A Disappointing Defeat at the Hands of a Master

Drafting in Magic is probably one of the hardest skills to master. For those of you who haven’t played it, it is about taking one card from one of your three packets and passing it around. The skills involve knowing which card is best and analyzing what your opponent is playing. Now I’m by no means an expert, so I as all other newbies started reading up on all the help and tips the pros give on www.magicthegathering.com.

So the scene was set, and I stand in a queue of 15 anxious people just itching to open a few new packs. All with wishful dreams of owning a foiled Ravnica Dual land that is signed and has a miss-print (not like that ever happens). Eventually the time comes for us to take our seats and after a brief talk with the tournament organizers were quickly ripped our first pack of brand new Ravnica.

Now I know I’m suppose to be thinking “Hrmm what cards shall I use? I need to find one that is fantastic and able to be used in numerous situations”. But I could not resist listening to my inner “Timmy” (Timmy = a term used by magic players to describe a player that like BIG creature or BIG spell effects). With a card like this in your pack, you really cannot afford to pass it on.

So that pretty much set the pace and colour I’ll be playing for the evening. Along the way I received a more Golgari cards such as …

But the one card that really locked down the opponents was

With one life every turn and flying it easily pinched little pieces of his fleshed and gobbled it up like it was satay. Unfortunately I didn’t win as much as I expected. The first match was pretty much an all out assault but thanks to the stalling efforts of my opponent, I only drew with him. His slow playing cost me a match point, plus he didn’t want to continue even though I had the upper advantage.

The second match was between a friend and unfortunately for him, I crushed him. 2-1 win with tons of life to space. It was an unfair competition seeing that I specifically designed my deck to beat decks like his. Still a points a point.

Third and final match. This was one of the most disappointing matches of my life. I just had to fight a deck specifically designed to fight mine. Loaded with loads of creature removal and tons of walls, it was a race for me to kill him first and his job to slow things down. Needless to say I lost, but at lest I lost to the guy who won first place.

All in all it was a learning experience. Surely I could have argued that he was just lucky and got much better cards, but in reality I know that it was my lack of skill at analysing people were all going on full offensive when I should have like my final opponent focused on controlling the board.

Hopefully there will be more Magic exploits in the near future, Thank you and good night.