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KC Rundown...
Topic Started: Jan 11 2011, 08:23 PM (490 Views)
The_Immortal_DJINN
Lords of the 17th Chamber of Maggots
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(here's the little report I put together for friends and teammates who didn't get to go with us to KC....enjoy)



Well, KC is in the books, and it's a good thing. Had it gone for one day longer, who knows what the hell would have happened. A LOT of side stories, a lot of in's and out's and what have you's....where to start?

We fly in Friday, and get ready to roll out to our hotel. Unfortunately, Chris upgrades from a Grand Caravan to a Suburban taking the rental agent's word that it would be accessible to Brian. The Suburban is like 4 feet off of the ground. We all go back to the rental place and get a van that can do what we gotta do and eventually we get to the hotel. We get settled into our rooms. The room itself was actually pretty good for the price I paid and I'm thankful I went ahead and got my own room. Fridge, Microwave, surprisingly comfy bed, shower, and a door that locks. For $50 a night, it was pretty decent. The lobby and breakfast dining area eventually became packed with Magic players (including us) testing for the event. In the evening, we venture out and meet Conley, Tucks, and Tom Ma at Jack Stack's BBQ. Expensive, but definitely good. Fun times and an overall good experience.

Saturday was interesting. I settled on Valakut, and it was 100% the correct call for me. Here was the list:

4x Primeval Titan
4x Overgrown Battlement
3x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Inferno Titan
1x Gaea's Revenge

4x Khalni Heart Expedition

4x Harrow
4x Explore
2x Cultivate
2x Growth Spasm

3x Summoning Trap

11x Mountain
5x Forest
3x Terramorphic Expanse
2x Evolving Wilds
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

SB -
4x Pyroclasm
1x Gaea's Revenge
2x Koth, the Hammer
2x Traitorous Instinct
2x Acidic Slime
2x Back to Nature
2x Tumble Magnet


I needed to play something that was automatic in my hands, and Valakut was. I beat a BUG control and a RUG control in the first two rounds. Round 3 I pick up a double warning in the third round after I win game one after I sideboard. First warning, the judge felt I took too long sideboarding and shuffling and gave me a warning for slowplay. I know it's not supposed to make a difference in the eyes of the judges what is being played, but for reference, I played the Valakut mirror match and I was up one game. These games were going to last like 6-7 minutes each. It's possible he may have been technically correct because I had initially boarded in my pyroclasms because his version was running Gerry T's 4x Cobra/3x Oracle, but changed my mind almost immediately when I figured I was up a game and was satisfied with my Traitorous Instinct/Acidic Slime package I brought in against him. Regardless, I felt it was a ticky-tack warning and it didn't have to be assessed.

They returned my opponent's deck and asked me to take the walk of shame over to the judges station. Turns out that a couple of sleeves were miscut from my sideboard, but the other two cards I brought in from my board were not and therefore they dismissed intent, but gave me a warning and wanted me to change out sleeves. Fine. What sucked about this was that I ran into this problem of miscut sleeves before the event started and took steps to make sure these sleeves were okay. Lesson learned - if there is ever even a question, take the deck over to the judge and get their assessment prior to competition.

After all that hubbub, I win the next game, putting me at a 3-0. I get a feature match in round 4 against a below average Boros player and I end up taking him out due to the fact that he didn't play around pyroclasms. I scored a Pyroclasm and an Inferno Titan to put him away.

I'm feeling pretty good going into the next round. I face Boros again, except this time the guy actually played pretty well and didn't get greedy with his landfall triggers. I lose a heartbreaker game three needing one more turn to attack with Titan for the win and he needed to draw one fetchland. He drew it, and that was it. If it were just a normal land or even a creature I would have lived. My first loss went to the man who went on to win the entire 5k tournament.

In round 6 I face B/R Vampires and he gets back to back nut draws. He tries to punt in both games, but my deck just doesn't cooperate in time to capitalize. Big time disappointed picking up my second loss here. I play my 7th round to see if I might be able to win out and get some prizes - and I face an extremely solid U/B player. I felt that I had a really solid chance in game one as I drew my Gaea's Revenge, but he elected to run Vampire Nighthawk instead of Sea Gate Oracle which shut down the Revenge. The U/B I was considering playing actually made this Oracale to Nighthawk transition too, and I told him afterwards that we were on the same page. Lost to a good deck and a good player. </shrugdrop>

I think the biggest takeaway from this trip for me was that at no time did I ever go on tilt, even after losing in the 5th, the 6th, or the 7th. The old me would have, but I can honeslty say I played tight in every round I played. Sometimes you can play really well and just lose to better draws from opponents or your deck faltering - neither of which can you do much to control. I would say that my deck probably needed more weapons against aggro in the maindeck. And although they are painful to draw in the control matchups, I think at least a couple Pyroclasm and an Inferno Titan should be at the ready in any Valakut build going forward.

Conley was at 7-1, and we all decide to make a run to Gates BBQ. Interesting little tidbit regarding Piley: he's got a 4-3 record, and those of us with similar records drop. He says that he may go with us but that there would be no reason for him to drop. Confused I wanted some elaboration. It seems that he takes pride in the amount of matches the DCI records for him and he has like 3500+ under his belt. So, what he does when he is out of contention---he leaves without dropping---and people get free wins against him because he doesn't show. He takes a ratings hit, but it also counts towards his total match count on his DCI record. I tried to ask him how he could take pride in this knowing there there is a percentage of his matches where he didn't even play/participate? I got a look from him of "that does not compute", so I didn't pursue it any longer. He elected to play it out instead of going to Gates with us. This was probably his biggest play mistake of the week.

Gates was insanity. I ate until I was straight up defeated. Their sauce was the golden fucking ticket. We all made the decision to come back on Sunday. Afterwards we come back to the site and Conley has made top 8. We find out that CW is playing against the mirror match....Wha tha fa??? Yes, the savagery that is Tom Ma elected to parlay some Legacy wares from a rando in exchange for Conley's "Wave Boogie 69" list----and lo and behold, here CW was having to face his own deck in the Top 8. Apparently CW got the last laugh leaving Tom's ass red - literally. At the hotel, while Tom Ma was lying on the bed, Conley felt the need to administer a full force windmill slap on Tom's ass resulting in a jumping/yelping Tom Ma. There are penalties in this world. I wish I had my camera to record this justice taking place. I'd have that shit on an infinite rewind loop on youtube. Conley dispatches the mirror guy in fine style though.

We all head back to the rooms to prepare for Sunday, however since Chris hadn't eaten he insisted on going to "Steak&Shake" which is a local fast food joint which is supposed to be really good. None of us are truly that hungry, but a shake sounds good. We literally spend an hour looking for this place, finally find it, getting back to the hotels around 2am, knowing we gotta be up by 8-ish. HRM.

Sunday was probably the most event filled day and not without drama. Alex Smith was a no-show and with no Goyfs, my choice was to play goblins or sit this one out. If there was one sad note it's that I got to talk and hang with Alex for like 3 hours overall all weekend. He overslept on Sunday and developed a nasty sinus infection.

Unfortunately there was a bigger problem that weekend. To be fair, I haven't hung out with Jake Lemkuhl too much. He's just an acquaintence. He kinda rubbed me the wrong way at the GPT down in the Springs, but it was forgivable. I was told he was going to be hanging with all of us that weekend, and I thought that was fine. I was planning on hanging out with Conley and I was told by Jake weeks earlier that he and CW didn't play nice with one another, so I was a little concerned about that, but not very.

Throughout the entirety of the trip, Jake would say and do things that just wore on *everyone's* nerves. Between the constant 'one-upping', the unbelieveable stories, and the straight up lies...it was seriously carving into everyone's enjoyment of the trip. We all dealt with it at first, but by Sunday, all of us had pretty much had enough. Brian was the chillest out of all of us, and I could see it was even getting to him as well. Brian took Jake aside and basically told him that the way he was talking and the things he was saying were making people a feel uncomfortable and angry. Jake took it pretty well, and pretty much said "fuck all of those guys then" and left the site. Haven't seen him since that Sunday. I will say that it looks like he de-friended me and removed his like from Djinn's Playground on FB. Which I find kind of interesting considering he and I never really got involved in anything--- the only verbal skirmish he got into was with Randy Templaar, Conley, and Frank Bowker. I guess he de-friended Napper too. <shrug>?

So that all done, we make our way to Gates for a second time and eat WELL while watching the Chefs get serviced by the Ravens. Later we went back to the hotel, loaded up strong on some spirits, and put together a 4 vs 4 Team rochester money draft using 12 Scars, 6 Darksteel, and 6 Fifth Dawn. $5 a man. I'm going to be honest here, I really can't recall a whole lot of what was happening. You see, we randomly picked teams and I was placed on a team with Otwell, Brian, and Tucker. Facing Napper, Frank, Conley, and Randy. Tucker, Brian, and I pretty much knew ahead of time that we were going to get pegged in the ass prison style, so I elected to hit the Red Bull and Vodka hard...and then the three of us elected to hit the blunt---pretty much as hard as we could. (There's your Fear and Loathing story, Scott...:-)

My friends...Brian...was gone. He was no more. He was in a perpetual state of giggle. That's all he could do. He was just hoping someone would pick a cool card for him. I don't remember a lot, although I did remember snap picking a skullclamp. Tucker seemed to be functioning as well as he could. I think that Tucker, Brian and I all gave up our $5 before the draft concluded. :-)

In the end this trip was a blast. It had it's times of bummerhood - issues with Jake, not seeing Alex as much as I'd liked, and the friggin snow. But the good times outnumbered the bad times by a lot. I really look forward to doing this again. Can't wait until February for GP Denver!


DJINN
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Redguywins
Lords of the 7th Chamber of Dismemberment by Chariot
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Great story and towards the end I was literally laughing out loud. That was kinda bummer about the double warning and the Nighthawks main in UB. I did notice they were everywhere including my UB match-up in round 6.

One note though regarding Chris. You wrote "He elected to play it out instead of going to Gates with us. This was probably his biggest play mistake of the week." Chris finished with a 7-3 so if he was 4-3 at one point then it's hardly a mistake taking 3 matches in a row. Well, that is unless that bbq was really that good I guess. :D
Edited by Redguywins, Jan 11 2011, 08:39 PM.
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The_Immortal_DJINN
Lords of the 17th Chamber of Maggots
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Having no shot at the money with 3 losses and choosing to play 3 meaningless matches over killer BBQ with friends...it doesn't require a pro card slinger to tell you how much of a bad beat that is.


DJINN
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Redguywins
Lords of the 7th Chamber of Dismemberment by Chariot
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Yeah, but from his perspective it wasn't meaniless. He enjoys playing it seems.

I see where you're coming from though. I think maybe in the end Chris wanted some redemption (as well as matches) perhaps?
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Ninja
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The barbecue was a strong 6. Not a 10 though :)
As a Ninja, the smallest container I can fit into would be maybe a tic tac container.

Posted ImageTake the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
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Piley
Master of Magic, Overlord of All Colorado
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Gates was a solid "low 8", IMHO.

But I still think that County Line BBQ in Hampden, VA is slightly better ... plus they make 12 different custom sauces vs. the 3 that Gate's does.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"
The Liberals have been fighting poverty for nearly
a century now. Poverty has won. Give it up already!
"
-- Christopher E. Otwell, 2011 August 24
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



When Hope is Lost, listen to this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hope-is-emo-ipod/id160169398
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Febiv
Overlords of the Di Yu
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Ninja
Jan 11 2011, 10:55 PM
The barbecue was a strong 6. Not a 10 though :)
You are insane! That BBQ was a real solid 8, maybe even a high 8. You can't name a better BBQ joint in Colorado....and I would put money on it, you haven't been to a better one in your life.

As for those of you that know me...you know I know my BBQ...and you can take my word for it or Randy's, whose opinions on food seems to mirror those of the infamous "Jake"....this was the best BBQ I have had from a restaurant thus far.
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Brapamival
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Everyones tastebuds are differen.
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Febiv
Overlords of the Di Yu
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Brapamival
Jan 12 2011, 06:07 AM
Everyones tastebuds are differen.
Yup. Look Randy, you are nice to Paul, and he has your back now. See how easy that is. I think a few months ago he would be backing me calling bullshit with me.

I am aware that everyone's taste buds are different, but with 7 of the 8 men that went having the same opinion, either he has had some world class BBQ or he is just being argumentative and disagreeable just for the hell of it, or maybe he hasn't had good BBQ and is too busy eating Sushi. :P

Either way, I still disagree with his statement, as I am sure, the other 6 men that went would disagree as well.

Another thing I am sure of, is that if you went tomorrow, Paul, you would agree with Randy...and it would have nothing to do with the food.


EDIT- Take Jack Stacks for example. At the time Napper and Djinn were in awe of the food, I loved the beef rib but found the burnt ends and baby backs to be dry and their sauce to be bland. It is a different kind of BBQ, granted, and I was not disappointed in my meal as a whole, but I will not go back their for that price.

And Djinn's critique was precursored with "I don't have much to compare too, but this is pretty damn good."

Funny thing, Randy states, and I quote "These are the best beans I have EVER had in my life..." and gives the place a 6. Interesting right?
Edited by Febiv, Jan 12 2011, 07:20 AM.
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Piley
Master of Magic, Overlord of All Colorado
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The Beans were AMAZING!!!

As well as the custom Beef Sausages...


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"
The Liberals have been fighting poverty for nearly
a century now. Poverty has won. Give it up already!
"
-- Christopher E. Otwell, 2011 August 24
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



When Hope is Lost, listen to this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hope-is-emo-ipod/id160169398
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Piley
Master of Magic, Overlord of All Colorado
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I should also add... That IMHO, there is NO BBQ place in Colorado Springs that I would rate in the 5.0+ range.


I'd also be hard pressed to find a joint in Denver or Boulder that would even remotely come close to Gates' BBQ. From talking with the other guys, I'm not sure that it would even exist in Colorado.





-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"
The Liberals have been fighting poverty for nearly
a century now. Poverty has won. Give it up already!
"
-- Christopher E. Otwell, 2011 August 24
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



When Hope is Lost, listen to this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hope-is-emo-ipod/id160169398
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Febiv
Overlords of the Di Yu
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Frank's backyard BBQ. lol
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The_Immortal_DJINN
Lords of the 17th Chamber of Maggots
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I'm not a BBQ afficianado. I've lived in Colorado for the majority of my life. My experience with BBQ is Dickie's, Bennett's, and Brother's. Hence why I've never really been a big BBQ fan (would you be if those were your choices?). If those were your choices, then I think you'd understand why I would say:

Jack Stack's - "This was expensive, but this was really friggin' good"

and

Gates - "Holy fuck, this is the best BBQ that's passed my lips"


Sure, if I'd traveled the world, and sampled BBQ on an international level where I've tasted thousands of different BBQ's...I'm positive I would find better than Gates. But as it stands right now, Gates is my number 1. Walking into the place I get the impressions that *this* is what KC BBQ is all about. Jack Stack's ambience felt like I was eating at a Black Angus or something. Gates felt like how a BBQ shack should feel like - you gave them money, and they gave you BBQ. And then you ate the BBQ, and then you were full. Just no fuckin' around good food.

Everyone's taste buds are different. When in KC, my taste buds tell me to take my ass to Gates BBQ first, everywhere else second. I won't be opposed to checking out different places, but I won't visit KC without stopping by Gates. It's one of the only wonderful things about that God forsaken town.


DJINN
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massive
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I got Randy's back, but irregardless of that, he does have the taste buds of a seven-year-old. The man ordered a "make-it-yourself" at Masterpiece Deli so he could avoid mayonnaise, for God's sake. ;)
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Febiv
Overlords of the Di Yu
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massive
Jan 12 2011, 09:47 AM
I got Randy's back, but irregardless of that, he does have the taste buds of a seven-year-old. The man ordered a "make-it-yourself" at Masterpiece Deli so he could avoid mayonnaise, for God's sake. ;)
But you have always had Randy's back, as I have in things I agreed with him on...and point taken on his taste buds..anyone who custom orders MP-Deli is out of his mind! LOL
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