Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A Poor Day at the TCG Player 5k (or man do I really suck at this game)

Those who've been following know that I've been playing Magic again for a little better than a year (plus the 2+ years I played in college around Revised, Ice Age, and on up through Weatherlight).  I admit, I'm not the best player, but I have fun.  But after going to a tourney and going 0-4-drop I just felt a huge punch in the gut, that maybe I don't know what I'm doing, and I need to figure out how to remedy that.  First let me say this and I really mean it;

I'm fat, I sweat, but I don't stink...There was so much nerd funk at the event that in some instances it made my nauseous.  Everyone gets hot, and sweaty, but for the love of Orzhov please put some damned deodorant on.  There is no excuse for a grown person, who can drive and spend the money to buy and play this game to smell like that.  You give us nerds the bad name that we've had to deal with forever, don't perpetuate this.  Next event, whether its TCG or Star City, I think you guys should team up with Old Spice or Axe, or whoever and hand out samples, maybe it will sink in, but hey, it probably won't.

So on to the tournament, first let me say the setup was crazy at first, there were two lines, but no one really knew what to do, there was a slight lack of communication early, but then as more judges arrived, that changed.  I know the TO, but I made the suggestion that they get a bullhorn or some type of amplified mic to make announcements, b/c the noise level pretty much killed anything they said after about the 3rd row of tables, oh and there were 308-309 players, so it was well beyond expectations and that was awesome, which means I assume the tourney turned a profit (308*$30/person - $5k in prizes = money leftover...), so I expect that means they'll bring it back again sometime.

So on to the matches...
Every person I played in the 4 rounds before I dropped were incredibly nice, personable and talkative.  I was worried I'd wind up playing mouth breathing neck-beards all day who could not carry on a conversation with anyone outside of the mouse in their pocket.  But everyone was cool, from the guy who said he'd only been playing 2 weeks running the American Midrange deck to the seasoned player who drove all night from Houston to come play.

I was running The Aristocrats (pretty much the Conley Woods version from last month), in round 1 I got paired with a guy playing American Midrange.  Game 1 I made the biggest boner I could make, I cast Blasphemous Act and not thinking about the Boros Reckoner he had on the board, took 13 to the face and then got Searing Speared and Pillar of Flamed.  On to game 2, a little smoother, we're volleying damage back and forth and then I look at life totals I'm at 15, he's at 11...Harvest Pyre for 12 into a searing spear for the win.

0-1

Round 2
Guess what, another American Midrange deck, game one I was on an aggro tear with my Falkenrath Aristocrat and two Boros Reckoners, then they get detentionsphered, but I get Sorin out, pump him a little and then take his Gideon with 5 counters, get to swing a couple of times before he spheres him too, then its like 5 turns of nothing but land and I'm done.  On to game two, this game was over before I could do anything, I was totally flooded with mana, and just had no responses.

0-2

Round 3
Guy called his deck Jund Vampires, it really looked cool, I wish I could have gotten a breakdown on it, I'd like to play it at FNM.  I don't have a lot of notes on this one, but I remember it going fast.

0-3

Round 4
Naya Humans, this one was crazy, silverblade paladin paired with Wolfir silverheart dealt 12 damage and wow, I had no response.  Game two I took a win with a turn four Falkenrath Aristocrat and Boros Reckoner.  Game three he took it with some early Burning Tree Emmisarys and Mayor of Avabrook.

After this my other two friends and I were all 0-4, 0-4, and 1-3 respectively and we mutually agreed to quit and go drown our sorrows in pizza and play some Cards Against Humanity (which had us all laughing our asses off all night).

Losings not fun, but if I learned one thing this weekend its to look at the cards in play, be mindful of what I'm doing, and know when to mulligan and pile shuffle.  Hoping it gets better, I'm already brewing up some new deck ideas, don't want to spoil incase anyone I play actually reads this.

Until next time.

1 comment:

  1. This is a fear of mine. After this next pre-release, I'm planning on going to a FNM and POSSIBLY a grand prix event. I'd hate to get roflstomped. I'm hoping that with some of the new cards and the block drop off in Oct, there will be a big swing in the types of decks that are out there.

    Good write up and a nice read! :)

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