My Worst Sale Ever, Ginkgopolis, K2, Mini Express and more...(04/26/2021 - 05/02/2021)

by Scott Ferrier

Look Who Came to Visit on My Table May 4th

Memory Lane 1995 - Philadelphia, PA

Another fun trip down memory lane about my trip to Origins in 1995 I think. I had totally dropped Star Fleet battles for Magic the Gathering. I was burning out a little on it by then but Wizards of the Coast was hosting a huge sealed deck tournament there. I loved sealed deck tournaments where you would get like 5 packs of cards and build what you could with them. But first I had to get to Philly and I was super poor. I had an old Dodge Raider that was looking sketchy but it wasn't leaking and all the belts and hoses didn't have cracks so I decided to drive to Philadelphia and Ricardo was happy to go half on gas and driving and we had a bunch of us split one room. My girlfriend flew out and was a good Magic the Gathering player as well (probably better then me) and I had seen her wreck all sorts of male players shocked to be playing a pretty girl (I think it was like a 50/1 guy/girl ratio at the time if not larger). No one went very far in that tournament but at least 3 people later went on to become pro players that actually won some money from that group. But lets get back to what this story is really about, it's about my dumbest, while thinking I was the smartest, sale in my life. It all started off with how I financed the trip by selling my unlimited Black Lotus for $200 at a Chinese Restaurant in Malden, MA were they had a group called Mons Goblin Raiders(named after a MtG card) with really bad Karaoke in the background but they would let them play in a back room and actually bring food and drinks all day so it was a nerd paradise aside from some players not showering everyday. So during the trip my girlfriend won $300 playing in a new collectable card game tournament called Wyvern and I had just about ran out of money and had to worry about gas for the trip home. I was starting to sweat because I couldn't just go half way home and not pay for the rest as Ricardo was depending on me and I had to eat something. I went down to the merchants were they were selling single MtG cards but I didn't know how to wheel and deal but watched someone do it and I brought down my remaining what I thought were 8 valuable cards and was floored when they offered me $600. I thought they where so dumb and I bought really stupid stuff from the other merchants like solid metal d20s and RPGs that I would never play. I traveled home in style and ate without any regret, fast forward to 2021 and learn that all those cards I sold are now referred to as the "Power 9" and fetch top dollar soo the grand total of what my trip is worth now selling to a store (not the best price) ...

Ancestral Recall - Unlimited: $ 4,000
Black Lotus - Unlimited: $13,000
Mox Emerald - Unlimited: $ 3,412
Mox Jet - Unlimited: $ 3,437
Mox Pearl - Unlimited: $ 3,937
Mox Ruby - Unlimited: $ 3,675
Mox Saphire - Unlimited: $ 4,987
Time Twister - Unlimited: $ 4,200
Time Walk - Unlimited: $ 3,675

[o] Total:$44,323 :p :modest: :whistle:[/o]

Saturday - Salem, MA

The Bottle Imp (Craig, Evan and Scott) (3P) -Oh this game is so painful. Do I wait and try to sluff of the low number now and just wait and press my luck and get some awesome cards... there is no way I'm getting stuck with the bottle :devil:

Evan opened up the bottle and never stopped chuggin' that imp the first round. He had a really tough hand and knew he was doomed. I had the 1 & 2 the second hand but figured I could sluff them off but it didn't matter. Craig was untouched and Felix finally made it through some traffic and we just did the 2 rounds and moved on to a meatier game. All hail Craig's mighty second round haul :D
7/10

Ginkgopolis (Felix, Craig, Evan and Scott) (4P) - I hadn't played this in 9 years but Felix had an original copy so it was good to get it played again. It's really got no theme so don't expect a story it's just and abstract, but a good one. I really enjoyed this game but couldn't remember how the rules worked very well but 30 minutes in I finally grasped it. We had a small mistake and a strategy I was waiting for never materialized and I hadn't seen the #2 Yellow card for 5 rounds and it is in the center of the board so we finally found it had been accidently removed and so were my hopes at world domination of blue. Oh it got so cut up at the end it was painful in the Area Control strategy game. We picked leaders before we knew anything which was definitely a mistake but I really look forward to the next play.
8/10

K2 (Felix, Craig, Jeremy, Evan and Scott) (5P) - Such a fun, brutal race game. We played the base game winter side and our first try at the Avalanche mini expansion. In this game you have a hand of 6 cards and choose 3 to play, everyone has the same possible cards and play through your deck 3 times and see who has the most points. It's interesting decisions are trying to balance air supply with weather because if you die you only get 1 point out of a possible 20. Evan was first to the top and his just reward for being the first to summit in the winter, he was given a quick death as we moved in behind him and blocked him out of his tent (Jeremy). Oh it was hysterically funny. I weathered a few avalanches but budgeted for it so I didn't get swept down the mountain. It was near the end and the weather was great so I busted out for the summit knowing that I would live and there was no way I would take a penalty for being the fastest with only a total of 4 movement... what the flippity f**k they all played 3 or less... I blinked a few times, looked at the summit then back at everyone's movement cards and had knock him over, this is funnier when it happens to Dustin. It was getting brutal but Evan was back and made it to the summit again with his second piece, which again promptly died, this was turning into some Everest *@#$show. I think Jeremy won, with Craig not too far behind. I forgot to take a picture of the final grouping as I was to distressed that they f'ing killed bumpy! Someone call for CSI.
8/10

The Princes of Florence (Felix, Craig, Jeremy, Evan and Scott) (5P) - It had been a good while since a full 5 player game of this. It's an interesting game but there are some best practices like buy every work job you can. Jeremy had a different idea and gave it to .... Evan, never give good things to Evan. We did what we could and I nailed all my bonus points but we just couldn't keep up even when we bid him up to drain his funds. He got a few extra points then I wanted :cry:. Evan-54/ Felix-52/ Craig-50/ Scott-50/ Jeremy-45.
8/10

Mini Express (Felix, Craig, Jeremy, Evan and Scott) (5P) -A cube rail game were you tried to get stock cheap as when you get stock you pay what the available trains are for it then it adds 3 trains to it. It did not work well at 5 players as things seemed to deplete in the same fashion each round so Craig was getting cheap stuff but then we had some crazy moves to bust up that chain and it worked out very well for me and I managed to win, yay cheap prices! Wasn't bad but not my type of game. Production was a mixed bag, the trains were nice but too much paint on one side so we ended up flipping them to the unpainted side to make it easier to tell the different colors. The player counters were an awful mess, they would not stack and kept falling over so we ended up replacing them with some stackable ones from another game, sorry I didn't catch a picture of the bad ones.
7/10

MATCH 5 (Kerry (sub for Felix), Craig, Jeremy, Evan, and Scott) (5P) - Craig was still bitter about Tang from last week (see pic below). Everyone was feeling creative this time and were able to come up with answers most of the time but Kerry was matching where I didn't have a single match this time and they let it slide when I couldn't remember Audrey Plaza's name but she would definitely be the best answer for Salty Celebrity :D Gratz Kerry!
7/10

Salem Dino About Town Joined a Bicycle Gang Near the Waterfront