March 2, 2005
The Magic Was… Not Strong With This One
Went to the Extended PTQ for Philly a few Saturdays ago, armed with Meddling Mage-less GrowAtog, many dice that didn’t match, and a Red Bull. Buddy Ryan accompanied, armed with Red Rock (that link’s actually to Ryan’s deck, whereas the other one is just an approximation of mine) and a substantially better ability to play said deck. He ended up in the quarterfinals, with a T8 pin and half a box of Betrayers to his name. I eventually managed a winning record of 4-3, after going 1-3 in the first four rounds.
I could tell that it wasn’t my day after I lost the first round. Now, it’s certainly possible to lose the first round and still go on to do great things. Yet, it’s incredibly disheartening to lose to someone who obviously has no idea what he is doing and was just given the deck 10 minutes before the tournament started. It’s like realizing in the middle of a race that you’re trailing someone who didn’t put his shoes on the right feet.
We went back last weekend. I again started off with a 1-3 record, a testament to my refusal to spend extra money so I could play a good deck. I did manage to pull out a 3-3 final record. ::sigh::
At least the next season is limited. I’m good at limited.
