So, yeah, after all that, I’ve achieved one of my greatest goals in a decade of Magic playing: qualifying for Nationals…and I can’t even go.
– from OMGIQD, Part 2_ (My Northwest Regionals report, which had a much catchier but much, much longer title at the time)
Yeah, I knew I said I wasn’t going to come.
For those out of the loop or too lazy to click on some old links, let me recap: About one year ago, I’d popped the question to my bride-to-be and was planning my upcoming wedding for August 6th, 2005 with honeymoon to follow immediately thereafter in Victoria, British Columbia. However, about five months ago, my fiancee, who is getting her M.A. in Archaeology, was invited to present a paper based on her thesis at a conference in New Mexico from August 10th-12th.
Since there’s a very good chance we’ll end up living down there after she graduates, and being invited down to present was a Very Big Thing and really couldn’t be passed up, we altered our plans to spend a few days in New Mexico, then fly up to Victoria.
Then lucksack Dave here has to go and qualify for Nationals one month later. Which, miracle of miracles, coincidence of coincidences, just happened to be on the same weekend we were going to be down in New Mexico.
Amazingly, my soon-to-be-wife all but demanded I attend. She knows I gave up a lot to move up to the ass end of the state of Washington, for, as I have ranted frequently, what few game stores there are in the vicinity all suck (no Magic support at all – the closest “real” store is 100 miles away) and I can count on one hand all the Magic players I know in the vicinity and still have fingers left over.
Yes, I definitely have a keeper here. Gentlemen, if you can find a woman who actually wants you to fly across the country to play Magic, I highly recommend you keep her.
Every friend I knew insisted I go as well. Yes, I may have backed into the slot, but when are you ever going to get this chance again. I had the cash for it (barely, but it’s there). I had the time. And, let’s face it, Davelings are in the not so distant future, so who knows if I ever will have the money or time to do this again?
So I explore the possibilities of traveling to Baltimore. I get a hold of a Magic player I know somewhat well from the Portland area, Ross Freeman, who also qualified and also happens to be of my senior (30+) status, and inquired if he was going and if he wanted to split a room. He was highly agreeable. I’ve found it best to room with, ahem, old folks. We tend to be quiet, fastidious and value our sleep highly, whereas you young’uns seem to take great delight in playing “how many people can we cram into a motel room?” That game loses its luster once you reach your third decade. Poor Antonio de Rosa. I was regaled with stories of how his three suitemates kept him up all night on Friday… if you happened to be one of his suitemates, all I can tell you is that you are very lucky Antonio does not carry concealed weaponry.
We got a room within two blocks of the event site; very convenient. Now, could I change my flight without too much hassle? I’d already booked tickets to Albuquerque. I, fortunately, booked on Southwest, bless their hearts. Five minutes online and bang! No muss, no fuss, no extra fees.
This as compared to another airline I had to do this with – I won’t name names, let’s just call them “Lambda.” I went through operator after operator and got charged extra fees up the wazoo – it was almost cheaper just to buy new tickets, I swear. No wonder they’re in bankruptcy.
(The preceeding paragraphs are unpaid statements and the author is in no way affiliated with Southwest Airlines – although if Southwest wanted to throw a little cash at the author, he would have no objections.)
Now, Baltimore – I want to know why, why, in the name of all that is good and holy in this world, did Wizards decide to have this event in a city noted for hot, humid summers? The temperatures topped 90, the humidity was close to one hundred percent, the heat index – my God, is that a real number? It was like the entire city was a sauna; a sauna filled with fat sweaty guys who’d been eating beans and asparagus for lunch. Unfortunately, I also sweat heavily (yeah, I know, oversharing, but it’s germane to the anecdote). This is actually a sign of good health, being able to break into a healthy sweat, but I really overdo it (genetics, can’t fight it) and, as you can tell from the picture in my byline, I don’t have much in the way of sponge-like follicles on the top of my head these days.
By the end of the two-block walk from the hotel to the convention site, I was pretty much sopping wet and never so thankful for the invention of air conditioning.
May I suggest in the future that these events be held in a cooler, less humid metropolis next time? I think Anchorage might be an excellent venue.
But I digress.
So I’m going to Baltimore!
I knew going in I faced a bit of an uphill battle and had many negatives working against me. I no longer had a trusty team of playtesters available. The only testing I could do was online using MTGO (for draft) and Magic Workstation (buggy as hell but otherwise invaluable for Standard). Money was also going to be a little tight considering the month of August was going to include a wedding, two separate trips across the country and a honeymoon in Victoria, British Columbia.
Since I couldn’t test that much, I had to concentrate on what weaknesses I could correct.
I know I have many faults that have cost me in the past and are the primary reason I’m a Good player and not a Great one.
I play too fast.
I’m inflexible when it comes to during-the-game strategy, that is, I decide on a course of action in advance and don’t adjust to what my opponent does.
I have “tells” when things aren’t going my way (which is funny, as when I play poker, I’m pretty hard to read).
I make too many dumb mistakes an experienced player shouldn’t.
That in mind, I resolved to play slower, play smarter, and avoid the vapor lock that has killed me in the past.
As for the draft portion of the proceedings, I did as much testing on MTGO as time and money would allow (which was nowhere near what I would have liked) and, in combination with the many articles on Kamigawa drafting I read, made the following discovery:
Draft Blue = win
Not draft Blue = not win
That in mind, I formulated the following strategy:
1) Crack a bomb
2) In lieu of getting a bomb, force Blue early, even if that means taking sub-optimal cards
3) Pair it with either Black or White, my preferred combinations, as
4) Red and Green will most likely be drafted heavily by scrubbier players, thusly diluting the colors
5) Be flexible, however, and if an off-color bomb gets dropped into your lap; be ready to switch colors.
Now, while draft was my weakness, I felt confident in Constructed. I decided to dance with who brought me.
Flores Red
19 Mountain
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Talisman of Indulgence
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3 Beacon of Destruction
4 Molten Rain
4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
Sideboard:
3 Sowing Salt
4 Shock
4 Culling Scales
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
3 Stone Rain
I’d thought about adding Cranial Extractions (as Josh Ravitz did, apparently at Flores’ urging) for the Tooth matchup, but never got beyond just thinking about it. It might have helped. My only bit of homebrew tech were the Talismans of Indulgence, replacing the random one-of and one land. The Talismans provided a) two extra enablers for a turn 3 Simulacrum, b) a little anti-Plow Under defense and c) more Shrapnel Blast fodder.
Shocks were a last minute addition for the Medium Red and Weenie White matchups, and they did shine there. Only a lone Boseiju for the BlueTron decks, which I didn’t expect in great numbers (shows you what I know), and it only came in once all weekend.
On the cross-country flight, I thought long and hard about my goals: What did I want to get out of this event? How seriously do I want to take this? I mean, I’m a decent player, and by no means a bad one, but let’s be realistic: I’m not a pro, and in all likeliness, never will be.
Scribbling on a piece of paper, I come up with a list of expectations:
- Qualify for Worlds
- Finish in the money
- Finish with a winning record
- Have fun
Realistically, the first one is a pipe dream (but, then again, who ever heard of Ben Zoz until last year?). [Or since. – Knut] The second is probably a reach. The third ought to be doable. The fourth – I’m going to do my best to make sure that I’ll least succeed on one count.
Preliminaries aside, let’s get on with the show, shall we?
It’s kind of fun meeting people I’ve only known via email. Why, look, it’s my esteemed editor, Ted Knutson, who is not only fairly tall but also has a lovely singing voice. Sheldon Menery is your lead judge (we would later lament how we’ve changed but our photos haven’t). David Williams is here, obviously slumming. Antonio de Rosa, Osyp Lebedowicz, Rob Dougherty, yours truly – why, it’s a cornucopia of American Magic cognoscenti. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Mike Flores, alas, as I did have some questions regarding Flores Red for him.
The gaming center is cavernous and mercifully well-air conditioned. I sign in, get my neat-o Competitor’s Badge and T-shirt (I hope that no matter how old I get, I never lose the thrill of getting neat – albeit cheap – stuff), play a few rounds with my roommate to help ease the jitters, wrecking his Medium Red deck. The seatings are posted, the 188 competitiors (only 188? Wow… I would have thought there’d be more, but, even with seven to a hotel room, a trip to Baltimore isn’t cheap, and Nats only pays to Top 25) find their places, and, after introductions from Sheldon and Randy Buehler, Nationals has started.
I’ll apologize for any gaps in my coverage. While I try to take detailed notes during matches, I find it best to write a tournament report shortly thereafter while events are still fresh in my mind. I have, however, been rather busy and had, ahem, other things on my mind for the past week or so.
Round 1: Chris McDaniel (Tooth & Nail)
Chris is a young’un, I’d guess around 16 or so, and is playing Tooth and Nail, a tough but winnable matchup for me. The week of my wedding, when I was down in Bend, I got to do some serious testing with my friend Chris Fox, devotee of all things Red, and his assistance in breaking down the Tooth matchup was invaluable. Our game one strategy for Tooth is to mulligan aggressively – slow starts are sure death – and hopefully get a threat in play early.
Chris starts with a Mox and Sylvan Scrying for a piece of the Urzatron on his first turn, and follows that up with a Sakura-Tribe Elder. My draw is decent, with two lands, Bauble, Top and Simulacrum. I drop the Bauble first, and Chris rapidly starts assembling the ‘Tron. My Top gets played on turn 3, and mises me a timely Molten Rain for turn 4, just as Chris got all three pieces in play. Chris is a bit glutted from there on out, and I start throwing burn at his dome as, in what would far too common all weekend long, my Arc-Sloggers are shy and don’t want to come out of my deck.
I’ve got Chris at 11 when he hits me with a Plow Under, I respond with Beacon of Destruction. This would be Mistake #1. Get used to the bold text, as it’s going to be there every time I make a mistake that costs me a game, and sadly, there were a lot of them, despite my attempts to avoid them. Ten years of bad habits, my best intentions aside, are hard to break, unless I break down and have somebody watch me play while controlling electrodes connected to my nether regions. That kind of negative reinforcement might actually do the trick. Then again, I’ve been trying to stop chewing my fingernails for some time, and while there aren’t any Band-Aids on the ends of them right now, it’s not for lack of trying.
I should have added the mana to my pool, then cast the Beacon, giving me a free shuffle and getting rid of the lands, instead of costing me two draw steps. While I do put Chris at six life, I fail to dig down to more burn in time and he Tooths for the win.
Game two, I take out some burn for the land destruction suite and Culling Scales to deal with Moxes and, most likely, Vine Trellis. My draw is dreamy, giving me a turn 3 Simulacrum and Divining Top. Chris answers with Iwamori, which I have no problem with, since I’m holding two of my Pulses, and I want to lose life. The endgame gets a little tricky, with me at five, Chris at nine, and holding a Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] and having a Blinkmoth Nexus and Simmy in play, but as I choose to burn for one during the end of Chris’ main phase, he scoops, seeing lethal damage coming.
I know for certain that I do not want to start Nationals at 0-1, and even after stealing that game, this may be an uphill battle, but Chris’s admission that he hasn’t played Tooth and Nail very much gives me hope. On the play for the third game, Chris looks at his hand, wrinkles his face, and says he’ll keep. I look at my seven cards. My hand is Mountain, Top, three Molten Rain, Pulse, and Shrapnel Blast.
You never keep a one-land hand. Never. (Unless you have at least three plays off of it – Fox’s Law #1) I am, however, on the draw, have a Top and, dear Lord, this is too good to throw back.
I look skyward, pray to the mana gods (I knew I should have sacrificed that goat) and announce that I’ll keep.
Chris starts with Mox, Top, go.
I think I bruised my chin, it hit the table so hard.
He kept a no-land, Top hand on the play?
Wow.
Now, hopefully my deck will cough up what I need. Sure enough, during my upkeep, I activate the Top and there’s two oh-so-beautiful Mountains waiting for me.
The funny part is, Chris never played a land for three turns after that, so I had all this beautiful land destruction in my hand and nothing to use it on. For some odd reason, it reminded me of a FNM event I played in long ago, where I had to play an Avalanche Rider and blow up my own land just to have a blocker. I don’t know why that memory popped into my mind.
Chris never recovers from that slow start, and every time he drops a land, it gets nuked. He does get two Sun Droplets into play at one point, but that’s about it, and I overwhelm them with a double-Slogger alpha strike.
Hey, 1-0 at Nats. Good start. Hey, who knows… maybe I will be this year’s Ben Zoz. Stranger things have happened (not much stranger, true, but still…)
Round 2: Jim Horng (WW)
Ugh. Game one is a complete slaughter. He starts with a Suntail Hawk, Raise the Alarm and Glorious Anthem, and when I find a Top to find me answers, main deck Damping Matrix locks me down. I never did a point of damage to him in the game.
Fortunately, I have a plan. Out go the Beacons, land destruction and one Pulse for the Culling Scales and Shocks. Now I have answers. I never see the Scales, but two Shocks keep Isamaru (bad doggie!) and a Suntail Hawk off my case, and Arc-Slogger and company take him from 16 to 0 in no time (no Shining Shoal, either, apparently).
For the rubber match, if Jim had Terashi’s Grasps, they never came to play. After mulliganing, he drops Isamaru, I take a hit before responding with Magma Jet, which finds me the Culling Scales I need. From there, it’s an absolute wrecking. Jim tries to keep up with Raise the Alarm tokens and Blinkmoth Nexii, but I have extra burn to keep them from getting out of hand and I find a Top which enables me to keep the Scales along as long as I need them. Twin Fatbots, believe it or not, end up going the distance.
I freely admit, if I can go 3-0, I’d be pleasantly surprised. 5-2 was the goal I set for myself today.
Round 3: James Fulguim (Tooth and Nail)
James seems a bit more savvy at playing Tooth and Nail. I see an opening hand of three land, Talisman and Fatbot and inexplicably decide to keep. And I can’t, in retrospect, imagine why. There was absolutely no pressure in that hand, and no Top. Was it lack of sleep (I will confess to being rather jet-lagged at that point)? Not enough coffee? Stupidity? It was definitely Mistake #2, as James has plenty of time to Mindslaver me and set up the win.
Game two is better for me, but Tooth does what Tooth does, as I kill the same land three times (Sowing Salt does not come to save me) but Eternal Witness lets him assemble the Urzatron before I can kill it. He brings in Kiki-Jiki and Sundering Titan, destroys my mana base and life total in short order. A Nexus that might have bought me time gets Reaped away, and that’s all she wrote.
Still, 2-1 isn’t a bad start. Heck, I’m in better shape than more than a couple of pros.
On to the draft portion of our show.
I don’t recognize anyone at our pod. As we sit quietly, listening to Sheldon’s spiel, the player to my left is like a monkey with ADD. He keeps fiddling, spinning, and frequently dropping his plastic case full of cards on the floor (for those who have not been to Nationals, during the draft portion, the decks are pre-opened, placed into numbered paper sleeves and inserted into plastic 60-card cases), while ridiculing another player at the table who has said he’s playing 4-Color Gifts (a perfectly acceptable choice) – sorry, guess we don’t have ten Pro Tour points like some people at this table. Me, I’m thinking, a) “Geez, this guy needs to take his Ritalin” and b) “I’d love to play poker against him.”
The first pack has three good cards: Ronin Houndmaster, Consuming Vortex (the only Blue card in the pack) and Kabuto Moth. I see the opportunity to a) force Blue and b) put the spastic monkey to my left into White. I pick up a Rend Flesh and Wicked Akuba in the next two picks and it looks like I’m going to go U/B. I get some decent Black beaters and a Waterveil Canyon on the rebound.
My Betrayers pack offers a difficult choice between Okiba-Gang Shinobi and Sickening Shoal. I take the Shoal, thinking that, assuming I cut off Black sufficiently, I might see one come around, but the only Ninja I get is a late Skullsnatcher.
In Saviors, I take a Hand of Cruelty in my first pack and have a second one passed to me, then get a Shinen of Flight’s Wings and Secretkeeper, so I’m definitely hoping to run into one of the White decks I assume I set up.
My deck ends up looking like this:
2 Hand of Cruelty
Bloodthirsty Ogre
Nezumi Ronin
Floating Dream Zubera
Skullsnatcher
Soratami Rainshaper
Consuming Vortex
Gibbering Kami
Descendant of Soramaro
Freed from the Real
Horobi’s Whisper
Death Denied
Soulless Revival
Shimmering Glasskite
Secretkeeper
Kagemaro’s Clutch
Rend Flesh
Sickening Shoal
Psychic Speak
Phantom Wings
Bile Urchin
Kami of Empty Graves
Waterveil Cavern
9 Swamp
7 Island
I thought, with such a weenie-centric base, I could get away with 17 lands, but I ended up siding in a Swamp more often than not, and I probably didn’t need both Death Denied and Soulless Revival – the Death Denied usually became Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch. Still, I was fairly happy with the deck, I had solid removal, a good little army of beaters and a few combat tricks. 3-1 would certainly be doable.
Round 4: Andrew Champman (R/G)
I get a good start with Soratami Rainshaper, but (in what would be a recurring theme), can’t find a second Swamp for my Hand of Cruelty until turn 4. But my flier is doing some damage, and the Hand, once he gets into play, starts administering the pimp-slapping. Still, Green decks are noted for large creatures, and the tide starts to turn once his large beaters start deterring my army from entering the Red zone.
I steal game one with Andrew at four, I drop a Secretkeeper (despite having two fewer cards), then use the Soratami Rainshaper’s ability to put more cards into my hand, and the suddenly flying 4/4 monster carries the day.
Game two is not as much to my liking. Andrew gets a turn 3 Honden of Infinite Rage (and, wouldn’t you know it, most of the creatures in my hand have a one in the lower right hand corner). I never actually deal a point of damage to him. The Honden and his beaters keep me off him all game long.
The rubber match is even uglier. Turns out Andrew not only has the Red Honden – someone passed him the Green one. I struggle on for a turn or two after Honden of Life’s Web hits the table – but my deck has no answers for the Hondens.
At least I didn’t make any glaring mistakes this game. I think. Like I said, you try to read my handwriting.
Round 5: Joel Matlon (R/G)
Another R/G deck! Seems to validate my strategy of avoiding those two colors.
I get slaughtered in the first game. My early Bile Urchin is no match for Ishi-Ishi, Goblin Crackshot, especially since my hand is full of Spirits, and it’s hard to match up creature-for-creature when he’s got one that deals ten damage to me before I find an answer for it.
Game two is a bit more to my liking. If he has Matsu-Tribe Snipers, they’re doing a good job of hiding (I suspect my previous opponent sucked them up), and I have a Soratami Rainshaper and Shimmering Glasskites early to administer the beats. With four cards in hand, my Psychic Spear reveals a hand of a Kodama’s Reach and three lands, and he never finds anything in his deck after that.
Being as we are playing along the edge of the playing area and we’re going late, we’ve attracted a bit of an audience. A very clueless audience.
Me: “I don’t know if I’d keep this hand. I mean, call me crazy…”
Crickets start chirping.
Me: “I said, call me crazy…”
After about fifteen seconds, someone in the throng goes, “Oh, I get it. You’re crazy.”
Tough crowd, I tell you, tough crowd.
The third game sees Joel open with a Frostling, I open with Wicked Akuba. He kills it during combat with Roar of Jukai, then trades it next turn for a Skullsnatcher. I’m happy to go two-for-two in that instance, since I have the Rainshaper and Shinen in the wings (pun intended) to follow up with. A Psychic Spear shows a hand full of suboptimal burn and a Vine Kami (yeah, Green was pretty diluted); the Kami goes to the dumpster and the two fliers win the game.
Round 6: Brian Baumgardner (U/G/W)
Another Green deck. Only Brian’s forced to splash a lot of suboptimal cards to fill out his creature base.
The first game… talk about weird. Brian starts the proceedings with a Sakura-Tribe Elder, then equips it with Manriki-Gusari.
He never draws another creature.
Suffice it to say, I win.
The second game sees Brian mulligan down to five on the play; he never plays a creature as I curve out beautifully and win in six turns.
Round 7: Eugene Levin (W/b)
Great, I have to play the Spastic Monkey, and now he berates me for passing a Blind with Anger fourth. Why would I do such a thing? Well, I’m not in that color, duh, and I’d like to put you into Red. Clearly, I don’t have ten pro points, I’m no where near your caliber of player.
Sorry, but annoying think-we-know-it-alls do bring out the snark in me. You would think that, after thirty-odd years on this chunk of rock, I’d be a little more tolerant.
You would think.
Game one… I don’t think I could ask for a better start. Turn 2 Hand of Cruelty, turn 3 Hand, and the monkey, he be dead in short order. I make a note of the Swamps and Plains he plays out and assume he’s W/B Spirits. No, not exactly… read on.
Eugene gets a better start game two with an insectoid air force of Moonwing Moth and Kabuto Moth, and my Hands are not forthcoming. Kabuto Moth does what it does best – tie up the red zone – and then suddenly I’m staring at an Okiba-Gang Shinobi.
Well, now I know where all those went.
I have one last gasp before getting steamrolled, attempting to kill an Okiba-Gang with Sickening Shoal, feeding a Soulless Revival to it, but a Plow Through Reito keeps it alive, empties my hand and does me in.
The rubber match – which I really wanted to win, as 5-2 would keep me in contention for a lot of things – but you remember that Soulless Revival I removed from the game previously?
The one I forgot to re-shuffle into my deck?
Why did this have to be the one time I forget to count my cards while pile shuffling? Was I frustrated from that awful second game? Or just my old habits of sloppiness and laziness coming back to the fore?
Whichever the excuse, this, ladies and gentlemen, is your David R. Meddish “I’ve been playing this game for how long now?” moment and Mistake #3, which, in a nutshell, pretty much demonstrates why I am not a Pro Tour player.
After the game, I discuss how the draft went with Eugene; he is still incredulous that I would pass a Blind with Anger (then why didn’t you take it? muttereth I), but I succeeded into putting him into White with the Kabuto Moth (as I intended) but in Betrayers, despite having cut off Black hard, he hated three Okiba-Gang Shinobis, which explains why I never saw any.
And those were the only Black cards he ran.
Man, some days, you can’t win for losing. Magic, I am reminded, is like poker: you can do everything right, and still lose.
I’m rather disgusted. I could very realistically be 6-1, or at least 5-2, but I a) failed to mulligan aggressively when I knew I needed to and b) failed to count my cards when I needed to.
Still, 4-3 is okay… I’m better than a number of pros, and a strong finish might put me into the money. 6-1 definitely, but I think 5-2 might be a bit more realistic. A 9-5 finish just might be enough to pay for my hotel fare.
Will it? Tune in tomorrow.