"He's really good" part 2

Skip to the next day at Games and Gizmos. The format is Lorwyn-Morningtide-Shadowmoor-Eventide. I draft what I thought was a sick, very aggressive Elves/Warriors deck and leave out some really really solid cards to support some synergies.

Round 1 I play against Mike Gurney, one of the best players in the Northwest with a couple PT and GP top 8's. Game 1 I get him down to 2 until I'm left with only a Mimic and him the UW scarecrow guy. In the middle is also a really bad play with Snakeform: I try to Snakeform one of his guys to kill it, and he plays Whirlpool Whelm. I reveal land and he wins the clash. For whatever reason I was thinking that the spell would put Snakeform back on top of my deck like Memory Lapse, when it's the creature that gets put on top of the deck, so I leave the land on top thinking Snakeform would go on top of that (even then, why the hell would I want land that late in the game?!?!) So dumb, and so embarrassing.

I start drawing nothing but land, and when he attacks not leaving any blockers back, I start wracking my brain as to why he would do that and what trick could really wreck me if I attack with the one guy I have...

Duh, Glen Elendra Sentinels... and even if I couldn't have thought of that, I was wrong to even consider it to be a bluff since if he was holding nothing, he was sure to not die by not attack and had little to gain by attacking me from 20 to 18. So my guy dies and I keep drawing land and die from a score of 20-2. Round 2 I keep a slow five-lander and pretty much get blown out.

Round 2 and 3 are fine. Round 4, game 1 is tight, and I'm considering an attack, so I look at my score pad, which reads 14-10 in my favor, but for whatever reason I do my math thinking that *I* was at 10. I didn't even realize it when I attacked and marked down the 10 to 6. I play a Snakeform on a Restless Apparition thinking that I have to in order to survive, then figure out that I'm actually at 14 and get really upset at the huge mental lapse. I still win the game, but am really really rattled. I get blown out Game 2, and Game 3 I make lots of errors like not dealing with a guy that sacks other guys (with removal in hand) then playing a Recumbent Bliss on something just to have it get sacked, more misplays involving Snakeform during combat, and we draw.

I don't get over the funk in round 5 and I make more Snakeform errors and get blown out. I end up 2-2-1 when I should have been at least 3-2 or 3-1-1.

So what did I learn this weekend? I let egregious errors take me over way too easily. After that lapse with the life, even though it wasn't critical, I couldn't stop thinking about how it could have been really critical, and I lost my focus on making correct plays the rest of the day. Obviously I still have overall focus problems to work on, which by that I mean awareness of what's happening on the board so you don't walk into stuff that you knew about and do really dumb things, and I don't want to punt games. But I can't let punts take me over for the rest of the day.

My speed of play is also a little bit worrying. My Round 3 and Round 4 both went to time. I don't think I was playing too slow because if my pace in the beginning or middle of the match isn't bad enough to garner a judge's attention, then I can play at that pace at the end of a match and shouldn't feel obligated to speed it up. That being said, draws are bad and you wouldn't want another opponent putting the brakes on when he's up 1-0 because you played really slow in the loss. I think once I can run MODO I can get better at that, because my physical mechanics are okay except for a couple things (for instance, I need to invest in dice and stop using playing cards).

Once the new set comes out this weekend, I can start learning the new cards and work on playing tighter with regard to playing around things, and start figuring out the card evaluations for draft and sealed construction. (In so many of my drafts on Saturday, I would pick what I thought was the best card only to see them come really really late. Even if I might have a different opinion of what's better or not, I need to know what others think about them so I know what will come late.)

While players in the area might see me as not being an absolute scrub, I need to start convincing and proving to myself that I'm not a scrub. Lots to work on... four weeks until the Seattle PTQ.