06-28-2009, 08:38 AM
WARNING: Almost this entire post is about Magic. Feel free to skip it and ignore it. Most of you won't even understand half of the terminology being used in this, after I reread over it. No matter, http://www.livejournal.com = http://www.cdbzrpg.com for me tonight. Nom nom.
I actually had a fairly rockin' day. One of those days when I was "on my game" so to speak. I went down to the gaming store with my friend to join some booster draft for Magic (I haven't played offline tournaments in a while, so I knew I'd mess up a lot, but additionally I'm fairly bad with this format offline). Fortunately for me, the people passing to me were worse than me, apparently, despite doing this a lot. They just fed me the entire way and I ended up playing a random guy I didn't know round one, scored the 2-0. These people must think removal is bad. Then I went up against my friend round two, who knew my deck. Drop a bomb and soft locked him for 2-0 (which kinda sucks, because if we play, I'd rather one of us win legit instead of over a bomb out or someone getting screwed or flooded. It was a tournament though, so both of us did the thing we should have, and played for the win, taking whatever route to victory got the kill).
Went up against another guy who is a very good player, one of the best in AUG, and had a nuts deck. He's one of the best bluffs out there and is confident enough to fool you with it no matter what your situation. A lot of times, you just have to play into him and not around him. Sometimes if you make the bad play, you can watch him overthink the course and watch him in action, but the thing is, he tends to be right. The most subtle things you do without realizing it and next thing you know, he's writing down your entire hand - when you haven't shown it to him (physically, since you have through your actions). Your plays give it away, but he can take it to a higher level of just reading you, which is why he's great in poker too. The bluffing and reading can sometimes be used against him though, which is how I sealed game three for the 2-1. Game two was nowhere close with him taking it, game one was a win off the bomb again. So I was pretty stoked about the completely legit game three win.
What also made me happy is that when I've played the guy in the past and won (which if its a local tourney, I seem to get the upset and take him sometimes, but if its something big like a PTQ in ATL, then I may as well throw it for him - which is fine because he can climb further in the standings into the money than I can, guaranteed), he would get pretty pissed due to my misplays and things that I just never noticed I could have done. Tonight, we just talked it out afterwards and he went through my deck surprised at all the removal I'd been fed, and pointed out a few plays in the game that were key points, the bluff I pulled on him for the one sided wrath, the earlier kill that I could have had and completely overlooked, etc. I like when that happens because I like to improve from my mistakes, and getting some discussion time over thoughts about different angles that came up from his point of view were very enlightening and in some cases shed new light while in other cases gave me confidence in the opinion I'd already gathered as far as ranking top picks. So I won the tourney and that was pretty cool, given the extreme rust and the fact that I kept just making a lot of procedural errors due to the rust (like stupid things, tapping wrong mana, etc, cracking under pressure).
Later I actually got first picked for CounterStrike tonight with the work crew, which was a shock given that I'm usually last. And weirdly, I sorta ran with it and kept a high k/d ratio, doing the best I've done in a while (till two specific pros finally showed up lol).
So overall, its put me in a good mood. Now gonna get some sleep to scrub out in the morning in this other online tourney.
I actually had a fairly rockin' day. One of those days when I was "on my game" so to speak. I went down to the gaming store with my friend to join some booster draft for Magic (I haven't played offline tournaments in a while, so I knew I'd mess up a lot, but additionally I'm fairly bad with this format offline). Fortunately for me, the people passing to me were worse than me, apparently, despite doing this a lot. They just fed me the entire way and I ended up playing a random guy I didn't know round one, scored the 2-0. These people must think removal is bad. Then I went up against my friend round two, who knew my deck. Drop a bomb and soft locked him for 2-0 (which kinda sucks, because if we play, I'd rather one of us win legit instead of over a bomb out or someone getting screwed or flooded. It was a tournament though, so both of us did the thing we should have, and played for the win, taking whatever route to victory got the kill).
Went up against another guy who is a very good player, one of the best in AUG, and had a nuts deck. He's one of the best bluffs out there and is confident enough to fool you with it no matter what your situation. A lot of times, you just have to play into him and not around him. Sometimes if you make the bad play, you can watch him overthink the course and watch him in action, but the thing is, he tends to be right. The most subtle things you do without realizing it and next thing you know, he's writing down your entire hand - when you haven't shown it to him (physically, since you have through your actions). Your plays give it away, but he can take it to a higher level of just reading you, which is why he's great in poker too. The bluffing and reading can sometimes be used against him though, which is how I sealed game three for the 2-1. Game two was nowhere close with him taking it, game one was a win off the bomb again. So I was pretty stoked about the completely legit game three win.
What also made me happy is that when I've played the guy in the past and won (which if its a local tourney, I seem to get the upset and take him sometimes, but if its something big like a PTQ in ATL, then I may as well throw it for him - which is fine because he can climb further in the standings into the money than I can, guaranteed), he would get pretty pissed due to my misplays and things that I just never noticed I could have done. Tonight, we just talked it out afterwards and he went through my deck surprised at all the removal I'd been fed, and pointed out a few plays in the game that were key points, the bluff I pulled on him for the one sided wrath, the earlier kill that I could have had and completely overlooked, etc. I like when that happens because I like to improve from my mistakes, and getting some discussion time over thoughts about different angles that came up from his point of view were very enlightening and in some cases shed new light while in other cases gave me confidence in the opinion I'd already gathered as far as ranking top picks. So I won the tourney and that was pretty cool, given the extreme rust and the fact that I kept just making a lot of procedural errors due to the rust (like stupid things, tapping wrong mana, etc, cracking under pressure).
Later I actually got first picked for CounterStrike tonight with the work crew, which was a shock given that I'm usually last. And weirdly, I sorta ran with it and kept a high k/d ratio, doing the best I've done in a while (till two specific pros finally showed up lol).
So overall, its put me in a good mood. Now gonna get some sleep to scrub out in the morning in this other online tourney.
![[Image: Ashe.jpg]](http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af298/symbiosychotic/Ashe.jpg)