PA

CCGs Cards and Games
4020 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
(412) 621-3401
http://www.ccgscards.com/501.html

This store opened up just a couple weeks ago (I found out about it yesterday). Currently the only organized tournaments being held are Friday Night Magic Booster Drafts, but the store owner is very interested in holding Vintage and Legacy events once he gets up and running and has more business. It's a nice venue and is easily accessible by any of the PAT buses, and they have an excellent $1 rare bin along with other singles, so spread the word!

You bet.

Steve, do you know if there will be more of these tournaments later in the summer? Turns out I won't be able to make this one due to something that came up that day, but I would love to try and make it out there again.

Is anyone going from/through Pittsburgh who I could potentially bum a ride off (and split the gas bill with) ?

I thought the exact same thing after reading. Rich, would you say it provided sufficient sustenance to give you +2/+2?

Hoping it's the Steelers. Thinking it'll be the Seahawks.

...

I let it run for a while because I was hoping it would have something nicer to say about me, but according to Google talk I am scum.

I wanted to mention a couple resources that I found out about near the beginning of the summer, and have had a chance to "field test" in the months since:

1. "Beyond Brawn", by Stuart McRobert, is probably the single best resource I've found in the 5 years I've been lifting. I highly recommend it. It's rather long-winded at times, but it's very thorough. It covers ideas for routines, nutrition, you name it - and is geared specifically towards hardgainers. I never thought it was possible for someone to talk about weight training for 500 pages, but apparently I was wrong. Has anyone else read this? What did you think of it?

2. Sort of related to #1, since McRobert talks a lot about them in his book, is incorporating fractional plates into your routine. The idea behind these is that little gains over a long period of time add up to big gains, that you wouldn't have been able to make otherwise (being constrained to 5-lb increments that most gyms will limit you to). I bought a set a few months ago and they made me a believer. http://www.fractionalplates.com/fractional.html if you want more info.

I still subscribe to magazines like Muscle and Fitness. Yes, you have to be discreet in what you take away from them, but I think they have a lot of good ideas too. Especially the nutrition articles, which is mainly what I follow now that I base my routine on what I read in Beyond Brawn.

I love the deadlift - it's my absolute favorite lift and I think there are few that give you as much bang for your buck. The squat is a close second for me. I would normally insert a comment here about the girly men that neglect lower body work, but it would pale in comparison to anything kl0wn could come up with. So I'll just leave it at that. If one doesn't have lower back problems,  it's hard to make a case for not building a routine around either or both of these lifts (in my opinion). Assuming you have access to a gym with a squat rack, that is.

This topic has been moved to Tournament Announcement Forum..

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=24282.0

This topic has been moved to Vintage Newbie Forum.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=24168.0

This topic has been moved to Tournament Reports and Results.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23915.0

This topic has been moved to Basic User Community.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23833.0

This topic has been moved to Vintage Newbie Forum.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23800.0

This topic has been moved to Casual Forum.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23798.0

I just got a call from Rich Shay a few minutes ago. I don't have much in the way of specifics but figured anything was better than nothing. If anyone else knows more, please post the relevant information here. There may have been more, but this is what I remember.

Joe Bushman def. Rich Shay in one of the T1 tournaments.
Rich Shay split in the finals of a $500 Legacy tournament.
Steve Menendian won the "big" T1 tournament, getting 2 opening round byes for Gencon in the process.

Rich played Slaver at all of the T1 tournaments. Steve played Gifts, as did Doug Linn and Kevin Cron on at least one occasion. I don't know what Joe was playing.

The obvious strength of Brainstorm is that you mulligan far less than with most other Workshop decks. The other reason it's so good in Brad's deck is because it increases the chance of you finding/playing a first-turn Chalice 0.

I went to Adam's (vertigo525) tournament at this venue last month and I encourage other players from PA, OH, WV, etc. to attend. We had a pretty small turnout given that it was the first one. Um, if you all come, the turnout won't be as small  .

The store has a rather impression $1 rare bin up in the front.
There was plenty of space in the front and back of the store for matches.
Adam is a dealer and has a decent selection of T1 stuff, and from what I understand is making an even more concerted effort to improve his T1 stock of cards.
It was a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere, which was also nice.

Last time I saw people playing Suicide Black, RG Beats, Oath, Slaver, Fish / Bird Shit, Deathlong, Sensei, and a couple other decks I can't remember at the moment. This metagame is not well developed yet, so you should come prepared for a wide range of decks.

crap, I can't see it any more either...they must have taken it down.

That she was wearing a skirt and heels while she performed a suplex officially makes her the coolest girl ever.

Glad you asked! After some thought, I've decided they would have a nice home in my Oath of Hippos deck.

1. They complement the Phelddagrif - signed "Garfield PhD" by Richard Garfield - rather well. Accumulated Knowledge of Garflied PhD? Perfect! Incidentally, I have any number of pimp Questing Phelddagrifs to complement the set of Meandeck AKs as well, most noticably a Spanish foil QP.

2. Oath is an archetype Meandeck is well associated with anyway. Orchard didn't exist when I first built Oath of Hippos but makes it that much better since now I have another good multiland and I already run Dueling Grounds.

It wasn't 100% clear to me from reading this how he was able to Wish for Time Walk. Was it RFG'd using Skeletal Scrying? Phyrexian Furnace? I'm assuming if he'd resolved Will you would have made a note of that, plus he wouldn't have needed to use the Wish anyway if he'd had the mana for TW on his Will turn.

whoa, those look pretty slick. thanks 

so good. and so true.

they have comprehensive standings here too (through Round 5 at the moment):

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/event/9432.html

Althought this article isn't necessarily intended to be a play guide, I think it's worth bringing attention to the synergy between Brainstorm and Mental Note because it's more subtle than some of the other "tricks" this deck has. Cast Brainstorm, put two cards you don't need on top of your library, then cast Mental Note to kill two birds with one stone - filtering your hand quality and attaining threshold (or 4/7 of it, anyway).

Nice work as per your usual, keep it up!