area where Elbert and I had our immersion: Olongapo. Even more interesting were the songs that were brutalized in the bar: “Let Me Be The One” by Jimmy Bondoc, for instance...

Afterwards, I ended up going to Greenhills and tagged along with Gene and Cathy while en route, as we all were taking the MRT. It was fun, really. Talk about cards, and general bonding made me feel like I really have a nice bunch of friends here, even if the glaring realization is that I was never really an Air Checker. At least, not an official one, as I simply got hired by WAVE before I could get into it. Still, here I am, fairly happy about the turnout nonetheless, and I stand to meet JayBee again on Monday, as I will be entertaining her on WAVE this time. I ought to ask her that letter favor, soon, though...

Oh, well...