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Nevyn
Guest
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« on: August 01, 2002, 10:13:39 am » |
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I'm not much for holding people in suspense. I lost 0-2. Here is why:
Game 1: Sometimes, you make a decision so bad that later on you can't even begin to fathom what could have led you to it. For example, playing TN against Stacker, you get an opening hand of:
Tropical Island
Impulse
Regrowth
Black Lotus
Duress
Enlightened Tutor
Sol Ring
And you keep it. You don't know why, you just do. Oops
Play error number 1.
I was playing first and start land, lotus, BBB, duress, sol ring, impulse
Play error number 2: I knew duress would be important for game 2, but I also knew that it was largely ineffectual for game 1. This was a race, and impulse, sol ring, regrow impulse would have been better. In further hindsight, maybe I should even have regrown lotus (welder). Impulse gets me a volcanic island (having to pass up a DT and a gush)
He starts off mountain-welder. I regrow and impulse, getting ancestral. He gets out a juggernaut and I get out a horn. We each get 1 card off horn before it gets welded into a lotus. I get my white mana. I do an eot enlightened and gush, but make 1-3 critical errors
Play Error 3 - I resolve enlightened before I gush. This is a clear mistake as either way I will get 2 unknown and 1 known card for my next draw phase, but if I gush first I could draw a horn or fastbond or other key card, making my tutor decision infinitely easier.
Play Errors 4 and 5- 4 isnt necessarily an error - I tutored for fastbond, which is aggresive, but reasonable considering the clock I'm on. Play Error #5 is hard casting the gush, and I am not 100% sure it WAS an error, but read on and you'll see why. I did have 2 lands in hand when I decided to hard cast it so it was a reasonable decision.
Anyway, I get a Zorb and get Horn in what looks like the nick of time. THe only artifact in my grave is a horn of greed. I am on minimal life and saccing land to keep things going, and worried that he will welder my orb for the other horn. Before that can happen I stall out, drawing a cunning wish as my last shot. Unfortunately I have 3 untapped lands and a lotus for mana, so I cant wish very effectively without letting my horn die. I get nothing and procede to die. I made several blatant errors and still almost pulled it out, but welder is proving more annoying than expected and my opponent is playing well. Besides, now comes the card I dont want to see (and don't have adequate sideboard for), blood moon.
Game 2:
Playing first again, I keep a slow but versatile hand with a library, a horn, a dismantling blow, and a tundra as notables. All I have to do is hit 3 mana before blood moon hits and I have a shot this game. In retrospect, I maybe should have mulliganed more aggresively here, but I took the chance on a hand that should handle blood moon ok. I start library go. He plays muntain go. I library, and play tundra. He plays factory mox, blood moon.
Ouch.
I fight on bravely, getting out 3 horns of greed and desperately seeking a lotus to blow up his blood moon, but funny things happen with cards sometimes, and I stop drawing land, making my horns worse than useless. Meanwhile, he seems to be drawing only land (or maybe more blood moons), as his only threat for a long time is Su-Chi. He eventually adds to that and finishes me as I can't find the lotus. I knew blood moon would be an issue, so I can't say I am horribly disillusioned by this game (my sb is ass for this metagame), but losing game 1 when I got to play first and got a fair number of turns to set up had me upset. Full credit to ReSoN, who played a very solid match with no glaring errors that I could see and certainly deserved a win more than me.
The moral of the story: When you don't play your deck for 2 months, don't be surprised if you suck hard. My judgment
was seriously off for game 1, and while I can;t say I definitely would have won that game with better play, it at least would have been interesting. Think anyone will notice if I stick a mox pearl in my sideboard for next round?
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