New Home T2 and draft

Disclaimer: this post is more of a rant...

Najada store recently moved to a new location. To celebrate that there were tournaments with better price/prize ratio. One could play type 2 or draft. I participated in one type 2 event and a draft that followed.

My mood was far from being the best one. I got upset easily. I really hate when someone starts to pick on someone or just be rude or something (happens all the time) or that someone just comes to me to watch our match. So I was prepared to leave the store if there would be too high density of people I did not want to play against (lately happens more often then not). I also wasn't really sure what deck to play but in the end I decided for Abzan Control. The reason was that for the high entry fee that there was I wanted to play with a deck I really wanted to play with (I know that playing with a deck I don't like or a deck using a strategy I just don't like much is my worst enemy - learned from playing another TCG named Legend of the Five Rings) and not something I did not really trust much (UW Heroic).

At local FNM I actually played with that UW Heroic because all my other type 2 decks were in my flat and I haven't been there for quite some time. I decided to play with it for the fun of it and to see if playing with the deck is worth 6 tix (and what it can do in competitive environment). To my surprise it was actually quite fun (even 'budget' version was good enough for all those Junks, and RWs). The decisions were quite simple. I either try to win or die horribly. I played with this on MTGO so I had an idea how to play with it. At first I wasn't really sure how much I want to force something but I found out quite soon that one can actually play it from the safe side and that worked well. The deck draws cards and scries hell a lot (even without scry lands, even though I missed those a lot). I came up second somehow...no idea how^_^. So it wasn't bad but do I think this deck is good? I'm not convinced yet. That is the reason why I chose Abzan Control for the New Home Standard rather than UW Heroic even though I knew that cards like Whisperwood Elemental would just kill me.

In round 1 I played against 4c Sidisi/Soul of Theros deck which I really like actually. But I find it having the same problem as Sidisi Whip. It has a really cool cards and can do pretty cool stuff but there is not much control over the game. I really don't like that and even if this deck is quite 'wrath of god proof' it just isn't enough for me. Due to my opponent's misplays I managed to win the match though. Then I lost against mono red hell. I usually cannot win the first game unless my opponent gets screwed somehow. It gets way better for me after sideboarding. Unfortunately I mulled to five and terrible died. I won 4 consecutive games against the same deck and pilot afterwards^^. After this Temur Ascendancy awaited me. My opponent managed a huge misplay once again but unfortunately for me I did not have what I needed and lost. Next I played against Boros aggro that I actually beat somehow. Next I faced green hell^_^... All this does not sound very well for me but I actually ended up in the top 8 and won some packs (not worth much). I'm ready to stop playing Abzan Control...or t2 altogether. (I really wish to play Legacy. But there wasn't time for that due to me being somewhere 'completely' elsewhere)

After type 2 we drafted ktk block. I opened Temur War Shaman so I picked that and wondered what I would be playing. I was passed Pyrotechnics so I decided to go for red. I got mostly red cards from the first pack and good ones. I expected to end up mardu, but these colors were not really coming in pack 2 (so the player to my left was in some or all of those colors). In the second pack I opened Surrak so I picked that. But at that time I hardly had anything green (I had red, black cards and fixation for mardu). Anyway I started slowing picking green cards and occasional blue card. In pack three I had no idea what to pick as my deck was really a hybrid (mono red aggro and something midrange). I ended up in Temur colors and the deck was really insane. I just can't describe it. When drafting this I wasn't prepared to actually play 6 drops so I passed cards I would actually normally pick and play as they win the game on their own (Mob Rule and Flamerush Rider). Those were the cards that killed me in the finals (I expected that) but it was epic nonetheless. The deck needed 18 lands which I realized after the first game. I was usually cutting Ainok Tracker for an Island.

Anyway during these two tournaments some players had some remarks about some plays (they were right) and games and it wasn't nice at all to find out that those people are highly competitive and do not understand the aspect of fun not to mention that they weren't nice at all when saying this or that. I had a really great deck which was fun to play with and actually a 3:0 material but I wasn't there to win. I was there to explore and have fun and for the majority of time I managed to ignore all the negativity from other players. But in the end, during the finals, I have to say that those people just ruined my very good mood at that time and it hurts even now. Also for all this money (not the draft but t2) I'm not sure if it actually is worth playing 'for fun'. Because this really calls for 'winning'. It seems that my 'competitiveness' has its limits and no one seems to understand that nor respect that.