Psuedo Newb and the SuperQuick Draft Notes

Here for the Art Review?

If you stopped by because you were looking for the Avacyn Art Review it's off to the side but it's also at these links

If you missed Red it's here

If you missed White it's here.

If you missed Blue it's here.

If you missed Black it's here

.

If you missed Green it's here

If you missed Other it's Here 

And I've been working on data analysis for the whole review so that will be coming up soon Stats for Vorthos!

Now back to the issues at hand. 

SuperQuick Draft Notes

Yesterday I wasn't sure I was going to the last Avacyn Restored draft because I have had absolutely zero success with AR draft. And by zero I literally mean zero. So yesterday changed that by my getting a bye. Now my record is less bad than the Columbia University football team in the late eighties - go me.

I'm pretty sure I screwed up the draft part - I can tell because I forced colors and literally ended up with two playsets of cards I only wanted one or two of.

Preparation - None - I wasn't going to go so I could save money for the Core 2013 sealed FNM on Friday. But then I realized that I was laying in bed reading the comments section on a personal essay published on a liberal feminist website and both torturing myself and losing all faith in humanity because really WTF liberals - way to become every friggin' stereotype of entitled white women with first world problems and lack of compassion or empathy EVAR*. Just so you know, if you have a cause, intolerance and lack of compassion never helps.


(Por-tip You're not furthering the cause of feminism by hating on someone writing about their personal trauma because they didn't use the term you prefer as an animal rights supporter for stray dogs.)

So yeah, suddenly I realized that's why I was playing Magic competitively, to get away from thinking about garbage like this - when I realized what I was doing ( triggering depression) I ran out of the house hoping I'd make the draft in time. No preparation.

Record

1-2
0-2
Bye

Which particularly sucked since I really just wanted to play and there were no side games.

Deck

Spells 
Thunderbolt

Demolish

Ghoulrflesh

Guise of Fire

Triumph of Cruelty

Predator's Gambit
Thunderous Wrath

Creatures
Butcher Ghoul
Somberwald Vigilante
2x Heirs of Stromkirk
2x Scalding Devil
2X Haneweir Lancer
2x Fervent Cathar
2x Searchlight Geist
Blood Artist
Maalfeld Twins
Marrow Bats
Undead Executioner
Zealous Conscripts


Sideboard
Riot Ringleader
Vigilante Justice
Gloomwidow
Stern Mentor
Maalfeld Twins'
Corpse Traders
4 x Battle Hymn
4x Unhallowed Pact
Polluted Dead
Rite of Ruin
2x Essence Harvest
Scroll of Grislebrand

I played a total of five games and won 1 which is a 20% win rate - which is awful. And a 40% performance drop from previous expansion drafts. However, I declaratively won the first game, the second came went to a really awesome Mexican standoff Magic-style where my opponent was down to 1 for 10 turns with a Blood Artist on the floor. He was playing to literally stall the board until he could get an advantage, leading to some really interesting math where he was trying to block my attacks without either of our creatures dying- anyone dying would have won me the game.

He managed to get a Herald of War out, and I kept pulling land instead of a creature or removal. I had no fliers on the field - at the very last moment he managed to get the Herald through for lethal damage.  The third game was more interactive but he won the race.  We went into overtime

The second game was against a pro-player who had left during the first round to get food and was 20 minutes into the match when he showed up. He plays crazy fast aggro pretty much no matter what. He did as expected.

I was able to play at the speed that he plays but not with the strategy I was playing - even though we were 20 minutes in he beat me 2-0 in 15 so he had plenty of time to eat the dinner he had been delayed by picking up. And he had time to watch his other friends game.

(newb note - aggro is a abbreviation for aggressive strategy using lots of creatures that have and cards that use direct damage - the idea is to not worry about defense or removal but attack, attack and attack - usually it also features some way to get mana on your side faster which is called mana acceleration and cards that can damage a player directly which is called "burn" and also called damage " to the face" in the slang used at the table)

But I got the bye on the third round and probably should have gone home because there is no participation prize for the bottom half in draft but I forgot and really didn't want to go home.

New Feature to record - Why'd I pick it? 

I can't remember usually what I'm picking against but I can remember why so I'm going to start recording it to see if I can dectect patterns of strengths or weaknesses that will allow me to identify areas to improve.

When I opened the first pack I got the Thunderous Wrath so I took that and figured I'd be in red with something and then the next three packs were pretty much only black - I cant remember the order but I do remember the reasons for each card

Thunderous wrath was removal or direct damage, possibly for very little cost even thought the rule in AVR draft is if you have one miracle it will ALWAYS be in your opening hand.

Thunderbolt - removal especially for fliers

Demolish - I figured I would sideboard it and then I remembered how often I actually use the sideboard - it worked well against angels tomb so I'm glad I maindecked it 

Ghoulflesh - cheap removal 

Guise of Fire - removal or drawback buff

Triumph of Cruelty - hopeful card advantage

Predator's Gambit - buff that hopefully fed Triumph and conditionally give evasion

Thunderous Wrath - Miracle maybe castable removal for big things like angels

Butcher Ghoul - undying,  soulbound target for Hanewier

Somberwald Vigilante - removal if blocked

2x Heirs of Stromkirk - evasion - abililty to grow -soulbound target for Hanewier

2x Scalding Devil  - direct burn to player - early creature - mid game threat especially if opponent overused removal - soulbound target for Hanewier

2X Haneweir Lancer Everybody is first strikey

2x Fervent Cathar  - Hastey soulbound target for Hanewier

2x Searchlight Geist activated deathtouch for big fliers soulbound target for Hanewier

Blood Artist direct damage- disincentive to kill my creatures

Maalfeld Twins - big threat - replaces itself at death 

Marrow Bats - early threat big - damage against fliers - soulbound target for Hanewier

Undead Executioner - undying, removal if killed soulbound target for Hanewier

Zealous Conscripts because reasons - plus awesome when souldbond to Haneweir

Sideboard

Riot Ringleader - needs humans - wasn't running enough

Vigilante Justic - needs humans - wasn't running enough

Gloomwidow - green ( no black or red that pick 

Stern Mentor - blue ( no black or red that pick 

Maalfeld Twins' - running 1 two seemed not worth the mana curve

Corpse Traders - probably didn't run this because I was too chicken to deal with trying to process it during the draft it's got an activation cost, needs to sac a creature I could have run it in combo with the Zealous 

4 x Battle Hymn  I picked one and got stuck with 3 more I don't even  . . .

4x Unhallowed Pact I picked one and got stuck with 3 more I don't even  . . . this one was worse because I figured I could use one if I managed to pick up another fattie but passed on a different card that I needed for my collection to get it - there were then four other packs where that was the only black card and I didn't want to mess up the signals. 

Polluted Dead - worried about mana curve - no playing this might have been a mistake 

Rite of Ruin - powerful but definitely cut for mana curve

2x Essence Harvest - probably avoided because of the x cost but also because I was worried about not really having large creatures with enough power to make it worth while - I didn't realize until playing how versatile predators gambit could be. 

Scroll of Grislebrand - wasn't running demons

This is how otherwise confident people undermine themselves playing a game.

It doesn't matter - it shouldn't matter - but playing against certain people where you're pretty much an afterthought ( which isn't the way the games went, they just went fast because he plays faster) and being insecure about your picks means that it doesn't matter that I played well over the weekend and that I had a first place finish against two other high level players for Core 2013 sealed, in my head that "didn't matter because 2013 is easier" which is kind of not true and seriously stupid. Even if it is easier the people I was playing against were more experienced winning players than I was so they should be using the cards that much better. I think the worst thing that happened to me was ending up with the 4 Unhallowed Pacts - it made me feel like I had missed something really important but I passed no bombs in either color so I'm not sure what I expected me to do when I decided I was going to force colors and pursue and evasion/consequence if you interact with my creatures strategy.

I also made my second trade ever, I traded my Zealous Conscripts and thunderous wrath for a Vexing Devil - now I'm one short of a playset.

Pre-game note - Updated

Ok - actual anxiety levels with physical symptoms are fairly high and definately competition related but outside event triggered ( I did not manage to stick with my "no political conversations" plan) Also weird ( but competitive journal level honest) thing where I read that Jackie Lee submitted an article on women and Magic and suddenly the anxiety re: competition spiked to accelerated heartrate and slightly shaky hands.

OK Causes;

Generalized anxiety for scholastic professional reasons

• Specific anxiety for social topics involving women and politics and women and art and aging ( and direct effect on me)
• Worry that I'm going to be so rusty I'll embarass myself at FNM ( this is dumb yet still true)
• Pressure on the fact that I'm still not nearly as good as many of the women who were at Baltimore GP : I say over and over again that it's not really equality unless women are allowed to play the game without it being noted and we can suck at it too but I obviously don't really believe it.

Ok this goes back to the idea that women generally prefer to compete publically when they have a level of confidence and mastery, as well as a lack of desire to be that "girl player but she's not very good" when you're the only girl at the shop.

Since a new job lead didn't come through , I'd already been having anxiety based on the national political scene and a few other non-magic triggers happened today, I'm going to follow the panic attack management procedure and wait until it works to make the deck decision. Macro decision making is obviously affecting micro decision making, but accelerated heart rate for over an hour with flare ups is not a sensible thing to do nothing about - update to aftereffects on game from the pysch should be posted on this post - game analysis on a separate one.

Jeeze this is a special kind of idiocy . . .

UPDATE

So that was a whole lot of nothing - although I did not do "well" at FNM, I had absolutely no symptoms of anxiety, mistakes in play were all regular mistakes in play ( and two opportunities to be really, really mana-screwed, I did actually win match with 2 land). I did not feel incompetent or like a bad player, even though I lost a lot they were all close games with a lot of interaction.

Conclusion - either I've got Barbra Streisand level stage fright, or my real -life situation is worse than I thought and prepping for the game since it's the least connected thing is where I really notice it. I will make sure to attend more FNMs to see

a) if it continues, it also might be deck insecurity

b) if it affects my play. Breakdown of FNM with the actuall tactics and lessons learned and the cool friendly social interaction that makes this whole post seem so ridiculous

c) Since I was happy to be playing and in a good friendly headspace during the games if this is like my real life stage fright which I have and have learned to handle as an actress ( it's something I just identify and use for energy) Magic does not benefit from that kind of energy burst though, so I'm hoping that it's not connected to the game.

Bonus observation: I didn't even have any of those awkward moments where I say something I feel is off and then obsess about it. I do know that if anyone who knew me was reading this blog they would wonder what was going on since I'm actually considered not just very social, but pretty good at it. Anxiety as a hidden disability . . . can't lie to the competitive journal.

Takeaway

I'm not happy with how I placed but I think I could have done a lot better if I hadn't lost a few hours to second guessing myself and reviewing the cards I wanted to bring. I did have a really good time so at least my policy of "Oh dear I seem to be afraid of this, I guess I'd better go do it" is still a sound and probably healthy one.

Psuedo-New and preparation

So this weird thing has been happening where I really, really want to play standard or at least practice moving the cards around but I'm either not feeling well or fall asleep before I can get a game going - so I'm heading into FNM tonight not having played regular standard in about 4 weeks.

I think I'm going to play white tonight- there seems to be a flood of articles on the various Delvers and I have no idea what the metagame at the store is right now. My Delver build is sort of "not really Finkle's" but I'm expecting a lot of mirror or hate anyway. I'm amused by this since I was the first person running Delvers at the store about a week before I saw my first article on it. ( This isn't because I'm all special or anything, it's just because I was trying to find something to help me since I didn't have snapcasters and they looked like strategic advantage)

I might modify my sideboard to use Darwin Kastle's I don't have the shrine's of loyal legions though.

While his strategy looks like fun if I'm not brewing on my own for learning purposes I really really would like to take a shot at running one of the successful UB Zombies builds that have been floating around. There is one problem with not running my current Delver Build though. In casual and teaching games I realized that my big problem was hesitant mulliganing and working on that is done best with a deck where I'm very secure in how it works. The other thing is that sideboarding works better for me with that Delver build and that's another skill I need to work on.

But I'm not going in attempting to place today. I'm really just checking out the current meta to figure out how to prep for the Avacyn Restored season. It seems like I've missed most of the Dark Ascension period other than a few drafts and the GP. Part of it is timing: Holidays, midterms and being involved in costuming for Hairspray on super-short notice ( Hey Drinne we have 47 cast members and 6 costume changes for each, oh and 3 weeks; You're coming over now right? Yes, yes I am.) But the other thing that I can't seem t shake is this, FNM became much less like "appointment viewing" and more like "eh, whatever if I'm free" when the PWP value went down. For me anyway, I'm curious about the LGS attendance records. Part of it of course is that when I draft I'm building skills AND getting cards no matter what. Part of it is that since I realized that too little sleep affects both my gameplay and my attitude as a competitor it wasn't worth straining to get to it with no guaranteed return. It's shabbat so even though I do go, I try not to write which means my strategy has to be stuff that I am not likely to need to take notes.

I've been thinking a lot about notetaking. There's a good reference about the new tournament rules here . Working with the symbol processing disorder and recognizing that the learning curve is too high for me to deal with board states that are predominantly Scars block ( the artwork is too homogenous for associative recall to help me evaluate which cards do which ridiculous combat tricks) I've been thinking about the idea of taking reminder process notes on MY OWN BOARDSTATE when I play trigger effects, just like I teach tech workers to develop process reminders for tactile learners. But FNM doesn't really help me with that it just kind of would add a layer of guilt for being there in the first place with more writing. So between the disincentives and the other commitments I think I've been avoiding FNM since it moved down to "just another low level event". I don't know if this is just a "me" issue and avoiding social encounters or if it's really just happenstance. I'm coming out of a bunch of commitments so I'm going to make more of an effort to get to some before the pre-releases so I can evaluate it.

Bottom line though is that I'm going in unprepped for the metagame. My LGS seems to be more influenced by decklists on Wizards DailyMTG than Starcity, and our high level players when they are there are usually testing out homebrews.

What I have been doing:

I learned how to play EDH with the Heavenly Inferno precon. I picked it because I would be the most comfortable with the color combinations and Serra and the original Fallen Angel were two of my aboslute favorite cards on my first time at the rodeo. I was able to play relatively well against my friend who is literally the mythical casual gamer I didn't believe existed.

Hmmn he needs a nickname for the site, as he is easily identifiable and therefore I would be. Almost any relevant nickname I give him might actually still let people know, so maybe I'm in the rare situation where I just use his given name? Erg. No then friends who do know him will know all his deck strategies if I keep writing here. Oh I've got it. Mr. Pointy. ( ahhh the sweet, sweet irony),

Ok Mr. Pointy has a real life runs a regular and profitable business and LOVES magic especially EDH. He didn't realize that I played and some of my Facebook geekery tipped him off. I have been avoiding Commander like the plauge, I'm not really fond of multiplayer because I feel like I don't want to mess with it until I have a basic mastery of the head to head rules. Of course I'd already compromised on two-headed giant and Mr. Pointy said if I'd play with him we could play commander in a head to head style. He and I had been trying to get together for hanging out purposes for a while. So this seemed like a perfect yes. Let me tell you he has a full office with shelves dedicated to Magic, a worktable with sorted stacks, every precon deck ever and accessories. He does not however, read any of the online articles or follow the protour at all.

So apparently according to Mr. Pointy I had chosen my pre-con wisely since it was the only one out of the box that made him nervous.

Newb Note: Quick things about Commander

• you start with 40 life
• you pick one card to be your commander and it hangs out in the commander zone
• you can cast if from the commander zone whenever you have the casting cost
• when it dies you put it back in the commander zone and it just costs one more to cast next time moving cumulatively.
• You can only have 1 of each card in your deck
• there are about 100 cards.

Play Magic as normal - Glory in your Timmyflavored Timmy, Johnny or Spikiness cause you do get to play BIG cool cards.

I like angels and demons. I always have. Heck I played In Nomine. ( I miss In Nomine . . .).

It did not suck.

Rules Thing I learned:

The Phyrexian Metamorph actually changes color at the base card level so that if you have to declare "protection from" you can't use "blue" if the PM changed int a red card. I still do not know for sure if this is only with the Phyrexian Metamorph or if it is true for all clone effect cards.

It overwrites on Metamorphing. Mr. Pointy also played an odd infinite life combo that I should have written about here as soon as I learned about it because now I've forgotten how it worked.

Magic/Life Balance

I've also been playing with someone who started playing about two months ago. So the cool thing about that is that I can teach her the stuff that flummoxed me and explain why it was so hard to find out and she can learn the game on her own knowing about the scattered data sources and inconsistencies. It's very sweet of her to agree to be a case study in addition to a new friend.

The changes to OP and my reaction to them also helped my regular playgroup and I sort of work out where magic fits in our friendships and lives (we like it, we don't want it to be ALL the things because we loved ALL the things we were before we all played Magic.) And so I'll be working more on learning EDH because I think it might work better for my circle of friends and they'll put up with my obsessing about things in OP and tournaments that they are interested in but don't care about. The most important thing is that any of us will be able to say to any other one of us that we'd like to do something other than Magic right now and we'll go pick something else to do that minute or later. This is another reason that I'm going to have to break down the tiny avoidance and anxiety issues for FNM. Standard is too time-consuming and requires a constant influx of cards and secondary market expenses. My friends who came in with me when I came back now have a healthy library of cards as a base, we've really not gotten a chance to work with the ones we've got "for fun" so if we just build decks and have fun we'll take a bunch of the obsession out of it.

And I'm cool with that and switching competitive gears and "mastery" gears as long as it doesn't get too spikey. But honestly I think we're all good. We all like pre-releases : ).

Ok so I'm spending all day just working on Magic. I'll check in on Mark Rosewater's Reddit AMA, I'll design a new visual learning aid for Drafts based on Melissa Del Torro's really useful article. I will avoid political news coverage, play some Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam and head to FNM. I have no idea what will happen there, but I've put it here so I'm not gonna chicken out and stay home.