I did the best I've
ever done at FNM last night, but more than the outcome (which I'll get into
later) I took away some useful lessons for me (and any other newbies trying to
get better at the game).
The draft:
I opened P1P1
Lantern Scout. I had been hoping to draft an Ally deck, but I was open to
whatever came my way. However when I saw next pack a Rolling Thunder, my mind
was set - I forced that Ally deck as hard as I could - although if I hadn't
seen the right signals, I'm not sure I would have jumped ship - it was one of
the least thoughtful draft processes that I have ever done.
Perhaps I need to do
some work on studying other archetypes and synergies, to get my mind around
those. There's a pretty good article by Joel Larsson I was meaning to read.. I
really should get into that.
Lesson Number One -
Pay attention to your enemies board as well as your own.
With the Ally deck
there are so many triggers to keep an eye on that I forgot to look at basic
things on my opponent's board - for example the fact he had a Dampening Pulse
out. Incidentally, Dampening Pulse really nixes a aggressive Ally strategy by
turning everything off - if you're running a Ramp deck its less devastating but
it was just a really poor matchup for me. Afterwards I took the opportunity to
figure out what enchantment hate there is in the set - there's just Felidar Cub
and Reclaiming Vines. Now I didn't pass a Felidar Cub, in fact I only saw one
in play from my pod, but its something for me to consider next time I'm
drafting a low curve strategy. Its not bad value and it's a body on the board
as well (even if it's not an Ally).
Also, a couple of times I made foolish attacks into
larger creatures because I was more focussed on the triggers than on the actual
Power/Toughness ratio. I think I need to work more on making strong attacks
into stalled board states, and if I can't shake up the board state, don't. I
think that's just a matter of practice.
Lesson Number Two - Learn your combat tricks!
Something I think
I'll need to start learning is all the different combat tricks and their
relative costs. I was really impressed by two of my opponents who were able to
reliably thing through which combat tricks I had in hand and which mana I had
open. My homework for this week: study through the list of combat tricks in the
set, and try to commit at least some of them to memory.
Bonus lesson - what
it feels like to play your other half at a sanctioned event.
My partner and I
have never played each other at a sanctioned event before - we'd discussed the
idea before and said that it would be a bit disappointing. While I believe my
partner is a better player than me I can generally beat him at home because I
understand how he thinks and can play into his weaknesses.
So last night was
the first time that my partner and I ever played each other at FNM. My deck
performed really well but his Black/White Ally Lifegain didn't really
get off the ground in game one - I curved out beautifully and he was trying to
be the beatdown when he should have been playing defensively. Then he got mana
screwed in game 2. Not so fun.
Fortunately the best
way to cheer him up is with beer - there was 20 minutes left in the round and a
bar downstairs (did I mention I totally heart my game store?).
I count my 1-1-1
record a major victory - it’s the best I've ever done at FNM, and I've taken
away lots of homework for the coming week.
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