PTQ: Berlin

After dire threats of bodily harm from my local group should I choose not to attend, I did in fact play in a Pro Tour Qualifier for the first time since Kamigawa Block, three years ago.

I also did poorly. 1-2 drop. That’s poorly. And I can’t really blame it on my odd deck choices this time, since I was handed a card for card copy of a Kithkin deck that has won Block events this season.

Is it me? Am I simply not as good a player as my local group thinks I am?

In both of the matches I lost, I made one large play mistake. Perhaps that’s it. In times past, I never noticed myself making mistakes. I know that this can’t be because I didn’t make them, so there must be evolution or growth of some sort. But can just one mistake be enough to swing an entire match? And in this format, which is regarded as reasonably balanced?

Perhaps it’s always been this way. Perhaps the experts at the game have all long ago realized that there’s no such thing as perfect consistency in a full day of games, and that playing for luck is better than playing for perfection. I, too, had a couple of “oops, I win” moments today. Can it be that my poor luck haunts me here as well?

I’ll be attending the next one as well, after the format rotates into Eventide. And I’ll try to spend more time testing for this one. But if the local gauntlet looks to favor the “oops, I win” paradigm, then I’m going to play some pile of random jank. If I’m relying on luck to win, I might as well enjoy myself while I’m at it.

Grand Prix: San Francisco

I have family in Barcelona that I haven’t seen in years. I therefore must place top 16 at this event. I have decks I’m testing. I’ve decided on nothing yet. My three options so far are Mono-U pickles, Mono-G “Sligh”, and RW Blink Riders. I need further input and testing. If you can provide either of these, come by the store and you shall be richly rewarded.

Evil Plan

Now that everyone has gotten tired of constantly checking for new updates, I can continue my evil plan of badmouthing people publicly without them knowing about it. Fear me, for I am like unto a god.

Kotei was, once again, disappointing. I did make the elimination rounds, which I understand puts a bit of subtext on my complaints. But I do make elimination rounds in pretty much every event I go to, so flopping out right after qualifying in is disappointing for me. Part of it is my lack of time (and motivation) to actually build one deck and test to crud out of it. But part of it also boils down to my unwillingness to play something other than Scorpion when it’s obvious what the top tier choices are. I have built and played in the store copies (within 3 cards) of each of the top 4 decks, and rejected them for something exceptionally silly built with 15 minutes before round 1. This strikes me as odd about myself…
I did, however, get to catch up with a great many people that I see very seldom, so it was an entirely worthwhile day. I also got a bitching piece of original sketchwork from Steve Argyle, who is not only an amazing artist (already knew), but also an amazing person.

I will punch Dan in the nuts the next time he argues with me about our snack program. Just sayin’