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Getting Better...One Mistake at a Time
OK, I want to start off with a bit of an obvious
statement that I don't think people really
understand.
Simple (and usually small) plays can win or lose the
game.
That is basically what's been bugging me in a
nutshell. For the last two weeks, it's been killing
me. I mean like...really bad. Imagine having an
itch in the middle of your back that you can't
reach. Now imagine that itch is a mosquito bite but
now it's in the middle of your chest. The problem
is worse now...it's there and you CAN scratch it,
yet it still won't go away. It's been bothering me
about THAT much.
I know that makes me sound real whiny and that's not
the type of person I am. The reason be bugs me, is
because people keep asking for help, yet they don't
want to look at the most obvious problems with their
game. You have to analyze your play and try to not
make small mistakes. Again, this sounds so obvious,
yet people don't won't to listen.
Whether people want to admit it or not, the average
tournament player doesn't want to admit their
mistakes. They usually think they've done all that
they could do, but "it just wasn't their day." Now,
sometimes this may actually be true. But honestly,
it hold very little truth most of the time.
Competitors so often want to blame their
shortcomings on outside forces. Sometimes there is
nothing you can do. If I were to get out and run
the 200 meter dash against Michael Johnson, I know
there is no chance in hell that I'm going to win
that race. But in events that I feel I should have
a serious competitive shot, I need to look at myself
first.
I'm not trying to be elitist here. Again, I'm just
making references to state a point. When you look
at the best athletes and competitors int he world,
they work hard. They accept their faults and
shortcomings and try to learn from them. That is
what makes them read more books on their craft.
That is what makes them go back to the gym. That is
what makes them seek out a tutor. They accept they
have fallen short for reasons within themselves and
work from that point.
But that's enough criticizing. I want to be my
usual positive self and offer up some advice. Here
are some things you can do to help minimize your
mistakes.
The most important thing is to look at the obvious.
When I ask players why they made such an obvious
mistake, they usually give me a statement that
involves them overthinking themselves. Players seem
to pride themselves too often on trying to make the
good (and usually overcomplicated) play. I know you
read all these articles about fun combat tricks,
ways to manipulate the stack, or even crazy mind
games. But the truth is, the right opportunities
for those plays isn't there as often as players
think they are. If they were, they wouldn't be so
special. A lot of times, players lose simply by
ignoring the obvious board position and miss one
thing. I've even watch people think about a big
play with lethal damage available, but they simply
forgot what their opponent's life was at.
Another good word of advice is play a deck that you
know well. Picking a deck off the internet Friday
morning to play in your local Friday Night Magic
tournament that same evening is not a smart idea.
Really good players can do that. The average player
is not good enough to do that. Again, this isn't
meant to be insulting, but these are true hard
facts. Not knowing a deck well can lead to all
kinds of miss plays and pointless losses. Why even
risk the situation. It gets even worse, because you
won't know what to do against certain sideboard
cards. Even worse is the fact that you won't even
be completely sure what to sideboard in each match.
You might also want to pick a deck that fits your
style. This one might sound a little weird to some
of you guys, but this is important. If you are used
to playing beatdown, don't go trying to play a slow
control deck. If you are used to play a combo deck,
don't to trying to play a complicated combo deck.
If you plan to play something different in a
tournament, practice with it a bit. Colors may even
make a difference. Some players are more familiar
with certain colors, so that might be something to
think about in selecting your deck. Seriously, we
have a guy at my local store that has trouble
playing beatdown decks. He has trouble figuring out
the optimal attacking and blocking scenarios. He
plays control usually and is pretty good with card
selection and getting the most out of his cards. So
it benefits him to play fewer decks that require
creatures to turn sideways.
OK, so now you see that I can rant and be helpful
all at the same time. That takes skill by the way.
Alright, now I'm just patting myself on the back for
no reason. Let's move on.
Here is a neat deck to check out:
Green Sea
3 Troll Ascetic
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Eternal Witness
2 Viridian Shaman
4 Ravenous Baloth
2 Triskelion
3 Annul
4 Oxidize
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Mana Leak
3 Echoing Truth
2 Crystal Shard
12 Forest
11 Island
Sideboard:
4 Naturalize
2 Last Word
2 Duplicant
3 Vine Trellis
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Gigapede
Unfortunately, I was going to surprise you guys and
give you the first blue/green deck to appear in a
while but Alex Schvartsman posted a similar deck on
the internet. The good side is that the other deck
being posted showed me that Crystal Shard needed to
be on my list.
Most of the deck makes sense and shouldn't need a
lot of explanation. However, there is a card on the
slit that draws some attention and that's Echoing
Truth. The funny thing is that it makes complete
sense though. It's good against big creatures in
the Ravager Affinity decks. It's also a decent
answer to big creatures that drop out early via
Tooth and Nail. It is a card that has been getting
severely overlooked lately. And truth be told, you
need every bit of your Echoing Truth and Mana Leak
against goblins.
This deck should also present a decent matchup
against U/W Control and against Astral Slide.
Gigapede is a long forgotten creature than can help
in both matchups. There is also a full set of
Naturalize hanging out in the sideboard which might
be important.
And speaking of sideboards be aware that Vine
Trellis serves two purposes. It can come in to help
against the creatures decks that give you fits, like
Goblins and it can also help against land
destruction heavy decks. There is one crucible of
worlds to help with the latter as well.
It's a neat deck to play around with that takes some
getting used to. Personally I would like to have
two Chrome Mox in there somewhere, but I can't see
where.
But that's it for me.
Until next time,
DeQuan Watson
a.k.a. PowrDragn
PowrDragn at pojo dot com
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