Anyone who watched the U.S. Open Golf Tournament a few weeks ago after day 3 thought it was Tiger’s for the taking. Then came a few bogies and Tiger wasn’t winning. But even AFTER the bogies, Tiger was still within striking distance and, well, you know the rest of the story.

My message today is about losing. What it takes to lose and how it happens to even the best of us. As anyone who plays in a competitive forum knows (or should know,) everyone loses at one time or another. It’s just a fact of playing.

Grand Prix Indianapolis

Going into Round 4 of the tournament, I’m 3-0 and I’m feeling the momentum build for me. Game 1 of the match, I have a question for the judge. Calling out for judge, then telling him the question, then confirming the answer, had to take 3 minutes? 5 minutes?

Mistake #1 – When time in this round is called and at the end of the 5 turn extension, my opponent is at 12 life. I have 5 creatures on the table for a total of 14 power. He has 1 2/2 creature. Even though you may have a watch, the judges call time, AND you have 5 turns to finish, you still need to monitor ANY interruptions you have. That instance of me calling the judge could have definitely been the difference between a win and a draw for that round.

After a 5-0-1 start with a decent sealed deck with 4 rounds to go (10 total), I get paired feeling that I’m in need of a couple more victories to guarantee day 2.

Mistake #2 – I tend to believe that you cannot worry about day 2 merely halfway through a tournament. My recommendation is know the cut off in the beginning of the tournament and then don’t think about it again until the next to the last round or even the last round. The only thing you should be thinking about during your match is YOUR MATCH

In game one, my opponent steamrolls me. So, what I usually do is think about what caused the loss, while I’m sideboarding. Other than the fact that he came out quickly, and had Spectral Procession on turn three, there really wasn’t much to consider.

Game two is different, while pondering my 5th turn (after he played Spectral Procession AGAIN) I asked him how many cards he had in hand. He said "4," so I counted his permanents and his graveyard to find 13 total cards outside of his library. I counted mine, and found a total of 11. I was on the play so the difference should only have been one, not two. I told him that he had drawn an extra card and he responded with what I felt was denial.

I quickly called a judge over and the judge asked him what happened. He said, "apparently, I drew an extra card." Now, because I am familiar with the floor rules for events such as this, I assumed a game loss was inevitable. I was right, the judge provided a quick solution to the issue. However…

Mistake #3 – When in doubt, CALL THE HEAD JUDGE. I asked this judge if he was sure this situation didn’t merit a match loss. I recall asking my opponent about the extra card and he was shady about it. When the judge asked him he was quick to give an answer. I spoke to the Head Judge later, he explained that a match loss could have been issued dependent upon the facts that were gathered. Did the first judge do his job? Absolutely. Should I have called the Head Judge to escalate the call here? YEAH.

On to game 3 of the round.

This game rolled out relatively slow, we’re both a bit mana screwed early but we both get a spurt of lands (I’m still thinking about the extra card he had drawn.) The field looks even with creatures, with me putting a Prison Term on his early Scuttlemutt (while thinking about that extra card). Then, I play Seedcradle Witch and Umbral Mantle to take over momentum in the game (while thinking about the extra card). He plays Godhead of Awe. Not only do I get upset that he draws another bomb, I think about that stupid EXTRA CARD!!!

Mistake #4 – You GOTTA let things go. Such as our sometimes torturous lives take us down the most regrettable experiences, we still need to let them go. Worrying about what happened last turn or last match will often prevent us from making the right steps in the future. Don’t make the same mistakes again, but don’t ponder them too much.

This lead to me just untapping and drawing… That Prison Term I told you about? It's still on the ScuttleMutt…

Mistake #5 – Anticipating you and your opponent’s turns is what EVERY good Magic player does. So many things were going through my mind, one of which was the fact that I had several flyers in my deck and I merely needed to draw one. However, those other great Magic players know when to deal with something immediately.

Well, 4 turns later, I don’t have a creature that flies and I’m virtually dead. I guess this one’s a win for the bad guys.

Now that the round is over, I try to be optimistic with my 5-1-1 record. It doesn’t work, I spend round 8 still pondering over my issues in round 7 and am barely able to concentrate. With my mind in disarray, I over commit and lose to Incremental Blight (even after seeing it in game 2). In round 9, I get mana flooded and am unable to make this a good match.

Playing 9 rounds of top tier Magic is hard to do. It doesn’t get much easier when you’re worrying about issues not having anything to do with your current round. After any one of the mistakes listed above, I could have picked myself up and put myself on the right track. Instead, I didn't and perpetuated my own doom.

I hear lots of people talk about not getting good cards, or being mana screwed or flooded. I believe that land issues are inevitable. What you don’t hear are people who admit to losing or "punting." I love the term punting (it's a football term.) Here, I'm using it to mean when you do something, or allow something that gives your opponent a chance to win. In Football, when you punt you give the ball back to your opponent and let them go for a touchdown again.

Some people believe their lives are guided by fate or inevitability, any of my mistakes above could have been avoided and placed me with perhaps a different fate, which wouldn’t be fate at all, as I chose an alternative.

Tiger was down, but he wasn't out. Even with his knee causing him pains on every swing he came back to win the tournament. He didn't let this missteps knock him out, and we shouldn't either.

Nuff Said!

--Lee