I generally "try" to make it to draft/sealed events during FNM if I'm not working on Saturday, or hanging with friends earlier in the evening, or any number of other things.
So its like once a month
But I just went to two events this weekend, so I'll talk about them
Friday
FNM Booster Draft of M12 at my local card/hobby shop. First time I've been in there, its a store called Legions.
First of all; its huge. You walk in and they have tons of Warhammer products, as well as a large, large area dedicated to painting, battling w/e. I was into Warhammer 40k for a little bit in 8th grade, so I can definately appreciate that it would be a mecca for any nerd whos into that.
Speaking of nerds, it was me and my friend. I wasn't expecting much, socially, since I was expecting a lot of really socially awkward behavior. I wasn't wrong. The place I normally go to is located in Oakland, near the Pitt/CMU campus, so generally we get a lot of college-aged kids there, so its not that bad. Let's just say the maturity level at Legions wasn't quite there.
I think there were 28 people. I drafted a green/white deck. Only rare was Archon of whatever, but my deck was really strong, and I started off 3-1 (5 rounds though? WHY?).
I lost to a kid with a really strong deck, and was ok with that. Last round though, I'm convinced the guy cheated. He had at least 6 rares, not to mention some uncommon bombs (mind control among them). He was rude, and was really wierd every time I saw him that night (we were at Legions from 7pm-11pm)
Prize structure was also a bit silly; only top 4 people got anything out of 28. I would have dropped earlier if I had known this, but at least the rounds were "short".
Staff was professional and welcoming; too bad the many of the players there lacked basic manners.
My friend and I would sit there and talk to each other at normal volume. Some of the people would be literally YELLING at each other sitting next to each other. It was wierd.
Also this kid was playing a DS and hiding it with his hat. I guess you had to be there to see it, but it was strange.
I also went to the starcitygames event at the Pittsburgh airport on saturday. I'm about to leave, but lets just say it was a much nicer experience.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
5 rounds is normal for an event that large although I don't know why they didn't split it into two pools. 28 is large for draft. I'm assuming they split everyone into four groups of seven, or maybe two ten and one eight for picking.
As a video gamer, I've been to my share of fighting game gatherings and stuff, and I was not prepared for the kind of lack of social skill that these MTG kids have.
It's really dependent on the store you go to. Some have a great batch of players with only the occasional oddball, and some of them are a complete disaster.
there were a total of 2 people i didn't mind talking to. all the rest were really loud, or really immature, or 10 years old (and suprisingly, the 2 10 year olds were much better behaved than their 18+ counterparts)
There was one girl there...very very average, but of course, she got tons of attention from many of the wierdos there. I talked to her for a bit, and was quite turned off by her constant use of "trolololololol" and saying "lol" instead of laughing (reminded me of the recent curb episode)
Also, there was a kid who looked like an alien there, with huge temporal veins in his huge forehead with bulging eyes. After one match with a somewhat rude guy, he was all like I WANTED TO TAKE A SWING AT HIM (after the guy left), and I couldn't help but say "uh, I don't think that's a good idea, dude is like 2 times your size". His reply? "but i'm crazy"
My reply? "but you're half his size"
anyways, will update on starcitygames, which was much better, but the only really good part of the story is the drive there.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
Bran_Stark posted... Revenus posted... it was a few pods of 7/8 although we didn't do any interpod play
And it was still 5 rounds? WTF?
They combined the pods, it was just 7/8 for drafting, sorry for any confusion.
Which makes it hard to catch cheaters, because you don't have any interpod play, and then you can't have people in the cheaters pods noticing that this guy has many bombs that were not passed to him.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
The Mana Sword posted... It's really dependent on the store you go to. Some have a great batch of players with only the occasional oddball, and some of them are a complete disaster.
Phantom of the Attic in oakland isn't "bad", although its moreso a collection of big nerds rather than really socially maladjusted people.
The worst players there happen to be the kids who are around 14/15. One of them was a huge jerk when I was there 2 months ago.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
Maybe I'm just lucky I have a really good store then, because aside from this one weirdo who comes to draft occasionally, all the regulars are pretty normal!
Oh, and speaking of wierdos, the guy who I thought cheated was the worst of them.
He looked like the guy from Road Trip (the strange one from the quartet), only with glasses and pretty bad acne. He would do things like go up to his friend while his friend was playing, massage his friends back and say things like "just go with it", or rest his head on top of his friends head and say something equally as disturbing.
At the end of round 5, or rather, near the end of round 5, I had the guy down to 2 life, and there were 5 minutes left. I said, "hey, if I win, do you just want to call it a tie?" He looks up and says "you're not going to win".
and then the girl came by and said trololol and we broke out into a bollywood shuffle.
but seriously, what a dick. and he has no reason to be! well actually he does i guess.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
The Mana Sword posted... Maybe I'm just lucky I have a really good store then, because aside from this one weirdo who comes to draft occasionally, all the regulars are pretty normal!
Where is your store located? College campus? Suburbs? City? Some guys barn?
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
It's in the suburbs of Albany. There's two others in close proximity, I've been to one of the others for FNM before, and that one has most of the annoying people you guys are talking about, with the annoying kids and social awkardness.
Haven't played at the third store because the owner is a dick.
The Mana Sword posted... It's in the suburbs of Albany. There's two others in close proximity, I've been to one of the others for FNM before, and that one has most of the annoying people you guys are talking about, with the annoying kids and social awkardness.
Haven't played at the third store because the owner is a dick.
I *might* go again in 2 weeks since its draft again. The only saving grace this store has is that the employees are pretty good people.
Hopefully the crop of people there was a one time thing, and not a every time thing. We'll see. If its that bad again, yeah.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
Jade Mage and enough mana and a lack of removal from your opponent = mean
Bloodthirsty crocodile + Trollhide against an opponent with Islands = mean
So much fun, went 3-1 in the end, lost 3rd round to a guy with every bloodthirst enabler going, Scepter, fireslinger, arsonist, tunneler and lawkeeper. 2nd game I didn't get past 2 mana.
At the store I play at we have a very close knit group of around 14 people. We don't take too kindly to people who don't mesh with the group well. That's not to say we're total dicks to them, we'll give everyone a chance but if you start being rude or get too aggressive we don't like it much. We just want to keep the store a fun, casual place to play.
starcity games at the hyatt at the airport was great.
the atmosphere was good, there were a bunch of normal seeming people, and nearly all the girls that were there were attractive. not that i talked to anyone except my friends there but still.
we did two headed giant. we pulled some amazing cards. we had 2 foil rares, so i ran green/white, my friend ran blue/red. in theory we should have destroyed the field, but we lost the first game due to a error by my friend, and the second game thanks to getting DoJ'd. Since prizes were only handed out to 3 wins+ (out of 4 rounds), we dropped afterwards. I kept most of the good green/white cards, I let my friend take the shiny white rare.
After that, he went off to play EDH, and I did a booster draft. It was probably my worst draft ever, but I got a goblin chieftain, so yay.
All in all, a good time.
Now, the drive there is a different story.
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Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it?
Also, what are people's FNM prizes and costs like?
It's £11 here for draft, 3 rounds, anyone that goes 3-0 gets an FNM foil and a free FNM in the future (so 3 boosters worth of draft at minimum), WWL is 2 free packs, any other two wins is 1 free pack. Any additional foils given at random.
FNM Standard is $2, half the total entry fee is given out to the top 4 in store credit. Usually 5 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 4. Current FNM promos are given out to the top 2 and 2 random non-top 4 players. 3rd and 4th get their choice of whatever extra promos the store happens to have available, usually gateway promos or recent pre-release/launch cards.
FNM draft is $14 with 1.5 packs of prize support per player divided amongst the top 4, with current FNM promos again going to the top 2 and 2 random other non-top 4 players. Usually 4 rounds of swiss.