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Theory Behind Magic: Lessons from the Australian Nationals Day 1

Read Part 1 of this series.

"Don't ever hate draft, because not only will your opponent hate you back, but you will also waste your top picks on cards that are powerful yet useless to you." - Ben Seck

These (or something similar) were the wise words of TBS after I hate drafted a Shivan Wurm from him in a Rochester Draft at Games Paradise. Once again, Ben's logic prevailed as I ended with a 5 colours crap deck while Ben got a pretty good Green/Red/White deck, which he used to crush me at the first round. Revenge was sweet for Ben that day but I don't mind losing the small battle if I can use this knowledge to win the war at the Australian nationals.

After getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before in Eddie's room, I arrived at the convention centre at 9am for the first day of tournament. Since my friend Paul is going back to Sydney at about noon, I have made up my mind that if I didn't get a great deck and win my first 2 games, I'm going home as well because I think another night of sleeping on the ground might kill me.

The first thing that I noticed when I stepped into that convention centre is that TBS is wearing a pink hat. Most people from other states might be surprised to see this, but us Sydney players are long accustomed to the weird ways of Ben. Some people see it as the way he uses to psych himself up before the tournament, while others believe that it is the way Ben tries to grab attention from others. Being a third year psychology student myself, I interpreted it as a subtle hint that Ben is trying to give us that he is finally going to come out of the closet.

The table that I drafted at consisted of nobody that I know, which is good since I didn't travel all the way down to Canberra to play the same people I draft with every week. The draft went on smoothly and the cards are extremely powerful. There was this guy who got 2 Tangarth in his deck and a Shivan Wurm was actually a forth pick. I ended up with a deck with 7 removals including the infamous Flametounge Kavu (FTK), Agonising Demise, Exotic Curse, Reckless Spite, Plague Spores, Singe and Plague Spitter.

I went 2-1 with the deck losing in the 3rd round to Andrew Gordon's white/green deck. Andrew played well during the match forcing his way through with Power Armour and locked my offences and removal spells in the form of an Obsidian Acolyte. After the game I found out that he reads my articles on MtG Paradise, which made me feel a little better even though I was defeated.

One of the common features in the larger tournaments is that there is always someone who gets the axe for breaking the rules by accident. My first turn opponent Wayne Smith got the biggest axe of the day as he forgot to register his Power Armour on his deck list. This has not only cost him a match lost because he is only running 39 cards, but his Power Armour would now have to go into the sideboard, something that I joked about he should do during the second game. I never thought that I would end up jinxing him, maybe I'm like one of the Charmed Ones?

During lunch break, I have decided that I would stay because I had a pretty good chance for second day. So I said bye to Paul and bought this sandwich for lunch that is probably harder to chew then my shoe. I walk around a bit to see how my fellow Sydney players are doing and discovered that our regional champion Kris Lopez has suffered a 1-2 score, which I found to be a bit odd since he had a pretty good deck and is an above average player. He contributes his lost to too many FTK on his table while he didn't draft red. Little did I know that I was about to suffer the same fate on the second round. (Guess I'm not charmed after all)

Once again, the cards in our second draft were insane and since the two players to my right drafted Blue and Red respectively in the first pack, I've decided to go White for the 'Tappers Colour' with the Acolytes to shut R/B down borrowing a leaf from Andrew's book. In the end, I drafted a White/Blue/Green deck that is shabby in comparison to the 3 FTKs, 4 Magma Bursts, 6 Shivan Zombies, 1 Pyre Zombie and 1 Shivan Wurm floating around. Fortunately I drafted one of each Acolyte, 2 Hunting Drakes and 2 Armadillo Cloaks so I would still have a chance if I get the right draw.

The only match that I lost this round was to Shawn Rayson's R/G/B deck with FTK, Shivan Wurm, and 6 Yavimaya Barbarians (I thought he was playing Fires at one stage). Although the taste of defeat is bitter, I have to admit that Shawn did out play me by luring me into tapping both my white mana to disable both my Acolytes then remove my red acolyte with Agonising Demise. I knew he had the removal, but the situation was desperate and I was hoping that he would not have the cards in his hand. I found out too late that not only did he have the cards, but also played them correctly, with removal spells to spare.

So I finished the day with 4-2, which is enough to make second day and I went to dinner with Eddie to a restaurant that he claimed to be good straight after the tournament. It happens that he took me to a Chinese restaurant and I groan about the fact that I didn't come all the way down to Canberra to eat something that I could have eaten at home.

After dinner, it was sleeping time again and to my great surprise, tonight's sleeping condition is actually worse then last night. Not only I have to endure the ground again, but also the lights have to be turned on because it makes some weird alarm noises when we try to turn it off. The occasional excited screams and chattering around the dorm does not make me sleep easier and to top it off, Eddie decided to tell me a bedtime story about a student hanging himself in this very same dormitory after being dumped by his ex-girlfriend. He left no details in his story for the imagination, describing the exact place he hanged, the smell that came out of the room and the fact that he could have hung himself in the room that we were sleeping in! [Ed - Charming...] Although the light is on while I slept and I'm not afraid of weak spirited ghost who killed himself over a girl, yet the ground did felt extra cold to sleep on that night.

End of Day 1

Thanks to Andrew, Rob and anyone else who read my articles, it is always nice to be appreciated.

Best wishes
Minga Wong
t_memo@yahoo.com