Current mood:	frustrated
Current music:	Roxette - "It Must Have Been Love"

Frustration Part 3

This is the final part of an unintended trilogy into how badly I lose at Magic. For your viewing pleasure, it also contains pictures. Well, it should, we'll see how this goes.

It was a pleasant if not sunny day in our hero's village as he returned from excavating a friend's front lawn for later installation of interlocking brick for his princess. Filled with thoughts of satisfaction after a solid couple of hours of work and a frothy beverage, he was excitedly looking forward to drafting his favourite format in nigh half a decade - Ravnica, Guildpact and Dissension.

[SNAP]

Wha? Huh? Oh, sorry, you just want the ranting...

The draft starts off with some questions, as they always do. I take an opening pick Snapping Drake and get passed Dismisser, Cleansing Beam, Groodian and Doubling Season. I've been desperate for kill after losing earlier today because I had no removal. I'm really trying to avoid Black-Green because it's a recipe for destruction, but I don't trust the Doubling Season. It's supposed to be amazing, but then I'm forced into UG and I'm not certain it's as good as the hype. Dismisser is solid, keeps me in blue, which I both hate and love at the same time.

I get passed ANOTHER Cleansing Beam, but this one is foil. How can I resist? I take it and pass the Bramble Elemental.

Now I'm looking at Mossdog or Dimir Signet. A critical junction. Do I go with the GUr on a Mossdog? Or do I keep my options open for three or four colours with the expectation of black-red or black-blue-white (splash red) later?

The thing is, the Mossdog is really going downhill in value for me - the 4-slot is so busy that I'm always trying to avoid it when I can. And 3/3 for 4 is no big party if I end up in green - I always seem to have lots of them later on. I believe I make the first mistake of the draft here, but I'm thinking that no white or black has gone by, maybe Orzhov will be waiting in pack two since he's likely to take RG downstream and probably splash all the good blue cards. What? This doesn't make sense if I'm already RU? Granted, but I wasn't sure red (or blue) would keep coming.

Seige Wurm. Sigh. Again, it's not as good as it used to be - GG is a pain - but a 5/5 is no slouch. I'm certainly not jumping into Green now and I think I take a Griffin or Sprite. Or maybe an Oaf? Either way, I get those three cards in the last few picks of Ravnica. I see no black and only the one white card which gets me thinking that UW will be cut off in the final pack (of course it wasn't, black-red was).

Gelectrode is the first option in Guildpact over Shrieking Grotesque. Then I get Streetbreaker or Wee Dragonauts or Train of Thought. Woo. The rare is missing so the Streetbreaker is a false signal and I take the Train.

Many picks later I'm looking at two Hypervolt Grasps, Bloodscale Prowler (late), Wee Dragonauts (it tabled), Izzet Guildmage, Torch Drake, Orzhov Signet, Goblin Flectomancer and Biomantic Mastery which sucks the big one because RU decks don't really stall like GU or UW decks.

Essentially, a lot of mediocre cards with a pinging theme - I just need creatures and time. And I'm set up perfectly to go either UW or BR in the final pack, though I'm hoping for BR.

First pick - Rakdos Guildmage! Some love!

And that's about it. Pick four gives me a Sky Hussar, the amazing card for everyone else that immediately tells me I'm going to lose without winning any packs. That was foreshadowing by the way.

I have two Azorious First-Wing which works great with my plan of pinging enchantments. Some blue Eidolons which would be okay with my 8+ gold cards if I didn't already have lots of 2/2s for four, some mana-fixing, and Trygon Predator that I hated really late because I have three signets and why the heck not?

Oh yes, I mistakenly took Aethermage's Touch because I mis-read it. I mean, that was a "You Make The Card" winner, how could it not be really good? Sigh...

In hindsight, and I like that writing this out helps, I'm drafting like a fool. I keep pushing solid 2-colour decks and leaving myself high and dry in pack three. I'm not thinking ahead to navigate the packs correctly, and it's costing me. I hadn't realized until now just how few Dissension cards made it in my deck, and they're the most powerful!

Either way, my deck seemed okay - fliers, repeating removal with some card drawing. I was worried about big green creatures because I didn't have a lot of answers (I should have taken a Plume over a First-Wing, but again, I'm just not thinking straight at this point) and in another bit of foreshadowing, my fears were well-placed. It seems that when I'm ready for big creatures, I lose to fast flying decks. When I'm reading for fast flying decks, the giants come to play.

Game one sees the first of the mulligans. Earlier in the day I had mulligan'd repeatedly in the first two games so I went up to 16 lands (plus Utopia Sprawl, signet, wayfinder, 2 CIP lands and Silkwing Scout) and then drew too much. I'm too emotional and afraid at this point - send me to a draft format where I can play 17 lands and not think about it anymore!

I keep Island, Island, Mountain, Izzet Biolerworks, Train of Thought, Biomantic Mastery and Sky Hussar. It's a horrible hand, but when going first with six cards, you take what you can get.

By my turn four, he already has Spider and Mossdog (that I passed, I'm sure) out and ready to attack. I'm looking at 4 mana and nothing in play because I held the Train to get an extra card (it didn't matter, but still was a mistake). I've got the Train, and a UW Signet, Cleansing Beam, a new land and Hypervolt Grasp. A hand that's going nowhere.

His turn 4 Streetbreaker Wurm trades with my by best card (the Hussar) and despite wiping out two creatures with the Beam, the Mossdog finishes me off as I don't miss a land drop and play two signets to round out the flood. I've taken a picture of what would have ended up being a 5 spell, 11 mana sources game:



Oh, did I not mention he had Niv-Mizzet in play on turn six?

Of course, the Niv-Mizzet was a UU splash as a fourth colour in his Black-Green deck. He defended by saying it was his "only blue card". Yeah, that's the ticket. [<-- Dated reference showing just how many birthdays I was "celebrating" last week]

On to game 2.

I keep Island, Island, Island, Mountain, Azorious Signet, Eidolon, Grasp.

It's a horrible hand and I'm going first, but as we said, I'm deathly afraid of mulligans, and at least this way I get out a 2/2 on turn three!

Not only do I get out the Eidolon, I Grasp it up and kill his turn three Vesper Ghoul as a Spider beats me down. I then then try and get fancy after Dismissing his Pit-Skulk and ping off all his guys by moving the Grasp around. Of course, that takes 5 mana so I'm giving up my turns in order to kill 2/2s that cost him one or two mana as he builds towards giant wurms.

Of course I win this one by beating down with Rakdos Guildmage and 2/1 goblin tokens (no black mana for me). He kills the Grasp with a Wrecking Ball, and it's a bit tense when I use Beam and Riot Spikes to kill a 2/2 and Streetbreaker Wurm, but it appears that with three Forests and 2 Swamps in play until turn 7, he was horribly colour-screwed. [rolls eyes]

No picture of that, this is long enough already.

Game 3.

I keep Plains, UW land, Train of Thought, Dismisser, Gelectrode, Oaf and Grasp. He lets me go first so I'll have three mana on turn three, but I won't have any red unless I draw one of 8 red sources. I have the Train to help me dig for it.

He did miss his third land drop, which gave me hope. I did draw two of my three white cards, which also gave me hope. But we all know how this turns out:



(you can't tell, but I have 4 lands in play, Azorious Chancery, two Islands and my only Plains)

There are a couple of subtle and not so subtle things to note:

1) I have 7 red cards in my hand and no red mana in play. That's one hell of a mulligan.
2) It's turn 8 - I have drawn 2 lands and 5 spells to go with my opening 2 lands and 5 spells.
3) I have Dismisser in hand, the only remaining card in my deck that costs more than 5, but only 5 mana available to me.
4) In hand and in play, he has four spells that cost five mana, and 1 that costs six. On the board he only has four lands and a 1/1 Vesper Ghoul.
5) In my hand, I have two ways pingers that could deal with said Ghoul, without which he would still have nothing in play on turn 8. They could also handle his Fists of Ironwood.

In essence, I got screwed. Big time. And apparently it was a good decision to avoid black-green.

But having written this out, I can see numerous times where I made errors, so I can't really shake my fist at the heavens. Instead I can be cranky all night to the frustration of the ever-patient Armoire. It's the price you pay for all the lovin', sweetie!

But that's it for me and RGD. I'm down to a starter and three Ravnica packs which I'll try and trade for tickets. Time to clear the head, stop thinking about the set and prepare for Time Spiral and the trip to Kobe! And, of course, stop writing about these obnoxious drafts and get back to the interesting stuff like sneezing in my own face.