Selesnya at States

MTG CDW

Tilted?

        Ever have a day where you just started to feel "meh" about everything?  I had one of those days at Montana States in Billings.  Before we get too far into this it should be known I'm not a particularly negative person when it comes to magic.  But, for one day I experienced an inner turmoil, never felt before, playing this game.  We'll cover my less than exciting states experience after a quick analysis of the deck I selected. 

GW Aggro

Creatures:19

Experiment Onex4

Champion of the Pantheonx4

Fleecemane Lionx4

Imposing Sovereignx3

Loxodons Smiterx4

 Instants:15

gods willingx2

brave the elementsx2

Selesnya Charmx4

Rootborn Defensex2

Ready/Willingx1
Advent of the Wurmx4

Sorceries: 2
Call of the Conclavex2

Planeswalker:2
Ajani, Caller of the Pridex2

Lands:22
Selesnya guildgatex1
Temple Gardenx4
Forestsx9
Plainsx8

Analysis

        The idea of this deck is to play powerful creatures, such as Fleecemane Lion and Loxodon Smiter.  Then protect them or give them evasion with cards like gods willing, brave the elements and rootborn defense.  However, I lost sight on the need to focus on playing threats and became too concerned with protecting my strong value creatures.  This weakness in my deck came to bite me several times during the tournament.     

Games

Match One:  My opponent is playing an interesting Golgari brew.  His build focused on enchantments, enchantment creatures and a strong suite of black removal.   Game 1 saw me overrun him with fleecemane lions and an Advent of the Wurm, protected by my instants.   Game two was a slugfest as he placed multiple enchantments on a single creature and combined with a Whip of Erebos, was able to hold off two monstrous Fleecemane Lions before succumbing to several Advents of the Wurm.

Match Two:  Going into the match I was feeling confident.  Little did I know this match set the tone for the rest of my day.  Game one I kept a two land hand with two plains, a little sketch yes.  But, I figured the ability to play several cards and stall until I hit my green would be fine.  I already knew my opponent was playing Mono Red Devotion and figured a mix of Champion of the Pantheon and Imposing Sovereign would be fine to stall until I could draw into gree.  I then proceeded to draw everything but a green producing land for 8 TURNS!  "Wow, just wow" I thought and proceeded to sideboard in two Unflinching Courages and two Fiendslayer Paladins.   Unfortunately my deck was still convinced I was playing a mono-white deck and I died in game two by turn 8 or 9.   

 

Post Match: Following match two I was frustrated.  My opponent had been a decent enough magic payer and was a pretty nice kid to boot.  But, I knew if I had managed to find a single green mana-source both games would have been a completely different.  All the typical thoughts leading down the path to being "tilted" were flowing through my head.  Now for those unfamiliar with the term "tilted" it's a word coined in poker jargon.   It is a very negative state of mind filled with frustration and anger that leads to poor plays in poker/Magic.  I dragged my irritation and frustration with me into my third match. 

 

Match 3:  I played a game against my buddy Joey and his Primeval Bant deck.  He's a big rogue deck fan and addicted to brewing.  The idea of his deck was to stall using life gain from cards such as Centaur Healer and Supreme Verdict to give him time to ramp into huge cards like Angel of Serenity and Primeval Bounty. During Game 1 I ran him over, but it was closer near the end than the game should have been.  Due to being tilted I made the mistake of playing a Soldier of the Pantheon before the Experiment One in my hand.  Missing the two damage I could have used from my Experiment One turned out to be huge as Joey almost managed to stabilize at two life when he would have been dead a two turns earlier.  Game 2 I boarded in a second Read/Willing and a third Rootborn Defense for the Supreme Verdicts.  Joey took Game 2 as he wiped my board with and Verdict and ramped up into a Primeval Bounty which gave him constant life and creatures to win the game.  Game 3 I pulled the nut GW draw.  The hand was Experiment one, Fleecemane, Lione, Imposing Sovereign, Loxodon Smiter, Glare of Heresy, two plains and a forest.  This aggressive hand went the distance even after a Supreme Verdict from Joey. 

 

Match 4:  This match was a faceoff against a sort of R/G hydra deck.  There's  a sort of rule or wisdom in the Magic community stating the green deck with the bigger creatures wins and it was definitely true in this matchup.  My opponent grew his Savageborn Hydra's and Scavenging Oozes until I couldn't handle them and all of my creature protection spells only stalled him a little bit.  This is one match where having a multitude of creature protection spells really bit me.  Instead of being able to deploy more threats, I was constantly just saving my few creatures.  Allowing my opponent to just continue laying down beefy creature after beef creature.  The deck also, flooded badly both games, adding to my woes.  I was easily overrun in two games.

 

Match 5:  This wasn't much of a match.  My opponent was mana-screwed both games and apparently was having as bad of a day as I was.  I won 2-0. 

 

Match 6:  Played the mirror.  Meaning he was GW Aggro as well for those new to magic.  The same issue in my deck design showed it's face again.  My opponent drew better, but most of all was playing more threats than I could handle. While I hade hands protecting my one or two decent sized creatures, which really meant nothing in the long term.  I lost both games quickly. 

 

 

Post Tournament Thoughts

 

 

        So going 3-3 isn't great and I placed 19th out of 40 players.  Confirming a mediocre showing from myself and my deck design.  But, there's a lesson here that I've learned well after the tournament and it's one every aggro player should be aware of.  Keep your deck design focused!  When playing aggro, one should aim to get their opponent under pressure and their life total at zero as quickly as possible.  I lost sight of this and should have made all of those protection spells into more threats to bring the beatdown to my opponents.  I deserved this weak showing and have become better because of it.  The fact I allowed myself to tilt in a game fraught with chance forced me to see another lesson.  No matter how well you "believe" you've constructed your deck, at some point you will see questionable to hideous hands.  These may cause you to lose the game.  Should this occur, shrug it off!  I could have lost that game against Joey just because I played my cards in the wrong order, due to my anger.  Possibly resulting in an even worse standing in the tournament.  Never lose your cool, smile, laugh, pray or whatever you need to do to keep your head in the game and make the correct plays.  This is one of the biggest differences between Professional players and your average magic Joe.  



        Now this post has gone on long enough and I'm going to call it quits here.  I've finally found the deck style I want to play in standard and I'll be showing my deck build and FNM results next week. 



 

 

 Remember:  Keep calm and apply pressure!