Friday 25 August 2017

UPS AND DOWNS

Time for another update!

Last week was a pretty bad one for me. I've had some really bad results and it just seemed like I couldn't do it. I was feeling that I was tilting and wasn't playing at my best. I finished 4-5 in the last 3 leagues. But then I decided that it's time to stop and consider my mistakes. I started looking over the decks I played and immediately started finding a way to build them better, or improve my manabase, or that I built a miracle deck that needed 4 or 5 things to happen consecutively in order to make this big finish. Unfortunately MTGO has decided that it's time to stop saving my history, so I can't exactly show you my decks.

Nevertheless I think that I've managed to come to my senses. I really took a breath and spend a whole day watching replays from previous games and analyzing my mistakes. I've found that some of the decks I built seemed awesome on paper but the manabase was so ridiculous and with a very small chance to actually work. I've caught myself playing like a maniac vs my opponents open mana and getting blown out.

Anyway the next day came and with my eyes opened I decided to give it another go. With having all 4-5s at least I was getting some PP back. I managed to take a snap at my last deck, and a DECK indeed it was.




  
DECKBUILDING

There was stuff in every color to play. The rares were good and most were playable. one of the most important things though was that I build the deck like 5 times in order to make sure I was playing the best version there is. My first major decision was that I was going to play Green. I had the most (good) rares in that color and the deserts needed to make Hour of Promise good. I also had stuff to ramp into. The best rare in the pool is the Angel IMO. I wanted to play it but white didn't seem like a good main color due to low amount of good playables. I looked into black splashing red first since I had a trial - cartouche combo, a gold GR card and the Ammit Eternal.

I built the GBR deck and I didn't feel excited at all. I was leaving my best cards out - Glyph Keeper and Angel. I didn't have enough deserts and all in all I wasn't feeling excited for this deck. I started thinking what would I miss from this deck. The removal was descent, but I had good removal in white and blue too. After building the GUW deck I started to feel it. This deck just felt right and made me excited to go into game one. I was winning and the deck was very consistent. I had a game or two where I drew the wrong kind of mana at the wrong time, but most of the time Vizier helped cast my creatures without any trouble and Hour fetched me the needed lands.


GAMES 

I was having an almost perfect run (I had like 2 or 3 game losses) till 7-0. AND THEN CAME THE HORROR. The most ridiculous UR deck I've ever faced. He bounced my stuff, open fired my face and pretty much destroyed everything I managed to stick on the board while smashing my face too. I manage to take a game, but both games he won were heavily one-sided. He had 3 Riddleforms in his deck and I was facing at least 2 of them every game. Every removal he had turned into like 3 cmc - remove target creature and deal 6 to face of opponent. It was hard. I was so disappointed that my streak had to end. I picked myself up though and joined the queue for my next game.

AND THEN CAME THE SAME HORROR. I was matched with the same person. So we went again. Miraculously I won game one. Next game he was on the play and destroyed me so fast. Riddleform into Riddleform into removal is a powerfull combo and it did the job. I started sideboarding but I didn't know what to do. I looked at my pool and made a decision. I took out all the WU cards, sided in my Red Aggressive stuff, and went into race mode. His deck was just too good and I didn't want to risk having a slow start. Open fire is a great way to deal with Riddleform and I had descent aggressive red options. The deck wasn't as strong as the GUW, but it was definitely faster. I managed to steal the last game with a Trial of Zeal to the face as a finisher and I was celebrating.

AFTERMATH

My first 8-1!!! I would have been much happier for a 9-0, but this is an excellent result too. If it were a GP I would make day 2 and have a descent shot at top 8. Unfortunately it is not, but it has lifted my spirits a lot. As a conclusion I'd like to remind you that if you feel yourself getting in a rut you should really rethink you last 10-15 games and the decisions you made. Perhaps you weren't as flooded as you thought and there were mistakes that costed you a game or two, or even five.

May the hearth of the cards be with you,
Tonyo

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