FNM at Amazing Discoveries!!

Greetings people!
Today I blog about my Friday at Amazing Discoveries in Tucson AZ.
This Arizona gamer haven is located at 2410 E. Broadway Blvd in Tucson AZ.

I walked in the door, to see a BIG line of people, purchasing product, signing up for events, trading, etc. I walked up to the counter and recognized Dustin Ochoa and said hello. He was very friendly, as was such with the other employees, Hannah and Donald. I was to judge the FNM this evening, and Dustin said I was a little early, and it would start around 6pm.

The tournament started promptly at 6pm, Hannah had everyone imputed into the system very fast, Dustin announced 3 times "last call for signup for standard", which really sped up the process. We had 31 players for the standard, 5 rounds, and little to no problems whatsoever.

Amazing Discoveries also does a FNM draft, signups started around 5 or so, and the draft starts at 7:30pm...to give the players who are playing standard....and not doing so well.....the option to drop from the standard and enter the draft. As a bonus, they get $3 off their entry into the draft if they started in the standard...what a deal!!!

THIS STORE IS AMAZING!!!
With a main gameplay area of 2400 sq ft, a side room game area of another 1000 sq ft, a huge retail floor with a spectacular stock of sleeves, dice, deckboxes, Warhammer and 40k, Axis and Allies, Warmachine, D&D staples, and too many tabletop games to list, I have to say this was one of the best gamestores I have ever had the pleasure to visit. They even have a POOL TABLE and PING PONG!!!
The Magic singles inventory was not present, but when I asked, Dustin pointed to the shelves of binders, sorted by set and overflowing with almost anything you could ever want to build a deck with. Dustin reminded me that he is an online vendor, www.amazingmtg.com, and his stock has to remain organized and well-stocked to do this. With the friendliness of the staff, and their willingness to help in any way, the singles not being on display is in no way a hassle.


META
Now first and foremost, a new set released TODAY, so the meta is a little off, and with a StarCityGames Super Invitational scheduled tomorrow here, people were testing ideas with the new cards, but this is what I saw in standard.

HUMANS-There were various human variants, which is to be expected, but it didn't appear that there were any duplicate 75 lists. Everyone had different spins, color combinations, and small changes to fit the players wants and needs. This was the most popular type of deck by far.
RAMP DECKS- I saw a couple different ramp decks, from G/W/R to straight G/R, to even a G/R/splash U for my good friend Frosty the Titan. There was much talk of Ramp decks becoming more and more popular with this new set.
CONTROL DECKS- From Tezz control, to typical U/B control, to even a U/W control deck, these types of decks were to be expected, and I was not disappointed. My favorite was a Planeswalker control deck U/B/W....Jace-mill you for the game???
EVERYTHING ELSE- saw a couple Vamp decks, a couple Werewolf decks, and one lonely Token deck (if you know me, you know this made me shed a tear) a couple younger players had some random decks put together, but nothing real special.

Along with the Standard and Draft, there were Commander players playing, people testing Legacy for tomorrow's afternoon StarCityGames Legacy Invitational, and as expected, people opening box after box of Avacyn Restored and trading away.

I would recommend this store to absolutely anyone, I can't think of any way this store could become better: well ran tourneys, friendly staff, great stock, great players.....Amazing Discoveries is the total package.
Kudos to Dustin Ochoa and his knockout staff!!

Until next time!!!
 Michael