The Cool Kids Club

I drafted today in Redmond and went 4-0 with a pretty good RGB deck that I thought was pretty bad because I had to play a 5-5-5 manabase with a Jund Panorama, Grixis Panorama, and a Obelisk of Jund. Thought for sure I would lose a match to color screw, but I managed to get lucky a couple times on two land hands, and I did elect to draw whenever given the choice. It also helped that I had 2 Sprouting Thranax and 2 Jund Charms.

In Round 2 I play against a newer player who comes with his young son every week. He has a pretty good Bant deck with double Rhox War Monk and double Oblivion Ring. Game 1 I get blown out pretty badly when he runs out both his Oblivion Rings on my fat and I can't deal with his Rockcaster Platoon, but he likes to talk out all of his plays and his thinking and asks for a lot of clarifications which really really slows the play down, and spends time kidding around with some plays and mannerisms. Game 2 I win past a Rhox War Monk, but again takes a very long time with the same talking through plays and clarifying. I set up an attack where he's at 7 and tapped out and facing lethal damage no matter how he blocks.

Him: "Okay." Just kind of sits there.
Me: "... go to game 3?"
Him: "Well wait, can I stall it out and try to get a draw?"
Me: "That wouldn't be cool."

In game 3, he keeps kidding around (to him, all in good nature) about his comment and how it isn't "cool", so I'm getting pretty upset, but I keep concentrating on the game because I want it to finish. After the TO Jeff walks by and explains that stalling is a serious offense (cheating, in fact, according to the Penalty Guidelines) and he makes another comment about "not being cool" and making fun of it all, I flat out tell him as calmly as I can "Look, it wasn't funny" and he gets the picture that I was upset from the course of events. The match goes to extra turns and thanks to a good draw I am able to win on the fifth and final turn. I was pretty upset it came to that because of his pace of play, obviously not maliciously trying to take advantage and only trying to understand what was going on, but in no way fast enough to finish three games in 50 minutes, and especially since I've tried really hard to speed up my play and stop getting unintentional draws. He did apologize for making too much fun out of it all, presumably after talking more with Jeff about what was happening.

I know exactly why he plays the way he does and thinks out loud basic situations and tries to clarify everything he can: because he is a new player and wants to get better. Fair enough. If this were at a PTQ and in the winner's bracket, I would absolutely call a judge over for stalling. But this was a regular weekend draft, and I know for a fact there was no malicious intent behind this, and I do care about not being a prick to the people I play with every week. That being said, since prizes are determined by record and not place, a draw would have affected what I get, which might have been 2 packs or something seemingly insignificant which is half a draft in credit, but imagine this scenario.

Me: (takes a $6.50 bill from you and rips it up) "Oh, it's just money, you have enough of it and you'll get more next week, lighten up!"

Yeah, it's not a lot of money, but I don't think too many of you wouldn't at least give a "What the f!@$", if not physically hurt me.

More importantly, I expect, and I think all of us expect, a certain level of seriousness and focus when you play in a sanctioned event. It really sounds silly on the outside looking in because it's just Magic cards, but there are other avenues to enjoy the game that don't take as much time and money if the experience of tournament Magic didn't matter to me. I'm more than happy to play anyone who wants to play between rounds of a draft and give advice, but inside an actual match is a little inappropriate, especially when it bogs down the game as much as it did in this case. I'm strongly of the opinion that matches in Limited go to time because people are either not being aggressive enough or they are playing too slow.

So that's off my chest. The rest of the draft was uneventful. Round 1 I played against a regular who's pretty good in 3, but threw away game 2 when I misexecuted a plan I had just from carelessness. Round 3 I blew out a regular, and Round 4 I beat a relatively new tournament player.

A little more States testing coming this week, mostly checking out sideboarding strategies and finding cards to borrow. I like the Red deck because it has edges against Faeries and Five-Color Control, but it scoops it hard to Kithkin. I tried Kithkin and it's good against Faeries, tears up the red deck, but literally cannot beat Five-Color, so I'm considering both decks.

Extended and Two-Headed

This past weekend I played in some interesting events. At First Pick Games's First Birthday, we ran a mock Extended tournament for Gurney and Gavin Verhey who are probably in Berlin already for the Pro Tour. I ran this Demigod Stompy deck. Loads of fun seeing people's faces as it went off on Turn 1. Against Affinity I went off on the first turn, but then he goes land, thopter thopter, worker, Frogmite. I still won that game, then lost the next two because this deck scoops to Ethersworn Canonist.

Next round I played against Jon wrotesforbrainburst Loucks playing Krark-Clan Ironworks, went off T3 on the draw after pitching a Demigod and then recurring it, then he tried to Charbelcher one of them to stay alive. Next two I drew a whole bunch of nothing and he went off on schedule.

I played Death Cloud next and won two quick ones. I then played Mind's Desire, and played a turn 1 Deus, and still nearly lost when he went off on 1 land (hooray Rite of Flame counting all graveyards!) but couldn't do anything with his Plunges since he was at 2. Game 2 I thought a lot about my first turn on the draw staring down 2 suspended Lotus Blooms. I could either play land and wait until turn 3 to play Deus of Calamity, or do nothing, pitch 1 of 2 Demigods and draw anything but land for my Mox and swing for 10. I did the latter, got lucky (had things go as expected/as they should), and won. Finished 2-2, and Zoo won the 14-man Mock. Extended is really really messed up with Top and Counterbalance missing. I think Top could have stayed around, but judges and players would have to be more vigilant about slow play. The good players aren't getting unintentional draws when they play the Top (I remember watching LSV play a feature match in Philly and I couldn't believe is speed of play!) and at the PTQ level, the Countertop mirror is no different than, say, the Teachings or Wake mirror. And I don't think it was as unfun to play against as Mind's Desire is right now. We'll see what R&D thinks about the format this weekend.

Sunday at Games & Gizmos in Redmond I played Two-Headed Giant Sealed. I wasn't planning on playing at first, but I decided to show up since it was still Magic, and I teamed with a fairly decent regular. We butted heads in deck construction a little, then got blown out in the first round because my deck wasn't cooperating. He said we got mana screwed, but I think we misbuilt it, so we made some changes (for the better), and won the next one, then lost to Zaiem and Loucks (unofficially Team usedtowrotesforbrainburst) who had pretty good decks, then got paired down against the 0-X and won. I was a little frustrated at some of the plays my partner made, like running out Panorama on Turn 1 (I can't think of a reason you would ever want to do that), insisting on keeping a hand of 2 Druids, Panorama, and 4 lands (maybe it's actually not that bad, especially since we were on the draw), and a few other things. I don't know the guy that well, and the other two times I've played the format, I played with someone else I didn't know that well at the time, and a friend who had been out of competitive Magic for a while but wanted to try 2HG. I guess the next time one of these rolls around I will try to find someone I know, like, and I can trust.

Redemption?

I get to Games and Gizmos and play a few games with Gurney's Extended decks he's trying out for Berlin. We split 1-1 with me playing Faeries and him playing Bubble Hulk. He beat me with Tron and me with Faeries and I was about to win the next game but it was time for deck construction. To me, Faeries plays really well in Extended, especially T1 Bitterblossom and sitting on Spellstutter Sprites. Too bad that deck is a little more expensive than I'd want to dish out for a deck, although conceivably I could build it for Standard and then have my Extended deck ready...

Games and Gizmos was not doing the Shard restriction, which was great because I didn't enough great cards in one chard. I played base GWU with the most exciting cards being 2 Rhox War Monks. I decided to splash Red for Branching Bolt, Resounding Thunder, Soul's Fire, Skeletonize, and Rakeclaw Gargantuan, instead of Black for Tower Gargoyle, Agony Warp, the 2/1 Deathtouch Flier, and a couple of Executioner's Capsules. I think the red is more powerful, but if I really wanted to I could board into Black if the burn alone won't do it. My bomb was a foil Sigil of Distinction, and I opened 2 Master of Etheriums.

Rounds 1 and 2 are pretty much byes. Round 3 wasn't really that close, my deck played out pretty well. There was one mistake that could have let me win one turn earlier because I forgot I would get an extra point from Exalted, so I didn't tap my last guy to Topic Ascetic to put him to 3 for the Resounding Thunder I was holding in my hand. Round 2 is a blow out with a T3 Woolly Thoctar of his meeting my T4 Rhox War Monk followed up with a Sigil of Distinction and going all the way.

Round 4 I play against a deck with great rares that took down Gurney. Basically I can't really deal with Broodmate Dragon. Maybe should have chumped his Cavern Thoctar when he and another guy took me down form 16-6. I also think there was another misplay where I didn't think I had mana for a cycled Resounding Roar, but would have liked to do another 6 to put pressure and to draw a card. Don't really remember. Game 2 I board in Cancel because of his bombs and I know he has a Hellkite Overlord. I tap out to play a fatty to match his fatty with Cancel in hand he plays Broodmate Dragon and he goes all the way again. I did get to Cancel a Vein Drinker. Wow, three absolutely busted rares in one pool...

Round 5 I play Noah and he has a hiccup in mana Game 1 after I take a couple of Woolly Thoctar beats and once I Oblivion Ring that guy he can't catch up to my board position. Game 2 he really gets mana screwed and I blow him out.

4-1 gets me 18 packs (this store is insane with prize support!) which I use to never pay for another draft at this store for at least the next month. I started keeping track of my mulligans and I felt like I have to keep hands that give me all my colors, even if it might be a 2 or a 1 spell hand, because it can't get a whole lot better with one less card. I did get lucky more than a couple times on topdecking a color so I could play a 2 drop, but I'm not really going to play.

So all in all, pretty uneventful day. More familiarity with the cards is great.

I'm trying to see if I can get a ride to Vancouver this weekend for the PTQ. Hopefully this will turn my Magic brain on to actually start playing great. I've been playing like shit, and I don't know how to draft yet, but the pressure will hopefully trigger a hidden superhuman ability to play really tight Magic.

Another prerelease

I went to Redmond at Games and Gizmos to play in another prerelease. I got there at 11, with the event scheduled to start at 2, and I was like 25th out of the 32 maximum for the store. As an aside, I think Wizards should go back to sponsoring big prereleases, they're way more fun and you don't have to sorry people who show up at the scheduled time because too many people come to the stores, and they really screw the premier tournament organizers that run their PTQ's for them.

I built a straight GWU Bant deck with Empyrial Archangel as my bomb. The way I think to build a sealed deck is to maximize the bombs while still having some amount of removal and good support creatures, because just a solid deck will probably X-2 a PTQ, losing to people with more bombs or better bombs.

Round 1 and 2 are pretty uneventful. Round 3 I play Jason, who's helped me get into the Seattle Magic community since I've gotten here and is very good. He plays really fast, and I again got into the trap of keeping up. Game 1 I kept a pretty crummy hand and play a lot of land and ramp and no spells. Game 2 I blow him out, and Game 3 he mulligans to 5 and I play more spells than he does. I made one mistake in the beginning of the game where I had a Steward of Valereon and a Kathari Screecher against his Naya Battlemage and a Forest and Plains, which means Qasali Ambusher. I had a Sigil Blessing in hand but I didn't really want to attack with both guys and have it only take out whoever would block the 2/2 Vigilance guy, so I attack with just the flier. He blocks with the Ambusher...

"Excuse me?"
"Block with the Ambusher."

I read it, and it has Reach. At that point I go ahead and drop my pump guy 'cause I can't lose that tempo, but I should have just attacked with both guys, and he'd potentially double block and I 2 for 1 him, or he blocks as he did and I get another 3 damage in. I honestly didn't know he had reach, but hey it's the prerelease, but hey I had the same card in my deck, I should know what my cards do. I'm pretty sure I make some questionable attacks/acts of cowardice (the new Magic term is apparently being a coward, or not attacking with guys when you should) in trying to play fast, and I need to get myself to slow down and not care that I'm not keeping up pace! Ugh!

Round 4 I lose on a mulligan to 4, keeping a no land hand on the draw but that had Elvish Visionary to get me there should I draw a Forest and another land off the top. Game 2 is close, but with the score 12-8 in my favor, with a Sanctum Gargoyle and a Waveshimmer Aven on the board and him with a lot of White, Green, and Blue mana open and his own army (but me holding an Angelsong), I fly over the top... and get Resounding Silenced. REALLY dumb of me not to consider the card at all, and I get blown out from there. That's just me not playing tight at a very low-level.

Round 5 I play against a kid who had the 4/4 Dragon that makes another 4/4 flying buddy, the 4/4 devouring haste dragon, and Hellkite Overlord in one sealed pool. Game 1 I pretty much get blown out. Game 2 he plays out all three of his bombs, and I get him down to 2 but still get blown out. I made a bad block when he attacked with a 4/4 token and I double block with a 2/2 and 2/3 flier, but completely walk into the Exalted trigger and lose both my guys. In Game 2 I also threw a flier in front of a Hellkite Overlord with my Angel on my side thinking I could keep the Angel another turn but forgot about the Firebreathing ability. Irrelevant in the end because he had 3 dragons on the board... but there were definitely reasons to not call it an injustice.

Wednesday, since a lot of people have at least a draft set, First Pick will probably be doing a bring your own Shards draft, then Friday is likely the first Shards of Alara FNM, and Saturday is all-day drafting. One thing I need to start doing that I see Jason, Gurney, and a lot of other good players do is play games for fun, because A) Magic is fun, and B) Magic is more fun when you learn the bad plays that you're making against your friends when nothing is on the line.

As for the time in between, I have 3 Sealed Deck pools in my possession, so I'll be tearing those apart and figuring out different ways to build them and seeing what's good and what's terrible. Less than three weeks now...

"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.