Tournament of n00bs (Day 5)

Another loss drops my total win percentage down to 33.3%. I’m not quite sitting dead last but I am indeed in trouble and the odds are against advancing beyond round-robin play. The fourth and final play-off position is 2 wins away and I need to count on at least 2 other players to lose their remaining match-ups in order to leap-frog them. And this does not address the current dark horse – one fellow who so far has played and won his only game. I’m told that particular match-up was nothing short of “epic” clocking in at a whopping 45 minutes.

I entered a 50/50 chance match today. My opponent, like me, also had 2 wins under his belt but had only played 4 games thus far. His win percentage was therefore higher. There was nothing particular I could put my finger on if I were to lay blame other than, “some days the cards just don’t come up.”

I started with a fairly strong hand but in general, I have very few cards that cost less than 3 mana to cast. I would only start playing cards in the third turn (other than a reasonably healthy supply of Lands). It was just a matter of attrition for this game since my opponent (playing a Naya-styled deck) started to drop several Saprolings. This effectively caused a stand-off against my Sprouting Thrinax. My only luck this game was to be able to play an Onyx Goblet (which strangely, made its first appearance since I started in the tournament).
When the Sprouting Thrinax died in combat, it left me my own army of Saprolings (the stand-off continued). I had a decent combo in my hand which unfortunately was too early to play. Without enough mana, I had no choice but to play a Dragon Fodder for a couple more tokens. But I wouldn’t last another two rounds to collect enough mana to use a Predator Dragon’s Devour ability. Which in any case, having lost nearly half my life in the early turns, my build-up to larger creatures could not keep up with the Naya growth.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 4)

I stopped my 2-game losing streak by winning in style today. Some days luck just swings in my favour. I played an old-school player using a 4th edition deck of black. And while he was able to play several small Creatures, the first was an Artifact so I was able to at least get delay his game while I built up a mana pool of Lands. I quickly built a large collection of Lands (including my core Jund colours in Basic Lands).

Then the terrible killer combo in my hand was ready: My Exploding Borders finalized all 5 Basic Lands to open with 5 damage. Next turn came a Hellkite Overlord, which alone is already devastating. The final move in my attack combination was lacking only 1 mana (it would have been sweet if it played out in one turn), I held in my hand a Dragon Fodder and a Predator Dragon. So instead, I used what red mana I had to get my goblin tokens and the rest to boost the Hellkite Overlord. It seemed my opponent’s luck had run out because he couldn’t play anything this turn allowing me to next Devour the goblins creating an 8/8 Predator Dragon. And very little in this universe can withstand the attack of 2 Dragons with Haste combined.

My previous losses have taken its toll on my standing in the round-robin, however. At the moment I sit in fifth position with only 2 wins and a ratio of 40%. Weirdguy on the other hand has continued to rack up the wins landing in first place with a 100% win ratio so far.

Tournament of n00bs (Day 3)

I played 2 more Round-Robin match-ups today in the tournament.
First up was Weirdguy who finally came back from vacation. A decent amount of Land came up off the draw (neither side asked to mulligan). I counted on my wide variety of colours to keep me afloat. Weirdguy got out a series of small Creatures with Lifelink which easily got him a constant supply of health. I blocked with a Sprouting Thrinax hoping the resulting Saprolings would be useful later (they were not other than to perform chump blocks; this does nothing to prevent the Lifelink from triggering). My only saving grace was to deploy a Hellkite Overlord. His Flying, Haste, and Trample combination kept cancelling out the Lifelink effects so that my opponent kept hovering between 10 and 20 points. But as the turns went on, his smaller creatures inevitable cut me down each turn.

In my second game today, I played another dreadfully mediocre game. I don’t think I was particularly unlucky as much as my opponent was extremely lucky. I drew the usual selection of Lands and a few random creatures. I played an Exploding Borders for 4 points of damage, and also a Grixis Battlemage who served only as a normal 2/2 attacker. But a few turns later my opponent played a series Sorcery in postcombat to deal nearly 15 points of damage. I groaned, realizing that had I not been so eager to play the Exploding Borders the previous turn, that I did indeed have enough mana to play the Lich’s Mirror still in my hand. Such is a fatal error I will not make a second time.

Officially, my win ratio drops to 25% today (having played 4 games in the round-robin and only winning 1 so far). If I've done my math right, I'll need to win all my remaining round-robin games to advance... not bloody likely! :)

Tournament of n00bs (Day 2)

I faced off against Batman (I call him that because he one of the dynamic duo around the office). He opened with a mulligan while I, mana-shy after yesterday's "unthinkable scenario" disaster, decided to roll with the hand full of Lands and Obelisks (and only 1 Creature and 1 Artifact).

Thankfully this game I managed my B-R-G colour combo off the draw and was able to field a Sprouting Thrinax early. Luck was on my side (because it definitely wasn't with Batman today). He drew few Lands and wound up summoning only some smaller Creatures. Reluctant to give them up, he didn't block the Sprouting Thrinax (allowing me to cause 3 damage several times). I turned a Bant Panorama into a 4th Basic Land and tried Might of Alara on the Sprouting Thrinax. Batman countered that Instant with a Cancel but I got my regular 3 damage in anyway.

My shuffles today would prove better as I drew Exploding Border. It would only be a matter of time. My opponent continued to cut down on me as well since Sprouting Thrinax was still the only Creature on my side of the table. Soon I grew tired of waiting for him to kill it (so that I could Devour the resulting Saprolings with my Thorn-Thrash Viashino). Instead I played an Esper Battlemage to try messing with him.

But none of that mattered and the final turns came down to luck of the draw: would I draw something useless (like more Lands giving me mana-burn)? Or would I draw something else? I drew my second of two Exploding Borders. I won my second match bringing my win ratio in the round-robin up to 50%.

Tournament of n00bs

Here we are, a bunch of IT yuppies and I open my big mouth one day. Not coincidentally the same day that Weirdguy happens on a big stack of somebody's unwanted Magic: The Gathering cards at Value Village for a couple of bucks. See what I have wrought.

It is about 3 months later since I opened my big mouth. "We should play. I've never played before. Now's my chance," I said.

Players popped out of the woodwork when passers-by caught Weirdguy and I playing together during our lunch-break. And today is day one of our Round-Robin tournament. 9 players and at stake is Fat Pack of the upcoming Alara Reborn set (paid for by the entry fees we collected and pooled).

And in game 1 of the round-robin format... I lost. The unthinkable scenario: I play a heavily-modified Jund deck at 5 colours - and I did not draw a single red mana. The only damage I was able to deal (and I suspect my opponent was pitying me, because he should have been able to chump-block me) was 6 points by combining a Grixis Battlemage with a Might of Alara.

I will make a post every day I participate in the tournament to report the goings on. I only hope a reshuffle will bring me better luck down the line.