Pseudo-Newb and the Terribly Mediocre Plays

Ok - so here's what happened. I didn't pull any cards that I felt like I had any connection to in the second pre-release event. I was tired and I knew I couldn't really see straight. I had actually played Magic for the full weekend FNM, Saturday's 2-headed giant, that day's pre-release.

But my good acquaintance ( who keeps playing Mono Black Infect) couldn't get out for the Helvault and was only going to be able to play if there were enough people to qualify for sanctioning the last pre-release event - which is why I have 3 pre-release foils.

And my good karma was immediate, I got a Tibalt! Which means I was going to try to play with Tibalt!

I wanted to try red/blue or red/green since I'd played blue/black and red/white but that wasn't the way the cards bounced. They went this way instead:

White	Green	Red	Black	Blue & Artifacts
Angelic Wall Banishing Stroke Builder’s Blessing Call to Serve Cathedral Sanctifier Cloushift Commander’s Authority Defy Death Farbog Explorer X2 Holy Justicar Leap of Faith X3 Moorland Inquisitor Righteous Blow Thraben Aliant Voice of the Provinces X 2 Zelous Strike	Diregraf Escort Flowering Lumberknot X2 Grounded x2 Howlgeist Lair Delve Nettle Swine Sheltering Word Wandering Wolf X2 Yew Spirit	Aggravate Banner’s Raised Burn at the Stake Demolish Havengul Vampire Fervent Cathar x2 Kruin StrikerX2 Mad Prophet Raging Poltergeist Scalding Devil Somberwald Vigilante Tibalt the Fiends Blooded Vigilante Justice	Appetite for Brains Butcher GhoulCrypt Creeper Death Wind Demonlord of Ashmouth Essensce harvest Evernight Shade Homicidal Seclusion Ghoulflesh Marrow Bats Prdeator’s Gambit Searchlight Geist Soulcage Fiend Unhallowed Pact	Captain of the Mists Crippling Chill Elgaud Shieldmate Fleeting Distraction Havenghul Skaab Geist Snatch Ghostly Flicker Latch Seeker Mist Raven Nephalia Smuggler Peel from reality Rotcrown Ghoul Spectral Prison Spirit Away Stolen Goods Vanishment Slayer’s Stronghold Bladed bracers Vanguard’s Sheild Bladed Bracers Angleic Armaments

And made this deck:

Tibalt the Fiend Blooded

Slayer’s Stronghold

Raging Poltergeist

Havengul Vampire

Banner’s Raised

Mad Prophet

Farbog Explorer X2

Cloushift

Burn at the Stake

Fervent Cathar X2

Righteous BlowDefy Death

Aggravate

Commander’s Authority

Vigilante Justice

Somberwold Vigilante

Voice of the Provinces

Cathedral Sactifier

Builder’s Blessings

Kruin Striker X2

Banishing Stroke

Angleic Wall


Preparation - see the last two blog entries

Results - I got my very first draw we each won 1 and then ran out of time on the third game.

Then I lost the next 2 rounds very, very slowly.

I got more cards, the event was really small so it was only three rounds

I now own the complete set of oversized commander cards from the Helvault.

I'm pretty sure I didn't play well.  I had a class binder final the next day so at first I was all happy that we ended at 9 but I stayed to talk to my friend the store owner, who has been too busy running the store to be able to have these conversations and I ended up home at midnight.  Not gonna lie, I feel like it's set the tone for the whole sleep deprived week that followed it.

I did not get to play with my cards for the whole week until the release party. Yet another sealed deck,

Results
2-2

White	Green	Red	Black	Blue & Artifacts
Angel’s mercy Archangle Banishing Stroke Builder’s Blessing Cursebreak Defang Farbog ExplorerX2 Holy Justicar X2 Leap of faith Midnight Duelist Moorland Inquistor Spectral Gate Guards X2 Thraben valiant Zealous strike	Druid’s Familiar Gloomwidow Lair Delve Natural End Nettle SwineX 2 Rain of throns Snare the skies Timberland Guide X 2 Terrigying Presence Triumph of Ferocity Trusted Forcemage Wandering Wolf Wolfir AvengerVorstclaw	Battly Hym Fervent Cathar Guise of Fire Mad Prophet Malicous Intent Pillar of Flame Riot Ringleader Stonewrights Somberwoal vigilante Thuderous Wrath Uncanny Spped	Appetite for brains Bloodflow conesseur Bone splinters Demonlord of Ashmouth Demonic Rising Demonic TaskMaster Driver of the Dead  X2 Evernight Shade Grave exchange Hunted Ghoul Predator’s Gambit Mental Agony X2 Renegade Demon Searchlight Geist Treacherous Pit Dweller	Amass the components X2 Crippling Chill Deadeye Navigaro Dreadwaters Fleeting distraction X2Galvanic Alchemist Geist Snatch Ghostform Ghostly Flicker Nephalia Smuggler Mass Appeal Rotcrown Ghoul Scrapskin Drake Spectral Prision Stern Mantor Stolen Goods Alchemists refuge Sereph Sanctuary Blasded Bracers

Release Party Deck

Trusted Forcemage

Stern Mentor

Nettle Swine

Fleeting Distraction x2

Ghostform

Amass the components

Snare the skies

Criplping chill

Timberland guide X2

Druid’s Familiar

Deadeye Navigator

Gloomwidow

Vorstclaw

Triumph of Ferocity

Wolfir Svenger

Galvanic Alchemist

Alchemist’s refuge

Wandering Wolf

Nephialia Smuggler

Terrifying Presence

Spectral Prision

Stolen Goods

Geist Snatch

Scrapskin drake

Nettle Swine

Best story of the night - I was playing Triumph of Ferocity, which is now officially known amongst my inner circle as the "rapey" card. The regulars were good naturedly teasing me about it but someone apparently doesn't know me very well thought they were serious.

"You're playing that card, I thought you hated that card?"

"I hate the art and the argument around it, I'm sure as hell gonna use the card. I might be a bad magic player but I'm still a magic player"

Besides if I never played cards where I hated the message or the art that would seriously cut down on my strategic options.

For anyone reading this who wonders how I actually feel about the card art ( not the mechanic) the answer is here on Psuedo Newb and the Trite Artwork PG 13

I came pretty close to tilting, I wasn't in a good headspace going in because I had to deal with a school system and that's the kind of thing that makes me completely understand where you get the energy to cast Killing Wave.

Which was played against me ( and it's insane).

I was able to use Deadeye Navigator and Druid's Familiar together with enough mana to beat down a kind of stompy black deck. But I was still overtired and then I stayed out with my friends ( three . . three owners of uteruses at the Release Party - that's a 200% increase!).

My friend placed with a very effective white human deck so she got to open packs - I'm still trying to figure out how my husband managed to place 11 and I managed to place 17 when we had exactly the same win rate and record. However he made it to the extra packs. I bought a box and got the buy-a-box promo and I got the MUCH better art Restoration Angel and I have a whole bunch of  boosters to open.

The next day I placed booster smash with my friends at their house celebrating Derby Day with excellent mint Julips.  Now I had been up until 2:00 am the day before ( or that morning) and I it was after midnight when this went down but I had one of those rare but fully physical vertigo reactions to trying to explain and or resolve a complex interaction during combat phase. While that was extreme and probably had as much to do with the hour, my general physical condition and the side effects of the steep learning curve as the symbol processing disorder itself, it did actually highlight for me some of the reasons I might be having difficulty adjusting to Avacyn Restored.

I'll write about that part in a separate post.

Oh and so far a total of  34 packs opened and I don't have a single one of the PowerPuff girl angels or Our Lady of Breast Feeding.

Art review - One Girl's View coming up soon.