Post SCG $5K Comments

Whoa!!! Whoa!!! I just saw the top 16 decks from the SCG $5K in Minneapolis and guess what! No, I didn’t make it, but Cory Baumeister won! I played Cory in the 4th round where he crushed me! He’s also FFFreak’s younger brother, who took 9th at PT: Honolulu. I could have beaten him if my mana cooperated. I fought as best as I could with my awkward mana base. I think I had a Cascade Bluffs (u/r), Mystic Gate (w/u), Twilight Mire (b/g), and a Forest. Man! I honestly believe I could have beaten him! This was the only match were my mana wasn’t cooperating, so I guess I can’t complain, getting mana-screwed 1 out of 8 matches means that I’m a decent deck builder, shuffler, and lucky!

And then I also played Greg who took 10th place in the 7th round! He was playing regular 5CC that was popular pre-Alara Reborn. Man! I could have beaten him as well! I made two huge misplays in this match that cost me $2500! DOH!

I know that I’m talking about hypothetical situations here, but I honestly believe now that I could have made it into the top 16! I looked back at those two matches and I totally believe that I could have won those matches. I was playing some amazing Magic and getting pretty lucky with my Cascades. You can ask Blong and the rest of guys. I was constantly setting myself up for the win every turn and won some pretty epic and close games.

I honestly believe that our group has the potential to do well in Magic. I honestly do! The first major event is always more glitter and gold because we’re just happy to be there. To be in a really competitive environment, to be around pros! We’re star struck and nervous at the same time. Because of this, we’re not able to focus as well or aren’t acclimated to this new environment. I personally know that I need to condition myself better.

I believe our group just has to continue to go to FNMs, play test, encourage each other, and share! We have to share insights, tips, cards, sleeves, battle reports, deck lists, sideboard options, websites, watch each other’s games and share what we would have done. We have to share this knowledge if we all want to get better.

Most importantly, we have to continue to be honest with ourselves. On the Magic Show, Evan Erwin asks the Pros how can regular players get better and two of them said "Be honest with yourself." You can only blame yourself for a loss, if you think it's your deck, then you're wrong. It's you. You designed the deck. You can't blame mana issues or not getting that one card because you designed, made, and are piloting that deck. You can't blame getting mana screwed as to why you lost because Magic is a game of economics/resource management. Getting mana screwed is part or the game. Better deck building & shuffling will help eliminate this. It's not because your opponent "got there" before you could "get there." You have just as many opportunites to "get there" as your opponent does. There is an element of luck in Magic and many intangibles, but you need to control as many of the tangibles and controllable things as possible. Even really good Magic players need luck, it's just that they capitalize on luck better than we do by being honest with themselves.