Locations
What a surreal weekend.
Prelude
About six months ago I 'quit' magic. I had those quotation marks in there at the time, since very few people truly quit magic, but I stopped playing MODO, gradually sold my collection, and I've played very few sanctioned tournaments since. I did get hooked on highlander and got to terrorize our local Monday night highlander tournaments (there can only be one!).
I live in Victoria, BC, which is on an island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver and Seattle. There aren't a ton of opportunities for PTQs or Grand Prixes here, so as September came closer I was kind of interested in going to Portland, even though I hated the format. (I love limited formats with lots of stuff going on, complicated board positions, a ton of activated abilities and ways to spend your mana, etc. MD5 or RGD are examples of blocks I love to play, core sets, no matter how good, are not.)
I'd played a pre-release and maybe two or three drafts, so the Sunday before the GP, having been convinced to go, I thought I should at least do another draft. (My plan of practicing on MODO failed me; I logged on for the first time in ages, with the intention of playing a sealed or draft, only to find out they were offering MD5 drafts that week... Needless to say, no M11 boosters got opened).
Drafted what I thought was a pretty good R/W agro deck, and went 1-3, losing to some pretty harsh variance and cementing my dislike of the format. If I wasn't driving three other Victorians I quite likely would have bailed.
Fortunately, between Sunday and the Grand Prix I got into a pretty good mindset - I was just looking forward to having a good time cheering on my friends, with no particular expectations for myself. Friday morning, after not enough sleep (setting the trend for the weekend), I take the ferry over to Port Angeles along with Alasdair, Colin, and Markus. We rent a nice little Ford Focus and make the four and a bit hour drive down to Portland.
Get in around 5:30 p.m. and register, though too late to get a playmat. Alasdair is judging Saturday and Sunday, and neither Markus nor myself want to play the grinders (even though we both only have 1 bye) so we drive to the Horn of Africa, an Ethiopian restaurant I'd found online. Feels good to be eating something hot and not driving. Afterwards, Alasdair and I make the drive into downtown Portland to go to Powell's Books. Perhaps the world's largest bookstore (according to their website, at least), a city block of used and new books, it's the one place in Portland I always try to make sure I visit.
Buy some books and then drop Alasdair off at his hotel before going to my Aunt's to hopefully get some sleep.
Morning comes all too soon and after a bit of a delay 1,368 of us are ripping open M11 packs. My pool, minus chaff, was as follows:
[cardlist]
[Colorless + Lands]
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Juggernaut
1 Jinxed Idol
1 Sword of Vengeance
[/Coloress + Lands]
[Black]
1 Liliana's Specter
2 Duress
1 Viscera Seer
1 Rise from the Grave
2 Relentless Rats
2 Mind Rot
1 Child of Night
1 Barony Vampire
1 Assassinate
1 Captivating Vampire
[/Black]
[Green]
1 Fog
1 Plummet
1 Giant Growth
2 Brindle Boar
1 Sacred Wolf
1 Garruk's Packleader
1 Yavimaya Wurm
1 Greater Basilisk
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Garruk's Companion
1 Birds of Paradise
[/Green]
[Blue]
1 Azure Drake
1 Alluring Siren
1 Armored Cancrix
1 Aether Adept
2 Preordain
1 Cloud Elemental
1 Mana Leak
1 Cancel
2 Water Servant
1 Scroll Thief
1 Foresee
1 Call to Mind
1 Phantom Beast
[/Blue]
[White]
1 Siege Mastodon
2 Infantry Veteran
1 Roc Egg
1 Assault Griffin
1 Safe Passage
1 Pacifism
2 Blinding Mage
1 Condemn
2 Inspired Charge
1 Holy Strength
1 Mighty Leap
1 Palace Guard
[/White]
[Red]
2 Fireball
1 Manic Vandal
1 Arc Runner
1 Demolish
1 Fling
1 Act of Treason
2 Goblin Tunneler
1 Ember Hauler
1 Chandra's Spitfire
2 Volcanic Strength
[/Red]
[/cardlist]
Pretty happy to see that sword, and double fireball... Two Blinding Mages looked exciting, but white was really lacking creatures. Over the years, green has pretty consistently been a big trap in sealed - it always looks ok, since it generally has some decent creatures, but the problem is it usually doesn't offer anything more than that.
I spread out a blue/green build, which gives me a ton of playables. Garruk's Packleader is the most exciting green card (pretty much my favourite thing in magic is drawing cards) but I'm just not sure that green is good enough. Count my blue cards + artifacts and fireballs, and realize I only need around 7 cards for my second colour. Try white, and that seems ok - having the mages and the pacifism just seems better than having the beefier creatures green offers.
I play around with blue/red, which includes double Tunneler (yuck) to combo with stuff like Scroll Thief, the Water Servants, and the Spitfire, but ultimately just come back to blue/white.
I learned at my very first PTQ (two-headed giant season) that it generally makes sense to use the entire deck building time before turning in your decklist, and I spend the last few minutes trying to figure out what my last two slots are. For awhile I have Roc Egg and Honk (Siege Mastodon). Alluring Siren is also interested in getting on the team. I feel my lack of experience with the format here, as I'm just not sure how good a 3/5 is, for example. In the end I go with the two Infantry Veterans, even though I'm not always going to have an aggressive draw. But with 2 and 1/2 fireballs, I figure being able to push through some extra damage is good?
My final build:
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
2 Infantry Veteran
1 Azure Drake
1 Aether Adept
1 Cloud Elemental
2 Water Servant
1 Scroll Thief
1 Assault Griffin
2 Blinding Mage
1 Juggernaut
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Preordain
1 Mana Leak
1 Cancel
1 Foresee
1 Call to Mind
1 Pacifism
1 Condemn
2 Fireball
1 Sword of Vengeance
[/Spells]
[Lands]
9 Islands
6 Plains
2 Mountains
[/Lands]
[/cardlist]
I have no clue whether this was optimal or even close to it - heck, was I even in the right colours? It did turn out to play very well. I sided out the Veterans every time, but they were ok game one, and it wasn't like I was always siding in the same cards. Cards that came in included:
I don't think I ever switched out more than 3 cards, and general it was the Call to Mind if I need the third slot.
My rating was down to the point where I only had 1 bye, along with almost all the Victoria players. Get a chance to find out what everyone else had opened, and what they thought of my build in the eons before round 2 actually starts. The general consensus is that my build is pretty good, and my deck is very good.
Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War!
I was pretty sleep deprived the whole weekend, and I didn't take any notes apart from life totals, so some of these match descriptions will be pretty short.
Round 2 vs San Young (UB).
My draws are pretty good, and I never take a point of damage.
2-0
Round 3
This round is pretty unfortunate as I get paired vs. Colin, from my car. Colin is running R/G. Game 1 seems kinda close, and on the face if it had Colin made a slightly different sequence of plays he would have gotten me to 5 instead of 7 the turn before I kill him, and been able to Lava Ax me out. I was holding the Cancel, though, so it didn't really matter. Game 2 the most interesting point is when I have a scroll thief facing his Awakener Druid + 4/5 forest as his only untapped land. I play Adept to bounce the forest, and Colin thinks long enough that I'm sure he has the Giant Growth. I play around it the rest of the game, which maybe helps me?
3-0
Round 4 vs. Brad J. Maybee.
I win game 1 in what looks to be a close race from my lifesheet. He reveals a platinum angel to some effect, so I bring in the Vandals. Game 2 I get him to 5 before he casts the Angel onto pretty much an empty board. My hand is double fireball + condemn, and for some reason I decide I want to get value out of that Condemn and give him an extra turn by condemning his Angel rather than fireballing the Angel and then him.
Of course, when I go to fireball him after condemning the Angel he starts to scoop. I automatically stop him and remind him that the fireball is only putting him to 4. He doesn't draw anything, though, and my second fireball takes down the match.
4-0
Round 5 is vs. Kyle Boggemes, playing BW.
The first of the name pros I would face, Kyle was a pleasure to play against. I took game 1 easily, then lost game 2 to his Vengeful Archon. I don't have a ton of ways to actually win once that guy hits play, and most cases involve fireball for 7. Game 3 I have a pretty good draw, and I think I get a sword down. I know by the end of the game I have a somewhat favorable board position, and a lethal fireball in hand, vs. his one card and safe passage mana. I'd never slow roll anyone (and I hope Kyle didn't think this was a slow roll), but when I'm clearly winning and my opponent is sending off 'just kill me all ready' energy, I have a tendency to play fast so as not to prolong their agony. As admirable as this may be, it's not exactly calculated to win the maximum number of matches...
In this case, I'm glad that I went ahead and took some time. My worry was, fireball is the last card in my hand and if he goes safe passage, draw 7/7 I'm probably losing. At the same time, I'm ahead, but I also know he's running some discard and I'm not that far ahead that I want to risk the fireball needlessly by holding onto it if that's not the best play.
Anyway, I finally clue into the fact that only two of his seven lands are plains, so even if he draws the Archon he can't cast it, and I'm enough ahead that I think I win even if he goes plains, Archon in his next two draw steps.
I mean, I think it was fairly clear that he didn't have the passage, as he would probably have used it during combat (can't remember the board, perhaps not), but it's never wrong, when you're far ahead, to go ahead and see how many things you can play around.
5-0
Round 6 vs. Andrew L. Harper.
I'm pretty sure this is the match where my opponent forgets to ping me once with a Pyromancer, which starts tilting him out a bit, especially after he pays more than he needs to for a Fireball and I Mana Leak it. If it is that match, I side into Safe Passage, and game 2 get to win at least a turn earlier when he overruns and swings with the team and I Passage.
6-0
Round 7 vs. Michael T. Pozsgay.
I'm pretty sure Safe Passage is strong out of the sideboard, as my opponent has three fireballs. This one goes to 3, and from my notes it's pretty close, with me winning game 3 at 4 life.
7-0
Day two for sure, which is nice. The last GP I played (Seattle/Tacoma) I started 6-0, only to lose my next two rounds and have to win the last to day 2, and that whole sequence was somewhat stressful, so happy to be locked in for day two.
Round 8 vs. Tucker Foster.
I win game 1, and have game 2 under complete control. I've drawn a bunch of lands, but I have a sworded Azure Drake holding back his entire team (including Triskelion). I have Leak and Cancel in hand and I'm going to win in two turns. On his turn he has two cards in hand and goes Nether Horror, Steel Overseer, go. I briefly pause when he announces the Horror, check to make sure it does absolutely nothing and let it resolve. He's playing pretty fast at this point, throws down the Overseer, and passes. Somehow I say OK to the little construct and then immediately start cursing (in my head). I just draw a bunch more land, and I'm dead soon after he pings my Drake to death.
This was obviously a huge mistake, and I hate making any sort of mistakes (not that that stopped me this weekend). But unlike my earlier opponent, I don't tilt out, and just shuffle up for game 3, no biggie.
Game 3 looks like it's going to be a blowout for me as I get to Vandal a Gargoyle. I have options later on to Adept my Vandal back and kill his Juggernaut, but he now has red open, and I have a very strong read that he is holding a bolt that he showed me in an earlier game. I hold onto the Adept, and he follows up with Triskelion, which is not what I wanted to see. I feel I have to go for it, and try to bounce my Vandal. I'm surprised when he doesn't kill it in response, and assume he's holding Gravedigger. I'm not sure I can win through that, and I kinda don't want to even cast the Vandal now, but end up doing so. Turns out he has Gravedigger in his deck, but none in hand, and my somewhat superior board holds up.
This is a relief, because while I didn't let it bother me much during the match, had I lost I would have had a hard time forgetting game 2.
8-0
The last round of the night, and it's only around midnight!
Round 9 vs PVDdR
I'm up against Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa. I consider PV the best strategy writer in the world, and enjoy this chance to play him. The games end up not being that close - I think my start is pretty good game 1 with Veteran, Scroll Thief, Adept, but he has Skeleton, Adept to bounce my Thief, and big Jugs. I make a lot of tiny mistakes this match, which is really frustrating just because they're the kind of mistakes that PV has talked about, and that I've been talking about recently with local players - for example, after I bounce his Juggernaut I get to attack with my Scroll Thief with Veteran backup into his board of Skeleton and Adept. I play a land before attacking. There is absolutely no need to do so in this position, and if you're going to get more information (such as potentially drawing a card) you should refrain from doing any other action unless necessary.
He obviously blocks the Thief with his Skeleton, but it's still a terrible play. I make some similar ones that don't actually end up effecting anything and lose in two.
It's kinda funny, and Paulo has talked about this in several of his tournament reports, but if I'd have started with an early loss and then fought back to 8-1 I'd have been feeling awesome, but by losing the last match of the day I end up feeling a little down, even though 8-1 is a great start and one I'd have taken it in a heartbeat had you offered it to me at the start of the tournament.
3 other Victorians end up making day 2, including Colin who wins the last round to finish 7-2. I check to find out what our start time is and then take the MAX line to the Park and Ride where I've left my car. I'm so tired, though, that I can't remember whether we're supposed to start at 7:45 or 8:45. Have visions of arriving either an hour late or an hour early, but fortunately Markus is online when I log onto MSN and I'm able to confirm that it is indeed 8:45.
Day 2 starts with a tenth round of sealed, before 6 rounds of draft. I'm pretty happy to get to play another round with my sealed, and win pretty easily.
9-1
A few notes on the sealed before we move to draft:
Safe Passage is a card that's generated some local arguments. It's the type of card that I generally dislike, but I also recognize its strength. With Overrun at rare instead of uncommon I think I'm generally pretty happy keeping it in the sideboard, but it's definitely a nice card to be able to bring in.
In the later rounds I think I always sided in the Vandals, and in general it seems like naturalize effects are pretty good vs. the best decks in a sealed. So if you've got a strong deck and expect to do well, you're probably pretty happy running Solemn Offering and the like?
Pick a Card, Any Card.
I have very little experience with drafting M11, which would prove costly in some formats but not necessarily in this one. My feeling is that if you're getting the hook-up any color is playable, so my plan is to do what I like to do best in draft; read the draft and try to get into the colors in which I am supposed to be.
I'm in draft pod #1, which seems pretty stacked with PV, Kibler, Watanabe, and Nass as names I recognize.
I take a Brittle Effigy from a fairly meh first pack, with Doom Blade being the next best card. The rest of the packs seem pretty awful - I end up a with some random green fatties and some bad black cards, with red possibly being open.
Pack 2 I get a whole bunch of solid green, starting with a Fauna Shaman (who ends up being really unexciting in my deck). Don't really see any black, and end up taking a Fling and an Earth Servant. The fling looks potentially exciting, with my double Duskdale Wurms. My deck is pretty bad at this point, but given the packs I've seen I imagine everyone's deck is bad. Pack three I take a Bolt out of a pack with nothing else for me, and then get passed a Chandra. Since my best black card is Nightwing Shade (better than some people give him credit, but yeah...) I'm quite happy to move into red. My deck ends up being a pretty awful G/r/b, splashing black off a cultivate, expanse, and birds for... Barony Vampire and a Shade, lol. I do have a couple deathmarks, but given the amount of green I was passed there has to be at most one other green drafter, and I just don't feel like maining the marks.
My plan is basically to cast Chandra a bunch, and I'm not feeling that happy, save for the fact that I'm pretty sure most of the decks at the table are meh.
Round 11 is vs. Kibler running U/B.
I know game 1 the board was looking pretty even, with perhaps a small edge to him, when I drew Chandra and then proceed to draw spell after spell. Game 2 my deck again treats me better and I win in 2.
Afterwards Kibler shakes my hand and offers the good game, good luck. We de-sideboard, etc., and then as he gets up to go he offers another handshake and a really sincere good luck. At that moment I just felt so glad that he is in the Hall of Fame and one of the faces of magic. He was obviously upset about losing (and 0-2 on the day, I think), and it was a frustrating type of match to lose, but he was still able to be incredibly sportsmanlike. Such a good model for newer players - thank you, Kibler.
10-1
Round 12 is vs. Jacob Wilson playing another UB deck.
My opening hand contains Birds and Fauna Shaman, and I auto play the Birds. However, I didn't really have anything I urgently wanted to ramp into, and I should have at least considered whether I wanted to try and turn the Birds into something else down the road. Get to a point where I have an Effigy in play that I'm almost certainly going to end up using on his Rotting Legion. I have nothing but land in hand, and go ahead and untap. I draw Chandra, which I want to go ahead and play while he's tapped out, but by not killing the 4/5 I'm forced to chump on his turn with my Birds. This time it's my opponent's turn to keep drawing spells, and I draw a bunch of land. Chandra ends up 3 for 2ing him before dying, and I just can't find enough action and lose. Holding the Birds and/or using Effigy endstep _might_ have won me that game.
Game 2 I mulligan to 6, and he hits me with Mind Rot. I just can't find a fifth land, and meanwhile we're racing each other. I have an act of treason in hand, so I'm feeling like I might be able to pull this out. I cast a Juggernaut and pass into his 2 mana, and when he doesn't Doom Blade me (he'd shown me two game 1) I'm feeling good - if he just lays a creature this turn I'm pretty sure I win. Unfortunately he draws the Doom Blade, which lets him get in for exactly lethal.
A frustrating loss, but I try to live up to the Kibler example and wish him luck. At this point I'm hoping to somehow eke out a 2-1 with this deck.
10-2
Round 13 is vs. Yuuya Watanabe running UW.
Game 1 I land my Chandra and it starts going to town. Have a couple Giant Spiders, one of them holding an Ax. My only other spell is a Garruk's Companion that I'm holding back in fear of Wrath, ignoring my read that he doesn't have it. He finally hits 6 mana and plays Angelic Arbiter. I attack him for 5 with the one Spider, and Chandra pings him down to an unfortunate 2 (I'm holding Hornet Sting [I know, all the hits!]). Next turn he Excommunicates my untapped Spider and takes out Chandra with the Arbiter. Now, I mean, against someone you know well you might run the big double bluff here, but against a random he has to be holding Safe Passage/Unsummon/Condemn. But instead of playing Spider + Companion I attack and he has the Unsummon. This sets me back a ton, and he starts playing creatures and then Sleep kills me before I can find my Lightning Bolt.
Game 2 I keep kind of an awkward hand, and he's got dubs Infantry Veteran. However, he floods out from there pretty hard, so I'm still in it. I remember at one point holding two Duskdale Wurms, with 6 lands in play and thinking at least every card I draw is live, only to draw my Terramorphic Expanse. He's drawing nothing, though, and eventually my big fatties take it down.
Game 3 I have a good start, including both my Deathmarks, and am getting through for damage, but he's starting to get enough creatures on the board that I'm probably dead to a Sleep. He doesn't draw it in time, and I eventually attack with everything, including an Axed Duskdale Wurm, get through enough damage to put him to 7, and Fling the Wurm at him, all while he's tapped out.
I felt a little bad winning this one, since he was definitely the one playing better magic in this match but that's Magic for you. I'm pretty happy to be going into the last draft still with a shot at winning the tournament.
11-2
Draft 2
Albert, a fellow Victorian, has been pretty much matching pace with me the whole way, and he's 11-2 as well. Conveniently we're once again in separate draft pods, though this time his pod seems to be the stacked one, with a bunch of names pros and Northwest legend, Brian Wong.
I first pick a Foresee, and eventually end up UG. Pack 2 is pretty good to me, as I get passed a Mind Control, and either open or get passed a Stormtide Leviathan. End up with some sort of sketchy UG build, with triple Mana Leak + Cancel. I have 2 Foresee and a Crystal Ball, so I'm planning on winning a lot of my matches on the back of an 8/8 Islandwalker. While the deck is not the best, I really like it, and am pretty happy I get to play quasi-control in the last matches of the swiss.
Round 14 is vs. Aaron M. Harleman running RG.
This is somewhat ironic, since my final choice in deckbuilding is Phantom Beast over Wall of Frost. My thought process was that I didn't have a ton of ways of killing people, the Beast even combo's with my Packleader, and Frosty is only really good vs. RG....
In any case these games end up not being close - I just draw so many more cards and have answers for everything.
12-2
Albert lose a heartbreaker of a game 3, so I'm the last Victorian still in contention. One more win and I can draw into the top8.
Round 15 is a rematch against PV, playing UB.
I take game 1 easily, game 2 is somewhat frustrating because I never see a Mana Leak, and I get so many good opportunities to use one. End up flooded quite a bit. Make a silly attack with my 3/1 into his drake - I'd done that game 1 and had the giant growth. He snap calls me here, and at first I feel totally transparent, but realize he's blocking no matter what - I've managed to get him down to 8 all ready, plus my Ice Caged drake is clearly a better target if I have the Growth. The attack was mainly a despair attack, since I was down so many cards at this point that I felt there was really no way I was winning, save for some sort of misplay, but in hindsight I think the situation wasn't quite as bad as I thought and I definitely shouldn't have attacked. Drew a bunch more land anyway, and lose.
Game 3 I steal his Juggernaut. I have a couple leaks in hand and I'd really rather not, but otherwise I'm taking too much damage. He's shown me an Unsummon in one of the games, so I'm really hoping he doesn't go land, bounce, replay Juggernaut. He doesn't, and I feel like I'm in a very good spot. Resolve both my Foresee's, and am gearing up to play my Leviathon. I'm ahead on the board, though, and I'm worried about him Mind Controlling it, since I have very few outs to that. Put a Spined Wurm into play to keep my Juggernaut company, but he has a clone for my Wurm, and then a Deathmark for it. I misplay here - I'm holding Autumn's Veil, and I use that to counter the Deathmark. My other card is Leviathon, and I have 8 lands in play. My thought is that I'm playing Leviathon next turn anyway, and I've scryed a lot of land to the bottom, so there a good chance I'm not drawing land. The problem is, countering the Deathmark doesn't do a ton - it just means the Wurms trade and he finally pulls the trigger and trades his vampire + scroll thief for Juggernaut. Pretty sure it's better to have him with Wurm vs. my Leviathon plus Veil in hand... Though if I don't draw a land and he has a Doom Blade, then it's worse. I dunno, definitely felt like I misplayed (and I do in fact draw a land).
Fortunately he has no answer, and 2 turns later it's all over.
PV is obviously not happy at losing, but he offers his congratulations, and I let him know that I'll be pulling for him to win his last round and make it on tiebreaks.
13-2
I'm a lock for Top 8 with a draw, but of course due to pairing in pods I'm not sure if I'll get paired vs. someone who wants to draw. Fortunately I get paired up vs. Jon Loucks.
13-2-1
I'm ravenous at this point, so head over to one of the highlights of the trip, Burgerville! A fast food joint with just really good, fresh ingredients and wonder of wonders, not one, but two good vegetarian burgers!
Not high cuisine, but a big step up from the typical options available at tournaments, and you could even get 10% off by saying "magic grand prix" (thanks to quiet speculation, I believe). I enjoying sitting down and eating something hot, kept company by Islanders Nelson and Ryan.
Top 8 is announced, I'm in 5th, PV makes it as the only 12-3. Random seating for the draft/pairings; unfortunately I'll be playing Jon Loucks round 1. I open a pack with Conundrum Sphinx, and I'm excited about the possibility of playing blue in this draft. However, the pack also contains a Foresee, Water Servant, and another strong blue card that I can't remember... It also has a Cudgel Troll, as the only good green card. Given that I feel this pod is likely to skew more towards blue than green anyway, I go ahead and take the Troll. End up in G/W, with a bunch of 4 mana fliers, but no good two drops. Opening Ajani pack 3 makes me happy, but it's still not exactly the type of deck I like. You can find my decklist here.
Should definitely have had the Runeclaw bears main over a Sacred Wolf, and probably should have tried harder to get that Plummet in there somehow.
Coverage of my quarterfinal match can be found here. I do want to set the record straight - in the banter before game 2, Jon is actually the one who opened Baneslayer in a previous draft, and gets of the line "Yeah, but all the other good things you ever hear about me are true" - credit where credit is due!
I lose game 1 to Jon in frustrating fashion - three spells to nine land. I'm feeling pretty down about my deck at this point, and just not feeling it - is the dream over? As I'm shuffling up for game 2, I glance over at the spectators, and see Victorian Tyler Woolley standing there. Now, Tyler has been known to tilt on occasion, but he's just so calm looking right now, and somehow I have this flash of certainty that I'm going to win this match. Kind of a neat moment.
I do indeed win games 2 and 3, not through any skill on my part. Jon mulligans both games - game 2 he gets stuck on two land for too many turns, and game 3 it's his turn to only have 3 spells. Since two of them are Negate and Stormtide Leviathan he dies having only cast a Cloud Elemental.
Not exactly the best that magic has to offer, and I feel bad for Jon, but it means I still have a shot at hoisting that trophy!
I was hoping PV would advance so we could play the rubber match, but instead I get to battle Juza. This match is still rather painful to recount - I played horribly both games, should have won game 1 and might have been able to win game 2.
Game 1 I land an Ajani. The turn after I cast it, I manage to make exactly the series of plays that lose the game. First, I don't do the math and hold back my 4/4 War Priest. Juza has a 4/5 Rotting Legion in play that I don't want to attack into. This is fine if he's at some irrelevant life total, but as it is pretty sure he has to gang block my Yavimya Wurm, and in fact he thought I attacked with the 4/4 and had himself at 3 rather than 7. Then, I kill the Legion instead of the Azure Drake with my Wurm on his gang block, which lets him draw a Doom Blade, kill my only flier, and kill Ajani. Of course, I also had a Wild Griffin in hand that I could have played post combat (played Awakener Druid pre-combat and attacked with the forest, which I can't do if I also play the Griffen pre-combat) but instead just pass.
I'm still in very good shape, but he has Call to Mind to kill my freshly played Cudgel Troll when I have no untapped green source, and then I can just feel the Adept on top of his deck which bounces my Druid forest. From there, I draw a couple Elves and then a whole bunch of land.
Juza eventually starts attacking, with a team that includes Conundrum Sphinx. I don't actually know what it does, which is why I name Forest the first time. I thought the card stayed on top, so figure this gives me my best shot at finding Inspired Charge, only to learn that whiffs go on the bottom - oops! In his last attack step before I die, he debates for a long time whether to attack with 3 or 4 creatures. Now, if he attacks with 4 it means that I get to kill him if I draw the Inspired Charge - perhaps I should have done something to sell him on the idea of attacking with 4? Get two of my guys ready to block? I dunno, I'm just so tired I don't really care. He eventually attacks with 3, I draw the Charge, and die.
He's seen my deck, so I'm guessing that maybe he figured I was holding Excommunicate? That would be the only spell that I could really have in hand, and I have drawn a lot of cards without casting anything. Still makes sense to only attack with three, regardless, since it doesn't effect his clock. Juza is probably as tired as I am, but unlike me he is able to find the right play.
Game 2 we both keep 2 landers, but he starts drawing land and I stall on 3. However, I think I might still have had a shot. He has an Alluring Siren who was a beating game 1, vs. my Elf + Awakener Druid. When he finds a swamp he plays Child of Night and tries to trade it with my Druid. I Giant Growth, but this seems like definitely the wrong play. There's a good chance he's going to be able to eat my Druid sooner rather that later, and this way I at least trade. Also, in many ways I'm just as happy not giving him the option of killing my forest, and I probably want to be using it to cast spells. I think I have a third land at that point, and could have cast a Assault Griffin rather that the Growth.
My next mistake involves him playing Azure Drake. I draw a plummet, but for reason I'm still on pre-draw mode of thinking that I can't play my Griffin since he'll just Siren it into his Drake. Instead I plummet the Drake and attack my elf into his Siren, which is never the right play. He opts to trade, and I don't find a fourth land until way too late.
Yes, I'd just played two days of 13+ hour magic, but it bothers me to lose like that. On the other hand, the person playing better magic won the match, which is how I like to see things go. Juza played excellent magic game 1, finding a way to come back from a huge deficit, and then went on to win the whole thing - congratulations!
I had a lot of luck through-out the tournament, and merely played somewhat well - ideally I wish I'd had a little less luck and played better, but I can't complain; finishing third at a 1,368 person tournament is amazing. I was all ready planning to go to Europe sometime next year, so will definitely be taking advantage of my invite to Paris.
Postlude
Magic is most frustrating to me when it feels like rolling dice, and when I can't figure out ways to improve. While I didn't play my best at GP Portland, I felt learned about some areas of my game that I can try to make better. I share them with you in the hopes that you may find them useful.
Pace of play
This is something I've been thinking about recently. Perhaps it's me getting old, but I don't play as fast as I used to. I'm very happy with my pace of play, though, I feel like have managed to find a tempo that lets me have enough time to think through tough choices, but also finish a match in time. I think finding your internal tempo is so important; I see people losing games because they've lost that connection to their tempo, for whatever reason.
Three aspects of tempo came up for me at the GP.
First, the classic "don't get drawn into your opponent's tempo if it doesn't match your own". I feel I'm pretty good about this, but that game 2 loss in round 8 was because I briefly got drawn into his much faster tempo. What I'm going to try to do is create a little command in my brain that triggers whenever my opponent is playing faster than me, and says "slow down for a moment! Are you happy with your tempo?"
Second, feeling sorry for my opponent when I have a huge advantage and not wanting to prolong their agony can cause my tempo to speed up. This happened a little bit in game 1 against Juza. My command here is "remember, your opponent can always scoop if they don't want to keep playing. Take your time and make sure you're making the correct play!"
And finally, when I'm really tired I want to make sure I give myself the luxury of slowing down my tempo a little further and make sure my lines of play are actually making sense. Had I just checked my hand before passing on that crucial turn, I would have seen the Wild Griffin and cast it.
How do you win?
I'm a big fan of Sam Stoddard's writing, and he wrote a piece just before the GP called "How do you win?" It helped verbalize something I've been struggling to express for awhile. I'm that last person in his example, the one who tends to view everything through the lens of card advantage. I'm not exactly sure what to do with this, but it definitely gives me food for thought and I can see, for example, that in that big turn vs. Juza my instinctive attacks were based on card advantage, and not grinding through the combat possibilities. This gives me something to think about and work on.
In closing, I would like to mention that every single person I played at the GP was pleasant to play against, which was awesome. And I want to thank Yellowjacket Comics, here in Victoria, for doing such an amazing job of supporting Magic in Victoria.
Josh
