On occasion I seriously have felt like this person in the picture when playing Magic. This past Saturday was one such occasion. That is not to say I played horrible, I just got outplayed by other people playing better. I loved it. I also hated it, but I loved it a little bit more than I hated it. The pressure is mounting and the competition is growing and the skills are becoming sharper and the decks are becoming deadlier. I find myself going back to the drawing board. I find myself wanting to scrap decks I have had for many months and try new strategies and new archetypes. I must curb those feelings and stick to what I have. The time and energy put into play-testing. The small tweaks, the ups and downs of different builds. Making a move here and making the deck more efficient, or making a move there and finding that suddenly the mana curve has made me consistently miss a play on turn three. These are reasons to love this game. It is a game, and it is more than that because it sticks with you afterward. It is like an ocean, constantly moving and evolving, never looking the same twice. Our decks act in this way. We bring something to the table and play it and the next week people have brought something new to the table to combat what had been done the previous week, and the cycle continues week in and week out. It is maddening. Which is why, as I mentioned, I sometimes feel like the person in that picture.
Take the first game of the night. We played a FFA game that we had never done before in our group. A game with 6 players all going for one another. No order, only chaos. Starting with Halo the game flowed to Paul, Snape, me, Don and Xiao. Halo was playing his Stormtide Leviathan deck, which never saw the table. Paul was playing his Giddy Up deck. Snape was playing his eldrazi Not of This World deck. I was playing my Vampirehouse-5 deck. Don was playing his newly constructed When Elves Attack, and Xiao was playing his new Unnamed blue control deck. The game was quite intense, and locked up. I was the most aggressive initially taking pot-shots at Paul until he condemned my Bloodghast. Halo was aggressive as well taking shots at me until a new threat in the form of Snape reared its head. Everyone was focused on everyone, and no one was gaining an upper hand. I was slowly building up creatures and waiting until I had five to take control of stuff with my captivating vampires. Snape was building up land to throw down some of his eldrazi creatures. Don was patiently biding his time with Mimic Vats lined up in front of him, and Xiao and Halo were slowly building some defense. Paul seemed to be able to keep nothing out on the battlefield as everything he played was destroyed or bounced. Then Snape opened the flood gates when he Exsanguinated everyone for 9 life. Suddenly Snape had over 50 life points and everyone was looking at everyone else with a shell-shocked look. I felt okay with my life link vampires and the Feast of Blood I had in my hand, but no one else was really looking at ease with the situation and many people were under 10 life now. The next turn Snape dropped a bomb onto the field. A giant eldrazi, which I promptly took control of with my vampires, and then the battlefield was promptly cleaned up by Paul with a Day of Judgment, which Don promptly took advantage of by gaining control of all the creatures he could onto his Mimic Vats, counting three deep. The eldrazi was one of them. Then Halo came out of no where and kept the game alive by bouncing the Mimic Vat with the eldrazi back to Don's hand. The game looked locked down again. Halo was taking some initiative and was poisoning Xiao with an islandwalk creature. Xiao had a new clear and present danger which took him out of my radar while he had to focus on Halo. Snape was looking dangerous and untouchable with all of that life, an probably sitting on another exsanguinate in his hand too. Don was still sitting around watching his Mimic Vats harvest the dead, and Paul was still waiting for his chance to get something onto the battlefield that could do something for him rather than for someone else. I had rebuilt my vampire army again and now had Kalastria Highborn out too. Xiao was nearly dead from Halo when he mounted a defense. Paul was down to his final couple of life points and Don and Halo were getting near death. I was inching my way back towards 20 life thanks to more condemns and a vampire nighthawk. The battle was getting fierce and the game was nearing 2 hours in length. Paul succumbs to lethal damage, Xiao was unable to fend off Halo's relentless assault. Don looked from Halo to Snape to me. Snape looked at his beer. I looked from Don to Don's Mimic Vats, to Halo, to Snape to my 1 card in my hand. Halo was looking at the ceiling. The politicking was becoming serious as Don was assuring me that an alliance would lead to good things and surely not to betrayal. He pointed out Snape and his ridiculous amount of life. Snape seemed to enjoy people pointing out how much life he had. Halo wanted to make sure that everyone knew how little of a threat he was, and Don responded by assaulting Halo all out and smashing him good. Halo was stunned! And dead. Snape was unmoved by the event and played another eldrazi. I shored up my defense preparing for an eldrazi assault. Don and Snape and I were entrenched. I was trying to attack Don who was at a very little amount of life. I even tried to kill my own creatures to use Kalastria's ability to do direct damage but he was able to gain just enough life. Then I finally caught him with not enough mana! I was able to get just enough damage to him, but the sacrifices cost me against Snape. Snape was plowing into my health and I was throwing everything I could to defend against his assaults. The battle had boiled down to Snape against me, and I was sure I could draw into more creatures and hold him off. I started picking off his life 9 points at a time, but then he played exsanguinate again and gained a chunk back taking me down again. Then Baneful Omen hit the table, and spelled my doom. It whittled me down each turn until I was dead. I sat there defeated. It was almost worse to make it through that whole game to the bitter end, and then lose than to have been knocked out early. I felt a bit of envy for Paul who surely knew he was done for and wanted to play the spoiler as much as he could. It was Snape's day. Snape walks away with a victory in what may have been our most epic battle we have had in our playgroup.
On the other side of things we were able to play a large amount of heads-up play. Don licked his wounds from the FFA game and came back to play 1 on 1 with his new Green and White deck, and went undefeated in Standard play. He took out Paul's Giddy Up, and Xiao's control deck and my white infect deck Parody of Parity. He was unstoppable. His only defeat was to Snape who was not playing a standard deck and was able to ravage Don for two wins.
Xiao did very well with his new deck as well in heads-up play, getting 4 wins and 4 losses.
Paul and I had our butts handed to us, except when we played each other and then it was just me getting my butt handed to me.
Don stepped up on Saturday as the new hot hand in our standard competition, but then Monday brought Chris and his Face Destroyer deck which also went undefeated on the night in heads-up play. It took home 7 wins. So who will emerge next week to come out the big winner for the week? Will someone be able to give Don and Chris a slice of humble pie? Will Don and Chris battle?
Monday was filled with more FFA action.
Halo, Paul, Chris, Snape and possible new recruit Tim battle in 3 5-way battles. Halo was the victor in the first melee, while Chris and Paul drew final blood in the next two. The games were long and arduous. The competition was stiff and every game was an unknown with no clear winner until the end.
The heads-up action was dominated by Chris, with nobody able to stop him.
Between Don and Chris, I don't know if we have ever had such dominating performances with one deck on any given night in standard play. The only thing that comes close was Lowell's deck So Fast which went undefeated in our single-deck tournament.
The last couple of months playing Magic have taught me a lot about myself and my play style and abilities. I have found myself building and re-building decks during the week before I ever get to play them live. I have built countless prototypes, only to take them back apart and scrap them altogether. I do this because I am forced to, and I am forced to because of the members in our group. The group is gaining greater and greater ability, and the challenge for each of us is growing higher and higher the more experience we all gain. In a slight amount of irony, when Paul told me that I should have my deck by called Parody of Parity, I thought it silly. Now I find that it was prescient. I do not know if he felt a change in the air, or if he just found it funny; I do know that it was a moment that I will note because that deck is a symbol for me now in more ways than one.
The history of our group is short as of now, but the experienced and knowledge gained in that time is tremendous. There is a lot to learn about this game and the archives of data are overwhelming, but the people who came to our group green, have ripened into mature and well-developed players.
I am proud of this group, and I am also terrified to bring my decks to play next weekend. (Please reference the picture above again for how I feel.)
It is nice to sit back and reflect on the games we played. Remembering the moves that we make from our opening hand, to the move that spells our disaster or outlines our victory. Each battle is different. Each game feels new.
Take a moment now and fall into memory. That is where you will learn the most about this game.
