Greg's Night of Magical Nerdy Magic Nerds

All your book are belong to us.

Yeah, you got it. I bought "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". Or, Harry Potter and the Hal, as it says on my reciept, which is a lesser known story in which the young wizard confronts the computer on board the Discovery space craft. Exciting, no?

So how did it happen? How did your hero go from not reading any of the Hogwarts books last night to being on the spot to buy the new book within the first few hours? Well, have a seat, young reader, and prepare for a story which will blow your minds. Or at least provide some sparce entertainment. I hope.

It started off like any normal Friday evening. I went to the mall for a Magic Tournament. I'm still running the Tooth and Nail deck I love so much, though one of these days I need to build another Type 2 deck to play with. That's a story for another day though. Anyway, so I showed up, and there's really no one there. Jackie was there with the pre-con deck I'd bought for her. (Savior's Truth Seekers, a Green/White Spiritcraft Life-gain deck. Total newbie style. But she likes it, and it has a few interesting tricks. I personally like the Hana-onnas, but I digress...) Also signed up was Robin, the guy who worked at the store; and a fourth guy. So I went to my van to get a card to trade the fourth guy. (Planar Portal for a Myojin, I thought that was fair.) Anyway, so I signed up, and after like... an hour of waiting, we started.

I began to own. First, Brandon, a father who played because his son does, using a less than spectacular build of Affinity. So, yeah, I rolled over that. Then, Brandons son, Hunter (who had beaten Jackie the previous round) running a mono-Black deck. WITH SIDEBOARD CRANIAL EXTRACTIONS! Tooth and Nail's natural predator. (Well, that and counterspells.) Anyway, first game was a sinch, I toothed out a victory. 2nd game was won by a sideboarded COP: Black after he Extracted my Teeth. So yay me. Third match was verses Ninjas, which I lost the first game to, but managed to whip out the Triskellion/Mephidross Vampire pair for game 2 and 3 wins. Twas awesome. After that, the dreaded Darksteel Reactor deck of Robin's. Those damn Detonates are vicous in that deck, but luckily tonight he didn't get the double Detonate he uses to go from 5 to 20 in one turn. X_X. Two games of Mindslaver Juggling (Mindslaver + Kiki-Jiki + Eternal Witness forever), and it was mine. For some reason, the last guy I played, I played two matches against. He was using some bizarre Red deck I couldn't begin to describe, but twice he got me so low I had to tooth out the angel to survive. Twice that was enough to beat him. The other two wins were from fireballs and Mindslavers. I like to be creative about my victories. So that was the tournament, I guess. I had a load of fun. I got another one of those legendary Dragons from Kamigawa (I STILL NEED THE BLACK AND WHITE ONES DAMMIT!!!!.... hrmm... I know I shouldn't bust these packs... we need them for the tournament... but..... nah, dont worry, they're safe), and 3 Mirrodin packs, one of which had a Charbelcher, so that was cool.

So, the tournament let out at about 9:15, I guess. Jackie suggested a movie, then decided against it. She'd checked. Nothing was showing for a few hours. I, on the other hand, had a shopping list for the book store. The mall was starting to close, so Waldenbooks (and the two $5 coupons in my pocket) were out, but... Those of you who are there with me, let's wait for the slow people to catch up... Done? Good. Anyway, tonight was the big Harry Potter release, so Barnes and Nobles would be open all night. Off we went on a walk to the Potter Party. And I just have to tell you, it was a really good night to have a fantasy book release. There was that kind of lightning where the whole sky just sorta flashes, but theres no thunder. And the moon was just... Whoa. On the drive home several hours later, I saw it. It was all orange, and hidden somewhat behind the clouds, so it looked like it was falling apart or something. I wish I had a picture.

Anyway, we found the place (I can barely find that place when I'm driving. Walking was tougher still.), and we get there, and theres a fairly decent sized crowd that night. A whole bunch of little kids all up past their bed times. I swear, I saw a kid who couldn't possibly have been older than the first book, or even the 2nd or 3rd maybe. I could have punted him. I semi-seriously considered that option, but seriously decided against it. (Too many witnesses.) Anyway, Jackie and I go in and I show the guy (in the music section, for some reason) my list. Antigone, for Dan's summer reading, and The Hero with a Thousand Faces for me. (I suppose I should have linked to BarnesandNobles.com, but oh well.) Well, the guy has no clue (cuz, again, he works in the music section), so he showed us to a guy dressed up as Snape. Snape lead us over to the mythology section and showed us Antigone, but said he'd have to look up the Hero book. While he did that, I turned around, pointed, and found it. That was fun. I paid for the books. Then I realized I was hungry. The only food in the building was the Starbucks cafe thingy, and I wasn't sure if they had, well, FOOD, as opposed to the candy stuff. They did, as a matter of fact, have very yummy turkey and cheese sandwiches. They heated one up for me, and gave me a "VENTE" (that's how you say medium in Starbucks-talk) Pepsi-cola. Yum.

Well, eventually, we decided that all this Harry Potter stuff was something to be examined closer. We got bracelets that told us what our order is in line to get the book. We still debated actually BUYING the book, but we had the bracelets nonetheless. At this point, I realized I still had my rare binder with me from the tournament. And it, plus my books, was heavy. This was the moment I turned to Jackie and said, in a somewhat louder than normal voice, "Hey, we should ditch these dorks and go put my Magic cards back in my van." Yeah, that was fun. And yea, I brought the van to a slightly closer parking position, so I wouldn't have to lug the giant book around once I'd bought it. On the way we wondered to each other whether or not we could still pre-order the Book, even an hour before its release. We decided it would be fun to try, but never got around to it. Instead, while we waited, Jackie and I played more Magic. I showed her some of the finer points of the game. (I had been wincing in pain at some of her moves as I watched over her shoulder, and I think it made her nervous. In fact, I know it did. She told me so.)

So, we played a rather long game (she also has a somewhat crappy deck that I volunteered to play against her deck, and they both revolve heavily around life-gain. u_u.) Before she could finally beat me, (FINALLY), the clock struck midnight. The selling had begun. Screaming was heavy. Lines were thick and full, like from a stubby crayon. It was intense. So much so that I needed more cola. About the they had given out around 100 of the pre-sale books, we walked over to the nearby Applebee's. They were just closing, but since it was a special night, they let us in for a couple of drinks to go. On the house, no less. Applebee's of Lakeline Plaza, you are good people. I vow that I will return one day, and I will pay for your fine food with actual currency.

We got back and they were still doing the presells (there were like 500 I think.) We looked through Jackie's somewhat meager collection for a way to build one semi-decent decks out of her two decks. We found a way. I also found a Mystic Snake, which I ended up trading for two Ageless Entity's, which helped Jackie's deck a little more, so that was cool. Then, it was our turn. HUZZAH OF HUZZAHS!!!!

"When we come out," I told Jackie as I waited in line, "I'm gonna yell out real loud: 'I HAVE HARRY POTTER! I! AM! THE COOLEST!' And I'm gonna hold the book over my head, like this." Oh yeah, I was excited. Sarcasticly excited, but that's usually all it takes for me. So we got in! And we WALKED PAST STUFF! OH MY GOD... And we got up to the desk... and I paid for the book. Oh. How anti climactic. I even forgot to yell about what I had. Poo. Oh well.

All in all, it was a truely MAGICAL night. Really. I really had a great time, though. I look forward to the next Harry Potter book release. I will attend with laptop in tow, and use the Barnes and Noble's Wi-Fi to download excepts of the book from people in Europe who had already read it. I would read these excerpts. Out loud. With a Megaphone, possibly. I would also bring a sign with me that says in big letters on the front "HARRY," and on the back, "DIES!" It'll be great.