Roy Tang

I reinstalled MTGO3 last week because I figured I could get some casual play out of it at least. After installation I found out that Conflux release events were this weekend so I might as well play, since I was not able to play IRL at this time. I was hoping MTGO3 had improved by now, and that they had sufficient server loading, etc. to handle the number of players without the servers being crashy and laggy and whatnot. No such luck of course. 🙂 My sealed pool follows.

Pretty decent pool (if I do say so myself): ok removal, 3 pyroclasm effects, the white scepter which is good at board control. No blowout bombs, but quite possible to 6-1 or 7-0 with it. If only the pilot was someone much better than me…

I win round one, lose round two, win round three, then lose two in a row, taking me straight out of top eight contention. I win a tight round six, then the server knocks everyone offline; I get back on, but my round seven opponent does not, so free win. Final record: 4-3.

I made so many misplays I lost track of them already. Most of them were really minor stuff, such as:

• Swinging with Ember Weaver before playing the Dragonsoul Knight in my hand;
• Playing Mountain first when I had Rupture Spire and Arcane Sanctum and no turn one or two plays;
• Pumping my Knight of the Skyward Eye in response to a Dark Temper because I forgot that Shambling Remains was black
• Not using Bant Battlemage to save my nonflier from a modal Branching Bolt (I’m pretty sure giving it flying would make it an invalid target, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)

None of the above plays set me behind so much, but the collective effect lost me some close games and led to the dismal record.

One thing I noticed is that I should stop checking out my opponent’s rating at the start of my match, I’ve noticed that I have a subconscious tendency to make loose plays against opponents I perceive to be weaker, even if I’m only ahead by a few rating points. I need to be able to play tight all the time if I want to be a serious tournament contender.

Also, I’ve noticed there are cards that I’m not sure how to evaluate, such as Manaforce Mace, which I never use because it seems so slow at 4cc/3equip, but I got my ass whupped by that card in one of the games.

Playing Limited now feels so different from playing Limited back when I wasn’t a serious tournament player; I now spot a lot more mistakes and see a lot more room for improvement in my game. Unlike constructed where there’s a lot less variation in the number of interactions, in Limited basically anything can happen so you need to learn to react to a lot more situations. Maybe I should focus more on Limited again (if only it weren’t so expensive!)