I arrived at the game store about 30 minutes prior to the event starting, and was greeted by a drawbridge. The store I had arrived at was none other than The Wizard's Chest. I've been to several different venues that hold Magic events, but this place was by far the coolest. The inside of the store was spacious and clean, and several tables were set up with decent chairs to hold the arriving competitors.
I went to the counter and paid my entry fee, and then milled around with the locals checking out trades until the tournament was ready to begin.
Only 12 people had shown up to compete, which allowed us all to spread ourselves out even further, and the extra real-estate was quite helpful. Our product packs were distributed, 3 packs of Scars of Mirrodin, and 3 packs of New Phyrexia, and then we were off! Time to get deckmaking.
I tried a new strategy this time around. I tore through my packs, sorting by color first, as always, but then I went through each color and set aside the terrible cards, then put the decent cards in a pile, and then the great cards in the last pile. I think this initial culling helped my deck building process a lot.
I was able to quickly discount black as a color, I had only 2 black creatures, and one of them was a Vault Skirge that could be played in any color. The instants and sorceries were mostly double-black casting cost, so no hope for a splash there.
Next I tore through my blue cards. Blue held some promise, I had a Blighted Agent and a Chained Throatseeker, both allstars. I also had a Neurok Invisimancer, he can do some crazy things if he's dropped in at the right time. Rounding out the Blue stack were 2 Screeching Silcaws, a Lumengrid Drake, and a Darkslick Drake. Wow that is a lot of flying and evasion in Blue. I'll just set them aside for now.
Next up was Red, my largest stack of cards. If I wanted any removal, it was here. I had a Volt Charge, 2 Galvanic Blasts, an Artillerize, and an Arc Trail. However, I wasn't impressed with the creatures here. I had 6 red creatures, and only 1 of them was under 5 cost, a Oxidda Daredevil. Red will be a solid splash color, but I'm going to need creatures from somewhere else.
I had a pretty good pull in White cards. A Blinding Souleater, Forced Worship and Arrest, and a Master Splicer were all in the "awesome" pile.
Finally the largest stack, Artifacts. Most of these were pretty trashy, and for the first time in forever, I didn't have a single piece of equipment. I also didn't get any mana myr, but I did get a Pristine Talisman.
My next train of thought went back to my Blighted Agent. Can I run infect? A quick run through my cards confirmed my fears. I had a total of 6 infect creatures spread across 3 colors (plus Artifacts). That plus the lack of equipment and no return from the graveyard effects pretty much cut me out of infect.
My next thought was dinosaurs. Where was the beef? Green had my Liege, but no Tanadons or Tyrannaxes (Tyrannaxi?). Blue had a bunch of tiny fliers, but the only beatstick was the infecting Throatseeker. Black had nothing. Red had a Flameborn Viron and a Flameborn Hellion. White however had a big stack. Several Loxodons and the Master Splicer graced the holy color. I also had some good artifact beaters. 2 Chrome Steeds, and an Etched Champion would do pretty nicely.
Dinosaurs it is.
The only thing left is an alternate win condition. I've seen too many matches drag on forever because of life gain on both sides of the field, and since I wasn't running infect.... Oh look, I got a Mindcrank. That will do nicely.
As I said in my last post regarding the current format. It is sloooooow. In all 3 of my matches played, I managed to get out Liege in at least one game. Several times by searching him up with my green Exarch (which I also reminded you about yesterday).
Now, I had a couple things that I didn't like about this deck. First, it only had 1 answer for an opponents Planeswalkers, and that was to beat in their faces, or waste the Exarch by banishing them. Second, it had no answer to any of the Praetors. I could lock them down with Arrest or Forced Worship, but their battlefield controlling abilities would still be putting the hurting down.
Unfortunately for me, both of those 2 problems were realized often.
On to the matches!
I got a first round bye, and so I spent my time watching some of the other players do their things. None of them looked terribly threatening, and I spent the rest of the time going over my deck list and talking with my wife.
Match 2 started out pretty good. I dropped a turn 1 spellbomb into a turn 2 Glint Hawk into a turn 3 Glint Hawk Idol, meanwhile my opponent drew nothing but land. Game 2 started just as well, except now my opponent was drawing answer after answer. He was playing a mono-black control deck, which had several copies of Geth's Verdict, several Dismembers, and several Spread the Sickness. I was never able to get a creature to stick longer than a single turn, and he took me apart using just a Mortis Dog. Game 3 went just like game 2, except the dog was joined by Sheoldred. 1-1-0 counting my bye.
Match 3 started out just like match 2. I landed a bunch of good flying dudes, and he had no answers. Game 2 was very dragged out. I ended up getting out my Liege, and the next turn gave him +10/+10 with Untamed Might. No surprise that something like that can win you a game. 2-1-0.
Match 4 and I'm paired against the slowest man on Earth. This is a guy that I had watched during match 1, he had gotten out a Venser in both of his games, and had still managed to go all the way to time being called before winning. Unfortunately, I am not a patient person. I was playing very hastily, trying to get games finished so that we didn't result in a draw. Game 1 went pretty well actually. I dropped a Mindcrank on turn 2, and steadily milled him out, he eventually conceded and we went to game number 2. This game was going incredibly well for the first few turns, and then it ground to a halt. My opponent continued his snail's pace of playing, but this time matched it with a ton of huge blockers. 3/6's 4/6's and 1/5's littered his side of the board, and I simply couldn't get in there to do anything. Finally I drew my Exarch. I dropped my Liege onto the top of my deck and passed the turn. My opponent played another blocker, a 0/4 Spellskite, and passed it back to me. I then performed the most spectacular mis-play ever.
My board held a Vault Skirge, a Glint Hawk Idol, a 3/3 and a 2/2, and my big 8/8 guy. I had managed to slowly whittle away at his defenders with aggressive tapping and attacking. He had no flying attackers left, a 3/6, his 0/4 Spellskite, and a 4/6. I attacked with my Liege, and he chose to block with only the Spellskite. The 4 damage trampled over and he was at 3 life. I chose to Awaken 4 of my lands, which would be enough to block every one of his creatures, and then I passed the turn.
My opponent drew, looked at his board, and then tapped 4 lands to play a Blade-Tribe Berserker. He had metalcraft, meaning he had just summoned a 6/6 with haste. He then announced he would use Venser's -1 ability to make all of his creatures unblockable. Sh--. In my haste I had completely forgotten he had a Venser sitting there. Just sitting there, at his original 3 loyalty, never having been used. He then announced his attack, and swung with everything for the win.
*Facepalm*
All that I had to do to win my game was announce I was attacking Venser with my 2 fliers, that would have stripped all loyalty from him, and I would have won the game the very next turn. In my haste I had literally cost myself the win.
Time was called, and at the rate my opponent was moving, there was no way we were going to even start a game 3, let alone finish one. I took the tie.
I finished the day at an actual record of 1-1-1, but because of my bye and my tiebreakers, I had somehow managed to come in 4th for the day. I would have been 2nd had I gotten the win in my last round. Oh well, hopefully this taught me a lesson, and next time I'll pay attention to the board and do some math before sentencing myself to death.
Another day, another victory. I'm not so sure I truly deserve this one, and it always feels weird when I get a bye. I picked up my prize packs and headed for home.
Stay tuned, as this week I'll be developing articles devoted to drafting and sealed pools. If you have any burning questions, suggestions, or scenarios you'd like to discuss, drop a comment and I'll find a way to work it in.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks husband!
ReplyDeleteHad a great time watching you play today and hope I can get my feet wet soon :-)
<3