After a 4-0 at Game Day the Sunday prior I sat down to the left of Mr Salty as always (DCI reporter bug for sure) hoping to extend that run. Pick one pack one I took a Barrage Tyrant over a foil full art Mountain which is apparently a huge mistake if you care about value at all. Those mountains are worth a pack and a half and that Barrage Tyrant was only a 40% chance to make my deck. It did end up making it as I drafted a Red Black deck when I had a Blue Black drafter on my right who hate drafted a Rolling Thunder and a Red Blue drafter to my left.
I don't and never will understand hate drafting a card you are 0% to play with such a high pick. That strategy is not completely frowned on by pro's though and I remember one guest on Limited Resources being in favour of hate drafting.
It would have been my second Rolling Thunder though, which is a little ridiculous. This is the first time I really got to see the power of that card as previously I had always needed to use it to kill one big scary threat. This time I got to wipe a few boards and it felt glorious. Despite being in red black I didn't feel super aggressive as I lacked in creatures to the extent I played Dutiful Return because I was going to need my best ones to do some real work. I had doubles of Complete Disregard and Touch of the Void to back them up.
Some games I curved out, others I just killed everything and then stuck a guy. After losing game 1 to a really cool Bant eldrazi deck that is easily the most intriguing I have seen in the format, I didn't drop another game. I crushed the finals and we had time to play another 2 games for fun which I also won and my opponent playing a nice red white allies deck called for mercy. My deck was certainly good against aggro but I feel a little lucky to have got the points against mid range. That extended my win streak to 7 and I randomly chose 1 English Pack and 2 Korean packs for my prize. Beejay asked me why I didn't just choose all Korean packs and I responded with "I wanted to see who loved me more". That seems utterly ridiculous now but that's the magic of painkillers kids. It turns out English loves me more, which makes sense since I teach English for a living.
Who the fuck cares what was in the Korean packs because that English pack had a Steam Vents in it.
I felt like I owned this city. Winning the draft and a Steam Vents is pretty high on the list of my best Magic days in Korea. The draft is pretty relaxed, but everyone is a decent player. Certainly know easy 3 pointers. Some of the game day matches got pretty intense but $100 - $120 bill in a pack is pretty sweet.
Thinking back to Australia there were PTQ top 8's (which always ended pretty sad) and Nationals qualifications etc which while not as monetarily rewarding were very satisfying and gave a real sense of accomplishment.
Good day.
I didn't have to play against Mr Salty but got to watch him a lot as all 3 of his matches were the last to finish and either went or brushed the time limit. Each round he would only be on game 1 or just starting game 2 while the rest of us had finished. He has a strange mix of playing slow but then playing very fast when something actually happens. It's infuriating and frustrating even as a spectator. He even complained about his round 3 opponent playing slowly! To be fair his opponent was slow but definitely not the culprit, it was ponder vs ponder.
I think all players don't realise how slow they are playing, when you are in the moment you feel like a lot is happening because you have a lot to think about but that's the challenge. You got to keep moving. The biggest problem Mr Salty has is he should be thinking about what he is going to do during his turn while the opponent is going through their process. It seemed every turn he would draw his card and look like he has never seen his hand before. He had a Mist Intruder and seemed to think about whether he should attack with it every single turn.
My slow play rant out of the system he was definitely less salty than normal. In fact he lost game 3 of round 3 to a big Rolling Thunder and held it together where others would not have. I guess just like me he is up and down mood wise and has his moments either way.
Hope for us both.
Back to that Bant eldrazi deck, blue green X has been called the converge deck but maybe it's also the colour combination that actually lets you cast eldrazi and be competitive. The black green eldrazi deck hasn't seemed to really work out but 3/4 Tajuru Stalwarts, Stonehaven Medics and Courrier Griffins clogging up the board and Lifespring Druids working their magic were a nice combo. I thought I was in game one until Breaker of Armies followed by Jace's Insight blew me away.
Pay to Play #4
$2.5 a day isn't a very catchy name, now that I am an expedition pulling millionaire I think I can aim for $2 a day. I have an extensive collection of cards and accessories so me playing on $2 a day is very different than someone new to the game. To play for free would involve either not drafting or going much deeper into speculation. Deeper than I want to considering there are limited cash outs here in Korea. No local buy list or TCG player. Puca Trade has been fantastic but that is digital bit coin style profits that you can't pay a tournament entry fee with.
While my collection value got a bump from that expedition I didn't pick up any cash so my $2.5 a day just covered the $16 draft entry fee. The current position is +$60.7
I don't and never will understand hate drafting a card you are 0% to play with such a high pick. That strategy is not completely frowned on by pro's though and I remember one guest on Limited Resources being in favour of hate drafting.
It would have been my second Rolling Thunder though, which is a little ridiculous. This is the first time I really got to see the power of that card as previously I had always needed to use it to kill one big scary threat. This time I got to wipe a few boards and it felt glorious. Despite being in red black I didn't feel super aggressive as I lacked in creatures to the extent I played Dutiful Return because I was going to need my best ones to do some real work. I had doubles of Complete Disregard and Touch of the Void to back them up.
Some games I curved out, others I just killed everything and then stuck a guy. After losing game 1 to a really cool Bant eldrazi deck that is easily the most intriguing I have seen in the format, I didn't drop another game. I crushed the finals and we had time to play another 2 games for fun which I also won and my opponent playing a nice red white allies deck called for mercy. My deck was certainly good against aggro but I feel a little lucky to have got the points against mid range. That extended my win streak to 7 and I randomly chose 1 English Pack and 2 Korean packs for my prize. Beejay asked me why I didn't just choose all Korean packs and I responded with "I wanted to see who loved me more". That seems utterly ridiculous now but that's the magic of painkillers kids. It turns out English loves me more, which makes sense since I teach English for a living.
Who the fuck cares what was in the Korean packs because that English pack had a Steam Vents in it.
I felt like I owned this city. Winning the draft and a Steam Vents is pretty high on the list of my best Magic days in Korea. The draft is pretty relaxed, but everyone is a decent player. Certainly know easy 3 pointers. Some of the game day matches got pretty intense but $100 - $120 bill in a pack is pretty sweet.
Thinking back to Australia there were PTQ top 8's (which always ended pretty sad) and Nationals qualifications etc which while not as monetarily rewarding were very satisfying and gave a real sense of accomplishment.
Good day.
I didn't have to play against Mr Salty but got to watch him a lot as all 3 of his matches were the last to finish and either went or brushed the time limit. Each round he would only be on game 1 or just starting game 2 while the rest of us had finished. He has a strange mix of playing slow but then playing very fast when something actually happens. It's infuriating and frustrating even as a spectator. He even complained about his round 3 opponent playing slowly! To be fair his opponent was slow but definitely not the culprit, it was ponder vs ponder.
I think all players don't realise how slow they are playing, when you are in the moment you feel like a lot is happening because you have a lot to think about but that's the challenge. You got to keep moving. The biggest problem Mr Salty has is he should be thinking about what he is going to do during his turn while the opponent is going through their process. It seemed every turn he would draw his card and look like he has never seen his hand before. He had a Mist Intruder and seemed to think about whether he should attack with it every single turn.
My slow play rant out of the system he was definitely less salty than normal. In fact he lost game 3 of round 3 to a big Rolling Thunder and held it together where others would not have. I guess just like me he is up and down mood wise and has his moments either way.
Hope for us both.
Back to that Bant eldrazi deck, blue green X has been called the converge deck but maybe it's also the colour combination that actually lets you cast eldrazi and be competitive. The black green eldrazi deck hasn't seemed to really work out but 3/4 Tajuru Stalwarts, Stonehaven Medics and Courrier Griffins clogging up the board and Lifespring Druids working their magic were a nice combo. I thought I was in game one until Breaker of Armies followed by Jace's Insight blew me away.
Pay to Play #4
$2.5 a day isn't a very catchy name, now that I am an expedition pulling millionaire I think I can aim for $2 a day. I have an extensive collection of cards and accessories so me playing on $2 a day is very different than someone new to the game. To play for free would involve either not drafting or going much deeper into speculation. Deeper than I want to considering there are limited cash outs here in Korea. No local buy list or TCG player. Puca Trade has been fantastic but that is digital bit coin style profits that you can't pay a tournament entry fee with.
While my collection value got a bump from that expedition I didn't pick up any cash so my $2.5 a day just covered the $16 draft entry fee. The current position is +$60.7
No comments:
Post a Comment