What happens in Canberra, Doesn’t stay in Canberra
By Rei Barker
First of all congratulations to all those who feel they did well at Nats, and indeed those who went. I didn’t do terribly well, but I had a great time just being there for the second year running. Secondly, a special mention goes to Aaron Nichol for making top eight. This is a great achievement considering his age and the homebrew deck he chose to pilot and I think it’s pretty funny that the deck is getting picked apart on SCG. Also, congratulations are definitely due to him for earning the hatred and disdain of two unnamed Melbourne players. No one likes to lose to someone they mistakenly think is worse than them.
This article is partly to inform the PG community about what I feel went wrong for me personally in Canberra, what I would do differently and some strategies that I feel could be useful. It is also partly to exorcise my own demons about how I went.
For the record, I went 0-3 in the standard and 1-4 in the draft. L
- I brought my girlfriend with me. I really should have known better. While she is lovely and supportive and all that, it was silly of me to think that any person wants to chill in Canberra solo while their significant other plays cards constantly, for days on end. It caused tension, simple as that and I feel that played on my mind when I should have been focusing on the task at hand.
- Loss of Focus. I mentioned a few things in my Nationals primer about breathing exercises and getting the correct amount of sleep. For some reason I abandoned these practices once in Canberra. All the things I mentioned help me personally focus on what I am doing and it was a mistake to let them get away from me. I stayed up late (which to be fair was the fault of Rydges), I drank, I didn’t eat as well as I should have. Some people can do it, I could when I was younger, but now I can’t. Usually I carry a level of self awareness with that allows me to honestly evaluate what I am doing and what needs to be done.
- Ignoring Testing. This should still be under loss of focus but it is so important I gave it its own heading. As soon as I got into a tournament, I forgot everything that I had decided on when I decided what deck I wanted to play. Keeping 2 Agony Warp hands against 5c control! Why would I do that? When I should have been playing aggro I had my head in the clouds thinking of God- knows- what and made silly mistakes. I attacked when I should have been control and I did weird controlly things when I should have been playing aggro. Basic stuff, really.
- TILT! I tilted. I did. I hate to admit it but I drafted a really good deck in the first pod and I should have 3-0 d but I made a game losing mistake and beat myself up about it. Play the haste dude, get through lethal, duh! I mean I know now what I should have done but for Draco’s sake if I had taken ten more seconds to think about it I might not have made such a mess of things.
I drafted online the night I got back and made it to the finals and narrowly lost. I’m not a bad player I just didn’t do well at Nats. So I got to thinking about how I could make myself feel better about it. I’ll paraphrase Chapin when I suggest what I did, “honestly evaluate what makes you get the results you’re getting.” Makes sense right? I allowed myself to wallow in failure briefly, but then I jumped right back on the Magic horse and it felt great. I know why I didn’t do as well as I wanted and I’m going to take whatever steps I can to stop this happening again. It’s not like I’m terrible and I deserved my result, honestly. I feel that I am better than 1-5 drop at nationals level, I really do. And if scrubbing out means that maybe I can do better next year, then so be it. The real shame would be if I got that result and didn’t take anything positive from it. Far better to learn what I can and minimise my mistakes next time I play.
From these admissions I have formulated a set of strategies which I feel will help me achieve more favourable results the next time I play. It may seem like they are pretty straightforward things, but evidently they eluded me when I needed them so I will share:
- Practice (testing etc.)
- Be ready (with counters, proper sleeves, dice, pen + paper, properly registered deck). I got a warning for having dodgy sleeves and a game loss for misregistering my deck in the PTQ the next day.
- Keep your eyes on the prize. Don’t go on tilt. A loss is a loss and it’s widely accepted that one loss can lead to many more if you let it mess with your head.
- Focus. If your there for a magic weekend, don’t try and juggle. Some people can do it, but I couldn’t and I feel that it affected my level of play.
It might seem like every second article outlines these points or similar but they really are that important. I certainly haven’t achieved anything close to what I feel I am capable of in Magic and not following my own rules has certainly contributed to that. There is a PTQ in a month or maybe more that I want to do well in and it’s not going to happen if I don’t start thinking about it soon. Or now. I didn’t do well at Nats and that’s ok, there’s always next year. Hopefully I can apply these principles and achieve a more satisfactory result. Hopefully you can too!
Thanks for reading.
Rei Barker
BungooStacker on mtgo
P.S.
Round 1 against Michael Maurici playing 5cc
Game one I lose the die roll and mull to five. He plays a Vivid land, I say “Mutavault, go”. He plays another Vivid land and says “Go”. I play a Secluded Glen revealing Vendilion Clique and activate the vault. “Attackers?” I say, and he Bolts it. I don’t draw another land til turn six and I just don’t get there.
Game two is just as awkward with mulling to five again. Usually Faerie mulligans aren’t too much of an issue but my deck was being mean that day. I lead with a Bitterblossom on turn two and pass turn. In his third draw step I play Vendilion Clique and he Fallouts with the trigger on the stack. I put another Fallout on the bottom and he gets an Esper Charm which he plays, choosing to kill the blossom. I don’t draw a fourth land and the game just slips away from me.
After this match I was discussing it with Levi and I say I played Michael Mancini. He says “Who? Oh Michael Maurici!” I’m like “Yeah, I think that’s the dude from Melrose Place”. Guess you had to be there for the lols.