I said it in the report, and I'll say it again; thank you all for the support. Being able to play in this event was a great honor, and having the support of the community after my run was over meant quite a lot. Thank you.
Beautiful report. I finally had a chance to read the whole thing, line by line. With a report like this, it's tough to figure out the approach. I like that you basically asked folks to watch the videos, and then filled in the gaps with a focus on the critical junctures rather than an abundance of details. I also felt like the report was cathartic for you, which gives it a nice payoff.
Thank you, Steve.
There was some catharsis to writing the report, definitely. After it was all over, I wanted to crash, but after that, I wanted to play more. I'm waiting on some cards to arrive, and look forward to playing more in January. Given that I was a pillar of salt at the end of September, this is not where I thought I'd be now. Shop Prison is still dead, but I'm back.
That said, I did not rewatch the videos, having watched them live - and I felt like there were a few critical junctures that weren't analyzed. One thing that I didn't see in the report (which I read word for word, but may have somehow missed) was the unusual triple block situation. I remember LSV and the other commentator talking about how they didn't see that one coming.
I didn't talk about that instance, mostly because it was preceded by the missed Lodestone attack. At that point in the game, I'm now under 50% to win, and need to rely on David making a play mistake in order to re-achieve the initiative. I had to attack there, given the closing window and his active Crucible, and I had to hope that he didn't kill the Triskelion. If he blocked incorrectly, he lost.
I was also wondering if you had thoughts about Ochoa's play - and, specifically, how it differs from "traditional" workshop players, or is heterodox in anyway. David's precision is remarkable, and his capacity to find lines was truly impressive. You praised many opponents, but I am very curious to hear your thoughts about his lines, style, etc., especially since Workshops are your wheel house.
There are two major divisions within the Workshop pillar; Shop Prison and Shop Aggro. Some decks straddle that line (Martello, at times), but most Workshop decks are easily categorized as one or the other.
Shop Aggro demands a completely different skill set from Shop Prison. I have more in common with Josh Potucek's Landstill decks when I play Shops than I have with Brian Schlossberg's Shop Aggro. I am a control pilot, I just play with Workshops instead of Mana Drains.
Clearly there are a lot of basic principles that translate between the two different styles of play, but I have eschewed Shop Aggro for a long, long time. There are a lot of aspects of the basic strategy that I don't like, and will never truly be comfortable with. Weren't we debating the merits of Shop Aggro in 2009? Time goes on, but I still feel much the same. The Arcbound Ravager/Triskelion/Hangarback Walker combination adds a very nice end game to the deck, and I like that a lot. That said, until something can be done to revive Shop Prison, I'm going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
