DAY ONE (Tuesday)
The situation leading up to me going to Origins is one of disorganization and spontaneity. The day before I left, I was called by Jeff “samitheealer� Anand with an initiation to the event, with him driving. He tells me a few people are planning to drive to his house on Long Island (NY) the night before the event, with us leaving in the morning to embark on a 10 hour drive. I talk it over with my parents, and they reluctantly agree.
I pack my bags, and the next day Dan “Matrix� Rix pulls up at my house at 2:00, ready to drive to Long Island- about 4 hours away. Before we can do this, we have to drive to Hadley, MA to pick up Ben Kowal. Hadley is approximately two hours from my home (around Providence, RI), with Long Island being four hours away from Haldey. We make short work of the drive to Hadley, and are greeted by Ben in a Kowal-eque manner.
Quote:
Me and Dan: Hey Ben! Whats up?
Kowal: Heey. Meh. *grunt* …*grumble*
When Kowal gets in, I am informed of yet ANOTHER pitstop we are forced to make, at Jarad “wicketsnatcher� Demick’s house in Connecticut to pick up power cards. Kowal says it is “right off and back on the highway�. I’m skeptical, but whatever. We go to the Hadley mall, which is the home of all the famous (infamous?) Hadley tournaments to grab a bite to eat.
We bust out of the mall, and head to our next destination, somewhere in Connecticut. After about an hour of driving, we pull off the exit with Kowal saying that it should be within 10 minutes. 30 minutes pass, and we call Jarad’s house multiple times trying to find our way. A lot of turning around and guessing happens, and we eventually find our way to his house, one hour into this tangent. Once we get back on the interstate, we have two hours left of driving. By this time, it is about 9:00 PM. Jeff’s house is reached post haste, and we unload the car and relax. We playtest some games- I have GAT built. Jeff’s Highlander deck owns me, but I soon discover my build blew all that is wang. While trying to create sleeping arrangements, we realize that there are only 2 extra beds and 3 people. Clearly, a magic tourney is the correct way to determine who gets the floor. It is single elimination, and Matrix gets the bye because he drove.
Bed Tourney
Round 1: Ben Kowal with 4cControl
Game 1: He gets pretty manascrewed, and I capitalize with a rather gigantic Dryad.
Sideboarding is declared illegal in this event. Big frowns.
Game 2: Violent mana fucking ensues on the side of the table that I don’t play my cards on. Gee Gee.
Round 2: Matrix with TPS
Game 1: I Duress him turn 1, and have the FoW for his other bomb spell. He is out of goodness for a large amount of time, and in said time I draw more counters and get a Tog.
Game 2: He has the ole Gemstone Mine-Ritual-Necro play on turn 1. I don’t have FoW, and lose.
Game 3: He casts a draw 7 in face of my lethal damage with no mana floating. He casts Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual (off Petal), and Timetwister. He draws into Lotus again, and after a few more spells, I lose the game.
Kowal gets the floor, I get the lower-quality bed, and Matrix gets the crazy good bed. Oh well.We keep playing and chilling for awhile, and hit the hay at approximately 7 AM.
DAY TWO (Wednesday)
I am woken up by a kick from Jeff, and he tells me there are some New York bagels waiting for me downstairs. Sooo good. Before I go to eat, Jeff asks me if he should wake up Matrix with a “hard rock alarm�: this involves Jeff putting a huge amp on Matrix’s bed, and wailing on his guitar in a very awesome fashion. Matrix doesn’t move for awhile, which scares me because the amp is so loud it hurts my ears. He eventually wakes up in a stupor and we all find our way downstairs.
New York bagels are amazing. As a Jew, this was like... losing some type of virginity. The car is loaded, and we have to pick up man #5, who lives about 30 minutes away. When we arrive at his house, I am introduced to a mister Jay Rivers, whom is a rather cool guy. We all agree that he definitely has a porn star name.
Quote:
Jeff: I can see it now:
Kinky Adventures at Origins- a Jay Rivers production.
After picking up Jay, we make a few stops to run last minute errands. We start on our journey off Long Island, but are thwarted by traffic. After “driving� (it was really more like idling) for 3 hours, we stop off to get some eats. At the restaurant, Ben Kowal is quoted for saying that we have 6 hours left to go. Getting out of Long Island was a bitch. We hit infinite New York traffic, and it was just horrible.
During the course of the trip, there is much bitching due to the 3-person-packed back seat. I’m not gonna lie- I did my share, but so did everyone else. A highlight was the video game music trivia CD, Kowal and Jay battled it out for 26 tracks, and Kowal came out victorious by a half a point. He sure does know his old games. Another highlight was the battle between Matrix and Jeff that started with the comment “Tool’s drummer is so much better than Dreamtheater’s�. Jeff, the biggest Dreamtheater fan EVER, was thrown into a rage and immediately started putting in CDs, searching for a song to demonstrate the Dreamtheater drummer’s true skill. It never gets settled, because they both agree that Jeff’s sound system isn’t good enough to get the true sound. Myself, being impartial because I don’t particularly like either band, say Tool’s is better- but whatever.
We get to Hi-Val (Doug Linn)’s house at about 5 AM. He opens the door, and the first thing we hear is “I don’t have any pants on�. Apparently he wasn’t expecting us until 6, so he put answering the door ahead of putting pants on in his priority list. Bad player. He lets us in, and I soon find out Doug is a very cool guy. He heads to work, and we crash at about 7 PM.
DAY THREE (Thursday)
I wake up to see Jeff and Ben in the living room making binders (Jeff is a dealer) at about 2:30 PM. Jeff also shows me the NINE Juzam Djinn’s he now owns. He also lays out all 40-something of his BB power pieces. Doug comes home at 3 PM, and he tells us the Type One event is at 6. We leave in a hour or so, and hit Wendy’s. When we arrive at the con, we see that the line to get badges is very long. I just get my badge and run into the CCG hall when I realize I didn’t get my last 2 power cards to play sanction from Jeff. I try to get them in time, but I’m too late. I miss the 20something person event. I don’t mind, and just decide to chill for a bit with TMDers. I meet Kevin “CHA1N5� Cron (pronounced CrOWN, not CrAHn- as I found out this weekend), who was also pretty chill. I see Smmenen and all the rest too, and they introduce me into the INSANE world of type four. I am explained the rules and am quickly thrust into a draft. It is Rochester style, and my deck includes Chaos Orb, Mindslaver, Bringer of the White Dawn, and some other cool stuff. Steve is eliminated from the multiplayer game first, and at then end it comes down to me and Joe Bushman. He has Genesis going, along with a shitload of other crazy graveyard goodies. He drafted all the GY hate, so I can’t deal and eventually succumb. One of the highlight plays was:
Smmenen plays Acquire. (We all know Joe has Planar Portal, one of the most powerful cards in the format)
I Fork, Acquire the Portal, and Portal myself, taking Mindslaver (so Smmenen couldn’t grab it).
Me and Carl agree that tomorrow will be bad deck day, and I build old school OSE. He builds revenge, and we play a few games. OSE > Revenge
. After the tournament we head back to Doug’s place, and he assembles Gay/R. We playtest untill the wee hours of the morning before finally collapsing.
DAY FOUR (Friday)
After a solid sleep of 2 hours, I wake up prepared for the 9:00 AM tourney. We arrive to see that basically no one from TMD was there due to the earliness, which really sucks. I get my tokens and enter the tourney. I’m mad psyched about OSE, and I start my round.
Friday Type One EventRound 1: BelcherGame 1: I play land-go. He plays Lotus, Land Grant, and a bunch of other stuff exhausting his hand and playing a Belcher with no cards left. I Brainstorm, but I can’t find FoW. I lose next turn.
-1 Plaguebearer -1 Isochron Scepter
+2 Rack and Ruin
Game 2: I start off with a decent hand, but I mull once to see if I can get the Force of Will. It works, and I have a hand that’s something like: 3 mana sources, Force, Drain, Wish. I play my land, pass, and he Land Grants, showing me a hand with multiple moxen, a Lotus Petal, a Draw 7, a Belcher, and a Tinder Wall. He goes for the turn 1 belcher, which I force. I take my turn, and he casts some more expansion and a Draw 7 that meets Drain. The next turn, he top decks a Belcher which I have no answer for.
Round 2: Shaharazad.decGame 1: He plays land-go for 3 turns while I resolve a Scepter with Fire/Ice on it. I keep tapping his stuff, drawing cards, etc until about turn 7 when he resolves Shaharazad (he had double Counterspell backup!). I ask him if I can concede the sub game, and he says no, because it is now considered part of the main game, and if I conceded that I would concede the whole game. I just play the sub game, having turn 1 Demonic Tutor and turn 2 Scepter + Ancestral. I start going crazy, and eventually kill him with a Masticore. He takes 10, and when the main game starts again I play a second Scepter + Fire/Ice. He tries to sneak in another Shaharazad, but I call the judge and ask if I can concede. He says I can, so I do so and Fire him a few times for the W. Klep witnessed this savage OSE ownage.
-1 Plague bearer -2 Stifle +3 REB
Game 2: Hating this opponent more than Hitler, I go out of my way to end it as quickly as possible. I play a very early Masticore and ride him to victory with a Drain or two.
Round 3: Rector TrixGame 1: He has the first turn therapy/second turn Rector hand that is nearly unbeatable.
-1 Plaguebearer +1 Vampiric Tutor
Game 2: I get a crazy hand with FoW, Drain, Stifle, Ancestral, and 2 lands. I drain his second turn rector into a Scepter/Brainstorm + activation, and at the end of the game, my hand is Stifle/Stifle/FoW/FoW/FoW/Drain/Drain.
Game 3: He gets the second turn Rector again, which I don’t have Force of Will for. He wins handily.
At this point, I decide to drop and get some shit signed with Carl and Klep. I had my fun with bad OSE, and that was that.
Bad OSE
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
2 Gorilla Shaman
1 Plaguebearer
3 Isochron Scepter
2 Fire/Ice
1 Morphling
1 Masticore
2 Cunning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mind Twist
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Brainstorm
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
SB:
4 FTK
1 Smother
1 Vamp
2 Rack and Ruin
4 REB
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Coffin Purge
1 Giant Trap Door Spider (I don't remember the slot, but this is dedicated to Joe Bushman)
Klep, Carl, and I all head to the dealer room to find the artists that were there. We see signs that say Mark Poole, Mark Tedin, and Ed Beard are there, which makes me very happy. First, we cruise around the dealer tables and I meet the SCG crew for the first time, which includes Knut, Hoefling, and Bleiwiess. They are all pretty chill, and me and Knut talk a bit about writing for “the dark side�- I say that I might do some work for them over the summer, but I’m not sure yet. I also mise 2 asian Scryings, an asian Disenchant, and a German Rack and Ruin for a buck each. How laucky! Eventually, we come across Mark Poole, a southern guy with a bandana on. He is really cool, and we talk a bit about how he thought of the art for Ancestral. He says that back in the day, WOTC gave the artists tons of freedom- basically just the name and flavor of the card for guidelines. Apparently, a Mayan temple and a guy covering his ears correctly portrays an “Ancestral Recall�. I get my Library, Ancestral, and Alpha Balance signed… so cool. I also get an alteration to my playmat. Our next stop is the Wizards booth, where Tedin is scheduled to be in about a half hour. We get there and decided to camp out a bit- me and Carl make up the GAT list we would play tomorrow, which, I might add, was toight as a toiger. We meet Tedin and he signs my Drains, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Mana Vault, while adding a small drawing on my playmat. We head for Beard’s booth, and I get my Mind’s Eyes signed- I decided against giving him my Togs because I’d defecated his art so much. I get the third drawing on my playmat, and we go back to the CCG hall. Smmenen and his crew show up around this time, and a group of about 10 of us go to the food court for TYPE FOUR. I am really hooked on the format by this time, and I’m really eager to play. We draft and my deck is okay, but I’m knocked out turn 2 by someone Grab the Reigns-ing a Serra Avatar and throwing it at my face. In the second game, I’m killed turn 3 by a few angry beasts and an Urza’s Rage. :[ The games usually last a lot longer than that, and I’m pretty sad that I didn’t get to play more. I play a ton of games with Smmenen and Carl, and eventually we all disband and I meet up with my friend Mike “snatchos� Sanchez in the CCG hall. He is cashing out a big collection he just bought for $250- it included a PSA 9 Sapphire, a LoA, a Mana Drain, a Bazzar, and 10 dual lands. He’s such a miser. At about 3:00 AM, Mike Sanchez, Mykeatog, Jeff Anand, and Matrix and I go to Waffle House. We don’t have these in RI, so I enjoy the food despite it being shitty in reality. I decide to crash at Sanchez’s hotel which is right next to the restaurant. I crash at about 4:30 AM.
DAY FIVE (Saturday)
Sanchez has to be at the Con really early due to him working at a dealer table, so he wakes me up at 7:00 AM. This means that in the past 2 days, I’ve gotten approximately 4.5 hours sleep. This is the day for the big type one event, so I’m pretty pumped. I have GAT built and I’m confident. We arrive at the Con, and I help Sanchez set up the booth. I stick around a bit and cruise the dealer hall, finding Poole again so he can sign my Alpha Island I forgot about. So good. Around 11:30 I make my way into the CCG hall and find about 40 people ready for the 1:00 type one. I buy some more tokens, enter, and chill with the awesome type one folk.
Saturday Type One EventRound 1: Survival-MaskGame 1: I get a 1s turn Dryad, Drain a Mask, and Force a Shapeshifter. He’s out of gas and I Night’s Whisper my hand full again and win.
-2 Misdirection +2 Deed
Game 2: I run him out of threats again when I have a Dryad on the board, but my draw is mediocre and I empty my own hand too. He topdecks Balance to kill a Dryad and a Tog, and the following turn he gets a Shapeshifter (Dreadnaught) which I can’t deal with.
Game 3: He resolves an early shifter and I take one dreadnaught hit, but I am able to Wish --> Oxidize it and play a tog soon after. I Force one other threat before I’m able to go lethal.
Round 2: 4cc VarientGame 1: I get an early Dryad and Force the removal. Pretty Routine.
-1 Wish -1 Vamp +2 REB (he was more blue-heavy than most 4cc)
Game 2: I am in a bad way, but Demise and Angel and cast a tog with MisD back. He loses next turn.
Round 3: StaxGame 1: I sneak out a dryad, but he gets wire reall early, stalling me long enough to establish the rest of his lock. His deck plan played out exactly as it should, and I lose.
-2 Misdirection +2 Artifact Mutation
Game 2: On turn 3, he plays a Wire and a Jester’s Cap. At EOT, I Mutate the Cap and tap down the tokens. The tokens totally nullify his gameplan long enough for me to grab the win.
Game 3: I mull and keep a hand with Force, Brainstorm, Wish, and only 1 land and 1 mox. I Force his first turn Trinisphere and then Brainstorm into no lands. Being landscrewed against Stax is a bad day, and I obviously lose.
Round 4: HATREDGame 1: I play LoA, and he does Swamp-go. I draw twice and drop an Island, and he plays a 2/1 shadow dude. I draw more, play a land, and cast Night’s Whisper (I didn’t have drain). I say go, he takes his turn, does a few Rituals, and Hatreds the shadow guy for 20 damage. I didn’t get a FoW dispite seeing a ton of extra cards.
-2 MisD +2 Deed (he wasn’t running Hymn)
Game 2: I play a Dryad, Drain the Hatred, and win like I’m supposed to.
Game 3: He knows not to go for the Hatred this time, but I Deed away a bunch of shitty dudes and go nuts with my Dryads.
Round 5: DragonGame 1: He keeps a hand with a few moxen and a recall. I counter the recall and he is stalled for 3-4 turns untill he finds his first land, a Bazaar. By this time I’m able to race him to the win with a few counters.
-1 MisD +1 Submerge
Game 2: This game showed what an amazing player Doug “Hi-Val� Linn is. He plays the Bazaar/Card Advantage game for awhile, setting up an awesome hand. I decide to play the aggro role, and cast a Drayd which grows really quickly. Another one joins the squad, and he has to win in 3 turns. He casts a deed, I drain, he forces, an I force back, leaving 2 cards in his hand. He casts Black Lotus, and Necromancy. I Submerge with the CIP on the stack and he scoops.
Round 6: GroGame 1: I misdirect some Swords, cast Dryads before him, and poop out a tog in the face of his Dryads. He loses pretty quickly.
-1 Mystical Tutor -1 Cunning Wish +2 Deed
Game 2: It comes down to him at five, me at 2, my turn, and my board looking like this:
6/6 Dryad
5/5 Dryad
His board is:
Tapped Mystic Enforcer
Untapped Meddling Mage
I alpha strike, and he blocks the 6/6 with his mage. With damage on the stack, he plows his mage which I MisD to his enforcer. He RFGs the Enforcer and gains 6, putting him to 11. Damage resolves, and he’s back to 6. Through an act of ignorance and forgetfulness on both players part, the Mage stays on the board post combat despite it already having lethal damage dealt to it. Before I realize it should have been dead, I realize I’m going to die next turn, so I cast Deed and pop it for 2. I realize and tell him a few turns later, and he replies with “yeah…nothing we can do now�. I was pretty sure it was an act of ignorance on both players part, and continue. He draws a guy before me, and I lose.
Game 3: I mull and keep a mediocre hand, and he casts a dryad which goes unchecked for many turns. I lose handily.
At 4-2, I make eighth place, winning something like 9 packs. God, I hate straight swiss.
After the tourney, myself and the usual crew take part is what now is really a ritual: going to the food court and playing type four. It was extremely fun, and my highlight play was:
I cast Timmy, Power Gamer on my turn.
Kowal goes, casts Barter in Blood.
In response, I cast PENTAVUS, and remove two counters.
Also, I RFGed Kevin Cron’s Darksteel Collosus with TREVA’S CHARM. How Laucky!
After type four is over, I contemplate playing in the Saturday night event. Me and Carl hastily make up 4cc (we raced, and he won), but we end up deciding against it (thank God!). Instead, we play, meet up in the gaming hall later, and play some more.
At about 2:00 AM, I witness the worst Judge call in history. I won’t elaborate. All I have to say about that tourney is that Rich Shay pwned.
By the time the tourney ended, it was about 4:30 AM. Jeff Anand was busy trading for a sick misprint MM foil counter spell (the actual print was moved over a ¼ inch, you could only see one blue in its casting cost), and talking it up with other dealers. Myself, Carl, Kevin Cron, and some other local Ohioan play some type four. The games go long, and it ends at about 4:00 AM with Carl getting out Orrey and Holistic Wisdom, recurring a Dismiss over 10 times while his opponent has out Bargain and the Tower of gain-10-life. Absolutely insane. After this, Carl informs me he is pulling an all nighter, and I let him thrash my Tog around with 4cc about 8 games while I’m half asleep. A few people talk of going to Waffle House, and I decided to go to sleep in the lobby on a table for a bit.
I wake up at 7:00ish AM, not knowing where the fuck I am. Literally, I have never been more confused in my life. It was a little scary. I wander outside looking for something (again, the confusion), then wander into the CCG hall. I see Carl, still truckin, but he looks blatantly tired. We chat for a bit, and decide to find a Lord of the Rings table to crash on. I put my head down, and next I know I am woken up by Dooge Linn, asking me if I want to play in the Sunday event at 11:00. I decline, but I wake up and greet the people. I am in a pretty large daze for the majority of the tourney, but afterwards we head to the food court for MORE TYPE FOUR. We play untill about 7:00, when Jeff tells me we have to head out. They say they rushed from Doug’s house and packed my back for me, forgetting my phone charger. Fack- it is actually in the mail as I’m typing. <3 Hi-Val. We are kicked out of the con center, and go to a local fair that is going on. It is pretty cool, with music, food, and stuff, but we want to get some driving hours in, so we leave. After about 2 hours we get to the edge of Ohio/Penn., and get a hotel room. We draft, chill, and sleep. I savagely lose a die roll and sleep on the floor with no pillows or blankets.
DAY SIX (Monday)
I am woken up by Jeff yelling that we woke up at 1:30, an hour and a half past checkout time. We all rush to pack up and get out of there within 10 minutes, and prepare for a 8 hour road trip. Nothing eventful happens aside from restarant searching in Penn. We are in and out of 3 shitty buffets before we settle on the best of the worst, Ponderosa, which is still really shitty. We arrive in NY at 12:00 AM. Matrix, Kowal, and I depart for Hadley, while Kowal busts out crazy navigating skills. I was kinda impressed, he was making decisions at the literal last second and getting it right. At one point, we tried to go up the off ramp to get on a highway, but soon discovered it didn’t connect. We reverse into the main street, get the car facing the wrong direction in traffic, drive up and go into the onramp, all with a cop 10 feet away. Boy, I’ve never accelerated so fast in my life after that one. Ben gets dropped off at 3ish, and we are back in RI by 5:30. I take my shit out, sit down, and start writing this report.
Overall it was an amazing time, the t1 events were lacking but I got to meet awesome people, get cards signed, and be introduced to type four. It was definitely worth it, and I thank everyone who helped me along this journey.
Props:
-Our drivers Jeff Anand and Matrix
-My backseat compadres, Ben Kowal and Matrix, for not bitching too much, and putting up with me for infinite hours
-All the new faces: Kevin Cron, Joe Bushman, Paul M., Windfall, Doug Linn, Klep
-All the old faces: Steve Menendian, Carl Winter, Jeff Anand, and the rest.
-Doug Linn for housing us
Slops:
-Buffets in Penn
-Convention Tables for being so hard
-Judging staff at Origins, minus Cividel
-Straight Swiss
Aaron Kerzner
