My first vintage experience, (If you are new to vintage please read)

[CodeRedrum]

Ok, I am VERY new to vintage, friday the 7th I played my first vintage test matches with a download version of flash.  Some friends at FNM convinced me to attend a Proxy 15 Mox tournament on Sunday the 9th.  I was quite nervous because I knew that flash was a good deck and had top eight potential, my nervousness was associated with the fact that I felt a bad play would cost me a game or match, unfortuneately I was right.  I am posting this so people who are new to any format or cards remember how costly a simple avoidable mistake can be.
In game one I have the turn one win (flash protean hulk, a mox and a land) I elect to merchant scroll for pact of negation because I do not know what my opponent is playing, then I pass.  Turn two I win. 
For game two I mulligan, twice.  My opponenet first turn Duress, second turn thoughtseize, third turn thoughtseize. I obviously do not win the top deck challenge. 
Game three starts out horribly for me, my opponent mulls to 6 after I mull to 6 and declare keep.  He shouts in excitement and drops Leyline from his opening hand.  Once again I am without counters and getting thoughtseized/duressed into oblivion, then my opponent timetwists...I am thinking to myself "Did he really just give a deck with this much turn one win potential seven more cards?"  My new seven card hand includes a M scroll, a flash, a pact of negation, a protean hulk, a mox, a winged sliver ( i want to fly over bob with my SB) and a virulent sliver.  I am almost to my win condition and need to topdeck.  I don't topdeck the win (reverent silence with my tropical island already in play) but I do topdeck a chance at answers, ancestral recall.  I cast ancestral recall and draw into brainstorm and nothing else, I cast brainstorm and stare straight into a reverent silence, I should have this match hands down.  The problem is I got so excited to win my first vintage match that I cast reverent silence before putting two cards back onto my library for brainstorm.  My opponent did not notice this either but after a slight counter war over reverent silence I realize my mistake and admit this to my opponent, he calls a judge.  From what I understand the judges ruling could have gone either way but it was ruled an irrepairable game state resulting in a game loss.  Had I just slowed down and paid attention to card text I would have started my first vintage tournament at 1-0.  There is an important lesson to be learned here, when you first start playing vintage slow down and pay attention, who cares if your opponent plays his four spells and one land in less than a second on turn one, you have the right to think everything through and doing so can stop you from making a mistake like I did.

[vartemis]

It happens to all of us.  I have dropped cards out of my hand by accident, giving my opponent an edge.  A guy a played at last tournament miscounted his mana and tinkered out a colossus without the mana to bounce my welder, so I just welded the giant out for the mox again.  Live and learn.

j

[meadbert]

It happens to all of us.  I have dropped cards out of my hand by accident, giving my opponent an edge.  A guy a played at last tournament miscounted his mana and tinkered out a colossus without the mana to bounce my welder, so I just welded the giant out for the mox again.  Live and learn.

j

On two occasions I have shuffled up a 75 card deck and lost a game that way. 

[hauntedechos]

A friend of mine played Merchant Scroll declaring Time Walk the target card....=(

Haunted.

[Anusien]

Time Walk doesn't target

it was ruled an irrepairable game state resulting in a game loss.  Had I just slowed down and paid attention to card text I would have started my first vintage tournament at 1-0.

Nah, this is wrong.  It's a Game Play Error - Game Rules Violation and should result in a Warning.  It's worth familiarizing yourself with Magic Documents, especially the Penalty Guidelines.  This'll help you know how to deal with things, and gives you a baseline to know when a judge that may not know what's going on at a smaller tournament makes a bad call.

Anyway, good advice.  Owning up to mistakes and learning from them is a big accomplishment.  You'll only get beter.

[Shock Wave]

A friend of mine played Merchant Scroll declaring Time Walk the target card....=(

Haunted.

On several occasions at tournaments, my opponent (the same one!) searched out Tinker with Merchant Scroll. =(

[goobafish]

That kind of mistake is common, I wouldn't worry. I have seen people brainstorm and treat it like a Sensei's Divining Top, rearranging their top cards and not drawing one of them.

[hauntedechos]

I once had an opponent in a tourny cast Ancestrall only to treat it like a brainstorm...I laughed to myself trying to contain myself, when he asked what was so funny, I just had to let him in on it and even let him take it back w/o a re-do or calling a judge over, it was just too funny.

Haunted.

[Dr_Tongue]

I had an opponent try to fetch a land via Mystical Tutor (I had to explain it said mana source because of Dark Ritual's one time card type ~mana source~ instead of Instant like it is now). He said he would have won next turn if he drew into a land, lolz.

I've accidentally left 3 Duress in my SB once after going to time with Ichorid the round before and having a deck check next round. Auto game 1 loss.  Hopefully I've learned not to leave some of my best cards in the SB in the future

[Anusien]

Good habits to get into:
*) Memorize your sideboard.  If it helps, keep the sideboard in a specific order and always restore it to that order.  Check your sideboard before starting any game
*) De-sideboard right away at the current match.  I've seen a lot of players get to the table for the next match and have to de-sideboard; it takes time and risks forgetting it
*) Always pile shuffle your deck.  If the count doesn't come up to 60, stop and count.  (If you pile shuffle in 7s, the 60th card will fall on the 4th pile)
*) Always sideboard 15 in, 15 out.  This means put your sideboard in your deck, shuffle a few times, and then pull 15 cards out.  You'll be able to verify by the number of cards you take out that you have a 15 card sideboard going into games 2-3.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

CodeRedRum:

You played Steve aka Pierce aka ferrari f-50 that round right? At Black Gold? I was the Asian dude watching that match. Tough beats. I totally thought you had it. Pierce even managed to make a SAVAGE misplay. Oh well. Better luck next time! Hope to see you in April!

[SyntheticAngel]

Yeah Nick that was a savage mistake, but that's what terrible formats like type 2 will do to you with all of that combat and creatures. It's cool you enjoy the format. We will talk about that new Flash build with Revellark (Spelling?) on Friday congratulations, and you better be coming to the one in April.


Brennen

[CodeRedrum]

Yeah that was me. The tournament we are discussing was the proxy 15 at black and gold.  And yes my opponent was pierce.  In hindsight I think I learned a number of lessons from this mistake.  Number one know the rules.  Number two KNOW THE RULES.  Number three mistakes happen and they are not bad events unless you do not learn from them.  Number four you are responsible for knowing how each card in your deck operates.  I appreciate all the feedback from people at the event and I look forward to tweaking this deck per some new flash types I have seen on the drain.  I will be at the next event so long as babysitting and rides can be arranged and I assure you when I brainstorm two cards will FLY from my hand to the top of my library.

[Polynomial P]

Yeah, dont get discouraged from one bad experience. Every single person here has made a mistake that has cost them a game or more.

Notables for me include:
Deck registration error
Forgetting to de-sideboard
Forgetting that cabal therapy was in my yard and not casting it to prevent my opponent from casting stifle

As long as you learn from your mistakes you will be a better player for it. Good luck.

[aosquirrels]

I made the game loss ruling by NOT consulting the DCI Penalty Guidelines but instead by conferring with three "experienced" players so I could make a quick ruling.  After the tournament I looked up the ruling and realized that I was wrong.  For that I apologize.  As Anusien stated, it should be a warning (probably for both players) and the game should have continued on.

This is a lesson learned for me as well.

[PhilipJFry]

Sunday, while playing in my second tournament, I made the stupid mistake of saying "Fact or Fiction," but throwing down Force of Will onto the table.  Whoops.  That was stupid.

[Anusien]

I made the game loss ruling by NOT consulting the DCI Penalty Guidelines but instead by conferring with three "experienced" players so I could make a quick ruling.  After the tournament I looked up the ruling and realized that I was wrong.  For that I apologize.  As Anusien stated, it should be a warning (probably for both players) and the game should have continued on.

This is a lesson learned for me as well.

As a judge, you should never hesitate to tell the players that you need a moment to confirm or double check something, then go check the PG/CR/whatever.  Players will appreciate that you're making the effort to get things right.  Also, most Head Judges want to know about a Game Loss penalty, so you can take that time to talk to the HJ.
Even better, carry around one of these: http://www.wizards.com/dci/downloads/Sheet.pdf (That's for March 20th, the older one I can't seem to find at the moment.)

[aosquirrels]

I made the game loss ruling by NOT consulting the DCI Penalty Guidelines but instead by conferring with three "experienced" players so I could make a quick ruling.  After the tournament I looked up the ruling and realized that I was wrong.  For that I apologize.  As Anusien stated, it should be a warning (probably for both players) and the game should have continued on.

This is a lesson learned for me as well.

As a judge, you should never hesitate to tell the players that you need a moment to confirm or double check something, then go check the PG/CR/whatever.  Players will appreciate that you're making the effort to get things right.  Also, most Head Judges want to know about a Game Loss penalty, so you can take that time to talk to the HJ.
Even better, carry around one of these: http://www.wizards.com/dci/downloads/Sheet.pdf (That's for March 20th, the older one I can't seem to find at the moment.)

WOW!  I just downloaded the cheat sheet for P/G.  It should prove useful.  I will be sure to use it in the future.  Thanks.

[Anusien]

You may be also interested to read an article I just wrote on Tournament Operations, called Game Losses are Optional.

[nero angelo]

my 1st time to play against vintage, I was using suicide black and my opponent was using U/R Landstill...

The next thing I know, Crucible and Stripmine were demolishing my mana base... 


the second time, I was the one playing U/R Landstill and my opponent was playing powered Staxx

The next thing I know, I'm saccing permanents due to Smokestack w/2 soot Counters and Tapping permanents due to Tangle Wires... 

all of those were not in tournaments, though...