Article -- Revisiting the Mirror Match with Roland Bode

[rakso]

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7142

For the readers who remember, the first practice game I featured in an article was a "The Deck" mirror in December 2001 ("The Control Player's Bible Part V"), against Norway's Chris Flaaten. The mirror isn't a practice match that isn't particularly enjoyable for me, but if you find yourself thrown against a master of the game, it's a different story, since you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time.

Fresh from my final exams, Roland Bode from Germany caught me last Good Friday and cheerfully asked if I was still alive. Fresh from his Regionals win, he brutally shook off all the rust in my Magic system.

[Klep]

Frankly Rakso, I'd really like to see some matchups where you play against  decks like Slaver and Hulk.  I think it would be far more instructive to see Keeper pitted against the best decks in the format instead of the recent Landstill and experimental Keeper you've highlighted.

[vintageman]

its so zzzzzzzzzzzz

Posts this devoid of content are strongly discouraged. Please provide support for your contentions and sentiments. -Dr. Sylvan

[Hi-Val]

I'll echo what Klep said. I know it's yours style, but posting apprentice logs makes for some boring-ass reading sometimes. Maybe sum up what happened in the games and the turning point that made you win/lose. Also, testing with relevant decks like Slaver and Hulk would be beneficial to the audience.

[Klep]

I'll echo what Klep said. I know it's yours style, but posting apprentice logs makes for some boring-ass reading sometimes. Maybe sum up what happened in the games and the turning point that made you win/lose. Also, testing with relevant decks like Slaver and Hulk would be beneficial to the audience.

I like the logs, I just want to see them with better decks as the opponents.

[rakso]

Well, like I said in the intro of the article, I felt like something classic this time since this was written over a week ago, when I was just starting with vacation. I mean, give me a break. I've been going out practically everyday, and I just came home from FHM Philippines' invite-only 100 sexiest women party.

Anyway, I understand your criticisms and have been playing against those decks, etc. It's just that I felt the games against Roland were personally very intruiging for me, and it's frankly harder to find an online game against a high-caliber OPPONENT than it is a deck, so I couldn't resist using that. Time difference and all, to boot.

Thanks for the critique.

[swooop]

I enjoy the logs as well. No one else writes match reports in this style. Also, do you have any pictures of the party?


Edited for grammar and spelling. -Dr. Sylvan

[jazzykat]

Firstly, we will excuse the classic matchup if you have pics :B

Next I think that it is very important to play against good players, and I do understand time differences. So playing against Roland is most excellent.

Obviously though, playing against tier 1 decks is very important and what would be more important I think to a lot of readers is to clearly note when the tide of the game changed, and why. This will allow budding keeper players to understand some of the nuances of what I believe to still be the hardest deck to play well in T1.

It also makes the logs mean more for most people as I am not sure how well people can follow 20-30 turn match logs, especially when you make a decision and have to take into account what is in someones graveyard, and what there hand size is, if those kind of factors are relevant in a decision.

[MartinMM]

I think many other strategy writers could learn from rakso and his apprentice logs. Apprentice logs are a way to show how the deck works in practice instead of just posting stuff like "just drop the tog and win". Although keeper vs keeper is not that interesting to me .

[Dr. Sylvan]

I think many other strategy writers could learn from rakso and his apprentice logs. Apprentice logs are a way to show how the deck works in practice instead of just posting stuff like "just drop the tog and win". Although keeper vs keeper is not that interesting to me :).

Personally, I find appr logs well nigh unreadable. When Smmenen wrote about Long.dec, his prose game summaries were much more useful to me, both in tracking the mana pool and in keeping an eye on the overall game state. The worst thing about the appr, though, is probably the huge numbers of lines taken up by tapping and untapping mana. Alright, I get it, the spell was paid for, but sweet merciful crap why do I need to be told which sources were used? Can we just infer that most beginners will tap leaving the best colors open? This simple omission would make the logs much more concise and readable. (I would still rather that they be turned into prose.)

[MartinMM]

Well, maybe apprentice logs are not the best way to show how games are played. But better than just leaving it at theory. The problem with doing like smmenen did is that i guess it takes alot more time then just posting apprentice logs. And i rather have many apprentice logs as a resource for learning about matchups i find troublesome than reading about 2-3 matchups in nice plain english. For example, when smmenen posted his hulk build early this year(22 mana sources), i tried it and had big troubles with the fish matchup. I did'nt know if i played the deck wrong, i looked through plenty of articles but no one covered the fish matchup. I guess he had'nt tested against fish at all because now in the new Smmenentog he talks about fish as a troublesome matchup. Anyways, if i had been able to look up some apprentice logs to see if i did something wrong i could have:
A) Learnt to play the deck better.
B) Seen that it was'nt just me that had problems with that matchup.

Non-apprentice matchup analysis are probably more entertaining to read, but a lot of apprentice logs could be more useful for the reader. Anyways, the writers of those articles do what they want

[Smmenen]

I think many other strategy writers could learn from rakso and his apprentice logs. Apprentice logs are a way to show how the deck works in practice instead of just posting stuff like "just drop the tog and win". Although keeper vs keeper is not that interesting to me .

Personally, I find appr logs well nigh unreadable. When Smmenen wrote about Long.dec, his prose game summaries were much more useful to me, both in tracking the mana pool and in keeping an eye on the overall game state. The worst thing about the appr, though, is probably the huge numbers of lines taken up by tapping and untapping mana. Alright, I get it, the spell was paid for, but sweet merciful crap why do I need to be told which sources were used? Can we just infer that most beginners will tap leaving the best colors open? This simple omission would make the logs much more concise and readable. (I would still rather that they be turned into prose.)

Keep in mind I didn't use Apprentice.

Steve

[Dr. Sylvan]

Oh I know. But we have to concede the internet play over IRL because, well, Rakso isn't exactly nearby.