So yeah, it was a Two-Headed Giant Limited PTQ at NG Galleria yesterday. I played with my friend Paul, and we had a rather good sealed pool, coming up with a pair of decks that had the basic strategy of “Do not block!”
Unfortunately, we were only able to go 5-2, ending up as the team in 10th place. Well, it’s not like we would’ve been able to go to San Diego, but still the 750USD would have been nice. We lost one game to mana flood, and the other loss was one where we were winning – at least until the opposing team decided to take 3 turns in a row via Walk the Aeons.
We could’ve won that last one though, but we made a few mistakes such as not being aggressive enough, i.e. deciding to block. The thing about Magic tournaments, you pretty much need to have at most one loss in order to hit top 8, and you can assume you’re gonna get at least one loss due to mana screw; so there’s really no room for error or bad plays. You must make the best play at every possible time. It’s a demanding game.
The new 2HG format is a lot more fun though, with the thiry life leading everyone to choose aggro strategies. And since you only get one game per round, there’s a lot more pressure involved, and it’s not uncommon for decisive plays to take 5 or more minutes to decide. Fun, but mentally exhausting.
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