Hey there, gang! Poinko here with Part 2 of our continuing covereage of the Yu Gi Oh! TCG tour! Last time, as you know, we had our training, and this time is the first stop of the tour at the Palisades Mall in Nyack, New York! Every journey has a beginning, so why don't we start there?

I had to get started early, since my plane left very early that morning, 6:55 to be exact. I made sure I was ready and out the door by 3:30, since it's quite a ways to the airport, plus the airport is kind of confusing to drive in, not to mention my having to park in the remote areas of the airport. I got parked and rode the bus over to the terminal, got in, got through security, and sat down in the terminal. Lucky for me, my friend Chris, who was also on the tour as a Millenium Puzzle Duelist, showed up not too long after I did, so we sat there in the terminal talking and waiting for our plane. I finally shook that darned SA-X off my tail and aquired my Plasma Beam, too. All right there in the airport!

Soon we were on our plane and headed to Laguardia in New York. When we got there, we got our luggage and looked for the rental car place, so we could head to the hotel. We had to ride the bus over to the Budget place inside the airport to meet up with everyone who was riding to the hotel with us. It was a long ride, and I was amazed to find snow all over the place. Being from texas, I'm only used to the ground being one of three colors: grey, green or brown. So this was a shock for me. We also passed a very large pink house on the bank of a river. That too stuck in my mind for a while. Snow and large pink houses. New York is a strange place, indeed. We made it to the hotel and I had asked if Pure had checked in already, since she was the one covering the room(I'm paying her back, of course), but she hadn't arrived yet. So we waited in the lobby of the hotel. Soon, i saw a car pull up, and JDGloom step out. I dashed outside and tackled the first person I saw. I almost broke that poor woman's leg, but then I tackled Jolt, because he had stayed with Pure the night before. Megs was there, too, and all of them were amazed that I could pick up Jolt. He wasn't that heavy.

We all checked in and went back downstairs, because all of us had to have last-minute meeting of sorts. They handed everyone booster packs, we got 10 boosters from each Yu Gi Oh expansion released so far. 40 free boosters! It was like getting nearly 2 whole boxes of Yu Gi Oh cards. We all sat down and opened them. I got a lot of neat cards I needed for my deck, like Jinzo, Raigeki, Magic Drain, and even my own Pot of Greed. Whee! I also got a bunch of cards that I didn't want. 4 people got Blue Eyes Toon Dragon cards. I wanted one, but no one would trade theirs, even when I offered them the Kazejin and Gaia the Dragon Champion I got. Oh well, maybe one day I'll get one..

Before the meeting, I was helping Pure and JD sleeve decks for the Exodia Training Zone, and trying to get people to trade me their Shadow Ghouls and Blue Eyes Toon Dragons. No one wanted to give up the Toon Dragons, and Pure made sure I didn't getmy hands on another Shadow Ghoul. Boy, she hates when I use that card. Tee hee. Then we had our meeting, and talked about stuff I can't tell you here, so there.

After that, we went upstairs and hung out in the room a bit and decided what we wanted to eat. There was a Burger King not too far down the road from the hotel, and JD was busy in a meeting of his own to go with us, so we asked him if he wanted anything. He said yeah. So did about 5 other people in the room. So Pure and I headed off to Burger King with a list of orders. When we got there, they had a big display for their newest Kids' Meal toys, featuring Nintendo characters like Yoshi and Mario and Kirby. Plus, if you got a gold toy, you won a free GBA, so i took a chance and bought a Kirby toy. It wasn't gold, so I told the guy i wanted to exchange it, but he said no. Pure wanted some Burger King tacos, so I got her 2 for only 99 cents(what a bargain!). So we went back to the hotel, our bags filled with Burger Kingly goodness. We made it back, and gave everyone their food. My bag was surprisingly moist. The food was ok, but Pure didn't enjoy the tacos, because despite using crunchy shells, the tacos were soft and filled with some kind of 'Taco Paste'. Porbably specially created for Burger King by Crest or something.

After we ate, we went back upstairs and got ready to go up to the mall that evening to wander about and eat dinner. Ech hadn't showed up yet, so we went to the lobby to wait for him after a few hours of just hanging out in the room and having fun. While in the lobby, we noticed it had begun snowing outside(!), and luckily I had my waterproof gloves on. I dashed out into the snow and had fun picking up and moving large chunks of snow and creatively destroying them with different parts of my body. After about 10 minutes or so, I wandered back into the lobby to warm up, covered from head to toe in fresh snow. Megs said
'Hey, you're white!'
"Oh? You're just now noticing?"

3 romps in the snow later, Ech showed up, and we continued waiting for Vash to show up and take us to the mall. 2 more romps later, Vash showed up and we all headed to the mall. Wow, that place was HUGE! 4 complete stories of mally goodness. I think one whole floor was nothing but restraunts. We all got food at a place called SteakEscape, and soon we decided to head back, since we all had a long day ahead of us on Saturday. Vash took Jolt to the train station to go home, and the rest of us piled in Megs' car to go back to the hotel. Megs showed us what a curb check was all about, too.

We made it back to the hotel, and went up to our rooms to get some sleep and get ready for the next day.

We got up bright and early, since we needed to be at the mall at 8 to get everything set up. We got dressed and went to the lobby to meet together and go to the mall. We got to the mall before anyone else except all of the mall walkers(those things are everywhere, aren't they?). A mall that big is strange, especially at 8 am, the first floor was completely dark except for the stray beam of early morning sunlight that had fought its way to the bottom of the labrynth of stores and covered-up kiosks, while the top floor was flooded with the kiss of the bright morning rays. We had to go to the bottom floor to get all the tablecloths, card decks and everything else we needed in the Exodia Training Zone, so we could get set up. We got everything and headed up to the fourth floor past the restraunts where everything was set up, and we were ready to go by 9. But the event didn't start until 10. And then, the Exodia traning didnt start til 11. Plenty of time to iron out all the bugs of the system.

Then the kids started showing up and we leapt into action. Luckily, Pure and I ended up working in the same Exodia zone, so we were able to help each other out when we needed to. Luckily, nothing really bad happened that we needed help with, so that's a bonus. We did a lot of hard, yet satisfying work, showing everyone how to play Yu Gi Oh. I think we had more fun playing with the giant cards, however.

After we were done, we all piled into Vash's van and headed off for downtown New York for dinner and a trip to the Pokemon Center! Woooooohooooo!!!! I was excited, since I had never been. I think I was the only one in the van who hadn't been, actually, since everyone seemed a bit sedated about it. Vash parked just down the street from the Center, and everyone piled out and headed for the store. I had to get my camera out of my backpack so I could take pictures, but it was hard trying to get my camera out and keep up with everyone else at the same time. I tripped over a metal grate on the sidewalk and tumbled headfirst into the pavement. It felt like all of New York body slammed me, as I got full coverage from head to toe directly into the pavement, hitting my chest, shoulders, head, and skinning my knees pretty good. Several people had stopped and helped me up and asked if I was ok, which just goes to show, New York ain't completely filled with bad people. As I ran to catch up with everyone else and wondering where my wallet went, I noticed we had finally made it to the Pokemon Center! I lept inside and began taking plenty of pictures. I took a picture of the flying Zubat, of the Pokemon Get! machine(after getting shiny eggs for all my games, of course), the flying Zubat, the animatronics in the store window, the flying Zubat, shleves of incredibly cool merchandise, the flying Zubat, some store decorations and the flying Zubat. While we were there, Dr N Ashtear showed up and did some shopping with us. I picked up an Exeggutor figure for me and a Porygon2 figure for my friend, after bugging the clerks for a while about not having an elekid figure. They had a large poseable one for $5, but I didnt have enough money and left my $5 coupon at home, after swearing I'd bring it. I also got a cool journal book that had a picture of the Johto male trainer with a Pichu, Bulbasaur, Noctowl and Croconaw encountering a shining Charizard in the woods drawn by Ken Sugimori on the front, a Celebi cellphone dangler, and some Pokemon Christmas 2001 buttons that were on sale for $1 featuring Pikachu, Natu, Snorlax and Charizard on them. Megs didn't have a lot of money, so I bought him some buttons too.

After we left, We headed to McDonald's for a bite to eat, then headed back to the hotel for some more rest for the next day.

I didn't sleep very well that night, and kept waking up during the night. Unfortunately, I got a serious headache from that, and was in a lot of pain most of the morning. We had some extra time to get ready, since we didn't need to be at the mall until 9:30. We got to the mall on time and got to our areas and began to get ready. I still had one hammer of a headache, and kept wandering to the lower level to the CVS to get some headache medicine. Unfortunately, they didn't open til sometime after 11, and even then they

didn't have any single doses of headache medicine, so I had to settle with a 99 cent bottle of generic aspirin(now with 120 tablets). Luckily it did the job and fended off my piercing head pain for the rest of the day. After I came back, there was some guy wandering around the training zones holding a large bag, and called me over. It was a reporter from InQuest and wanted to sit in on one of the Training Zone sessions to experience what it was like. Well, we're not trained to handle the press, so I had to direct him the one who was able to tell him everything he needed to know. So I took him down to where it all happens, showing him everything that people can do while at the event. He met with everyone he was supposed to, and followed me back up to the Training Zone area, and even gave me a free copy of InQuest and some weird anime magazine with Yugi on the cover. I put them in my bag to read on the way home.

Soon, the people began arriving, and the Training Zones filled up fast. I was a bit nervous still about getting up in front of all those people, but not as much as before, until Kevin Tewart from UpperDeck came in to watch us do our presentation. Kevin's a great guy, and we had met him before at our training while he showed us how to play, and which cards were good to use. He also created the decks that the Millenium Puzzle Duelists use. I can't say enough good things about him, and he really does know his stuff. Overall, he was pleased with how we were doing, so that's really good.

Now, for the most part, people learning the game are easy to deal with. If they have a question, they listen, and we're happy to explain it until they understand. But for every rule, there must be an exception to it. Of course, I'm talking about the attendees who already know 'how to play the game'. More than a few times we heard 'Do I have to do this? I already know how to play, and i just want the sticker'. Like Kevin told us, 'You only think you know how to play.' which is a horrendously true statement. Even if you know how to play a game, you've never totally mastered the game and totally learned how to play. I've played Pokemon since the Rocket expansion came out, and I'm still learning new tricks and pitfalls of the game. It's a never ending cycle, and Yu Gi Oh is no exception. So, when we have an odd number of people in the Training Zone, it's the job of a Master Duelist(us) to throw down and show them how to play. Of course, we can't use our real decks, just the starter decks set out on the table for people to use. Normally, this isn't a problem, since a good number of people who come through really want to learn the game and we want to show them how to play. But there's always one kid. Yes, one kid. He looked at me and said

'Do I really need to sit through this? I'm already a master duelist!'
"Well, you have to go through the whole training if you want to get the
sticker, guy."

Finally, Tony and Maggie(the other Duelist Leaders in our Training Zone) were done giving the demonstration on how to play, and the kid looked at me again.

'Can I go now? I already know how to play!'
"Well here, let me duel you, and we'll see if you can beat me."
'Fine.'

He shuffled his deck, then declared that he, not I would go first.

'I'll go first for this duel. I'll draw my card, and set this card face down. Now, I'll summon Judge Man in defense mode. Go.'

"Whoa now, before I go. First of all, you can't summon your monster in a face up defense mode, he has to be face down, like this*flipping card face-down*. Second of all, Judge Man requires a one monster Tribute before you can summon him into play."

'....Were playing by TRIBUTING?!'

"Well, yeah, that's how the game is played.

I won in 3 turns.

Now, I've noticed a lot of times, the ones who already know how to play don't know as much as the ones who have never touched a deck in their life. I was completely waxed by several kids who had only seen the TV show a few times before and had never played. One in particular was able to take down a Blue Eyes White Dragon I had played, then used Monster Reborn to bring it to his side of the field and destroyed me the next turn with it. By that time, however, it was almost 6, and time for me to go, else I'd miss my plane, which left at 8.

I bolted down to the first floor to meet up with the group that I was riding with to the airport, and we finally all arrived and got ready to go about 6:45. Yet, the airport was still an hour ride away. We had to really punch it on the way out there. We made it there with about 20 minutes to spare, and spent about

half of that looking for the proper terminal. I don't think I ever ran so fast in my life, except maybe when I tried catching my plane to Seattle(check out the World's report for that story). I finally made it through checkpoint and showed up at the terminal with precious little time to spare. I got my ticket, my baggage checked and on the plane just in time. Unfortunately, it was crowded on the plane, and I was already hot and worn out from my mad dash across the airport to the terminal. I was really tired, not havig sleep for a while, and i fell asleep as we were taking off. About a half hour later, I woke up with parts of my body hurting that I didn't even know I had, including the encroachment of the headache that was beaten away earlier. I tried going back to sleep to make the ride shorter, but it didnt work, and 2 hours later, we arrived in Chicago. Normally I would be upset with a layover such as this, but I was getting Frequent Flyer miles, so I didn't care. I got out of the plane, found my right terminal for my connecting flight and was upset to find it was delayed an hour. So I went and got a chicken sandwich and something to drink, took some more cheap aspirin, and sat in the terminal for 2 hours while waiting for the plane.

This flight was better, since there was only about 15 people on it, so there was plenty of room. I began to make use of my Pokemon journal I got at the Pokemon Center as a record of the next 11 weeks. If you're nice to me, I might let you see the cover. Finally, we landed at home, and I spent the next hour and a half looking for my luggage in the labrynthtine airport, and took the bus back to my car and headed home.

Sure, I had lots of fun, and though I didn't meet to many fellow Zeophytes(glares at Gigglyduff), I can't wait until Part 3 of the Yu Gi Oh Tour saga, as we make our way to Boston for the next stop this weekend, January 18th and 19th. Hope to see some of you guys there!

-poinko