3 Mana LeakI learned three things this weekend:
3 Vapor Snag
2 Gut Shot
2 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Divine Offering
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Favorable Winds
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Moorland Haunt
20 Other Lands
Sideboard
4 Appetite for Brains
2 Celestial Purge
2 Day of Judgment
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Terminus
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Negate
1 Mental Misstep
- I am bad;
- My deck is bad;
- And I should feel bad.
I had high hopes for June. Between May 30th and June 13th, I attended 6 local Standard tournaments where I accumulated a combined record of 17 wins, 5 losses, and two draws. Scale that down to eight matches, and I'd expect 5.66 wins, 1.66 losses, and 0.66 draws; that's basically 6-1-1 or 6-2 depending on the day. During this time I was continuously tweaking my deck and reflecting on general principles of good spellslinging, concrete aspects of this Standard format, and interesting game situations that I encountered. In addition to the sanctioned events, I organized a testing session at my house on Thursday, June 14th, where I got in another tournament's worth of matches, all against "real" decks and opponents.
In the second half of June, I attended the tournaments I was preparing for: two PTQs and a WMCQ. I was well rested before each event. I packed a lunchbox for each event with plenty of between round snacks and a large Gatorade to stay hydrated.
I say all this because I have not been this well prepared for a "major" tournament probably ever. But something, somewhere, went horribly wrong.
In the World Magic Cup Qualifier in College Park, MD on June 16th, I started out 0-4. The full Kraken Hatchling. I got the bye round five, lost round six, and won out to finish 3-5. The stat that matters is "dead" after 2 rounds.
In the PTQ in the same venue on the 17th, I lost round 1, and died after round 4 at 2-2, finishing the day 5-3. This was my best performance of the PTQ season to date. HID.
A week later at the PTQ in Wilmington, I again turned in a Kraken Hatchling performance, featuring a spectacularly careless Match 1, Game 1 game loss because I forgot to actually cast my Gitaxian Probe before drawing a card. Instead of staying in and grinding planeswalker points, I dropped and went home to play Duels of the Planeswakers and soothe my shattered ego. Nicol Bolas can kiss my shiny metal ass. Or something.
So here we are. There are two drivable PTQs left for me this season: Glen Burnie, MD on July 28th, and probably my best shot, Richmond, VA on August 4th, the same Saturday as the SCG Standard Open in Washington, DC. I have almost exactly a month to get myself ready. That starts here.
So, obviously, my preparation did not translate into results. I can think of several possible reasons for this, all of which I think are true to some degree.
- I'm getting the yips. I haven't felt consciously nervous, but three Round 1 losses suggests this may be an issue.
- Round 1 losses are getting me stuck "in the weeds" where the metagame is much less predicable. I have two matches under my belt against UB control over the past two weekends, for example. Both ended with my opponent hardcasting Griselbrand. See also matches against: Tezzeret (lost), Naya Humans (won), GW goodstuff (not humans, won), Bant Hexproof/Delver (lost).
- Suboptimal opposition inflated my results in preparation. A fair portion of those 17 wins are against faker people than me playing faker decks than mine.
- I did not notice play mistakes in preparation tournaments because my opponents weren't punishing me for suboptimal play.
- I did not realize my deck was bad because of the large playskill gap between my opponents and myself in preparation tournaments.
- Despite the extent of my preparation thus far, I am still substantially less prepared than the guy who's been grinding Delver mirrors on MODO every day for two months now.
