The Beginning Of My Ascendance - April 15th, 2007
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04:33 pm
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Ouch.
After all the fun I've been having with drafting, I thought I'd try the 4X Sealed this afternoon at 2pm. I've just finished the second round.
If you've played MTGO, then you know that I must be a masochist to play in a Premiere Event because there's no way the server can handle it. Sure enough, after game 1 of the first round the server crashes. What a surprise.
And it's laggy. Every click takes forever to process. It's incredibly frustrating because all of my clocked time is wasted waiting for clicks to process and obnoxious graphics to roll across the screen so I can click on them.
First Round
I win the first game. I throw away the second game because I choose not to trample over for two because it's really important that the other creature die, and if it does die, then I've got board control and don't need to worry about two damage.
It dies. It comes back to life with Evolution Charm. I die in a race with him at 1 life.
I destroy him third game as he's getting killed by lag. He missed his second land drop, keeping Mountain, Chromatic Star, Looter, which seems a bit risky. And as proof that Looter sucks - 4 hits with a the Looter and I couldn't care less. One power does not scare me.
Round 2
This is where I start swearing and cursing.
Turn three, I press F6 on his turn and it doesn't work, so I press it again, and all of a sudden, I've missed my third turn.
FUCK.
I think, "maybe it won't matter" because I kept a 5 land, Wall, Invocation hand and don't have any threats. But it ends up mattering. My curve gets thrown off by some expensive draws and Stuffy Doll doesn't hit play on turn 4, but instead joins us on turn 7. I lose with him at less than 4 life (I think it was just 1).
I swear that I'll never do that again. And then promptly miss my FIRST FUCKING TURN of game 2, forcing me to discard. I pressed F6 on his turn, then it didn't seem to work, so I pressed F4 and due to lag, skipped my turn. It's hard to express just how incredibly frustrating it is to do this. Imagine swear words. Lots of swear words.
It's not certain that I would have won game 2, but it was a lot more likely. Just to make sure I didn't mount a comeback, I threw away the game a second time by not pinging my own creature so his "about to die" Flametongue could kill his Hydra. It probably didn't matter because he had a Dragon to finish me. Everyone seems to have a Dragon. Hell, I have a dragon, but it's BRW and I'm GRx. I also have Desolation Giant, but the WW splash seems like too much.
I'm happy to send out my sealed .dec file if anyone else would like a go at it! (I'd include a text listing, but it's in alphabetical order and not really useful for a tricky build)
Current Mood:  frustrated
Current Music: Imperial March - "Rage Mix"
Tags: magic online bad play
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06:28 pm
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No Really, I Mean It - Ouch.
Once again I find myself with 30+ minutes until the next round, despite being the last to finish in the agonizing 2-hour first round.
Round 3
I drew cards. I played them properly. I won the game.
I drew cards. I played them properly. I won the game.
Any questions?
Round 4
I drew cards. I almost played them properly. He double-mulliganed. He played a turn 5 Stonebrow. I lost the game.
I drew cards. I played them properly. He played a turn 5 Dragon. I lost the game.
Any questions?
I know *I* have some questions...
Do you keep this opening hand:
Rough/Tumble, Deadwood Treefolk, Search for Tomorrow, 3 Forests, Mountain?
It has no action, and the Deadwood Treefolk is, uh, dead until you get guys into the graveyard. I thought he was a bomb, but he's really only "all that" in top-deck battles and the late game of a war of attrition that's stalled. That's what we call, "insights from Mr. Obvious" - it's like you're reading StarCity set reviews right here on LiveJournal!
Zing!
So it's five land and a mediocre mass-kill spell. I kept it because he was going first with 5 cards, and I figure I can buy time and perhaps a 2 for 1 with the Rough.
Needless to say, Rough feels like Gentle against Stonebrow.
What I also failed to remember, of course, is that everyone has a Dragon in their deck, and if Tumble is the only way you have to deal with a 6/6 flyer, you need to save it. Rough/Tumble is a 6-mana Wing Snare for me. I've taken two or three of the cocky flying lizards down already today. So my opening hand was 5 mana and nothing.
Another question...
When you're tapped out and your opponent attacks with a 2/3 and 6/6 into your 3/6 Deadwood, do you:
1) block the 6/6 and throw away your 3/6 for no reason?
2) block the 2/3 despite having Stonewood Invocation in hand and no other creatures with the assumption that you're opponent in the 2-1 bracket is an idiot and thus is just throwing away his 2/3 for no reason?
3) take 8 and play a Totem with four mana free the next turn so you can destroy the Stonebrow?
I think we can all guess which idiotic play I might have chosen...and for those that are interested, "Ovinize" was the trick. Word of Seizing was his next trick and he likely would have used it the following turn on my 3/6 (to be countered by the Invocation), so it's not like an auto-win - my opponent's 5-card hand was pretty good (or my 7 cards were just bad?) My only other option was to immediately Rough the Shaper Parasite as a 1-for-1 so my River Boa lived (not really good against Stonebrow), but I got greedy with so many lands in hand AND he missed his third land drop AND he didn't have any Islands at that point and there aren't a lot of scary green or red morphs.
More questions...
Do you keep this hand:
Battering Sliver, Call of the Herd, Stuffy Doll, Yavimaya Dryad, Forest, Mountain, Mountain?
I think you do. You have turn 3 Call with a turn 4 follow-up on a single land. Thus the Dryad isn't that important on turn 3, but if it does come up then Stuffy Doll is next and you only need one more land to play your hand.
It turned out really well if he didn't have a 6/6 flier on turn 5. I actually raced and almost beat Intet because he drew so many lands, but he picked up enough blockers to take the match.
What can you do? (besides, of course, playing properly and not losing earlier rounds to lag and pressing the wrong key)
Current Mood:  resigned
Current Music: John Williams - "Duel of the Fates"
Tags: magic online bad plays dragons
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08:38 pm
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Stop Hurting Me!
Round 5:
Opponent times out for inactivity. I'm sure he had a Dragon in his deck though.
Round 6:
I get a turn 3 Call of the Herd and then miss three straight land drops. I still hold my own until turn 7 when Numot the Dragon comes into play. He's the one that destroys lands. I play my fourth land and think, "at least I don't mind using Rough to clear the board, because I'll never get to six mana to play Tumble!"
Final tally: 12 spells, 4 lands.
Game 2 sees me not Shocking a morphed Shaper Parasite on turn four becaues I have Rough and Grapeshot in my hand and figure I can do better with a 4/2 to trade with his Spider. I didn't know it was a Parasite, but there was certainly a good possibility that in his four-colour deck he wasn't playing Fathom Seer, Brine Elemental or Aquamorph. And Shapeshifter is still a good target.
I then face a series of complicated decisions involving the three aforementioned red spells. I almost always get into trouble when my kill spells aren't straightforward. I actually dislike having mass kill - it's just not my style and it only messes me up (except, of course, in those rare instances when it owns your opponent after a fast start). Despite massive card disadvantage, he seems to draw nothing but dudes and make some dubious choices to give me the win.
Of course, it doesn't matter because in game three I mulligan this hand:
Stonewood Invocation, Fury Sliver, 3 Mountains, 2 Forests
into this one:
Mire Boa, Sporesower Thallid, Stuffy Doll, Pyrohemia, Forest, Forest
What can I do? I have to hope for a Mountain.
Guess how many lands I had on turn 7 when I conceded? That's right, three Forests. The fourth land was 16 cards into the deck at which point I would have drawn 12 spells and 3 lands.
Of course, this game he opens with a 2/1 and a 4/1 that I would love to Rough up a bit. But no, his Grapeshot kills the Boa and Call of the Herd eventually just chump blocks the Halberdier as his Dryad and other creatures run me over.
My deck, which ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wiredaces thought was amazing, went 2-3-bye. Granted, Geordie probably figured it would be played properly, and wouldn't face four Dragons. Note that there's 5 Dragons in 55 rares, and each person only gets two, so if my rudimentary math skills are at all up to par, I should only see 1-2 dragons in six rounds. Of course, I probably should see a 4th mana source with 19 in the deck, but that didn't happen too frequently either. Aren't I lucky?
Thus it comes down to:
Inferior Deck Construction?
or
Inferior Play Skills?
If only I had a paid account and could do polls!
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Peter, Paul & Mary - "Puff The Magic Dragon"
Tags: magic online bad plays dragons mana scre
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