My pool's rares were: Day of Judgment, Nantuko Shade, Reverberate and Steel Overseer. I was white-black with 1 Pacifism, 1 Doom Blade and 1 Assasinate for removal. I had a Serra Angel and a couple other 2-toughness white fliers. I maindecked the Day of Judgment and the Overseer (with dreams of piling +1/+1 counters on an Ornithopter, haha). Didn't main the Shade; probably should have put him in there.

Round one: Opponent had Chandra Nalaar and Angelic Arbiter. Lost 2-0. Even though I could Doom Blade the angel, I felt a little helpless against Chandra.

Round two: Opponent had Obstinate Baloth and Inferno Titan. Fffffuuuuuu... what?! I won this match? Thank you, Steel Overseer + Gargoyle Sentinel!

Round three: Opponent had Sun Titan and some blue-white flyers.

This costs about $2 more than drafting, and takes a bit less time. The prize payout is a little better than Swiss drafting (Swiss is my preference because I'm not the best player and I want to get my 3 matches in even if I'm losing). Overall... 4-pack sealed is okay, but I'd rather be drafting. Opening jank rares in 4-pack sealed sucks.

Now, obviously, the birth of my child is more important than a Magic pre-release but I will see what I can work out. Maybe I can at least do a midnight pre-release if they're having another of those in town.

I had an "Alliance Shaman" deck, which seemed fine. I don't really know how to evaluate these cards. I won two matches and lost one. The match that I lost went into "sudden death" overtime, where the first player to deal damage wins. I would have won but my opponent got me at his literal last opportunity with a "ferocity" attack (think "haste" from Magic).

I remarked afterward that I would have felt bad if I had won that match on the sudden death overtime rule, so I'm glad the guy killed me. I mean, I don't think I would have punted had he passed the turn back to me, but I would have felt weird about winning that way. I shouldn't, I guess: If those are the rules, then those are the rules. For all I know, there may be a legit strategy of stalling into overtime and using sudden death damage as your win condition.

The game seems pretty neat. I may play it from time to time, in a very casual manner, but nothing about the game seems "better" to me than Magic. I say that with all due respect to the WoW fans. There is a lot to like about WoW. It seems way cheaper, for one. I don't believe there's a wallet-crushing WoW equivalent of, say, Jace, The Mind Sculptor, and that's good. I'm all for more choices for people, so while I personally may not be too into WoW, I wish only the best for the game and its fans.

I typically scoff at videos of people talking somberly into their cameras (I do my vanity whining the right way, in audio-only form) but I think there's really good stuff in this video from Travis Woo.

Obviously, he's on a much higher level than me but I can relate the feelings he's expressing down to my own level. I love MTG, it just captures my imagination like nothing else, but I've gotta keep everything in perspective. I cannot get down in the dumps when I screw the pooch at FNM. I must resist the temptation to overspend - Lord knows I've got more important things to budget for.

So it's just about striking the right balance. This game is insanely mega-fun for me and I want to make sure it stays that way. I'm planning to host a draft night amongst friends soon, I could pee my pants I'm so excited. I also started slapping together a pair of EDH decks which, I think, will be a lot of fun to whip out with pals who haven't played in a while.

So, whatever you're into, try to keep it in the right place.