So there I was, outside the Student Union II at George Mason University, in northern Virginia. I was pleased to finally have a major tournament close enough to my house to not endure a two-hour drive. This way, I figured, if I scrubbed out, home was twenty minutes away and I could get an early steak dinner.

So I packed up my roommate (Karen) and a visiting friend and Magic newbie (Jen) and drove to GMU. Now as for preparation, we were all a little weak. I'd seen the spoiler, but not studied it other than the cards that the Sideboard put up. To add to the fun, all three of us had been out until 2:30 the previous morning at a rock concert. Therefore, slightly bleary-eyed and partially deaf, we lumbered into the tournament.

To their credit, Dream Wizards picked a good venue. However, as is customary for first-time venues, people got disorganized. The organizers were running three simultaneous tournaments (good!), and had a deck swap (very good!) – and as a result, play didn't start until around 1:15 pm. I opened a pretty strong base of cards, no broken rares – but a strong one in Wayward Angel and some solid green Flashbackable token generators. Thus, I decided to go two-color G/W for a number of reasons: A) I had no useless cards in those colors, B) I had no supportable bombs in the other three colors, C) I figured two-color had a strong mana base in my deck, with only two cards requiring double colored mana, and D) coming out of the IBC block, I reckoned everyone else would go three-color, and have mana issues.

Here is the decklist I played.

Land:
9x Plains
8x Forests

Creatures:
1x Hallowed Healer
1x Confessor
1x Pilgrim of Virtue
1x Dedicated Martyr
1x Mystic Visionary
1x Angelic Wall
1x Soulcatcher
2x Aven Cloudchaser
1x Wayward Angel
1x Wild Mongrel
2x Springing Tiger
1x Nantuko Mentor

Spells:
2x Second Thoughts
1x Muscle Burst
1x Sylvan Might
1x Druid's Call
2x Chatter of the Squirrel
1x Elephant Ambush
1x Roar of the Worm

40 Cards.

Notable Cards I did not play:

Tainted Pact – No real bombs to tutor for, and milling my library in Limited irks me.
Seton's Desire – I wanted to cut down on my enchantments, thanks to the two Cloudchasers.
Life Burst – Not too useful with only one, I figured.
2x Words of Wisdom – No other strong blue to support it.
Some useful red burn – Decided white was stronger, didn't want to risk mana screw, stayed two-color.

So the pairings went up:

Round 1, vs. Scott R. playing G/U/R – Table 39

Scott was a fun opponent to play, very polite and professional. However, when my deck was able to drop a creature on every turns 1 through 5, which included multiple Squirrel flashbacks, I had a swarm of blockers ready to stop his assault. Once the Wayward Angel hit play with Threshold active, it was over. Game two was more of the same, with the Angelic Wall/Druid's Call combo on defense, none of his creatures could kill the Wall, and any attack would only net me more Squirrels. It's also hard to defend against a turn 2 Wild Mongrel, turn 3 discarded Roar of the Wurm, turn 4 6/6 Wurm from the graveyard. We ended up with time called in our second game, netting me the win.

Games 1-0, Matches 1-0

Round 2, vs. Jason S., playing W/B/R – Table 13

Jason seemed to have mana issues in both games – the first seeing only black mana and having to discard repeatedly. With my turn 1 Confessor in play, this netted me serious life advantage. The Confessor ended up going all the way while his attackers had Second Thoughts or ran into an instant-speed Elephant token blocker. Game 2 was even quicker, as he only saw a single Swamp during the game, and the Confessor was joined by a Dedicated Martyr to deal all twenty points. Both games were over before Karen could come by and tell me that her opponent was a no-show, and we headed to the cafeteria. $5.50 for all you can eat is some good.

Games 3-0, Matches 2-0

Round 3, vs. Mark W., playing G/U/r – Table 3

Wow, table 3. That's the highest I've been up… Ever. Mark's another local player, and one that I've watched win numerous times. A great guy to play, very sportsmanlike and patient. Game 1 had me coming out with a turn 4 Wurm that he just couldn't deal with, although he managed to hit me a few times. Game 2 resulted in a creature stalemate that neither of us could break. He had his Nantuko Mentor active, as well as the Druid that pumps creatures +2/+2, which gave him nigh-invulnerable blockers... And I had the Wall/Call out again, which netted me a few Squirrels to act as speed bumps. He ended up delivering the final points of damage to me in the fifth extra turn as time was called. After the match, he thanked me for not trying to stall him out for the win. Honestly, the thought had never occurred to me, mostly because my deck was incredibly straightforward and simple. We shook hands and expected to see each other at the top table at the end of the day.

Games 4-1, Matches 2-0-1

Round 4, vs. David K., playing G/U/W – Table 7

David, however, was not as much fun to play. I'm not sure whether he was taking the game seriously, but I grew a bit annoyed when he kept untapping before I'd declared that my turn was over... Although I must admit that I've been impatient at tournaments, too, and it didn't seem like he was attempting to cheat in any way. He also didn't have a life counter, which made me glad that I had pen and paper to keep a written track of his life total, and often had to remind him of his current status. The first game took around thirty minutes, with slow turns and long decisions about what creature to cast from David's side of the table. Finally, my Elephant token (enchanted with Druid's Call) had run into his Beloved Chaplain enough to give me an army of over a dozen Squirrel tokens, and I swarmed him for the win. Game 2 only went two turns before time was called, and he didn't see a creature – although I couldn't do enough damage to kill him.

As a side note, two seats down from me this round was William"Baby Huey" Jensen. I was a little surprised to see one of the pros at a pre-release, but I learned a bit of strategy watching his games later in the day.

Games 5-1, Matches 3-0-1

Round 5, vs. David A., playing G/W mirror – Table 4

David showed up a minute or so late - not enough to warrant a game loss, but enough to worry me. I mean, who wins by a no-show at Table 4? Once he arrived, though, we started throwing identical creatures at each other with a vengeance. It came down to a 1-2 loss for me, in the battle of combat tricks and spells. Second Thoughts was the MVP on my side, while well-timed Muscle Bursts saved his creatures in the fray. This match was possibly the most fun I'd had in a while, and I hope to see David again at a local tournament.

Games 6-3, Matches 3-1-1.

About this time, Karen had dropped due to fatigue and hunger, and Jen was at 1-4, but enjoying herself immensely. I figured that 5-1-1 could have a shot at top 8, so I persevered.

Round 6, vs. Michael G., playing W/R/U – Table 10

Michael was a quiet player, which disconcerted me a bit. He wasn't rude, not at all, and he was very sportsmanlike; I'd just become accustomed to bantering with my opponent, and a nearly-silent match shook me somewhat. I managed to pull out the Turn 4 Wurm in Game 1, and it went all the way in only a few turns. Games 2 and 3, however, he managed to get the Cephalid Emperor active, using its Flood ability and tapping power to neutralize my attack. A 3/3 blue flier from him sealed my doom both times.

Games 7-5, Matches 3-2-1.

So I decided to drop and head to a late (9:45 p.m.) dinner at the Outback. That night, with some steak in my belly and some well-earned exhaustion, I thought back on the day.

Thoughts on the new set – it's incredibly fun, more so than Invasion was. Perhaps there will be some broken cards that decks will be based around (*coughTraumatizecough*), but I think that draft and Sealed Deck will mostly be centered around turning little dudes sideways and smashing face. Richard Garfield's hand is evident in this, and I'm thankful for it. Flashback and Threshold are a lot more fun than I'd previously thought.

Much good to:

- Dream Wizards, for all their hard work in putting the tournament together.
- My opponents, for making me work for each win, and earn each loss.
- Wayward Angel, because a 7/7 non-tapping Lord of the Pit is sweet.

No soup for:

- Mana screw. Hey, I never saw it in my deck, but it sucks anyway. Ban mana screw!
- The foul-mouthed jerk with his"new term" for Threshold. Kids play here, jerk.
- Late starts. Man, sitting around for four hours before playing isn't fun for anyone.

Finally NOT dead last, I am-

~M. Nute