The Wormhole: September 2012

On Saturday, September 1^st, I participated in my first "large" tournament (by "large" I mean bigger than a pre-release, so anything +60 I suppose) in 13 years. The last time I played a in large, competitive tournament was GP Manila in 1999. I was 22, 50 pounds lighter, and just finished my first season out in the Bering Sea as an Observer for NOAA. Jesus… I was 50 pounds lighter.

Me, 13 years (and 50 pounds lighter) ago.

Anyway, I was stupid nervous and excited to get back into competitive spell-slinging and D Veloz, one of the Anime Imports regulars, invited me to go to the TCGPlayer 5K in San Jose. We met up the Thursday before and play-tested at the shop, then went at it again the next day at Anime's regular-weekly 4pm Standard. D and my other Magic Homie, Mielvin, came by my house Saturday morning and off we went down to San Jose to battle.

Quick Stats: 174 person tournament, 8 rounds, Top 32 cash, Top 8 reset the brackets and go single elim ftw. I played Mono-Green Dungrove.
rd. 1 (vs. Esper Junk) = W, 2-0
rd. 2 (vs. U/W Delver) = W, 2-0
rd. 3 (vs. R/G Aggro) = L, 0-2
rd. 4 (vs. U/W Control) W, 2-0
rd. 5 (vs. U/W Mid-Range) W, 2-1 (really proud of my play during this one)
rd. 6 (vs. U/W Delver) L, 1-2
rd. 7 (vs. Naya Aggro) W, 2-1

rd. 8 (vs. ????????)

My friend (and awesomesauce Magic player), Kyle, met me at the Convention Center to watch games and root me on. I usually get nervous when Kyle watches me in a tourney, but strangely, I felt like he was my own personal judge/support crew... It was awesome! I knew that if my opponents did something illegal and I missed it, he'd have my back and call it... It allowed me to feel really confident about that aspect of the game and I played some of the best Magic I'd ever played in my life.

My first match loss came in Round 3 and I can't really complain. I was playing a R/G Aggro deck and, in game two, I had no cards in hand but an edge in board position with a 6/6 Tree, a Rancored 9/7 Ooze, and a 3/2 Strangleroot. Dude has 2 cards in hand, a Sword of Feast and Famine equipped to his own Strangleroot, 4 mana-up and a Bird. I was at 11, he was at 2. I figured even if he cast a Bonfire or Wolfir Silverheart, I was attacking for lethal next turn. He taps 4 lands and his Bird and drops a Silverheart bonded to his equipped Geist. Geist attacks for 4, he untaps 4 land and, POW! Huntmaster… Oh well, at least I lost to an Epic play!

I was most proud of my game-play and composure in Round 5. I played a 22-year-old dude from the East Bay. He seemed like a really nice guy; cordial, talkative, a level 1 judge at his local shop… It was all good. I win Game 1, he takes Game 2, but as I finish shuffling for Game 3 and start to draw my cards (after he shuffled and cut my deck), he stops in his tracks and yells, "JUDGE!!!" A bit shocked because I don't know what's going on, I ask him, "Is something wrong?" The formerly happy-go-lucky opponent turned all Big-Eyed-No-Blink-Serious-Guy. He refused to talk to me or answer my questions -pretty fucking lame if you asked me- definitely the most awkward 45 seconds of the whole tourney. I said, "What, do you think, my cards are marked or something? I didn't mark them, Man. Well, whatever… I guess we have to wait for the Judge."

The Judge comes by and asks what the problem is. My opponent explains that he thinks one of my cards is marked. He finally breaks his communication silence with me, looks at me and says, "I'm not saying you're cheating; I just think one of your cards is marked." I was totally thinking in my head at that moment, "Yeah, right, Bitch. You're trying to pull some weak ass gamesmanship move on me. Well, fuck you, you ass-raping donkey fucker." The Judge seemed to think exactly what I was thinking because when he looked at my deck, he sorta rolled his eyes like, "Really? You called me over for this?" tapped the cards down and put my library back on the table, then looked at my opponent and said, "Okay, now his deck isn't marked and it's randomly shuffled. Continue."

I went on to roll his ass with a Rancored Thrun and a pissed off Tree. GG, Eastbay. WHASSUPER, NOW?!?! WESTSIDE, NIGGA!!! Haha :p

I lost the next round 1-2 to a Delver player who ended up in Top 4 and needed to win Round 7 to have a shot at cashing in the Top 32. I got paired up with a homeboy from Stockton who was really cool and had a good matchup against me, but his Naya Aggro deck stalled after I killed his mana dorks. I had won and was going on to Round 8… Little did I know, I was also going on to Magical Drama Land!

So here's the situation: I was going into the final round ranked 22nd with a record of 5-2. Basically, I needed to win my final match to make Top 16, win $75 and, most importantly to me, a really cool ltd. edition playmat. Unfortunately, a loss (and resultant 5-3) record would probably knock me out of top 32 and, hence, no money, no prizes, no playmat.

Pairings went up, I calmed myself down, focused and was ready to go. I win the roll, play a Bird, and pass... My opponent drops Seachrome Coast and Snags my Bird. U/W Delver! Right on... I have a good match-up against Delver and as soon as I resolve a Dungrove, it's pretty much "gg" for my opponent. On 5th turn, LITERALLY as I'm swinging in with a Rancor'ed Tree and 2 Strangleroots for lethal, the head judge gets on the microphone and says,

"We're extremely sorry about this... blah-blah-blah... but we made a mistake in the pairings that directly affects the Top 8 standings. Since only 10 minutes of the round has passed, we can, under our rules, choose to RESTART THE ROUND WITH NEW PAIRINGS. We're sorry about the inconvenience... blah-blah-blah... Your current matches are now null an void. New pairings will be posted soon."

Holy yuck.

Anyway, I'm not gonna lie... I sorta went on tilt and was in a frustrated playing daze; I haven't played this much Magic for this long AND this intense for over a decade, and this pretty much unraveled my focus. Then, my will-to-win was further sapped when I discovered what deck my new opponent was playing: INFECT!!! Arrrrgh!!! I went from a favorable matchup that I'm comfortable playing (and had already won a game and have a fully stocked sideboard for) to possibly my WORST matchup and one I've never played (against) before!!!

And as if to rub salt deeper in the wound (although it wasn't his fault, I don't blame him), the Delver player I was beating got newly-paired with... A BYE (his oppo didn't show)! So he went from potentially losing to me and getting knocked out of Top 32 to an auto-win sending him to Top 16.

Wow. That felt like falling out of a roller coaster.

Anyway, I made several playing mistakes in my match against the Infect player (my first really non-solid play of the day) but it was all academic when in the third game, I mulliganed to 6 and he hit me for 9 INFECT on turn 2 (nothing I could do... he earned it with a Titanic Growth and 2x Mutagenic Growths on his Glistener Elf. He won, no contest.

So I lost and ended the day with a 5-3 record, pretty dejected and a bit upset, both at myself for sloppy play against my final opponent and especially at the whole tournament re-pairing situation. But D and Mielvin were good team-mates and helped me see that, overall, I played really well and I did what I came out there to do: have fun (it was a blast), gained great tournament experience, and played solid (which I did for 7 & 1/2 rounds

). I was also really fortunate to take the advice of my friend Mark, who told me to play a "simpler" deck that finished rounds faster (win or lose) so I could have time to eat, hit the head, and refocus in between rounds. I was mentally exhausted at the end of the day and I can only imagine how much earlier I would've crapped out if I played one of my control decks and went to "time" in any one of the rounds! It's great advice deck-choice advice for a dude newer to the Tournament Magic scene.

BUT THE STORY'S NOT OVER...

Out of nowhere, like a strange nerd fairy-tale, I got the dork's happy ending... When the final standings came up, I looked for my name in the 40's, then 50's, then went back up the list. Guess who ended up IN EXACTLY 32ND PLACE!!!!!

WHOOOOOOO!!!! There were 4 other guys beneath me with identical 5-3 records, but I had better tie-breaker, just enough to cash (and Karma came back my way today)!!!

I got $50, 10 TCG Player Points and, most awesomesaucely, my very own Limited Edition TCG Playmat!!! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

It was the best complete competitive Magic day of my life! It was a lot of fun, 8-of-the-9 people I played were really cool, and hanging out with D, Kyle, and Mielvin was a blast! Mono-Green Tree For The Win, Baby! EAT FRESH!!!