![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tigertoyI played Friday Night Magic on Friday, but I haven't had a chance to write it up.
For FNM, I got one more Falkenrath Aristocrat for my vampire deck, and also threw in the Sword of Feast and Famine I got in a pack last week. Round 1, against a new player named Steve Johnson with a white humans deck, I dominated. First game, I drew 3 Stromkirk Nobles, he had two lands. Game 2, after we both mulliganed, the vamps dominated again. Round 2 against Chris Anderson's red-white deck whose main win condition seems to be Manabarbs with Personal Sanctuary, I went 2-1. Arc Trail is pretty annoying, it tends to be able to get two of my creatures with one spell. Match 3, I believe I allowed the thought to enter my head that I was actually doing well. Chris Derry playing black-white tokens schooled me in how much not having any way to deal with enchantments sucks, especially since I only own one Ratchet Bomb. I am considering splashing white (Sorin would be sweet when I have vampire lords to go with the tokens he makes), and I could sideboard Paraselene. Match 4, Nathan and the zombies ran over me like a well-worn speed bump. Game 1, I just got stomped; game 2, I sided in graveyard hate, but I kept a 5 land hand and drew 5 more land and never had a creature. Somehow, despite this mediocre performance, I made the bottom slot in the top half and won one pack and another promo Ravenous Demon.
After this, I stayed around for the after draft, which in retrospect was a mistake. We barely scraped up 6 players, and by the time we started, I was pretty tired, and not really putting enough thought into what I drafted. I was blue-white-green, with some big green creatures, some white utility creatures, and some random blue stuff. Highest value card I had was a Birds of Paradise. Best card for limited play was Increasing Savagery. I won the first round against a newbie named Dave who was in the store trying to get cards for an EDH deck called "IT'S A TRAP!" -- all the Traps from Zendikar plus everything with trap or snare in the name plus other stuff that seemed on theme. Second round, I lost to Greg, can't recall any details (and didn't write any notes). Third round, against Marc, we were 1-1 in a couple of decent, close games, but we were running low on time, I was getting very tired, and Marc was pressing me (quite excessively, I thought) to play more quickly. He did end up winning just before time, but he flustered me enough that I think I misplayed. I had only one creature on the board, he hit it with a kill spell, and I was trying to think through whether I should use the Unsummon I was holding to save it, or save it expecting to draw more. I didn't use it, I didn't draw more creatures, and I lost. But I really felt that I hadn't had the freedom to actually think about my play as I needed to. Marc was angry, and I managed to avoid blowing up at him in return but I was pretty upset about it. After draft is a fun format, but it just runs too late, and it's not fun for me to be trying to think but fatigued to the point of significantly reduced mental function.
For FNM, I got one more Falkenrath Aristocrat for my vampire deck, and also threw in the Sword of Feast and Famine I got in a pack last week. Round 1, against a new player named Steve Johnson with a white humans deck, I dominated. First game, I drew 3 Stromkirk Nobles, he had two lands. Game 2, after we both mulliganed, the vamps dominated again. Round 2 against Chris Anderson's red-white deck whose main win condition seems to be Manabarbs with Personal Sanctuary, I went 2-1. Arc Trail is pretty annoying, it tends to be able to get two of my creatures with one spell. Match 3, I believe I allowed the thought to enter my head that I was actually doing well. Chris Derry playing black-white tokens schooled me in how much not having any way to deal with enchantments sucks, especially since I only own one Ratchet Bomb. I am considering splashing white (Sorin would be sweet when I have vampire lords to go with the tokens he makes), and I could sideboard Paraselene. Match 4, Nathan and the zombies ran over me like a well-worn speed bump. Game 1, I just got stomped; game 2, I sided in graveyard hate, but I kept a 5 land hand and drew 5 more land and never had a creature. Somehow, despite this mediocre performance, I made the bottom slot in the top half and won one pack and another promo Ravenous Demon.
After this, I stayed around for the after draft, which in retrospect was a mistake. We barely scraped up 6 players, and by the time we started, I was pretty tired, and not really putting enough thought into what I drafted. I was blue-white-green, with some big green creatures, some white utility creatures, and some random blue stuff. Highest value card I had was a Birds of Paradise. Best card for limited play was Increasing Savagery. I won the first round against a newbie named Dave who was in the store trying to get cards for an EDH deck called "IT'S A TRAP!" -- all the Traps from Zendikar plus everything with trap or snare in the name plus other stuff that seemed on theme. Second round, I lost to Greg, can't recall any details (and didn't write any notes). Third round, against Marc, we were 1-1 in a couple of decent, close games, but we were running low on time, I was getting very tired, and Marc was pressing me (quite excessively, I thought) to play more quickly. He did end up winning just before time, but he flustered me enough that I think I misplayed. I had only one creature on the board, he hit it with a kill spell, and I was trying to think through whether I should use the Unsummon I was holding to save it, or save it expecting to draw more. I didn't use it, I didn't draw more creatures, and I lost. But I really felt that I hadn't had the freedom to actually think about my play as I needed to. Marc was angry, and I managed to avoid blowing up at him in return but I was pretty upset about it. After draft is a fun format, but it just runs too late, and it's not fun for me to be trying to think but fatigued to the point of significantly reduced mental function.