To recap from yesterday: I went a respectable 4-3 the first day of Nationals, which was mildly frustrating as I gave away one, and possibly two, games to dumb, dumb mistakes (continuing to prove why Dave here is not a Pro Tour player).
The field seems to have thinned out somewhat. I think we lost about one-third of the players. Checking the standings from the day before, being as I didn’t stick around to see them posted, I see that Antonio de Rosa is in first (yep, he pretty much ran the table, didn’t he?), I’m in 65th and Ross is an impressive 15th.
The pods are posted and I see I’m at a table with David Williams. Yes, that David Williams, and he’s on my left.
I take Uyo, Silent Prophet first pick (thusly going into Blue and drafting a bomb, as preferred, then follow that up with Consuming Vortex to cut the color off and Petals of Insight over Nagao, Bound by Honor (I don’t remember seeing Nagao in the pack, but, then again, I spent too long re-reading Petals of Insight and when the judge said “draft,” I had to grab something.
Had I drafted Nagao, I might have been able to slide into U/W and had a pretty strong draft, or, with Uyo, considered U/R and tried to suck up Red burn spells. However, the player to my right ended up going W/B/R, so I may have been boned either way. Still, I’m going to call this Mistake #5.
From then on, I fill out my deck with less-than-stellar Blue cards – I don’t see many Soratami, but I get Mystic Restraints and Hisoka’s Defiance, a card I tend to value more highly than others.
I don’t get much for the Ninjas I wanted, but I do get a fifth-pick Okiba-Gang Shinobi and two early Glasskites, but my removal suite is pretty lacking. Saviors offers me little but does give me another potential bomb in Overwhelming Intellect, however, my creature base is rather underwhelming.
The U/B deck I got this time was a far cry from yesterday’s little powerhouse. I’m probably going to be lucky to win one game with this garbage.
Phantom Wings
2 Shimmering Glasskite
Psychic Spear
Hisoka’s Defiance
Consuming Vortex
Ashen-Skin Zubera
Petals of Insight
Genju of the Falls
Uyo, Silent Prophet
Overwhelming Intellect
Hand of Cruelty
Kuro’s Taken
Okina-Gang Shinobi
2 Deathmask Nezumi
Mystic Restraints
Kami of Twisted Reflection
Veil of Secrecy
Teardrop Kami
Mistblade Shinobi
Moonbow Illusionist
Two bombs and a lot of chaff.
By the way: did you know that, at Nationals, the cards come pre-opened and stamped, presumably to prevent any kind of deck-swapping shenanigans. My pod has pretty hearts stamped on theirs. It’s so cute, it makes me want to throw up.
Round 8: David Williams (B/W)
On the one hand – how cool is this, I’m playing David Williams! On the other hand – crap, I gotta play David Williams. Wearing a white T-shirt and Blue jeans, David does not look like someone with a massive bankroll. And while he does have the iPod, the shades he must have left in the hotel room. He’s nowhere near as inscrutable playing Magic as he is on the World Poker Tour, either.
We make idle chatter while shuffling, spinning and shuffling some more. David asks me, “You look familiar, have I seen you before?” I tell him I write for Star City Games on occasion; he nods. I ask him, “Haven’t I seen you on T.V. before? You look familiar” he chuckles and nods. Yeah, like he hasn’t heard that one before.
While I succeeded in putting Dave into White, I failed to anticipate that he’d go into Black (which is why he’s a former Worlds competitor and, well, I’m not), so we ended up fighting over the color a bit. Then how did I get a fifth pick Okiba-Gang? Questions for another time.
Game one, I’m on the draw, hold two Swamps, two Islands, Genju, Hisoka’s Defiance and another card (forgive me, I have the handwriting of an internist with the D.T.s). I open with the Genju, and the deck just keeps coughing up lands, but David’s not putting too much pressure on me, with only a Devoted Retainer sending the beats. I decide to wait until I get a little more gas before sending the Genju on over, which is a good thing as Dave wheels a turn 4 Nikko-Onna, but Hisoka’s Defiance keeps it alive. That’s a good thing, as my deck is coughing up nothing else creature-wise. So I swing. And swing. And swing.
David attempts to staunch the beats one turn with a vanilla flier plus Hundred-Talon Strike, but I use Veil of Secrecy to make his flier untargetable and ground it permanently. David never finds and answer and the Genju literally goes the distance on its own.
Wow. This would be quite the feather in my cap, and a big boost to my otherwise fair-to-middling Limited rating.
The second game is pretty short – David has a hand full of small beaters, and Kuro’s Taken isn’t that great when he’s the only creature on your side of the board. I do manage to drain his hand with an Okiba-Gang strike late, but it’s far too little, far too late, especially when facing down Nagao and two other Samurai.
I do have a turn 1 Psychic Spear revealing Kagemaro’s Clutch, Shoji of something, Hundred-Talon Strike, Hundred-Talon Kami and Reciprocate – I take the Shoji. This is also where I make Mistake #6. With a Teardrop Kami and Kuro’s Taken on the board, after seeing David has a Reciprocate, and also being tapped out, I elect to attack with both – to use the poker parlance, it’s a semi-bluff, to see if he’ll waste a good removal spell on a suboptimal creature. As soon as I tap the Rat, I know I’ve screwed up, as in my creature-poor deck, he’d have made a great blocker until I got to one of my bombs. Sure enough, David kills it. A minor mistake, but a critical one.
Still, I’m beating down early, but David starts to re-establish board control with a Waxmane Baku. Even though I have no removal, I manage to get rid of the Waxmane with a Consuming Vortex followed up with an Okiba-Gang appearance to drain his hand.
But while David’s deck keeps coughing up creatures, mine coughs up land. Dave plinks away with a small flier while I’m forced to leave the Gang – now my lone creature – at home. With nine lands in play and four in my hand, I’m doing my best to be inscrutable but I’m sure I’m failing miserably. At three life, David swings, I block the non-flier, and sure enough, David has found one of his Plow Through Reitos for the win.
Alas. Good games, though, and David certainly was fun to play against.
Round 9: Justin Morcate (U/B)
This explains where all my Soratamis went. Justin gets a game loss for misregistering his deck (he forgot a Ragged Veins – good grief, of all the cards to forget…)
In all honesty, my notes are a mess, and I most just remember that his deck was all around better – more fliers (double Shinen of Flight’s Wings, for example), more Ninjas, more removal – and he beat me the next two games. It was a lot of back and forth (mostly me falling back and him moving forth). I do remember this much, though:
Mistake #6: No extra alliteration needed here. We both are hoarding cards. I’m holding Overwhelming Intellect. I play a Nezumi, pass. Justin plays a Shinen of Flight’s Wings. I respond with Intellect. It is then pointed out to me that I have eight lands in play, not nine.
Yes, I may have had an Overwhelming Intellect, but I clearly don’t have an overwhelming intellect, if you catch my drift.
Mistake #7: Game three, I have an opening hand that lets me curve out nicely, with a turn 3 Nezumi and turn 4 Glasskite. However, I don’t cast the Glasskite on turn 4, choosing instead to hold the Hisoka’s Definace to perhaps counter a Spirit. Sure enough, he plays Kira, Great Glass Spinner, and I counter it – like an idiot. I’ve already seen Justin’s deck has a ton of soulshift creatures, and sure enough, Kira comes back. I should have cast the Glasskite and saved the Defiance for a soulshifter like Kami of Empty Graves or a Shinen. Kira by herself was not a scary creature.
Maybe I could have stolen the one game I needed had I not made these two big boneheaded errors. All I do end up with is a bruise on my forehead from hitting myself there so hard.
Round 10: Eric Hofner (W/B/R)
Eric was the player to my right who also was sucking up Black. No wonder I didn’t get any removal. His deck, however, seems like a hodge-podge of table scraps. I mean, running Kuon, Ogre Ascendant in a three-color deck? That’s just asking for trouble.
Eric also got me beat in one category: his wife just had their first baby. And she let him come here? I don’t think my wife (I have to get used to saying that now, too) would let me get away with that.
On the play for game one, Eric opens with a Kami of Ancient Law swinging a very large Ronin Warclub. We trade creatures for a while until he runs out of beaters for a turn, and for once, my deck decides to deliver creatures and not a land glut. A Glasskite becomes an Okiba-Gang, and Uyo finally decides to make an appearance. I’ve got the game in hand, it seems, when Eric commits all his forces to an alpha strike.
Okay, I think, he’s either desperate or he’s got something up his sleeve besides his fuzzy arms. I don’t see enough lethal damage there, so I suspect a combat trick. But I have tricks of my own…sure enough, he’s got the Plow Through Reito, but I have the Hisoka’s Defiance, and that’s game.
Game two… let’s just sum it up like this.
Eric: “Cast Myojin of Cleansing Fire.”
Me: “Wow. Counter that with Overwhelming Intellect.”
Ross (sitting next to me): “Holy ****!”
At that point, Eric only chance is decking me, and being able to drop three creatures a turn ends the game quickly.
Hey, that was fun.
As expected, I went 1-2 with that pile, but I’m really frustrated that 2-1, maybe even 3-0 was a possibility if it weren’t for the classic David R. Meddish Dumb*ss mistakes. At 5-5, I don’t think making money is going to happen, but we’ll see if we can salvage, say, 8-6.
Round 11: Ed Roman (Tooth and Nail)
God, what a frustrating game, as Tooth – the Forrest Gump of the metagame – does what Tooth does. I’ve got two Molten Rains that kill the same land, but a second Eternal Witness brings back the Tower and he goes off. Bother. Maybe I should have left in that random one-of Sowing Salt.
I finally draw a Sowing Salt in game two and nuke the Towers, and from there, it’s all over but the shouting, as he hasn’t gone to the Man Plan. Of course, I would have to make Mistake #8 and not pay attention to the fact that Ed is sideboarding in about ten cards, obviously going with the Man Plan, and I should dump the land destruction and bring in the stuff that kills 5/5s. Sure enough, a turn 3 Iwamori goes the distance and makes me want to whack myself in the forehead again – but I already have a nasty bruise there.
That was rather dejecting, as Ed (no offense) wasn’t the best Tooth player – frequently forgetting EOT Top activations and the like.
Yeah, like I should be talking. At least I never forgot to activate my Tops EOT, for all the good that did me.
Round 12: Michael Day (Tooth and Nail)
My notes are kind of spotty. Probably because I got waxed. Game one, I go down to the Kiki-Jiki/Duplicant combo, despite once again getting the early Molten Rain. Game two is closer. Michael gets the Tron assembled rapidly but the Tooth is not forthcoming (thank God) but he does have a Triskelion that beats on me for a while. And, just when it looks like I’m going to stabilize at three life, getting Sloggy into play and killing the Trike, Michael recurs it with a Witness and that’s all she wrote.
Bah. Now 7-7 is the best I can hope for. For a deck that was supposed to have a good record against Tooth, it doesn’t seem to be living up to a) the hype and b) my testing results.
Round 13: Steven Bilklid (WW)
Against White weenie, the matches seem to generally go lose the first game to the beats, then win the next two thanks to Shock and Culling Scales. Game one, surprisingly, goes to me, thanks to a turn 5 Sloggy. Steven is unable to mount much of an early attack, and the Slogger, combined with a pinch of burn and his own Shock-on-a-stick ability, enables me to punch through for lethal damage early.
Bwahahaha! Trogdor strikes again!
In come the Scales, out goes the land kill. I don’t get any Scales in the second game, and take a few beats from Isamaru, a Suntail Hawk and Glorious Anthem until stabilizing at six life with Sloggy, ready to clear the board next turn. Steven, however, has not one but two EOT Raise the Alarms, and the math is not in my favor.
Well crap.
Game three, we present decks, and as soon as he does so, he gets the “I-can’t-believe-I-just-did-that” look on his face (I know that look quite well, being very familiar with it). Yeah, those Terashi’s Grasps? This is the matchup you bring them in for. And I have a Top and Scales in my opening draw and he’s kold from then on.
Round 14: Justin Drew (mono-Blue)
Justin starts with an Island, and I’m thinking, aha, I finally get to play the BlueTron deck.
He plays a second Island and I’m thinking, MUC?
Then he drops a Proteus Staff.
Oh. My. God. Someone actually brought a Proteus-Belcher deck to Nats. These are the days of miracle and wonder.
I’m assuming he’s running the Mana Leak and Condescend in that deck, and he’s content to let me ramp up my mana while he looks for a creature to use his Staff on. I try to taunt him into using one of those counters with EOT burn, and eventually he feels the need to Condescend a Beacon of Destruction. This gives me the opening I need to drop an Arc-Slogger on my turn. From there, Justin strangely tries to use the Staff to get rid of Sloggy… which just gets another Sloggy. Say hello to my little friend!
Justin does eventually get a Blinkmoth Nexus into play and attempts to feed it to the Staff, but I burn it out in response and Sloggy goes the distance in short order.
Justin does better in the second game, drawing Nexii-a-plenty, and I can’t burn them all out before his deck does what it does. I do have a Slogger in play to answer his Darksteel Colossus, and I think I have a slim chance of pulling the game out with Pulses, but he topdecks a Vedalken Shackles and ends that plan in a hurry.
At this point, I can feel the frustration that has damned in the past (and in the past day) rising. No, I refuse to lose this game, I tell myself. I will be patient. I will be smart. I will not make the mistake that kills me this game.
Right before I present my deck, I remember that I have seen no other creatures in his deck other than Nexii, and I know that Justin can be goaded into countering burn spells at EOT, giving me the opportunities I need. I go back and pretty much bring in my entire sideboard: Stone Rains, Sowing Salt, Shock and Culling Scales all come in – out go all the creatures and a good chunk of the burn. My reasoning is, he can’t win unless without a Nexus or a Staff; my entire sideboard will keep him from getting those. Quite simply, I am no longer playing to win – I hardly have any win conditions left – I am playing not to lose. Normally a horrible stratagem, but I think it’ll work.
Sure enough, Justin is getting a dreamy draw on Nexii. I, however, hold a hand of Top, three lands, Shock, Sowing Salt and two Pulses.
Nice.
Justin’s impatience costs him the game. He manages to get two Nexii, three Islands and a Proteus Staff into play, then attempts to go off right then, rather than wait for a better opportunity later on when he’s got more free mana and more counters in hand. He activates a Nexus, then the Staff, and I shock the Nexus in response. I untap, cast Sowing Salt and from there, it’s all academic. The only way he can win is to either hard-cast Darksteel Colossus or get a Goblin Charbelcher into play and win via that route. Justin’s death after that is like a date with Exeter’s Daughter; long, slow and excruciating. I get a Culling Scales into play that starts eating his Moxes, Sun Droplets, Shackles and Staffs, and he gets nibbled to death with my Nexuses.
I shake the hand and count my blessings. I fought back and managed a 70th place finish, going 4-3 in Standard, 3-4 in draft (amazingly, my Standard rating hit an all-time high despite my less-than-stellar showing).
Hey, I’m the 70th best player in the United States! (Yes, I realize that is the same convoluted logic that once decreed Slippery Rock State the best football team in the nation, but I really don’t care about that).
After the event, I get a few beers, braving the ungodly humidity, then come back to watch the Game of the Year, which was extremely entertaining.
I say so long to a few people, including Ted Knutson, who asks me, “Did you have fun?”
Despite my frustrating 7-7 record, which could have been 10-4, yes, I did.
“Would you do it again?” he then queries.
I have to think about that. And the answer is probably no.
I came, I tried, I took my shot, and I came up short. No shame in that. Unless I finally cure myself of all those bad habits (making at least eight major play mistakes is not the hallmark of a Pro Tour caliber player), find a solid playtesting group again, and make the time to test, test, and keep testing, I don’t see how I can justify the expense of attending Nationals – as a competitor – again.
Maybe I can cure myself of the bad habits. Maybe I can find a few new members for the High Plains Drifters.
But time…”there is more of everything except time,” Da Vinci once said. Like many Magic players, I’ve fallen prey to the siren song of poker (and, while I’m not in David Williams sphere quite yet, I do make the rent money more often than not), and, of course, I’m newly married with rugrats in the not so distant future. And there’s that novel I’m writing, too.
But for one weekend, I got to live the dream, and I will always have the memories…and the T-shirt.
Fear not, though, I’ll keep playing Magic, and I’ll keep writing about it. Maybe I will catch lightning in a bottle someday. Heck, there’s still that elusive States plaque to get.