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Braving the Winter Storm - a Bad Tournament Experience 2.19.04 Well, this past Saturday I attended a Pro Tour Qualifier for San Diego in our great State Capital of Austin, Texas. I knew I was in for a bad weekend though.
If you read my column
weekly, you are aware that I am purchasing a home.
Things are coming along great btw. I'm waiting for
one last phone call and then we just need to close
and everything is a done deal. But, I was down at
my bank around noonish on the previous Friday.
That's when it all began. It started to snow.
Now, I know that many of
you are thinking to yourself, "Ya big wuss! It's
snow! Grow up!"
But there is a lot more
to it than that. It rarely snows anywhere in Texas
south of Dallas. What's worse was that it was
coming down mid day. Also, this wasn't one of those
light snows. It was coming down pretty good. It
was basically a Texas blizzard. Seriously, you
should have seen the bewildered looks on everyone's
eyes.
People at the bank were
in complete amazement of the snow. I personally
tried to ignore it and worked diligently on my loan
form to make sure it was completed as fast as
possible. I eventually got it done between every
third person asking me if I had seen the snow
falling outside. I hopped in my car and drove back
across town to my store. I get out of the car walk
into the store and point out the obvious to everyone
that it is snowing. There's a problem though. It's
not snowing anymore. Well, damn. Some of you might
be put of by this. I thought it was great.
Especially since I knew that I'd be driving on I-35
to Austin on Saturday.
The funny thing is, we
have a saying in Texas: If you don't like the
weather, just wait five minutes. Boy...how true it
was.
Our Friday night
tournament attendance was low. We feel that this
was most likely due to the snowfall. People
probably didn't want to risk getting caught in it at
night. Regardless, we held our tournament. We
closed up shop. We went home. I finally fell
asleep around 12:45AM.
My alarm goes off at
5:30AM. Not a lot of sleep, but what was I really
going to do at this point. I expected the roads
might be icy, so I allowed more time for slow
driving conditions. It's a good thing I did too. I
turned on my computer to check the weather report
and it had the little gray cloud with snowflakes
falling out of it. That was a bad sign. The good
news is that it would warm up later and the weather
wasn't half as bad in Austin. Great. I get cleaned
up, toss my clothes on. I then proceed to go
outside.
That's when it began. I
stepped outside in a rush and found five inches of
snow in front of my apartment. This was not going
to be a good day. The sidewalks were icy, so I
walked through the grass to my car. When I finally
reached my car, I greeted to a large white mound
that mildly resembled the shape of my vehicle. This
was definitely interesting. I spent about ten
minutes warming the car up and pushing snow off of
it. I was definitely not happy.
Eventually, I met up
with Paul, Damien, and Tay. Everyone was on time
and we rolled out of the parking lot at 6:32AM.
Everything seemed to be standard fair. Everyone had
an interesting morning story to share about the snow
they dealt with that morning. We finally reach the
highway. At that point, we greeted it some of the
fiercest driving conditions a Texan has ever had to
deal with.
As soon as we started to
gain speed on the highway, we could hear the wheels
of the car spinning. Now, as I type this, I can see
how this would be perceived as a really damn cool
situation. You might even be imagining the neat
sound of the tires. In some ways, now that I think
about it, it was neat. But the reality was that if
I wasn't careful, our crew was easily about half a
turn from death. Fortunately for us, the two big
members sat in the backseat and that gave us a
little weight to keep us from fishtailing.
We proceeded to drive at
speeds no higher than 25 miles per hour down I-35.
There was even a stretch of road where I just let
the car idle and I was able to keep up with the
extremely slow moving traffic. So our hour and a
half trip turned into nearly a two and a half hour
adventure. We just shared random views on things
and discussed a whole slew of topics to keep
ourselves entertained. By the way, there are bonus
points going out to anyone that knows why McGuyver
was afraid to use a gun. If you are reading this
and don't know who McGuyver was, you are too young
and therefore ineligible.
It was pretty crazy.
During the trip we saw five wrecked vehicles,
several cops, three horses on the loose, two loose
cows, a lamppost that was knocked over extending
into the highway, several sets of skid marks were
cars were likely out of control, and something that
looked like it could have been a body. Damien
threatened to get out and poke it with a stick. I
offered to stop and let him, but only with the
understanding that if it reached for him I had
permission to drive off and leave him. He then
declined to go after it.
Anyway, we eventually
get to Austin. Due to some poor backseat driving
from our big men in the back seat, we miss our turn
and have to take a five minute detour to get back on
course. This isn't a big deal, but when you've
already lost an extra hour, every minute seems
precious. We get on course though and head our
proper way.
We FINALLY arrive at the
tournament site. We nearly hit an Asian guy in a
nice BMW. I'm not sure if I was driving carelessly
because of my eagerness to park, or because he was
in the wrong. Either way, it's no big deal. No
harm, no foul. We unload and head inside to
register.
It is just after 9AM and
we are doing a head count. Only about 30 or so
people are there at this point, but it's not a big
deal. Many people have called and are still
planning to arrive. We decide to do the standard
meet and greet and to go grab some grub. Paul, Tay,
and myself head into the hotel eatery and are
baffled.
First of all, this is a
really small place. Eatery is the best term I have
for it. I'm not totally sure it can be classified
as a restaurant. Maybe at full capacity it could
seat 30-35 people. At this point, we are standing
in the doorway to the place and are looking around
for waitstaff or some other form of personnel. Over
to our right there is what looks to be a small room
that people are going in and out of to get what is
likely their complimentary continental breakfast.
There is a small display case of sorts that has two
cinnamon rolls in it and some chips bags on a rack
above it. We are liking our first impressions.
In due time (two minutes
or so) a lady comes over and seats us. I was so
distracted (or maybe its dumbfounded) that I didn't
bother to get her name. We will just call her Boss
Lady. We tell Boss Lady that we are only here for
the tournament so we can't partake int he
complimentary breakfast. She says its not a big
deal and that she can bring us the menu.
OK, I want to take a
moment to provide a side note that I do not take
kindly to anyone insulting anyone else's business.
I try not to do it, even if I don't like the
people. I own a small business and I know that
things can be difficult sometimes and there are some
situations that may be beyond your control for any
given reason to fix. I also want to let everyone
know that doesn't know, that I grew up extremely
poor. I can deal with people being cheap.
All of that being said.
I had no way to be prepared for what came next.
Boss lady is gone for about 30 seconds and comes
back out of the kitchen area with a HAND WRITTEN
menu. I'm talking two sheets of paper, photocopied
with content on just the front of both of them. It
wasn't even written all that neatly either. And on
top of that, there were like five items they were
offering. Six if you count the lunch time
appetizers that we obviously wouldn't be having.
The three of us, are kind of quiet for a second and
just look at each other. I think we were each
trying to not be the first to express something
negative about the situation.
Boss Lady tells us that
she is going to have someone over to our table to
take our drink orders pretty soon. I decide at this
point to go find and ATM so that I have some small
spending cash in case of emergency. I roam nearly
the entire hotel and find nothing. Fortunately for
me, the place is only about four stories tall. On
my third pass of the front desk (which is the first
time there hasn't been a line), I ask them if they
have an ATM. They say no. This is obviously not
even a three star hotel. I thank them and head back
down to the eatery.
I get there just as the
waiter is finishing up our order. I don't have his
name either, so we shall call him Slow Bro. Anyway,
I'm watching Slow Bro struggle with an EXTREMELY
easy order to take. All three of us are having the
same thing, but two of us are getting sausage and
one is getting bacon. The drinks are two orange
juices and one apple juice. That's it. I start to
step in and see if I can make things simpler, but
Slow Bro looked like he was already struggling and
Paul and Tay were looking like they couldn't explain
it much simpler. Eventually he heads off to the
kitchen and we have a good laugh and chat about the
whole thing. The two of them are as surprised as I
am that there is no ATM in the building.
Well, at this point we
see the Asian guy from the parking lot come into the
eatery. Considering he is in a really nice suit and
he was driving a BMW and he has his family with him,
I see nothing good coming of this situation. The
three of us just make eye contact with the obvious
looks that we were all thinking the same thing.
Boss Lady quickly comes out and seats them. She
heads into the kitchen and comes back out with "the
menu." When she lays is in front of the rich Asian
guy he proceeds to give it and her a look of
complete astonishment. It was almost like he didn't
know what to do. I noticed that Paul saw this and
we both had to look away to keep from laughing.
They eventually decide to deal with it and order
anyway.
About this time Damien
decides to join us. We just laugh when he walks in
and we tell him that he's gonna see the best "menu"
ever. Boss Lady pops back buy and brings out our
drinks and brings Damien the "menu." Shorter after
Damien gets a little laughter from his "men," Slow
Bro comes out to take his order. Damien orders of
the breakfast tacos and Slow Bro heads back into the
kitchen. This wouldn't be such a bad idea other
than the fact that Damien was supposed to pick three
things from their list to have on the tacos. Since
Slow Bro doesn't return to ask him, we assume that
Damien is getting the mystery tacos. A few minutes
later, Boss Lady returns with our food. We
eventually all get to finish eating and things are
good. Well, about as good as they can be at this
point.
About 15 or 20 minutes
after getting our food, we ask for our bill to be
brought over and we just split it up and send out
money and credit cards with Boss Lady. But guess
what, the fun's not over yet. They can't print
receipts on their machine, so we can't each have our
own and divide it up. Good thing I'm not using this
weekend as a tax deduction. As we're getting up I'm
debating not leaving a tip at a restaurant for the
first time in nearly forever. Honestly, I can't
even remember the last time I didn't leave a tip at
a place I ate at. Not even when I was poor and had
next to no money. Anyway, Boss Lady asks us what we
thought of the whether and we tell her about our
perilous trip. She says that she had some issues
with it as well and tells us that she hurt her toe
on the way to work. Here's the kicker though...she
shows us the still bleeding injured toe.
Now, I have to admit,
there is a time and a place for such things. I
thought to myself though that this is definitely not
the place. But, this is about as open as anyone is
gonna be as far as trying to be friendly and close
with the customer. I pulled out a few bucks and
left a tip.
Damien later stayed at
the hotel with his woman and gave a report that was
terrible. The rooms were as bad as the service. I
have no problem playing a tournament here, but I
won't be eating or sleeping there unless it is an
emergency in the future.
We walk back to the
tournament room and see the room up to about 50+
players. This is good. It eventually gets over
60. I do more meeting and greeting with all the
players I don't get to see that often from the
area. I remind everyone about our PTQ that's coming
up in a week. Everyone is in good spirits and
everyone that called, made it to the even safely,
even with the bad roads.
After all of this, my
luck stayed terrible. I opened up very few
creatures, very little removal, and only two ways to
kill artifacts. I manage to go 2-2 and head home.
Tay is the only one that does respectably well from
our crew this week and he finished 9th. However, my
day did feature a little bit of controversy in round
three.
First, let me preface
this situation with the fact that I allowed myself
to get distracted with too many things and missed a
few small damage earlier in the match that could
have potentially made this finish nonexistent. But
the problem is, my opponent is at 14 life. I have a
Leonin Den-Guard equipped with a
Viridian Longbow and a
Plated Slagwurm with seven lands available and a
card that I've been holding onto for a while, which
is a Forest. He has a
Hoverguard Observer equipped with a
Fireshrieker and a
Bosh, Iron Golem. His lands are tapped out
because of Bosh. I'm at 8 life, and he has a card
in hand. With the amount of burn and removal he has
I could very well be dead. I am the fact that he
has three ways to deal direct damage in his deck,
since I saw them in our previous two games. This
has me just a tad bit worried. As it stands, i
still come up a few damage short of killing him if
he doesn't block.
This is a very bad spot
to be in, which seems to be completely unwinnable. a
bit depressingly, I draw my card for the turn. I
draw up
Stand Together. At this point I'm calculating
how I could possibly kill him if just one of my guys
gets through. There's no way. I need them to both
break free. So I take a shot in the dark and start
mentioning how I wish I was playing
Blood Scent so that I could get Bosh to block.
I do this in the hopes that I can get him to second
guess himself. What I failed to mention is that
this is the guy that registered my deck. All match,
he was aware of the cards in my deck, so my tricks
weren't all that useful. However, he did express
some doubt in his memory as to what cards I may
have. I figured here in the third game, that MAYBE
he will overthink himself and not block, thinking
that I might still have something that he couldn't
remember. I wait a few seconds to calculate the
math and realize that I can just attack with both of
them and hope for the best.
I proceed to attack. I
push turn the Plated Slagwurm sideways and I push
the Leonin Den-Guard forward. He quickly say, "No
blocks." At this point there was about ten players
watching this match. All of them made the
simultaneous "o" face at this. I took a second to
double count my damage. I then cast Stand Together
putting two counters on both of my creatures. He
just looks at me. I ask him if that's game. He is
then confused as he didn't think I was attacking
with my Den-Guard. We says if I were attacking with
it, he would have blocked my Slagwurm. So now, I'm
in a bit of a quandary. I honestly don't feel that
my opponent was lying here. However, everyone else
seems to have seen me push my guys forward. Even
where they are positioned on the table they are
further up than the rest of my stuff. On top of
that, I had been attacking with both the Leonin
Den-Guard and the
Razor Golem the same way int he previous two
games. I make it a point to make all of my actions
similar and deliberate for an entire match. It's a
habit I developed mainly to prevent such
situations.
We then call a judge
over and explain the situation to him. My opponents
argument is that if I was attacking with both
creatures he would have blocked because he had the
win in hand. I was thinking it was a
Fireball, but I later find out that it is the
Pyrite Spellbomb. Just as well, I explain my
side to the judge, which the crowd seems to agree
with. I also make it a note to point out that my
opponent knows what's in my deck and very well
wrecks things by changing his mind, because now he
has seen one of the two cards in hand. The judge
says that he can't do anything about the game state,
since we both had ample time to verify attacks and
blocks with each other. My opponent makes an appeal
and it comes back with the same verdict. My
opponent is upset. I now feel like a slight jerk.
But what do ya do?
We talk afterwards and
its all cool. We each understand the others side
and are cool with things. Lesson learned. If you
aren't sure, double-check or ask.
There are a couple of
things wrong with this scenario. First of all, he
knew was in my deck. I thought about the fact that
I had a
Predator's Strike in the deck still. If my
other card were a Predator's Strike, I could have
still won:
Plated Slagwurm 8
Counters from Stand
Together 2
Predator's Strike 3
+ Using Viridian
Longbow 1
That's a total of 14
damage anyway.
Had he been thinking, he
would have blocked anyway.
Also, he noted multiple
times that he was wondering why I didn't attack with
both of them. That should have been his first
sign. I knew, he knew, and everyone watching knew
that without attacking with both creatures, I had no
possible chance of winning. He should have checked
something as well.
But anyway, its over and
done with. I just didn't want to make any enemies.
I'm glad that the spectators agreed that I did what
I did, so I know that I'm not screwing over my
opponent.
But that's enough of
that, let's move along.
I asked for Good Plays
and Bad Plays and I got a really awesome good play
to post this week. I got a couple of good ones, but
this week's good play comes from Luke Hendricks:
Chris, a friend, was
playing a blue/red controlling/burn deck against me,
playing a casual monoblack control. I was at 3 life
with a Cabal Coffers, 5 swamps, and a Barren Moor in
play (due to Chris countering most of my spells and
burning me and my creatures), while Chris had lands
and maybe a Compulsion; it didn't affect the play.
I had two cards in hand. I tapped two swamps to
activate the Coffers for five and tapped the other
three to play an Avatar of Woe. Chris, seeing my
lone untapped land, targeted it with Mana Leak.
Lucky for me, I had a Dark Ritual in hand to come up
with the necessary mana, right? One would think.
Unfortunately, in response to my Dark Ritual, he
cast Counterspell. I started to pick up my Ritual to
put it in the graveyard, but he said, "No, I'm
countering my Mana Leak." I looked at him oddly for
a few seconds as first my Dark Ritual and then my
Avatar resolved. It was then I realized that I had
nothing I could use the three black mana for now,
and at the end of the phase, I manaburned for three
and died. That is the only time I've ever seen
anyone die to a Dark Ritual, and if I was him, I
know I wouldn’t have seen the play. :-)
That definitely merits
being called play of the week. I'll have Luke's
prize package in the mail this weekend. Actually,
that reminds me. I think I forgot to mention that I
was giving away prizes.
Well, now you know. I
will accept both a good play and a bad play of the
week winner each week. Both will receive mystery
prizes from my store. And before anyone asks, YES,
the prizes will be worth it.
This week's card of the
week is
Boomerang. I know this card seems really
simple, but if you are playing blue, give it another
look. Right now, with indestructible cards making
appearances all over the place, this can help you
out. It truly lets you get you get a second shot at
countering nearly any problem card. Also, unlike
other bounce spells, it lets you target your
opponent's lands. If you go first, you effectively
stop your opponent from getting anything going on
your second turn. There are a ton of other cards
that need to be explored right now, but this one is
worth giving a second look to. It's got a lot of
uses still and I think with some of the flash of the
new cards, this little gem has gotten lost in the
shuffle.
I don't really have a
strategy tip of the week. But technically my little
story above is a perfect one to use. Be clear and
precise about your moves while playing. It keeps
things from getting confusing and it can also help
when you need a ruling to go your way.
Well, I've obviously
written way too much this week. So I need to wrap
this one up.
Remember to send in your
Good Plays and Bad Plays of the week for a chance to
win fabulous prizes. All you have to do is send an
e-mail in to have a chance to win.
Also, check your local
tournament listings to find out about Pro Tour San
Diego Qualifiers in your are. It turns out that
even when you get smashed and leave with a 2-2
record, Mirrodin/Darksteel sealed is still pretty
fun.
Until next time,
DeQuan Watson
a.k.a. PowrDragn
PowrDragn on IRC
PowrDragn on MODO
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