longer.blue

Daily thoughts #22 Well, today was great, and it also sucked a little. I went 3-5, and didn't make day 2 at the PT. I think I am no something like 21/25 on making day 2 (counting new age worlds), but it's back to back miss. Definitely scary. At some point I was 3-1, in a decider on the play vs Cub, keeping an excellent 7 vs opponent going to 6. Feeling great about everything, already planning my trophy acceptance speech. Instead, I died on turn four, and won only one game for the rest of the tournament. So what went wrong? Well, the Bant deck didn't seem great. I would lose a game per match due to having non-functional draw. Either flooding or getting manascrewed. I guess the deck is prone to that. Looks like basically all the Cub decks got crushed, and there was some great innovation especially in the Izzet department (Spellementals and Handshake UR). It's still kinda weird that Bant did so well at the RC, because I'd assume people were prepping to beat Cub decks there as well? Maybe the PT players are just better at that? Either way, I am not sure there was a way for me to avoid playing Bant. It had great stats at the RC, I had reps with it, and it was doing well in our testing. I just ran out of time at the end, and I'm not very good at innovating. Maybe I should have audibled to Lessons, but I am still mildly surprised it did so well. I will try Lessons in the PTQ tomorrow, and will report back. I don't think, I have played that bad - there were mistakes here and there but not sure I could have done much in the games I've lost? IRL Magic is hard though, and I need to put more reps to catch up to the players who haven't skipped the last 5 years. Would I run back the stream testing if I were qualified for Vegas? I was asked this question multiple times today. In the morning, I'd answer yes. It was fun. It's good for my brand, and I thought it was cool content for the competitive Magic community. However, losing fucking sucks. I don't like it. Even when I know, I'll be behind compared to people on bigger teams I am still crushed when I lose. Luckily I am not qualified for Vegas (yet), so I don't have to worry about this issue. Even though I lost, the PT is great. I think I have grown to appreciate it even more with age. The people are amazing, I had many great conversations today, and just this warm fuzzy feeling that I am fortunate enough to be able to do this. Let's hope I requalify soonish. 🤝