Reflections on my first T1 event.

[Raven Fire]

While I've played a decent amount of T1, I went to my first actual tournament on Saturday.  If you want to read my report, it's here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15692

Anyway, I really enjoyed playing and decided to post some of my more random thoughts:

T1 players really police themselves.  I saw a player call over the judge during the third game of a match because he realized that he had forgotten to return a wished card to his sideboard after the second game.  He knew that it would result in a game loss and thus a match loss, but he did it anyway.  I was really impressed with the high level of integrity from all the players.

I was really suprised that the games lasted as long as they did.  I remember doing some playtesting this winter against Long.dec and was expecting more quick kills in the first few turns.  What I saw was more "Metalworker beats!" and "I swing with my Spiketail."  Most of the rounds lasted longer than those from the T2 tournaments I'm used to.

The players seemed more mature.  They wanted to win, but they were more friendly about it.

Even the really good players make mistakes and a mistake doesn't always mean you lose the game.  I was expecting my mistakes to be brutally pounced on to the point where I'd never be able to recover.  While that certainly happened a couple times, there were other times I was able to regain control of the game.

I was actually competitive!


Well, thanks for reading...

[TomX]

Good report although I never knew what position you finished in the end? Did you win anything?

I am thinking of playing Gay/R but I don't have any:

Mana Drains
Moxs'
Black Lotus'
Library of Alexandrias
Ancestral Recall
[/list:u]

So I'm not sure if I could do well, hope you do well in future tournaments

[Lord_Drazinus]

nice report, and good job on your first tournament...

@tomx: nobody plays drains in fish...it's because of a few reasons a)low casting costs and b) not much of it is colorless

again, good job on your first T1 tourney,

[-Draz-]

[Raven Fire]

Good report although I never knew what position you finished in the end? Did you win anything?

I am thinking of playing Gay/R but I don't have any:

Mana Drains
Moxs'
Black Lotus'
Library of Alexandrias
Ancestral Recall
[/list:u]

So I'm not sure if I could do well, hope you do well in future tournaments

Thanks!  I guess technically I finished in 9th place as I had the best record of anyone not in the Top 8, but there is no prize for that.  

As for what you need to play Gay/R: I was in a 5 proxy event and I only used 3 (Sapphire, Ancestral, and Time Walk).  You certainly don't need (or even want) Drains as they go against the aggressive style of the deck.  Lotus could be explosive, but isn't really worth the card disadvantage: you'll need the additional resources vs. aggro and you're already plenty fast against control.  Ruby and Library are personal choices depending on your local environment.  The deck works fairly well (maybe not optimal; but at a high level) without any of the cards on your list.

[Jhaggs]

Congrats on your 1st t1 event.    In my personal experiences I have always enjoyed playing the type 1 format in a tournament.  Not only are you bound to see cards played that you haven't seen in quite some time, but as you stated the players and competition are what makes things fun.  I have met a lot of people and made some good friends along the way.  Perhaps it is because the age of the format is a little older that makes it more preferrable for me (20 to 30 years old for my group).