Magic: The Geekery
May. 5th, 2007 02:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackofallgeeksOh man that was so awesome.
So, tonight was the first night we got to play with the new Magic set at the game shop, despite the fact that tomorrow is the official release. It was determined that we'd do a block draft, which meant only one pack of the new stuff, but that's really the right way to do it anyhow.
I'd gotten it in my head to do a Red/Blue deck even before we got seated, and I should really know better than getting set on something before I see what cards are going around. But Red/Blue is strong, and fun, so... I got seated with Miles, Adam, Brent, Haven, and Will, all good players. In fact, since Rob wasn't there tonight, we six were probably the best players in the house.
I got a decent Red/Blue deck going by the end, though I'd started drafting Green/White in the first pack, which was just dumb. That was 15 cards wasted, that's what that was. Plus the other guys ended up picking up key pieces of the plays I wanted to make, which left me with OK cards, but little awesome. I did get a Torchling, Jodah's Avenger, and a Boldwyr Intimidator, not to mention two Dead/Gone, two Dreamscape Artists, and two Foresee. Those basically MADE my deck. The Artists made sure my land base was solid and thinned my deck down to what I needed, and whenever Jodah didn't win the game, Boldwyr did.
At least, when I won. I actually had a pretty rough time. When it went right, it went really right. It would come out swinging and it was frightening to behold. But half of the time, I was just stuck on lands. I would sit there and need one more for turns on end, or I would just draw land after land with nothing to do, and I'd get run over by the other guy. I lost my first match, won my second, lost my third, and got a bye in round four -- a bye when there's an odd man out and he doesn't play anyone. It is effectively a win, but it counts less than a real win when you need to break ties.
So when we were going through the scores and trying to decide who was in the top 8, I was pretty sure -- certain, even -- that it wasn't me. Haven and Brent were in, so were Bruce and Will, and then another 4 people: there would be 3 people with 3-1 ratings, and one person with a 2-2 rating would get the bottom seat. That included me, but there were also two or three other guys who had to have had better tie breakers than me.
Then the top 8 pairings were read off, and when my name was called, a whole bunch of us (myself included), were all like, "Andrew?!" It was pretty awesome. Even more awesome, though, was that my deck worked. I slammed into Haven in the first game, chocked on lands in the second, and then slammed into him again on the third. Haven was, at that time, top seat. From there I played Miles, who's a good player and had a good deck. It was another great match, and I had everything practically right when I needed it. I just tossed out answers without blinking, I couldn't have scripted it better. At one point Bruce, who was the new Top Seat, said he wanted Miles to beat me mostly because he just didn't want to go up again me; that was nice to hear. The first game he stalled me out and beat me in the late game, I took him hard in the second game, but he finally pulled ahead in the 3rd game when once more I chocked on land. But it was still a great match.
I came from behind with zero chance of getting into the top 8, and ended up walking away with 3rd. Not bad.
So, tonight was the first night we got to play with the new Magic set at the game shop, despite the fact that tomorrow is the official release. It was determined that we'd do a block draft, which meant only one pack of the new stuff, but that's really the right way to do it anyhow.
I'd gotten it in my head to do a Red/Blue deck even before we got seated, and I should really know better than getting set on something before I see what cards are going around. But Red/Blue is strong, and fun, so... I got seated with Miles, Adam, Brent, Haven, and Will, all good players. In fact, since Rob wasn't there tonight, we six were probably the best players in the house.
I got a decent Red/Blue deck going by the end, though I'd started drafting Green/White in the first pack, which was just dumb. That was 15 cards wasted, that's what that was. Plus the other guys ended up picking up key pieces of the plays I wanted to make, which left me with OK cards, but little awesome. I did get a Torchling, Jodah's Avenger, and a Boldwyr Intimidator, not to mention two Dead/Gone, two Dreamscape Artists, and two Foresee. Those basically MADE my deck. The Artists made sure my land base was solid and thinned my deck down to what I needed, and whenever Jodah didn't win the game, Boldwyr did.
At least, when I won. I actually had a pretty rough time. When it went right, it went really right. It would come out swinging and it was frightening to behold. But half of the time, I was just stuck on lands. I would sit there and need one more for turns on end, or I would just draw land after land with nothing to do, and I'd get run over by the other guy. I lost my first match, won my second, lost my third, and got a bye in round four -- a bye when there's an odd man out and he doesn't play anyone. It is effectively a win, but it counts less than a real win when you need to break ties.
So when we were going through the scores and trying to decide who was in the top 8, I was pretty sure -- certain, even -- that it wasn't me. Haven and Brent were in, so were Bruce and Will, and then another 4 people: there would be 3 people with 3-1 ratings, and one person with a 2-2 rating would get the bottom seat. That included me, but there were also two or three other guys who had to have had better tie breakers than me.
Then the top 8 pairings were read off, and when my name was called, a whole bunch of us (myself included), were all like, "Andrew?!" It was pretty awesome. Even more awesome, though, was that my deck worked. I slammed into Haven in the first game, chocked on lands in the second, and then slammed into him again on the third. Haven was, at that time, top seat. From there I played Miles, who's a good player and had a good deck. It was another great match, and I had everything practically right when I needed it. I just tossed out answers without blinking, I couldn't have scripted it better. At one point Bruce, who was the new Top Seat, said he wanted Miles to beat me mostly because he just didn't want to go up again me; that was nice to hear. The first game he stalled me out and beat me in the late game, I took him hard in the second game, but he finally pulled ahead in the 3rd game when once more I chocked on land. But it was still a great match.
I came from behind with zero chance of getting into the top 8, and ended up walking away with 3rd. Not bad.
