It’s been a really intense 2 and a half weeks of being a pseudo newb magic player – I’ve been reacting to the recent changes in OP and finishing my finals and apparently I was seriously, seriously sleep deprived.
So I’m skipping around = I drafted and played and playtested with the Steampunk Marchioness. I came to some hard realizations about my version of Delver Illusions and FNM. I realized I have no desire to play Two Headed Giant but I’m happy to lend cards to my friends that do.
I realize I care maybe more than I should about competition, even though I have no desire to go pro for the normal reasons. It’s been really emotional because I’m still working through some competitive stumbling blocks at the same time I might just be emotional for other real-life reasons. The draft before tonight’s I was facing down some really serious social anxiety complete with actual panic attack.
I’m really happy to say it wasn’t even a shadow of an issue tonight.
Tonight, I went big and drafted blue. There are two cards I keep eyeing wishing I could do something with them – Mirror Mad Phantasam and Ludevik’s test subject. The draft with the anxiety attack? I learned how to better use some green cards. Tonight I decided when I opened the pack that I was going to work with blue. After spending a lot of time with the Marchioness and taking some best practices from some of her learning/training techniques I was feeling more comfortable with the staple control cards. And the last draft someone played an “enchanted zombies” concept against me. I was really impressed that he could even draft that concept.
So when my first pack had Invisible Stalker, Delvers and Back from the Brink I started looking seriously at the possibility of drafting blue. I first picked the Invisible Stalker, thinking I might try a stalker deck but the focus was on the delvers later. And I did start out thinking blue/black with zombies and control but wasn’t happy with the mana curve and started looking at some white being sent my way – other people splashed blue but appatrently I was the only one focused on it.
Card list will be up tomorrow - I want to make sure I post tonight
Preparation – I spent a lot of time cataloging my collection today and read a really good article on tappers and another really interesting version of a Delver deck with no snapcasters. So I was kind of thinking about blue today anyway.
Comfort level – much better than last week – playing with the Marchioness I realized how nervous I was that when everyone learned more than I did ( which I knew was going to happen) I wouldn’t be able to keep up and they’d just be humoring me when they played with me as soon as they got the hang of things. There is no question that my home based group is flying past me competitively and in being able to process but we’re still playtesting and working together and whatever it was I was afraid of didn’t happen. I’m going to assume that whatever that particular out of control fear was, was based on the former boyfriend who created such an unpleasant environment that we put the cards away. He certainly didn’t mess me up or have much impact on me in relationships but WOW it seems like he really set me up for some trauma playing magic!
I have thanked my friends repeatedly for putting up with me being a cranky subhuman during these last two weeks. I thank them again semi-publicly here.
The result of a bunch of these things is because I have very little patience for this level of past drama creating present drama ( and about 10 extra hours of sleep yesterday). I walked into the store at 6 full of positive attitude ad lets just have fun and the desire to play with as many new cards in draft as I could. David who had been very nice to the Marchioness and was trading with her last week was there and we spent the half hour before the draft talking about strategy/costs and some other interesting overall gaming things.
Results – 0-2 to the guy who eventually came in 3rd, 2-0, and 0-2
Kyle – new face – home from college – high level player
He was really helpful when I explained what I was working on. I made a mistake with the way I displayed an instant that triggers the Delver and he was really helpful with analysis between games without suggesting what to do during the game itself. And I did manage to surprise him when I pulled a third color. In my games with him I made two mistakes - I think I should have used spirit tokens from my midnight haunting to block earlier and in the second game I took a good mulligan but I didn’t have fast enough reaction to his green guys who were popping up all over the place. I think if I knew enough to read his board state better I could have anticipated the way his mana acceleration worked and might have mulliganed more to have better answers in my hand. But I really got some great practice with the delvers.
Oscar – he was playing a black and blue deck. I pulled almost all of the white I’d splashed for and I got to play and fully resolve Ludavick’s test subject twice.
Dan ( a new one) who placed second for the night
He was playing red/black the first round I wasn’t moving fast enough for his direct damage strategy and the second round I pulled one blue mana but was still able to keep him at bay for about 9 rounds until he had answers for my mansers. He used direct damage to take out the ludevics.
I had a great time, I didn't even feel a smidge like an outsider or an outlier. The one question I had was just a confirmation question about how to power up a mana based abilty, just to double check it.
I also read a really interesting two person draft format called Winchester Draft - I'm wondering if the Marchioness might be interested in doing that when Dark Ascension comes out . . . .
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