The GMAT was taken today, and the results are very pleasing. Two local schools will be applied to, and hopefully one of them will decide to let me in.
As you can probably guess from the previous post, the Time Spiral Pre-Release tournament happened on Saturday. While I had a good time (more on that later) my opponents weren’t of as high a quality as I usually expect, so I’ll not discuss that matches all that much. You can check out my deck though.
The cards were great, and I was able to play a Serra Avatar, which does not suck, and Jaya, which also does not suck.
My first opponent was a serious tourney goer. He wasted me in two rounds without my deck doing anything. He had a response for all of my creatures, and pounded me into the ground. After my defeat, I removed Lighting Angel, Dreadship Reef, and Gemstone Caverns with a Mountain, Conflagrate, and Plunder. Duel results: 0-2.
Opponent number two was a pregnant woman. It was the first time a judge had to be called to decide something on one of my matches, and the first time I’d ever started to run out of time. She hit me pretty hard, and gained a lot of life through Spirit Loop, but she couldn’t stop the fliers or my pro-white attacker. Duel results: 2-0.
Opponent three again was more serious. He too had gone one and one, and seemed upset about it. Fortunately, it was over soon, and I walked away victorious. Duel results: 2-0.
My fourth and final opponent started out with an advantage, he had +3 INT. While those around me were trying to make card splitting deals, my opponent said he would be splitting the winnings with his friend, so he couldn’t split with me. I hadn’t offered to split, so I didn’t mind at all. We fought, had a good back and forth, when Jaya put the game firmly in my corner. Duel results: 2-1.
I feel I might as well add my tourney experience here.
I, too, liked my packs. My deck was not glamorous. I ran three colors. Red, White and Blue. I didn’t use almost any rares. Most of the cards I had were put there because they were effecient, either low, medium or ’suspend’ casting costs. 1/1s, 2/1s, 2/2s abound. Almost nothing had repeated mana symbols in their casting costs. My goal was to not have mana problems.
Opponent One.
The opponent was awesome. He told me that his deck was bad. That he had ‘three bombers,’ and if he was to get them he would likely win, if he did not, he would surely lose.
Game One.
He dinked away at me with a Copper Gnat, until I got myself some defense. Then we had a momentary stalemate. Then I cast Sacred Mesa, and I had a fair amount of mana. I began to pull ahead. Then he cast one of his bombers. A 5/5 flying shadow that could give shadows +1/0, and non-shadows get -1/0. My pegasi were locked down, and nothing could stand in the way of the flying shadow. I played trickbind, which could have nearly gotten me the win, but he had played his other two bombers without me knowing. They were morph creatures. They were facedown. They were both the mage that have morph that can be flipped to retarget a spell. Trickbind found itself another target. He won that one.
Game Two.
I had a poor mana pull. My opponent mentioned that he wishes we could start over, but our first fight was epic and long. No time for his kindness. He got a quick win, I was fairly defenseless. He managed to draw his power three again. I only was able to cast 2 suspend creatures. He cast a mean one himself. I played a card that can kill suspended things, his hidden retargeter guy made it kill one of my suspended guys instead of his.
Results: 0-2
Opponent Two.
Game One.
I had the homarid suspend guy. I had an island. I had a bunch of cheap, non-blue things in my hand. I felt confident that I just needed one more land to take off, and regardless I’d have a 2/3 that could gain +1/0 for each Blue mana I pump through him. The second land never came. My 2/3 slowed my death, but didn’t prevent. I lost soundly.
Game Two.
Another epic war. It was back and forth. I don’t remember all the twists, but in the end, he got me down to one, then I killed him. I only was able to kill him by a white spell in my hand that would either give all my guys +2/0, or +0/2, I got to choose. I chose the one that won me the game.
Game Three.
No land mulligan. No land mulligan. Then with my opening hand of 5 I had one island and four cheap white cards. Turn 2 I drew that homarid again, turn 6 I drew a plain. Turn 8 or so I was dead, having cast two spells.
Results: 1-2
I don’t know what I’ve learned about deck construction. I seem to have pretty bad luck at these pre-releases. My deck should’ve been able to kill pretty quick. It was designed to do well during the early and mid game. It only had two ways to do well if my opponent survived the early times (the sacred mesa and a 6/6 unblockable kracken (who either costs a lot, or has a hefty suspend). Perhaps if I had better rares of the colors I ran, or likely if I just had a better mana draw. I had all these low casting cost red creatures that never got cast. Eh. I had fun. I enjoyed the cards. The ‘purple’ cards were a nice surprise.
A congratulations to the owner of loeffert.net on doing well on the GMAT and winning packs for going 3-1 at the tourney, thusly winning packs.
Better rares would have helped, but it looks like three of your five matches were lost because of poor mana, and when you had lands available, you fought pretty hard. The first guy was only able to beat you because he had his bombers out. It seems insane, but 17 or 18 land really is necessary in these things to keep your hand moving.
Glad you had fun. It might be time for another sealed deck tourney at my place where Sully and Steve can attend.
that does sound good
agreed re: mana screwage
i should just stick another couple in, to avoid it from happening next time
do your run 17-18 lands?
Yep, I had 18 in mine and only had to mulligan once. I didn’t really feel like I was over manaed either.
curses
that’ll be my plan for next time
did you check out revision3?
i did less significant tweaks to my own site
i didn’t like having two pictures of me on the main page
i also planted my google trackers in more places
i also bought an 8stops7 cd off iTunes
and some Dishwalla tracks i didn’t know anything about
and a different version of Earshot’s Someone
and an acoustic version of I Hate Everything About You
that is all
The site was down last night, and have it loaded in another tab right now. At first glance it looks pretty sweet, and having all those new shows is excellent. The changes to your site went unnoticed, until I refreshed your main page and one of you turned into clouds.
How are the new tracks and CD treating you?
they are excellent
the 8stops7 cd might be better than the older one, i’ll have to give some more listens
the acoustic version of IHateEAY is eh.
the Dishwalla Stuff is pretty sweet, i have no idea when it is from (2 are from a ‘Counting Blue Cars – EP’ the others are from things that I don’t understand)
the Someone makes me wish for new Earshot
Two came out quite some time ago, you were living at the Homestead back then