» Magic Celebration davremon

Went to the Magic Celebration at my LGS. Had a pretty good time, went 3-0 but wasn’t really all that pleased. Fairly “random” based format but I didn’t lose a game all afternoon which is good.

Sat down with my booster and 15 lands and started game 1 without looking at my deck. Mulliganed my first hand (with a Vampire Nighthawk and no swamps) away and drew 6, which included a Talrand’s Invocation and a Crimson Muckwader. Pretty happy with my uncommons, couldn’t really have chosen 4 better uncommons (maybe a Flames of the Firebrand instead of the invocation due to it’s easier mana cost). Took down the first game fairly easily, second game, looked like I was going to lose, started to chump block, then got the Vampire Nighthawk, swung the game (I’d been on 2 life) and just ground out my opponent with the Nighthawk. 1-0. Could have played tighter, but learnt from my mistakes.

Opened my second booster, took out Blue and ended up running a deck with 24 land and 16 non-land cards. Decided I’d rather get more mana than more cards I couldn’t play, and I was running 2 Liliana’s Shade as well as a Vampire Nighthawk, so needed plenty of black mana. This seemed the right decision my opponents in all games complained about being stuck for colours and I think that removing a colour was a good choice. My favourite play in these 2 games was to play a non-lethal Magmaquake in response to a titanic growth on a vastwood gorger (against my duskdale wurm) in order to make it so that my wurm could trample over for lethal damage. Pretty awesome

Opened my third booster and cut most of my red (except for a searing spear and a Crimson Muckwader). Tormented Soul + Knight of Glory won me game 1 and duskdale wurm won game 2. Both of my last opponents weren’t great opponents which led to a revelation. I like playing good players. Even though I played 3 matches and won all of them 2-0, I didn’t feel proud because my last 2 opponents weren’t of a very high skill level. I had a below average rare pool (maybe an above average uncommon pool) and still won without losing a single game.

My tips for next time at a Magic Celebration

1) Play fast. No, faster than that. If you have a slow opponent, you have to play super fast to get a match in within 30 mins, including adding new cards into your deck. Draws are terrible for both of you. Seriously, roll a die or flip a coin rather than draw

2) Cut colours as soon as possible. People lose more to their own colour screw than to bombs. Double mana costs are really terrible

3) Draw first, the format is super slow so the extra card is super useful.

4) Don’t open Phylactory Lich and no Artifacts in your first booster.

My deck in the end was:

Green