FFfreaKShow

Brad Nelson and I have been trying to sit down for a podcast going back all the way to GP Providence but distractions in the form of drafts, drinks, and physical exhaustion conspired against us. Finally, with more than a little den-mothering from Lauren Lee, we sat down and chatted with the tape running. Brad is the midst of a promotional blitz for the forthcoming biography about him “Grinder: The Brad Nelson Story” by Rich Hagon and we talked about having a book written about you, having Rich live in North Dakota for a couple of weeks, and what the last two years of his life have been like as he rose from MTGO shark to Player of the Year.

Predisposal

Michael Flores and I got together last night to drink some cold brewed coffee from Joe’s, talk about the ramifications of the changes to Organized Play for last weekend’s Magic 2012 Prerelease events, make some suggestions on how to handle Prereleases in the future, and do some brainstorming about potential Standard decks for the upcoming $75K tournament in Chicago.

We also spoke about Pascal Maynard’s winning decklist from the Canadian Magic Tour which is listed below:

ShiftBlade
Pascal Maynard — Winner
Canadian Magic Tour

4 Squadron Hawk
3 Emeria Angel
4 Preordain
4 Mana Leak
3 Spell Pierce
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Gravitational Shift
2 Gideon Jura
2 Jace Beleren
2 Dismember
2 Into the Roil
2 Journey to Nowhere
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Deprive
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Island
3 Plains
2 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:
4 Flashfreeze
3 Day of Judgment
2 Celestial Purge
2 Spellskite
2 Mental Misstep
1 Dismember
1 Divine Offering

Mike also mentioned an old interview he did on SCG which is linked here.

(New York area tournament goers should be well familiar with our local Level 3 judge Eric Smith who has been Head Judging Gray Matter Conventions events in this neck of the non-woods for the last decade and a half. With no large-scale prerelease to judge this weekend — due to the recent Organized Play changes that put such events in the hands of Local Game Stores and not Regional Tournament Organizers like Gray Matter Conventions — Eric found himself in a reflective mood and fired off this ode to big events.)

This past Saturday was the prerelease for Magic 2012. Prereleases are always fun events. Seeing the new cards and wondering how they are going to effect the various formats makes for an excellent opportunity to dream about the decks you want to build and getting a chance to play with the new cards themselves makes for a great way to spend a morning (and afternoon and evening…). Or so I have been told, at least. You see, for the last 14 or so years I haven’t been playing in prerelease events. Rather I have been helping to run them in and around the New York area. So last Saturday’s prerelease represents the end of an era for me and I have found myself waxing a bit nostalgic. And it got me to thinking about the first few prerelease events I worked and where they have taken me…. <Cue: Wayback machine>

I first moved to New York from North Carolina in August of 1997. In those days the name of the Magic game in New York was Neutral Ground, the store founded by Brian David-Marshall and associates. That same group of folks also founded Gray Matter Conventions, which is still around as a tournament organizer in the New York area. At the time I was not a certified judge, the letters in the DCI still meant something, and the prerelease events in New York were held at the New Yorker Hotel. Being new to the city the first big event that I attended was the Tempest prerelease that fall. It was a pretty big change from the events I had attended in North Carolina and I was excited to get a chance to meet the local New York community. I have to admit that I can’t remember how I did at the event, though I do remember getting passed a Cursed Scroll late in a draft and thinking that the card might turn out to be pretty good. Though I didn’t know it at the time I also made one of the most life changing decisions I have ever made at that prerelease. Namely I asked if I could help out as a volunteer. From my point of view I thought that it might be a good way to get to know the local players a bit better. And since I had been one of the go-to people for rules questions back in North Carolina I had been thinking for some time about becoming a certified judge, and this seemed like a good way to start that process. Plus I knew how may Scryb Sprites it took to block and kill a first striking Sengir Vampire (a question that remains as relevant today as it did back then….) so perhaps my fate was already decided. I am still not sure why they agreed to take me on that first weekend but the folks at Gray Matter have been paying for that mistake ever since…. Read the rest of this entry »