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After a long drunken weekend at SCG Indy, I’m here to tell you my story away from the tournament.
On the Road Again
As we go on trips often, the cost of gas becomes an ever increasing problem.
This trip we got the pleasure of riding in Forrest Ryan's brand new Prius. With a tiny 10 gallon tank holding 50 miles to the gallon, we hit the road.
We stopped for food somewhere around hour two of our ten hour road trip. Ordering food is generally a simple procedure.
If you have ever met Tyler Tyssedal, I'm sure you'd soon find out that the process isn't so simple.
We pulled into the Wendy's drive through and Tyler starts his order.
Tyler: "Hi, how are you doing today?"
The lady in the drive through: "Great, what can I make for you today?"
Tyler: "I need two double cheeseburgers with no bun, just plop the burgers into a container with all the stuff on them, like some kind of salad of sorts but with meat."
Drive Through Lady: "Okay. We will put the ketchup and mustard on the side. Will that be all?"
As she says this, I tell Tyler I want a large chocolate shake.
Tyler says: "That will be it for now."
I tell Tyler again: "Chocolate shake, man."
Tyler than says to the nice lady in the speaker: "WAIT. I need a large chocolate shake..."
A few seconds of pause go by and Tyler continues: "...It's for a friend."
The lady gives us our total and has the biggest smile on her face when we pull around. Tyler sure knows how to make random peoples' day.
Flipping Out
One of my favorite travel buddies—Forrest Ryan—only needed two points to qualify for the SCG Invitational. So Indy was all about him having fun and simply entering both events in order to get the required points.
On day one, for the Standard event, Forrest registered 36 Japanese Checklists. Yes I said it: THIRTY-SIX JAPANESE CHECKLIST CARDS!
The Beginning of the End
As round one began, I stood watching Forrest Ryan riffle shuffle his deck with no sleeves. His opponent sits down looks at Forrest's deck and asks "Is this your first tournament?"
I can't help but laugh and watch the train wreck about to happen. Forrest replies with a simple "No."
His opponent says, "Aren't you supposed to have sleeves?"
As Forrest casts every spell of the match, he calmly reaches into the deck box next to him and pulls out an actual copy the appropriate checklisted card, which, of course, were also in Japanese.
He placed the played card on the table and his opponent didn't even check if it was the correct card. Forrest quickly gained an overwhelming board position with his R/G "Werewolf" deck, facing off against 12 tokens plopped out by his opponent's consecutive Elspeths. He ended up taking the match 2-0.
There are some videos of the matches around the internet and believe me—as the night went on and we all got a bit more intoxicated, it got funnier and funnier... Everyone included.
Blame it on the A-A-A-A-A-A-Alcohol
So as the end of round 2 came to a close, many of my MN friends were looking rather down.
As it turned out, a ton of them didn't make it as far in the Standard portion as they had hoped. After a long walk to the liquor store, the drinking began.
After mixing a few drinks in the hotel room and taking some booze into Steak n' Shake and Noodles and Company, we were in a fully happy state. Deciding cubing for money was the best decision, we played a few cubes. I watched Pat McGregor Fork a Fact or Fiction against me and my cube money was spent.
I decided drinking heavily and walking around was what I would rather be doing. I watched several more rounds of Standard and witnessed Forrest end with a 4-6 record, all while giving his opponents drunken hugs and being deck checked into oblivion. His final round opponent seemed be really enjoying the match, continuously chuckling at Forrest's unadulterated joy of the game.
FINANCIALLY CONTENT
Grave Diggin'
After the first day we all sat down to build our Legacy decks in a drunken stupor. Our room had AJ and Gerry T's Unearth BUG list available, and we managed to assemble it for a few people that wanted to play it. With little to no testing we saw Unearth was powerful and that we liked it.
I think that Unearth is a very powerful card with a lot of potential. If you need a foil set—or a set in general—pick them up now. I think we haven't seen the last of this Black spell this year.
What's Past is Past
Past in Flames is garbage. People need to stop talking about this card. It will go way down in value before it goes up. Get off this monstrosity before it goes down. Then if you want to try a cute home brew, you can do that then.
ANT/TES doesn't need a reset button. I don't care how many years you've been playing Storm or how much money it's made you. I don't think it's right. IGGY is still much, much better.
My opponent even tutored for it one round. I won that match, but I lost the other two. The deck will go off when it does and will occasionally fizzle. I don't believe Past in Flames is worth it.
Check it Off the List
This week lets look at some combo staples.
Grim Tutor - $159.99 on SCG
While already expensive, this card wont be seeing a reprint and is very hard to find. Get yours while they still exist. I like it in ANT and someday it will be a staple.
Cabal Ritual - $1.99 on SCG
Still harder to find than Dark Ritual. I don't envision this card being reprinted and it will continue to be a great staple for years to come.
Tendrils of Agony - $1.99 on SCG ($9.99 Scourge foil; $2.99 promo foil)
The kill condition of many combo decks. I like this card a lot and I doubt it would ever be reprinted. It will eventually go up in value. Pick them up cheap.
Until Next Time
Keep your friends close but your drinking buddies closer.
Remember: If you're not having fun, you're not risking anything.
I love QS, but this article is complete rubbish.
I do not care about your alcohol fueled exploits and obvious disregard for tournaments. If I wanted to read this kind of article I would head over to SCG.
Only 31.8% of this article is even loosely related to financial content. and one of the tips was to run out & pick up a $160 card.
I sincerely hope that none of my subscription to this site funds this kind of boorish behavior.
Mike is our resident degenerate. We let him get away with all kids of shenanigans because he's almost always correct with his calls. Don't worry, we don't fund his drinking habit 🙂
To understand the sheer joy of Forrest Ryan's Checklist Card Deck, I think you had to be there. Watching opponents scratch their heads was hilarious, and the fact that he managed to win four matches was incredible.
I never once said to "run out and pick up" Grimm tutor I simply said that is becoming hard to find and that will become increasingly harder to find as it becomes an ANT staple, if you don't own them for your personal collection the price will only continue to go up.If you don't care about my adventures than skip them and read the financial content. If you don't like my calls than don't listen to them. I play this game to have fun, part of having fun for me is to go on road trips with friends and most of the time we drink while on trips. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy reading it, but that's not going to stop me from having fun. As far as my "obvious disregard for tournaments" goes, I have never made a scene, I've never cheated, I've always been helpful to other players and staff, I've never gotten into a fight and I've always been respectful to other players and staff. If thats an "obvious disregard for tournaments" I should quit right now. I hope my article doesn't sway you away from QS but remember I always make calls to let you know what I think is right. I just throw in some of my adventures while I'm at it.